Maundy Thursday

38 lengths and the last swim for a few days. Sad to see that the pool is open Good Friday and Easter Monday - the staff need a break too! Spent the day completing PRP statements and getting them signed. Staff meetings went smoothly and there was time for once for some discussion rather than just me telling everybody everything! I also had to fill in the training statistics which is never easy. I left at 5.30 and picked up the car. Thornton Heath is being dig up for gas works for 5 months so chaos reigns and it means using the Selhurst route. The service at Coulsdon went well. The choir moaned about being in the nave but it was more intimate and sensible as the congregation was sadly small. We sang Rutter Gloria, Wood Mass in the Phrygian mode, To mock your reign to Tallis tune, Psalm 116 and at the end Psalm 22 and Taize Stay with me. The altar of repose in the Lady chapel looked lovely. The hymns were "Soul of my saviour" "An upper room" "Now my tongue" to Pange lingua and "Draw nigh and take" to the lovely Gibbons tune. I felt much happier playing the Wordsworth voluntary on "Nicht so traurig" beforehand as the practice is always crammed. I spent some time meditating on the lovely stations for the children (and adults) on the Way of the cross around the church. I particularly liked the Last Supper scene and the mock fire for Peter's betrayal. There were also a crown of thorns, ropes and a cross into which nails could be knocked. On the way home listened to the St Matthew Passion from the Festival Hall with Mark Padmore and 7 other singers - how do they manage to sing all of that! And no conductor! Britten quite rightly said that the Passion should only be heard once a year. It really is the Everest of music. Liz had already returned from the cathedral where the Chelsea pensioners took part in the Mandatum.