Day Off Week 45 2022

I was still ill last Monday (not quite there even now by the end of the week) but as I tried to get back to normal I took my usual Tuesday day off but took time to do one or two things. I watched a film in the morning from the part of history I probably know best. When I went out I picked up the latest Private Eye. My favourite cartoon, I think, was a man in a tie hauled in front of a tieless committee. "We see you are weariing a tie" they say. Also watched University Challenge in the evening (currently being shown on Tuesdays due to rugby league). The latest Free Grace Broadcaster arrived. Very interested to see the title - conscience. See here.

Day Off Week 46 2020

It's limited what you can so on a lockdown so it was the old faithful - reading - this time round. I was at a funeral in Wales the day before so I was tired (more on that later). I'd picked up a Private Eye on the way home so I could read that. I also dipped into the review pages of last Saturday's Times - something I rarely find time to do. I also pulled one of those unread books off the shelf and enjoyed a modernised version of Beowulf. I must admit that despite studying Beowulf in university I'm quite vague on it so I was glad I read this abridged version by Julian Glover.

Day Off Week 22 2020

It was half term last week and so I shouldn't have really had a day off as such but I did. I did some walking, which has been conspicuous by its absence until last Friday when Eleri and I did some walking in Regents Park and I got over the 10,000 mark. I managed it again on my day off. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Caffe Nero is now open in Golders Green and so I got a takeaway cuppa when I went to the Post Office. Reading wise it was Private Eye, the paper and a book on American presidents I had for my birthday. I have enjoyed Gimson on our PMs and sovereigns and he seems to have this sewn up too. I think there was a bit of TV later in the day.

Day off Week 10 2020

This week is proving to be a little more normal so we had a formal day off on Tuesday and did the usual things including getting a coffee, reading and watching TV. Reading matter included the latest Private Eye and a new printing of John Newton's diary for 1764, the year he became the incumbent in Olney, Buckinghamshire. Marylynn Rouse has done a stirling work of scholarship (a scholarship that is not too snooty to mention the Beatles and World War II in the footnotes) to produce this. Well worth getting (see here). TV intake included University Challenge online and (recorded) the first in the new series of Liar (which struggled a bit I thought).

Day off Week 48 2019

Pretty typical week off this week - reading, walking, Private Eye, TV, etc. I read most of Mission at Nuremberg which I started reading a while back then put down but took up again recently having read the HHhH book. The whole Nazi era is endlessly fascinating and there were things here I did not know or had forgotten. I read a much shorter book on similar lines by F T Grossmith many years ago. This is a larger book that gives you the whole of the life of Major Gerecke the Protestant chaplain as well as plenty of other material on the history of chaplaincy, Lutheranism, etc, etc. The writer is lucid and fair minded but liberal in his theology. It is clear that several Nazis made credible professions of faith and some refused to believe but it is hard to be sure what to make of it all. In many ways Gerecke's pastoral work was similar to that of any other pastor.

Day Off Week 46 2019

A fairly typical day off this week. I read the new Private Eye and the newspaper over coffee. There was some transferring of files from one computer to another and some blog work. I also finished two books I might have mentioned, Michael Messenger on Elgar and Laurence Binet's novel come reportage - very interesting style (a bit of a pain in places) - on Reinhard Heydrich and his assassins. Also some TV later.

Day off week 44 2019

One of the tasks of most days off is to put away the clothes that magically appear washed and ironed every few days. My wife is a hard woman who expects me to actually put them away. Alo this week I spent a little while putting the hundred and more books that seem to have accumulated around and under my bed over the months into a rickety booksheld brought in from elsewhere. Otherwise I had a ood long chat with a friiend in North Wales by phone and read Private Eye and most of a little biography of Elgar that I picked up in acharity shop recently. There was alos time for blossing and trawling through my computer archives sorting things. I added several pieces to my pulished articles blog. See here.

Day off week 42 2019

As the above picture reveals I got over to Keats House again and this time I got to see round the place - for the first time in ages. I like Keats but have never got round to the longer poems. Much of the rest of the day was taken up with editing two chapters of a new edition of a book about music (sounding a bit cryptic there but I don't want to give too much away). I am also working on a the history of our local church and that is almost done. There was time too to read the latest Private Eye, a little bit of the book for Monday (F V Fesko First things last) and some TV with Eleri.

