Rugby Tours, Marriage Prep and life in general

Well hello everybody after a couple of weeks away and regular nagging about not posting I have decided to put you all into my misery. Last weekend Tom went on his annual rugby tour this year to Leamington. The weather was outstanding and the rugby was excellent as well. In previous tournaments Tom's team have lacked discipline and focus at times and have underachieved. This year they stepped up to the plate and showed what they could do when they tried hard. Unfortunately it was a long day and the last match was against the hosts and it was possibly a game to far. They lost concentration and lost the game to finish second. Their record for the day was Played 5 Won 3 Drawn 1 Lost 1. The festival was one of the most well organised I have ever seen. Photos to follow soon.

The hotel was OK but for my money the hotel last year was better. What is continually frustrating is that the hotels take the booking knowing that there is a bunch of young kids coming but make no provision in the sense of the swimming pool for them. This year I didn't travel on the coach. This caused a bit of annoyance in some quarters but Tom and I were quite happy with the arrangement. I drove down instead. I am coming to the conclusion that websites giving directions are about as much use as chocolate fireguards. I still had to resort to accosting a man with a dog and asking him for directions. In fact the directions I had sent me off in completely the wrong direction at one point. However, that aside I was less stressed and was able to have my music blaring out of the speakers as I avoided the large amounts of roadkill on Warwickshire's roads.

One annoyance over the weekend was that an arm dropped off my Wayfarer sunglasses. I had a screw loose apparently ( a line that I used many times and strangely nobody disagreed). On Monday as I was going into work I called in at Rayner's opticians in Huddersfield to see if they could fix the problem. They are about the only optician in Huddersfield left to try as everybody else has annoyed me at some point. The two blonde assistants (it just had to be really) were extremely helpful and set to work fixing my loose screw. When the work was done one turned to the other and said (with a straight face) " Do we charge for a screw and how much?" Her colleague replied "£1". I have to admit to nearly corpsing at this point but managed to retain my dignity and spare the ladies blushes.

As some readers may know, Alison and I are part of the deanery marriage preparation team. The team are currently in a state of mild narkiness with the priests as we set out limits and numbers we could cope with and we have been just ignored. At the last session we got the feedback forms from the couples attending. Two criticisms thrown at the team were that we were pushing the Catholic teaching and we were too gender specific. This midly confused and irritated me. In each couple there was at least one Catholic. They were getting married in a Catholic church and had been to see a Catholic priest about getting married. They were on a marriage preparation course designed by the Catholic church. What were they expecting to get, lectures in how to do it according to the church of the flaming sword of Las Vegas? Also since part of the course focuses on the differences between men and women that is only to be expected. The church's position on the subject hasn't changed in 2 millennia and isn'tlikely to in the next 2.

Well rant over for now. Reviews and photos to come probably next week as Tom has his end of season awards on Sunday. Off to chill out with my tai chi class this evening.

Toodles.
J

Stuff

Well everyone this is a post relatively free of film previews. That is largely due to the fact that the Radio Times is a day late due to the bank holiday. But I will rectify this situation in the next few days (always assuming there are any films worth watching.

So what else do I have to share with you. Well Tom played a rugby match against Rochdale RFU recently. It was the first time I have ever seen punches being thrown such young players. The referee was the chocolate fireguard type who wouldn't have seen anything even if it had happened right in front of him. In fact he was a disgrace. The only more biased demonstration of refereeing I have ever seen was at Sandal RUFC. Despite all this Tom's team won.

Some of you may know that I have recently taken up tai chi. This is my latest bid to actually do something to improve my fitness and battle my ever expanding Yorkshire front. Despite the fact that I haven't eaten any chocolate in 6 months I still haven't actually lost any weight. I haven't put any on though. I was expecting a gentle session in line with all the images you ever see but got a full on workout. Unfortunately my badminton playing days may have gone for a while due to my availability and childcare issues.

So having got through Holy Week I was not looking forward to the Good Friday service. Last year nobody noticed Jenni misbehaving because of the chaos engendered by Fr Vitalis but we couldn't be that lucky two years running. It was Fr Peter this year, he is the university chaplain and a great preacher. He tolerates Jenni far more than I do. During the reading of the Passion he said it would be alright for people to sit down as this was the word of God not an endurance test. Jenni was relatively well behaved and went up for the veneration of the Cross. I was worried when Jenni just stood there and looked at it but she then looked at me looked back at the Cross and bowed toward it and walked off.

On other church related matters the deanery's usual reconciliation service was abandoned for a day of reconciliation this year. There would be priests available all day to hear confessions. When we arrived there was a queue, no surprise there. Unfortunately there was only one priest available. He finished on the dot at 11 am and the people who had come in at the end of the queue jumped to the front without any thought or consideration. But I have come to expect such behaviour from the people of Huddersfield given that it occupies 9th place in the insurance scams league table.

Well coming up are Tom's rugby tour and also I am counting off the days before we go on holiday. Rainy Donegal days await.