The Perfect Friday

Last week I had a conversation with a friend in Austria. We talked about what we considered would constitute a perfect day. He responded, quite earnestly, that his perfect day would be one when he committed no sin. My own view was, well, ever so slightly, less saintly. I said that my perfect day would be like my ordinary Friday, with the addition of there being an Extraordinary Form Mass I could easily attend. I am nothing if not a realist!

Whereas my friend may - and I say this most respectfully! - might have to wait some time to realise his ambition, mine was accomplished today.

Every Friday I go into town to purchase, inter alia, meat from the butcher. There is something very satisfying about giving one's order to someone else, and having them go and fetch one's items. It makes one feel important, as a customer. What's more the quality of produce is far better.

There is a very nice tea shop a few doors down from the butcher, so I pop in there on my way home. The place is a tea-drinkers' paradise; I've been going there at least once a week for the last six months, trying a different tea more or less each time, and am still no where near having tried everything. Loose-leaf tea is good fun. I delight in the little accoutrements, the teapots, strainers, and timers. I had always found teabag tea to leave a bitter aftertaste, and of course, unlike loose leaf, you can only infuse it once. So my conversion to loose leaf snobbery has been a rapid one.

Today I sampled hibiscus flower tea. It surprised me. For a herbal tea it had a very strong colour - it was a lovely, deep, almost scarlet red. I took a photo, which I intended to post here, but cannot do so at present. Blogger doesn't seem to want to let me upload direct from my iPad. There will be a way round this, but it will be 2018 before I discover it. It was not just the colour of th tea that was strong, but it's flavour, too. It was like a pleasant fruit-infusion, but with a wonderfully tart finish, that made it very refreshing.

With it being Epiphany, the SSPX had a special Mass this lunchtime (there's not normally ne on a Friday). The church is pretty, a traditional building, albeit one obvious designed for Protestant worship. A great deal of effort had been put not decorating it for the festive season, with fairy-lights stretching the whole length of the gallery. There was a good mixture of people there, young and old, male and female. My only complaint was that the Celebrant spie very quietly and with a little too much haste. After Mass, however, I got him to bless my Rosary according to the Rituale, which he did with pleasing solemnity.

Then, as is my habit on Friday afternoons, I went to the gym. It was, by my extremely phlegmatic standards, a good work out. And to cap it all, there is a choice of three football games to watch tonight; West Ham v Man Utd on BBC 1, Hibs v Dundee Utd on Alba, and Espanyol v Deportivo La Coruña on Sky. Last week I was made aware of the Sky Sports Mobile TV app. By this means, for £4.99 a month, a non-Sky customer can stream Sky Sports 1 and 2 live onto their iPad.

Yes, a sinner's idyllic day!