Tom's 15th Birthday

Woke up early this morning and as arranged, Tom was not going to celebrate his birthday until this evening.  I drove into Salisbury to attend an Ambassadors' business breakfast at the Grasmere, jointly with a local firm of solicitors, and made some good new networking contacts.  I then drove into the city centre and after banking another load of Calendar money, met Sara in Cafe Nero for a coffee and a chat before returning home for lunch.  Tom had his presents when he got in fro school at 4.00 p.m. - a new digital camera, shoes, trousers and other bits and pieces including some money from his Grandma.  Tonight he and I went to St. Mary's to watch the FA Cup replay ties against Millwall.  An exciting match which, unfortunately, ended in a 2-3 defeat for the Saints.  They really do seem to have hit a bad patch at the moment.  It was freezing cold this evening and I wasn't too sad not to have to stay on for extra time and penalties.  We must now concentrate on the league and trying to get promotion to the Premier League.

"The Picture of Dorian Gray"

A quiet day at home today.  Mary was not feeling too well this morning so stayed at home in bed for most of the day.  Sara and I did some housework - especially in the hall and cloakroom which seems to have filled with shoes and boots!  Apart from a short walk over to the doctor's surgery this morning, I have spent all day in the house.  The weather has been drizzling with rain and the Union Flag has hung limply on the pole to commemmorate the 60th anniversary of the death of King George VI and the Accession of Queen Elizabeth II.  This afternoon Sara and I watched a film of Oscar Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" - a very dark film indeed.  I must read the book again - it must be well over thirty-five years since I last read it - if not more.  Feeling very tired again tonight.

Preaching and Leading at Whiteparish

I didn't get up very early this morning and decided to miss church at Winterslow, preferring to stay at home and start polishing up my sermon for tonight.  Sara attended church as she was the official "welcomer".   The weather remains cold bu the snow has almost completely disappeared.  I spoke briefly to Mum on the phone this afternoon - she will be attending hospital tomorrow to discuss procedures for tackling her kidney problem.  Sara and I took Rosemary over with us to Whiteparish this evening where I presided over the Evensong and preached.  There were about fifteen people present this evening so a nice cosy number for my first "solo" flight as leader and preacher.  It seemed to go okay - a fairly standard Book of Common Prayer service which I hope sparkled a little with the sermon - references to Scott of the Antarctic and Scott of the Starship Enterprise on the theme of boldness.  Later on, this evening, Richard came over for a couple of beers to give me some constructive feedback.  Felt quite tired tonight after a late night last night and all the preparation and deliverance of the sermon and service.

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. 

Ice Cold in Sarum

I spent most of today at Sarum College finalising the service and researching and writing up my sermon for Sunday evening.  Reasonably pleased with the result but I will leave it stewing for 24 hours and have another look at it on Sunday morning when I can look at it cold and make amendments as necessary.  Bitterly cold again today and I have had to wrap up well.   When I got home I was frozen to the marrow, as they say, and decided that an early night in a nice warm bed was calling.  I therefore went to bed at around 9.30 p.m. - a ridiculously early time for me - and read one of my text books.  Sara also came up quite early as did Tom - he has his paper round to do early tomorrow morning.  Just find it so cold.  Brrrrrr!

"Action Stations"

I treated myself to a day off today - no work and no college - although I need to work on my sermon for Sunday before the end of the week.  I had a free entry ticket to the Royal Naval Dockyard at Portsmouth and so drove over there arriving at just after 11 a.m.  I parked in the GunWharf Quay Shopping Centre car park and walked to the dockyard from there.  The weather today has been incredibly bright but bitterly cold.  I joined an excellent guided tour around HMS Victory led by a guide called Peter. Unfortunately, the ship has been demasted and probably won't have them back in place for another three or four years.  It leaves the ship looking a bit like one of the old hulks in the Thames/Medway.  Although I went around Victory about two years ago, this was the first time I'd done it as a guided tour for many years.  It was interesting to see the spot on the orlop deck where Nelson expired and the cask similar to the one in which his body was preserved in brandy.  I sent a tweet saying how good the tour was and this was responded to by the Dockyard itself - talk about Big Brother.  I also re-visited the Mary Rose Exhibition and talked to a number of the guides there.  I also had time to visit the Action Stations building and tried my hand at piloting a Sea King helicopter off the deck of a carrier.  I succeeded well in doing this only to fly straight into a cliff killing myself and the crew!  A lovely relaxing day. On the way back home I stopped off at the Hook & Glove in Farley where I met up with Sara and Mary to discuss, with John the landlord, arrangements for a Calendar Girls' Dinner and Quiz later in the month. Tonight we had House Group when we continued with our study of Paul's Letter to the Romans.  James stayed behind for a glass of wine afterwards.  Freezing cold tonight so grateful for our wood-burning fire.

Burns' Night

Another bitterly cold day today.  I attend Mid-Week Eucharist which was taken by Elizabeth who continued the theme of St. Brigit or St. Bride.  Following that, with some help from Richard, I delivered the rest of the parish magazines to the distributors for delivery to the individuals around the village.  This evening Sara joined me and 42 others at a Burns' Night Supper organised and hosted by my Freemason's lodge in Salisbury, Sarum Lodge.  We had Nicola Kirsch, the opera singer, entertain us and were treated to an excellent five-course meal - haggis, soup, roast lamb, fresh fruit salad and cheese and biscuits.  Excellent value.  As we had no Director of Ceremonies tonight I had to double up in that role as well as Secretary of the Lodge.  When I got back home (Sara having preceded me) I had a message to ring my sister Heather.  I hope all is okay.  As I didn't get home until about 11.30 p.m. I decided to leave calling her until tomorrow.