A great day off today which started with checking the website of my old school, St George’s College in Weybridge because its one-time headmaster had died and I wanted to know when the funeral was. The online interest then produced a request for me to contribute to a forthcoming Old Georgian publication on past pupils who had pursued a career in music. I managed to get the article back to them during the morning.

I then got a Skype from a beautiful Icelandic girl living in Ghana. Now this kind of thing does not happen to me every day so I smelt a scam and rather than follow my loins hit the delete button! then I got a lift from my parish priest to the end of term Christmas dinner for the school staff to which I had been invited. It took place at a golf club so the fare was pretty impressive as you might imagine.

Then I headed back home and have just had the longest Skype conversation with my youngest brother Richard. I’ll probably speak with him next week on Christmas Day when by Skype I invade the family gathering but you never really get quality time with each other at such gatherings. It was a joy to chat for so long.

earlier in the day I bought a piece of DVD/Cd equipment which Sony used to sell for $850. I bought it for $30 so if it works it’s a bargain! even as I type I can hear my dad saying “it’s only a bargain if you need it!”

It’s now almost 8pm and it’s time for a film I think.

Good night!

As you can probably guess I’m into my busy season which accounts for the delay since the last posting.

I awoke on Saturday 13th and made a Skype call to join my old Iona Community Family Group who were meeting in Skipton. I’d skyped Peter Coats the previous day, which was just as well as I understand he was a bit under the weather. It was good to see the others face-to-face. As Community members the relationships are profound and trusting so I miss them separated as I am by great distance.

I switched on the TV at 10am and was delighted to find Chelsea v Hull transmitted live…. and the best team won, of course!

I had a wedding later that day which was the source of some trepidation as there were difficulties. In the end we chose to deliver everything the couple wanted and the much feared kazoos playing ‘I got you, babe’ never materialised! After that I was back in to the series of Sunday masses.

I stayed at the church during the afternoon as I was intent on getting the Christmas worship aids started. In the event Deacon Cris assisted me to use a particular facility on the copier. It meant a bit of a learning curve but it paid dividends.

The evening mass was blessed by a new cantor. The family had arrived in Tampa on recently and found their way to St Lawrence. I had heard the father singing well and went in search of him after mass only to find the daughter who also turned out to be a singer! The whole family joined the choir and this was her first time out as cantor. She has a great voice but we didn’t have much time to look at the music so there were some gaps but the congregation recognised her gifts and were generous with thanks.

Monday would normally have been my day off but I decided to get the printing started. I managed all the Christmas Night booklet and most of the Christmas Day before the machine came to a stop. All the other staff were able to use the machine as long as they didn’t use the booklet facility. I thought that perhaps the problem was down to too much use but when I returned next day to a cool machine there was no change.

I returned home late that evening to prepare for my first evaluation the following morning. I could not do much preparation as I could not locate my job description. Next morning I arrived at the appointed time and clearly had not received a message deferring it! There then followed a funeral, a photo session with one of the staff who had offered to create some photos for an article I had written for Society of St Gregory magazine. The funeral allowed me to think of my sister Anne, whose birthday it would have been today. Then there was a meeting of the Parish Executive prefaced by lunch … pizza again but most welcome. During the afternoon I got some more work done on Christmas either side of a liturgical music rehearsal with the school.

Wednesday began with school mass, the last of the term. The engineer arrived for the photocopier but a part was needed and would not be installed till Friday. There was no point hanging around so with all prepared that could be I went home at 1pm to relax a while. I was back at 5.30pm because there was a penitential service at 7pm . I only had to provide music beforehand and play a hymn then I was free to begin Christmas Choir practice at 7.15pm.

The choir is really beginning to shape up and with another rehearsal on Saturday we should be OK for Christmas.

On Thursday I awoke to enjoy most of the day down at the beach watching planes and fishermen. The channel is not deep so they wade out with nets and rods and provide great entertainment as it is not long before they catch something significant. In the evening I adjourned to Charin’s Bar where I found myself sat next to one Bob Foley. He’s a local character who introduced himself at the start of the encounter and then pointedly asked me if I could recall his name 20 minutes later. Seeing that I was struggling he told me that he would not talk with me again and then his name came to me and we chatted for ages about all manner of things. When he left to go another told me he was 86. You never would have guessed it!

I dropped into the Long Bar on my way home and mentioned Bob’s name. The owner replied that it would only be a matter of time before I bumped into him. Quite a character!

