Another day in the Salisbury office

A busy but pleasant day in the Salisbury office today. I arrived quite early (8.15 a.m.) and was lucky to get one of the last two spaces in the car park. I worked in the executive suite during the morning and met up with Sara for a light mackerel salad lunch before my two team colleagues arrived from Dorking to join me for a meeting with HR. This meeting took up the rest of the afternoon. I fully intended to go swimming this evening but upon getting home found that Tom had managed to get his indoor basket ball - which we especially shopped for an indoor basket and ball for his bedroom too for his birthday - stuck up high on the roof. I tried to get it down with a long pole and also by attempting to hose it down with jets of water but to no avail. It is still there like an orange cyst on the roof! I was really angry that yet again he had not used a ball for the purpose it was bought but as a football outside. I didn't get to the Leisure Centre for my swim - instead I'll go first thing tomorrow morning on my way in to work. Sara cooked a Thai pork curry with basmati rice for supper using fresh vegetables which was delicious. Tonight I phoned our friends the Russells to arrange to met them at the Water Margin in North Baddesley on their way up to Worcester on Sunday. The Water Margin does an excellent Chinese buffet on a Sunday and we all like Chinese food so we should all enjoy it. Klynn also phoned to say that Susan would be away in Marrakesh on Thursday and so it would be better to have the House Group at his house. I set about sending an e-mail out to all the usual attenders. Sara watched Desperate Housewives!

Back to Work

After a fantastic weekend it was back to work with a bump today. However, although the clocks had gone forward, it was already quite light when I woke up at 5.30 a.m. I made tea and prepared a packed lunch as I decided that rather than have a cooked lunch in the restaurant today, I would take in some sandwiches with yoghurt and fruit and sit and read my Alpha book - Questions of Life - there are two more chapters left which I want to finish before Friday's meeting. I left home at 7.10 a.m. and picked Anthony up at Grateley Station at 7.30 a.m. After leaving Winterslow I ran into fog and the weather was rather grim when I finally arrived at Grateley. We didn't have much to say in the car - Anthony nodding off from time to time - and I didn't want to talk about work. The morning was largely taken up by a meeting relating to one of the tribunals we have and Belinda, my no. 2, was on holiday but brought her 15 month boy in to the office when she came in to drop something off. He was a charming little boy - very chatty and cheeky. At lunchtime I declined to join Anthony and others for an hour-long lunch and instead walked over to our Sports and Social Club half an hour later to eat my packed lunch and read my book in the quiet and comfort of an armchair in the main lounge. I managed to finish one chapter and read half of another. The sun was shining brightly by this time and having been absorbed in my book, I felt on top of the world and refreshed to face the afternoon's stint at my desk. I don't know whether it was reading my book, or the better and lighter weather or a combination of both, but I felt more alive than I have done in many months. I think it might be because I am seeing things in context better than before. I am now really looking forward to getting away next week to Spring Harvest and have made a firm decision, which I communicated today to my secretary, that I have no intention of being disturbed by work issues during those five days in Minehead. I left promptly at 5.30 p.m. and got back in time for Sara to go off to Five Rivers Leisure Centre for her gym induction night. Tom was upstairs on his computer game console whilst Mary was next door playing with the two girls. I later found out that Tom hadn't done some homework and I expressed deep concern that he had elected to play computer games rather than doing homework due in tomorrow. Mary returned back and went to bed after watching TV for a short spell. Whilst the kids were occupied and Sara was out I made a good start of clearing up the study - finding old papers and either shredding them or putting them in the recycling bin. On her return Sara predictably watched more Desperate Housewives and I wrote up the blog.

Treasured time in the cathedral

I didn't make the early morning Eucharist at St. John's this morning. Although the service starts at 8 a.m. and I woke at 7.05 a.m. - in reality it was 8.05 a.m. as we put the clocks forward last night and I ended up going to bed late! We therefore had a leisurely breakfast of eggy bread and bacon and then all went to Laverstock to watch Tom play for Clarendon Juniors in a cup semi-final against Sarum Youth. Unfortunately it was a poor defeat at 2-7. Tom only played for part of the match but crossed two marvellous corners which were not capitalised upon by his team mates. Sarum Youth had a very good tall goalkeeper and our defence lacked cohesion. Sara, Mary and I also visited the Five Rivers Leisure Centre to revive our corporate membership so that we can use the gym there. I am spending more and more time in Salisbury and so could use the gym first thing before going into work. Back home at 2 p.m. the weather was warm and sunny and it felt that maybe spring had indeed arrived and I got the lawn mower out for the first time this year and gave the back and front lawns a high cut to tidy them up. Lunch was a light chicken noodle soup - my favourite - and at 4 p.m. we went to the Village Hall for the start of our Food for Thought Treasure Hunt which was to be at Salisbury Cathedral. We drove in convoy to the cathedral and spent about 45 minutes looking around for clues. We had a great time and finished up with a fish and chip tea in the Cloisters. Klynn organised fetching the fish and chips from the "chippie" in Devizes Road. They were excellent. Sara had a salmon pasta salad as part of her new dieting regime. We did not win the Treasure Hunt but is was great fun and I learned some new facts about the cathedral and its history. Back home afterwards, Dawn and her daughter came round for a cup of tea and to borrow Grand Canyon to watch before our house group meeting on Thursday. We watched an underwater exploration programme made by Ron and Valerie Taylor about their exploits in Australia and Indonesia. Quite fascinating and remind me of the wonderful programme of theirs I had seen in the Isle of Man (see January 29th 2009 - Manx Justice) about diving in the dangerous waters of the Amazon. Klynn came round later and after quite a few attempts managed to get Tom's Xbox configured for Xbox Live use but Tom will need to by a special wireless adaptor to use it in the family room. The evennig ended with Sara watching more "Desperate Housewives" whilst I wrote up this blog.

