Strange meeting

...because it's already 11 30pm and I still blipping,! Played with effects on these back step flowers in our garden.

A funny thing happened today. As I was leaving work today and passing the church, a worried looking woman buttonholed me, and said

" you don't know me, but you have to help me".

She explained that she had gone out and left a saucepan on. She thrust a bunch of keys at me and told me the number of her house and asked me to go ahead. As it's not a residential area, I was mystified, but she showed me the secret gateway. which I once blipped, and Iwent up the stairs, followed the path, found the houses and eventually her one. I could smell burning from outside.

When I got in, I discovered it was not just a pot but a pressure cooker that was being carbonised. I am terrified of those things! Fortunately, all I had to do was turn off the heat before the old lady reappeared and told me to dump it in the sink and not be so afraid! The vegetables were ruined, mind.

I made the lady a cup of tea as she was badly shaken, and we sat and chatted. Turns out that she is 90, and still goes on a Franciscan Pilgrimage every year, that involves walking eight miles per day, going to workshops, and sleeping on a yoga mat on the floors of convents!

She said rather sadly that she wished that more young people would get involved, but they didn't seem interested, so it was up to the oldies keep the pilgrimages going. I sympathised, but not to the point of volunteering...

She told me about her life, and I found that I know her daughter and son in law, and that she comes to the special masses at my school, which used to be run by nuns. We parted with her asking me to remember her to my mother (who doesn't know her) and having a laugh at some of the very direct things she'd said to the charismatic priest...

After that, nothing really went according to plan. One other chance meeting was with a mother of one of my former key children in nursery. After years of waiting, she has been given a council house! I am delighted for them. Today is my first day back with the children, and I do miss the leavers! They are all starting school now, and having to wear uniforms