Runways and churches

Kurt Cobain did a cover of Bowie's 'the Man who sold the World' which frankly, I thought was better than the original. Yesterday, in Morrison's supermarket I was very unenthralled to hear someone who wasn't Marc Almond covering Soft Cell's 'Tainted Love'. Honestly, is nothing sacred?

Morrison's took over Safeway here a couple of years back. The one we were in was opposite Norwich City football ground where my niece and nephew were going to a match. This time it was the yellow army I was witnessing converging on a single point. They all seemed nice, happy people, just so many of them.

Yesterday morning when I lay in bed and composed my blog, I had woken with a sore throat and a runny nose. Over the day that turned into a cold, full on.
The day was sunny and cold. We went tramping across the fields in the morning. A lot of the airforce were stationed around here in the second world war, you can still see the runways. Runways and churches, just about everywhere. Amanda told me that in Norwich itself, there is a church for every week of the year and a pub for every day.

In the afternoon, we went into Norwich city centre, more churches, lots of people, from the football stadium we could hear the crowd roaring and singing. I looked for calendars with limited success, on the one hand they are practically being given away this far into January, on the other hand, choice is ..well, frankly quirky.

We shopped and window shopped, 'licked the windows'as the French say, my sister's pain spilling out as we walked around.

In the evening we had Indian food, poppodums with raita and chutneys, pilau rice, Murgh Safeeda, Murgh Malik, Murgh something else, aloo bhajee and the elusive peshwari naan. I think the restaurant named the dishes after their staff, murgh just means chicken. We chose a creamy, spicy mild curry, and a hot one and shared. Wonderful Indian food, wonderful restaurant.

I know that I make some strange connections sometimes, I think of them whimsically and then can't let them go, but I'm wondering about those runways and churches. I asked my sister when we were tramping across and round fields whether there were any crop circles here - I think of this phenomenon being more associated with the west country. But she assured me that there were many. She said there was also an area nearby with the second highest incidences of UFO sightings in the country - second only to the west.
On the way here on Friday afternoon, I was trying to look at the various parts of the country I passed through with the eyes of a visitor. Well, ok, the specs of a visitor. I noticed the spires and square towers of the churches. Most of them were older, but at one point I noticed a modern spire. It was white, an exaggeration,
an accusing tapered finger pointing at God. Do spires I wondered, act as a lightning conductor, channelling the prayers of the faithful into the atmosphere? Prayers, human mental energy.
Runways, planes, where we are at in our technological development as a race. Bi-planes carrying men and women into the sky, full of courage and fear, metal containers of human emotion.
I have my ingredients in my bowl, I'm just not sure what I'm making with them. Perhaps there's an ingredient missing, the one that binds the rest together, maybe I just need some coffee or even some lemsip, perhaps when the cotton wool in my head disappears. Those trees are still watching me.