Tuesday Jan 30th
On Saturday evening we went to a wonderful performance of "The Pirates of Penzance" at Richmond's Orange Tree theatre. This was a delightful evening, organised by friends, with a buffet supper at their house beforehand, and delicious cakes and puddings afterwards....and the G and S was simply splendid, very cleverly done and with some extra verses added to the Major-General song to refer to current events, and a wonderful slick ending with some glorious punning on Shakespeare and....oh, just a very authentic Gilbert and Sullivan carried out in modern dress and with a fast pace and magnificent singing. Hugely enjoyable.

Home late, and then I was up early on Sunday morning to get to London from where I was catching a coach to Preston. Dropped in to the Cathedral first: I happened to meet Fr Mark Langham, the administrator, and we had a brief chat. He has always been v. helpful re the "Towards Advent" Festival every Autumn and makes things efficient and pleasant for us.....of course we spoke of the events of this past week, with the Cardinal in the headlines....."tell him he's got lots of support......it's just so horribly wrong that a Govt tries to force a Church to act against Church teaching" I said, and hoped that others would be expressing this solidarity too.

To Preston, after a long coach journey during which I completed a patchwork quilt I have been making for a friend's new baby. I used to get horribly ill on coaches, but things have improved and the newer coaches are sooooo much smoother and seem to have quite a different feel, and one can read or sew and not feel sick at all. I don't know Preston well, but St Walburga's is easy to find because of its immensly tall spire (third tallest in England? Or so I have been told). Its presbytery now houses a small community of Fanciscan Friars, who have been given the care of the spiritual needs of Catholics at the University of Central Lancashire.

Mass in the small house-chapel, then a chicken-curry fork supper, and chairs drawn up for people to listen to my talk on "Celebrating traditional feasts and seasons". It was a cheery evening, and I enjoyed the company of the students - an international group, with some from India and some from Barbados. Fr Mark, the Guardian of the Franciscans, beamed and seemed v. happy. Taking on the chaplaincy is a big challenge, as the University is in a sense a far-flung organisation, with many students living some distance out of the town, and many on part-time courses, and considerable difficulties to be faced in trying to establish contact with the Catholics among them and communicate the message that there is a Chaplaincy there for them, a centre for evangelisation and faith.....

I stayed the night with kind relations who live in Preston - a warm welcome and a comfortable time of catching up with news, then the next morning a good breakfast and sandwiches for the journey home.....