IT'S NOT EVERY DAY...

...you meet “a best-selling author, pastor and bewildered instigator of the 24-7 Prayer movement which has reached more than half the nations on earth” as he is described on the 24-7prayer website!

If you know, you will know, and if you don’t, then believe me Pete Greig has written some amazing books and made some great videos, many of which I have read and seen.  

We had gone to Bath today so that Mr. HCB could buy my Christmas and birthday presents for 2024 - and for “this one only”, I agreed that it could be a joint gift - something I don’t usually like!  We drove down to Bath, and having parked in the Lansdown Park & Ride, we were dropped in Milsom Street and were wandering down towards the Apple Store, when who should we see but this lovely man and his wife, Sammy.  

They were just coming out of a shop near Bath Abbey, when I recognised him and asked if he was Pete Greig.  Of course, as he was the very man, he confirmed that, so I told him I followed him on Facebook and had “read some of his books and seen lots of his videos” - so we stood and chatted for a while, after introducing ourselves to them.  As we said afterwards, he probably thought he was fairly safe in Bath and could just have a wander around - but I have a good memory for faces!!  In fact, I even told him that I had mentioned him to a friend of ours, a new Christian, and had considered doing the Prayer Course with her.  Pete said that was a great idea and the best thing was that it was a free course!  We chatted a bit more and then took our leave of Pete and Sammy and went on our way.  If you want to read more about him - I know that some of my Blip friends will have heard of him - you can see more on this Website - I was just sorry I didn't have one of his books with me, or I could have got his autograph!

We then carried on to the Apple Store, where we were served by a great fella named Geo - then once the deal was done, and my old iPhone swapped for a new one, we were handed over to another great fella, Austen - who made sure that everything had gone up to the Cloud and back down again to my new phone, before wiping my old one.  It took about 1½ hours in total, but I was very happy and because I’m fairly computer literate, had managed to do most of it without asking too much of Austen - although as I thought, the purchase was declined by our credit card company, so I had to sort that out by phoning the Fraud Department.   

I then spoke to Benjamin, another lovely fella - my morning was full of those, including Mr. HCB - so thank you for the lovely Christmas and Birthday Gift, dear heart (!) -  and he, Benjamin, thanked me for being so understanding.  I told him they were obviously trying to help me, so why would I not be understanding - so he told me that he often got quite a bit of abuse because customers had had to call the Fraud Line - strange when it would be worse to get scammed!  

Anyway, it was all sorted out eventually so off we went to look for a new case for the phone, and I knew there was a little shop just around the corner, where I was well looked after again.  Whilst I was doing that Mr. HCB had seen some extra large Cornish Pasties, and I encouraged him to buy himself one - I remembered that he and his cricket buddy, Keith, had always bought themselves one when they went to cricket - so to be honest, he didn’t need a second bidding!  I must adit that in my extra collage, he does look rather guilty, but I was happy not to have one.

Just along the road was a Caffè Nero, so we popped in there to have a coffee and a comfort break - and I managed to give away some of my little wooden hearts, which the three guys in there were delighted to receive.  Sadly, the two fellas in the Apple shop were not allowed to take them - but as Geo said, he was very grateful for the thought and said he was very touched.

The little Pomeranian dog was in another customer’s bag, and she was happy for me to take its photograph - apparently, it was called Simba and was quite happy to be close to its mistress rather than under everyone’s feet! 

The photograph at the top right is of the beautiful tulips I brought home from the Community Fridge yesterday, and which I thought would be Blip for today for Flower Friday, until I saw Pete Greig that is!  

Last, but not least, is our old Italian next-door neighbour, Maria, whose birthday is today, and who we popped in to see once we got back into Swindon.  She was delighted to see us and one of her daughters and her husband were there too, so we reminisced about old times, when we used to live next door, many years ago.  In fact, we moved to our present house in 1982, but have very fond memories of our time living next door to Maria and her husband, John, who sadly died 18 years ago.  You would never believe that Maria is 96 years old today and still does all her own housework, cooking, gardening and even cleans her own windows, standing on a stool and with a mop!  What an amazing lady!

So now it’s back home and a chance to relive our lovely day before I start cooking our evening meal.  Hope you have all had a fabulous Friday and are looking forward to a great weekend.  M xx