A frustrating day - no electricity!

A rather frustrating day today.  Duncan arrived to put in a new fuse box and continue with the electricity installations for the extension which necessitated the turning off of our electricity supply for most of the day.  Sara went over to Livery Road to help organise things for her Calendar tea party on Saturday - a marquee was arriving and being erected - and I read some of the papers which had arrived for a new case.  Unfortunately I had forgotten that with the turning off of the electricity, the phones, Internet server and mobile sure signal box would all stop functioning.  I therefore went into Salisbury and used the wi-fi facility at MacDonald's to access my emails and attachments using my netbook as well as make some phone calls.  I also called in at Staples on the way home to pick up some paper for the printer and some plastic wallets for the new cases I have.  I also had lunch (a jacket potato) in Tesco's.  This evening we had a small group for the House Group - five of us.  We continued with our study of Malachi and discussed the meaning of the term "Kingdom of God".  Although heavy rain was predicted today, it remained fairly dry throughout.  I have also received details of my tutorials for the LLM course.  Starting in September I will be attending lectures/tutorials at the Diocesan Learning Centre on Devizes Road every Monday evening.  These sessions will last two hours similar to the LWL course sessions.

Legal and Ecclesiastical

Another very busy and ecclesiastical day.  I cycled to St. John's this morning to take part in Morning Prayer where I read the second scripture from Paul's Letter to the Romans.  We were joined by Debbie and Andrew and so had a full house of clergy and trainees with the exception of Mark.  Breakfast followed where Nils posed the question "What is the Kingdom of God" - the theme for his sermon at the Mid-Week Eucharist held immediately after breakfast.  I arrived back home at around 11 a.m.  to find a list of telephone calls and emails to which I needed to respond urgently.  Amongst these was a new set of instructions for Complex to act for another large client in Surrey on an employment tribunal matter.    Additionally, we now have two other tribunals in Surrey, one in Manchester and a compromise agreement to finalise.  It's amazing where all this work has suddenly come from - and just when I am on the verge of starting my three year ministry training/foundation degree course too.  It now definitely feels that I have no longer retired - just that I now work from home in the two professions of law and church.  I briefly went into Salisbury today to pick up two NRSV study bibles from Sarum College which I am donating - one to St. John's and one to All Saints - through the grant I received from Spring Harvest.  I also popped into the fabric shop in Catherine Street to buy material and other bits and pieces to make a costume for Mary for her Romeo & Juliet school play which is being performed for the parents next week.  Whilst in there I met Ella from Winterslow baptist Church who was also buying similar material for her daughter!  This afternoon I attended a Standing Committee meeting at Mike's where we spent a couple of hours considering the future of the church leadership in Winterslow and considering people we could ask to become part of it.  I cannot take on any further roles and will probably have to stand down from some existing ones in order to concentrate on my training.  I will become more Team-orientated and less parish bound as my ministry will be spread across all ten churches in the Team and not confined just to Winterslow.  I look forward to the challenge.  Finally, tonight I attended the last LWL course session before we break for the summer.  Tonight we discussed the use of music in worship and were told that we would each have to lead a service during the summer break.  We return on the 12th October for the final session which will lead to our commissioning as Lay Worship Leaders.  By that time I will have begun my course for Licensed Ministry and so I don't know whether I shall actually be commissioned.  Exciting times ahead, both in the law and church with so much work.  I can never say I'll be bored ever again.

Dinner at the Fox & Goose

The weather finally broke today, as predicted, with heavy showers towards the end of the morning.  Duncan arrived early to continue work on the electrics, particularly Tom's bedroom.  I moved some of the boxes from the landing into the Guest Room as Tom's new bed was arriving today and I would need room to swing it into his corridor.  I spent most of the day on Complex work and doing all those odd jobs which I had not got around to this weekend.  I booked the tickets for the Jeff Lucas/Adrian Plass Seriously Funny show which is to take place on Tuesday 22nd November at Totton.  We have a final number of 26 going which meant a further 10% discount on the ticket price.  I propose to use this to defray the transport costs.  Much of my work today was for my client in Surrey as the manager concerned is about to go on holiday.  It was agreed that I would spend a day up in their offices whilst he is away.  This evening I attended a new Weight Watchers' class up at Barry's Fields and found that I had put on another half a pound since I was last weighed some three week's ago.  Not bad and much better than I had thought as I have not been tracking properly.  This means that I am not too far off track but still need to lose another stone.  Should be able to do this with proper discipline starting tomorrow.  If necessary a few trips to the gym are called for.  After Weight Watchers I drove out to Coombe Bissett to meet with Lee, my masonic friend whom I am mentoring.  He would like to join my chapter in Brighton and I gave him the application form.  He was very impressed by all the work Sara has been doing with her Calendar and has promised to donate £50.  We had an excellent meal at the Fox & Goose - steak and chips for two with a bottle of Italian red wine all for £20 (£10 each).  Excellent value and well cooked too - the steak was delicious.  We treated ourselves to the cheese board afterwards.  Lee suggested we all ought to meet up there for a Sunday family roast sometime - their roasts are supposed to be really good too.  Must get to bed.  Early morning tomorrow with Morning Prayer and Clergy meeting here at St. John's.

