The organist librarian

Mass, Henry came late and had a great time - lots more words. Only connect. To civic service at Southwark and Lambeth at Southwark cathedral. OK I know we live in Croydon but I do go to lots of Faiths together in Lambeth and South London interfaith group events! Really enjoyed singing the South African song and we raised the roof in Amazing Grace. The young people and police and fire brigade cadets were most impressive.. Steve Chalke challenged us "Who are you? Why are you here?". Lovely cello playing and some good singing too! Nice reception at the Mudlark and networked - might get two speakers out of it!

Took Ciaran to school and Liz did not go in because of tummy. Took Sean to music and he enjoyed it. He slept well and I listened to Norwich cathedral evensong while Liz took Ciaran to swimming. Liz had a good time in New York last week and Tom is going to Sydney for a week! To the cathedral for Nicolas Kynaston's well attended recital. Richard Pilliner was there. Liszt, Reubke, Mozart, Reger and Roger-Ducasse. It was rather a heavy programme. Thursday only swam 16 as I was late up. Liz to college. To South London interfaith group lunch which was very delicious and some good sharing about National Interfaith week. To National Portrait gallery to see excellent Elizabeth 1 and Britten displays. Hannukkah lights in Trafalgar Square. To Heythrop for excellent lecture by Baroness Scotland about being a thinking Catholic in public life. Fr Michael O'Boyle, Allen Morris and Tom Creagh-Fuller were there. Chatted to a Muslim and Dr Prout from Brisbane. Monika from Liz's class was th...

To Clapham Picturehouse to see RSC production of Richard II with David Tennant. Fantastic acting and production of a wonderful play. To St Stephen Walbrook to see religious art. Particularly liked scuplures, mosaics and Peter Webb paintings. I sent emails to Metro and Standard about reviews of Dame Edna. Popped into St Edmund where I was told they were just closing and St Mary Woolnoth. It's strange that the spirituality centre is so unwelcoming. To Southwark cathedral shop but no true Advent calendars - the Queen had been there today.  Sat in Brixton library and then to  Lambeth town hall for interfaith forum event. Networking. Fr Adrian McKenna there and the 3 from one Faith foundation. Malik and arranged to meet at Streatham mosque at last! Home to masterchef.            

Monday woke early and then back to sleep! To mosaic - I was late but good to see everyone again. I got my brolly back and all my materials were safely in a box. All I need to do now is the infilling around the flowers and Paisley pattern and grout and it will be finished! No ta'i chi so to Balham library to return scores and pick up 2 books -Tom Service on conducting and The Tower - both were recommended at Proms literary events. To Southwark cathedral for an excellent recital by Stephen Disley - Buxtehude, Bach, Andrew Carter, Janacek. Home for lunch and then to Barbican theatre. Eventually found the ticket office and then found we had been moved to the middle of the stalls which was excellent. A wonderful Opera North production with great singing especially Biggalow. Loved it - standing ovation! Home at midnight.

Wed to 4.45 meeting at Heythrop to plan first interfaith sharing session now to be on a Monday once a month. Good to meet Islamic students at last! To Southwark cathedral education centre to plan Olympic interfaith walks and met Croydon folk. Lots of people there I knew including Canon John O'Toole. Fell asleep downstairs and woke at 5.30 to Liz appearing looking worried! Thursday picked up car - last time Nick will service it and MOT as he is retiring! Garage will become flats. To Heythrop for Mass - not many in choir. Coffee afterwards. Reading in library. Katharina Muller interfaith for Bishops conference came at 5 while I had me beef dinner - good to chat to her. Michael and Saira did well at the seminar on a difficult text. Muslim Jesus from Damian - intriguing! Snow on way home - very cold again!

We started with I look from afar by Palestrina and sang the Wood in the Phrygian mode setting and Martin How's Advent message. I played Peeters on Conditor alme and Lloyd Webber on Helmsley. Baptism well attended - even people in the gallery! Bought some cakes. Kids singing well. To lunch at Exhibition Room Crystal Palace - lovely beef and chocolate brownie. Bit annoyed by service charge being added on but lovely food and good to see them. Advent carols from St John's included Giles Swayne and Jonathan Harvey. To Southwark cathedral for carols - candle burnt right down! Wesley The Wilderness, This is the record of John and Boyce Where shall wisdom be found. The new Maxwell Davies Advent calendar written for the Queen's Jubilee choir book is effective. The 2 choirs were joined by the choir from Richmond, Virginia. Great hymns and super Bach Toccata in F at the end. Liz went to Advent carols at South Norwood baptist church. Antiques roadshow.

Glad that Andrew Nunn is to be Dean of Southwark. Sad that the Dean of St Paul's and Giles Fraser resigned. Saw the camp tonight from the bus - it certainly blocks a major right of way.

