Day Off Week 7 2025

My day off last Tuesday was similar to recent ones except that when I went on my walk on the Heath I went off my usual track and ended up in the Caffe Nero in Highgate, which I've not been in for a while. While in Highgate, I popped into the Oxfam shop and spotted a nice Paul Gallico illustrated book. I read some of The small miracle and started on the papers for the Affinity conference at the beginning of next month but my main reading was again David Copperfield. I also watched the University Challenge I'd missed and, in the evening, a bit of Miss Austen.

Day Off Week 6 2025

 

So it was on with the t-shirt and trainers again yesterday to live out anothe day off. I carrie on reading David Copperfield, which I am enjoying and also spent time on a collection of obtuaries from The Times on various muaicians from the rock world. As usual, I walked across the Heath and had some coffee. I also did some blogging and in the evening watched an episode of Silent Witness, rather gruesome but interesting.

Day Off Week 5 2025

Proper day off today. Dressed for it in t shirt and trainers, I headed off for a walk on the Heath quite early and had an early cuppa too, reading David Copperfield. Read quite a bit of that through the day (it's brilliant, of course) but also found time to watch the latest University Challenge, do some blogging and write a letter for someone, etc. Got some cheese in Waitrose to write up on my cheese blog. Near the end of the day I had bottle of pear cider that I bought from Marks and Spencer. Very nice.Reading Dickens description of Copperfield and the waiter brought back a memory of school days and acting out the scene in class (Year 8?). I was the waiter and sought to extract as much comedy from it as I could.

Day Off Week 4 2025

As last week, this was a slightly truncated day off. This time I had to be at a zppm meeting wth regard to a trust I serve. I managed to get some walking done later. I also went shopping - for cheese (see my cheese blog), reading glasses and a copy of David Copperfield, bought with some Christmas money. I have now started to read the Dickens and am enjoying. I also did some drawing in a 642 London book (also a Christmas present) and later watched an episode of an ITV drama.

Day Off Week 3 2025

More of a traditional day off this week after holidays and Carey in the first two weeks. It was unsual in that I have agreed to lead a discussion at the Pastors Academy on January 27 so I needed to finish the book and draw uo a set of questions which took up my morning. The book is by Leonardo de Chirico and is an introduction to Thomas Aquinas for evangelicals. This meant I had to postpone my walk on the Heath until the afternoon but I managed to get it done by sundown. Bumped into George Platt pastor of neighbouring Highgate Road Chapel with his new baby, Teddy. In the evening we watched the first two Silent Witnesses of the new season. It's an odd programme, quite pro-life in its own way.

Day Off Week 50 2024

A more formal day off this week. I went for a walk on the Heath, which is part of my usual routine these days. I had a coffee at Kenwood House. Two new books arrived - Jonathan Landry Cruse's Sing in exultation! (now going cheap at ICM). This is a devotional for Christmas making use of lines from Christmas hymns. It is nicely done with room to write your own thoughts (which I  have begun doing). It gives no information about the hymns themselves. I also got the 2008 P&R hardback The Incarnation in the Gospels (Reformed Expository Commentary) which turns out to be the relevant comments from the respective commentaries plus a few extras. I am also dipping into A poem for everyday of Christmas an anthology chiefly with children in mind. Good to read poems well known and obscure. Also reading Christmas Carol as I try to every year and Nutcracker which I don't think I've read all the way through before. Plus some John Fawcett for a project I have on. I also watched the Martin Scorsese documentary on The Beatles just out (more elsewhere) and then in the evening we watched the final episodes of Anthony Horowitz's Moonflower Murders. This dramatises the second of three novels he has done in the Agatha Christie style. All very clever. The solution not that good sadly but lots of fun on the way (apart from the over acting of Mark Gatiss). 

Day Off Week 48 2024

As I have remarked in the past even days off require organisation and yesterday could have been a better day for that. Anyway, I was up early enough and out to get a walk in and then a coffee at Kenwood House. Back here I watched the latest (nailbiting) University Challenge whoch I hadn't got to watch Monday. Through the day I read more of this Christmas detective novel I have mentioned, which is okay but I'm finding it difficult to remember who is who (not a problem if acted). In the evening, I watched the second episode of the current Wolf Hall. Brilliant as ever. Also got rid of a few more books at a charity shop, an ongoing task here.

