Grace Under Pressure 2

  In ground breaking news Grace Under Pressure can reveal that  the British Geological Society have reported minor seismic activity with its epicentre being located in the the grounds of St Georges chapel in Windsor castle. The cause of this unusual occurance it thought to be due to the Queen turning in her grace.   Meanwhile the banned old ex Duke of York or 'Andrew formerly known as Prince' to give him his latest title, is hoping that the government really crack on with building all these homes for 1st time buyers trying to get their foot on the propety ladder. Either that or Rachel Reeve's is still looking for a (dis) reputable tenant as soon as she gets the licensing issues sorted out for her vacant house.

   It's not going to be a new ballroom at the White House, it's going to be an Orangery...

Sometimes it's lovely to be surprised. Especially if that surprise is a lovely one. Yesterday my mobile rang which was a surprise in itself as less than three people actually have the number. Now the chances of it actually being switched on and me actually being anywhere near it are so low even Paddy Power wouldn't quote odds but yesterday both of those things aligned.  And so imagine my surprise when it was not a cold caller tring to sell me cavity wall insulation but my Camino buddies, Rocco, Stephano and Ernesto ringing up via video call from Sicily where they were all enjoying a lovely lunch together.  Rocco is over in that part of the world connecting with his Italian heritage, whilst Ernesto had flown down to Sicily from near Milan where he lives. Stephano of course was on home turf and acting as the generous host. It was just a few minutes but long enough to raise a glass in memory of our time together walking the Del Norte. A lovely, lovely pick me up.    

As the nation contiues to be transfixed by Celebtiry Traitors (or simply Claudia Winkleman's increasingly bizarre fashion sense) Grace Under Pressure cannot help but be gobsmacked by how super polymath and renowned genius Stephen Fry has been contantly out manouvered, out witted and out smarted by Alan Carr. One by one people have been wrongly eliminated just because of a 'vibe' or think they have been murdered in their bed because they are seen as a threat, whereas in reality its just because they are dull as ditch water or plain bellends.   It's painful to watch contestantsbecome so convinced that person A is a traitor only to not vote for they when around the big table. And let's be honest who is going to be the first one to point the finger at family fart favourite Celia Imre. Will I remain faithful to the end or turn traitor and realign my TV affections? I think there is more chance of Claudia losing her trademark fringe and foregoing her spray tan than that ha...

 Today I have just come back from a meeting with my chair of distrct and the lay stationing rep to finalise the 'extensive' list of churches that I am interested in. And whilst the process is not yet over I am glad that this bit has been done.  Trying to look through the limited number of profiles that were both geographically suitable and also suited me has occupied far too much head space in this past week. So much so that all I can now think about are all the things that I can't do. And that's a long list believe me!!. Thankfully I was not cajoaled into adding places to my list that I didn't really think were a reasonable fit and I think that if asked to go to one of my top three choices then i won't be too much of a round peg in a square hole  All I do now is wait until Thursday 13th Nov when I will receive a phone call telling me where I have been invited to visit. But for the moment I feel that after a week of seemingly holding my breath I can finally brea...

    Sunday 28th June 2026....somewhere near Telford. More nearer the time. 

  It was another opportunity to gatecrash an organised event today with the running of the Monsal Trail 10km and half marathon. The route was along, yes you've guessed it. the Monsal trail, site of the former  Midland Railway line that ran between Manchester and London  that was closed in 1968 as part of the Beeching report and later turned into a recreational trail in1989.  Now whilst I admire organisations that organise such events I cannot for the life of me understand why people would want to pay £30 to run along a public footpath that they can just run along anyway. It's not as if there are any significant navigation issues involved apart from when to turn around and run the other way. Unless you classify a cup of water on route and yet another medal at the end as being worth £30. So on a glorious autumn day I simply set off from the starting point approx 15 mins before the official race began and waited to see how long it would be before anyone caught me. Surpr...