Day off week 36 2019

It was a very full day the latest day off, which is good. I had to visit the dentist first thing - all well there - and make a trip to collect something from the doctor's. Before and after that I did some emails and blogging before heading out with my son to St Giles, Cripplegate, near the Barbican. I had been reading recently about how Milton and Fox are buried there, etc. There's not much to see, as I expected but just to know such people once walked those streets is something. We had lunch in a  Wrap it up! which was knew to us - a nice wrap each (mine Mexican, his Portuguese). We then walked to Aldersgate Street where Wesley's heart was strangely warmed and had a quick look at Postman's Park. I not ice that this is where City Presbyterian Church now is. I had not realised that. Anyway, we were home fairly early and there was time to begin reading the latest Private Eye and I almost finished a lovely book on Bach by Horatio Clare. I did that listening to Focus 3 which is still an absolutely amazing album. After an evening meal I watched some TV - talking head documentaries on the Rise of the Nazis and on Harvey Weinstein. Interestingly, people have so low view of women that they assumed they were willing to give sexual favours to get parts. Also, Weinstein was not in trouble until he lost his power. Meanwhile I tried to follow the news of the day - strange times. Glad to see I managed to get over the 10,000 steps mark today.

Links: St Giles, Wrap it up!, Postman's Park, City Presbyterian, Rise of the Nazis, Untouchable

Day off week 26 2019

My day off this week was fine. Eleri was in work then had the women's meeting at church - not ideal. I'm planning to go to the Benjamin Franklin museum but it is not open on Tuesdays. No dog to look after but I took a little walk and had a coffee. I like to read Private Eye which comes out fortnightly. For once I got hold of it on a Tuesday and read it through - the ideal pattern. I also read a book by Jim Packer I bought last week - Finishing our course with joy. According to Packer, I'm five years too early for a book like this but I found it helpful. His main point is that as you get older people want you to just relax and put your feet up but he says no. I think it is this that has been annoying me as I've reached sixty. Good stuff (and in larger print!). We have our friend from Germany Stefan here again. He has been enjoying the EMA, which is in Westminster Chapel this year. Good to catch up with him in the evening.

Day off week 48

Rather a lazy day in some respects. I started off by wearing the t-shirt and jeans, which seems to help. I then took Alffi for a long walk to Highgate and got the bus back. My walking target was soon met. I listened to a recent In our time on Mari Antoinette, which I enjoyed. I like to take the fortnightly Private Eye but never seem to see it on a Tuesday. I managed it this time, however, and so hopefully that can be a pattern on alternate Tuesdays in future (although that reads Dec11 then 25!). I also read 10 chapters of a nice children's book I picked up in a charity shop yesterday. It is Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio (well translated some years ago by Emma Rose). I also read a bit more of my Christmas novel. I wanted to do other things but rather petered out in the afternoon. In the evening we had a visit from my father-in-law and Barbara and after they had gone we watched the first episode of the new drama Mrs Wilson.

Another day off

This week's day off began with a shower and some porridge before eight. I should have had devotions before going out but I left it until later.* I like to write something each day and truth is I had gotten behind so I knew it would take a while. Thankfully, we're all up to date now which is not an achievement in itself but it makes me feel better.

The main things the rest of the day were first taking Alffi for a long walk to Highgate. We'd soon clocked 10,000 steps. A coffee and crossword there were enjoyable. Much of the rest of the time went on working on a local church history I am trying to finish. By the end of the day I was pretty much there. I now have the bones of a 6 chapter 85 page book covering the story from the 1860s to today.

I also watched the football (Nigeria Argentina) ordered some Cds and books and got some emails out of the way. I also dipped into the current Private Eye. Very little reading or blogging and no DIY this time. There is a plumbing job needs doing and we need new blinds for our bedroom. Later.

* M'Cheyne says somewhere

"I ought to pray before seeing any one. Often when I sleep long, or meet with others early, it is eleven or twelve o'clock before I begin secret prayer. This is a wretched system. It is unscriptural. Christ arose before day and went into a solitary place. David says: 'Early will I seek thee'; 'Thou shalt early hear my voice.' Family prayer loses much of its power and sweetness, and I can do no good to those who come to seek from me. The conscience feels guilty, the soul unfed, the lamp not trimmed. Then when in secret prayer the soul is often out of tune, I feel it is far better to begin with God - to see his face first, to get my soul near him before it is near another."