A little place of calm

Happy Rosh Hashanah (Jewish new year) to all who celebrate it. I was thinking about maybe going to Southampton for the celebrations, but after a weekend away i feel i need a night in.

Also, happy new moon, new month to everybody. I have been particularly fascinated with the moon the last couple of months. It's one good thing about the days getting shorter; i get more interested in the night sky and love to see what i can observe. I recently obtained a pair of binoculars and i can spend ages looking at the moon through them. I would love to get a telescope! :)

In other news, i hear Tom Felton has an album out. It seems Tom is pretty good on the guitar, but unfortunately does not have a singing voice to match …! Here is a little medley of Tom Felton music.

Happy Easter to those who celebrate it! It has snowed the last 3 days in Winchester, and is snowing right now. My friend^[0] Jack even managed to catch a photo of some snow settling!

We had a lovely Purim. My partner made Hamentaschen and we read the book of Esther. I love that story! We had Shabbat again yesterday, which was also very nice and we had a friend come to visit for the afternoon.

Contrary to my earlier post, i did actually go out to see part of the Winchester Passion. We arrived just in time to see Jesus coming down the high street. We followed down to the Buttercross where there was some sort of trial i suppose, but we couldn't see because there were too many people. We skipped to the cathedral and hung around to see Jesus get killed, and then it was too cold so we went home again! I think, as a piece of street theatre, it was very well done. It was really well attended too: well over 1000 people turned up, i should say. Jack also got a little photo of some of the crowd.

Today is a day for catching up on chores, and i am working on a few enhancements to MyChores.

[0] 'Friend' as in we are friends on Facebook. We've never actually met in reality, but what does that matter these days, heh!

I had a lovely Shabbat experience with my partner. It was a couples retreat workshop in a hotel, with meals included, activities, opportunities to think about what is important to us as a couple. We met some lovely people there, and had a very good time. The meals were excellent, plus we pigged out on kosher Oreos (yum!) and we had a red wine that i actually like!! It is from Israel, really sweet! We were fortunate to be able to bring some home with us! :)

The whole thing was very spiritual, and symbolic. I enjoyed participating in the traditions, and i especially liked singing in Hebrew. There was a guitar player among us who made the songs very lively and everyone enjoyed singing. It's great to sing psalms in Hebrew because you find out they actually rhyme!

I can say one thing really well now – almost every prayer begins with it!

Baruch Atah Adonai, Elohaynu Melech Ha'olam
Praised are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the Universe

I think we have made at least one new friend that we will keep in touch with … probably more via Facebook. We are also intending to observe Shabbat as a weekly ritual at home together. This means no Internet from Friday evening to Saturday evening – and on the plus side – no chores either!! I think it will be really good for us both, to take a break and spend some special time together once a week.

Yesterday, as we still had the car, we went for a nice drive out into Wiltshire, doing some family history research. In a church cemetery we met a friendly couple doing the exact same thing, and they invited us into their holiday motor home for a cup of coffee and cake! :D On the way back we passed Stonehenge, and went through Wherwell, which is a beautiful village that i have loved since childhood.

We had an exciting journey back because we actually ran out of fuel! It's amazing how far you can drive in Hampshire and not find a filling station!! By some miracle we managed to get home although the gauge was reading zero for at least 10 miles!