That was the week that was

Well, let’s start with Christmas Eve. Not much to say: I went to work, somewhat bleary, and cleaned up some of the email I got during my week in Marblehead. I decided this year that I would not go to Midnight Mass, just set up for it, since I am always overtired on Christmas after going. HWMBO misheard me and got dressed for Midnight Mass, just as I returned from setting up. He was a bit nonplussed, but we appreciated the extra sleep.

We had a guest through Boxing Day, one of HWMBO’s friends from Singapore. He is a Chinese teacher, and brought presents: a set of Beijing Olympic keyrings with the mascots on them, and some eau de cologne. Very nice. On Christmas Day I went to Mass, and was sad to hear that the sermon was to be delivered by the Nigerian archdeacon who is studying here and is a relative of a parishioner. He is not in tune with the congregation, and preaches as if it were a Nigerian bible study. Very long, and dull. But, saved by the archdeacon’s alarm clock: he arose late and arrived just as the Rector was finishing up an impromptu sermon.

Then, home to cook a chicken, some roast vegetables, stuffing, creamed onions, and the like. We ate around 2, and then settled down for the Queen’s Speech (HM the Q looks every minute of her 81+ years now). As there’s no transport on Christmas Day, we went nowhere and did virtually nothing.

Boxing Day was much the same, except that our houseguest came with us to the New World restaurant in Chinatown for dim sum, which we enjoyed, on the whole. The ang moh group at the table next to us was having none of it: you’re supposed to order from menus in restaurants, so they ordered from menus rather than choosing from the carts that roamed the dining room. I went to Blackwell’s after that and bought some books, HWMBO and our guest went to Fopp’s (newly reopened after emerging from bankruptcy) and helped their gross takings quite a bit. We walked down to Whitehall, and I was dead tired, so I went home while they walked around a bit more.

Our houseguest left for the airport that evening, and, for the first time in months, we were alone in the house! What joy! Lodgers are nice, but Not Lodgers can be even better.

I worked Thursday and Friday, and wrote my sermon for Sunday morning, which I attach below. Saturday we did a little shopping and went to Tate Modern for the show All the World’s a Stage. I think it closes on Wednesday; don’t rush to see it; it wasn’t worth what we paid for it (which was nothing). And lunch in the Tate restaurant there is always fraught. They seem to have removed Diet Coke from the menu, drat! I had a (very small) glass of apple juice. HWMBO had fish and chips, and I had the burger with chips. The chips (French fries to USans) were not well-cooked: they were slightly soggy on the outside and somewhat hardish (meaning not well cooked) on the inside. Next time we’re going to the Members Room to see if that’s any better. We stopped off at the Discount Shop (where they sell off stuff they couldn’t flog during the year), and I picked up some Gilbert and George cufflinks, and a couple of fridge magnets, one of which was an entire G&G painting cut into small squares. Much Fun will be had.

On the way home we stopped at Sainsbury to pick up dessert (carrot cake) for this evening, and the sky over the Borough was impressive:

This morning I preached: at this particular C of E parish they keep RC festivals, so it was the Feast of the Holy Family. Not much to say about the Holy Family as we don’t know much about their family life. However, much to say about families in general. Tonight we will go to our friend Alex (aka Inuit Boy; for UK readers he is the actor who portrays the Inuit with penguins [who have obviously seriously lost their way] in the DFS commercial) for dinner and bring the carrot cake as dessert.

December 30, 2007 Feast of the Holy Family
Sermon delivered at St. John the Evangelist, 10 am.
Readings: Sirach 3:2-6,12-14; Ps 128 1-5; Colossians 3:12-21; Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23

In the name of God, the one, the Undivided Trinity. AMEN.

I am a very amateur genealogist. The Internet has been a real boon to those of us who want to research our family trees. I have been able to order my grandfather

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