Achieving a goal: Attending my first Masonic meeting since April

When I began the therapy that was designed to improve my mobility, I was advised to set myself achievable but challenging goals. Amongst these were learning to walk with a frame, then with crutches, then with walking sticks, and finally without any support. So far I have managed the first three and can stagger a few steps without support around the house ... as long as there is something to grab hold of if I begin to feel a bit wobbly!

One goal that I set myself was to try to get to a meeting of my Mother Lodge, the Grove Park Lodge No.2732. I was unable to get to the first meeting of the Masonic year in October and it looked as if I was likely to miss the December one. Getting there by public transport was going to be very difficult due to the very variable accessibility of some of the railway stations I would have to use, and the taxi fare was going to be between £50.00 and £75.00 each way. Luckily, my recent appointment with a neurologist meant that I was deemed fit to drive again, and after a few trips out at the wheel of my car I felt confident to be able to get myself to and from Cheshunt, which is where my Lodge meets.

The reason why I wanted to go to this specific meeting was to celebrate what is a unique occasion, the presentation of a sixty-year certificate to the oldest and longest-serving member of the Lodge. What makes this award so unique is the fact that he has never, ever missed a Lodge meeting during those sixty years, and this is something that I’ve never heard of anyone else ever achieving.

The meeting took place on Monday, and I managed to go to it … and I had a wonderful time! It was challenging getting there due to heavy traffic and roadworks on the M25, and it took me much longer than I would have normally taken … but it was worth it! I received a wonderful welcome from the Brethren and I was able to individually thank them for the support they have given Sue and I during my recent health problems.

The presentation to our oldest member was done by the Deputy Provincial Grand Master, and he was accompanied by an official party that included the Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies, the Provincial Grand Sword Bearer, the Provincial Grand Standard Bearer, and numerous other senior Hertfordshire Freemasons. In fact, there were so many of them that they almost outnumbered the membership of the Lodge! This is a mark of the respect and high regard the Father of the Lodge is held in, and I understand that his achievement of sixty years without missing a meeting is a national record.

My last talk?

Back in 2017 I became the Provincial Grand Orator (ProvGOrat) for the Masonic Province of Hertfordshire. Since then I’ve delivered numerous talks to Masonic lodges in Hertfordshire, London, Berkshire, Essex, and on cruise ships.

Normally Freemasons who hold an active rank do so for seven years and I am due to be replaced at the next Provincial Grand Lodge meeting in September. The role I’ve performed is due to change and will become the Provincial Grand Learning & Development Officer (ProvGLDO), so it makes sense that I step down.

Later today I will be delivering a talk about Freemasonry in the British Army to the Lodge of the Legion (No.9827), which meets in Cheshunt. This Lodge was consecrated in March 2007 with the express purpose of supporting the British Legion and laying poppy wreaths at all war memorials within Hertfordshire on the annual Day of Remembrance. They also regularly organise trips to Europe, visiting various memorial sites and battlefields.

The way things are, this is likely to be the last talk that I do as ProvGOrat … and I can’t think of a better Lodge in which to perform my final talk.

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.

I managed it ... but came home rather tired

In yesterday's blog post I wrote about going to a meeting of my Mother Lodge (The Grove Park Lodge No.2732) for the first time since May, and how this was the first Masonic meeting that I had managed to get to since then.

I was a bit worried that it was also the longest time and distance I had driven since August, and I was a bit apprehensive. When I set off from home at just after 3.00pm, it was beginning to get dark, and it was raining quite heavily. My satnav informed me that the route via the Blackwall Tunnel and M11 to the M25 was subject to delays (there was some sort of accident or breakdown near the entrance to the Tunnel) so I went the long way around using the A2 and M25.

The left-hand map shows the route I would normally have taken and the one of the right shows the route I actually took to reach Chesthunt. I returned home using my normal route.

