Visiting Dad 01

I was down in South Wales again this week visiting my dad in hospital after his recent operation. I headed off on the bus quite early then spent a while having lunch. I then spent two hours with my dad in the hospital. He seemed quite a bit better than when we had seen him last Friday and it was nice time. His scraggy beard is looking more like a full beard now too, which helps.

We talked about old times. I asked him about when I was born (1959) and how he met my late mother. They both worked in Weston's (now Burton's) biscuit factory and so connected at a social function (I worked there one summer myself). They were both in a choir together and both loved dancing. I asked him his earliest memory and it was his sister Elsie being born. We talked about death bed conversions again and he was more amenable this time. As I've heard him say before he's always believed. By that he means that he's always believed there is a God. We pray.

Anyway, I left him then for two hours and headed over to look at the Transporter Bridge, which was closed. I saw a man fishing off the main road nearby.

I had another hour with my dad later before getting the bus to Cwmbran. I went into the MacDonalds to use the wi-fi (it wasn't working in Newport for some reason). My sister then gave me a lift to my dad's flat where I slept, leaving the next morning.

Quite how it will work out I don't know, of course, but I guess I'll be visiting South Wales regularly for a little while at least. I always feel strange visiting on my own. It's like you belong but don't at all. Always quite traumatic for me. It takes me a day or two to recover.

I didn't speak to anyone really on the coaches. I did speak to a schoolboy called Oliver from Llanwern who I met in Newport. Once we got onto religion he decided he was an atheistic evolutionist. I encouraged him to do some critical thinking and not just follow what the teachers say. Back here in London I chatted to a Turkish girl, Nihal. She said she'd been invited to church last week but had overslept I urged her to go and to read the Bible too - both will help her English and a whole lot more. When I got off that bus across town I bumped into homeless Peter, who grew up in a children's home in Hastings (he said). I bought him sandwiches and a cuppa. I asked him if he could guess why I did so. He guessed I was a doctor or a vicar.