The meal last Friday turned out to be even more entertaining than expected. I was welcomed at their new family house by a glass of red. My hosts were a bit embarrassed about the cork problem and when I arrived they were straining the wine through a coffee filter. It was a fine Italian and I matched it with my gift of a St Emilion.

There was evidence of three children in the house but they kept their distance and even for the meal we adjourned to outside leaving them to do what kids do! I knew Danah from church but had not met her husband who turned out to be a fine organist who had played a significant role in the creation of hauptwerk (virtual) organs and particularly in the recording of pipes of fine organs throughout the world.

After the meal we adjourned to the lounge where I was able to admire their extravagantly designed façade to one wall. The façade, which house a virtual fire and TV was designed according to the hauptwerk principle of baroque organ cases!

The following day I did some work in the office prior to commencing the usual round of weekend Masses.

Monday was Labor Day and I spent much of it pootling about the apartment until joining friends at the local.

Tuesday began with another visit to the physio and a return to the office to work on the bulletin pages in English and Spanish relating to the Papal Visits to Cuba and USA and to the World Meeting of Families. I had produced a series of resources which next week will form an e-blast to the parish and appear on our web site. Much of the liturgical stuff will be done in the daily morning masses in the form of a Prayer Novena before the Pope arrives in USA.

On Wednesday we started with School Mass and then had our monthly Liturgy Meeting. This one seemed to focus on music. I hate attending meetings without fore-knowledge of the agenda. After the meeting one parishioner contacted me to ask me to play a more prayerful piece (softer) at the end of the Mass at which he took his own family. How do you respond to that? One eminent local musician advised that I should have replied, as though deaf “what did you say?”

At 1pm I left the office to enjoy the good weather and returned to prepare choir practice. The rehearsal went very well and I was delighted to have an almost full rehearsal. We did some detailed work on this week’s Communion Antiphon by Chris Walker.

I seemed to have mislaid my wallet so was unable to begin my 2-days off with a welcome drink and instead returned home where I discovered my wallet!