Thom gets an offer from Peter Symonds

An extremely cold day today with temperatures this morning reaching -5 degrees Celsius.  Heavy ice and frost this morning.  I still attended Morning Office at All Saints were I led apart from the Intercessions.  I spent the morning working in the study and and attended a meeting of the Deanery Synod Standing and Pastoral Committee at Porton Rectory this afternoon until 4 p.m. at which point I drove into Salisbury for a meeting with a former FP manager in a hotel to discuss a possible business proposition for Complex Services over a pot of tea. Some good news today for Thom - he has been accepted by Peter Symonds College in Winchester to study history at A-Level subject to satisfactory grades at GCSE - which is well within his ability and target. Some tragic news too - a helicopter flying over the Vauxhall area of London collided with a high rise crane and crashed into the road below killing the pilot and one other.  A road I know quite well as I used to drive along it during my commute into London from Brighton back in the 80s. It is amazing that only 12 other people were injured as debris fell out of the sky onto the busy road below.   This evening I facilitated another Pub Theology session in the Lord Nelson.  There were four of us this evening and our discussions ranged from the church's attitude towards homosexuality/gay marriage/women bishops to the relevance of biblical texts in today's modern secular world.  Roger provided sausages and chips again at a very reasonable rate and the discussion kept going until nearly 11 p.m. - far longer than I had anticipated.  We have already identified a number of themes for discussion at later meeting.  All seemed anxious and looking forward to the next session.  Some further good news tonight, Southampton managed a marvellous 2-2 draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge tonight after being 2-0 down at half time. A great comeback and another useful point to consolidate them in the Premier League.