Causing Trouble

Yesterday I went into an old people's home, which I do in a couple of places once a month to take a short service. In the course of talking to them I told them about the walk I am doing tomorrow and the reason Natalie is doing it was to raise money and awareness of the problem of leprosy.

All seemed to be going well until just after the end of the service when one old fellow asked if he could say something. Well, of course he could, it was his home after all. he said he wanted to comment on something the vicar (!) had said.

It soon became apparent that he hadn't quite grasped what it was I had been trying to explain because he launched into a pretty long diatribe of about 4 minutes or so (aided by an apparent ability to talk without pausing for breath) in which he told us that people shouldn't waste their time running 600 miles in the underpants but should use their energy to help old people look after their gardens or to do the church flowers or trim hedges instead.

After a while some of the other residents started on at him and I simply smiled at the woman who worked there and said, "Look what I've started. Bye." A fun time had by all?