Last Day

My working week is two-thirds Associate Minister at St Paul's, Leamington Spa and one-third freelance writer. I make myself available to St Paul's on four days a week (Sunday to Wednesday) and write on Thursday and Friday. I tell people I have another job on these days which makes it easier for them to understand than telling them I sit at home thinking about what to write and then have a burst of creativity early on Friday morning before breakfast. Saturdays I avoid work altogether, so I often have good ideas then and need to carry a notebook.
I use a moleskin notebook which is expensive so I look after it. It has a reward in the front for finding it.

Lizzy and I have a week off next week and so yesterday (Wednesday) was my last St Paul's day for ten days. Managed to survive a visit to the lunch-club 20th anniversary party including sing-a-long-a-Doris. Went and helped with the teas when it got all Vera Lynn. She (Vera or Doris take your pick) has a lot to answer for:

'And if I don't get to heaven
And I go down to below
Better be a guitar waiting for me
Or I will refuse to go.'
(Alvin Lee, Ten Years After about 1971)

I play keyboards not guitar but you know what I mean.

Met Andrew Dow, former vicar of St Paul's. Had bumped into him a few times before, due to my nation-travelling job at CPAS for ten years. Strange conversation:

Hello Steve, I hear you're leaving.
Well no-one's told me yet.
I'm sure I read that you were moving on from CPAS.
Ah; I left CPAS over two years ago.
What do you do now?
I work here.
What as?
Associate Minister.
Ah; I'd better get back to my seat.

I did finish all the St Paul's things I needed to do by the end of Wednesday though, including a sermon for a week on Sunday, the day after I come back, then went out and had dinner and beer with Bob, Matthew (his 11 year old Joe 90 type wizz kid) and my Ben. They were good company, the Cricketers provided good food and we had fun.

Matthew did maths problems while we drank. His teacher had just lost a bet with him (for a box of chocolates) that he couldn't work out how many squares there were on a chessboard by the end of the lesson. He did. The answer is 1 squared plus 2 squared plus three squared etc. to eight squared. Matt is new to the school so he shared the chocolates with the kid who would have won the bet before Matthew arrived, which is pretty generous for an 11 year old. We set him the following problem.

You have 12 seemingly identical billiard balls and a set of balance scales. One of the balls is defective, either light or heavy. Can you tell which ball it is and what's wrong with it in just three weighings?

He's still working on it I imagine.

Dave Wheatley's blog has entertained me this week. Nice to see that the church is still producing candidates for the ministry who can balance wide-eyed awe at the sheer fun of being human with spiritual reflection. Did I write that? Sorry Dave; pretentious clap-trap. Anyway it's a fun blog.