Down the line to Swindon

The weather has certainly turned cooler today.  Sara attended to her Morning Star duties this morning and I spent an hour and a half at The Rectory going over my monthly training review with Nils and setting objectives for next month.  A nice relaxed atmosphere in The Rectory after yesterday's frantic round of meetings. I passed all the children in the school outside in the playground enjoying their bring and share Jubilee Lunch with red and white Union Flag bunting and flags as well as the giant crown which they have made.  Lots of noise and enjoyment I think.  Sara and I enjoyed a light lunch of grilled salmon, new potatoes and salad and I did a little bit of gardening down the bottom of the garden where I intended to have my Chinese/Oriental garden.  I need to clear away all the nettles and weeds and then cut back some of the bushes and trees to make a clear but shaded area for my gravel based Chinese garden.  I left home at around 3.30 p.m. to drive up to Swindon to attend the Wiltshire Masters' Lodge Committee Meeting and meeting.  Tonight we were treated to recitations of the Emulation Lectures in the First and Second Degrees performed by Berkshire Provincial Stewards Lodge. As Junior Warden I had to be on my toes but I think we managed okay.  a lovely evening with good company including a steam locomotive engineer from the old Great Western Railway Swindon Works who used to help design locomotives and test their effectiveness. He was also parachuted into Aden during the crisis in 1959.  It's really interesting talking to retired people at these festive meals after the meeting as many have led such active and interesting lives.  Also, this evening, Sara did a profitable Jamie at Home party at Mandy's in Pitton and Tom gave his Duke of Edinburgh Award presentation at his school.  I came home tonight to bird blackbird feathers all over the kitchen - Leo, who has been tormented day after day by a couple of blackbirds in the garden - including being dive-bombed by them - has finally got his fatal revenge.

A Tale of Two Rectories and Four Rectors!

A really hectic day today with back to back engagements and little time to draw breath.  Immediately after breakfast I drove over to Whaddon to attend Mid-week Eucharist followed by a Team Ministry Meeting at Alderbury Rectory which lasted until 1 p.m.  It was then a dash home for a quickly snatched lunch whilst dealing with some phone calls from clients (including a potentially new client) and ACAS on one of my existing cases, before dashing off again to pick up MM-J and our Team Rector, Nils, for a meeting at Porton Rectory of the Deanery Synod Standing Committee at which two further Team Rectors were present - Frank and Vanda.  I was appointed, this afternoon, to join Frank and Peter (Team Vicar of the Bourne Valley Team) to help put together the Deanery Strategic Plan's section on Mission and Outreach - subjects very dear to my heart and something which will work well for my portfolio on Mission as part of my Oxford Brookes University Foundation Degree.  I look forward to working with them on something really tangible.  I had a hurried tea (Sara had made some banana muffins) before driving the 33 miles to Seend, between Devizes and Trowbridge, for my fifth tutorial on Mission for the Degree.  My tutor was the fourth team Rector of the day - this time Savernake Team!  Meetings with four different Team Rectors in one day!  Tomorrow I have another meeting with Nils - my monthly training assessment.  Tom took another GCSE examination today - Drama, where he had to recite and act out a monologue from a play.  It seems to have gone well by all accounts.  Back home this evening just before 11 p.m.  Must try and get a good night's sleep as the heat last night made me wake up at 2 a.m. and spend an hour downstairs watching the TV.  I spoke to mum this evening whilst driving over to Seend and I have arranged to go up to Lincolnshire for a couple of days in two weeks' time after I have led and preached at my next service at Farley.

Stumped!

