Mike's musings

'At

Jo got us up at 0700, but I pleaded jetlag, and Moo took her downstairs. In the end, I woke up at 0935 or thereabouts: just in time to get to church for 1030. Bishop Christopher, +Chelmsford (kind of my boss) was due to take the service at Stambourne, so I thought I ought to show my face, and Jo I got there for 1025 or so. Walked past the notice-board, which stated that the service started at 1000. Whoops. So, we got there just as the bishop was starting his sermon. I caught a bit of this before taking Jo into the tower area to play with some toys. She's really pretty good, and keeps very quiet, but it's unfair to expect her to participate and just stay still in the pews. She likes the hymns, though, and sometimes sings along.

We passed the peace (a part of the service where the congregation go around greeting each other, usually with words like "The peace of the Lord be with you"), and Jo got very into it: shaking hands with people and then kissing them if she got the chance! The ladies in the congregation (mainly older) loved it. We went up for communion, and Jo got a blessing, and we were standing at the end of the aisle when the bishop and Keith came down the nave. To be fair, I had set Jo up slightly by pointing out what a good hat the bishop was wearing earlier on, but I was very pleased to hear her say, very clearly "'At!" as he came down towards us.

Later, after lunch (and a sleep from Jo) we went to Sudbury to ditch an old hoover and huge amounts of old computer pieces (including 3 towers, 2 printers, 2 sets of speakers and a monitor). Unluckily, there'd been a fire at the tip, so we went on to Hadleigh, and got rid of it there. We then went into Hadleigh and walked around a bit, going into the church, looking round, singing a hymn/song ("Lord of the Dance" - Moo joined in) and generally getting the feel of the place. Jo was wearing a hat, and given her outburst this morning, I encouraged her to get used to wearing one in church...