One thing that I had forgotten about was the speed and erratic behaviour I was likely to encounter driving on some of Britain's most crowded roads. Cars changing lanes without indicating, cars and motorcycles undertaking, lorries and trucks getting so close alongside or behind you, and the general lack of space between vehicles ... and everything happening at at least 70mph! I kept calm, tried to keep a safe braking distance between myself and the vehicle in front of me (which some drivers saw as an opportunity to cut in front of me without any notice!) and drove at a speed that I felt was safe considering the road conditions. As a result, my journey, which Google Maps predicted would take me 55 minutes, actually took me closer to 90 minutes ... but I still got there in plenty of time to say hello to everyone, have a cup of tea and a Jaffa Cake, and restore my personal comfort before the meeting started.

The meting went very well indeed. The Lodge performed a Third-Degree ceremony (AKA a Raising) on the brother of one of the existing Brethren and we were able to welcome a joining member I have known for nearly 20 years and whose own Lodge had recently closed.

After the meeting we were able to have a quick drink in the bar (I had a very nice glass on non-alcoholic IPA) before going into the after-meeting meal. This was a traditional Christmas turkey dinner with all the usual trimmings, followed by Christmas Pudding and a mince pie. It certainly was a hearty meal, and I was feeling rather full by the time it ended and we all parted company.

My journey back, which started at about 9.45pm, was a lot calmer and quicker than my journey to Cheshunt. However, by the time I got home I was feeling rather tired, thanks to driving fatigue, the large meal, and the fact that I missed my usual afternoon nap! Last night I slept like a log, and it was only the arrival of the cat at 8.00am that woke me up, otherwise I would probably have slept even longer.

So, yesterday was a good day, and although I am still feeling a bit tired, it is that tiredness that comes after you feel like you have achieved something. I now know that I can cope with driving for longish distances on crowded and busy roads, and that is a major milestone for me to have reached.

One more step on the road to a full recovery ... I hope!

This afternoon I will be attending my first Masonic meeting since the end of my radiotherapy. It will mean driving from my home to Cheshunt in Hertfordshire and back and will be the longest distance I will have driven in one day since the middle of August. As such, this will be a major test of my confidence that my mind and body can cope with the demands of driving on some of the busiest roads in the UK at peak times. Until now, most of my recent driving has been over short distances with plenty of opportunities to stop and have a break if I need to, but once I'm on the M11 and M25, I'm going to have to keep going, regardless.

The meeting I am attending is one of the regular ones held by my Mother Lodge, The Grove Park Lodge No.2732. On the face of it, it will be a normal business meeting, with a couple of ceremonies (one long and one short) taking place. I will have a minor part to play in the longer of the two, but other than that, I'll be able to sit back and just enjoy being back in the Temple with my Masonic Brethren.

The crest of The Grove Park Lodge No.2732.

What marks this out as an unusual meeting is the fact that our oldest member will be marking his sixtieth year in the Lodge and in The Craft ... and that he has never, ever missed a meeting in all of those sixty years! This is something of a record (I've never heard of another Brother ever managing this feat) and is one reason why I want to be there to offer my personal congratulations.

Wargames Illustrated Issue 428 August 2023

I happened to be in the Bluewater branch of WHSmith when I saw this month's issue of WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED. I had a flick through it and several articles caught my eye, so I bought a copy.

The articles that caught my eye were:

• Loose Files and American Scramble by Andy Callan
• Returning To Old Favourites: One Person's Passion - Collecting Old School Armies by Rick Priestley
• Fashoda Showdown by Nick Buxey
• Citadel to Perry Minis, via Foundry, and interview with the Perry twins
• Making an Acacia Tree by Matt Parkes
• Thane Tostig by Daniel Mersey

I've known Andy Callan for forty-three years, and I know that any rules that he has written will be worth reading, even if they relate to a period of wargaming that I don't wargame.

