Birthdays and Deaths

So, it's J's birthday today. Usually we go to the nearest Chinese restaurant, which does absolutely fabulous food, for lunch. Last year J's parents joined us - and the plans hadn't changed for this year - until around 11 o'clock when J's mum phoned and said that J's dad had volunteered to drive somebody into the town's hospital for an 11:45 appointment - so much for having lunch at 12...

To be honest, it pissed both J and I off. The in-laws seem to specialise at putting people in front of family - they almost always manage to find someone "in need" who needs them more at a particular time than attending a family event, or who would be lonely if they weren't at the family event. It would be nice to know that, just some times, they valued family more than others, and that they recognised there are other people who can help at such times.

The lunch was OK - J's dad didn't arrive until 1:20, just as the starters had been served - and they did pay for it all. J's mum asked about baby-sitting on Tuesday evenings so that we could go to small group - embarrased silence. J had signed up this morning to be a volunteer to visit old people who are housebound. While I don't have a problem with it particularly, it's yet another contact made through the church - although it appears that the organiser now also has problems with church, it's irrelevance and the arrogance that lots of believers display. Tonight's not the night to talk about it all - and then I'm away until Friday afternoon, and then we're out on Friday night...

Humph Lyttelton died on Saturday. While he probably should be best known as a jazz trumpeter (and the bits I have heard him play have been almost magical), I remember him as the dead-pan chair of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. I was actually quite moved by the news, with an odd mixture of sadness and chuckles. Few celebrities move me this way. Radio 4 broadcast a tribute show on Sunday, which J and I listened to over the web before today's lunch. It had Willie Rushton on it - the one member of the ISIHC group I had actually met. Happy memories...