The organist librarian

Wednesday woke in the night again. Finished reading Alexander McCall Smith's "Tea for the traditionally built" and checked out his website. Decided to give union meeting a miss as had not had an agenda or notice of a meeting. Watched Delius Song of the high hills (cond Mackerras) and Lutoslawski concerto for orchestra (NYO stunning) on HDD, also rest of rivers programme. With Liz to the British Library for Henry VIII Man and monarch. Excellent audio guide by David Starkey. Wonderful to see his books and his annotations plus a fine early portrait, his astrolabe, writing desk box, psalter, etc. Very well presented but there were 2 places where people "bottle necked". To All Saints Battersea Park for Queenstown ward neighbourhood watch meeting and farewell to chair Re Johnson. She is excellent. There were nibbles and wine and I won a box on raffle! Home listening to Handel Coronation anthems from the Prom and fell asleep. Philip Glass Prom.

Up early and long chat to Ann on Skype. A lovely day so enjoyed picnic in the park - lots of young families. Gillian's husband brought Laurence to the library - he is a lovely little boy. To Vespers and Mass - Liz was cantor and Fr Denis celebrated. An excellent talk about vocations from Andrew Gallagher which unusually followed the homily. John Thing in the prayers. We had 7 servers. The Challenor choir murdered Messiah "Since by man came death" Widor Tantum ergo was better and the Terry mass setting was passable. On the way out through the small choir school car park I tripped on the iron fitting in the paving for the gates and knocked my head against the iron gate. Ended up on my back. My left hip is now sore but head is OK. Woke early Sunday and took Ibuprofen and put on arnica and heat - stairs are tricky - it's like a dull ache. Watched Henry VIII part 3 and The Apprentice first part - had seen the rest on Wednesday.

A quiet day and start of my leave. The ton of shingle was supposed to come at 8 a.m. but actually came around 10.30 a.m. Liz went to borrow the wheelbarrow but we found we could not get the left hand back seat in the car down. The garage could not fix it quickly either so David at No 15 kindly drove up to Kathy's, brought the wheelbarrow down and helped move the shingle to the back garden which looks very nice now. On my 4th trip with the wheelbarrow a nail went through the sole of my left shoe into the sole of my foot. I was OK but will go for tetanus jab on Monday! I did 9 trips myself. We had a good chat about teaching. Watched Henry VIII (David Starkey) and Messiah (Howard Goodall) programmes.