As a bit of an 'old school' wargamer, Rick Priestley's article - and especially many of the photographs of good old Minifigs figures - really struck a chord ... and it was interesting to see that in an age of super-detailed figure sculptures and shaded figures, how good they looked!

The Fashoda Showdown article looked at what might have happened if the British and French had come to blows on the banks of the Upper Nile. It's a 'what if?' I've thought about refighting myself, and this article certainly made me think about actually doing so at some time.

The interview with Alan and Michael Perry was interesting and informative, and showed how their careers and their sculpting has developed over the years.

The acacia tree has a special place in the hearts of all Freemasons, so this article was a 'must read' ...

Thane Tostig was the brainchild of my old friend, the late Eric Knowles, ...

... and his son William ... although we always called him Bill! It was a fantasy game that featured figures by the legendary Barry Minot, and although I never played any of the games Eric staged, I can well remember seeing the figures being cast in the basement of his shop - the New Model Army - in Manor Park, east London. Daniel Mersey's article does contain a few errors (for example, Eric and Bill were father and son and not brothers!) but it was great to see that Thane Tostig has not been forgotten!

(I devoted a whole appendix to ‘The Quest of Thane Tostig’ or ‘The Quest of Thane Tostig for the Magic Sword Blooddrinker’ in the book I compiled about the Madasahatta Campaign. It included a list of all the figures that Eric planned to release.)

COVID strikes again!

For the last few days of our cruise I was feeling a bit under the weather. I thought that it was a bit of a cold, coupled with some diarrhoea ... and took the appropriate medication in order to carry on enjoying my cruise as best I could.

On Wednesday afternoon I attended the Installation meeting of my Mother Lodge … and about halfway through I began to sweat profusely, and my temperature seemed to go through the roof. I managed to get to the end of the meeting but decided to give the after-meeting meal (which we call a Festive Board) a miss and drove home very carefully and somewhat slowly.

When I got home, Sue insisted that I took a COVID test as my symptoms seemed to match those of the latest variant … and a very faint line on the test indicated that I had the dreaded virus yet again!

Last night I slept quite well, and I’ve spent most of today resting, although I did go outside to do thirty minutes of gardening. It raised a bit of a sweat, and although I felt tired afterwards, I felt a lot better for doing something physical.

I’ll be taking another COVID test later today, and hope that it will show that I’m clear of the virus. If not, then I’ll carry on as best I can until I’m over this latest brush with COVID.

Not quite the journey from hell ... but it didn't feel far from it at the time!

Yesterday I drove to Cheshunt in Hertfordshire to deliver a talk about Sir Charles Warren to the Square Conduct Lodge No. 6816. The shortest route from my house to Cheshunt is about twenty-five miles and normally takes around an hour or so.

Yesterday, it took me over two hours.

Luckily, the heavy traffic that delayed me also delayed most of the other attendees, so the meeting - which was scheduled to start ta 4.30pm - didn't start until 5.00pm. As a result, the meeting did not end unit after 715pm, and had the knock-on effect of making the after-meeting meal late starting. That did not finish until 9.30pm ... but at least my journey home was quicker that my journey there had been, and I was indoors by 10.30pm.

What is interesting was that there appeared to be no cause for all the delays on the roads I had to use. The traffic was no heavier than usual, there were not unexpected roadworks, and there were no accidents. The weather was not to blame, either. There must have been a cause or causes, but I've no idea what they were.

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Yesterday's lecture gave me the opportunity to try out my latest acquisition ... a projector that connects to my laptop computer.

As a result, I will no longer bore people by making them look at me when I give a talk; now they will have pictures to look at to distract them as I drone on!

A busy week ahead

This week looks as if it is going to be a busy one.

On Monday I will be going to my second Masonic meeting in three days! This will be a meeting of my Mother Lodge (The Grove Park Lodge No.2732) ...

... and will be taking place in Halsey Hall, the Masonic centre in Cheshunt.

