Now I can wish every one a very happy Naw-Ruz and a wonderful year ahead. Erica and I have just returned from a wonderful Naw-Ruz celebration for Welwyn and Welwyn Garden City - about 50 Baha’is and friends, children, youth, adults. Lots of lovely Persian food, lots of laughter and a wonderfully loving spirit.

It’s that spirit that I would like to share with everyone, so that they can get an inkling of the spirit and joy of the Baha’i community.

As we embark on the year 163 of the Baha’i Era, I am sure we’ll have a challenging, but fruitful, year ahead.

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Marco has pointed out that my blog is one year old today. Happy birthday, blog!

To be honest, I’m amazed. I have a short attention span, so it’s quite an achievement for me to keep this going - if somewhat sporadically at times - for so long. Let’s hope I can keep it going. Actually, I had a blog on Blogger for a time before I started Barnabas Quotidianus, but BQ has been my main blogging effort. This all comes from a diary habit that I have had - again sporadically - for many years. I have books and books with diaries and journals of varying quality, but they were really intended as private reflections. Blogging is much more exciting - someone might even read it!

Anyway, let me wish everyone a joyous Naw-Ruz in advance (we’re still about 4.5 hours away from sunset here).

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I’ve just had one of my nightmare things happen to me. I arrived at work at the National Baha’i Centre in London’s leafy Knightsbridge (actually, truth to tell, it’s not at all leafy at the moment, what with the late Spring and the unspringlike weather) at about 9.30am. I came in through the basement door and stepped into the lift.

Pressed the button for the second floor.

The lift started up and after ascending for less than 2ft shuddered to a halt.

Nightmare! I have distinct claustrophobic tendencies and the lift is not a big one. Mastering my rising panic, I forced the inner doors open and tried to push the outer door open. It was, of course, locked shut. Next, breathing deeply, I pressed the alarm bell and was connected to the emergency monitoring centre. They said they would get help to me.

OK, relax, breathe deeply, say a prayer. It’s getting warmer in the lift.

Voices. Thankfully there are members of staff in the building and they take charge. The phone rings in the office. Someone takes the call. It’s the lift people. Their nearest engineer is an hour away! I get something to read out of my brief case. Anything to take my mind off being shut in a small, rapidly warming up, box for an hour.

I shout out to see if someone can open the lift’s engine room and get the lift down. Someone fetches John, the boss of a gang of workers who are doing some repair and maintenance work on the Centre. I suggest that they could unlock the outer door with the special key and let me out that way. I hear noises in the engine room (which is in the basement next to the lift shaft). John finds the key and opens the outer door and then pushes the leaves of the inner door apart.

I escape my prison with huge relief.

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