The Sound of Rain
21 January

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The prevalent sound over the past week or so has been that of falling rain.

The land around is here is sodden and, down at the confluence of the Avon and the Severn, Tewksbury is once more under threat of flooding. Not only is it wet but is also warm. Early morning temperatures in the last week have often been in double figures. It doesn't get much warmer during daylight hours but the lack of cold nights will drive the average temperature up and thus proclaim a warmer than usual January.

With the wet has also come grey. Grey cloud. Grey mornings. Some mornings the feeling that it is never going to get light. It's difficult to judge yet if there's any difference in the sunrise as I drive into work as it's just so gloomy. Evenings are better. Occasional breaks in the cloud later in the day tell me that things are changing. I can now get at least half way home before I have to put my side lights on in the car.

And the rain wakes me in the night as well. But it's OK. These days I don't find it too difficult to get back to sleep again.

I know why. I'm no longer listening for the shouting next door. I'm not immediately on edge wondering if there is violence being committed. It's a great relief that Bev is no longer with us.

Sunday brought the first in the series of workshops that I'm running for Southport Quakers on the suject of the Quaker Testimonies. You may remember that I attended a training session last September at Swarthmoor Hall on this topic.

Well, this opening session all went very well. We had nine attendees, all of whom entered into the participatory spirit of the endeavour. For me, the best part was the fact that three of the attendees (Rose, Barbara and Valerie) are all relatively new and they all spoke up about their spiritual journeys with great clarity and feeling. I particularly feel that activities such as these types of workshop really do help to bind the group into a semblance of a community and do help newer people to integrate more fully.

The next session in February is going to be about Equality. I've asked everyone to think around the subject in advance. You know - the usual sorts of questions...

• What is equality?
• Can we ever be entirely equal?
• How do we practice theories of equality in our everyday lives?
• Are all Quakers equal or is it like "Animal Farm" and some are more equal than others?

So, you see, there's nothing too controversial there.

The winter season of television has kicked in and, if it is January, it must be the umpteenth series of Time Team. Still, it provides something more or less interesting to watch over a Sunday evening meal.

Later in the evening brings yet another BBC classic serial - this time Lark Rise to Candleford. I do love this book and I do love the talking book that we own which is read by Judi Dench. This television adaptation is going to provide easy viewing over the next few weeks but it has already given us a bit of a start.

The book is already half way over before the move to join cousin Dorcus at Candleford Post Office but this series dispenses with all of the growing up in Lark Rise itself. It's straight into the business of moving to Candleford and most of the earlier material is used as catch up background. Still, it's really rather good.

Also starting up, though in a completely different genre, is Torchwood which looks as though it is going to be great fun and very good all round.

We particularly liked Captain Jack kissing Captain John in the personages of John Barrowman and James Marsters (late of Buffy where he played rogue vampire, Spike).

John Barrowman has been wintering in Birmingham where he has been appearing in pantomime. The publicity craving slut is seen here photographed next to gay icon, Sam, Ross's younger brother. We received a very excited phone call shortly after this photo was taken. Actually it was recorded on Ross's voice mail and was so squeaky as to be almost beyond the range of normal hearing.

The star-fucking photograph is all the more poignant as one of Sam's Christmas presents was a plastic model of Torchwood character, Captain Jack. It is not known which particular drugs Sam was on when the photograph was taken.

And since we are on about it, we might as well also record the fact that Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, he of Bad Education and Lorca's Blood Wedding, seems quite content to continue his career as a Sam look-alike.