The meeting is going to be an Initiation (again, my second in three days) and as I don't have an active roll, I can just sit and enjoy the ceremony and the quiet companionship of the Lodge. The meeting is being preceded by the dedication of a newly-installed organ in the lodge room or temple that we use. The organ was donated by the widow of the recently deceased Brother who Seconded my application to join The Craft, and it will not doubt be both a sorrowful and a joyous event.

On Tuesday I have an appointment with my GP to review my cancer treatment and to arrange for treatment for my underactive thyroid. Hopefully this will all go without a hitch, and I will leave with a prescription for the medication that I need.

This will be followed by another visit to the local GP's surgery, this time for yet another blood test. I am having these at such regular intervals that I am beginning to feel like the late Tony Hancock! *

I am also hoping that work on the latest book in the PORTABLE WARGAME series (THE PORTABLE IRONCLADS WARGAME) will be approaching the stage when we (David Crook and I) can draw a line under it and get it published.

So much to do, and so little time to do it!

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*This refers to a famous comedy sketch entitled 'The Blood Donor' when Hancock is told that they are going to take a pint of his blood and he replies, 'That's very nearly an armful!'

A visit to Loughton, Essex

Later this morning I will be travelling to Loughton in Essex to attend Saturday daytime Masonic Lodge meeting.

Most Masonic Lodges meet late in the afternoon/early in the evening, but a number meet during the day or on a Saturday. The Lodge I am visiting (Brooke Lodge No.2005 in the Province of Essex) meets at 11.00am on a Saturday, which is very unusual, but from what I gather, this has made it a very attractive Lodge to join for people who find meeting on a weekday afternoon or evening.

I will be attending the meeting as a guest of the Worshipful Master, who I helped to Initiate into Freemasonry … and today I will be watching him Initiate a new Freemason for the first time. There is a nice symmetry to this … and that is one of the reasons I’m particularly looking forward to this meeting.

Dead beat and dead chuffed

I didn’t get home from my Tuesday meeting until 10.45pm, and even later than that after the Wednesday one. The latter took place in Bulls Green, Datchwood, which is near Knebworth in north Hertfordshire, and it took me nearly two hours to drive home. As a result, I felt deadbeat last night and only just registered the fact that a parcel had been delivered whilst I was out. In fact, I was so tired that I had an uninterrupted sleep that lasted just over eight hours … something that I haven’t done for quite sometime!

This morning I had a few domestic chores to do (shopping, tidying up the garden, and clearing the leaves from our hard standing and front pathway) and I’ve only just got around to opening the parcel … and discovered a present from Ian Dury, a larger number of painted 15mm figures for my Belle Époque project!

For the time being I’ve left all of them in the packaging they arrived in as I want to spend some time slowly unpacking them. When I have done, I’ll share a photo or two of my ‘new’ figures on my blog.

A busy Masonic week ahead

For the first time in a very long time, I have two Masonic events taking place this week.

On Tuesday I will be attending a meeting of Herts Masters Lodge No.4090 at the Halsey Hall Masonic Centre, Cheshunt. The main event of the evening will be a delivery of this year’s Prestonian Lecture … and I have been asked to assist the speaker. (The annual Prestonian Lecture is the only lecture authorised by the United Grand Lodge of England. It is named after William Preston (1742 to 1818), who is regarded as the foremost Masonic educator of his time. He left a legacy to provide for an Annual Lectureship, and this year's lecturer is Dr John W Hawkins, whose lecture is entitled THE ROYAL FAMILY AND FREEMASONRY.)

The following day I will be attending a meeting of the Provincial Active Officers at a pub in Datchwood. We will be discussing and setting short and medium-term goals for the team to try to achieve … which all sounds a lot like the sort of thing that I did before I retired. (We’ve been told to prepare SMART targets. (i.e. they should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-limited.)

Running to catch up with myself!

After Monday’s day of ‘excitement’, I had hoped that by today life would have settled down to a somewhat more pedestrian pace … but that was not to be!

