Monday Oct 30th
Phew! It's exhausting being a godmother.....The Royal Air Force Museum was a good choice for a day out, and we had a good time.....but I arrived back feeling limp, and the big mug of tea I was given by my godson's mother was just bliss! There were not many people at the Museum as half-term is now over for most schools, so my small godson and I virtually had the place to ourselves when we toured the Bomber Command and Dam Buster sections....there is much food for thought here: there is something awesome about these great Lancaster bombers, and one can view a replica of the room where Barnes Wallis invented the "bouncing bomb", but.....all those children killed in the great raids on Germany's cities, and the terrible toll it took of brave young airmen's lives, too (my mother's oldest brother was shot down and killed serving in RAF Bomber Command in 1942 - one of my earliest lessons in history was being told about him as a small girl in the 1960s and being reminded to pray for "Uncle John" at Mass.....)

Most of today's young museum visitors have an extremely short attention-span: it is all too evident that the only place where they linger for more than a few moments is the computer-game bit where you can stand in front of a machine and make a picture of an aeroplane fly across a screen.....a pity, because the Museum does tell the whole story of WW11 extremely well, has some excellent audio-visual displays (Churchill making his Battle of Britain speech, children on a railway station for evacuation, family in the East End with Anderson shelter etc etc) plus huge numbers of aeroplanes - Spitfires, Hurricanes, Blenheims, Flying Fortressses, all in superb great rooms with excellent explanatory material. Children just hurry through the rooms and nag their parents for snacks from the refreshment stands. Young Thomas - whose parents restrict his use of computers, is lively and chatty, and is a delightful and happy companion, a real pleasure to take on a half-term treat - seemed to enjoy the day, and was still bursting with energy as we made our way home on the Tube and through the dark streets. I had borrowed a copy of George Weigel's biography of John Paul 11, Witness to Hope, to read on the train, and it was extraordinarily interesting to read the chapters on Poland and the Papal visit there in 1979, and all that followed, with echoes of what I had just seen in the Museum still reverberating in my mind.....

A good day out.

I am busy with preparations for my trip to America to speak at the Coming Home Network conference in Columbus, Ohio, this coming weekend. The topic is the English Reformation and it promises to be a feast of knowledge and information and discussion....

Here at home, a lovely and touching invitation.....we have a superb new Parish Centre, just opened, next to our parish church - the fruit of much energetic work by our splendid parish priest and support from the parish. ....and Father P. has invited me to open the Catholic bookshop which is to be part of the whole centre: I am really moved by this, and it will be lovely to be a part of this exciting venture. The Centre is a beautiful building, with space for all the large number of activities that are part of parish life: youth groups, Confirmation classes, meetings of Catholic groups and organisations, celebrations for parish events....it has been superbly designed to blend in with the church and enhance the whole area. Father P. says "This will be a really Catholic bookshop" and it will stock a good range of all the excellent books and pamphlets and DVDs and so on that are now available.....