Flanders Field

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae

Yesterday I announced the two minute silence at work. I realise that Remembrance Day is today but as we don’t work on a Saturday we observed the two minute silence yesterday. It seemed to go ok and rather better than last year when someone forgot to make the announcement at all. I had hoped someone else would do it, because I don’t really like making the announcements, but it fell to me again. Incidentally, that poem by John McCrae is one I always find really moving because it conjures up such clear images in my mind.

Anyway, last night I went with a friend from work to a recording of the Radio 4 programme ‘Clare in the Community’. She doesn’t work on a Friday so was coming from home. So I went for a bit to eat on my own on the way and thought one of the easiest places to go was the crypt at St Martin’s in the Field. It was absolutely packed there so I ended up asking some chap if I could share his table. He turned out to be a really nice bloke and we just sat and chatted and he told me a bit about why he was in London (he was from Utah) and it was really nice to talk to him. Then I went off to meet up with my friend only she was running really late due to major problems on the Northern Line. I ended up having to give her ticket to one of the stewards as it was about to start. She did finally turn up and managed to get in because the recording was running late anyway.

The programme was very good. I have never seen a radio programme (or TV programme for that matter) filmed before. I will be interested to hear it when it goes out on the radio. They ran through it all in one take and then they would re-record any bits that hadn’t gone quite right, even if it was just a sentence.

My landlady is back for the weekend. She came back last night, so I had to remember to turn the heating down before I left for work. She has the thermostat set at 15 degrees, which as the thermostat is in the kitchen (which is quite hot) it means that the heating is off even when the rest of the house is cold. So in my rebellious ways I turned the heating up but am obviously too much of a chicken to let my landlady find out and so will have a chilly weekend.

She told me last night that she has arranged for the broadband, cable TV and phone to be disconnected as of today. I am not too impressed about the phone, particularly as she had agreed she would leave it connected. Just to add insult to injury, she will still be paying for another month even though there will be no service available. Anyway, this may mean I don’t have an internet connection for a bit, so if I am a bit quiet on the blogging front that is why.

Busy day ahead – but please don’t mistake ‘busy’ for ‘interesting’.