Another hectic but satisfying day

Another hectic day today - now I am completely convinced that I have not retired.  Started to get like it was pre-retirement except I am now enjoying what I am doing; although the continuing building works is starting to do my head it - not the banging and sawing but the dust, dirt and general untidiness with children sleeping in the lounge and the family room.  I now have the bit between my teeth to get the study sorted out ready for my extended studying.  Today I managed to get on to Moodle and print off my extensive book list for the Oxford Brookes University Foundation Degree course as well as looking at many resources available on line.  Peter came over this morning to put in Mary's floor only to find that many of the laminated boards had not been cut squarely by the manufacturers so Sara had to take three boxes of them back to Wickes.  I picked up two garment rails from Argos to use for putting the children's clothes on (rather than have them strewn all over the floor) until their wardrobes are in place.  I also went to Sarum Graphics on the industrial estate at Old Sarum to pick up 850 copies of the Parish Magazine and deliver these to the distributors and the Rectory.  Thankfully my car accommodated them all easily - so glad I've now got the hatchback. Talking of the car, I had to tax it today as well and in all the mess in the study couldn't find the Certificate of Insurance.  I had to telephone the insurance company to confirm I was actually covered.  Fortunately I was and I could proceed to tax it but I will still need to track down the document.  I quickly cut the rear lawn this afternoon - it's looking really neat and tidy now and makes the garden look so much bigger. The builders have been painting Tom's room today and concreting the floor of Sara's study.  It will be fantastic when she has her own area and isn't cluttering up the dining room table.  Amongst all these jobs and errands, I also had quite a bit of Complex work to do today.  Business is really taking off at the moment. I've had a fantastic response to the Lucas/Plass Seriously Funny evening from all over the Clarendon Team - especially Pitton, Alderbury and Whiteparish.  It is so good to see the Team getting together.  I think the LWL course is bringing quite a few of us together too.  Tonight I had to rush off to Wiltshire Masters' Lodge in Ludgershall.  A really good meeting with an excellent speaker on the topic of Freemasonry and the British Forces - 1700-1900.  After the meeting David, the Secretary, told me that the Provincial Grand Master, who will be the Master of the Lodge next year, would like me to be one of his Wardens with a progression to the Master's Chair in 2013.  That is the most prestigious lodge position in the Province and an enormous accolade.  I spoke briefly to the PGM who was delighted to hear of my acceptance for LLM training and anxious for me to progress in the Province.   "Somebody" is really looking after me at the moment!  I wonder who?

St. Peter's Day - Another Busy One

A really busy day today without a moment's rest.  Up early today and drove over to Whaddon to attend Morning Prayer and afterwards breakfast with the clergy team.  Following this I attended the Mid-Week Eucharist which was also attended by the Worship Committee (consisting of pupils aged about 10) of Alderbury School.  For many this was their first attendance at a Eucharistic service and they were given pieces of paper with a list of things to look out for during the Eucharistic Prayer.  It thought it was well thought out by Elizabeth, who took the service.  I read an extract from Acts from the Good News bible about Peter's release from prison which we thought would be a good story for the children.  After the Eucharist I drove up to Leatherhead to attend a meeting with a client to try and reach an agreement over an employment dispute.  The drive up was quite uneventful until I got to Hindhead where I thought the new tunnel through the Devil's Punch Bowl had been opened.  Although it has been completed it is not yet open to traffic and I had to crawl through Hindhead. I arrived early in Leatherhead and bought myself a sandwich and a drink at Tesco's.  The meeting was not a complete success as no agreement was reached although some progress was made.  The parties are still too far apart for a financial settlement.  I managed to get back to Winterslow in good time for Sessino 8 of the Lay Worship Leaders' training course.  Tonight, Jane Charman led the session on "talking .v preaching" and it appears that as LWLs we will have quite a bit of freedom during the "talking slot".  I also registered this evening for Moodle to enable me to  access the educational resources on line for the LLM training.  Richard and I ended the evening chatting in the Lion's Head over a couple of pints of beer. 

