St John The Evangelist’s big day d’aujourd’hui. I only know because last year I was watching some programme about how they celebrated Christmas in mediaeval times and a number of saints were feasted so to speak. Looked em up and inserted the dates in my calendar in perpetuity. Long after I am gone there will be calendar reminders to that effect (those effects?).
Doubt whether St John spoke French. Otherwise he might have been a St Jean which he aint, afaik. Might be in France I suppose. They have a mind of their own. Only apostle not to be martyred apaz. Side stepped that one. Probs saw it coming before the others and arranged to be out at the shops or similar when the Roman soldiers rocked up at the gaff where they were all staying. Just a lucky happenstance.
Tonight we will be celebrating ole St John’s feast with a bit of salad. Had enough big meals to do me at least until tomorrow 🙂 We do have a lot of stuff to eat up. Mind you I am considering having a full English to break the fast. Believe it or not I’ve avoided one up until now over this holiday period. Even Christmas Day. See how I feel in thirty mins or so. No rush. Defo avin half a grapefruit as well. Use my new grapefruit spoon innit.
Some FB pals (well one) has expressed a certain level of ignorance about the aforementioned John. I don’t feel inclined to help them out when they can easily google it, which is what I did in the first place. There’s a lot of stuff out there on tinterweb about Johnny boy, as you might imagine. Two thousand years of posting including some of his own stuff. I’m sure I found somewhere that his feast involves wine although I can’t seem to lay my hands on the source this morning. We still have a bottle or two of wine left so might raise a glass to the lad this evening. I’m sure there will be other takers if the suggestion is put to the table.
A miserable foggy day out. Despite this it would be worth going out for a walk were it not for the fact that I’m somewhat crippled right now and having a new hip in February. Just six weeks or so to wait. Over 100k people get it done in the uk every year (annually) apaz. That’s a lorra people. Since announcing the fact it’s amazing how many people have said they’ve had it done or they know someone who has. Enough of this hip talk.
I doubt St John ever encountered fog. Holy land is a bit warmer than the UK. Also references to snow are down to good King Wenceslas who as far as I am aware lived nowhere near the Middle East (Mid East if you are from across the pond). Don’t get much snow ere either. Do get fog though, as you know. In those days they didn’t have such a thing as replacement hips either. They wouldn’t have needed one anyway as JC and the gang were around to apply healing hands to any deserving cripple they came across.
Strange to think that the market for replacement hips, which is worth at least one and a half billion squid a year in the UK based on fifteen grand a pop, would not exist had there still been people around able to perform miracles. The art seems to have died out after the middle ages although the Catholic Church does still occasionally churn out a saint. I’m a bit sceptical of these newbie saints meself. Feels as if the church feels obliged to keep the tradition alive. They should be able to move on 🙂 .
As a Davies I am named after St David. In my part of the world (well in Carmarthenshire where my ancestors trod the sod) twenty five percent of the populace are Davieses. In the days before surnames sons were oft named after St David as might have been their fathers before. So David ap (son of) David morphed into David Davies’. Would more likely have been Dewi or Dafydd in Sir Gaerfyrddin where few people spoke the invasive English language that the church felt obliged to use to write down names.
I don’t feel particularly saintly otherwise I’d have fixed the hip meself. I can however fix breakfast which is what I am going to do now. Ciao amigos.
Kid 3 sets off for Caadiff today to spend time with his gf Lucy’s family. She is a lovely girl.