On wednesday

I got into the office on Wednesday night with an hour to prepare for the first rehearsal of the Christmas Choir. I was delighted to discover that several new faces had appeared for it. I never audition for choirs but rely on the Holy Spirit working in folk to bring them to ask to join. Who am I to refuse?

I was not disappointed and towards the end of the rehearsal I put two of the new folk on the spot and got them to sing solo verses. They were great and there was a genuine air of excitement in the group of 21 singers. When it gets a bit cool in Florida several go down with sickness and perhaps because they work so hard here! So the choir would be larger for midnight mass, I hope. Two regular attenders were not present tonight and one confident new member was absent through doing a 5k run in nearby Clearwater. I recall my old music teacher saying ‘Musicians never commit sport!’

I returned home after the rehearsal much relieved and watched Chelsea win in the European Champions League.

Last week I had passed the written test of the Florida driving test, so on Thursday I set myself the task of booking the practical test. As it happened there was a slot at 1.30pm so I drove off in that general direction stopping for a bit of shopping at Best Buy electricals for a DVD player. The assistant recognised me from a previous encounter and announced to all and sundry that I couldn’t cope with a smart TV so how was I going to cope with a DVD player. I told her that In UK she would have been reprimanded for insolence. With a beaming smile which revealed need of serious gum surgery she said ‘ I tells it how it is’!

I still got to the driving centre early only to discover that I was missing a necessary document. It was easier to find a replacement than return home in the hope of finding the original (if I had it still). So I drove off and arrived at another office 4 miles away and got seen straightaway, paid $3 for the document and returned to the fist office. The officious official had been replaced by an affable one who took me through some preparatory tests. The eye test was disconcerting in that I was unable to see anything. After a while I realised that I could adjust the viewer and this used the appropriate lens of my varifocal glasses!

The driving inspector was a jovial lady from Jamaica who greeted me by asserting that she knew I would be Ok because she and I were both used to driving on the correct (left) side of the road back home! The test was quite simple and carried out on special test roads. She seemed more interested in my accent than anything else and it turned out she had lived a while in Birmingham.

I had passed the test and needed to go to another clerk who gathered colleagues around to listen to my accent. In fact they would not let me move on to the next stage until I had dropped my English accent and performed an American “y’all” . Moments later I was the somewhat bemused recipient of a Florida Driving Licence.

I stopped by at the office and had a good chat with the Pastor who has promised to pass onto me his copies of The Tablet as soon as he has finished with them.

Back home I had a bite to eat, watched a movie and here I am now typing the log and hoping, any moment, to get back to a rather fine red!

I awoke after a good sleep this morning. Today would be a day of domestic paperwork and the writing of this year’s Christmas Round Robin. I also managed to sort my address book and have Skype conversations with friends Peter and Sarah and brother Chris.

In the evening I watched the new Scorsese/Di Caprio film which was good entertainment.

In the morning I hope to use Skype to join a meeting of my Iona Community Family Group. Technology is amazing, isn’t it?

I got into the office last night with an hour to prepare for the first rehearsal of the Christmas Choir. I was delighted to discover that several new faces had appeared for it. I never audition for choirs but rely on the Holy Spirit working in folk to bring them to ask to join. Who am I to refuse?

I was not disappointed and towards the end of the rehearsal I put two of the new folk on the spot and got them to sing solo verses. They were great and there was a genuine air of excitement in the group of 21 singers. When it gets a bit cool in Florida several go down with sickness and perhaps because they work so hard here! So the choir would be larger for midnight mass, I hope. Two regular attenders were not present tonight and one confident new member was absent through doing a 5k run in nearby Clearwater. I recall my old music teacher saying ‘Musicians never commit sport!’

I returned home after the rehearsal much relieved and watched Chelsea win in the European Champions League.

Last week I had passed the written test of the Florida driving test, so today I set myself the task of booking the practical test. As it happened there was a slot at 1.30pm so I drove off in that general direction stopping for a bit of shopping at Best Buy electricals for a DVD player. The assistant recognised me from a previous encounter and announced to all and sundry that I couldn’t cope with a smart Tv so how was I going to cope with a DVD player. I told her that In UK she would have been reprimanded for insolence. With a beaming smile which revealed need of serious gum surgery she said ‘ I tells it how it is’!

I still got to the driving centre early only to discover that I was missing a necessary document. It was easier to find a replacement than return home in the hope of finding the original (if I had it still). So I drove off and arrived at another office 4 miles away and got seen straightaway, paid $3 for the document and returned to the fist office. The officious official had been replaced by an affable one who took me through some preparatory tests. The eye test was disconcerting in that I was unable to see anything. After a while I realised that I could adjust the viewer and this used the appropriate lens of my varifocal glasses!

