Breakfast at St. Francis's; Dinner in Ringwood

James B and I joined another 150 men or so for a Christian Men's Breakfast at St. Francis's Church, Salisbury hosted by CityChurch, St. Francis's and St. Paul's.  An excellent breakfast in the light and airy environment of this wonderful church on Castle Road.  After breakfast we had a short period of worship - Spring Harvest type songs - and then a really good talk by Ian Coffey who was one of the first speakers I ever heard at Spring Harvest.  The subject of his talk echoed some of what I was going to preach tomorrow and I must confess having picked a couple of ideas from him.  I had a chance to chat with him afterwards and bought his latest book "Working it Out" which looks at how Christians can continue to live their faith during the working hours and not, as one person has described, leave God in the car until it is time to go home.  After this session, James and I went into town to join Sara, Sam and other Calendar Girls who were having coffee at Patisserie Valerie in Butcher's Row.  During my time in Salisbury I also went to Jessops to buy Tom's birthday present - a digital camera similar to my own - a Canon Ixus - which he can use for his video postings. There are excellent camera with good quality lenses.  Ideal.  Tonight it started to snow at around 6 p.m. just before Sara and I set off for a dinner party with old colleagues who live down in Ringwood.  Fortunately, once outside Salisbury the snow became rain and we got down to Ringwood without too much trouble.  A really enjoyable night - good food, good wine and good laughter with good company.  We didn't get back to well after 1 a.m.