Another point for the Saints

I woke up this morning feeling considerably better than on the previous two mornings.  Jeff was here early and continued to erect the picket fence which is looking really good and definitely enhancing our property.  Although feeling better I still feel a bit grotty - this is a really heavy cold and one which is going to take quite a few days to go away.  I attended Mid-Week Eucharist at Whaddon this morning, taken by Andrew, and then on to Whiteparish for a meeting of the Full ministry Team at Jane's which lasted until about 12.30 p.m.  Then into Salisbury city centre to buy a new waterproof hat to replace the one that I had lost at Warwick Services on Sunday. I looked at some cheap ones in the Army Surplus Store in Winchester Street but I felt that I really looked a bit of a "prat" in them and then also looked in several other shops finally deciding to spend a bit extra money on a South African weatherproof hat as worn by a number of my contemporaries including Ashley and James.  Stylish and very practical.  This evening Saints were playing Norwich City at St. Mary's.  Sara decided to cook us a tea of lasagne which meant we arrived in Southampton much later than normal.  The traffic in the city was terrible and there were no parking paces anywhere - 30,000 people were converging on Southampton to watch Premier League football - such a difference to the experience when we were in League One with gates frequently below 18,000.  After having cruised around the streets of Southampton - including the Ocean Village - we eventually drove back up to The Avenue and parked at one of Trethowan's garages.  We had about 15 minutes until kick off and power walked in the freezing cold to the ground.  In fact when we took our seats the game had only been going for one minute and so I reckoned that we had walked the best part of a mile in 13 minutes!  Saints scored first but Norwich equalised before half time.  no goals in the second half ensured that the two teams shared the points.  With Aston Villa's win yesterday, Southampton remain in the bottom three but three points above Reading and seven points above QPR.  Saints are only one point from safety and another couple of wins could see them up the table.  Early days and nothing lost yet. After the match, the traffic was again horrendous so Thom and I, chilled to the bone, walked around via St. Mary's Church to the St. Mary's Street Chippie for a couple of portions of hot chips - really welcome. A more gentle stroll back to Brighton Street and an easy journey home - arriving back in Winterslow at 11.20 p.m.  I watched an interesting interview with two British Muslim girls on TV tonight about their "reversion" to Islam and learnt the word "Inshallah" or Insha'Allah meaning "If God wills it" which punctuates their conversations, as a Muslim should never talk about future plans or ideas unless they say this because Allah has pre-ordained what will be.  Fascinating stuff and I think when it comes to my turn to undertake independent study on course, I will choose a study of Islam.