The organist librarian

Harvest played Statham on "Monkland" and Peeters on "Wir plufgen" and we sang"Thou visitest the earth". Excellent Harvest lunch. Dennis went with Liz to King's and she has a hiatus hernia. At evensong sang Grayston Ives canticles (the Common Worship texts caused confusion) and Parry My soul there is a country. Watched Vanity Fair and Simon Reeve on the Med.

A day of mixed fortunes spent at Caterham. 2 girls came to sing one of them 5 minutes before the service and Folake was late. We sang For the fruits of all creation at both services. Good Harvest lunch.  A day spent at Caterham. Harvest and we had 2 youngsters singing this morning and choral evensong. Harvest lunch was excellent. Our table lost out as we did not have all the clues! We sang For the fruits of all creation at both services and I played Francis Jackson's voluntary on East Acklam - happy birthday 100 year old! Also played Statham on Monkland, Lloyd Webber on Fair waved the golden corn and Peeters on Wir plufgen. Very disappointed that the first choral evensong since Jill left was marred by the cleaner of the hall who was unpleasant to me and downright rude to Andrea. Sadly Andrea chose the moment to have a go at Jerry about poor publicity which he of course did not like. She quoted  Matthew 25 and I am afraid that Margaret's comment was very unfriendly. I cannot b...

Had a wierd dream about driving in Oz to a holiday house and Liz said we would have to share the house. The man was nice but his wife was not. First thing happened he went in the one bathroom and I was going to be late for church and burst into tears in the kitchen saying the holiday was ruined! To 8am Mass at St Mary's - not a great experience - priest uses voice box and is sometimes intelligible and a man moans at the back all the time and loudly! Harvest at Coulsdon was not a Eucharist as Vickie in Israel and Teresa in hospital. We saw a presentation about Tanzania and sang Harvest samba to the CD. Choir sang Thou visitest the earth by Greene. Practised and bought guide cakes. Harvest lunch quiche and damson crumble - very nice. Evensong from Lincoln Dyson in F and we sang it later at St John's along with King of Glory by Grayston Ives. David Bednall on The Choir on Radio 3.

Harvest service went well and Ian Ray's Harvest carol and Thou visitest the earth went better than yesterday. Apparently Ian Ray has a Coulsdon connection! I had to play a hymn again "God whose farm is all creation" (words by John Arlott) while the screen was put up for the film about the Amazon from the USPG speaker. The girls practised and will not be there next weekend. I played Vernon Griffiths on "St George" and Flor Peeters on "Wir pfulgen".

Liz painting doors. To Harvest flower festival and played from 2.45 p.m. All went reasonably well - one or two weak leads but the kids did well and so did John. It was appreciated. Lots of people in the hall and I bought a cake and some coconut bread and tamarind. There was even a Viking harvest feast and a toy train layout on the stage. To 10 pin bowling and Mollie and Ella and their Mums formed a team with me. 12 teams in all and much enjoyed. Royal Russell team 1 won with an amazing 701 points which must be the best yet - one lad had 4 strikes! Holy Trinity Redhill 2nd and St John Redhill 3rd. Gave out certificates and trophy. Hugh Sutton very chatty from Royal Russell. Terrence Hancock fussing over money as usual! To Purley for Mass. Fr Gregory's homily was indecipherable and then he started singing "Seek ye first". One girl server in white alb too short for her with white trainers, another with silver slippers and sort of mincing along! To West Norwood to meet Liz wh...

38 lengths. Just outside the library on a path I must have walked 1000s of times I tripped over the manhole cover and fell forwards. The bag containing the day's newspapers pulled be forward so I was lucky to escape with a grazed right knee and left hand knuckles. But it was pretty shaken so had a cup of tea. Not impressed to find I am only senior again on Saturday especially as I have reading group to run. Sharing someone with Tooting mobile does not work well. Nice trout for dinner done with onions and mushrooms. Choir practice 2 people missing, 2 people late. I cut it short as feeling shivery. The same old moans about Harvest carol and Harvest samba, why can't the anthem be after communion (we discussed that years ago), why aren't we singing Sanders responses at evensong - I'm afraid I was not in the mood for it. The Tudors continues to be historically inaccurate! Have asked for extra singers at Harvest festival - so far zilch! Changed to BT broadband from demon so n...

Bananas in Natal. Coulsdon celebrated harvest festival. Molly and Ella sang in the choir for the first time. We learnt about Uruguay - there are only 1000 Anglicans in a population of 3 million. Harvest samba with the CD, Through our lives for the prayers and Rutter's !All things bright and beautiful". I played Vernon Griffiths on "St George" and Flor Peeters on "Wir plufgen" "We plough the fields and scatter". At noon sat down to a lunch for £7.50 of tortillas, chili and salad and cheesecake with fruit. To Hyderi Islamic centre in Streatham for Lambeth interfaith forum on Prisons. Ebrahim confirmed he is coming to cathedral interfaith group on 22nd although he thought it was at the Abbey. 3 excellent speakers. Ivor Smith-Cameron asked me to reserve some books for him at which point I discovered I did not have my credit card holder so I missed the discussion and came back on train and checked in the car. Tony had picked it up in the church hall so...