Visit to the doctors with Tom

A day without any appointments - very unusual at the moment.  It was also a very hot day too - according to the weather forecast the last hot dry day for a while as we are expecting rain and thunder storms as the week progresses.  I spent the morning reconciling the bank balances and dealing with some Complex work.  Tom's school rang up to say that he was in the sick bay again - feeling giddy and having blurred vision.  Sara went to collect him from school while I went into Andover to bank some money.  On my return I cut the front lawn and later took Tom into Salisbury to visit the doctor and discuss his problem.  The doctor gave him a sight test and took his blood pressure.  No problems seemed to be recorded but the doctor believes it might be a problem with his sinuses (or hay fever) and suggests he takes decongestants.  He also suggested that Tom has a proper eye test at the optician to rule out any problems there.  Tonight I cooked us an Indian takeaway meal from Tesco's.  Delicious.  I couldn't get to sleep tonight easily and found myself getting up in the middle of the night to watch some TV - a feature about Ratner's faux pas in the 1990s, followed by watching Part IV of Diarmaid MacCullough's History of Christianity - Protestantism/Evangelism and finally a programme about Storm Chasers in the American Mid-West.

All change at Winterslow Parish

Another hot dry day today.  Walked to church this morning to get there at 9 a.m. as the family was acting as sidespersons.  Today was an All Age Eucharist which was advertised as with a baptism but there were no children to be baptised.  Not that well attended today - possibly because of the good weather - certainly not that many children in church. Nils announced that Richard and Linda would be leaving this church and team so that Linda could pursue her ordination training in an urban setting - probably Salisbury city.  This means that Richard will also be resigning as churchwarden and giving up quite a few positions in the church.  Norman has also announced that he will be resigning as churchwarden next April.  This will leave a major gap.  Although considered, I cannot take on this responsibility because of my own ministry training which starts in September and Sara has already turned down the opportunity of putting herself forward for the Team Administrator's role in view of her existing commitments. The new curate, Andrew, was introduced to us this morning. He seems a really nice chap and we spent quite a bit of time chatting after the service.  I then walked back home across the fields.   Had a light lunch of a burger and this afternoon I took Mary swimming.  There had been some misunderstanding as Tom thought that we were going greyhound racing again this evening as I had been given a voucher for free admission tonight.  Sara had told me that Mary didn't want to go but wanted to go swimming instead.  I took this to mean that any plans to go back to Poole were shelved.  In hindsight, we should have had a family conference to discuss what we were doing.  In the end, Mary and I still went swimming but Tom was very angry and upset that the trip to Poole was off (it was never entirely on in my book).  A major communication problem.  Feel everything seems to be my fault at the moment and felt quite down today.  Went to Sung Evensong at Whiteparish this evening.  Only eleven of us there.  Elizabeth gave a good sermon and Alan, the churchwarden who is also on the LWL course with me, was very pleased to see me.  John for the Astronomical Society was also present and we chatted for a while after the service.  Rang Mum tonight.  She seems much better and had spent the day with her friend Freda who is recuperating from a small hospital operation.  Had a couple of beers in the Lion's Head tonight with Richard and discussed the future of the church after this morning's announcement.

Going to the dogs!

I found it difficult to get out of bed this morning.  I woke at around 7 a.m. (Tom went off to do his paper round - with Sara driving him to the shop) and then dozed until 9 a.m. having quite a few dreams in that period. The weather was warm today.  Sara took Mary into Salisbury for her ballet and I stayed at home to write some important business letters for Complex surrounding the tribunal I am currently doing in Manchester. I later drove into Salisbury myself to post the letters (the collection in the village was too early for me to catch it) and run a few errands and meet up with Sara and Mary at The Boston Tea Party coffee/tea shop where we had a pot of tea each.  This evening, Mary and I went to Poole Greyhound Stadium for a bit of time together - I don't often have much time on my own with Mary - and we had a most enjoyable (although very unprofitable) evening.  We met and chatted with one of the dog owners and Mary seemed very interested in understanding more fully the racecard and its terminology.  I think that rather than studying form and the scientific aspects of greyhound racing, she should go back to her "intuition" as we didn't have even a sniff of a win tonight.  Never mind we had a lovely evening and a pleasant drive back through the New Forest and over Dean Hill. 

Coffee Morning!

I should have attended Ambassadors' business breakfast this morning but I had a dental appointment at 9 am to have a filling.  When I arrived at the dentist (on time) I was told by the receptionist that my appointment was for Monday evening!  I knew that I had not made an appointment for an evening and had not changed it so producing my appointment card - which luckily I had managed not to lose - they had to accept that the error was on their part and agreed to see me.  It was a difficult pieve of dentistry and the sound of the drill reminded me of all the building work going on at home.  Following the visit, I went into town to do some banking and then drove to Alderbury to pop in to the Boundary Cafe there and support Alison and Andrew who are running it.  I met Gail and a nice couple who live in Alderbury but don't attend church.  The cafe is doing really well and is clearly an important social gathering for people on a Friday morning.  I also called in at West Dean to see how Sophie's coffee shop re-launch was going.  Sara was already there meeting with Cynthia to sign her LPA contract.  I stayed for another cup of coffee and a brownie before returning to Winterslow.  This afternoon I attended to some more work and this evening played a couple of hours tennis with Tom, Mary and Sophie.  This is the first time Mary has played tennis properly and she is making progress.  It was good for me to get some more exercise in as I have been sitting down quite a lot recently working at the computer.  After Sophie left we had a Chinese takeaway meal for a change. Mary is now in her new bedroom following the painting of her walls (there remain some imperfections which need sorting out) and loves it.  At least one of the children is sleeping back in their room.  There is still quite a lot of electrical work to be done and Mary doesn't have her TV socket installed properly yet.  We also need to buy and install her wardrobe - still things are now, at last, taking shape internally.