Dear Prime Time member,

What a difference a week makes…!  Last weekend saw us diving for cover due to the unseasonably wet conditions and this weekend will see us diving for cover again, but for the entirely opposite reasons!  Forecasters are predicting that temperatures could climb as high as 31 degrees Celsius over the weekend and into early next week, (that’s 87.8 Fahrenheit in ‘old money’!)  Flood warnings have been replaced by ‘Heat Health warnings’ and which I make no apologies for repeating here as one of the identified high risks groups for developing heat-related health issues are individuals of Prime Time age.

I know you’re all adults who have lived through many more summers than I and so have much greater experience of keeping yourselves safe in extreme weather conditions, but just as a reminder – when we experience temperatures as high as the ones we are likely to have on Sunday and Monday the advice is:

• Keep your curtains closed to help keep your property cool

• Drink plenty of fluids, becoming dehydrated not only feels very unpleasant but can have serious implications for your health

• Stay out of the sun between 11am and 3pm when ultraviolet rays are strongest

It’s common sense really, but as I heard someone say on the radio just this week, “The trouble with relying on common sense is that it isn’t that common!”  Please look after yourselves and each other while we enjoy this mini-heatwave.  Be aware of how you’re feeling and if you start to feel unwell please seek assistance from a friend or relative or call your GP surgery or an ambulance if the feeling persists.

I think it would be fair to say that our weather has been very changeable and unpredictable this summer.  The plants in my garden are confused.  I was out watering the plants yesterday evening and discovered that we have a daffodil about to burst into bloom; it’s only about 5 months late (or 7 months too early!)

All things are meant to be (although I have yet to work out how a daffodil blooming in July fits with that particular expression!)  However, it could indeed be applied to the annual Garden Party that Prime Time usually enjoys at Prior’s Field School on the last Thursday in June.  Due to the pandemic, for the second year running this much anticipated event had to be cancelled.  This year however, as Thursday 24th June dawned murky, damp and with temperatures well below average for the time of year, I did note the date and count our blessings that we hadn’t arranged a Garden Party for that particular day!  Hopefully we will be able to resurrect this wonderful event in 2022 and bring it back better than ever I know the school are keen to renew their links with Prime Time once restrictions allow.

Prime Time has not slipped from the Prior’s Field staff and students’ minds and to make up in some way for the absence of joint events over the last year and to wish everyone ‘Happy Holidays’ the girls and staff have put together the attached selection of photos for you to enjoy, complete with a message from everyone at Prior’s Field to everyone at Prime Time.  Some of the faces will no doubt be familiar to you from past events, although you may well notice how much some of the girls have grown in the eighteen months since we last saw them!  The girls wanted to share with you some of the activities that they have been able to undertake during the past couple of terms.  For a number of the girls, Prime Time members are like ‘Honorary Grandparents’ and the photos are shared with you in this spirit, so please consider yourself in the role of ‘Honorary Grandparent’ as you look at the photos.

As well as renewing our connection with Prior’s Field School, your Prime Time Team have been making plans for the autumn term.  We will be hosting a series of tea parties here at the Old Rectory between September 7th and 17th when we will be inviting small numbers of members to join us for afternoon tea as a gentle reintroduction to us gathering together again in groups.  This format will also allow the team to sit down and chat with members to get a feel for how everyone has fared over the previous eighteen months and what you feel should be our priorities as we plan future Prime Time events.  We hope to do a Walk & Pub Lunch in October and re-launch our Saturday Movie Matinees in November.  After that, well it’s all downhill to Christmas and the staff team here met on 7th July to start planning our Christmas offerings and our annual Afternoon Carol Service was included in that planning process; (yes we really do start planning Christmas in July…!) The Prime Time programme for 2022 will be guided by the ideas and feedback members give us during our garden party sessions in September, so do look out for your invitations arriving in mid-August and get thinking about what you’d like to see Prime Time offering.  It is also looking hopeful that we may well be able to restart our regular Hearing Aid Clinic here in Busbridge during October.  If you have previously visited our clinic; then once the re-start has been confirmed, you will be sent a letter giving you the dates for the remainder of the year.

So exciting times for us here as we begin to plan for events and activities starting up again.  Even for us though, our planning is tempered with caution.  This coming Monday might be being billed in the press as ‘Freedom Day’ and yes, that is the day when all legal restrictions on our lives as a result of Covid are being lifted.  However, it is clear from the statistics that Covid-19 is still very much with us and it is right for us to be ever mindful of that as we look to the short-term future and make our plans.  Please be assured that as an organisation, we will not take any unnecessary risks.  We will continue our efforts to minimise the risk of the virus being transmitted between people while attending services or events that we organise and certainly with regard to Prime Time; if local incidence of the virus were to become very prevalent – we would consider cancelling an event or moving it online if that were possible, in order to keep people safe.  We will also continue to offer services online for those who prefer to stay at home or who are having to because they have been instructed to isolate.  Please don’t feel that you have to join us in person; it’s important that you do what feels right for you.  If you would like to have more Prime Time events and activities available to you online, then please do say and we will do what we can to make this happen.

As a church, our Leadership Team of the two Reverend Simons along with our Churchwardens  would like to check what people think and feel about easing precautions at Busbridge & Hambledon church, particularly at this stage with regard to Sunday services. They have prepared a short online survey entitle ‘Do You Want to Sing?’  which can be accessed on the following link: https://bhcgodalming.surveysparrow.com/s/Do-you-want-to-sing/tt-0b4b6b? If you were coming to services prior to the pandemic, whether or not you have already started to attend services in person again, please do consider filling in this survey form which will help us to ensure we are meeting as many people’s needs as possible.  If you would prefer to fill out this form on paper, please do let me know and I will post one out to you.  Please be assured that I will be posting out paper forms to those Prime Timers not on email, that is in my diary for early next week!

At the start of the pandemic, there was an apparent groundswell of support for those in out networks, be they neighbourhood ones, work-based ones or friendship groups.  We learnt to be more patient and considerate to one another’s needs and how they were feeling.  More than ever at the moment, there is a need for a continuation of this compassion and understanding.  While it maybe great that as a nation we are moving forwards and that the remaining restrictions are being lifted, but in many ways it is easier being told what to do and to live within the rules (even if we may not like them!)  Working out as an individual how each of us wants to proceed is fraught with potential pitfalls and anxieties.  What is right for one person may not be right for another and no-one should feel pressurised to take a course of action that they do not feel comfortable with.  Do reach out to friends and family and talk through any concerns you may have with people you trust.  You may find that they share similar worries and you can work your feelings through together.  And it goes without saying that you can always approach me in confidence or ask to speak to a member of our church team if you prefer to speak to someone independent of family or friendship ties.

When I was approaching a difficult situation recently, one of my colleagues reassured me that ‘God knows all about it you know…’  In amongst our worries, concerns and hum drum of daily life it’s easy to forget that there He is in the middle of it all with us.  My prayer for all Prime Time members this week is that those seven words are of support and encouragement to you in the week ahead.

Enjoy the sun – but don’t overdo it!

With every blessing,

Penny x