The driving inspector was a jovial lady from Jamaica who greeted me by asserting that she knew I would be Ok because she and I were both used to driving on the correct (left) side of the road back home! The test was quite simple and carried out on special test roads. She seemed more interested in my accent than anything else and it turned out she had lived a while in Birmingham.

I had passed the test and needed to go to another clerk who gathered colleagues around to listen to my accent. In fact they would not let me move on to the next stage until I had dropped my English accent and performed an American “y’all” . Moments later I was the somewhat bemused recipient of a Florida Driving Licence.

I stopped by at the office and had a good chat with the Pastor who has promised to pass onto me his copies of The Tablet as soon as he has finished with them.

Back home I had a bite to eat, watched a movie and here I am now typing the log and hoping, any moment, to get back to a rather fine red!

Little did I know when I wrote my last remark about Stoke beating arsenal that Newcastle had beaten my beloved Chelsea. That particular shock was in store for Tuesday night.

If you had to choose a week in which to cancel a Liturgical Music rehearsal for the School this would not have been it! There were two masses this week requiring different music and today was the second. The children were really tolerant as I tried to get them into singing mood but sometimes the unusually grey weather just takes a hold of the prevailing mood of 600 children and there is nothing you can do to shift it.

I returned to the office after the mass and got on with further tweaks to the Christmas services. Then before too long I was back in church for the next Holy Day Mass at midday. There I thought I’d be on a safe bet starting with Immaculate Mary but not at all. It was good to see the original 3-verse text in the books but I had not appreciated that in USA the rhythm of the refrain is altered oddly. I played them out to Alain’s Litanies which, I was delighted to discover, I could still play!

An afternoon in the office and I was back for the 7pm Mass. There was a gentleman making a very decent sound so after I’d played Litanies again I went to seek him out. In the event he had gone to collect the car (it was raining) while his wife and daughter waited in the church. On approaching them I discovered that the daughter was intending to join the Christmas Choir on Wednesday. A message on Wednesday morning revealed that she had also persuaded the father to come along. Happy days!

I stayed up late on Monday night watching, of all things, the transmission of Mass for the Immaculate Conception from the Basilica of the same name in Washington DC. It started at midnight so I don’t know what I was thinking.

Predictably the following day started later and I was in work for 10am and a meeting about one of the Christmas Masses. Then I was able to get further tweaks completed before meeting with the Pastor later that afternoon. Beforehand came another music rehearsal with the school. One girl said I was looking particularly American. They know how to get to an Englishman, don’t they? The rehearsal went very well and was nothing of the uphill struggle the previous day. the meeting with the Pastor continued in the same light vein with him trying to fit the texts for every carol I’d selected to the tune of ‘Il est ne’???

I made some minor adjustments to my drafts and completed the music arrangements for the choir before going home at 7pm. There I watched Chelsea being beaten by Newcastle. I went to bed disconsolate before the final whistle.

I awoke early this morning but pootled about only getting in to the church at 8am for the school mass. fr Rock was the celebrant and he gave me a copy of Dickens’ Christmas carol before mass started.  it was his birthday on Thursday so I got the school to sing him a rousing chorus. It was an amazingly spiritual mass with music choices, readings and homily all resounding to the same message.

I had forgotten about the liturgy meeting this morning at 1030 but managed to fit it in. The meeting I thought I had at noon did not exist, it would seem, so I was able to escape the office at 1pm and go home to relax before the evening’s choir practice. This would be the first rehearsal for Christmas and would included some parishioners who unable to make a regular commitment seemed delighted to be invited to join for Christmas.

I woke early and inexplicably on Saturday and 6am is definitely early! A due date for an article for a liturgy magazine was looming so I decided to get down to and had it completed pretty quickly. Then was able to visit a couple of ‘yard sales’ before playing for a funeral. I headed home after that and rested for 3 hours before heading out again for a rehearsal and the two evening masses.

Sunday also started early for the four morning masses. Whilst one sermon seemed to point to the little known fact that John the Baptist foretold the birth of Christ (!) another was stunning. In the second of 4 journeys through Dickens’ Christmas Carol the Pastor referred to scrooge’s refusal to offer a gift and compared him to Jacob Marley. Later he approached a child and exchanged a handshake quite naturally. Then he dipped his hand into a bag of mud and asked her to shake his hand again. Of course she did (which blew his sermon!) but he went on to say that we can’t exclude people because of how they look or smell etc and that life is messy and God is engaged with the mess so we ought to be too!

