Masonic Dinner in Calne

I spent much of today working on tomorrow’s service – especially writing the intercessions and the sermon – a study of the book of Philemon.  Mary spent the day with her friends and Lucy and Izzy at the ice rink in Basingstoke and Thom watched the Luton v Grimsby Town game on the TV this evening – a boring 0-0 result by all accounts.  The weather turned dark this afternoon with claps of thunder in the distance.  Sara and I left home at around 5.30 p.m. to attend a dinner for reigning Masters of each lodge in Wiltshire hosted by the Provincial Grand Master as the Executive at Calne Masonic Centre in the north of the county – a good hour’s journey across Salisbury Plain.  We had an excellent meal of fresh cream of mushroom soup, topside of beef – rare in the middle, with lovely vegetables – crushed hash browns, cauliflower cheese, carrots, peas and roast potatoes followed by fruits of the forest pavlova and cheese and biscuits.  Sara and I were honoured to be seated on the PGM’s table and I was called upon to give the toast to the PGM which he responded with a lengthy speech about the Teddies for Loving Care appeal and other issues.  This was followed by quite an unorthodox demonstration of masonic cathedral building and design from the Provincial Grand Chaplain/Orator, Dr. Tony Milsom, a professor of mathematics whose love and enthusiasm for maths is quite incredible. Unfortunately, during this demonstration our hosts wife, who had been sitting next to me, was taken ill and eventually taken to hospital with what turned out to be a nasty viral infection.  It did bring the proceedings to an abrupt halt although the evening had almost finished.  Sara and some of the ladies were shown around the lodge room before we left for home around 10 p.m.  Driving back across Salisbury Plain we encountered some dense fog and had to drive extremely cautiously.