Completely off topic. But this is my page, so I can relax the rules if I wish. Here's the eulogy I wrote for Dad's funeral service : On joining the RAF To the nurses, to the care-workers, he was Edward. To family, to friends, and everyone, he was Ted. To the charities he volunteered for, he was Ted. RNLI, Cats Protection, RSPB, he helped or donated with equal enthusiasm, he was Ted. Ted came from a working-class family in the east end of London. Born in (officially) Shoreditch, his father was an upholsterer and his mother died not long after he was born. Leaving Elementary school, he started work and was called up when WWII started. In the RAF in Algeria, he told stories of the camp commander selling the food for the troops to local people and pocketing the money, leaving them with fresh fruit and figs to eat. The searchlights, which used silver ingots to provide the arc, remained unlit for reasons not entirely clear… After the war, he took advantage of ...
I see that I haven't posted here for some while. Mostly laziness, I'm afraid, but a side order of moving home and this wretched virus has meant that some things have been put to one side. Moving home: I put the flat on the market in July 2019. Got an offer within three days and found somewhere to live. It turned out that the offer was from someone who couldn't afford it, and the place I found had a structural problem caused by next door trying to dissolve the garage (don't ask). Next, back on the market, and found a place (this time in a town I wanted to live in, not Littlehampton), and got another buyer. By November it was revealed that the buyer was a fantasist and I had to withdraw my offer on the place in Portslade. Generic bungalow of the same sort. Home sweet home! Come December I got another buyer (dear God!) but the over £5000 service charge for fireproofing, redecorating common ways and replacing the garage roofs became due, and so I was £5000 down. ...
It's not often I feel so dispirited I have no wish to play, but after Sunday's service I couldn't face even a run-through of some choral accompaniments coming up all too soon. I will leave the church unidentified. The Director of Music was off sick and the choir had been cancelled as no rehearsal could take place during the week. Two children and adults turned up. The person taking the service had a strong foreign accent, was wearing the microphone either some distance from his mouth or under some thick clothing, and the acoustics prevented me from understanding more than one word in 10. At zero notice it was suggested I play something during communion - fortunately I had brought a piece which I had prepared, in case - and the full music, harmonised edition of the service setting was only found for me on the day, not one which I knew. And the voluntary: it went ok until my great, flat, left foot plonked itself on bottom e on the last chord. The piece was, of course, dear ...
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