I sat on a bench outside Frampton's this afternoon, listening to the roar of the weir whilst drinking a pint of Gem and dragging on a vaparetto.
Right now I am of a melancholy disposition and found myself asking nothing more than the reassurance that all will be well. That's all I wanted. Nothing more.
As I prayed for this, a flamboyant figure in a wide-brimmed fedora came into the view of my peripheral vision and I saw him to be my old friend, the Irish Catholic priest, Father Joe of St John's.
"Hello, you will not remember me." he said, and proffered his hand for a shake or two.
"Hello Joe. I do remember you. How are you doing?"
"You are looking very well. Very well indeed. So nice to see you again. Lovely to see you. Happy Christmas." He had obviously forgot my name and I did not bother to furnish it.
Joe and I have history. I helped him from being shot by South American gem smugglers in Brazil and sent him to a Jewish dealer that I knew in Hatton Garden for the appraisal of his smuggled goods.
I asked God for faith in my future whilst I was drinking our local ale, Gem, and he sent me one of his representatives in the form of Joe.
I like to believe in mysterious ways.
All true, this time.
ReplyDeleteI confess that I exaggerated the saving him from being shot bit a little, but it has a grain of truth in it and the rest would stand up in court.
DeleteGood God; whatever next. You mix in strange circles.
ReplyDeleteGod with a capital G I notice. Showing some respect. That's good. It will pay dividends when you try to get past St Peter.
DeleteHe'll have to fight me!
DeleteAh, the joys of an erudite past!
ReplyDeleteIs that the meaning of erudite?
DeleteThere is, somewhere, always your guardian angel Tom!
ReplyDeleteI met mine during a bout of pneumonia when I was a kid.
DeleteSo was the vaparetto floating above the weir and you dragging on a line to stop it going over?
ReplyDeleteI decided that 'vaparetto' was a much more elegant word for 'vape'. so I used it.
DeleteYou lead a colourful life down there in Bath - makes my life up here sound very dull but it suits me these days.
ReplyDeleteMy life is dull now. I hope it will stay uninteresting up to a point.
DeleteSee, Cosmic Chuckles exist!
ReplyDeleteGood to see friends and acquaintances just appearing
Sometimes he laughs with me, sometimes he laughs at me.
DeleteWhat colour was his fedora ?
ReplyDeleteLet me see... he was against the sky as I was sitting and he was standing, but I know it was dark. I think brown, but it could have been green.
DeleteAs an Irishman I know he loves all things green. He once had me involved in a scheme involving a Connemara marble altar, a green stone from the area of Ireland he was brought up in. That is a deep green. He tried to buy antique Connemara marble because I told him of a man I knew who made his fortune by finding a source of antique Connemara marble which had lain undiscovered in a yard for over 200 years, but sadly this source has been mined-out and the stuff left is bland by comparison. He said he had friends in Connemara who owed him a favour.
He came from the Emerald Isle. The gems he bought from Brazil to try to help get the street kids off the streets were emeralds.
The Jewish gem dealer in Hatton Garden send his emeralds to South Africa for assay, and - sadly again - they were all pronounced flawed and inferior.
He asked what else I could think of to bring back from South America which could make him money to help the street kids, and I suggested cocaine.
He said, "I've already thought of that, Tom, but I think I would end up with a bullet in the back of my head."
"Even if you wear your priest's garb?" I asked.
"ESPECIALLY if I wear it."
If you are talking about Frampton-on-Severn, I had no idea that there was a weir there.
ReplyDeleteI realise now that you must be talking about a Pub in Bath - my mistake.
DeleteYes. It's more of a bar than a pub. It used to be the old Empire Hotel, then it was a Royal Navy centre in WW2, then it became a naval architects headquarters, then it became a series of bars and cafes in the 1970s. The upstairs are expensive apartments.
Delete