Day Off Week 43 2024

Up fairly early and then off for a formal walk again ccncluded with a coffee. For lunch I had a Halloumi wrap in Leon, Brent Cross. Almost finished the Magnus Magnusson book on forgeries and a Beatles 100 Objects book. Watched D  I Ray to relax in the evening.

Day Off Week 42

This week's day off was a little different in two ways. Firstly, in that I decided to do some intentional walking. This will be part of my weekly routine from now on I hope. I caught the bus and train to Gospel Oak and walked back to Kenwood House, where I had a coffee then headed home. Also, it was different in that in the evening we were celebrating my esteemed father-in-law's 86th birthday. We had a Chinese take-away and then went to hear Jonathan Thomas at the London Seminary. More on that anon. The rest of my time was mainly taken up with reading a fascinating Magnus Magnusson book on fakers and frauds which I recently found on my bookshelves. More on that too some time.

Day Off Week 27 2023

I more or less followed the pattern of last week, starting with a long walk, ending with some TV and including perusing another art book (Warhol this time who I prefer to Klee) and buying some cheese to write about on my cheese blog. I also read most of John Benton's helpful book on resilience based on 2 Timothy. I also took a trip down to Trafalgar Square to see the new exhibition of photographs taken by Paul McCartney in late 1963 and in 1964. It is all done very well and  fascinating to spend time looking at. I also bought the paperback version of the accompanying book. These days one often turns ones photos into a little film and McCartney's stab at his colour ones from his Miami ones in colour is there to see. Perhaps it was a little pretentious to say he directed the film. Perhasp it's a joke, of course.

The photograph exhibition is at the National Portrait Gallery and is called Eyes of the Storm. See here.

Day Off Week 26 2023

I went for a walk on the Heath early in the day. I often do that but need to do it more often. I saw a sign outside the Chipotle in West Hampstead that I assumed meant chicken for a pastor so I went and had some. I also bought some Stilton for my cheese blog (see here). Plenty of reading, of course. A book on Paul Klee arrived and I read that. Not a Klee fan, I guess. A copy of the face on the front of the book (his best work I would say) used to hang in the chapel kitchen when I first got here. It was next to a portrait of the first pastor and so the then deacons used to joke that the first portrait was of the first pastor while the Klee was the one before me. Tres droll. I also read Gavin Ortlind's excellent book on humility and almost finished the book on Hitler and art by Charlie English I have been reading. Watched some TV in the evening.

Day Off Week 48 2022

I try and do a walk at least once a week. As I was planning to be out all day the next day, I decided lat Tuesday to do a walk on my day off, which I should be doing every time I guess. Anyway, I was up a little late but got a good walk in. Also made some phone calls. When I got to Golders Green Caffe Nero's coffee machine was broken so I had to go to Costa. First world problems, eh? Through the day I read all the essays in Christmas Lore and Legend by Llewelyn Powys. I've read some of them before but it was nice to read them all consecutively. Powys died in 1939 and his style is very much of its age. He is no Christian but he is sympathetic to many aspect of Christmas. Quite stimulating little collection.

Of course, Wales played England in the evening and that was fairly painful. Wales did well to hold them to 0-0 in the first half. Once Rashford scored, however, it was a blessing that we only conceded three. It has been good that Wales made the finals. At the very least people now know we exist. It is very interesting how Yma o hyd has taken off with the fans. I think there is probably greater cohesion between Welsh speakers and monoglots than ever. We all agree that the language is ours even though most of us don't speak it. We are more one nation than we have been in a long time and things like the football help. Having said that, Welsh society is as rotten through and through as English society and sport will never satisfy the spiritual hunger and thirst that is destroying is.

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 11 2020

I had to wait in for an hour or two for a man to fix our oven but when he arrived he did not have the spare parts so the visit was short one. Meanwhile I got on with reading (Hilary Mantel) walking (over 12,000 steps), having a coffee, listening to music, a little light blogging and so on. I also spent a while trying to sort out my large CD collection (over 400 in all I guess). I downloaded one I had not downloaded before to be my album of the day.