The courier delivering the fridge was supposed to phone us thirty minutes before he was going to arrive, but the first we knew that he had arrived was a heavy knocking on our front door. (For some reason, he ignored the doorbell.) He deposited it in the kitchen and left me to unpack it and dispose of the packing material.

I had just done this when the front doorbell rang, and our regular postman was there with a pile of post to hand over to me. As I hadn’t seen him for a couple of weeks, I asked him if he had been on holiday … and it turned out that he’d been in hospital for two weeks with a serious chest infection. Apparently, he had suffered intense chest pain and been ‘blue-lighted’ to the local hospital with a suspected heart attack. His heart rate had been over 200, but once they had stabilised him, they discovered that it was being caused by a serious chest infection.

(Our postman is a real character who collects American Civil War memorabilia and books, and we often have a chat about nineteenth century military history. During one of these I discovered that one of his relatives had served with the Berkshire Regiment at the Battle of Maiwand.)

Whilst I was conversing with the postman, our cleaner – whose great uncle was Colour Sergeant (later Lieutenant Colonel) Frank Bourne of Rorke’s Drift fame – arrived, closely followed by one of my regular blog readers, Carl Luxford from Whitby! He is currently visiting relatives in Plumstead and took the opportunity to pop round to drop off a very nice gift for me ... which I hope to write about tomorrow.

Once the fridge was plugged in and working, Sue and I refilled it with the food we had been storing on cool bags. We then paid a hurried visit to Dartford to collect some things that we had ordered and to have a snack lunch.

We got back at 1.30pm ... and I had just enough time for a quick drink and a rest before I got changed and set off to drive to Cheshunt for a meeting of my Masonic Mother Lodge.

My journey to Cheshunt should have taken about an hour, but actually took nearly two thanks to roadworks in the Blackwall Tunnel approach road. I finally got to Cheshunt at 5.15pm, got changed into my regalia, and entered the Temple at 5.25pm. Luckily, I had not missed much, and was able to spend the next ninety minutes watching a candidate Passed to the Second Degree.

After the meeting, we had a drink in the Masonic centre's bar before we went into the dining room to eat our after-meeting meal (which we call the Festive Boad). That finished at 9.00pm, and after saying goodbye to the other attendees, I drove home.

I was home by 10.00pm … and then sat down and wrote this blog post.

Getting back to something like normal

The COVID pandemic and my two bouts of cancer (the removal of a cancerous polyp in my colon that led to my colostomy, followed by my current prostate cancer) has meant that my involvement in Freemasonry has been severely curtained over the past two and a half years. During that time I have managed to go to a couple of Masonic meetings, but yesterday was the first one I have attended since I was told that my prostate cancer was pretty well dormant.

I am the treasurer of the Veritatem Sequere* Lodge No.9615, and yesterday saw the Installation of our new Worshipful Master into the Chair of King Solomon. For the first time in a long time I was able to attend a meeting without any concerns that my colostomy or prostate would ‘play up’ during the proceedings in the lodge room or at the Festive Board, which is what Masons call the after-meeting meal.

The crest of the Veritatem Sequere Lodge No.9615.

The Veritatem Sequere Lodge is almost unique in that it is what is termed a research lodge. Unlike most other Masonic lodges, the main work done during the meeting is the presentation of a lecture or talk by a member of the lodge or a distinguished visitor. The subject of the presentation is on a Masonic topic that he has researched. On this occasion, after the Installation of the incoming Worshipful Master he gave a presentation entitled ‘French Freemasonry, a brief examination of the similarities, the differences and the reasons'.

Traditionally, attendees and visitors don't ask questions about what they have heard until after the Festive Board has finished, and this session can often last longer than the actual presentation.