Much cooler today with some cloud cover but still very warm.  At 8 a.m. this morning two workmen arrived to grind out the stumps of our erstwhile hedge at the front and also tidied up the front and cut down the stump of our old cherry blossom tree.  We can now adorn the stump with a plant pot or something.  Sara took her car for its MOT today which, thankfully, was not as expensive an exercise as we had feared - nevertheless with the cost of the hedge works and the car quite a bit of money was spent today.  I drove into Andover to get the money for the workmen and deposited the cheque I had forgotten to take with me to Warminster yesterday. I was only away for just over an hour.  I worked on some Complex papers this afternoon and listened to the end of yesterday's radio play. and also mowed the back lawn.  A visit this evening to the dreaded WeightWatchers revealed that, much to my surprise, I had lost 2lbs.  Need to work on that to get back to where I had been before I started to slide.  I know that I will feel much better for it.  all the poor weather we had and the increased amount of work I have was a recipe for disaster.   Still warm this evening as I write up this blog but with a very clear sky.  Received a good reaction for Sunday's sermon from the Rector who has now read it.  Church meetings nearly all day tomorrow.  Hopefully an early night tonight.

Toasted Teacakes in Westbury

The weather continues its hot dry spell.  Always difficult to get up when its hot but today I had to be up and away to drive over to Westbury to go through my Formation Weekend notes with my fellow student, Ashley, who could not make the weekend.  We sat in his back garden drinking coffee and eating teacakes going through all the notes which I had made at Sarum College.  We both must now turn those into portfolios for the University Degree course.  I left Ashley at around 1 p.m. and drove over to Warminster to put some cheques into the bank but discovered that I had left one cheque behind.  I was back home for about 2.45 p.m. having missed the final 15 minutes or so of the afternoon play, "Cry for Me" on radio 4 which told the story of two Argentine conscripts at Goose Green during the Falklands War.  Fortunately I'll be able to catch up on BBC iPlayer tomorrow.  Interesting perspective to the war and it really did get across the terrible conditions and how ill-equipped the Argentine army was in facing the crack British forces.  Tonight Sara did a Jamie at Home Party at a neighbours and I mowed the bank and front lawn.  I spent most of the evening working in the study as,  this afternoon, I watched the final overs of the Second Test Match which England won by nine wickets against the Windies.    

Diary - 21st May - 27th May

Monday 21st May - A really busy week has meant that it has been difficult for me to keep up with a daily post.  I have also been away at Champney's Forest Mere and the Internet signal was very poor.  However, it has been an interesting and fulfilling week.  The weather has been really hot and coincided well with my two nights away at Champney's.  I arrived at 3 p.m. on Monday 21st May and was immediately informed that my first treatment - a body, face and scalp massage - were set for 4 p.m.  Hardly any time to get myself settled in.  I was given a really lovely room on the third floor overlooking the lake - my choice of view. A young blonde masseuse called Kirsty gave me a one-hour massage, facial and scalp massage and I came away feeling really refreshed.  I was unable to go for a swim and so I went for a short walk instead.  Dinner was excellent as always - a fish risotto - sea trout, monk fish and salmon. 

Tuesday 22nd May - Early morning swim, sauna and cold plunge pool followed by the usual excellent Champney's continental breakfast.  I went for a short walk this morning up to the course of the Roman Road up on the hillside.  My treatment today was set for 11 a.m. - I was wrapped and marinated in clingfilm with some revitalising herbal/aromatic cream.  This was followed by a lovely feet massage - all done by a masseuse called Lizzie from Formby, Merseyside.  We chatted about Liverpool and she spent much of the time extolling the virtues of Nando's.  I went for a long walk in the afternoon over the hill past the Communications Tower and down towards the A3 dual carriageway.  All the time my walk was accompanied by the sound of small arms fire from the Borden/Longmoor military ranges close by.  This walk was an opportunity to reflect of the scriptural passages for Sunday and the basis for my sermon started to emerge - an analogy between using old OS maps and reading the Old Testament.  Dinner this evening was rump steak and mash.

