After the Easter festivities I was completely knackered. I took Monday off as usual but had visit the physio prior to work. The doctor reduced my treatment plan to just one visit per week which is good. After that I had to go into work to clear things for the weekend. That allowed me to take the next three days off in lieu of staff days off for Easter which I could not take at the time. I chose well as the weather was amazing for each of them and great for kayaking. On the Thursday I ventured out for the second day off. I had just got onto the Howard Franklin bridge (7 miles across the Bay) when cars started to flash me and point towards the kayak on the roof. I pulled over and saw that one of the J-supports for the kayak had slid along the crossbar of the roof rack. This meant that the kayak was skew on the roof and somewhat precarious. It was impossible to rectify this on the bridge itself as it was windy and risky. So I drove a few miles at a stupidly slow speed until I could find somewhere safe to pull over. Once rectified I was able to get on my way and enjoy the day.

Saturday’s work included a wedding, 2 vigil Masses and some preparation of music for forthcoming confirmations.

I was surprised to discover on Sunday that, in addition to the usual load of Masses there was also a Divine Mercy Holy Hour. I was only expected to ‘top and tail’ things but in the end I decided to stay and fill in improvised music when  thought necessary. The result was the ‘best Holy Hour’ they had ever had! There was no point returning home for what remained of the afternoon so I remained and worked further on Confirmation music.

Since I had a funeral on the Monday I chose to work rather than have a day off. By the afternoon I had met with the confirmations planning group and produced the final draft of the worship aid. I was much relieved to discover that the laborious task of producing 1000 copies was delegated to a colleague!

My back had been giving me what my father used to describe as ‘gip’. I’ve never known how to spell this word or indeed if it ever really existed beyond my dad! I was relieved to have some topical physio applied and felt ready for the day after that. I spent much of the day continuing to prepare instrumental, choral and guitar music for the confirmations. With 96 confirmandi there is so much music to have prepared.

Wednesday began with School Mass and then I was off to the beach for a few hours returning around 3pm to continue work on the confirmations. This was not helped by the photocopier running out of staples. I was able to get around this and we had a great choir practice using last year’s music!

Today I had a rude awakening at 5am with a tornado warning on my phone. It hit land around 7am but fortunately there was no damage to my property. It is probably not the best day to gout in a kayak however. I think I’ll stay on terra firma!