Day off Week 28 2019

This week is a bit different and so I took Monday off, the traditional ministers' day off. I took opportunity to head down to Benjamin Franklin's House near Charing Cross. Like most of these places, there is not that much to see and you have to use your imagination. However, it was in this very parlour that Franklin entertained American ambassadors, on these very stairs he carried his dumb bells and before these very windows he would parade naked to dry himself after his bath. They also have a glass armonica, his invention, the very one used for the Harry Potter music. The man who showed us round, American, was quite knowledgeable but not pushy. Sadly, it was only me and a couple from Texas present. After that I kept up the American theme and had a burger in a Five Guys round the corner. A seventies theme was playing out on the music system so after listening to Thin Lizzy we had the whole of Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven (the subject of our tract last Saturday). That was nice. Through the day I read most of Penelope Fitzgerald's masterful The Gate of Angels. I also managed my 10,000 steps for once. Watched some TV in the evening.

Day off Week 11 2019

So it was back to the day off this Tuesday. I got up early and dressed in jeans and trainers eager to make the most of the day. It was the usual mix of dog walking, coffee, newspaper quiizzes, reading adn TV. I managed to read Peter J Williams Can we trust the Gospels? picked up at kast week's conference. It is is not only an excellent apologetics book but is full fo all sorts of others good things too. I enjoyed, for example the brief chapter on contradictions, where he lists any number from John. His quotation from sceptic Bart Ehrman make the latter look pretty shallow in the light of what is said in the rest of the chapter. Not that this is a points scoring exercise. Williams simply wants us to see that there is every good reason to trust the Gospels. In the evening I enjoyed the last episode of Shetland with my wife who had been out working. Yes, it is not ideal for her to be out when I'm having my day off but it hard to see a way round it. No-one else is at home at the moment. The rest of the day I was busy catching up on the blogging front.

Day off Week 38

Really didn't feel good at the start of the day. Not sure exactly why. Rather downcast for no reaosn. As the day wore on I seemed to cheer up, however.

The arrangement this year will be that it's just me and Alffi the dog on Tuedays, which is fine but you do feel repsonsible. I should have begun with a long walk with him but I couldn't get going so I went for a short one and managed a bit more later on to get up to the 10000. Had a coffee en route and did some puzzles in the newspaper and then sat in the park. It was a funny day weatherwise, quite autumnal but warm too.

Back home I caught up on my Bible verse notes (I try to write something on at least one verse each day but often get behind) did some blogging and started a nice fat novel I spotted in a Charity shop the other day. At some point an engineer called asking me to open up the chapel so he could check the fire extinguishers, That didn't take too long and I took opportunity to carry on throwing out stuff from my chapel study which is in big need of a sorting. In the evening a church member came round for a brief chat about future plans in the church. Before bed we watched the next bit in a TV drama and the news. Not a bad day all told.

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."

Copa Cader Idris, Pengader

I like to do a bit of walking in the holidays and I persuaded two of my sons yesterday to accompany me up Cadair Idris, which I had not climbed before. We got up and down in the recommended five hours but I did find it a real struggle I confess. Unlike Snowdon, Cadair is uphill practically all the way and there are no cafes en route or at the summit. We took the Pony Path (Llwybr Pilin Pwn), which beginning in the north near Dolgellau. It is the easiest but the longest of the main trails. Its length from the mountain's base is 3.1 miles (5 k) with a 2,000 feet (600 m) climb. You start in  a wood with a stream nearby but it is soon more exposed. It was a perfect day for it. The cool breeze was much appreciated as we ascended. The views on such a clear day were stunning. Plenty of people were coming up and down but it was hardly crowded. I notice that Matthew Parris went up recently. See here.

Celebrity Walk

I do a good deal of walking these days, usually to Highgate and Hampstead. Normally, I don't see anyone famous. Then last week I passed comedian Alan Davies talking to someone about football as he took his kids to school one day and then on another day passed another comedian Terry Jones of Python fame, eliciting nervous hello in response to my beaming smile. Hat trick this week perhaps.