After the 0730 I stopped to chat with the Knights of St Columba who were offering coffee and donuts. One of them did a lot of fishing but had to admit he rather liked the drinking involved. Hmmm , I thought.

We welcomed a new Cantor at the 1100. She had only been in the parish a few weeks but was an experienced cantor with a welcome touch of humility! Another woman came up to me after the 1230 Mass offering to join the Christmas Choir and to serve as Cantor in the future. My hunch is that there is more to her than meets the eye too.

At 2pm I left the church for a meal at a local restaurant. It was great … lamb shanks with veg etc. Just what I needed to keep me going, I thought. I had agreed to return early to church as some of the Hispanic community who were celebrating OL of Guadalupe had arranged for a mariachi band and I was to introduce them to the sound system. I waited for an hour but there was no sign of them. The compassionate side of me might have considered a breakdown in communication … I was so tired through this relentless day that I wanted a dartboard!

Back in the office I was able to get down to some planning and just making sure I had everything ready for tomorrow morning’s school Mass for the Holiday.

The evening was a blessed relief with two very young musicians making up for everything. They had practised and gave deep honour to God, a point not lost on the congregation who spontaneously clapped at the end of Mass.

Back home by 0845 Stoke are beating Arsenal 3-2 which warms my heart!

Thursday brought me to the office soon after 8am and kept me there for a long day. I spent most of it getting ahead with planning for the rest of Advent and for Christmas. Nobody bothered me so I got a great deal done. I even scheduled a meeting with the Pastor to discuss my proposals.

By 7.30pm I was decidedly tired and found my way to the car which took me for a meal and a libation. Back home I managed a film and fell asleep quite easily.

Today I awoke to see on the news that Martin Sheene is involved in a movie about the Bhopal disaster 30 years ago. In all these years Union Carbide has refused to apologise or take corporate responsibility. in the same way that Rupert Murdoch is being pilloried for tax evasion on a massive scale it seems that big business often finds it too easy to pursue legal loopholes which pursuit is, in itself, testament to its will for self-preservation rather than duty of care.

Today would have been a ‘day off’ had it not been for a couple of funerals, the provision of music for which falls within my remit. I did these happily and caught up with a bit of work in the office biding my time for the scheduled meeting with my boss. In the event he was unable to make the meeting and I drove home after the second funeral.

I got back in time to take a Skype call from my mum who is still recovering from a recent bout of ill health but is feeling better now. Immediately following her call I took a call from John Dillon, another Iona Community member living in Illinois. Having prayed for him on his allocated day for several years it was good to Skype him and put a face to him. He has recently been in a terrible accident and his body suffered multiple injuries but it was good to be able to laugh and chat as though we’d known each other for ages. It would be great if a few of the members (there are not many here!) in USA could spend some decent time in each other’s company in the near future.

It’s getting dark here so my body clock tells me I need feeding and watering so that’s enough for the day!

Last night I found myself strangely attracted to the live transmission from Australia of the funeral of the cricketer who died 2 days after being hit in the back of the head by a ball.

This morning I awoke at 6.45am to be in work for 0800 and the school Mass at 0830. I was a little tense beforehand because they had cancelled the music rehearsal yesterday due to the hint of rainfall. I can understand them really because when it rains here there are no half measures! But it did turn out Ok. The Mass was a celebration of St Francis Xavier so after communion I invited the 600 kids to share a prayer for India for whom this was both a day of rejoicing (FX is one of their patron saints) yet also a day of sadness with the 3oth anniversary of the Bhopal chemical disaster. I thought of fellow Iona Community member Eurig Scandrett who has done so much to bring the inherited plight of the present generation at Bhopal to the awareness of all. He is away from his desk at the moment and it would not surprise me at all if he were in Bhopal as I type. It still seems that Union Carbide does not recognise its full corporate responsibility to the victims both immediate and next generation.

Back in the office I worked on the Worship Aid for the next two Sundays then went out to grab lunch and visit the bank. What I thought would take a brief while found me waiting in the bank for an hour. The manager promised to sort me a decent woman but failed on my credit card request! It seems that I have to borrow lots of money on the ‘never never’ to create a debt history which will speed up my application. I left the bank frustrated and dropped into a sushi bar where I enjoyed a great nibble. Back at the office I spent 2 hours sorting the next 3 funerals and discovering that Saturday’s wedding had been cancelled since they were already married (in a barn).

