The organist librarian

All went well at Coulsdon - a baptism for Baptism of the Lord. Ellie Lyon came to start with Molly - she plays cello and sings well! Practised. Liz went to Croydon Primark and BHS. I went to St Paul's Cathedral to hear Norman Harper play Buxtehude, Finzi and Reger - what a sound. Marilyn, Michael and Martin were there. Antiques roadshow and Lark rise is back! Monday swam 22 - Mervyn was there. Diane asked me to move into the slow lane and there was music on! To tai chi - 3 there. To Catenians on Monday evening - got 2 new Norwood ties for £15. 22 visitors and 2 visiting gentlemen. Philip was back. Tuesday swam 24. Took AnnMarie to pay for new carpets and get swatch and she painted at Glyn Close.

The full moon was very low in the sky this morning and evening and looked wonderful in the night sky. It reminded me of a lovely evening in Istanbul overlooking the Bosphorus but I could not be romantic as Liz was not on that chorus trip! At times the hazy moon behind bare branches looked like a Caspar David Friedrich painting! 38 lengths of the pool yesterday and 40 today plus tai chi with Tony yesterday afternoon. He explained the 5 Chinese elements and the exercises for each one. I particularly liked the water one - low scoop to pick up the water. On BBC2 Peter Owen Jones a C of E vicar followed the footsteps of St Antony to live alone in the Egyptian desert for 3 weeks. In previous programmes he did kung fu in China and was an Indian holy man. There was another query about my doing health and safety course. What my intentions are! Who knows? After a day like today with electricians, computer cleaners, drilling, staff shortages I might retire now!I enjoyed reading The Tablet in the...

Dennis and AnnMarie enjoying Christmas!

Long chat to Ann and Paul on Skype. Louise was here and finalised the wedding booklet. One of the Rutter anthems has changed back from "The Lord bless you and keep you" to "For the beauty of the earth". She also helped Liz with her CV and covering letter. To Coulsdon for the wedding. We had a good choir and I was grateful to Christian Strouver coming to sing tenor, although having such a fine organist in the choir made me a little nervous which is unusual for me. However this bride has given me too much grief! Never allow a bride to come to a choir practice! On the day I find that not only has "O happy day" been pulled but that there is no Celtic Alleluia and no Gospel! "The owl and the pussycat" is hardly material for a wedding sermon. Frankly it's naff to use it as a reading at a church wedding. Good to see the former vicar Martin Goodlad again and quite a few of the parish worthies were there. We sang a choral version of Schubert's ...

They are engaged at last! May they be very happy together! 4 years since we met AnnMarie who is a nurse from Dublin. Dennis has a new job in Sligo - general medicine and not histopathology which is what he wants to do. There were 120 applicants for the 20 jobs in Scotland! He has done well at interviews.