If you’re interested in clerical beefcake, especially of the Anglo-Catholic type, click here.
I found it the perfect gift for Anglo-Catholic clergy–safe for every sacristy.
On another note: can anyone tell me why the packet of avocados I bought from Tesco’s yesterday had this warning on the label: “Wash before eating” ? I’m not aware of any culinary use of an avocado peel that finishes up with the peel in my alimentary canal.
We had a good patronal festival this morning, ending up with a good feed and some unexpected arrivals, such as Michael from Sierra Leone, who left Britain 6 or 7 years ago before the Immigration and Nationality Directorate expelled him–he’s returned on business and is a sight for sore eyes. We also saw Sam, who is a World War II veteran, with two hips replaced and a bum knee, but as English as a bulldog or fish and chips. I love him to bits. HWMBO came in around the Gloria and I always enjoy it when he comes to church because I know that it’s a real sacrifice for him, an unbeliever. Everyone in church loves him too, and many of them wrote letters of support for us when he was seeking temporary leave to remain.
I’ll be at St. Matthew’s for 11 years in January. The little boys and girls who served Mass then are now in college and university, and have grown into young men and women. Although I’ve not had any of my own, I take vicarious pride in some such as Mandy, whose Zimbabwean mother and father work their fingers to the bone to send her and her brother and sister to school and university. Mandy is going to SOAS majoring in Geography and Economics, and will be taking a Zulu course this semester. She is beautiful and very bright. My thoughts and prayers go with her as she starts her second year tomorrow.
We’ve also had a few go bad, unfortunately. I think of them too and hope that they’ll get on the right track, finish their education, and get jobs rather than the usual spiral of economic deprivation and crime that has been an Elephant and Castle tradition for several centuries (and not just since {insert your least favourite immigrant group here} moved in). We have a very diverse neighbourhood that includes people from Africa, people from the Caribbean, probably the largest South American group in the UK, Turkish Cypriots (most of whom have moved to Stoke Newington but some still here), and the newest group, Poles and other Central European peoples. The local pub even has a Polish night every Sunday night now, and there is a Polish restaurant and deli on the New Kent Road. Oh, and did I mention the large Bangladeshi community on the housing estate behind us?
The preacher this morning was Bishop Michael Doe, the General Secretary of USPG (United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel). He’s the former Bishop of Swindon in Bath and Wells Diocese, and has just been translated. He was OK, nothing special. Most bishops are average preachers because they only need one sermon. They vary it a bit but don’t need more than one since they flit from event to event, parish to parish, and by the time they get to a parish they’ve already visited no one remembers what they said the first time around. I was hoping for rochet and chimere (as he was only preaching) but he wore an alb and stole. No one noticed that I used lavabo towels for purificators.
I have a business meeting in Haywards Heath tomorrow noon; it’s at my old chum Steve’s new office, where he busily dispenses good advice, good courses, and training on all sorts of testing and quality issues. Here’s the website if you’re interested in such items. I’m a little nervous about going out on my own doing ISO9001 consulting and auditing, but after the soft landing that my current job is giving me I need to be bloody, bold, and resolute. I won’t be fully unemployed until the end of January, and will get a full month’s notice (rather than 3/5ths of my fulltime salary) and the full statutory redundancy money (about