A day in Salisbury

I spent most of today in Salisbury.  The builders arrived early this morning and I had a light breakfast of coffee and an orange.  I went into Salisbury parking my car at the Petersfinger Park & Ride after picking up a couple of cheques for Sara from a local business.  I banked the cheques and then dropped my University Foundation Course application forms into Church House for the LLM training.   I walked round to The Close and visited Sarum College Bookshop to order two bibles (one for All Saints and the other for St. John's) as part of my gift to those churches from Spring Harvest.  I also picked up a copy of "Anglicanism - A Very Short History"  by David Chapman which I need to read before I start my course in September. I then walked to Anokka's where I met Anthony outside and we spent the next five hours or so together getting up to speed with our respective news.  We had the special buffet lunch in Anokka's and then spent a good couple of hours in Caffe Nero chatting.  It started to rain as I waited for the bus to take me back to the Park & Ride car park near Tesco's.  I bought a new cat collar for Emily (turquoise as requested by Mary) and tried to buy two garment rails from Tesco's to hang up all the clothes which are currently on our bedroom floor following the demolition of the built-in wardrobes for Tom and Mary.  When I got back I discovered that the builders had increased the height of our chimney (as we requested following lots of smokey down draughts in the winter) and built the dividing wall between the garage and Sara's new study.  Tonight Sara attended a Team LPA meeting at Whaddon and I prepared for my meeting in Leatherhead (a mediation) tomorrow.

Another triumph for Hampshire

A very hot day again today.  No builders arrived today so no further progress on the extension.  Not sure whether they were expected or not but Sara certainly thought that Peter would be coming today to finish off (in fact start) Mary's laminated flooring.  Today Mary was off school again for a Teachers' Development Day and her friend Allie and her sister Megan came over at about 10.30 a.m.  Sara went to Firsdown to pick up Nobby (a 94 year old woman) and take her to the Truffles Coffee shop as part of her LPA duties.  I took Mary and her friends over later in the morning and had a cup of tea with Sara and Nobby.  I spent the rest of the morning drafting some terms and conditions of employment for a firm of solicitors in Salisbury following a telephone conversation to discuss their instructions.  I also had a telephone conversation and discussed a couple of cases with my big client in Surrey.  This afternoon I attend Rosemary's Bible Reading Fellowship meeting following which I took Mary and her friends back to their house at Old Sarum where Mary is having a sleep-over.  I then set about completing the detailed application forms for Oxford Brookes University for the Foundation Degree Course in Ministry which goes along with Licensed Lay Ministry training.  I will have an option to convert it to a full BA degree with a further year's study afterwards if I wish - something to consider. Tonight I watched the Hampshire v. Sussex T20 games on Sky.  I had toyed with the idea of going to the Rose Bowl again but was pleased to watch it on TV.  It was a thrilling game with Hampshire batting first and getting a modest 126 for 8 which looked like it might not be enough to win.  However due to the wonderful bowling again from Tahir and Alfridi, just like the Gloucestershire match on Friday, the away side were all bowled out for 91 runs.  The last wicket fell to the bowling of Dominic Cork just as on Friday.  From the fixture list, Hampshire play again on Thursday but I cannot go to that game; on Sunday 10th July at Hove against Sussex - might see if tickets are available for that game; and again at the Rose Bowl against Middlesex on Friday 15th July - a definite possibility.  It would be good to see another match or two.  I am sure Hampshire will be in the Quarter Finals. 

Owzthat!

The weather has suddenly changed today and it is very dry and hot.  Tom was up early to do his paper round again and Sara and I slept on bit although she, Mary and I did make church this morning - a Praise Service conducted by Linda and Cynthia.  Another good service on the theme of "welcome".  I walked home after the service and this afternoon cut the front lawn and bank.  We had a late lunch today - roast gammon steak and, afterwards, Mary and I played a few games of the cricket dice game Owzthat! - a game I loved at her age and which I would play a lot during the summer holidays.  We made up cricket teams from amongst our friends and rolled the dice - one for the bowler and one for the batsman.  Mary won every game and now wants to know more about the rules of cricket.   It was really lovely to play this old simple game again inspired by my recent visits to the Rose Bowl.  The game does not come with a "streaker die" though.  Spoke to Mum briefly on the phone this evening and exchanged news.  Her car is now back with her and despite a hefty bill, it really wasn't too bad considering the amount of work necessary.  At least it keeps her independently mobile.  We've had a nice quiet weekend but tomorrow will be manic again!  I have quite a bit of Complex work to do tomorrow, as well as attend Rosemary's Bible Fellowship meeting.

Repent! - IKEA is at hand (in Southampton)

