Tag Archives: finley

Am I hearing you right?

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June is continuing along its dull and generally unpleasant path as far as the weather is concerned. Today is very grey, and there are occasional spots of rain. Dot is having lunch at Biddy’s with her friends Sue and Helen, and I will shortly be transporting Phil and Joy to the opticians. I have a bit of trouble with my ears and called in at the surgery this morning to see about an appointment with a nurse. It was suggested that I ring up for an on-the-day appointment or go to a walk-in centre. I thought maybe there was something wrong with my hearing…

James Finley came to St Luke’s for a return visit on Friday and Saturday, and this went well even without Nicholas. I was assisting with various day-to-day things, and I also managed to get Agape to record it, and the Christian Resource Centre to come with their bookstall; so that was good. Cathy from Agape bought six of my Iona books, and someone else bought one too, which was an unexpected bonus.

Dot was not there on the Saturday because she was rehearsing for a Sillars concert at Salthouse in the evening. But before that Colin came round to fix the garage door again, and he also fixed the gate and provided a new coping stone. I went to the concert, of course, as did Anne and Philip and Maryta and Paul. Sounded pretty good to me, but of course my hearing is deficient at the moment. Dot took a guest clarinettist, Tammy, in her car.

On the Sunday I was leading the service again, as Eleanor had a double booking. Dot decided this was one of our 2 days (in our 5-2 diet), but this proved difficult to maintain in view of the stuff we were doing, which included a little bit in the garden.

Yesterday we dodged the showers and went up and had a giant teacake each at Jarrolds. I paid in the church cheques and Dot went on to do a bit of shopping and cooking while I made some real headway on the talk I’m giving on the EDP to my CNS colleagues next month. I now have a 30-slide PowerPoint presentation in place and just need to get the final version of the speech sorted out.

Amy has just spent a week on the Isle of Wight with her school, which seemed to go very well. Oliver is having trouble with his dental brace and with his skin (impetigo?), but apparently he now has help with both of these and is feeling happier.

Shower of the day

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Still keeping busy in mildish, dryish weather, but there is an autumnal feel to the air. Spent Friday and Saturday assisting Dot with organising the James Finley speaker’s event at St Luke’s – ie keeping 150 people happy and comfortable, with hot drinks and biscuits available, plus rearranging furniture, buying many litres of milk and pounds of biscuits and trying to work out what’s going on. It all went well: JF peaked in the first session, which was a brilliantly poetic, broad-brush look at mysticism. But his subsequent stuff was also good, and there was a very nice feel to it all. The volunteers got on well as usual.

In contrast, there were very few people at Communion yesterday, and I also found myself doing a solo on guitar when Dot was grabbed to deliver (that can’t be the right word) the Cup.  Oh, I think it’s administer. I could go back and change it, but I’m on a roll. In the afternoon we went to the cemetery at North Walsham, timing our arrival precisely to coincide with the only shower of the day, which stopped as we drove off. Had a cup of tea with Jessie, who looked well. In the evening we picked up JF (remember him?) from St Julian’s and took him to Nicholas’s, where we all had dinner: lamb foll0wed by blackberry and apple pie, all expertly cooked by NV. Is there no end to his talents? JF is a pleasant and gentle grandfather who lives in Santa Monica, but still thinks a shirt and trousers (sorry, pants) is the right choice for a Norfolk September evening. Worth thinking about.

My Twitter account got hacked last night, so I have been fielding emails and tweets from people telling me so: this will no doubt continue, although I changed the password first thing this morning and switched it on Facebook too, just in case. David helped with putting all my photos in Dropbox, a process which I have been informed by Dropbox will take 23 days. I feel they may be exaggerating. I hope they are.