Released in 1978, 'And then there were three' is the 9th studio  album released by Genesis. It's title refers to the number of members remaining in the band following the departure of long term guitarist Steve Hackett during the mixing of their live album Seconds Out.  It is probably the first of their albums that I came into contact with mainly as a result of their hit single 'Follow you, Follow me' which became the bands first top 10 hit in the UK reaching the dizzy heights of number 7 And then there were three is also the number of possible places that I am now looking to move to next summer, following on from a visit to two other possible places this morning, one of which was quickly resigned to the 'no' bin whilst the other is currently stacked on the 'if all else fails' shelf. it shows thats it's worthwhile to pay a visit to prospective places rather than just relying on the information contained within the 2 sided A4 profiles that are offe...

  Following the pilfering of valuable trinkets, baubles and other shiny items from the Louvre in downtown Paris last week, news of another daring theft has come to the attention of Grace Under Pressure. Speaking exclusively to our esteemed and criminal under rated crime reporter, Katcha Theef, a visibly shell shocked resident of Hucknall explained how he was not just an on the spot witness but a victim of this daring theft. "I've always wanted to go to visit Chatsworth House. I've driven past it on loads of occasions and even run in and around its spacious grounds but have never actually visited until now. So me and me other 'arf decided we go and have a nosey around. It was alright I supposed if you like big houses full of tat but it didn't really float our boats, so we cut the guided tour short and headed for the cafe for some mid morning nibbles." "I just ordered coffee and a scone with jam for the two of us. When the woman on the till explained how mu...

 

At the moment I am unable to see the wood for the trees. Or to be more specific all that seems to be jumping out from the 5 profiles I have managed to select from the now almost 90 on offer are the things I cannot do, have little experience in, or don't really want to get engaged with, rather than all the things I know I am good at. And remember I only have 5 to look at. Now I know that churches all try to promote not just what they do (or claim to do) but also list all their hopes, dreams and aspiration, whether they are capable of achieving them or not. And off course churches will be looking at the profiles of ministers who all appear to be better than Jesus. But all of this is proving to be unsettling.   I don't think my two ministerial friends, Pete and Peter, are fairing any better and both of those are happy to take on a superintendents role, something I refuse to do, and so have even more possible matches to look at.  I just need to know where I have been invited ...

  Randy Handy Andy

So with just over 5 weeks or so to go before the BIG Benidorm event, today was a chance to gatecrash another run round Carsington event as part of my 'training' Having not run since last Saturdays almost 10 mile effort due to a mixture of apathy and just couldnt be bothered, I left TOM reading Boris Johnson's Unleashed and got ready to hit the trails on an overcast but lovely autumn day. As on previous occasions the aim was to plan my run  to coincide with having completed half a loop of the reservoir ( low water levels) just in time to catch the start of the 10km run which began on its opposite bank. And then to see how long I could keep ahead of the 235 half marathon runners, who had sent off running in the opposite direction to where I had started 30 minutes earlier before switching back and chasing down all the 274 people who had entered the 10km event. With my phone tucked securely in my backpack pocket I was able to provide some banging and not so banging tunes to any...

  In 2018 when I last moved there were 143 appointments available. This year there are less than 85 and out of those only 4 look hopeful.

Today should have been the day when I was swiping left or right. But it isn't. No don't worry I am not back on the dating scene, hitting Tinder, Bumble and  Hinge with the ferocity of a texting teenager.  Rather today was supposed to have been the day when the booklet containing all the profiles of available church appointments dropped. And given that it was dropping electronically I had set aside the day from 9am to begin the process of swiping left or right, or to be more precise scrolling up and down. Scrolling to eliminate those that are geographically unsuitable. Scrolling to then eliminate from those, the ones that are wanting a superintendent. And finally scrolling to reduce that number to those that might actually be a fit re the actual appoinment.  Except I haven't been scrolling because due to some sort of FU down the line, the booklet isn't ready to be sent out. Frustrated and annoyed doesn't even come close to describing how I feel.