A Perfect Saturday

Today was one of those amazing yet, regrettably, infrequent perfect days when everything seems to go right despite there being a multitude of opportunities for it not to do so. Sara and I woke quite early this morning despite it being a Saturday and took advantage of not having the children around and indulged in a little passion! A lovely start to the day. I made breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast after having made tea and hoisted the St. George's flag - after all we were going to Wembley to see our National Team play Slovakia in a friendly later that day. Sara and Mary went off to ballet, shopping and the cinema and Tom and I set off for London to watch the match. Although kick-off wasn't until 5.15 p.m. we decided to set off early, park at my Dorking office and catch the train and tube up to London and Wembley. I had checked the Internet for any rail travel problems and found out that there were going to be delays because of engineering works around Wimbledon. I decided it would be better, therefore, to travel into London Victoria and catch the Victoria Line to Green Park and then the Jubilee Line out to Wembley Park. The first bit of good news on arriving at Dorking Station was to find that Tom's Travelcard ticket would only cost £1! Mine was £10.20 but with free parking too it meant a much better deal than catching a train from Surbiton to Waterloo - my original intention. On arriving at Victoria, I found out that the Victoria Line was not running which meant a rather "circuitous" route using the Circle Line to Baker Street. However that had a silver lining too as at Baker Street we met Alex Pearce's father (Alex being a Southampton player who had been on loan from Reading) and he told us some of the "dressing room" stories from our club which I dare not repeat here. We found that he too was going to the Wembley Gold Club. On arrival at Wembley Park, Tom said he was hungry so we had lunch at MacDonald's. We sat outside and chatted to a Norwich City fan about the prospects for our respective teams in the Championship League. After buying a couple of scarves outside, we entered the Stadium by the main entrance together with a large number of well dressed folk and I realised that we probably looked a little out of place with our England replica kit and Saints bench coats. However, we needn't have worried, the staff treated us "royally" with our Gold Club Tickets (courtesy of Anthony) and we found many other family groups wearing England kit - indeed, there were a number of staff offering to paint our faces with England flag templates! There was quite a contrast between the expensive restaurants and seafood bars (champagne at £169.00 per bottle!!) and the burger outlets - although those are incredibly expensive too by normal league club standards. After looking round and getting our programmes we decided to go off and sit in our seats. That was the next shock - the steward told us they were probably the second best seats in the Stadium and I thought he was exaggerating until I discovered that they were on the halfway line, halfway up and padded with armrests and a drinks holder! But that was not all, we were actually sitting next to the Royal Box and, in fact, sitting next to where the Queen would sit for a Cup Final! Due to health and safety reasons, there is no fence between either. The atmosphere was electric and we watched the teams warm up. We stood for the National Anthems after the teams came on (teh Slovakian one being quite long and very much like a Dvorak piece of music) ; during our National Anthem the crowd formed a huge St. George's Cross - see picture. Because it was a friendly, there were many substitutions and we were able to see the cream of English football playing - David James, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole, Peter Crouch, Stuart Downing and, of course David Beckham and Wayne Rooney. Emile Heskey opened the scoring for England in the 8th minute but was substituted by Crouch shortly afterwards. In the second half goals came from Rooney (x2) and Frank Lampard to bring the score to 4-0 before the final whistle. Unfortunately, Tom and I missed Rooney's second goal as this went into the back of the net on in extra time as we were leaving via the escalators. We arrived at Wembley Park Station to find a massive crowd had already left ahead of us. Crowd control was excellent with lines of police horses and we actually found ourselves on a Metropolitan Line tube train within 25 minutes of leaving the Stadium. Our connections at Baker Street and Embankment were timely and we were sitting on the 8.20 p.m. train to Dorking at Victoria Station at 8.10 p.m. It was a slow stopping train but we were back in Dorking at 9.15 p.m. and home in Winterslow at a little before 11 pm.. Tom slept in the car on the way home still clothed in his match scarf and new white England Bronx hat. Sara was, not surprisingly, continuing here "Desperate Housewives" fest on the TV. What a perfect day - travel arrangements excellent, timings superb, wonderful stadium and seats, excellent result - all in all a wonderful day out. Quite a strong contrast to our trip to Blackpool last Saturday! Now to bed quite late with an hour lost too!

Suffering and Healing

A more peaceful day today. Working in Salisbury meant a more leisurely start to the morning and arriving at the office at just after 8 a.m. meant I could get quite a bit done before my first meeting at 10 a.m. The meeting was difficult but successful in getting instructions to settle what would be a difficult case in Manchester if we went ahead. Sara and I attended a Christian Fellowship Meeting in the Recreation Wing of the office with fellow Christian employees. We discussed several readings from Hebrews concerned with suffering and why Christ was incarnate. The atmosphere of uncertainty pervades everything in the office at the moment and our Claims Department were told that further necessary savings would mean more redundancies. Nobody feels that their job is safe and many worry that severance terms will be eroded before their turn comes. After work I managed to get Tom's mobile phone sorted (he needed more credit on his pay-as-you-go phone) as he and I are going to Wembley tomorrow for the England v. Slovakia match and I need to know that he can contact me (and I him) if we get separated in the crowd. Sara had baked some lovely cherry cup cakes when I got back home - they were still warm and got demolished very quickly. Tonight was the penultimate Alpha Course meeting when we discussed healing - spiritual and physical. A tricky subject but one which once more Nicky Gumbel was able to cover with his unique style of confident presentation. Afterwards, the group had some difficulty in grasping why not all requests for healing are successful. I thought of Dad and wondered if we could have prayed harder and also whether our prayers did go answered with him now at peace. Sarah M, who is a nurse, recounted some of her experiences in tending for the terminal ill and giving them comfort in their last moments when their relatives could not be there. Perhaps we are not meant to know why some are healed and others aren't. Arriving home, Sara had started watching her Desperate Housewives' fest having bought off ebay the whole of the first two series - about six DVDs!! . It was not a time for discussion or disturbance as when she is watching this programme nothing must come between her and the TV. I was free, therefore, to work on my laptop and write up this blog. I am looking forward to tomorrow and seeing my first live England soccer international at Wembley. The St. George's flag will be flying prominently on our flagpole. We have seats in the Wembley Gold Club so we should have an excellent view and I will need to know what the dress code will be.

Grand Canyon

A second day in succession in Dorking and I journeyed the same way as yesterday to avoid any problems on the M3 and M25. Today it was raining quite heavily as I made my way northwards. Matt had brought some cakes in from a bakery in Horsham as it had been his birthday a few days earlier. I chose a lovely warm sausage roll to have with my morning coffee. I spent the morning preparing for the department meeting in the afternoon and dealing with some compensation claims from advisers. I broke for lunch at 1 p.m and ate a lovely seafood kedgeree with curry sauce. After lunch I had a teleconference with our General Manager in the Isle of Man which was immediately followed by the department meeting. I arrived home at around 7.30 p.m. Sara had made some lovely ginger biscuits for tonight's House Group. They were still warm and soft so I ate a couple with a mug of coffee before we started. We had six tonight including Sara and me. After a short prayer we sat down to watch a film which Klynn had brought called Grand Canyon starting Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Steve Martin (in a straight role) and Mary McDonnell. At first it seemed an unusual choice for a Christian Group with a lot of expletives throughout and it was probably as well that Mary had gone off to bed to watch another DVD. The message of the film was that small events can be miracles and that one off events can shape our lives - they may be insignificant (or significant) at the time but their significance only known by us at a later time. Klynn stayed behind for his usual (two glasses this time Susan) until just before midnight. I then set about writing this blog. Tomorrow I am in Salisbury all day with Alpha to look forward to in the evening.

