A Sunday of contrasts

 A day of contrasts today.  After breakfast this morning, Thom accompanied me as I drove over the hill to Whiteparish to conduct Morning Worship at All Saints Church there.  The roads seem narrower than ever with the hedges at the side of the road over Dean Hill having grown up tremendously making visibility around the frequent bends almost impossible.  Twice I had to stop either to let a car pass or to allow one to back up.  We arrived at the church just after 9 a.m.  and I was met by the churchwarden with whom I discussed some of the finer points of the service e.g. the processing, the choir, the hymns and the banns of marriage which I was required to read.  The service went well and my sermon involved a small playlet with the help of the other churchwarden who ha a loud voice.  His sudden (planned) interjection of my sermon shocked one of the congregation but other than that I think they enjoyed did - Thom certainly did.  I stayed for about half an hour to chat and have coffee and then Thom and I left to drive to Southampton to watch the match against Fulham.  One of the choir members was also a Saints fan and so, at the beginning of the service, I assured him that the service wouldn't go on too long as I didn't intend to miss the game either!  That raised a few laughs.  I stopped at Ower for fuel and to change from my ministerial suit into casual trousers and Saints shirt!  We arrived and parked in Rockstone Place (although the parking was difficult today), had a lunch at our usual chippie and walked to the Stadium.  It appears that the programme sellers have been made redundant and programmes are now sold by smartly dressed (suited and booted) employees of SFC and at the food outlets in the ground.  I guess it was costing the club too much to have individuals selling the programmes.  They would get 10% of the sale proceeds, I gather, and a free seat for the game.  That was probably costing quite a few thousand pounds a year.  Southampton started brightly going 1-0 up after 4 minutes.  Fulham equalised and then went 1-2 up in the second half.  Saints managed to pull one back in extra time and almost won the match but the final result remained 2-2.  At least we got a point and we are still just outside the relegation zone.  Sara had cooked pork medallions and roast vegetables for supper tonight and I went down to the Lion's Head for a couple of pints with Richard.  Finally got to bed at 1 a.m.