At 4,30pm I was in a rehearsal for the Advent Gathering. This was a 3-hour event in which I had been involved in the early brainstorming stages. I was pleased to see that they had retained verbatim a script that I had written which was very participative introduction to the theme of ‘living the unimaginable’. It was attended by over 300 and comprised an opening prayer, a meal and some breakout sessions for youth, English-speaking, Hispanics and under 3 yr olds. Of course there were predictable undertones of a testament meeting but it was well controlled. It needed to be because at 8pm I had a deferred choir practice after that.

The choir were very responsive to my increasingly more detailed demands so I was happy and so were they. I was also delighted that they decided to support my notional plans for Christmas, including the notion of hospitality to those who might wish to join for the festive season. I ended with a brief run through for a Cantor for Sunday, a soloist for midnight Christmas and a Cantor for a funeral in a few days time.

Back home  I was delighted to re-establish contact with friends in Sheffield. I feel a delayed awakening coming on!

I overslept today or forgot to set the alarm so I didn’t get up till 8am. Was in work by 8.45 for an intense planning of the school masses for the rest of the year. No sooner had I finished than I discovered that the photocopier had malfunctioned. One diagnosis proposed that the copier did not like purple gloss paper but, even though I don’t like it either, I don’t think machines are that discerning.

Anyhow I had a word with our tech guy and a few moments later I was printing. 600 copies were made for the school rehearsal which was to take place in the afternoon. That completed I was able to assist with the moving of equipment for tomorrow’s Advent Gathering and then return to the Church for the rehearsal. At the appointed time the heavens opened and the rehearsal was cancelled lest the cherubs get wet. I was the last to know but was grateful for the rest. Not so grateful was I for the knowledge that this was the only rehearsal for tomorrow’s weekly Mass and Monday’s Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. I’m not sure how I will manage it all. Await further instalments!

I spent the afternoon trying to sort the 3 funerals which had just landed on my desk and a wedding on Saturday about which I knew nothing. That done I was able to visit a local music store to purchase some replacement microphone cables and do a music rehearsal for tomorrow’s Advent Gathering. I was involved in the initial brainstorming for the event and fairly influential in the title ‘Living the Unimaginable’ and what this might mean. I will be very interested to see what the planning group have produced.

I left the office at 7pm with an unwanted printer discarded by one of our priests. The fax, copy and scan features don’t work but it promises to print! it won’t belong to me but will be very useful at home.

On the way home I stopped off for a drink and a cheese steak fillet with a banana pepper. When it arrived it was, indeed, delicious if somewhat unpredictable!

Another long day beckons tomorrow!

Saturday was a lazy day as there was not much in the yard sale context. Instead I found two keyboard x-frames and a keyboard seat at Goodwill thrift Shop. They were bargains of course.

I went  into work at 3pm for the two masses which started Advent. The first was interesting in that although several folk had brought their domestic wreaths to be blessed the church one was nowhere to be seen. It was discovered by the second mass and all was well. But the homilist started by saying that we do Advent each year so what is there to surprise us this year? Well quite a lot really.

Sunday was fine. The usual masses in the morning but the 1100 was really packed. We also welcomed Barbara to the choir temporarily as she is snow-birding it down from Chris Walker’s choir in California. It was also great to hear the voice of Melody who is an experienced Cantor trying out the Choir. I returned home for a break in the afternoon during which I prepared food, skyped some friends and watched the Pope doing amazing things in Turkey. It was Fr Rock on the evening mass and he was on fire! He also gave me a Christmas card and a small gift. This is testament to the gratitude and humility of this great Franciscan.

It was just me on the evening Mass as the instrumentalists were away on holiday. After the Mass I had a meeting for a forthcoming wedding which kept me there till 9pm.

Today, Monday was a day off so I had a leisurely morning, nipped down to the beach and then visited a government centre to enquire about a driving licence. I submitted the required paperwork and was amazed to be offered there and then the chance to take the written test. In fact it was not written at all as it was computer-based but, thankfully, I passed without even having to revise from the handbook. The man at the adjacent terminal was not so lucky as he pounded the desk every time he got an incorrect answer. So the only thing remaining is the ‘in car’ element which I suspect is very easy. The bureaucracy is the most difficult bit of the process.

Now home I intend to cook a meal and transcribe the music for an obscure piece selected for a forthcoming wedding  from a youtube recording. We all know how intentions are not always realised!