Anunciation Wednesday

Another day in Dorking and another commute. The car radio informed me that there was another traffic jam on the M3 so I, yet again, had to reach Dorking via the A31 Hogs Back and through Guildford. I had no actual appointments today and so used the day in the office to deal with quite a lot of administration work and had meetings with my team to discuss workloads and other housekeeping matters. Lunch was chili con carne in the restaurant. I returned back to our village in time for a special Lent Evening Eucharist at St. John's Church. There were only about a dozen of us (including three clerics). Elizabeth took the service (assisted by Nils) in a rather different format replacing the normal sermon with a discussion session about why we sometimes ignore what God asks us to do. Back home,Sara and I watched the next episode of Auf Wiedersehen Pet followed by a lengthy documentary about the life of Brian Clough. This was being screened as a spoiler to the film Damned United which is to be released on Friday.

Golf Ra(n)ge

In Salisbury again today. Another new tribunal case came in which will require me to draft a defence before Easter. That's two new cases in the last five days! I went out to lunch with my golfing partner Derek. I say "golfing" partner - we actually haven't played a round of golf together since last summer - indeed, I haven't played any golf since Autumn. We went to Wagamama's for a Thai-style curry washed down with a light Japanese beer and he brought me up to date with his love-life. We also discussed the fortunes of our respective football clubs - Derek is a season-ticket holder for Norwich City which, like the Saints, is facing possible relegation to League 1. It could end up with both going down. We agreed to start playing golf again after Easter and agreed to get into contact with each other after the Easter break to arrange something - either at Grateley or Otterburn. More meetings this afternoon. When I got home this evening, Mary had taken herself off to bed with a sore throat and the first symptoms of a nasty cold. I threw my golf clubs in the back of my car and drove to Grateley to get some golf practice in on the driving range there. I got a basketful of balls and when I had finished with them picked up a few more and hit those too. My driving was truly awful, either hooking to the right or topping them. My whole body felt tense and I could not get a good swing. I was very annoyed with such a poor performance. I will have to get a lot more practice in before I go out on the course again with Derek. Back home I made a wood fire and we had a light supper of toasted cheese sandwiches. We watched the next episode of Auf Wiedersehen Pet which has become my weekly TV treat. I then wrote up this blog before having a shower and going to bed relatively early leaving Sara watching the TV.

Surrey Jams

After a lovely break away in Lancashire it was back to the daily grind to Surrey. Before leaving home I hoisted the Liverpool FC flag in honour of Liverpool's great win against Aston Villa yesterday. The Premier League title is still theirs for the asking if they can continue that type of performance and Manchester United slip up. The traffic was truly awful again but I managed to escape the worst of it by keeping off the motorway (other than the short Basingstoke stretch). I passed at least three accidents on my way up to Dorking arriving there at around 9.30 a.m. I met up with my team for whom I bought a decent coffee each to drink at our meeting. It was then off to HR for a telephone conference on a new employment tribunal matter. I had a lunch of soup and a roll and spent the afternoon drafting a defence for the new tribunal case. I will be discussing this again with the clients tomorrow in Salisbury (yippee! - no major commuting tomorrow). Sara phoned me to tell me that her redundancy was as good as confirmed following a meeting with her director today. On the way home I stopped off to buy flowers in Andover for me and the children to give her as well as a bottle of sparkling wine. The end of an era is upon us. Despite the potential redundancy we should be grateful to the company as if we had never joined it we would never have met and never had our two lovely children. What a thought! Talking of children, Mary was thrilled to get herself a new mobile phone today - her previous one mysteriously vanishing - and was so proud to show it to me. Tom is upset about it as he never had one at her age and certainly never a new one. He has one already (Sara's old one) and now wants a new one too. He can buy it himself if he does and he can properly earn the money to do so too! He is bound to lose it too at some stage. He bought himself an I-Touch with his birthday money and so already has much more than Mary. Sara spent the evening putting together the parish magazine and I wrote up this blog going to bed early.

A Daffodil Day

I was awoken quite late for me at 7.45 p.m. by my ringing mobile phone. It was Sara to thank me for the three Mothers' Day presents she had received - some Insolence perfume from me, a book entitled Living with Teenagers from Tom and Dannie Abse's "The Presence" from Mary. She seemed delighted with them all. I am afraid I grunted any responses like a teenager myself as I was not quite awake. Having been woken, I made tea and then had a shower. Tom was up late too - he was sharing a bedroom with Sam and I could hear the "gentle" thud of unrecognizable music coming from the room as well as the obvious sounds of Match of the Day. After a breakfast of toast and marmalade and having mustered the lads, we set off for Christ Church, Linnet Lane for the Mothers' Day service. It was a very informal affair which suited Tom well. The children read the Old Testament and Gospel readings as well as the intercessions. The service was conducted by David, the priest, who had the whole congregation laughing openly when he reminded them that there would be an early morning service on Easter Day - open air on Otterspool Promenade at 6 a.m.!! He hoped there would be a few more there this year compared to last when it had been just him in his car with his dog! The children were each given a small bunch of daffodils for their Mums and some jammy dodgers (with red hearts) for themselves. Tom lit a candle for Sara, Gillian and Mum. I spent some time with Chris, the Reader, looking at all the works being done at the church - some £80,000 already. A third of the pews have been removed to make a very large area at the back which will have a glass ceiling to retain the feeling of loftiness and light but also give warmth. The area can be used for semi-circular seating - a bit like St. Paul's in Salisbury - with a stage area and exhibition area. By facing east the congregation can also still use the existing pews as a traditional church for weddings etc. We could certainly do something like that in Winterslow but it would not be so easy as All Saints can only be half the size, at most, of Christ Church. After a lunch of sausage and bacon baps, Tom and I set off home. We stopped off at the Mersey Retail Park near the old Speke Airport to get Tom a new pair of trainers, before setting off properly. The weather was wonderful (although cold outside) and we returned home via Chester, through North Wales and Wrexham, Shrewsbury, Leomister, Gloucester and Swindon. It took a little longer than going up yesterday but it was a lovely journey all the same. Once home I spoke to Mum on the phone to wish her a happy Mothers' Day. A nice bath and an early night.

