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2008 - July 24th - Thursday

TRIP TO MAIDENHEAD, AND GREENWICH: 24TH JULY TO 28TH JULY 2008

Other than the usual packing, and necessary housewifery activities, JH just managed to complete her reply to her MP, Alison Seabeck, about the noise and light pollution created in an acute hospital ward by the Patientline consoles, and about the use of mobile phones in hospitals – before she departed to Plymouth Station.  JH had compiled a draft letter to Alison S explaining that she thought that ‘. . . Ms McIntosh (Customer Relations Officer for Patientline) has replied to a ‘different letter’ to the one I originally sent to you!’.  Furthermore, JH had sent this draft letter to Sue Latham, Patient Services Manager at Derriford Hospital, requesting of Sue that she find out how Patientline is administrated in Derriford Hospital: on 30 June 2008 JH had received the information from Sue that the Patientline TVs come on automatically only for one hour between 8.00pm and 9.00pm.  In Maidenhead {a bit nearer the Houses of Parliament!}, JH posted the completed letter to Alison S, together with a paper copy of the email correspondence with Sue Latham, and an email which JH had sent to Alison S on 18 March 2008 – to tell her that JH was planning to continue her campaign about Patientline’s noise and light pollution in hospital wards!


 

JH collected up-to-date editions of the Street Plan of Greater London, and the Street Plan for the whole of Essex, which JH had promised to give to Ralph – as she had noticed that Ralph’s books were 25 years, and 18 years OOD, respectively - from Kenroy Thompson; and then just managed to catch the 1500 train to Reading on this very hot and humid summer day.

After having a chicken salad at the Pizza Bar in Queen Street, JH arrived at the Lawn GH at about 8.00pm.  As arranged, Elizabeth Pearce called in to return JH’s book, Lost Icons - the Author of which is none other than the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams1: Elizabeth explained that {as JH anticipated} she had not found this book ‘easy reading’ – to put it mildly; furthermore, she felt that the Archbishop was remiss, in his position as Head of the Church of England, insomuch as he endorsed civil partnerships between same-sex couples – not to mention the presence of ‘practicing’ homosexuals being employed in a Christian ministerial capacity.  As JH is aware, Elizabeth is imbued with her upbringing within the Brethren Church, and is unshakeable in her conviction that, what the Bible states is prohibited behaviour, should NOT be endorsed by the Archbishop.  Elizabeth also knows that, now, JH has no faith in a personal god, in spite of her conventional baptism into the Established Church, which she considers is just ‘how things were done’ to conform with the social mores of any lower middle class family in the 1940s.  When it became no longer mandatory for schools to have a Christian Assembly at the commencement of each school day, Elizabeth’s decision to resign from her Post as RE Teacher at Newlands School was, to some extent, influenced by her sadness at observing that the Christian precepts of the Education System were no longer considered to be ‘politically correct’.  JH had already mentioned to Elizabeth that she had been reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins – whereupon steam almost came out of Elizabeth’s ears.  However, in order to mollify Elizabeth’s intense dislike of all of this ‘Fundamentalist’ Atheist’s ‘take’ on Religion, JH offered to send Elizabeth her copy of The Dawkins Delusion2, the counter-critique written by Prof McGrath, who is a university colleague of Prof Dawkins.

1In March 2012 Rowan Williams announced hs retirement - later in the year - from his Bishopric.

2It later transpired that Elizabeth had misunderstood JH: Elizabeth thought she had been sent '. . . this 'fundamentalist' Atheist's 'take' on religion . . .' and so returned the counter-critique -  unread - to JH!