Now for something completely different . . .

As I said, we left the Teams Gathering to go onto another function in the evening. This was a company 'do' at an hotel in Cobham, only about 20 minutes drive away.

It was a real luxury to be able to relax in the hotel before the dinner, unwind and take our time to get ready to go and join nearly 100 other colleagues and their wives or husbands.

This was an annual event for all employees who have served with company for 25 years or more and they always do us proud with a lovely meal followed by not-too-long speeches and dancing.

As the Pater Familias has retired from the company now, this will probably be the last time we will qualify for this event so we really made the most of it.

A late, relaxed breakfast (now that is a luxury!) followed by a short drive home and plenty of time to catch up with the chores before Monday morning. As I've often heard others say, 'God is good!'

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

Venerating the Relics of Ste Thérèse . .

I joined our parish outing to The Friars at Aylesford today and am very pleased that I did. It was quite a cool day today but having visited Aylesford before I knew what to expect and wrapped up well.

It was worth it. There were plenty of people there including lots of children and young people but we all managed to find a seat easily and had a good view as the relics arrived by car as far as the Gatehouse and were then carried by the 'Knights' to the place of honour in the main shrine.

A slight embarrassment as we were sitting in the front row of the rear seats and were surprised when one of the local media thrust a microphone in our faces and asked why we were here! Nothing like being put on the spot - I mumbled something barely coherent so I'm sure it would have been scrapped straightaway. (Note to self - when sitting in a visible spot and there are media people around, don't make eye contact!)

Off to Wonersh tomorrow for the Teams Conference - it's all go!

Busy bees . . .

My 'manic Monday' is fast becoming a 'manic week'.

I'm joining the parish outing to The Friars at Aylesford on Friday with Number One Son to venerate the relics of Ste Thérèse. I'm looking forward to this naturally but it means I'll have a day less in the office so tomorrow will be a bit of a rush to get everything done in time for the weekend.

On Saturday the Pater Familias and I will be going to St John's Seminary, Wonersh for the Teams of Our Lady Gathering. 140 members of Teams in the South East will be coming together for talks, workshops, lunch together and finishing with Mass.

We have a clash as we also have a company 'do' in the evening so have to leave Wonersh in the afternoon to go and get 'spruced up' for dinner in the evening.

We're treating ourselves to an overnight stay at the hotel where the office function is being held - I'm really looking forward to that - especially the breakfast! This means of course that we'll miss our usual morning Mass and go to Mass on Sunday evening which this week is followed by a bit of a social to welcome new parishioners to our parish. We'll be going along as 'old hands' to welcome the newcomers.

After that I'll be ready to go home and put my feet up - hooray!

Does God exist?

I saw this on a friend's Facebook recently. I expect it's 'doing the rounds' but I thought I'd post it here for readers who don't use Facebook.

It particularly appealed to me as I'm still in 'German mode' after our recent trip to Cologne (or should I say 'Köln'?)

Manic Monday . . .

It's been one of those 'Manic Mondays' at work today. Which reminds of this old hit from the 80's.

Mind you, this later acoustic version doesn't sound anything like as manic as my day today.

Hope you enjoy it anyway.

The things people say . . .

Sometimes I'm struck by the slightly amusing and misleading expressions I hear used by fellow-parishioners.

I don't know if it's peculiar to our parish but I suspect not. Have you ever played the game 'Pictionary'? It involves someone drawing a picture and the opposing person or team having to guess what phrase or expression the drawing is supposed to represent.

How about this one?

At the risk of sounding like Rolf Harris, 'do you know what it is yet?'

Some people I know when talking about going to Mass have a habit of saying, ' I took Mass at St John's (or St Joseph's or whichever church they attended for Sunday Mass.) Am I the only one who finds this odd? Just where are they taking the Holy Mass to, I wonder and how are they able to transport it?

Here's another one. When our children had just celebrated their First Holy Communion and were thinking about becoming altar servers, several of the other mothers would say something along the lines of, 'Oh, I do like to see my son on the altar'.

The picture above is my version of the image this has always conjured up in my head when I hear this. It still makes me smile when I hear it.

Does anyone else have any other similar expressions that make them smile, I wonder?