Bitter Tangerines in Blackpool

Wow, what a long day today! Awoke just before 6 a.m. to find that Tom was already awake and dressed. Despite the early hour (especially for a Saturday) I still took Sara up a cup of tea. I also raised the Lancashire red rose flag which will fly for the next two days. Sara also got up and helped Tom finish with his packing red for our trip up to Blackpool. After a breakfast of toast and cereal we set off for the long trek up to Lancashire at around 7.15 a.m. It was a wonderful drive up - so much in contrast to my drive up to Liverpool on Tuesday afternoon. The roads were clear and weather dry and sunny - the weather that is until around about Warrington when than gloomy Mancunian weather of Wednesday greeted us and remained with us until late afternoon.We stopped briefly at Keele Services near Stoke for water and a general comfort break but still arrived in Blackpool at 11.15 a.m. - just four hours from Winterslow to Blackpool. Having parked the car of Central Drive, just 200 yards or so from the Bloomfield Road "stadium" - more of that in a minute - we went for a walk past the football ground, along Lytham road to Manchester Square and along the first part of the Golden Mile. The weather was cold and misty and we did not even get a glimpse of Blackpool Tower! We walked along Blundell Street and Rigby Road to have a look at the working tram depot. We could see quite a number and selection of tramcars in the depot but at no time did we see any trams running along the seafront route. We settled upon having lunch at a fish restaurant proclaiming itself to be "Award Winning" and ordered fish and chips and mushy peas with a mug of tea for me and burger and chips and Irn Bru for Tom. I have to say that the fish was excellent - beautiful fresh fish from Fleetwood no doubt and Tom finish his lunch with no problem. We meta number of other Saints supporters in the restaurant - particularly a family from Telford whom we met up with later at the ground. After lunch we went for a further stroll (about a mile) to walk off our lunch and returned to the ground where we visited the shop. Upon entering the ground itself we realised what an absolute dump it is. There are two covered stands on the north and west of the pitch reserved for the home finds whilst to the south there is nothing but a building site and to the east the away supporters stand consisting of low temporary seating - totally unprotected and uncovered facing the prevailing westerly winds. The programmes cost 50p more than anywhere else in the Championship and the price of tickets is significantly more expensive than St. Mary's. The pitch's condition resembled a Sunday morning amateurs' "rec" rather than a second tier league club's. The football in the first half was poor and the refereeing poorer still with Blackpool (the Seasiders or Tangerines) being awarded a dodgy penalty which they converted. Saints' passing was poor and we looked altogether a poor side. After the break our game improved and we got the equaliser in the course of play. Right at the end of the game we were awarded a free kick just outside the penalty area which we struck well but which just hit the post. The final result was 1-1. A useful point but we are second still from bottom. There was also one very unfortunate event when the penalty was scored. A Saints fan remonstrated with the referee and being abusive was challenged by a steward. The police were called in number to assist the steward and in the fray he appeared to hit one of the police officers. He was immediately carted off leaving behind his 5-year old son crying on the terraces. Somebody in the crowd looked after the lad but what a dreadful situation. How does he explain that to the mother in Southampton - "Hello dear I'm in the nick and your son is in care up here in Blackpool. All because I was an idiot!" ! Fortunately, none of the other teams around us won and we can still survive. We made a quick getaway from Blackpool after the game and arrived in Liverpool at Malcolm's at 6.30 p.m. We went to the China Garden (formerly the Princess Garden) in Rice Lane Walton where we had a banquet for four - me, Tom, Malcolm and Sam. The food is really excellent there but it is interesting to note that the recession is having its toll as it was by no means as full as it used to be on a Saturday night. We arrived back at Malcolm's jut before 10 p.m. Tom went almost immediately to bed- absolutely "jiggered". Sam continued up (after making me a coffee) on Malcolm's computer until 10.30 p.m. I laid down on the sofa for a short while and discovered that I had dozed off when I awoke at 11.30 p.m. I then wrote up this blog before retiring for the night on Malcolm's sofa again.

Devizes diversion

A day in Salisbury today. Not a lot to report today really. The weather was very hot and sunny. Apart for a quick trip out at lunchtime to buy and post a Mother's Day card for Mum and cards and presents for Sara, I spent most of the day in HR dealing with tribunal cases. I brought in sandwiches which I bought at the local Tesco's. I left a little early to go to Devizes to attend the Wiltshire Lodge of Fidelity No. 663's installation meeting which was presided over by the Deputy Provincial Grand Master. He is a lovely chap. As the Provincial Senior Grand Deacon I was given pride of place next to the acting Provincial Grand Wardens at the front of the stage so I had a good view of the proceedings. The ceremony was most unusual in several parts - very different to what I have been used to in Sussex and even Sarum. The company at the dinner afterwards was excellent and the food good too - tomato soup, roast chicken, profiteroles (without the chocolate sauce in my case as we are in the middle of Lent), cheese and biscuits and coffee. The Provincial Team, including me, left at around 9.30 p.m. and I was back home at around 10.25 p.m. Once home I packed for our trip to Lancashire tomorrow - Blackpool first to see Saints take on the Seasiders or Tangerines as they are sometimes known - and then Liverpool for the evening.

Tragedies and Happiness

Up to Dorking today - first time since Monday. I heard on the radio as I was driving in that Natashia Richardson, daughter of Vanessa Redgrave and wife of Liam Neeson, had died following a fall during a beginner's skiing lesson in Canada. She was just 45. A devastating blow to the family. Today also saw the verdict and sentencing of Josef Fritzel, the Austrian father who imprisoned his daughter and children by her in a cellar under his house. An absolutely bizarre case and such evil! He was found guilty after he had changed his plea to guilty on all counts and sentenced to life in a psychiatric establishment. I spent the day in the office attending to a number of matters and received an opinion from our counsel on the Madoff problems. A new employment tribunal case also arrived on my desk in the afternoon. I had seen the case before but didn't know that the individual had been dismissed. It looks like a difficult case and will require some considerable time and work to draft a defence within the next 28 days. I have a meeting in Salisbury tomorrow to discuss it further. The tribunal will be heard in Croydon - not my favourite tribunal centre but a frequent one. I arrived back home just before 8 p.m. - in time for our house group. Tonight we reviewed The Pursuit of Happyness. We discussed a number of issues arising out of it and inspired by it - especially the question of what happiness is and whether the current financial crisis will make people re-evaluate their lives and what really does make people happy. Perhaps money will not be seen as the most important thing in creating happiness. Sara and I were reminded of Danny Abse's play on Radio 4 yesterday in which he described the feeling of loss when his wife was killed in a car accident on their way back to Ogmore (incidentally where I stood for Parliament in 1987) from Porthcawl. Klynn stayed behind for his usual glass of whisky (only one tonight, Susan, honestly!). I described my strange dream of last night in which I met Harry Seacombe in Grimsby Old Market Place by the old Corn Exchange (now both demolished) and gave him and others (indistinguishable) a lift up to Old Clee. Stopping off to see Mum at the house in Carr Lane I was greeted by Dad who offered me a cup of tea and said that Mum was not there yet but to come in. We debated on its meaning but concluded that dreams are often just a muddle of past memories.

