Church-tasting & golf

Tried a different church today in an attempt to see if there's life in the old church dog yet - All Saints, Woodham, a church which Lord H has been to as part of his theology course, and he also attended a lunchtime service. It was charmingly high - how I love smells & bells, and the hymns & processions were great. But the prayers were certainly too long, and some of the sung responses were a bit same-y. Afterwards, we braved the horrors of the parish room for coffee & tea. Verdict: way too loud (somebody smother the boy with the guitar - please), and not many people took notice of us, apart from the nice PCC Secretary (whose name, sadly, I can't remember now). The biggest horror of all though was being regaled by Father Iain about missionary work and missionaries in New Guinea. Let me say now, people, that I have absolutely zilch interest in missionary work and even less in the people that do it, worthy though I'm sure they are. The fact remains that they are dull, dull, dull. If a missionary was forced on me, hell, I'd certaintly eat them. Besides, if the good Father had any real interest at all in people, then surely he'd ask them about themselves, not tell us everything that's of note to him. He - and the appalling guitar & noise - really put me off, and I certainly won't be visiting again. God forbid. Badly done, All Saints.

Golf at lunchtime with Marian & Siegi made me feel a little better (Lord, but church is so bloody depressing ...), but it wasn't a great game, and Lord H wasn't happy with his play, which got me down too. I think we both need to practise more - a resolution for the winter perhaps! But Marian put on a superb lunch - roast lamb, and apple crumble with ginger & orange - fantastic! The woman's a culinary genius.

Once home, I did my usual weekly call to mother, managing as ever to tell her as little as possible. Hell, it's better that way. And tonight I'm hoping to catch up on some of the backlog of videos we have. There's sod all on "real" TV.

This week's haiku:

I hang on your speech;
your dark words give permission
for darkness in mine.

Today's nice things:

1. Getting out of All Saints
2. Bits of golf (only bits, mind)
3. Marian's lunch.

Anne Brooke
http://www.annebrooke.com
http://www.goldenford.co.uk