The meeting was held in Radlett, Hertfordshire, and it took me about ninety minutes to get there by car ... and about the same time to get home, even though the first journey was made during the run up to the rush hour on the M25. I had a great time, all the more so for the reaction I had from the members who were there. They have been following the progress of my cancers and my treatment with interest and were extremely pleased to see that I was now well enough to fully return to fill my office in the Lodge.

Yesterday marked another step on the road back to normality, and I hope that it will be the first of many.

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*Veritatem Sequere means ‘follow the truth’.

The death of a Brother

Yesterday I received some terrible news; the Brother who Seconded my Initiation into Freemasonry had died after a short illness.

Over the years, he became a very good friend to me. He was someone I could always rely on for good advice when I needed it, and support when things weren’t going well. He was a thoroughly decent, honest, and honourable man who typified the best sort of Freemason one could hope to meet. His death has hit me in a way that is difficult to describe because he was very much my Brother in The Craft.

We have a saying in Freemasonry that we should live a life where we are respected whilst alive and our deaths should be regretted. In the case of this Brother, that is very, very true.

I will be going offline for a few days whilst I come to terms with my friend's death.

Zulu

As yesterday was the anniversary of the Battle of Rorke's Drift, I made a point of watching the 1964 film ZULU.

Whilst it is by no means an accurate depiction of the events that took place, it is a rattling good film and I always enjoy watching it ... something that I do at least two or three times each year.

It also gets a mention in my talk entitled FREEMASONRY IN THE BRITISH ARMY as both John Rouse Marriott Chard and Gonville Bromhead were Freemasons. Chard was initiated at the age of 30 into St. George’s Lodge No.112, Exeter on 3rd May 1877, having joined the Royal Engineers in 1868. After the Battle of Rorke's Drift his career was unremarkable and not particularly distinguished, and by the time of his death in 1897 due to cancer of the tongue, he was a colonel.

After the Zulu War had ended, Bromhead was initially posted to Gibraltar. In August 1880 he was dispatched to India, where he stayed until March 1881., when he returned to England. He was then at the School of Musketry, Hythe from October to December 1882, before returning to his battalion in Secunderabad, India in 1883. By this time he had been promoted to the rank of Major. He served with his battalion in Burma during the Third Anglo-Burmese War (1886 to 1888), and when the war was over, he went with them to Allahabad, India, where he died of typhoid fever on 9th February 1891.

As part of my talk, I involve the audience by asking them the following questions ... which in almost all cases, they answer incorrectly:

Q1. What was the name of the infantry regiment whose members made up the bulk of the defenders of Rorke’s Drift?

Q2. How many of the defenders of Rorke’s Drift are known to have been Welsh?

Q3. How many of the Victoria Crosses and Distinguished Conduct Medals awarded for the action at Rorke’s Drift was awarded to Welshmen?

Q4. Who was the last survivor of the defenders of Rorke’s Drift, and when did he die?

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The answers are shown below:

A1. 24th Regiment of Foot (2nd Warwickshires); they did not become the South Wales Borderers until two years after the battle.

A2. 32 of the 122 defenders were Welsh (26%). Of the rest 49 were English (40%), 16 were Irish (13%), 1 was Scottish (under 1%), and 3 were born outside the British Isles (2.5%). The origins of the remainder (17%) are unknown.

A3. One, a VC to Private Robert Jones. Of the other nine VCs, seven went to Englishmen, one to an Irishman, and one to a Swiss. Of the four DCMs awarded, two went to Englishmen, one to a Scot, and one to an Irishman.

A4. Colour Sergeant (later Lieutenant Colonel) Frank Bourne, who died on VE Day.

The impact of COVID

As many of my regular blog readers will know, I am a Freemason. In fact I am Hertfordshire’s Provincial Grand Orator, and part of my role is to deliver talks about aspects of Freemasonry to Lodge meetings and White Table gatherings, (The latter are meetings where non-Masonic guests are present.) I was booked to give a talk about the Halsey family to a White Table meeting in St Albans, Hertfordshire, last night and one about Freemasonry in the British Army to a Lodge meeting in Hutton, Essex, this evening … but both have had to be cancelled due to the present upsurge in COVID infections.