Manchester

Back to our Manchester office today. Woke up in Malcolm's Liverpool flat early (6.00 a.m.), made some tea, had a shower and got dressed. Malcolm woke a little later and made me some toast with his mother's marmalade on the top. We drove to Liverpool South Parkway Station to catch the 07.52 train to Manchester Piccadilly. This train, which starts from Liverpool Lime Street, goes all the way to Norwich but consists of only four carriages. Consequently it is extremely crowded. Malcolm and I did manage to get seats and we remarked, as we passed through the suburbs and into the centre of the city how "Lowryish" the landscape is. Although the weather was cold and crisp when we left Liverpool, Manchester was grey and misty and the whole city seemed to have a very dank and gloomy feel to it. I walked the half mile or so from Piccadilly Station to our offices in Great Ancoats Street on the northern side of the city centre. I had meetings up until about 12.30 p.m. and left the office at around 1 p.m. to catch the 13.37 train back to Liverpool. This time a two-coach train from Norwich. I left a grey drab cool Manchester and arrived in a bright sunny warm Liverpool - such an amazing contrast and hard to believe that Liverpool is only 30 miles west along a straight railway line. Having retrieved my car from the Park & Ride car park I set off back down the motorway to Wiltshire arriving home at 6.30 p.m. Nobody was at home and then I realised that Sara and family would be up at Tom's football training at Old Sarum Airfield. It is Wednesday night which means emptying all the bins and putting out the rubbish and recycling. Feeling very tired I wrote up this blog and watched Auf Wiedersehen Pet again. This week the "Magnificent Seven" were reunited at Barry's new home in Wolverhampton. After my traffic jams in Wolverhampton yesterday, I think I've seen enough of that city for the time being. A bath and then to bed.

St. Patrick's Day

A glorious warm and sunny day today and I hoisted the St. Patrick's flag (red cross in saltire on a white background) to celebrate the day. The only other similar flag I saw today was on top of the western church at Marlborough. I spent the morning working in our Salisbury office drafting two defences to recent employment tribunal applications. I had an enjoyable lunch of roast pork with Sara in the office restaurant followed by another meeting in HR to discuss the morning's drafts. I left the office around 2.30 p.m. for the long drive to Liverpool where I am staying tonight with Malcolm. The journey was not an especially good one. A lorry had overturned at Birdlip in Gloucestershire severely congesting that vulnerable part of the journey and it took me over 30 minutes to drive the 4 miles or so to the M5. That motorway was quite clear until West Bromwich and I then turned off to go through Wolverhampton and on to Stafford by the old road. The traffic along Wellington Road in Wolverhampton was congested following an accident but I had the delight of driving along a road shared with the trams which link Wolverhampton with Birmingham Snow Hill. I eventually arrived at Liverpool at 7.45 p.m. Malcolm and I went to Lark Lane to the Chili Banana, a highly recommended Thai restaurant which proved to be excellent. We had the banquet for two comprising a selection of starters, two main course dishes with rice and vegetables, a coconut based soup and coffee. Beautifully cooked. Back at Malcolm's we had an interesting theological discussion on whether sin is graded! This whilst consuming a large glass of whisky each!

Trip to London

I took today off to go to London for a private appointment - more of that in a later blog. The weather today was sunny and it was quite hot in the capital. I travelled up by train leaving my car at Grateley Station. I do not know whether it is because of the recession but there was plenty of car parking space - even at 9.30 a.m. I have made a mental note to use this station more often instead of going all the way into Salisbury. London was full of students and foreign sightseers (no doubt because of our poor exchange rate for the £1) as I walked over Westminster Bridge from Waterloo. I spent a little time in Westminster Cathedral which was quiet and peaceful. I lit two candles (one in memory of my father and one in memory of Sara's mother) in the Chapel to the English Martyrs close by the relics of Sir John Southworth - a Catholic priest hung at Tyburn in 1654 during the Commonwealth. He was spared the drawing and quartering. The chapel is also dedicated to Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher of Rochester. The name of the new pope, Benedict XVI, is now engraved on the brass plate just inside the cathedral which lists all the popes and English papal legates/cardinals. Unfortunately the engraver seems to have made a bit of a mess of the plate which is badly scratched around Benedict's name. I returned from London in time to visit Tom's school open evening. It was quite a chaotic affair and we only got to see about five or six teachers. The reports were generally good but he must ensure that his homework is done in a timely fashion. Off to Liverpool tomorrow after a morning in Salisbury drafting tribunal papers.

Sunday - A day of prayer. .... AND REST?

Sundays are certainly never days of rest in the Barratt Household. We awoke to having three children in the house, Tom, Mary and Molly. Molly also sings in the choir with Mary so we agreed to take her to church with us where we would hand her back to her mother, Sarah, who is also in the choir. I cooked the children "Eggy-Bread" with Baked Beans for breakfast having simple toast and a few left over beans for myself. Sara ate nothing. We went to church in two separate cars as I was to take Tom to Laverstock for a match against Laverstock FC Under 12s at their home ground. I was also the Intercessor this morning and needed to get to church early in case there were any new names on the sick or bereaved list. Fortunately there were none nor any major plane crashes or other major disasters overnight. I could therefore use the intercessions I had written yesterday morning. Nils and Cynthia took the service with a really excellent sermon from Nils. It was very encouraging to see two of our Alpha Group with us who have not been regular churchgoers. I am convinced that Alpha is a really powerful ministry. I have got a lot out of it myself and am sure it must have a strong message for those "unchurched" people who venture onto the course. Afterwards they both came up and said the intercessions had really seemed to speak on their behalf and covered all they were thinking and wanted to pray. It is very gratifying to know that as it makes it all worthwhile. Leaving church after coffee, Tom and I drove over to Laverstock where Clarendon Juniors played a really brilliant game, winning 3-1. Tom scored the second goal for CJFC. A lovely finish. We had a light lunch of chicken noodle soup and Sara's home made bread before Mary and I went off to Basingstoke to Planet Ice for some more ice skating. Once more I didn't fall over and feel much more confident on the ice - especially after about half an hour. Mary zoomed over the rink and frequently overtook poor lumbering me. She has a grace and agility about her commonly seen in only well practised dancers and skaters. I am sure her ballet has helped. I would really like to encourage her to skate to a high standard - it is great fun too! Back home for roast chicken dinner before Tom went off to Rockface - the Christian Youth Group. He loves it so much. Mary also helped glean my rather grubby car too - 25p per wheel! Tonight I had a lovely bath - to ease the aches and pains of skating! - and read up on some law for an important meeting tomorrow in London. As I ran the water for the bath I had a nice chat with Mum in Grimsby discussing the state of the Mariners and Saints football teams after yesterday and the state of her health. She seems in good spirits and will see the doctor again tomorrow. We think he will have some good news regarding a test she recently had. Now for a nice cup of coffee as I write this blog before a relatively early night to bed.

