It’s no secret that part-time posts almost inevitably end up occupying more of your time than the stated expectation, especially when the post itself doesn’t involve punch-in, punch-out That’s okay here, but my diary does fill up. Two miles, fruit breakfast, cleaned up, Morning P … | Continue reading
Two miles this morning, fruit and coffee and crumpets, I’ll attend Mass at St Michael and All Angels, then come home, then drift over to St Helen’s, where I’ll be standing by to teeach the Confirmation Class (unless the Rector has come home in time so to do; his timetable wasn’t … | Continue reading
(Every now and then — not often, but occasionally — I flash back to early days when ‘hard rock’ was modulating into ‘metal’, and two of the bands I appreciated were Humble Pie and Uriah Heep; one of Heep’s best-known songs is ‘Easy Livin’’.) But that’s not why I chose this title … | Continue reading
This morning Radio Four’s Today programme featured a segment on the safety failures at Boeing (about which you would already know plenty if you follow Cory Doctorow’s Pluralistic newsletter). An industry consultant, Scott Hamilton, observes in the segment that his future assessme … | Continue reading
Not only did I listen to the Griffiths discussion on Tuesday, but I also took part in a discussion group about reception history that link is written by Brennan Breed, who was one of the other participants) organised by Hannah Strømmen and Siobhan Jolley (Siobhan couldn’t take pa … | Continue reading
Ran this morning, coffee and fruit, on my way to Morning Prayer, after which I’ll go on to Oxford for a tutorial. Who knows what I’ll get up to when I get home? The Griffiths event on Tuesday was productive, though (to my disappointment) Paul himself wasn’t taking part. All the p … | Continue reading
Ran (cloudy skies at 96% humidity), fruit breakfast and coffee, clean up and go to Morning Prayer, then a clear day for honest work. At 6:00, I’ll be observing an online talk and panel discussion on a Christian theology of Israel, given by Paul Griffiths (a ferocious and unpredic … | Continue reading
Ran two miles (as one does), fruit breakfast, Morning Prayer, went to R&R where I dug into productivity and coffee, and finished two tasks hanging over me. Picked up groceries on the way home, and the ladies greeted me effusively. I’ll devote my afternoon to an odd but satisfying … | Continue reading
Or ‘run’, as I’ve done for both of the last two days. Yesterday I had a hot breakfast, went out to bless a parishioner’s new home, came home to do some garden work, catch up on some email, listen to Cornel West’s second Gifford Lecture, walk the dogs, message back and forth with … | Continue reading
I am barely moving, but because I’m not sleepy, I’m letting somebody else do the thinking for me. Today, that’s Prof. Cornel West, from whom I postmodern thought decades ago at Yale Divinity School. West gave the Gifford Lectures this year, in Edinburgh. He reminds me that not on … | Continue reading
Yesterday I ran my two miles, breakfasted on fruit and coffee, went to Morning Prayer, caught the bus to Oxford, gave a tutorial, dined in college, took the bus to Abingdon and came back home via Waitrose, constructed the printed form for today’s funeral, and worked on my homily. … | Continue reading
The [canine] ladies and I bid Margaret goodbye this morning at 5:00. It’s rainy, so I think I won’t try to run. I’ll make a hot breakfast, go to Morning Prayer, come back to calm the ladies, go to Chapter Meeting, come back, I hope, to check in with the ladies, then make the two- … | Continue reading
I ran both yesterday and today, two miles, yesterday proceeding to R&R for coffee after Morning Prayer. We then made our way to HSBC to open a new account, into which we can deposit cheques from US sources (a difficulty with TSB, which seems actively to be discouraging people fro … | Continue reading
Last night closed the obsequies for Holly, my sister. Cousin Alison had arranged a Meeting House of the Wilton (CT) Friends as a gathering place convenient to a great many of Holly’s dear (lower case) friends, and provided a Zoom link for remote mourner to join the event. Uncle R … | Continue reading
Two miles in pleasant weather (at a decent pace), Morning Prayer, hot breakfast, Pentecost Mass at St Nicolas’s, home to unwind for the early afternoon. Sermon below. In a couple of hours, we’ll connect with family and friends in Connecticut for a memorial to my sister Holly. The … | Continue reading
Not just a song by the Eagles (‘f***ing Eagles, man’), not just something I remember my dad saying, but my approach to my two miles this morning. I woke up feeling washed out, my muscles and joints loose but not really limber, not feeling any energy surge at the beginning of the … | Continue reading
