Teams of Our Lady Gathering at Wonersh . . .

The Teams of Our Lady Gathering at St John's Seminary, Wonersh went very well on Saturday. After the overcast day at Aylesford, we had a lovely sunny drive down along the A25 to Wonersh. I always enjoy this drive whatever the weather, passing through lots of Surrey villages on the way; out beyond Dorking, past Abinger Hammer, Gomshall, then through Chilworth and beyond.

There were over 140 of us gathered from all over the Southern Region. The animating team had done a really good job on the organisational side and everything was in place when we arrived. Name badges, booklets, coffee and tea on tap and a delicious shared lunch. We were even treated to scrumptious home cakes at the afternoon tea break.

We had an excellent talk from Fr Tim Buckley CSsR on the theme of 'Passing on the Faith' which gave us all plenty to think about and discuss in our workshops. We had to miss the talk by Emily Davis from CASE later on as we left early to go and get ready for an evening 'do' elsewhere.

The picture above shows the altar in the ambulacrum as you enter the seminary with, very appropriately, a photo of Ste Thérèse

Teams' Ramble . . .

We had a really lovely day today on our annual Teams' Ramble. We've belonged to Teams of Our Lady for over 20 years. We joined soon after I was received into the Church and we thought this sounds like something we could do together as a couple, and that would help me as a new Catholic - and we were right.

A Team is generally 4 or 5 couples and a chaplain who meet in each other's homes once a month to support one another in their vocation of Christian marriage. We share a simple meal, read and meditate on a passage from scripture, pray and share the highs and lows of our month with one another.

As well as these monthly meetings we also make an annual retreat together and have various social events throughout the year both as a Team and with members of other Teams.

After the rain we've had over the past few days it didn't look too promising for our ramble but luckily the weather improved and it was ideal walking weather today and we were able to sit outside at the pub afterwards and enjoy our lunch.

We even managed to see a few 'baa-lambs' en route - aaaaaaaaah!

Busy-ness ...

I've spent the last few weeks trying to book our annual retreat for our Team in Teams of Our Lady. Shouldn't be that difficult, you'd think to find a weekend date that would suit all five couples.

Ha ha - 'you're 'avin' a larf ain't ya?'

It started off so well ... the retreat centre could even offer us a couple of weekend before Easter - fantastic.

OK, just check with the Team that we could all make it ... I'll give everyone a few dates to consider .... easy, peasy!

Right then ... so we can't manage that then ... OK, no problem, I'll just get back to the centre and ask for a few more possible dates.

Hey, everybody, I've managed to find several weekends between Easter and October that they can fit us in.

Fine, .... so we're looking at November now, then - uh ha.

Oh, you don't have any free weekends at the centre in November? You could offer us the 2nd week in December?

Thank you. I'll get back to you .....

We'll get a retreat organised eventually. I'm not giving up that easily!

3 Teams' Dinner

Another great evening out with friends. Every year we get together with the other two 'Teams of Our Lady' locally and have a meal out together. It started out as a Christmas get-together but has 'evolved' into a post-Christmas outing.

This year we went to South Hatch Restaurant near Epsom Downs and were treated to a wonderful meal with excellent service. I can't remember when we last had such excellent attention in a restaurant.

Despite the icy conditions we had almost a full compliment. The noise level was correspondingly high and, if the sound of chattering and laughter is anything to go by, I would say a 'good time was had by all'!

Too much excitement in one day ....

Tomorrow we're off to France to see visit some friends who have a holiday home in Provence. After a fairly busy day I arrived home to find a note from the postman saying I had missed a parcel delivery. I had expected this, but what I hadn't expected was that my very kind next-door-neighbour had taken delivery of the parcel for me. And the timing couldn't have been better! I had treated myself to a super new mini notebook and here it is. It's fantastic, really does work straight from the box and comes loaded with all the things that I wanted it for. The main advantage is the size and portability so I can blog when we're on holiday now.

I literally took it out of the box and plugged it in and up on the screen popped Skype, wi-fi access, Messenger, Google and loads more! It's just a little bit bigger than a DVD in a box.

I had to take this shot just so that you can see the lovely shade of blue!

I was so busy playing with my new 'toy' I was nearly late for our Teams' girls' night out. Here you can see the whole bunch of us having a lovely evening in a nearly pub. Food was delicious, service excellent and the company fantastic.

Roll on France! More photos as soon as I can find somewhere with wi-fi access in France.