Bad day for Saints and Mariners; Good day for Liverpool

Saturday morning means a bit of a lie-in. After a cooked breakfast, Sara and Mary went into Salisbury for Mary's ballet lesson whilst Tom and I stayed in Winterslow. I wrote my Intercessionary Prayers for tomorrow's church service at All Saints and Tom went out on his bike to play football on the rec. The writing of the intercessions was much easier than anticipated and, using the precedent of some I had written for last June, was able to easily adapt them for tomorrow using some of the techniques and thoughts from the Alpha Course. Tom and I left home at around 12.30 p.m. for Southampton to watch the Saints game against QPR. I had high hopes that if all the results went the right way, the Saints might get out of the relegation zone today. A win for Saints and a heavy loss for Barnsley or Nottingham Forest would see us out of the bottom three. We made our usual visit to the fish and chip shop in St. Mary's Road before the game. Unfortunately the match was dreadful with Saints missing some easy opportunities to score and narrowly escaping some good attempts on goal by QPR. A final score of 0-0 was of little help to Saints. This result was even more significant when we discovered that Nottingham Forest had lost 5-0 at Burnley. If Saints had only managed to score one simple goal we would indeed have risen above the bottom three. A win by Norwich saw that team move up and Saints remain two points adrift from safety as Barnsley also lost at home to Blackpool. It is really looking bleak for Saints. Grimsby had an all important match against fellow strugglers Chester but despite a 1-0 lead at half time ended the game in a 1-1 draw which sees the Mariners rooted to the bottom and facing non-league football next season. The silver lining to the footballing day was Liverpool's magnificent 4-1 win against Manchester United at Old Trafford to narrow United's lead at the top of the Premier League. Tonight Sarah and Molly came round - Molly to stay overnight. We had a long chat with Sarah discussing Alpha and choir matters. Sara mentioned that she and Mary had visited St. Paul's when they were in Salisbury and were very impressed (see my blog for Saturday 7th March for a description) and we will all try and attend a service there when the whole family is together. I spent the evening writing up my Night Sky article for the Parish Magazine once Sarah had gone.

Red Nose Day

To Dorking today - this first time since Monday. Although my office base I seem to visit it very infrequently these days with most of my work in Salisbury. The traffic was not too bad but heavy roadworks have started on the M3 between Junctions 4 and 3 which will make using the M3 horrible on Monday mornings. It was Red Nose Day and I wore my red Liverpool FC shirt to work paying £1 to the charity for the privilege. I also enjoyed listening to Radio 4 on the car radio with Jo Brand acting as the continuity girl and insulting the Today Programme presenters in the process. We had a senior managers' meeting this morning when we discussed the new performance management and bonus schemes in the new culture. This meeting went on for longer than anticipated and I had to leave it early to go straight into another (telephone) meeting relating to employment tribunal cases in Exeter. I had to eat "on the hoof" taking my sandwiches with me to eat during the meeting. It was then a matter of dealing with admin. matters such as expenses claims for me and my assistant and organising my calendar for next week - more travel to the north west. This evening was taken up with the Alpha Course when we studied Prayer - How, when and why? Another powerful presentation form Nicky Gumbel. This was followed by coffee and a good discussion. The group is really gelling well together and a couple of hours of alpha is a great antidote for a busy commercial life at work. It is so lovely to sit and discuss spiritual topics and allow faith to grow. I just hope and pray that I can bring what I learn on these evenings into practice to see fairness and justice in my working life. Today has also been quite a contrast as I have only seen Sara for two hours! They do say that absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Masonic Dinner

Third day in a row in Salisbury today! Certainly beats the dreadful commuting along the M3 up to Surrey although the working day tends to be much longer. I certainly seem to be cramming a quart of work into a pint pot! I had a meeting at 9 a.m. which was scheduled for one hour but didn't finish until 11.15 a.m. More emails meant more work to do. I cannot recall a time when I have been busier with more and more work in the pipeline. I learnt today that the executive secretary, Fleur, was now also under potential notice of redundancy. A real loss. The Exodus continues! I had lunch with our Technical Claims Manager - Mexican fajitas today- and Sara and another director joined us. The series of things going wrong for us has continued today too with Sara discovering that her tyre was flat when she left work at 2.30 p.m. The AA came out and fitted her spare but also discovered that she had two illegal bald tyres and the tracking was out in a big way. I had told her this was the case when we drove up to Grimsby recently. The juddering on the steering wheel had been quite pronounced when we drove over 65 mph. Tonight I attended a meeting of Elias de Dereham Masonic Lodge at Crane Street at the invitation of its Worshipful Master. It was a very enjoyable evening indeed. The Provincial Grand Master was present and made a presentation to a member who was celebrating 50 years in freemasonry. We also had two other presentations including an explanation of the first degree tracing board. During the main course of the dinner afterwards I was approached to speak in reply to the Visitors' Toast. I had about 30 minutes to prepare something and I was conscious that I would be speaking in front of the PGM and a large assembled group of senior Freemasons. In the end it seemed to go down well and I was presented with a small flower arrangement to take home to Sara as a thank you for the speech. If only I had been given a little longer or given an expectation that I would speak and it could have been much better. I arrived home to discover that a lovely family group photograph which has graced our piano for a few years now had been smashed when Sara moved the piano out to release a mouse which Emily (our cat) had brought in. The mouse ran into the study and Emily was put in there to capture it. Unfortunately, as I write this the mouse is still at large and Emily continues the search!

Auf wiedersehen

A second day in Salisbury today. Traffic into the city was bad again especially as a car had either broken down or had an accident just before St. Thomas's Roundabout and the police were controlling traffic. I had another appointment with the dentist at 8.45 a.m. and was concerned that I might not get there on time. I needn't have worried as the traffic eased up after the accident/breakdown and I parked the car at the office at 8.30 a.m. giving me 15 minutes to get to the dentist. It was another filling and another fee for the dentist. I had to return later in the day when I discovered that I had left my wallet at home and had to ring Sara to bring it in to work. Not sure what they would have done if I couldn't have brought the money in later. Drill the filling out again? I didn't stop for lunch today - simply having a sandwich during an hour-long telephone conference with our counsel and managers on the Isle of Man in connection with the Madoff affair. There was more news of people leaving too! Sara has been feeling uncomfortable all day with a rash all over her body which she can't explain. We think it is an allergy of some kind but can't think what it might be unless it is connected in some way to the removal of the fibre glass around the hot water cylinder by the plumber on Monday. She managed to see our doctor this evening and he confirmed that it was indeed some allergy or other and he prescribed some strong antihistamines which we hope will help. Tonight we treated ourselves to a Chinese takeaway from Porton - something we haven't done in a while. We watched Auf Wiedersehen Pet on the TV - the episode with the rat in the hut and Oz eating rat poison and getting a raging thirst. Excellent writing from the same pen as the writer of The Likely Lads. Wonderful stuff. "auf wiedersehen" seems to be the mission statement at our company at the moment so a fitting programme to watch. This was followed by Rambo but Sara was by this time fast asleep, as usual, on the couch.