Needless to say, I am disappointed not to be doing these talks, but the risk of people being infected by the COVID Omicron is too high to ignore, and the decision by the Lodges to cancel these meetings is very understandable. With luck I will be able to give these talks at some time during 2022.

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An aside: The Halsey family have been prominent in Hertfordshire (and the United States) for over four centuries, and besides providing three Provincial Grand Masters and several MPs, the family has produced two admirals; Admiral William (Bill) Halsey USN and Admiral Sir Lionel Halsey RN.

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Another aside: The official abbreviation of my Masonic rank is ProvGOrat … which makes me sound as if I deal with infestations of rats!

The first meeting of my Mother Lodge since 2020

Today I will be attending the first meeting of my Mother Lodge (The Grove Park Lodge No.2732 in the Province of Hertfordshire) since February 2020.

The crest of the Masonic Province of Hertfordshire.

We have been very lucky in that none of the members has died during the COVID-19 pandemic, although at least one of them has caught and survived the virus. As a result, today's meeting will not be a sombre one, and we can concentrate on getting back into the swing of regular Masonic meetings.

The crest of The Grove Park Lodge No.2732.

Every Lodge is rather like a small club, and as in all clubs, friendships develop and grow over the years. We have tried to keep in contact with each other during the gap since early 2020 with regular Zoom meetings, but although this is a great way to stay in touch, it is a poor substitute for actually meeting each other in the flesh.

The main business of today's meeting is to hear a talk by one of our members about the Masonic Knights Templars (or The United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple and of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta to give them their full title). He is currently the Commander of the London Provincial Prior’s Bodyguard and has visited various sites in the Middle East that are associated with the history of the original Knights Templar.

So today's meeting is going to be an interesting one, with friendships being renewed and a little Masonic learning thrown in for good measure. It will also be the first time I have attended my Mother Lodge since I was promoted to Grand Rank, and no doubt I will be expected to buy everyone a drink to celebrate!

My latest book sales

The way that Lulu.com and Kindle Direct Publishing report the sales of my books to me is in two rather different formats and collating the information can be a bit time-consuming ... which is why I only look at my latest sales figures every two or three months.

As of today, my sales figures look like this:

I have sorted them figures out so they represent my output in terms of those book that fall under the PORTABLE WARGAME label (7405), other wargames rules (1122), imagi-nation campaign books (324), Masonic books (137), and my one novel (23) ... about which, the least said, the better!

One book that is not included on the list is my CENTENARY HISTORY OF THE HERTFORDSHIRE MASTER'S LODGE NO.4090. This should have been published in 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic its publication has been held back until early in 2022. I know that over 500 have been printed, and they are sitting in storage awaiting the delayed centenary meeting of the Lodge.

You go away for a week ...

I have only been away for a week, and yet I seem to have returned to a large pile of things to do!

Besides the 250 plus emails waiting for me in my Inbox (thank God for the delete key!), I have had a couple of Wargame Developments membership renewals to deal with, the next issue of THE NUGGET is due, I am attending the Hertfordshire Provincial Grand Lodge meeting on Wednesday, and I am giving a lecture to the Herts Scots Lodge on Friday!

On top of this, the lawn need cutting, the weeds in the driveway need strimming, there is food shopping to be done, and the bank seems to have 'bounced' a cheque I wrote to the company who renewed our kitchen because 'it has not been signed in accordance with the mandate on that account'. I have no idea why the bank has chosen to do this as both Sue and I can sign cheques on this account, but it means a long telephone conversation with someone in the bank's Customer Relations Department who will know nothing about us or our account other than what the computer tells them ... and the computer appears to have the wrong information!

As I wrote yesterday, ‘normal service will resume as soon as possible’; it's just going to take a bit longer than expected!