Saturday Dec 23rd
A happy hectic week.

Wonderful meeting of the Catholic Cultural Group on Wednesday: Maggie Fergusson gave us a talk about her biography of Scottish poet George Mackay Brown. What a fascinating subject, any why hadn't we heard of this poet before? His work is superb, evocative of the Orkneys where he spent all his life, tender in exploring the great mystery and reality of the Faith. Maggie's book is a must-read.

We also had a quiz, produced for us by Amanda Hill, a former finalist for Mastermind. (We have TWO former Mastermind finalists in the CCG - the other was our Chantal Thompson, at whose flat we were meeting.) Over delicious mulled wine and mince pies and other goodies - Chantal an excellent hostess - we called out the answers to questions about Christmas traditions, London history, saints, quirky bits of Catholic heritage, and more....

Two members of Miles Jesu (excellent new Catholic movement, involved in many good ventures in London) were there to tell us about their fund-raising CONCERT at Westminster Cathedral Hall on Jan 14th: Mozart, Debussy, Saint-Saens, and more.....email them at continuity@fsmail.net. I shall certainly be there.

Thursday saw a biggish group carol-singing again, this time at Waterloo station. The core of the group is Yvonne Windsor, with people from her local parish of St Simon in Putney, with various other friends added....money raised will go to LIFE (helping mothers and babies) and to the St Vincent de Paul Society. We sang and sang, and it was deeply enjoyable....people especially like "Ding Dong merrily...." and "Deck the halls with bows of holly....." Gentler, "lullaby" carols such as "Little Donkey" or "The Little Drummer Boy" just don't work on railway stations - the things to sing are the very well-known ones that can raise the roof.....

Last night J. had arranged for us to meet a young Australian friend, currently studying in Rome, who was flying to London for Christmas....but alas, very few people were flying to London yesterday and he, like lots of others, got stuck in the ghastly muddle caused by the fog at Heathrow. So J. and I ended up having a quick Chinese meal together and hurrying home through a Christmassy London, and caught the train home from Waterloo. As part of the treat, we bought some blueberries and chocolate-covered strawberries at the station, with the plan that we'd eat them on the train. I had brought Charles Kingsley's "Hereward the Wake" to read (it's not terribly good, but has a fascinating prologue with lots of information on all the kings in the period immediately before the Norman Conquest...something that I started to research when I had to write something about Edward the Confessor for the Catholic Times a while back.....). Cosy train, interesting reading material, dark night outside....all v. agreeable. I passed J. a delicious choc-strawberry, and ate one myself. Rather posh lady sitting next to me exuded very strong air of disapproval. I could feel it postively in almost electric waves. I popped in another strawberry. More disapproval. The lady and her daughter had a v. Wimbldon-ish look, so I knew they get out there. Almost tangible sense of relief when they did. OK, OK, I know it's horrid to eat on a train....but just the odd choccy? Perhaps I should have offered her one.

This morning, the delight of a long chatty phone call from my sister in New ealand....made
Christmas suddenly come alive....

And now we're about to pack the car and head for J's family in the country. "Hurry!" he's shouting....picnic packed, with hot soup. Presents in a lovely big bag just sent from Australia. Spare bed linen. Bag of Christmas goodies including cherry-topped cake bough last night at Waterloo.....