Grim night for my football teams

Working in Salisbury today I went into the office at around 8.25 a.m. Before leaving I hoisted the white rose of Yorkshire flag to celebrate my niece Hannah's birthday. She was born in York. As it was market day in the city the traffic was very heavy indeed. I worked in the HR Department as usual and Sara and I had lunch together followed by a walk to the bank. I continued working until just before 5 p.m. when I returned home to take Tom and me to the Saints v. Derby County game at St. Mary's. We were able to park in our usual spot and visited our fish and chip shop in St. Mary's Road where we had fish and chips and sausage and chips with curry sauce. Yummy! Before going into the Stadium we bought away tickets for the Blackpool v. Saints game at Blackpool on Saturday 21st March. Tom and I will go up on that Saturday and stay overnight in Liverpool with Malcolm and Sam and probably have a Chinese meal at Walton afterwards. We also popped into the shop and got two away shirts which are currently half price and with two for the price of one - excellent value. On entering the stadium we were greeted by a few of our season ticket colleagues who humorously told me to get back out as the Saints had won on both of the two occasions I had stayed away recently! In fact, one of them suggested that our seats should be unscrewed. I am not sure if I was the "Jonah" but Saints were winning 1-0 until 19 minutes to the end and the final result was 1-1. Derby nearly scored the winner too. It was a scrappy match and Saints' relegation woes were increased by the other teams near us at the bottom of the table winning tonight. In League 2, Bournemouth had a good win away against Exeter which has sent Grimsby Town down into the bottom two and staring non-league football in the face again. All in all, not a good day for my teams. The only silver lining, football wise, was Liverpool beating Real Madrid to go through to the quarter finals of the Champions' League competition.

Trains and Stations

Trains and stations seem to feature in my blog today. I was due to pick up Anthony from Grateley Station at 7.30 a.m. and so woke up again early - 6.00 a.m. and made Sara a cup of tea before having a shower and cooking myself a fried English breakfast for once - I was absolutely starving - two rashers of bacon, two eggs and a slice of fried bread - with lashings of Daddies Sauce. After rushing around to get all my papers and regalia together for the day I arrived at Grateley a little after 7.40 p.m. to find that the train from Salisbury had been and gone but there was no Anthony to be seen - either side of the station. I phoned both his mobile and land line and got no answer. Needing to get off to Dorking I drove off and before I reached Andover Anthony phoned me to say that he had overslept and that my phone calls had woken him up. He would get a later train into Dorking. I arrived at Dorking at around 9.30 a.m. but had no appointments so could get on with some paperwork and arrange my diary for the week. I skipped having lunch and got myself a cheese baguette to have with a working lunch. I left work at around 3.15 p.m. and drove down to Brighton parking my car at Preston Park Station - right outside the station!! It seems that whenever I have positive thoughts about parking I find a space. The parking is free and the cost of a return railway ticket to Brighton is only £2.40. This is much better value than the £15 or so to park the car at the North Road NCP car park. The train I planned to get was preceded by one running 15 minutes late so, ironically, I arrived at Brighton Station earlier than planned. I walked down to the Masonic Centre in Queen's Road stopping off to buy a bottle of wine as a donated raffle prize. This evening we had a simple ceremony which was followed by a "white table" dinner at which our wives, girlfriends and widows were invited - well not the girlfriends and wives at the same time. That reminds me of the famous Royal Naval Officers' Toast "To wives and sweethearts, may they never meet". It was an excellent dinner of mushroom vol au vents, baked salmon, ice cream (it should have been chocolate mousse but I was true to my Lent vows) followed by coffee and mints (again the mints were foregone). It wasn't practical for Sara to attend a dinner so early in Brighton and so I looked after one of our lodge widows - Maggie Newman, widow of Wally who was the Lodge's Treasurer when I was initiated back in 1988. Wally died following a stroke in 1991. I left the dinner at around 9.15 p.m. having just won a bottle of nice red South African wine in the raffle. Maggie also won a box of deluxe chocolates. My train left Brighton on time and I was back in my car driving back to Winterslow at 9.45 p.m. arriving home after a really good journey along the south coast at 11.35 p.m. I finished the day writing this blog. Sara told me that the plumber had successfully installed a new hot water cylinder and replaced a faulty valve which was the reason I couldn't turn off the water supply into the old one to drain it. The carpet and flooring is ruined but the insurance should pay for this - we will need a new carpet for the landing and stairs. Tomorrow I am Salisbury and Tom and I will be back at St. Mary's for the Saints v. Derby game - my first home match after missing three in February.

Skating Away

Although a Sunday it was another early morning as Tom was playing for Clarendon Juniors' Under 12s away at Larkhill against top of the league Durrington Rangers today. I attended the 8 a.m. Early Morning Communion at St. John's which was quite packed - probably because the main service at All Saint's today is a Praise Service which does not appeal to some. I would have liked to have gone to the praise service, especially following yesterday's events at St. Paul's but I need to take Tom up to Larkhill for 10.30 a.m. Tom and I arrived for the match at around 10.25 a.m. and I sat in the car and listened to the Omnibus Archers on Radio 4 and drafted yesterday's blog as a word document. I have since had problems trying to cut and paste and post the blog and so it will have to appear at a later date when I have more time. Suffice it to say yesterday was a brilliant day from start to finish with the Alpha Retreat during the day and attending the Al Murray show with Klynn in Bournemouth in the evening. Anyway, back to the football match - Clarendon lost 5-4 but Tom scored a brilliant goal which I missed!! Back home we had lunch of roast gammon and then Tom and I drove over Basingstoke to Planet Ice - the ice rink where Sara had her nasty fall. Much to his annoyance and my delight I stayed upright for the whole 50 minutes or so I was on the ice whilst Tom fell over several times! . I was a little hesitant at first in light of Sara's recent experience and I think Tom was really looking forward to seeing me audition for "You've been Framed". I started by making three circuits of the rink close to the edge but as my confidence grew and pushed off into the middle and my old "skills" returned. I realised it was a bit like riding a bicycle - once done never forgotten - but it may take me another visit to gain the confidence to get up to the speeds I once did. I realise that I am not as light and supple as I once was - it is eighteen years since I was last on the ice at a rink - but it is tremendous exercise. Tom left the rink about 10 minutes before I did because I was enjoying myself so much and found it difficult to tear myself away. I have had many a happy hour skating in the past especially with ex-girlfriends (they weren't "ex" at the time mind!). Sara prepared us a typical English tea on our return. A packed weekend - but still with a dripping tank!

