Month: December 2024

This morning I didn’t run, in deference to my mild grogginess after a late start (for me — 7:00) due to a late night at Oriel, holiday dining with the SCR. As I modulated into productivity I worked away on the service booklet for our Christmas Lessons and Carols, then wrapped up thje rough draft of our Midnight Mass booklet, then worked on tomorrow’s sermon for a while. I observed a lunch break during which we chatted with Thomas and Lydia, Si and Laura (and I opened today’s ink sample, Mint Twist). Then some errands with Margaret, arriving too late for the Saturday hours at the Abingdon Distillery, picked up USB night-light collars for Minke and Flora at Freddie’s Pet Store, and now I’m unwinding at the end of the day. Ahhh…

I don’t think Bill Watterson was referring to short-handed clergy life during Advent, but who knows? Historical probability isn’t the only criterion for interpretive aptness.

I’ve kept at my running, though my legs have only gotten good and loose one day this week, and my wind has been laboured most days. I have to remind myself that the point of the exercise is doing it, and at that I’ve been Olympic calibre. A lot of the week has been eaten up by working on special orders of service for the upcoming holy days. Our big day in January will be the Confirmation, Baptism, and Reception day mid-month, for which my colleague has already made up a booklet. I think I’m free of special service books till Ash Wednesday.

The time that wasn’t dedicated to service books has gone to admissions interviews for Oriel and to playing with ink. Interviews went very well, or at least as well as they can go when mediated by Teams rather than being done face to face. I’d look forward to working with any of the young people we interviewed, and especially the ones I cast my support to at the end of the day. We’ll know more about how this chapter turns out later.

The ink comes from an Inkvent Advent Calendar from Diamine inks: twenty-four tiny samples of exotic inks (shimmer, extra sheen, chameleon), with a special bottle for Christmas Day. So far the inks, pretty as some have been, aren’t as sparkly on my paper as they have been on others’ samples. I put this down to my not having the knack for writing with shimmery inks, and not having the sort of paper that shows them to advantage.

That’s a bit sad, but it’s useful knowledge; at least I won’t decide on sending an important note to His Majesty, intending that it be characterised by ‘extreme sheen’, only to discover too late that my pedestrian paper draws down the special qualities of the ink. I’ll see about slicker paper later on.

I haven’t forgotten how this thing works. One day of wedding and three days of furious business have kept me offline. I’ll get back tomorrow or Friday, I’m confident.

The marriage we’re attending today will fulfil the condition for ironicity proposed by Alanis Morissette: it is indeed raining on their wedding day. Whether ironic or not, Margaret and I will wish Alex and Niamh all the best and join in prayers for them, then will celebrate at the subsequent reception, and come back to our B&B full and exhausted. (We’ve already begun the process by digging in to the 10/10 breakfast, including gluten-free baked goods for Margaret).

Let’s see. I didn’t run Wednesday, because I had to catch a very early bus to catch an early train to get to the Tube in time to arrive early for a Sodality Day in Tooting. The day went very well, reminding us that although the sodality is a ‘dispersed community’, it remains a community united in sentiment and mutual affection, and we thrive when we gather regularly. (My remarks were very generously received.) I got home at about seven in the evening, and sagged into exhaustion.

Yesterday I didn’t run because it was raining, and even though I hate to miss consecutive days, I’m disinclined to run in cold rain. Call me a baby, but that’s just too much punishment. I caught the bus in to Oxford after Morning Prayer, gave my tutes and had a lovely lunch, hastened home and sorted some business.

Two miles this morning, though, and coffee and fruit, cleaned up and on my way to Morning Prayer, home and after a business call, off to a wedding.

Two miles went well, I think, this morning — followed by fruit, coffee, shower, Morning Prayer, more coffee, lots of banging my head against the Advent collects, interrupted by various parish responsibilities and even an academic responsibility or two. Off to London tomorrow!

Morning miles went more easily this morning. Whatever accounts for the difference between San Diego treadmill and Abingdon pavement, I seem to be adapting to Abingdon again. Yesterday’s services went well, I think, apart from a legendary face-off over who would read the fourth lesson at Lessons and Carols, conducted right at the lectern! Margaret observed that if we lived in an Agatha Christie novel, one of them would be found in the Thames this morning.

Coffee, fruit, Morning Prayer, then office hours at R&R, home for lunch, service at Bridge House, home, and working on my Advent Collects preso for the Sodality on Wednesday…

This morning’s miles were again diffcult, which seems counterintuitive; two miles is two miles, and I ran them every day in San Diego apart from the last, and I resumed running here two days later — so I’d think I shouldn’t have such persistent difficulty resuming running at a generally limber way. I’ve certainly had longer intervals of not-running followed by relatively smooth re-entry. Perhaps the biggest difference from years past involves the number of gargantuan American restaurant meals I had in San Diego….