Running

It was 2000 or 2001, I was on a farm work placement in Wales, I was back in Hampshire for a weekend, and my friends who I was staying with invited me out to watch one of the family run the 5K RaceforLife, back then it was not all hyped and commercial, I was just about work fit but not running fit, I didn’t normally run, but that day, impulsively, with a little egging on from my friends, I decided to run. it was a hot day down at Netley, I was in some of the only clothes I owned, same as now, jeans and a cotton teeshirt, and I entered the race with no training and ran it, and completed it in good time, I remember someone shouting my name out as I ran and I leaped in the air and put my hands up, and the person shouting, a friend of my friends, got a great picture of me leaping in the air as I ran.
It was one of the best pictures of me, and I treasured it for years.
I completed that race, and although I had entered at the last minute and had not raised any sponsor money, I had paid the entry fee.
I was amazed at that impromptu run, and how I had done, and I treasured it.

The next RaceForLife, I was not running so well, but I completed it, and it was my last race, as the undiagnosed asthma and leg problems stopped me from running.
But I remember that first race and how joyful and lovely that day was.

RaceforLife is very commercial and hyped now, I don’t think I would do it even if I could run, because it is not the same thing. You have to raise a lot of money, it is much more difficult to do, because of the money and forms and things.

Concreting the Churchyard

It must have been between 2002 and 2004, I guess.
I was JM’s gardener, and she paid me to look after her garden as she was far too busy with three parishes.
But I was also employed full time as well as doing JM’s garden and a number of gardens in that benefice and beyond, basically I worked all hours and days of the week, killing myself to make a living and develop my life.
(again, this was long after I told JM about the abuse, and she and I were good friends, while her husband was alternately nice to me or violently shouting and trying to ban me).

Anyway, JM’s church had a wild meadow behind the rectory and church graveyard, and, as the graveyard was getting full, it was to be extended using the meadow.

I was comissioned to do some work on this meadow and also put up a hedge between the meadow and the rectory garden where there was a post and rail fence, this was to give the rectory some privacy.

Bishop Trevor Willmot was due to come and consecrate the new graveyard extension, and he was a great friend of JM and her family, and there was a joke that he fancied JM, which may have been true, he certainly gave her a lot of attention and showed signs of liking her, and when she was in diffiiculties with rows with her husband, which were frequent, she would go to him, now Bishop Scott-Joynt, she told me this was because ‘Wolvsley were cold’ when she asked for help.

Anyway, I was so busy with work and charity events, it was getting close to the time for Bishop Trevor to consecrate the graveyard extension and I had not yet done the work requested, so I phoned JM in a panic, she was out, so I left a message.
It went something like this ‘Hi, I have not forgotten the work on the meadow, I promise I will come over and get it done soon, maybe Tuesday, so that it will be ready by the time Bishop Trevor comes to concrete the graveyard!’

Back then I frequently muddled words up, but apparently the rectory were very amused at the thought of the old Bishop of Basingstoke with his concrete mixer, busily resurfacing the new graveyard.

The work was indeed done on time, and I was there for the ceremony, I was the only young person there and the Bishop seemed to realise that and came to speak to me, I freaked out and scuttled off, not having been taught how to address a Bishop and simply not knowing how.
A bit like at Wolvlsey where Bishop Scott-Joynt and Archbishop Carey came over to our table and I hid under the table.
Lou Scott-Joynt laughed about that story when she heard it, although it was at the same event where she snubbed me and Juliet explained to me that the Scott-Joynts were snobs.
Hm.

Anyway, the Bishop concreted the churchyard, and when I return to say Divine Mercies for Anne, I know so many names on the stones of that churchyard, friends who were mainly lost to me through death and not through the slander of me by the Diocese.

Happier Posts by request – The Hamster Wheel

Well I was living independently, I was working, and spent my spare time on church and community activities.
This was long after I had told JM and others about her husband abusing me, and although nothing had been done, I was still friends with JM, and went round there for tea sometimes if I was walking the dog with her or even walking the dog for her if she was too busy.
Anyway, over tea, I was trying to tell JM and her husband about the new group I had joined, but I couldn’t get the name right.

The group were the Rotary Club 18-30s and they were called Rotaract, I kept calling them Rotorstac, which is a pet cage manufacturer which produces Hamster wheels and cages and things to keep hamsters amused.
Well this caused us a lot of hilarity, but I simply could not get the name right.

Rotaract was a big step for me,  because it was all ‘normal’ young people, and to be honest I was not used to people my age, church and community was mainly older people, my friends were mainly older people, and people my age tended to be moving up the career ladder or sometimes starting families, my ‘career’ as a gardener used to get a response of ‘oh, a gardener, how nice, out there with nature, I wish I could do that!’
Standard response from baffled young people, but I couldn’t really do anything else, my social skills were and are so stunted that I cannot do many jobs because of the need for interaction and being with people.

Anyway, I was made very welcome at Roteract, and they did their best with me, my most significant time with them was the ‘Breakfast for Peace’ In Winchester.
We sat on the steps one Saturday Morning, stopping passers by to offer them croissants and donuts and talking to them about peace.
We had great fun eating Donuts, and I almost felt as if I belonged.

But it remains to this day that I am really out of place in my age group, I am solitary, no family, no career, I do not ‘go out’ at weekends, and I did not go to school and build a social network that way.
I relate better to older people, I am not sure why, but I remember certain Church of England people branding me as a user, and saying I befriend old people for their money.

I am not that clever, and have neither got money off old people nor would I want to, my conscience works overtime and I don’t even like borrowing money, you can confirm that with any of my older friends, being poor and in need is not the same as being scheming. I ask  for nothing.

But I remember the Breakfast for Peace, and the hilarity over calling Roteract  ‘Rotarstac’

I guess work and other commitments and sheer nervousness and possibly not being able to budget for the Roteract fees meant I didn’t stay with them, but it was great fun while it lasted, they are great guys.