Al-Pha (Pint for the Fella; White Wine for the Lady; Holy Spirit for the Christians)

What an incredible and diverse day. Sarah M and I left home after breakfast at 9.00 a.m. to go to St. Paul's in Salisbury for the Alpha Retreat Day. I left Sarah M in the main room at the St. Paul's Centre whilst I went upstairs to join the Leaders and Helpers for prayer. We had four Alpha Groups for the day with about 50 or 60 people in total. A fantastic turn out. During the day we had three excellent talks for one of the Associate Ministers, Richard Morgan which were all very thought provoking. We also had one discussion session with the Winterslow Group and three short sessions of worship. The theme for the day was The Holy Spirit - all very powerful stuff which struck a chord with many of us - both existing Christians and also those seeking to find out more. We also had a lovely shared lunch and an opportunity to look around the new foyer and a peek at the main church. Apparently it can accommodate 600 worshippers each week. It is truly a magnificent centre and resembles a modern conference centre rather than a traditional church the pews having been replaced with more comfortable seating arranged in a horseshoe around a central stage in front of the quire. I do wonder, however, if it might lose the intimacy we have in Winterslow. In fact, some members of our congregation have actually taken to attending St. Paul's either instead or or in addition to All Saints services. I returned home feeling quite overwhelmed and exhausted by the event - but one I will always remember. Sara told me that the plumber had called round that morning and couldn't do anything until Monday as we required a replacement hot water cylinder as the top was corroded where the immersion heater fits in. We will simply have to continue to mop the leak up over the rest of the weekend. Klynn arrived just after 5 p.m. and we set off to Bournemouth to attend the Al Murray Pub Landlord show at the BIC. It was such a complete contrast to the earlier part of the day and he was really funny. I could not help but feel sorry for some of those he picked on in the front row - lesson to be learned - never go on the front row with Al Murray. We were safely up in the balcony I'm pleased to say. One poor individual with the unfortunate name of Rob revealed that he was a banker with RBS!! He was the subject of much taunting of "Where's the @%!$@ money? Our money?" At one point we were all asked to point at him and shout "Shame on you". Al Murray is extremely talented as a comedian and bounces off his audience so well. For two and a half hours Klynn and I were laughing continuously. There were about 4,000 in the audience so we realised it would take some little while to get out of the BIC car park. We decided to go for a late night curry at a close by Bangladeshi restaurant. The food wasn't brilliant but it was really lovely to sit down and chat about the show and have some quality time with a truly good friend. We got back around about half-past midnight. Chatting with Sara and watching the first part of the film Disclosure, we went to bed at around 1.30 a.m

A Watery Friday

An early start for Dorking today for a 9 a.m. telephone conference on the Manx problem. We had no hot water for a shower so I turned on the boiler for constant hot water and heating at Sara's instruction. When I arrived there were only two others in. The traffic was very light and this morning and the weather bright but cold. I had to defrost the car before setting out. My 1:1 with my manager went well and we covered a lot of topics in a short time. Lunch of the usual Friday fish and chips was followed by two further meetings in the afternoon - one with the new HR Employment Relations Manager and the other a teleconference with our Swedish lawyers. It is looking ever more likely that I will be visiting Stockholm in late April unless a settlement can be reached. I gave Anthony a lift to Grateley Station and dropped him on the newly opened side of the station (London bound) to catch a train to Salisbury. Unfortunately a train was already in the Salisbury-bound platform and I noticed he didn't cross the bridge in time to catch it. Never mind, there is only a 30 minutes wait for the next one and there is a pub on the other side. I arrived on time for the Leader's/Helper's pre-meeting session for the Alpha course but, immediately after the prayers, I received a phone call from Dawn, who was child-minding because Sara was also out at a Virgin Vie Party in Downton, to say that water was pouring down the wall in the hall and my signed Titanic painting was damaged. I managed to back out of Hamish's parent's drive and get home to discover that the immersion heater gasket appeared to be damaged primarily it seemed because nobody had turned off the constant hot water at the boiler and the water in the tank was scalding hot having damaged the fitting. Dawn and I mopped up as best we could and wrapped the damaged area with flannels and towels. There being nothing further I could do without a plumber and returned to the Alpha Course where a plate of supper was saved for me. Tonight Nicky Gumbel discussed evil and the Devil and how we as Christians can combat it. It led to a lively discussion afterwards principally from Petra. Back home, the cat, Emily, tried to cadge a lift back with Dawn in her car. Emily seems to be quite attracted to her. Sara returned after a good evening but we need to do something urgently about the immersion leak. Hopefully it won't require a new tank.

The Pursuit of Happyness

Another day in Salisbury with a long meeting in the afternoon. Sara had a meeting with the new leaders of the HR Dept. in the morning. Sara and I met up with Maxime, our good friend from church, for lunch at Wagamama's opposite Barclay's Bank in Fisherton Street. It is a noodle bar with excellent food. We all had variations on a seafood curry (Thai style) with rice or, in my case, noodles. It was a most enjoyable lunch with much laughter and pleasant discussions. It was good to get out of the office and work chat for a short time. This evening we started our Lent House Group with viewing the wonderful film "The Pursuit of Happyness" starring Will Smith which is the story of Chris Gardner, the financier who struggled as a homeless single parent in San Francisco to qualify as a stockbroker and eventually have his own successful stockbroking firm in the USA. There are so many moral and Christian aspect to this story which include perseverance, the plight of the homeless, trust, faith, and the real question of what is happiness and how and should one pursue it. Is it something that can never to obtained but only pursued and will one recognize it if one gets it? I visited San Francisco during the 1980s and well remember seeing the homeless queueing for a room or food at the Glide Memorial Church on the corner or Ellis and Taylor Streets in San Francisco. We will extend the discussion on the film next week although I will not be there. Klynn stayed behind for his usual glass or four of Bushmill's Irish Whiskey - and yes, Klynn, I did count the glasses even if you were unable to! I loved the joke which Chris Gardner's son made in the film. A man is drowning and a boat pulls along side. Let me help you says the skipper. No, says the drowning man, God will save me. A little later a second boat draws alongside. Again an offer of help is proffered. Again the drowning man refuses saying that God will save him. The man drowns. On reaching Heaven the man asks God - "why didn't you save me?" God replies "I sent two boats you dummy!"