Wednesday 23rd May - Another day at Champney's started with my swim, sauna and plunge pool.  I had to vacate my room by 11 a.m. but I was not due to leave until 4 p.m.   After breakfast I spent the morning walking and reading.  Lunch consisted of freshly made chicken and noodles stir-fried.  This afternoon I spent half and hour in the outdoor pool.  Not a single cloud in the blue sky - very reminiscent of The Bahamas with a temperature to match.  I left Forest Mere at around 4.30 pm. arriving home just before 6 p.m.  Tonight I had to attend a Joint PCC meeting in Pitton.  I have to say that my mind wasn't really on the meeting and I felt quite dis-engaged.  Not the most exciting meeting I've ever attended.

Thursday 24th May - Back working today although Sara and I went out for a walk - School - Plantation - Baptist Church - Rectory - School.  House Group this evening was poorly attended but we pressed on with Romans. 

Friday 25th May - After dealing with some essential work, I drove into Salisbury this morning to post yesterday's letters and bank some cheques.  There seemed to be queues everywhere and it is so hot.  Felt really awful - I heat too much sun and I hate queues even more.  Tonight, Realising that I have an incredibly busy weekend ahead, I set about writing my sermon for Sunday and preparing the service which I am taking in the Roman Catholic Chapel in Whaddon.  This became a priority today and I was still working on the sermon at 1 a.m.

Saturday 26th May - This morning began with a Men's Breakfast meeting at Colin C's. An excellent meal - a typical Mediterranean continental breakfast - cold meats, muesli, black bread, rolls, fresh fruit - ideal for this hot continental weather.  It was then off to Laverstock to see Mary compete in the Mini-Marathon coming 116th out of nearly 400 and 2nd in her class.  a great achievement.  Her classmate Alana, who is extremely athletic, came 16th - a brilliant result.  In fact all the placings for Winterslow schoolgirls had a "6" in them - the one behind Mary was 166th and behind them 206th.  Amazing.  Sara was displaying her Jamie at Home products at West Tytherley Fete (not a very successful afternoon for her as she seems to have made a loss) and I and Gill M (an LLM in the Clarendon Team) went to a Diocesan LLM Forum at Dinton.  An interesting meeting in which LLM were able to discuss some of their worries and issues - especially surrounding the new LWL ministry.  Tonight, Lucy R looked after the children whilst Sara and I went to Romsey to see the Alan Ayckbourne play, "Absurd Person Singular" which I had first seen in London's West End in the 1970s - a brilliant production tonight by the ROADS - Romsey Amateur Dramatics Society - who were very professional.  A great play and it was so good to see it again after all these years.   The little Romsey Plaza Theatre, the first patron of which was Earl Mountbatten of Burma, was very sweet with teas, coffees and drinks all at reasonable prices - indeed the ticket for the play was only £10 each - quite a contrast to The Mayflower in Southampton.  'Afterwards we dined out at MacDonald's in Ower.  Yes, I really know how to treat a girl!  A relatively cheap night out.  The most expensive part of the evening was paying the child-minder.  A really good break.  Sara and I really don't spend enough time together.

Sunday 27th May - Another fully packed day.  I attended Early Morning Eucharist at St. John's taken by Elizabeth.  After breakfast I tweaked my sermon for tonight and then took Tom up to Barry's Fields for the Dads v. Juniors football match (neither of us played in it!) and the awards ceremony afterwards - nothing for Tom this year.  We watched a bit of the Juniors' cricket match before returning home.  This afternoon I dropped into the Ecumenical Jubilee Celebration service in the Village Hall which was well attended with members from all of the churches in Winterslow.  Tonight I led the service and preached at the Roman Catholic Chapel in Whaddon.  A really lovely church - light and airy.  It was a blessing that I arrived early.  Our Assistant Priest, Jane, was in attendance to mentor and assist me  and we discovered that two of the hymns we had chosen were not of the CD we needed to use.  We had to quickly chose two more and make adjustments to the service sheet.  I didn't expect too many to attend so I was pleasantly surprised when we had about 15 tonight - a good number for this type of service.    The service and sermon seemed to go well and I had some really good and positive feedback from Jane.  It was still incredibly warm as I left the church.  Back home, I spoke briefly to Mum whose health is still not good - more pain and general discomfort.  I know she would like me to go up and see her; but I seem to have so many commitments down here just at the moment.  The children are anxious for me to spend time with them and we all seem so busy. Any trip means at least two days away from home and I really can't get behind with my work down here at the moment. If only it weren't 260 miles away.  Finished the day and week with a couple of pints in the Lion's Head with Richard and Klynn.  I need to catch up on some Complex work next week.

