Weekend doings

What's the link?

Here we are again, out the other side of 'the sermon'. My audience nearly had to do without any visual aids, as another disaster befell my poor old laptop in the form of a sprinkling of elderflower cordial, resulting in the blanking of my screen before I'd put the powerpoint on my memory stick. However with a torch shining on the screen the transfer was eventually achieved. Phew! People seemed encouraged at the end. I talked about the deep link between Sunday worship and weekday life.

Before I rush on, however, I must go back to Saturday afternoon when we had the first MNDA meeting of the New Year at the Pear Tree Holiday Inn. What a good time! Sat next to my friendly 'herb farmer', David. First off we had a debrief on last year's International Symposium on MND/ALS (in Orlando) from the amazing Rachel Marsden, our local MND nurse coordinator, and heard about things like supra-glottal swallowing, compassion fatigue in carers and state-of-the-art green (environmentally) houses for independent living. After the break, his friend Dr Martin Turner gave us a presentation about Patrick Joyce, the incomparable optimist, who's an artist with MND. His aim is to paint 100 portraits of people who inspire him before he dies. Lovely young father, with an impish sense of humour and a gutsy determination. We were told that he's presenting an exhibition of his paintings in Oxford's beautiful Natural Science Museum in April. Made me feel a bit inadequate, if I'm honest.

http://www.mndoxfordshire.org/

The best thing about the meetings, as I've said before, is meeting folk. This time it was a new family, of whom their mum, Lorraine, was diagnosed with MND last year. Her son, Matt, and four friends are running the Reading Half Marathon in aid of MND care and research on 20th March. Here's the team. They can be sponsored on http://www.justgiving.com/TeamDiddy. 


Today's main decision was whether to replace my faithful friend, the laptop. Well, actually I made the decision last night and had second thoughts today. But now, "Alea iacta est," as Julius Caesar said, as he crossed the Rubicon. The die is cast. Norman tells me I've overused it - and he's probably right. I reckon a few more books are called for to merit the investment. So less waffle and more application.

I suppose that means less sport-watching. What a good thing we don't have Sky! Though Murray being walloped by Djokovic was on the BBC - I was spared that by my preaching engagement - phew! Big problem - the rugger starts again on Friday. Well, I suppose I am allowed weekends, aren't I?                      
Oh, I almost forgot, by way of light relief, a visit to my gentle dentist this morning, who painlessly patched up my carious teeth. A special needs dentist, she's worth her weight in gold. And talking of different special needs, I hope you didn't miss Countryfile on Sunday when Adam the farmer went to visit Pennyhooks Farm. It's a farm which works with young people, giving them life skills and education, and where Rachel does some of her work. If you didn't you can see it 14 minutes into this:  Countryfile including 'care farms'. I think it's impressive.

http://www.pennyhooks.com/