I’m not sure how the time has flown since my last post so apologies to any readers out there.

The last week has been one involving the usual demands of the job but has also included some good social time. It was great to meet up with friends on Thursday/Friday. They had got a cheap holiday to Orlando to do the theme parks and after reaching their allotted hotel complained and upgraded to a 4-bed villa with pool. So instead of me welcoming them to my 2-bed apartment I went to them. This felt like something of a holiday. I still managed to fit in one garage sale and a trip to the local Goodwill!

After hearing last week of the death of my school music teacher Paul Reed it was a further shock to receive news that his colleague Maestro Bill Hayward, with whose choir I had served as organist on several tours, had been in hospital for 4 months after open heart surgery. I heard today that he will be recuperating with his daughter following ‘release’ on Thursday.

My dear Uncle Colin, so much a feature of my life, was buried on Friday. I always recall him laughing, red-faced and with a glass of whiskey in hand! He will be greatly missed.

It seems ironic that with all this death and serious illness for friends and family I did not in fact have any funerals at St Lawrence last week. There will be two this coming week however. I start the week with a trip out to nearby Dunedin to hear Fr Timothy Radcliffe speak. He’s a great orator and animator of the Church and one-time Master of the Dominicans. I’ll let you know how all this goes.

The weather is all over the place. Today rain is forecast and temperatures by day have been fluctuating between 57F and 75F. Although the rest of the week is set to be sunny the temperatures very considerably.

I bought 3 fishing rods from Goodwill during the week so pretty soon I might try my hand at fishing … once I’ve taken a few lessons from Google!