AND SO IT CONTINUES ...

Still with Jill and Tom, after writing the last blog, we went along to the local church on Sunday for a 5pm 'Carols and Lessons' by candlelight service, followed by the lighting of the tree on the village green and then canapes in the local village hall.

Sadly this photograph didn't turn out very well.  I'd like to say it was the dim candlelight and speed at which it was taken (in case I got caught!)  but I fear I simply wasn't "up to" the challenge.  This picture is MEANT to show the Squires Box and some beautiful panelling, but misses badly.

It was a lovely service taken by a retired Irish clergyman who referred to Jesus as the bairn in the stable   - but the 12 members of the choir sang valiantly, with gusto and all the readers were under the age of 15 or 16, at a guess.  I  was particularly interested to learn that the King James Version was completed in 1611 (400 years ago) and we stood for the reading of John 1: 1-11 because it was the first scripture to be read in a service (evidently) at that Christmas.  I guess all you good Anglicans at home already know that but it was news to me.

Tom later told me that he had attended an exhibition to mark the occasion earlier in the year and he had found it very interesting - certainly a large contrast to having Mary's fiance Joseph mentioned in one reading, and the babe in strips of cloth in another.

I'm now in Sevenoaks - still in Kent - spending a last few days with Jill's sister and niece. (2nd cousins by marriage, on mum's side)  Yesterday Julia (whose wedding I attended a couple of UK visits ago) and I had a lovely day with Darcy (whose 3rd birthday was held last time I was in Kent)

... and watching a spot of Pepper Pig.  Thankfully I managed to thrash (well, scraped in) Julia in a game of Phase 10 in the evening, thus managing to even the score from the game we played when I was last in Sevenoaks.

Today I moved to the other side of the town, to Christine's where Darcy entertained us with memory games on granma's computer ... and then we three, plus Julia, went out to lunch at St Julian's (see Darcy's 3rd birthday) to meet up with Christine's friend Jenny.

Jenny is a lovely lady who is a "blue badge guide" in London and it was she who took us (2 years ago) into London to visit the London Eye and walk through Westminster Abbey.

So it seemed only right for Jenny, Christine and me to board a train and travel into the Tate Gallery where we saw an exhibition by Barry Flanagan.  Christine is particularly enamoured by his bronze castings ... particularly his hares (though he also did elephants and dogs).  Unfortunately the exhibition was of his earlier works (pre hares) but it was lovely being able to wander around such a vast building sited on the Thames embankment.

 Jenny and Christine cunningly disguised below the pillars - like me, Christine is a bit camera shy!

Ever the blue badge guide, as we left the exhibition Jenny pointed out the side of the building which is pocked with shrapnel damage from the war.  I'd never have noticed it in a million years, but it really was amazing, though not very obvious in this picture.  I take the view that I take a photo and if it comes out it's a bonus.   It was pitch black, though only 5.15 pm, so use some imagination, perhaps? 

 From there we went to Westminster Abbey - this photo was taken with our backs to the Abbey, towards the Houses of Parliament with the (blue) London Eye in the background.  Look hard enough and you'll pick out a Christmas tree in front of Parliament too - and the fact that the light is glowing above the clock, in the tower, indicates that Parliament is in session at the time.  (more Jenny info!)

We were in that vicinity because Jenny had invited Christine and me to attend the Blue Badge Guide Carol Service at St Margaret's Church, Westminster Abbey.  (move over Wills and Kate)  It too was a lovely service - I couldn't help realising the enormity of it all when, during the first carol it occurred to me that this most definitely was a "once in a lifetime" opportunity ... little old me amongst all these London guides and much pomp, singing carols with the best of them!

For the second time (the first one being in West Peckham on Sunday) Silent night's chorus was sung in german and there were 'performances' included - one from Shirley Valentine about her son's Nativity Play performance and the reading of  'Christmas Truce 1914' by Captain R J Armes.  Both relevant and thought provoking, but not something I've ever experienced in a service of that nature before.

It's been an amazing day.   I was so keen to share it, I'm sitting up in my bed at 12.45 a.m. writing it up.

This trip keeps bringing up more and more unexpected amazing moments - I have indeed been very spoilt - from the first outdoor concert I attended with Steph and Ray at the beginning of my stay (when 'my'  portaloo door flew open, revealing me to an astonished audience) to a very luxurious "ladies" in the Tate Gallery with automatic taps in the hand basins and very posh hand washing liquid.

This retirement lark has a lot going for it!