  TV moment of the year

Almost 7 minutes of utter gorgeousness.  

the most adaptable word in the English language?

Today has been the 1st of possibly 4 talks about my recent trip to Santiago. One that has taken me almost as long to put together as it did to complete the actual walk. Not easy to know where to begin when you have over 600 video clips and almost as many photographs to try to edit down into a 'reasonable' time frame  And not really knowing what people want to know makes the parameters quite wide. I eventually manged to undo most of the technological tangles that had so infuriated me earlier in the week and was pretty confident that the final product was good to go. The question was always would it, channeling my inner Dennis Norder,  be alright on the night. Thankfully apart from one minor blip when a slide froze it went smoothly enough. Pre talk I had a running loop of images taken from the pilgrimage which helped to set the scene for those who arrived early and by the time 6pm rolled around the church was pretty full with people drawn from across the circuit.  I tried t...

  With TOM heading off to Sheffield on one his 'old lady shoping trips', I had the day to myself to try and get a little bit longer run under my belt in preperation for Benidorm. Where the word 'longer' is off course relative to my usual pedestrian plods.  With a lovely day promised and a desire to both run some trails but also some hill, I had the choice of joining what would have been a sedate but enjoyable trip with the Youlegrave Harriers for a 7 mile jolly round Hartington or heading out on my own for a longer, almost 10 mile loop, from Rowsley around Chatsworth house and grounds and back to Rowsley on my Jack Jones. In the end the latter won out.  I had hoped to run with my in ear headphones whilst listening to some banging tunes from my phone. Unfortunatly the headphones didn't seem to want to pair up with the phone or when they did it was as such a low volume I couldn't hear the song over my huffing and puffing.  So being true to my nature of always thin...

The highways department in downtown Washington DC were having to bring in extra staff this morning as all the toys were thrown out of the Presidential pram following a right old Tan-Trump after hearing the news that he had not won the Nobel Peace Prize.  Despite his enormous efforts in stopping at least seven of the world's biggliest wars that no one else actually knew were taking place, President Trump is reported to have thrown the mother of all hissy fits when discovering that the Nobel Committee had awarded the prize to someone who hadn't spent the past 6 months actively campaigning for the award. Issuing a series of tweets on his Truth Social platform, all of them in CAPITAL letters, President Trump declared the achievments of Venezualen oppoistion leader Maria Corina Machado as being nothing more that fake news and that the award was obviously rigged. “I was robbed,” exclaimed President  Trump, "These Nobel guys, they’re very nasty people. They’ve treated me very ...

A year or so ago I settled down to read  Rev Richard Coles' first foray into the world of fictional book writing with his Murder before evensong. I stress fictional because I have read ane thoroughly enjoy some of his earlier more autobiographical books especialy the one about his relationship with and subsequent death of his then partner David. But unlike those efforts for some reason I couldnt get into his fiction foray. There was too much detail given about the various characters and even after just a few chapters I simply couldn't remember who was who, never mind there motives for murder. So it ended up beign confined to the 'tried but failed'pile. so news that it has been made into a TV series for channel 5 didn't exactly fill me with enthusiasm but TOM and I thought we'd give it a go. and what a pleasant surprise it turned out to be.For although I have never has a muder in any of my churches, well apart from some congregations murdering a few hymns, the in...

  One of the advantages of running in a group, apart from the company, the new routes and the discipline to actually turn up to run when I don't actually feel like it, it that it pushes me to run faster and longer than I would do on my own. Disclaimer here; the terms fastera nd longer are relative to me and not to what others might call fats and long. After the fabulous fartlek session on Monday, tonight we had a pretty low turn out due to fully fledged injuries, niggles, holidays and other committments which resulted in just four of us plus one canine companion in a wonderful purple illuminated harness htting the pavements and trails to do the Newstaead Abby loop, one of our regular runs. Starting at 6.10pm on the dot, (running mistress Laura is nothing if not punctual), it meant that we got almost half of the run done in reasonable light without having to resort to an array of head and body torches. at what felt like a quick ( by my standards) pace. But the second half of this pa...

