As promised, here’s my week. On Monday, I felt I had to go to the gym after work. So, when I got home I just crashed. Tuesday was two events. The first one was the diocesan Audit Committee. This meets at noon, for two hours. It’s always interesting, as I’m able to ask awkward questions and they have to at least make a stab at answering them. So I took the Jubilee Line to London Bridge, then back. I took three hours for lunch, and made it up on Wednesday, of which more soon. That evening I went to Goliath’s Lodge of Instruction. It was a great evening, but it’s at Kenton, which is almost at the other end of the Bakerloo Line. We had a great time (I stood in for the Master, reading from the book but not making too many mistakes. I got home at 10:30 or so, and fell into bed.
Wednesday is Yoga Night, so I decided to spend two extra hours at work (to make up for Tuesday noon) and go directly to the gym for the 8 pm yoga class. I decided to travel on the Jubilee Line to Green Park and transfer to the Victoria Line to get to Vauxhall. Well, I got to Green Park, and there was a Victoria Line train there, but because of a signal failure on the northbound side, the trains were stopped. We waited for a while, then we crawled to Victoria, where we stood for about 10 minutes more then were told that the train was out of service. I was disgusted, so I decided to go out and look for a bus. They were too mobbed, so I ended up walking from Victoria to Vauxhall, grumbling all the way. Bad vibes to do yoga with. I found that not eating dinner first (before 6 pm) was a mistake, as I was exhausted and couldn’t do very well. The instructor was late too (not his fault) and we ended up finishing at 9:25 pm, then by the time I showered and got to the bus stop, the next bus was at 10:04. I got home at about 10:20 pm, ate some toast, and fell into bed.
Thursday (besides being my birthday) was Goliath Chapter (Holy Royal Arch). This takes place in Southgate, which is almost at the northern end of the Piccadilly Line. To get there for between 4:30 and 4:45, I looked at the Transit for London website and determined that 1-1/2 hours would be more than sufficient. I left work with my regalia case at 3:30 pm. The website recommended that I change at London Bridge from the Jubilee Line to the Northern Line northbound. So I did that, and got to King’s Cross/St. Pancras in good time, where I changed to the Piccadilly Line. After waiting for 5 minutes, a train arrived which was packed to the gills and which was only going to Arnos Grove, one stop before Southgate. This train crawled up the line, with occasional apologies from the driver that there “was congestion ahead”). At last, Arnos Grove at 4:45 pm. One train arrived going northbound. We got on, and after 5 minutes the driver apologised and said that his train was going out of service, and we should wait for the next one. Finally, the next one arrived and it too was crammed to the gills. I arrived at the Masonic Centre at 5 pm, ran up the stairs, and ended up waiting for 15 minutes before the meeting started. There was no candidate, so we were treated to four lectures, which were interesting, and a little bit of business, and thus to dinner. The appetiser was a bit of greenery, 1/4 of a hardboiled egg, and three kinds of pickled/smoked fish. Ick. The entree was scalloped turkey, which was like a slab and looked like the turkey had expired many years ago. Tasted like it too. I almost ended up with fish, as the person who arranged the dinners seems to have gotten the amounts wrong. We got out early-ish (about 8:45 pm) and I got home at about 10 pm, at which point I fell into bed. (See a pattern here??)
Tonight, blessedly, HWMBO is going to take me out to dinner, so I am waiting for him to arrive home. I have been able to look at a bit of email tonight; I might catch up tomorrow.
EXCEPT, Diocesan Synod is tomorrow from 9:30 am until about 4 pm. At that point, Hell Week will officially be over. Sunday I will collapse and, I hope, recover before next week’s trials.