Trembling Bells at Manchester Cathedral

Guess where my girls have been tonight?

 

Our Abby's Birthday treat was tickets to see Taylor Swift at the MEN arena. She's bought these plectrums to help her play the songs. Apparently the crowd were pretty noisy with lots of shouting of "Taylor, we love you!"

I'm watching Oldham Athletic play Brighton

 

I went with my brother in law, Graham, who has always been a Brighton and Hove Albion fan. A bunch of us went and it was good fun. The match was not a great match but Brighton won, so it was the right result for Graham.

Today's exciting achievement!

 

It may not look like much to you but this external letter box may help St Phil's to finally get a postcode. The Royal Mail have refused to give us a postcode because they don't consider us to have a "Point of delivery". Aha! Now we have! The problem with a lack of postcode is that so many people rely on postcodes for their sat-nav. We even had an ambulance get lost, trying to find us because of our lack of postcode. The final straw this week was when I was trying to buy broadband from Virginmedia and they refuse to give me a price or any info because we don't have a postcode. The church has only been there for 185 years but virginmedia didn't seem to believe me that it exists! 

At least today I was also able to meet with two lovely couples who are both planning marriage and a christening of a child. It's really nice to have so many people want to come to church for these special occasions.

St Philip's school does World Book Day

Mr Steadman got into role as part of world book day at St Philip's School. The children had a lot of fun and so did the staff. I opted out of dressing up as a character from a book but I went in and read to a couple of classes. My chosen book was "It's the Bear" by Jez Albourough. What a fantastic children's book that is. Fun but also just a little bit scary!

Cat's Eyes at St Philip's

This morning: A run in Peel Park

 

As part of my Lent discipline I've decided to get more exercise. So this morning I went for a short run around Peel Park. The park looks gorgeous in this mornings sunshine. It is a really lovely park and it's such a shame that it's so underused. 

Instead of having my ipod on shuffle I was listening to the PJ Harvey album - Let England Shake. What a superb album it is. Not exactly cheerful listening but poignant, moving and rather wonderful. Last night I was listening to the new Elbow album which is also very good. It's a shame that they've got so big that they're a stadium band now as their gigs have been some of the best I've been to. I can't face seeing them at the MEN arena though... it just wouldn't seem right.

Colorama, Walton Hesse and Rod Smith at Sacred Trinity

I've been slow at putting this on as it was a very busy weekend but we had a very good gig at Sacred Trinity last Friday. Main act were Colorama, who came to us from Wales, the support wsa local. First Rod Smith who was very good and then Walton Hesse who were playing Sacred Trinity for the 2nd time in just over a week. They still sounded fresh though. It was a really nice atmosphere. I've noticed one review of the gig here. Two comments to make - we always try to persuade the artists to have a bit more light on them but it was quite dark and maybe we need to sort the lighting out a bit better. 2nd comment is that the Archivist describes Sared Trinity and says "It feels welcoming to me not in a spiritual way (sorry Reverend) but in its friendly cosiness and beautifully-lit intimacy". Well I'm happy to take that compliment but I do feel that "freindly cosiness and beautifully-lit intimacy" could be a description of a spiritual experience. Spiritual is definitely a lot more than "Religious" or "Churchy".  Anyway for more photos of the gig, look here.

My Helicopter ride

I went for a ride in a helicopter for my birthday. Fantastic.

It was a little disapointing that it was over so quickly and he wouldn't hover over our house or go anywhere near Trinity. Apparently there is a no-fly zone around Strangeways Prison. We weren't told about the no-fly zone when we booked (and paid!) for the flight...

But anyway it was quite good fun and despite shooting through perspex at speed I managed to get a few good shots. The best piccies are on Picasa at: https://picasaweb.google.com/the.andy.salmon/MyHelicopterRide?feat=directlink

Obsessed with her new phone!

My sister-in-law was a late adopter when it comes to mobile phones. For years she didn't have one at all. Now she's got a fancy smart phone and she just has to be playing with it all the time!

BBC Phil at St Phil's

Another marvellous concert by members of the BBC Phil. 12 musicians today and it sounded absolutely beautiful.

The new footbridge at mediacity

I took a few photos of the Archbishops visit to mediacity and they're on picasa here: https://picasaweb.google.com/the.andy.salmon/ArchbishopsVisitToSalford?feat=directlink

Salford Deanery video

This is the video I made for the Archbishops, to tell them a bit about Salford and the Anglican Churches here.