As some of you know, one week in every four sees me on call as part of my job with a local Funeral Directors. Unfortunately for me, I was on call on Saturday 4th June which meant that I was definitely going to have to be somewhere with a good phone signal. Some of you will also know that I live in a village that has a very poor Wi-Fi signal so, even at the best of times, receiving phone calls is something of a lottery! Imagine then my disappointment when the weather forecast said that rain was due from Midday on Saturday 4th June and, therefore, our local Jubilee picnic was going to be in the village hall, where my mobile signal is at its absolute worst!! 

At about 12:15pm I left my house with Rachel and Bob Dog to walk the short distance to our village hall. Just as we left the house, it started to spit with rain and so I agreed with Rachel that I would walk her to the hall and then return home where I knew my signal would be good. As we got to the village green, the rain stopped and we met with some friends who said that they were going to be, ‘Typically English’ and picnic outside, regardless of the weather!! And, so it was, that we spread our picnic blanket on the ground and had a right royal party for a few hours. Bob Dog ate far too many mini sausage rolls and scotch eggs, (he LOVES scotch eggs!), and Rachel and I did the same!! It was so nice to see people sat outside having their own mini-picnics, and smiling and laughing and even talking to people they barely knew!! Sadly, like all things, not many people turned up to the event but, that didn’t spoil things for those that were there. In all honesty, I’d rather have 6 families that really wanted to be there and join in, than 30 families who only went because they felt it was the right thing to do. 

A local magician turned up and entertained everyone with his numerous, up close, magic tricks. My father, and other family members, were members of the Magic Circle and so I could appreciate just how hard he had worked to make everything look so simple! My father always said, ‘To solve a magic trick, you have to remove the impossible.’ Although that has worked for me on a number of occasions, I still don’t know how he did half the stuff that he did! To me, a real magician who rolls his sleeves up and THEN does magic tricks, that’s something very, very special!

Fortunately, I didn’t have any call outs during our picnic, so I was able to relax a little bit and have some fun. Sadly, I did get called out at 2am the following morning, but that’s part of the job and it’s one that I am very privileged to do!

Hope your Jubilee picnic was enjoyable!

Love & Light

RG