On Sunday...

...I swept up and stacked leaves in the garden, cycled to Mass, ate some brunch, cycled on to Mother's (good natter, plans for the week ahead), cycled on to the station, put the bike on the train, got to London, parked and padlocked bike near Westminster Cathedral, got Tube to Kings Cross and thence to Hatfield where I was guest speaker at the University of Hertfordshire Catholic Society.

This was great fun, a good crowd, and a pleasure to spend the evening with them and with their splendid chaplain Fr Mark Vickers at St Peter's church, Hatfield This is a large church and has a particularly beautiful Crucifix in the sanctuary: a noble and arresting image to which everything else is somehow drawn. Evening Mass, and then people gathering in an adjoing hall for the talk.

I am constantly impressed by the young people at such gatherings: among some Catholics there is a sense of great loyalty to the Church, interest in the Faith, a desire to spread it. This is not the 1970s. The mood and "feel" of things among younger people in the Church contains so much hope...

Later, after a good dinner and most enjoyable conversation, a train back to Town, and I collected my bike and set off for home via Waterloo. I hadn't allowed for the hassle of weekend engineering works: trains replaced by buses at Clapham Junction. How to get my bike on to a double-decker red London bus? The other passengers v. supportive -"Oh, go on, let her on - look, there's room." But the driver said it was against safety regulations and I was in despair, thinking I'd have to leave it (vulnerably, outside Clapham Jn railway station) and face a long walk at the final end of my journey. But the team of bus staff were kind- "We'll get you home, don't worry"- the next one along would be a coach, with a big luggage compartment, not to worry...and they stacked it safely in and I rode home in style.

A good Sunday.