An Impromptu Holiday

[poliphilo]

The volcano keeps on spewing. Tonight the government rolled out a plan to send the navy fanning out across the globe to pick up all the stranded Brits.  Alice cancelled her flight to the States and now has nothing to do for a fortnight.  She thought about coming to see us- and then about meeting us somewhere scenic.  We settled on Glastonbury.  She arrived there this afternoon, and Ailz and I will be joining her tomorrow.  She rang from the town centre. "There's this churchy thing," she said, and then,  "Ooh. This must be the high street. I've just seen lots of hippies."

Comments

[litchick.livejournal.com]

Where did you hear about the navy plan? I have friend here whose husband was stationed with the RAF, they are supposed to return home on Friday, I would like to tell her about this, just in case.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It was on the evening news. I've no idea how far advanced the plans are.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I assume the "churchy thing" is the Abbey?
:)
Enjoy!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It wasn't a ruin. At least I don't think it was, so it must have been the parish church- which is another very fine building.

Thanks.

[oakmouse]

LOL at Alice's reaction to Glastonbury --- how exactly right!

Also, good for the Navy; that's a sensible plan given that the eruptions may keep air travel mucked up for months to come. Far better than pulling a Canute the way some European politicians have been doing!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We have this great navy, we spend huge amounts of money maintaining it and- so far as I can see- it does very little: so yes, why not get some use out of it. We are, of course, in the run up to an election- and a bold gesture of this kind- with a whiff of the British Empire about it- won't do Gordon Brown's any harm.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

Love this - once spent a summer in Glastonbury but haven't been back - I wonder why not?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We go regularly. Last year we managed it twice. We're staying in a not very expensive B&B about 3 mins walk from the high street.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I hope you all have a fine time.

We had an earthquake, near the Smoky Mountains...not much of an earthquake--people living in Maryville felt their furniture vibrate. Still, I wonder what's going on under the earth.

More seriously, over in Knoxville a gunman shot, apparently at random, three nurses who were coming off duty at Park West Hospital. One of them is dead and the other two are in fair condition...he then killed himself. No known motive yet.

Spong says humans no longer believe in God and punishment, so anything goes in their despair. I wonder.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

But people behave badly even when they do believe in God. I've just come from Tewkesbury. There was a big battle there in 1451. Some of the people from the losing side took refuge in the Abbey- where they should have been safe- right of sanctuary and all that- but their enemies went in anyway and slaughtered them. It's recorded it took the monks three days to cleanse the church of all the blood- after which they reconsecrated the building. The guys who broke sanctuary and did all the killing presumably believed in God and punihment, but it didn't stop them behaving like brutes.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

A good point.

More has become known about the Knoxville gunman who killed the nurse, wounded two others, then killed himself. He thought a doctor who had operated on him for appendicitis had placed a tracking device in his abdomen during the surgery; his family had been trying to get help for him, and he hadn't taken his medicine.

I'm baffled about what is our brain and what is our mind...and I have just finished watching again Solaris (the newer version), which asks this question as well.

I remember hearing two teachers talking years ago about a boy who had been injured at the back of his brain by a hard blow. After that, said one teacher, he became belligerant and brutal. He was no longer who he had been before.

I just put Solaris back into the Netflix sleeve and need to go outside and clear my head.