Saturday took Liz to station as circle line not running - her session was on the Bible. I went to London Bridge to go to Southwark cathedral for the day "Singing the Bible" marking the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. Lovely to see Bernadette Farrell again and her workshop was excellent despite a certain man interrupting. (Later I saw him at the back of Westminster cathedral!) Canon Andrew Dunn the acting Dean gave a lovely welcoming prayer and we sang "Angel voices". Bernadette gave us the music for lots of good ideas. Nice to see Andrew Maries again but he did not give us the scores - good to be reminded of some fine songs by Christopher Walker and Bernadette and Marty Haugen. At lunch I helped on the RSCM book stall but I find Frances Novillo rather bossy! The afternoon workshop was a disaster! The leader a priest from Brixton said she can't sing but the 2 people she had asked lectured us on the community choirs they had formed. A lady said she was ...

Saturday to Mass at Tooting Bec. Instead of a homily we had an appeal for Cafod which was overlong. At Coulsdon we had 2 baptisms and we sang Alan Smith's "Like the dove". To St Teresa of the Child Jesus, Morden for baptism of Clodagh McGovern along with 4 others. Could not hear the priest except when he sang! A great opportunity to reach out to the unchurched missed - no Bible reading, no homily. In fact chaos with cameras everywhere. To The Surrey Arms for nice lunch - we were with Jan. Home to hear evensong from Southwark.

After 42 lengths last Friday not quite so many this week - 38 Monday, 38 Tuesday. Today I had to get out after 22 as I remembered I was due to open up at 8.30 a.m. for the computer cleaning folk. The policeman came back today and took statements and another copy of the cctv. One of the thieves got a lenient sentence for the other burglary. Monday I went to Peter Wright's for RSCM committee. He sent good wishes to Edward which I passed on and said the Southwark concert was likely to have another venue. Andrew Cantrill and Nigel Groome bot made useful suggestions. Adrian gave me a lift home. Tuesday Harry Mellor gave me a lift to Sittingbourne for provincial council in a room next to a noisy bar in a club. I said one could only take on Provincial VP if retired and more are coming to the 1000th meeting. Harry had a few near misses and chats away all the time - he is 80. Wednesday to British School of Osteopathy - I dropped in to Southwark cathedral and the vice-principal gave me coffe...

Tuesday overslept so only 10 lengths - back seems fine! I did tai chi on Monday so that helped I think. Left shoulder still twinging. Listened to Vaughan Williams piano concerto from proms on way home - an interesting piece with a lovely quiet ending.There was a football match and the road up so traffic and bus chaos. Loved Maestro - 6 trying to conduct - Peter Snow was hopeless! Jane Asher looks like a winner! Wednesday up early and did tax letter. Express bus 90p on oyster to Waterloo and reached British school of osteopathy early. Full interview again with 2 nice students as I had not been since March 2007. Brand new HQ but rooms still rather cool! Tutor says pain in side cleared up well in 2 weeks so not to worry and back pain clearing by Monday is also good - shows how healthy I am. I go back in a week. Rang Vickie and bless her she said leave our meeting to next Wednesday. So that meant I was able to attend diocesan meditation day (or part of it) Midday prayer, Eucharist and 2nd ...

Saturday to Moss Bros to be measured for the wedding tail coat. The assistant kept asking me my measurements - I thought the object of the exercise was for him to measure me! To Southwark cathedral for evensong at 4 p.m. Vickie was there and prayers were said for Zimbabwe. We remember Rose Gill from our congregation and the group with Bishop Nick Baines of Croydon who are in Zimbabwe at the moment. Rose took a lovely booklet about the church with her along with the tape and CD we had made. When we lived in Johannesburg, Mum, Dad, Ann and I had a wonderful holiday in Zimbabwe. The war was still going on so we saw soldiers at Victoria Falls. The flight over the falls must be the most thrilling experience of my travels all over the world - it truly is the flight of angels. The Victoria Falls hotel had all the old world charm and standards of the past. At Wankie the game warden knew exactly where to take us to see the wildlife. Dad remarked to him that he must phone the elephants to warn t...

On Saturday Martin Ball and I organised an outing for the Bromley and Croydon organists assoication. We started with the magnificent Lewis organ in Southwark cathedral where I played Franck and Brahms. Peter Wright gave us a short talk and superb demonstration. Some of us listened to the rehearsal of a large choir from Tennessee. They were all young but seemed to convey nothing of what they were singing about with their faces. The men sang in the back of the throat and never smiled! The conductor messed about with photographs and sorting out the pianist! Then had my picnic with Martin on a bench outside the cathedral and walked to St Borolph Aldgate with arguably the oldest parish church organ in England. Perfect for Stanley and Walond. The last organ was the 1957 Walker at All Hallows by the Tower which was rebuilt after the War. Here I played Buxtehude's Passacgalia. It was good to meet Jonathan Melling the organist originally from Wigan and Laurence Elvin of Bishops who told me ...