Weekends seem to be so busy again.  Retirement is certainly not about sitting down and relaxing for long periods of time.  Yet another very early morning start.  Tom was off on his paper round - he loves Saturdays as he gets paid on these days - and I went across to the Village Hall to the Men's Annual Breakfast where the speaker this morning was the Army Chaplain General, The Venerable Rev (Padre) Steve Robbins who turned out to be a brilliant and very engaging speaker.  It was really interesting to hear about the role of the army chaplain in history and today, especially in Afghanistan and other places of conflict.  I received further words of congratulation from Patrick and Chris on my selection for ministry training and I sat with Patrick during the breakfast where we talked about his forthcoming holiday in Lincolnshire.  I recommended him to visit Tattershall Castle and Cleethorpes (his wife, Angela, would like to visit the coast whilst they are up there) and try out the fish and chips, which he promised to do.  They will be staying in Lincoln (their first trip ever up to that part of the world) and I also recommended that they try the ice creams at Skellingthorpe.  Back home, I dealt with some Complex work, notably I wrote out a bill for a client in Sussex - we need to get some money in with all the recent expenditure - and drove into Andover to bank some further cheques, post the bill and visit the market where I bought some lovely cherries - a fruit Mary particularly likes.  This afternoon I went with Sara and Mary to Southampton to visit IKEA - a three-hour visit which I absolutely hated (a game of cricket at the Rose Bowl doesn't last as long!).  The purpose of the visit was to look at some bedroom furniture and office furniture for the new rooms in the house and after three hours we came away with about £40 of items - mainly candles and a new desk lamp for my own study.  I really find IKEA a stressful place - things are so spread out; it takes ages to get round things; the furniture is so chunky and requires an honours degree in construction to make it; and to top it all I bought fish and chips in the restaurant under the mistaken belief that it was a snip at £1.49 to find that because I had bought it ten minutes earlier than 5 p.m. I would have to pay £4.89.  In fact, I only really bought something to make the car parking free!  I have yet to meet anybody who finds IKEA a relaxing, enjoyable experience.  Klynn described it as an example of Hell on Earth - must use that in one of my early sermons! That is bound to get people repenting!  The only saving grace was that I got a good view of Independence of the Seas as she set sail for the Med. This was a great view from Marks & Spencer in West Quay  before they built the great IKEA blot of Southampton's landscape!  Back home I was quite tired and so had a lovely muscle relaxing bath before spending a bit of time in the study talking to my good friend Malcolm in Liverpool over the telephone and writing up this blog.  I'll leave it to Sara to go to IKEA in future.  I keep thinking every time I go that it can't be as bad as the last time - and it always is!  Cheap 35p ice creams at the end are always something of an award for the endurance of it all.

Back to the Rose Bowl

Up early again this morning for a fully packed day.  Mary was off school today (the teachers are having training days this Friday and again on Monday) so a long weekend break for Mary.  She was spending today with her friend Allie as Sara was supervising two photo shoots for the Calendar and I had errands to run in Salisbury this morning and was then meeting a client near Southampton for a lunchtime business meeting.  Penny F arrived at breakfast time to go over to a secret location in the Bourne Valley for a garden shoot.  I drove into Salisbury to do some banking before driving to North Baddesley to meet up with my client at The Water Margin Chinese restaurant where we had a light business lunch and discussed a number of issues.  I got back to Winterslow at around 3.45 p.m. which just gave me a hour before Tom and I left again to pick up Richard and Johnno to go to the Rose Bowl in Southampton to watch Hampshire v. Gloucestershire in the Friends Life T20 competition.  Currently Hampshire are top on the South Group Table and Gloucestershire bottom.  We arrived in good time and inadvertently sat in the sponsorship area at the top of the Pavilion and had just settled when we were asked to shift.  Fortunately, we still managed to get good seats under cover.  The weather looked decidedly "iffy" all evening.  Hampshire lost the toss and Gloucestershire put them into bat.  Apart from a short interruption in play, Hampshire completed their 20 overs with a score of 139 for 7.  Not particularly high and a relatively easy target for Gloucestershire. We were running about twenty minutes behind schedule when Gloucestershire went into bat and started losing wickets almost immediately.  The score was 80 for 5 when rain forced a further stoppage of play and following discussions in the Pavilion the Duckworth/Lewis Rules were introduced and Gloucesterhsire needed to reach 124 runs from 17 overs to win.  At the time of the stoppage they had only played 8 overs.  In the end, Duckworth/Lewis did not apply as Hampshire bowled the whole of the team out for 107 before they reached the 17th over.  A great win for Hampshire.  It was interesting to see the D/L Rules in use.  We managed to get to the car park and away within 15 minutes of the game ending and were back in Winterslow at 11.30 p.,m.  I really do enjoy watching first class cricket.  Tonight we had the privilege of seeing the greatest bowler in Test history at work (Muralitharan of Sri Lanka and Gloucestershire) who has taken over 800 Test wickets and thereby beaten Hampshire and Australia's own Shane Warne.  This was the first cricket match Johnno had ever seen and so he was well pleased with it; being a good first class cricket match.  We were also treated the sight of a streaker running across the pitch in the first innings. I hope to get to see some more T20 before the end of the season.  Hampshire play Sussex on Monday.  Tempting to go again!  I spent tonight, before going to bed, trying to understand theea Duckworth/Lewis Rules in greater detail.  I understand the theory but the practice is a bit different.  How sad is that!