Durham, Durham
30 July
Monday brought sad news at work. One of my colleagues, who has been living with cancer for some eighteen months now, died over the weekend. It was a sad loss for us all.
But apart from that I was hardly around work at all this week as I was off on one of my usual jaunts training and spreading the gospel of good practice (do as I say, don't do as I do). This time it was Durham.
The last time I was in Durham would have been in the mid 80s when I worked for Friend, the voluntary lesbian and gay counselling organisation. One of their half yearly national conferences was held in Durham and, in fact, I found the concrete building (actually Durham Students' Union) where it was held. Actually, I also found the church yard a little way away where there was a little hanky panky with one Vincent from Derry.
This time I made it into the Cathedral, which dates back about 1,000 years in places. And there were certainly other structures in place well before that again. I got to hear an organ practice which sounded magnificent in the circumstances. And I got to spend time with St Cuthbert and thought about those I know who are in need of help.
And I wandered the knave marvelling at the carved patterns on the great columns and found, at the other end of the cathedral, Bede tucked away in amongst a photographic exhibition. And on his tomb it read hac sunt in fossa Bædæ venerabilis ossa or Here in this grave are the bones of the Venerable Bede. He died in AD738 and is still revered.
The training sessions went well. I had a day off on the Wednesday. Guess which day was full of unmitigated cloudiness when the rest of the week was scorching hot. Hey ho. And it brought my hay fever on something chronic.
Phil was also there so we kept each other sane with wine and quips. I also entered his room one evening to find him sans trousers. This was a great shock. Although I've known Phil for 7 or 8 years now, I've never seen his legs before. And, let's not get his wrong, they are very comely legs. It's just that, well, although we flirt ostentatiously, we don't, we never have and I should be exceedingly surprised if we ever did.
Ross had already arrived by the time I got home
which was a delight. We relaxed, ate, watched a little TV, bathed by candlelight and
then spent the rest of the evening worshipping at the shrine of the divine Indian
mystic, Shuvvi Tupim. 