The organist librarian

A great day at St John Upper Norwood. Adrian Adams directed Messiah with a choir of 100 and excellent young soloists and orchestra. Really enjoyed it and lovely to have  Louise Maher  singing with us. All to raise money for the repair fund. Good audience. We had time to come home and watch Sea ports programmes on Liverpool and Tyneside. Penny and Celia were singing. 

Friday to meeting at Battersea and a phone call about Monday's disaster. To choir and 2 missing but we covered all the ground and had a discussion prior to the meeting due for October 1st. As John cannot come on 3rd and 17th asked choir to make suggestions and we tried a few more items in the Oxford book of flexible anthems some of which the choir rejected immediately! Watched at 6 p.m. the memorable service from Westminster Abbey. Rowan Williams gave a great address and so did the Pope. His speech in Westminster Hall was impressive too. Liz has been watching the live web cast 24 hours coverage. Saturday we were up in good time to watch the Mass from the cathedral which was most impressive. wonderful music as there was at the Abbey and again a very fine homily. We spotted the servers and people we know. Sad that we were not asked to take part but there were some girl servers! We left for Hyde Park and arrived there at 3 p.m. so we were in the second row of the invited pilgrims area...

On the 9th I worked and to Vespers and Mass - Liz and I were a little late as on the bus. Fr Michael at mass. Train home. I always think this feast is intriguing. Why did Jesus have to be baptised? I think it was to show him and everyone around who He was. The voice from heaven is the whole point. He is then driven into the wilderness and begins his ministry with that amazing statement at Nazareth - "this day this prophecy is fulfilled". On the 10th we sang a lovely setting of "Come down O love divine" by Hilary Tadman-Robins born 1947 one year after me and I played Bach's "Christ the Lord to Jordan came" which was one of Dad's party pieces. I was rather chuffed I got the pedal part right. The left hand running semiquavers are more tricky. Spent the afternoon taking the tree and decorations down but the crib stays up until Candlemas. The tree in the front garden will have to stay for the moment because of the snow! The boxes are still waiting to go...

Now to catch up using a very full diary! Aug 2 spirituality day with Fr Robin Burgess - having not seen him for so long I had forgotten how good he is! The chorus was much occupied with carols and Liz only sang in one of the concerts. Louise, Tom and Ciarán came over on 11th to consult Clare about breast feeding and once that had happened he regained his birth weight and all was well. He had been back at the hospital on the 9th. 7th to tai chi group Christmas lunch at excellent Italian opposite the library. 8th Liz at servers council. I missed Catenians on the 7th for obvious reasons! 9th Unison committee meeting. 10th to ENO for "Messiah" for some reason both of us thought it started at 7.30 instead of 7 p.m. so we stood at back of gallery for first part - the singing was superb. Some of the staging was odd but we did enjoy it. I think this work is so popular that it must be hard to be original. Some of it was rather twee! Lots of shaking hands and the chorus should have mov...

Watched Songs of Praise featuring Messiah from Birmingham with Thomas Trotter at the organ. Very effective use of the whole body of singers in Hallelujah chorus from memory and "Since by man " and Amen chorus. Jonathan Lemalu sang wonderfully. Read Tablet, Oremus and Music and liturgy while enjoying the Radio 3 Handel day and evensong from Ely featuring 7 Cambridge college choirs in Stanford in A. Watched an old programme "Barking" - amazing BNP people and racist views.

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.

Woke early so watched first 2 episodes of "All the small things" which I enjoyed. To Bromley Parish church for recital by Gary Sieling who was delighted to see me again and saw Jane as well. He played variations by Scheidt, Vann and Andriessen, the Bach passacaglia and Mendelssohn 6. The encore was his own composition Toccata and Fugue Enrico Mancini which turned out to be the Pink Panther theme. I took along the proposed Belfast organists tour and chatted to Michael and Ken about it. It was a delightful concert. Met Liz at Penge and bought compost at Homebase. Watched progammes on Messiah including Songs of Praise with everyone singing the Hallelujah chorus from memory and programme on Caravaggio's Betrayal of Christ. To Southwark cathedral for rehearsal of Songs of Praise which went well. Liz is in the choir stalls, I am behind a tall tenor and next to Jack Bentley from West Wickham. Home at 10.30 p.m.

To Vespers and Benediction at which the choir sang Victoria and Guy Weitz at the end. Super improvisations after the psalms. We were acolytes. Canon Christopher thanked everyone and there were Easter eggs. Sponsored Ian (alto) in the marathon. On the way back listened to Windsor doing Messiah and this was included in the morning service from Oxford too. Evensong at St John's was great with Stanford in A, Hallelujah chorus and Stanford Te Deum in B flat at the end of Benediction. Watched No 1 ladies detective agency as we enjoyed roast lamb. Also Eucharist from Southwark cathedral (combined choirs very good and excellent soloist in RVW Rise heart). Programme on Messiah featuring the Huddersfield choral society directed by Joseph Cullen.

To Southwark cathedral by car. Trouble finding parking in the end I went on yellow line and put up disabled badge. Examined with Chris Greenhalgh for RSCM Bronze Dean's awards - some very nice singing indeed. A long session 9.45 to 2.45 with a lunch provided. There is something very touching about a young voice singing "O thou who camest from above". Some candidates were not well prepared. Saw Peter Wright and Adrian. To Herne Hill to get replacemetn dance shoes for organ pedalling. They had copied my original 5 yera old shoes but ordered one size too small. The new left one fits tightly but should soften. To the cathedral for Vespers and Mass. One way in man called Charlie spoke to me and said he was authorised to serve. He seemed to know Liz and John O'Brien but I checked with fr Swavek just in case and they said it was good I had done so. We were the only servers any way so no smoke. Fr Kingsley concelebrated with Swawek. Frove to West Wickham 7.15 to 8.10 p.m. arr...