Two miles each of the last two mornings. I made a hot breakfast yesterday, so it was fruit this morning. Coffee, of course, shower and in to church. Yesterday I arrived for Morning Prayer; this morning I arrived very early to set up the Lady Chapel for a small Low Mass of a Requi … | Continue reading
Yesterday and today, two miles each. Fruit breakfast, shower, Morning Prayer (at church yesterday, at home today), finished paperwork, caught up (somewhat) on email, and so on and so forth. Monday was a long trip to Church House in Kidlington; this morning will be a Zoom conferen … | Continue reading
Isn’t it odd that characters in television crime dramas never seem to have seen any television crime dramas? The spouse always takes offence when the police interview them, as if they didn’t know that the investigators ought to interview everyone connected with the crime. The fam … | Continue reading
I really did not want to run this morning, but I ran anyway. Coffee and fruit breakfast, Morning Prayer, then a trip to Kidlington for a lunch at Church House, then home to clean up marking. Not a thrill-packed day, but it accomplished what was required. | Continue reading
Walked and ran my two miles (usual route) this morning, fruit breakfast, got cleaned up and dressed, went to St Nic’s and prepared for the service, preached and celebrated, drifted home, and have been sitting mostly comatose since then. We were planning to go to Edith Wren’s birt … | Continue reading
My morning run started slow, but I got into a good rhythm on Park Road and thought I would stretch out my run a little bit, maybe draw it close to two and a half miles, so I crossed Stratton Way and ran east to Stert, ran down to St Nic’s, turned down East St… | Continue reading
My back and legs are still stiff from my over-eager book shelving extravaganza on Tuesday; yesterday I struggled on my morning run, so today — instead of running this morning — I walked most of my two miles. I walked, so as not to let my muscles entirely off the hook, but walking … | Continue reading
Stiff all over after shifting books around yesterday (not just loading the three bookshelves, but also moving book boxes out from Margaret’s library and my closet out to get them in position to shelve), so my morning run was slow; I felt as though all my motion was restricted, ev … | Continue reading
This morning, we took delivery of three more bookcases. They went directly to one of the only rooms that doesn’t have a bookshelf in it: we call it ‘O’Hare’, because when we moved in, that room served as the storage point for the luggage we used to help move our clothes, linens, … | Continue reading
Two miles yesterday, two miles today. The weather has been MISTy in the mornings, but not too cold, and my legs are slowly accommodating themselves to not taking four days off (cos of rain) out of seven. Two sermons this week (Ascension Day and Sunday), and various other obligati … | Continue reading
My legs were reluctant, my nose was streaming (presumably some pollen issue), but I recorded my two miles this morning. Coffee and fruit breakfast, Morning Prayer, will clean up, go to Mass (not on duty this Sunday), then finishnup marking. I did finish Perdido Street Station yes … | Continue reading
For a long time, the principal driver of traffic to this otherwise utterly obscure site has been [the wonderful] Jenee Woodard’s The Text This Week resource. As I settle back into parish ministry, it makes sense for me to resume my once-upon-a-time practice of posting my sermons … | Continue reading
No run on this rainy morning; coffee and fruit, put the bins out, laundry, Morning Prayer, pastoral care business, then home to catch up on marking, maybe a little Perdido Street Station as a reward if I make progress. This morning Señora Flora Dora Dinosaura (the Big Burrito) go … | Continue reading
My April iTunes listening according to last.fm: 1 Billie Holiday 7 scrobbles 2 Bruce Springsteen 7 3 Sleater-Kinney 7 4 The Beatles 7 5 The Style Council 7 6 They Might Be Giants 7 7 Elvis Costello 6 8 Florence + the Machine 6 9 PJ Harvey 6 10 R.E.M. 6 As always, the I’ve… | Continue reading
Yesterday I ran two good miles, came home for a shower and hot breakfast, then Morning Prayer, then I did some marking, Chapter Meeting, and home for more marking and reading, and even took a nap. No running this morning, among the rain- and thunderstorms. I’ll have a fruit break … | Continue reading
Two lugubrious miles 9my legs did not want to stretch and extend), fruit breakfast, clean up, Morning Prayer, appointment with a churchwarden, lunch consultation with other NT teaching staff, phone appointment, and by mid-late afternoon I’ll be done. | Continue reading
