Day Off Week 12 2026

The day off this week was  a little different as we had a friend here from Aberystwyth. He arrived with a carer on Monday and left on Wednesday. On the Tuesday we went to the RAF museum, walked the dog, went to Brent Cross for pizza (Ian's shout) and watched an episode of Heartbeat (something I've never done before). He also found time to do some weeding and cleaning for us. Eeleri and I watched a bit of Capture on BBC in the evening.

Day off week 38 2019

Sorry to be late with this. It is very busy at the moment and it is hard to decide on things like Days off. Last week it was so busy I did not take an official one but felt I ought to this week. It fell on Eleri's birthday but she was working much of the day. She enjoyed opening her presents when she came home. We talked about going out to eat as a family but in the end we sent out for Domino pizza. Very nice. We two caught up on the itv drama A confession based on real life. During th day I was reading a book recently publsihed called Books fo furnish a painting. Very interesting.

55 years old

I was 55 last week and my wonderful wife arranged for us to enjoy a lovely meal at a local pizzeria. It was a very nice time.

(My youngest was with us most of the time but seems to have been hiding when these were taken).

Fast food

A combination of circumstances this week conspired to launch me into a survey of local fast food outlets. The order was

Monday Brent Cross MacDonalds (wrap and mozarella dippers)

Tuesday Hendon Domino's Pizza delivered (shared Hawaian and Meat feast with boys)

Wednesday Childs Hill Coral Bay chippy (curry, chips, steak and kidney pie)

Thursday Golders Green KFC (Boneless banquet)

Friday Golders Green Subway (12" meatball marinara with salad)

I had a coke with each one I think. It's not a very cheap way to live and is probably not very healthy. I enjoyed the Subway best, probably, and the KFC worst (I probably made the wrong menu choice). The chippy works out cheapest, the pizza most expensive. Some people don't like fast food but I don't mind it and it's nice that there's a bit of variety.

Bloggage

My, it's been busy this week. I haven't even had chance to write it up yet. Monday night we had a meeting at Cranford Baptist Church, West London, a support group for Robin and Muno Asgher, church planting there among Asians.

Then Tuesday night I was in the Evangelical Free Church in Stony Stratford Milton Keynes where I had agreed (in a moment of madness) to speak on Being a better parent. I'll let you know what I said in some subsequent posts. Some four churches were represented I think with over 30 people present. We had a nice question time at the end. I knew some of the folk but not most of them. I'd not met the pastor Robert Lightowler before.

Anyway, I headed back to London and got here around 11.30 pm. I'd agreed to take Rhodri down to Gatwick where he was due to catch a plane to Vietnam with Qatar Airways the next day at 9.15 am. Because it was so late I went through the centre of London and got back home by round 4 am and went to bed. Before six Rhodri was on the phone to say that there'd been a problem over his ticket and he needed me to come and redo it - by 8.15 am! So off I went again and after a prayerful but nerve wrenching trip I arrived at the south terminal again - only to find I needed to be at the north terminal! Just when Rhodri had given up I got to him and he was able to board the plane with only short while to spare. (We later heard, 26 hours later, that he'd made it to Sibyl in Hanoi via Doha and Singapore - but hadn't slept).

I came home via the M25 as I'd have to pay the congestion charge otherwise - same length of journey but around 30 miles longer. I was pretty tired by then but had agreed to be in a meeting at the Evangelical Library so I headed down to Baker Street and fortified by coffee made it through. I had some afternoon kip and finished preparation for the evening. We weren't many but we had a good time of prayer after looking at the end of Deuteronomy 15.

The next day we had someone here doing a survey. He's been booked to look at the house and the church over these few days. Niall is brother-in-law to one of my deacons' wives. He remembered sleeping here when he was still single years ago and courting Ali's sister. I'd quite forgotten.

My parents-in-law have also been around as Geoff was speaking at the Pilgrim Homes conference on dementia. Eleri went for the morning and thought it was useful. They treated us to a meal in Pizza Hut, Brent Cross, on the Thursday. Geoff is also preaching at the Evangelical Reformed Church in South Hackney on Sunday.

Only by today have I felt over my tiredness and a cold and have concentrated on more preparation for the Lord's Day with meetings for children and young people tonight. Good attendances.