Second day of LLM Formation Weekend

I woke up in my Sarum College room (The Sherborne Suite!)  quite early this morning and wrote up my blog from yesterday.  I read a few pages from Krish Kandiah’s book – Destiny – What’s Life all about? ” as well as a few pieces of scripture from today’s lectionary.  Breakfast was a little more than the simple continental meal we had been promised – it included some excellent grilled smoked bacon and scrambled eggs with herbs.  After breakfast we spent the first two hours of the morning in the Cavell Room discussing tone, rhythm and rhyme in church services with some practical examples of reading out notices and the Collects.  Following coffee and biscuits we attended a Eucharist in the College Chapel without service sheets or hymn books.  This challenged us into conducting and participating in a service from memory rather than reading it.  We all did quite well except for the hymns and ended up singing the first verse many times.   After an excellent Sunday lunch of roast beef and/or roast pork and vegetables (no potatoes as the potato supplier had not delivered) I finally drove home arriving back in Winterslow at 2.30 p.m.  Sara had gone off to the New Forest to pick up Tom and his colleagues on the Duke of Edinburgh Award getting herself thoroughly lost in the process – the pick-up point was a car park for which only a gird reference had been given. A cheque from the Deanery Synod was awaiting me which I will put towards the cost of my ministerial robes which I feel I must now order and get used to wearing.  Sara will have to help me measure up for them.  I called in on Mike M-J and David C and gave Mike a receipt for the cheque.  I passed a pleasant half hour with him and Caroline over a glass of white wine.  Tonight, Richard, James and I spent a pleasant three hours in the Lion’s Head.  No early night tonight.  Sara stayed up watching Desperate Housewives (yes it’s still on!) until after 1 a.m.  Off to Champney’s tomorrow – great!

Celebrations at Sarum College

With the notable exception of Mary, we were all up incredibly early this morning.  Tom had to complete his paper round before being driven by Susan with others to the New Forest to undertake his long hike/camping expedition for his Duke of Edinburgh Award.  This entailed Sara also having to rise to take him to the Central Stores and get him organised. I was also up packing for my overnight stay in Sarum College, Salisbury as part of my ministry training - a residential weekend to finish off the teaching aspect of my preaching and leading worship module, to have time and opportunity to get to know and bond with fellow students (five of whom will be licensed this October) and have an opportunity to discuss the course and our ministry with our tutors.  We started at 9.30 am today with our usual morning worship and then split into our tutorial groups - in my case we looked at leading worship in the morning and preaching in the afternoon.  The standard of student is really high and each person on the LLM course is going to be a highly trained and effective minister I am sure.  The discernment process seems to work well - I only hope that I can live up to such a high standard myself.  One of our students was wearing the colours of West Ham United and we were all delighted that we could celebrate West Ham's return to Premier League football this evening following that club's win over Blackpool in the Championship Play-Off final.  So now we have the complete three clubs who are going up - Reading, my own Southampton and West Ham.  I have to say that I am sorry Blackpool couldn't make it too but, in fairness, West Ham were only two points below Saints and it could easily have been Southampton in the play-offs.  They deserved it.  Much wine drunk in the bar tonight.  One thing about being an Anglican is that wine seems to be involved in so much of our lives - after all, what was Jesus's first miracle! 