I reflect my age by (among other things) getting drowsy in the early afternoon and early evening. Methamphetamine would be helpful in counteracting that, and is calorie-free, but chocolate is also effective and delicious, and is legal. | Continue reading
Two miles this (cold but dry) morning at a rusty pace; fruit breakfast; clean up and go to Morning Prayer, then meet Margaret at a cafe after she sees the dogs off for their quarterly grooming (photos to follow). Communion for the residents of the Old Station House this afternoon … | Continue reading
We couldn’t be more chuffed that in her first year of full-time teaching at a permanent position, Pippa has been given an award by her peers in the Maine Art Education Association: ‘Philippa has not only showcased exceptional talent and creativity in the arts but has also made a … | Continue reading
Cold and rainy start to the mornings, yesterday and today; yesterday I was hammering away at a sermon, today I’ll be saying the Mass and preaching it at St Nic’s. Really, that’s most of the story. | Continue reading
Two (slowisn) miles, fruit breakfast, Morning Prayer, (cancelled) meeting with a warden, monumental grocery shopping, some house cleaning, in to Oxford for Prof. Esau McCaulley’s very strong paper ‘Finding Onesimus’, home to Abingdon, and a delightful visit with my former student … | Continue reading
Last week Ted Gioia posted another portion of his book Music to Raise the Dead about ‘the power of song as a change agent in human life’. He makes a fascinating point, and although I would steer clear of ascribing agency to non-animate forces,* I support vigorously the argument t … | Continue reading
The last two days I’ve run the morning two miles. Both days I’ve felt all right. Coffee, then Morning Prayer, fruit yesterday, hot breakfast today, various odds and ends of responsibility. I’ve been working on a blog post riffing on some observations by Ted Gioia, but haven’t rea … | Continue reading
So, I dinnae run yesterday or today (might have done today, but I had to catch an early bus and I couldn’t be sure I would run, shower, dress, and catch the bus in time), but I’m planning to run tomorrow. Yesterday was church day, and (as I had not leadership responsibilities) we … | Continue reading
Well, not full-on ‘sick’, lest Rishi Sunak denounce me as a participant in ‘sick note culture’, but definitely down with a cold, and too unwell to run in the mornings. Thursday night I did go to the annual parish meeting, where my team rector announced his paln to retire by the e … | Continue reading
Yes, as it turns out, I do have a cold. So, no running, very little activity at all, unless you count snuffling and coughing as ‘activity’. I showered, made myself a hot breakfast, read Malter Moberly’s The Bible in a Disenchanted Age, napped, stared blankly at social media, doze … | Continue reading
So, Monday and Tuesday I got up and ran my miles, on Monday especially satisfactorily. I rode the people’s limousine into Oxford and helped my charges at Oriel with their revision for collections at the end of the week (and ultimately for their final exams in a few weeks); I ran … | Continue reading
I ran my miles this morning, coffee and fruit breakfast, Morning Prayer, shower and dress for the service at St Nicolas’s, went to Waitrose for particular groceries (gluten-free and veg, since the small Cooperative location doesn’t devote much of its space to our dietary oddities … | Continue reading
Last night, Margaret — whom all will agree is a fine cook — was preparing a spicy roast vegetable dish, when it became clear that she needed to deploy two separate roasting pans. That, in turn, mean preparing two separate batches of spices… (You may see the plot twist on the hori … | Continue reading
Ran my morning two in lovely weather (I am going to be so relieved when spring/summer settles in), fruit breakfast, washed up, Morning Prayer, ran some errands in town, returned and settled in to close out my backlogged marking. In the meantime, Margaret had taken Flora and Minke … | Continue reading
Yesterday was a very full-on working day, with my usual run first thing, coffee, hot breakfast, shower, Morning Prayer, coffee, Chapter Meeting, Pastoral Care Committee meeting, home for writing a blurb for the weekly pew sheet, implementation (including a mind-creasing interacti … | Continue reading
Two miles in chilly, windy drizzle, coffee and fruit, shower and dress, Morning Prayer, second coffee, reading and transcribing Mieneke Cox’s guide to St Helen’s. Marking this afternoon (making headway). | Continue reading