It's been one of those days when the blessings of technology have in fact been a curse. I've been trying to put together a talk about Santiago for this coming Sunday. One that involves a mixture of photos and video clips all insetred into three seperate powerponts.  Sounds simple enough except I have ended up with multiple copies of different parts of the talk on two computers, an external hard drive and a memory stick. And which one is the working copy has been an issue. That and the fact that I appear to have spent ages transferring video clips into a powerpoint only for them not to play when I moved it from one place to another. Talk about frustrating!! But that issue appears to have finally been resolved and multiple attempts to get it right. Let's hope it is all right on the night. In the midst of this technological nightmare there has also been the discovery that I did not need to add each picture one by one and then adjust it to fit the frame size but could utilise s...

Just stumbled across this today. Magical word play. And whats better I have just booked to go and se him in Nottingham just before Christmas. This is the 'wonderful' Harry Baker    

  For many years as part of my ministry I have run sessions that explore faith through film. In two of my previous appointments it has been very succesful, well attended and generated some great conversations. since coming here it has been sporadic at best. I just got back into the routine and then Covid struck, everything  closed down and afterwards I didn't really have the time or inclnation to restart it again Now however with just a year to go in my current appointment, and if I am honest looking for something that actually gives me a bit of joy, I have restarted it. Again time contraints mean I am not able to do it as I would really like with a seperate film showing and discussion and so have had to adapt my approach. It's not ideal but it's the best I can do. We started off with Whistle down the wind and followed it up with The Straight Story. Tonight to fit in with our month long theme of looking at our role in caring for creation, we watched the Pixar animated film ...

  I I just couldn't resist the headline. Wonder if St Peter is struggling to find her 'name' on his list.

Over the past couple of days I have had a couple of opportunities to catch up with old friends. On Thursday I was able to provide a suitable refreshment spot for  Pat, a member of one of my former churches in Swansea who was on route to visit family in Hull.  Inevitably our talk centered around said church and its congregation, who was still involved, who had stepped back from various roles and sadly which people were no longer with us. And it was a reality check to realise that it was 12 years since I ended my time in Swansea back in 2013. Then today, in the midst of storm Ayr, I made a solo trip to Buxton to meet Hilary and Linda, from my church in Poynton, to do a secret handover. TOM was due to tag along and be treated to a lunch in 'Spoons but had to wait on for his new radiators to be delivered.  The secret handover that took place within the confines of Queenies cafe and involved a collection of Christmas themed material that I had collected a while ago but then re...

It's b een a while since we had a tune and to be honest it's because I've was struggling for something that has caught my ear. And then this did.  It's a song by Ciara Mary Alice Thompson or CMAT as she is known in music circles. Originating from Dublin, she has released three albums so far with this song featuring on her 2025 release Euro Country. This is CMAT and the toe tappingly good 'When a good man cries'    

So woke up this morning to discover that the Curbar Commotion fell race has been cancelled on Satuday. Not as I might have thought due to an adverse weather forecast with storm Amy heading this way but rather down to an issue with insurance for the race. I lost the thread in the e mail a little bit but it sounds as if there is a disagreement between the race organisers and the landowners over who should provide what cover of insurance for the 9.8 mile jolly.  On one hand I am disappointed as its a great race to run even if it often doesn't seem so at the time and on the other hand relieved that I won't have to run in horizontal rain and 80 mile an hour winds. But I wouldn't be surprised if people who were due to run the race actually turn up at the appointed start time and run it anyway. I won't be one of them. But it does leave me with the decision of where to go to try and put in a slightly longer run on Saturday morning, hopefully somewhere that might offer a bit of ...