Christian Aid Collection

I was up early this morning and attended my first meeting of the Ambassadors' Breakfast Club for well over a month - in fact, I have not been to a meeting since before I went off to Minehead on the 29th March to undertake stewarding duties at Spring Harvest.  It was good to see old faces and do a bit of networking for Complex Services which is pretty quiet, workwise, at the moment.  After the meeting I briefly called in at Tesco's and Staples for some essential shopping, before attending the Alderbury Coffee Morning at their Boundary Coffee Shop and meeting and chatting to some of the church members.  It was good to meet up with Alan, Jenny and Bill who had all attended my service a couple of weeks ago and to learn of the work Alan and Jenny have been doing with the Crossroads Organisation in Hong Kong - some really good and important mission work involving the marrying up of surplus reserves in the West to the needs of the Third World as well as educating corporate organisations in some of the terrible problems affecting refugees and poverty sufferers.  I called in briefly to see Sara at the Lord Nelson where she was working this lunchtime.  After a chat with some of the regulars and a drink of lime and soda I returned home to sort out some paperwork and deal with some Complex issues.  This evening I collected the Christian Aid envelopes from Stone Close which I had delivered on Monday.  This year I seemed to collect quite a bit of money which I delivered to Jill.  Sara and I watched the action thriller film, Taken, with Liam Neeson, before going to bed.  This weekend I am on a residential weekend course at Sarum College for my LLM training and will be staying overnight at the college. This means that I will miss the opportunity to see the Championship final between Blackpool and West Ham to see who will join reading and Southampton in the Premier League next year. . 

A long hike

Our "day off" today and so Sara and I decided to go for a long walk this morning.  I worked until 10.30 p.m. and then Sara and I set out to walk to the hamlet of Buckholt and back (a total of six miles).  It was a lovely leisurely walk and we enjoyed trying to recognise different trees and birds along the way.  We started off quite fresh and brightly but Sara found it a bit of struggle as we walked the last mile back and it was probably a bit of an ambitious hike for her.  I must confess that I felt a little tired myself in the afternoon and tonight, at House Group, there were five of us and Sara started to nod off in front of the wood fire which I had made. It wasn't helped by some heavy scriptural text from Paul's Letter to the Romans.  I would like to walk along the Clarendon Way into Salisbury soon - a total of 8 miles - and the walk to Buckholt was a good trial run for such an outing.

Voices from the Past

Hopefully, I am now back on track (again!) with my daily posts.  The weather was actually dry and warm this morning (after a cold icy night) and Sara and I decided to go for a two-mile walk up to the water tower via Cooper's Farm and back via East Winterslow and Mill Lane. A pleasant stroll with time to talk and reflect - good for physical and mental health.  This afternoon I did some studying for my tutorial tonight in Devizes.  We are currently looking at Mission in God's World within the historical context of the Catholic and Orthodox churches and tonight we looked at The Reformation and where the Church of England's mission stands - protestant or catholic.  Fascinating stuff and I am actually looking forward to writing up an essay on the topic.  My journey to Devizes was uneventful and I seem to know that road so well now.  In going to my tutorial, I missed a Parochial Church Council meeting which didn't leave me too tearful!  I received an email tonight from my old solicitor friend in Belfast, Shaun, telling me that some of my old colleagues from Friends had been over there.  I felt quite envious as I always enjoyed my trips to Province and seeing Shaun.   Sara and I must arrange a trip over there again soon - to meet up with Shaun and have a look around the new Titanic Quarter.  Work is reasonably quiet at the moment as I seem to be waiting upon clients.  sara and I have our "day off" tomorrow and hope to do some more walking if the weather is kind.  

Into the Wild West (or a brief visit to Somerset!)

