The Long Song

Sunday was a busy day.  We were up early as we had to be in Church early as the BBC was filming a special Live Pentecost service in our Church.  It was quite strange having cameras panning around the room.  We are used to having a couple of static cameras as our church is multi site and the service from our site (the New England Quarter) is televised and often transmitted to our two other sites at the Race-course in Brighton and in Shoreham Community Centre.  But the BBC had loads of cameras and microphones and they seemed to keep coming up very close (although of course most of the time they weren't actually televising what they were filiming).  Anyway the service was fantastic and once I managed to tune out the cameras and not get too distracted by them it was an amazing service.  David was featured at the beginning of the programme as he was on the team welcoming people into church but thankfully although the camera did capture David, Seb and I a couple of times in the congregation it was so fleeting that unless you knew where we were sitting and what to look for you wouldn't have noticed us!  I was quite surprised to hear that my Aunty Margaret had been watching the programme up in Coventry and had been looking out for us.  I had not told her we were being filmed so she must watch the programme regularly.  We have taken her to church with us when she visited my parents so I think it was probably quite nice for her to recognise the church.

Anyway after church we called around to see David's brother to give him his birthday present and we sat out in the sun chatting with him and his wife who has been very unwell and spent most of last week in hospital.  Unfortunately we couldn't stay long as Seb had to get home for a lesson with his tutor.

David took Nat out to a Massed Brass Youth Band event that our friend Sandra was involved with conducting. Meanwhile it was that time when I have to undertake my Road Representative duties and both deliver the monthly monthly newsletters and try and collect the annual subscriptions for our local Residents Association.  I can't really complain though as it is so much nicer traipsing up and down in the sunshine rather than the rain.  The weather still has not broken and it was even warmer today than yesterday.

When I returned home David was back and he went out to mow the lawn as it had grown really long again.  I set to work stenciling my coffee table (remember the one I painted the other day that got covered in flies?) Well anyway, I had rubbed the flies off and given it a second coat of paint earlier in the week so I was able to start the decorating stage of my project. 

Our Coffee Table before being painted

To say that I have never done any stenciling before (and that I also didn't heed the advice to practice first!), I was quite pleased with my effort.  Although I did soon realise that it was best to keep the stencil in place until the paint had dried. . . . So there are a few tiny smudges - you probably wouldn't notice if you were not looking too closely!

A lick of Paint

Anyway I am very pleased with the end result.  OK it might not be to everyone's taste and the paint will no doubt flake off in no time at all but it has been very pleasurable transforming the table and it still looks better than it did before.

The Finished Article!

This evening I went to Book Group where finally after 45 minutes of discussing everyone's various medical conditions and ailments (I am the youngest member of the group by about 25 years!) we finally moved on to discussing our book which was the Long Song by Andrea Levy.  It was a very good choice, set in Jamaica and focusing on the life of a sugar plantation slave called July.  The book is a fictional novel but makes a very interesting read as it is set in a historical context.  It isn't an easy book to read as the use of colloquial language means that at times you have to concentrate quite hard but I would definitely recommend it.

David and I have got a busy couple of days coming up at work but I am trying to keep in mind that we are both on leave next week so we just have to get through the next few days and then we can relax and enjoy ourselves. Let's hope the good weather stays with us!