h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Colder and drizzly today. I awoke at 8.00 only to think 'Sod it' and I went back to sleep too heavily and dream strangely until 11.00am. By that time the postman had already been and tried and failed to deliver my hat, which is now at the sorting office waiting for me to go and collect it, which I will do tomorrow morning. I was kicking myself for not getting up at 8 when I woke up, and missing the post.

Got Pete's card and a CD of the radio version of Dad's Army, also a CD-rom from Jonathan with a TV programme on.

Talking of sleep, I decided not to sleep at Pete's when I go down in a few weeks' time. My imagination was working overtime thinking that I would be attacked in the night by a blunt-instrument wielding ghost. Sorry but I had such a traumatic time at mum's place that I don't fancy another run-in with a ghost - a poltergeist. Francesca agrees with me, saying that they are "bad fairies". So Pete's booking me into an hotel in Broadstairs instead.

Judith, Phil and I discussed the Lukan parable of the shrewd manager yesterday and decided we didn't really know what was going on. But Judith emailed me today with an interesting thought (reproduced with permission):



Very striking thing just happened: the Muslim call to prayer "Allahu akbar" intertwined with the Kyrie Eleison at the Ascension Day service from St Martin-in-the-Fields. It sounded very beautiful musically, but I know many Christians would be appalled by it. A South African, the Rev Canon Ossie Swartz, is leading the service and the preacher is the Rt Rev Richard Harries of Oxford. The diocese of Oxford has links with Kimberley and Kuruman, both places in SA that I have visited.

Hi Richard! I was interested to read this further explanation of the Parable of the Shrewd Manager ~ there's certainly plenty to think about there. Thanks for the info ~ I shall save it carefully!

Sorry you missed the delivery of your rain-hat ~ hope you won't have far to go to retrieve it. The way the weather is behaving, you'll probably need it BEFORE you go to South Africa!

Well, it is quite far as a matter of fact. I don't think it's on any bus routes so I have to take a round trip in the taxi which will cost a tenner. That makes the hat already considerably more expensive, but that was the price of my lie-in. I have decided to stop kicking myself and just to put up with the added cost without further murmuring.

Pete just rang saying that he couldn't get a one-night booking over the weekend for me. That is normal for hotels, I have found. So he is going to put me in a small cheap hotel or B&B somewhere near where he lives, so that I can walk there from his house. That means I'll be able to have a drink with Doctor Who. Pete suggested that I take my bottle of champagne round to his house when I go - the question is, can I hold out for a fortnight? Or will the mood take me before then?

The last time that I didn't get a delivery (only a week or so ago), there was number to ring for re-delivery. Or you can have it delivered to your local post office but I think that it costs 50p ot £1 (ish).

I would imagine that these are standard services, have another look at the card.

Also my collection place never seems to have things back within 24 hours anymore - if you are going to collect it might be worth checking it is there before spending money on the taxi.

Don't think my collection place will be the same as yours (mine is up in Cookridge) - if you're the Sheepscar one IIRC they used to be better than the Cookridge place, but still, you don't want a wasted trip,

hebe

Yes, there is a number to ring, and it is supposed to cost 50p to get it delivered to the nearest PO (up the road). But when you ring that number, it's either engaged or no-one answers. I have tried on each occasion that I have had one of those cards through the letter box. I chatted about this to someone last time I went to the Sheepscar depot and they said that they never answer that number. In Aberdeen they did and I just arranged for it to be delivered the following day. But it's not possible at the Sheepscar depot - they just refuse to answer the phone.

and of course the Sheepscar depot is in such an accessible location, not...

We used to be able to collect parcels from an old sorting office in Hyde Park (round the back of where Le Cafetiere etc are) then that was closed and we were sent to Sheepscar in the middle of nowhere. No doubt in the name of efficiency!

hebe

That's poor, why don't you complain?

Does the card say it'll be available in 24hrs, my last one said 48hrs even though it was there the following day when I called on the off chance.

At our sorting office you have to fight your way through masses of their 'workers' stood around chatting, smoking, all effing and blinding to get to a tiny room (you can fit 3 people in if you don't mind playing sardines) where one person is trying to see to everybody.

Then they wonder why more and more people are using private companies

I'll join you in a

yes, the card says 24 hours. Last time I fully intended to complain but you know what it's like, I just didn't get round to it. This time I might well, just as soon as I have found out who to complain to.

Richard

Richard, you SHOULD complain, because if you don't then the next layer up in the management won't be able to do anything about it.

Dad was chatting to our postie, and he said they've had a problem with parcels since the later delivery times came in. They used to get back to the depot to drop off the undelivered parcels before the depot closed. Now with the later deliveries, the sorting office is shut by the time they've done their rounds,s o they can't take the parcels back 'til the next morning. Our postie said he was trying to deliver things to neighbours or putting them behind the bins more often because of this.

Re the Muslim call to prayer with teh Kyrie Eleyson: I thought it was rather beautiful. As far as I could make out, they only used the Allahu Akbar bit (God is the greatest), which I doubt Christians would argue with, and as we're all worshipping the same God anyway.... It didn't use the bit about Mohammed being God's messenger, which would be the controversial bit.


Bex

You'd be surprised at the number of Christians who don't believe that we are worshipping the same God. Many Evangelicals believe that Moslems woship idols and demons. One chap I knew said that the God he worships has a Son, and that the Moslems deny that their God Allah has a son -- therefore they worship a different God.

I did complain, but without result (see my next journal entry for more details!)

Prophet or Son? Different perceptions of the same man. Would those same people say that Jews worship a different God, I wonder?

I think the man was making a trinitarian point. God, he would say, is Trinity. You can't have "God", without there being Three Persons. Now the Moslems worship a singular "God" emphatically not in three Persons. That is why they say that they worship a different God. They also apply the test of 1 John 4:1-3:

"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world."

They interpret this "acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh" to mean "acknowledge that Jesus Christ is God come in the flesh".