Long John Angel

My plans for a lazy Saturday were thrown into disarray, when I received a text from J with the astounding news that she purchased long johns and a pair of feathery wings. J went on to tell me that she was planning to wear this outfit to the Churches Together in Redditch Christmas event in the town shopping centre. Well, that just HAD to be seen! The KHT also awoke remembering the afore mentioned Christmas event, and she too quite fancied the idea of riding the escalators dressed as an angel, whilst singing carols. She is rather fond of Christmas, you know...

Until a couple of years ago we lived just a short walk from the town centre. As a consequence DH had not been into one of the multi story car parks since sometime last century!  In the mean time cars have got bigger... and the spaces haven't.  The first spot we considered was rejected on the grounds that it was a little too tight. This should have been a hint about things to come. To make thing easier, the KHT and I extricated ourseves from the car before it was parked. DH duly placed the car in the space, opened the door only to discover that he was trapped. DH was not a happy bunny (understatement).  He moved to a different space and managed to sqeeze out of the car. DH usually prefers to park close to the town centre, and walk in.  Lateness and icy pavements combined to rule out that possibility today.

Four of the five angels

Angels we have heard on high

DH rescued the car park token from me, before it could get lost in the murkey depths of my bag. We set of in search of the rest of the nativity, who we had been advised, would be lurking on the mezzanine adjacent to Primark. Illness and other events had depleted the heavenly host, so they greeted the KHT with open wings. I flung my surplice over her head and added a flourish of tinsel. A set of battery powered lights completed her costume, and she was good to go. DH and I would have joined in but we only had one outfit, and we figured the KHT would get the most enjoyment out of the event. We were right.



During the retelling of the Christmas story, the angels regally rode up and down the escalators, while we sang carols, the gospel choir sang carols and there were readings from scripture and poems.  As we were outside Primark, it would have been fitting to have had a reading from the second gospel, but the readings came from Luke and Matthew.

I lost count of how many times they descended and ascended.
It was a pity the KHT didn't have her phone on her. It would be quite amusing to see how many flights of stairs it calculated that she had climbed....









What did the shoppers make of it?  Did they notice that they had live singing, and that angels, shepherds and kings were wandering about amongst them? Who knows!






After our carrolling we headed off for a coffee and then it was time to go home.  Just one problem. No-one had any cash!  DH prefers to use an app to pay for parking, but the machines in town only take cash.  DH was not impressed. We had to return to The Works and buy some double sided sticky tape, to get sufficient change to extracate us from this sticky situation...

I do not think we will be using the multi-storey car parks again in a hurry, well at least until DH has forgotten today's irritations...

Peace on earth, goodwill to carpark managers...