Still grappling with this new "improved" blog dashboard.  After a long break of one month, the owners of this site have made changes to how you navigate your way around it when composing or updating the blog.  no doubt, after a while, I'll get used to it and be competent in using it.  For the time being my readers will have to accept that a few errors may creep in - what's new, you ask?  Well, now I have an excuse!  Another day today proving that retirement does not mean sitting back and doing nothing.  We were all up early this morning as Sara was helping Tom, at 6 a.m. revise for his biology and RE GCSE exams.  He seemed to go off in reasonably high and confident spirits; but has done little RE revision as he feels most confident in that subject.  After breakfast I drove over to Somerset (Frome) to deliver the Complex Services books of account to my accountant there.  This year, there is quite some substance as there was quite a lot of work undertaken during 2011 - so some more tax to pay no doubt.  After my brief visit to Frome I drove the six miles or so to Westbury for a meeting with my fellow theology student, Ashley, where I spent two hours helping him put together his essay for the last module - I've already submitted mine and had it marked so I had a good idea of what was wanted.  Leaving Westbury I stopped off in Warminster to undertake a couple of errands before returning home via Salisbury.  I have to confess to having a bit of a lazy afternoon watching a couple of hours TV before returning to the study to work.  Tonight I am attending a meeting to discuss the village Faith Walks and Pub Theology after which I have to drive over to Stockbridge to pick up tom at 11 p.m. from a school's visit to a theatre in Newbury to see "Of Mice and Men".  Where retirement triumphs over working for my previous FTSE 100 company is that I am now working for myself, studying for role I really feel called to do and am in more control of my life.  From speaking to a former colleague working in Salisbury, things are very much different now from the old company I worked for. Not that the Church of England doesn't have its challenges!

Diary - 25th April - 14th May 2012

I have been amazed at the number of people who have missed my daily blog and it is so flattering to think that I have so many readers interested in the meanderings of my life here in Winterslow!  So, I guess you need some form of explanation as to why there has been this unusually long gap in posts.  One thing I did discover, though, is that nobody seemed to have concluded that I might have died - is that reassuring or not!  Either people knew I was still alive and well or they just didn't know and didn't feel it important enough to find out!  Well, I am still here.

These past few weeks have been really very hectic with so much going on and so much I needed to do that I just haven't felt like sitting down and writing my usual narrative of events at the end of a heavy day.  This post, hopefully, will go some way to fill the gap - albeit in a very truncated form.  Principle distractions have been my continuing training for church ministry and the accompanying foundation degree which has required me to complete a portfolio on the subject of "Interpreting the Bible"; leading a number of different styles of services, writing and delivering sermons for those services and many other church activities.  This hasn't been helped by a persistent cold and poor weather which has made me feel quite lethargic and wretched.  Excitement did punctuate the period with Southampton FC's return to the Premier League after a wonderful game of football against Coventry City on the last day of the season.  Champagne certainly helped raise the spirits!  I delivered another talk on Titanic to my Freemasons' lodge on 2nd May which (pardon the pun) went down extremely well.  I have now started the third term of my ministry studies - this term it's Mission in God's World in which I am learning about a lot of new "ologies" and need to take a dictionary with me to my tutorials which are all the way over near Devizes.  This is a regular Wednesday evening commute.  Our House group continues to flourish and we are currently studying "Paul's Letter to the Romans" - a challenging book.  I am pleased with the way my training is going and seem to be on course and keeping my head above water.

Tom is currently studying for his GCSE modules and is in the middle of revision.  Mary has her SATS this week so we are all undertaking academic study apart from Sara who has got her new business venture "Jamie at Home" off to a flying start.  We are having to make appointments to see each other at the moment!  Complex Services work has been a bit slow in recent weeks but I have just picked up a new client in Newcastle upon Tyne so that might bring some interesting work in. 

The main distraction, though, has been Mum's health.  Ever since  Good Friday Mum has been in hospital in Grimsby with problems with her eyelids and vision.   Fortunately, the doctors seem to have found a drug which is alleviating the problem and as I write this we hope that she might, at long last, be discharged to go home.  My sister from York  has been to see her a few times as well as many relatives and friends.  Commitments down here have prevented me from going up but I try and keep in daily or every other day contact by phone. 

We all remain in good health and spirits but wish this dreadful wet weather would come to an end to lift them up higher.

It would be good to receive your comments.  I must remain focused on completing this blog regularly as well as on other things.  My time is being called from all sorts of directions but I can honestly say, I am never bored - just in a quandary as to what to do first!