Happy Birthday to me!

It’s been a busy week this week. Besides having an important meeting of my Mother Lodge* (the Grove Park Lodge No.2732) on Monday afternoon as well as a whole-body bone scan that morning (the scan was cancelled because of my recent course of radiotherapy treatment after I had actually reached the Nuclear Medicine Department at the hospital!), we've continued decluttering, and I have celebrated my 74th birthday!

As a result, I am feeling rather tired and I will be taking a few days off from decluttering and blogging so that I can have a break to rest and recuperate. I will not be idle during this short break as it will give me time to reflect on a number of matters that I touched upon in my recent blog post entitled A LONG, HARD THINK ABOUT MY FUTURE WARGAMING.

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*The meeting of my Lodge was important for three reasons.

Firstly, it was the 125th anniversary of its foundation. (It was consecrated (i.e. founded) on 11th February 1898.) Secondly, it marked the 25th anniversary of me being Initiated into Freemasonry. Finally, it was first ever White Table meeting of the Lodge during my twenty-five years as a member.

A White Table meeting means that we held a very short business meeting which was tiled (i.e. none but Freemasons were allowed inside the Lodge Room or Temple), after which guests such as wives, partners, and friends were invited in to see what the whole thing looks like when we are having a meeting. They were then given a short talk about the various officers of the Lodge, what their function is, and a brief history of the Lodge, after which we all retired to the bar for a quick drink before everyone sat down together for a meal.

The purpose of the White Table meeting is to say 'Thank You' to our wives and partners for their forbearance (being a Freemason can sometimes impinge on one's home life at times, especially when one is learning a bit of ritual and disappear into a vacant room where we can be heard muttering to ourselves!) and to emphasis the social aspect of Masonry.