Random Thoughts from the life of a Random Thinker

Zoe has found some Christmas detritus

2012-02-04T14:55:00.001Z

Anna visits the sea at Formby

2012-02-04T14:20:00.001Z

It's a cold day but we'd decided we were going to go out and so go out we did! We went over to Formby and Anna got to see the Sea for the first time - she's from Hungary which is a long way from any sea. Anyway words to describe Formby today... Cold, Bleak, Beautiful, Open, Windy, Windswept, Bracing, Big sky, Wet...

New bridge over River Irwell

2012-02-01T17:34:00.001Z

On Sunday they lifted the new footbridge into place. It goes from just next to the Mark Addy pub to Spinningfields. It's not open yet as they presumably have to do quite a bit to it. On Sunday night we saw the huge crane turning into Chapel St from New Bayley St and struggling to turn the corner... it was seriously massive. Soon we'll have more bridges than Venice but I'm not complaining - I like bridges.

Moon shines behind St Philip's

2012-01-16T19:40:00.001Z

I'm trying not to look down!

2012-01-13T13:14:00.002Z

Today I've been on the roof of both churches. At St Phil's we were marking our lead with Smartwater but also getting the pigeons out of the roof space in the top of the portico. This is the hole that they've been getting through and I've stuffed it with chicken wire to keep them out. It is a slightly unnerving thing to be perched on a plank across the rafters and look down on this potential drop. Still, the pigeon's have gone and the wire seemed to be keeping them out when I went back down to Trinity to look at the leak in the tower.

Our ex Christmas tree

2012-01-06T20:31:00.001Z

Christmas is over

2012-01-06T15:15:00.002Z

This is Sacred Trinity's tree in the back of my car about to go to the household recycling site. I'm now at home dismantling our tree but our Zoe is getting very tearful that Christmas is over. She had to go up to her room, put on a Christmas CD and have a good cry. I suppose it is a bit sad when something nice is finished. I love Christmas but if it was always Christmas we wouldn't be able to look forward to it. Probably good that some good things finish.

Christmas Self portrait

2012-01-04T16:31:00.001Z

I rather like this image although maybe it's a little too subtle for a self portrait! I've been taking some pictures thinking of next years Christmas publicity. I've found it difficult to get St Philip's Church reflected in the bauble without getting me in it. I'll have to take the camera remote over there.

One of my wishes for 2012...

2012-01-03T10:04:00.002Z

is for the roadworks on Chapel St to be finished off and then wow us with how well the new road layout works. There has been a lot of complaining about the raodworks but I've always said we need to see how it will work. We also need to see new developments on the dereelict sites and this is also part of my wishes for 2012. I'm hopefull that the new road layout will impress us and I want to see new developments and new people moving into the Chapel St area. This is already a great place to live and work but a few more shops would be great and more pedsetrians and cyclists moving around the area would add vibarancy and make more sense of the road layout changes. We've had to live with a lot of disruption in 2011 but let's hope that in 2012 we find that it was all worth it!

Magnifying glass from a Christmas Cracker proves useful as a spoon

2011-12-27T12:59:00.000Z

Christmas for our Guinea Pig

2011-12-25T12:01:00.002Z

mmmm, Brussel Sprouts!

St Philip's Place is open again!

2011-12-23T14:04:00.000Z

Salford Choral Society Christmas Concert

2011-12-22T20:24:00.000Z

Some of the prayers offered at our Carol Services

2011-12-21T12:15:00.002Z

We had a large present at the front of church and people placed a gift tag on the present with prayers written inside. Some of the prayers are really beautiful and moving. Some of the little ones simply put there name or left it blank but it was lovely to see people really joining in and now we have a reminder of all our prayers.

Salford Uni Big Band

2011-12-12T19:49:00.001Z

One of our kittens has decided to lie on my keyboard!

2011-12-12T11:36:00.002Z

They are very cute but not very helpful when they want to be around me all the time and lie on e everything on my desk!

Salford City College Performing Arts Concert

2011-12-05T19:26:00.001Z

It's Advent!

2011-12-05T14:24:00.000Z

Lisa Hannigan at St Phil's

2011-11-28T17:57:00.002Z

A truly marvelous gig last Friday. Lisa has a tremendous voice, good songs and some wonderful musicians with her. Some songs were beautifully moving others were amusing (such as safe travels). The audience were extremely attentive and very appreciative. Fionn Regan this week (Thursday) will have to be really special to top that.
some photos of mine on Picasa at https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Y93xxzuUkJU8iMxEuuDaCtMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

Salford University Big Band at St Phil's

2011-11-14T19:42:00.000Z

At Tate Liverpool

2011-11-12T16:54:00.000Z

My fairly useless right arm

2011-11-11T09:04:00.002Z

So it's clearly my own stupid fault. But I am really starting to get a bit fed up with it now. I suppose I am learning some things like how much we take for granted and how many things are difficult to do with just one hand. My right hand does actually work but anything I do makes it ache and I have to work around this constricting lump of concrete on it. So ... my writing with my left hand is improving but still looks like that of a 3 year old, my left handed typing is getting faster than it was but is soooo much slower than using both hands, and I have lot more sympathy with people with disabilities.

Autumn Photos of St Philip's

2011-11-10T08:37:00.001Z

DSCN4476, a photo by St Philip's Church, Salford on Flickr.

The Photography group who meet on a Wednesday afternoon have taken photos in and around St Philip's. There are some quite nice ones here, so have a look!

It's not the right shape!

2011-10-26T14:29:00.002+01:00

I don't know how obvious it is from this photo but this is my badly broken wrist. Climbing in and out of wheelie bins is not a good idea. This is what happened to me when I was squashing down the leaves and the bin tipped backwards and I broke my fall with my right arm. tomorrow I'm getting a metal plate put into it to hold the bits of bone into the right places. Typing one handed is very slow especially when it's the weak hand, maybe it'll be good for me!

Very strangely addressed photo

2011-10-24T13:44:00.001+01:00

Once there were two types of bird...

2011-10-22T12:42:00.001+01:00

This book dates from 1965 when there were two types of bird: British birds and Foriegn Birds!

Salford Symphony Orchestra

2011-10-16T21:07:00.000+01:00

James Vincent McMorrow at St Philip's

2011-10-14T17:00:00.003+01:00

Really good gig at St Phil's last night. The music was beautiful, all of the band were really nice people and the crowd were good too. I've posted some photos on Picasa here

Time in hand

2011-10-12T14:01:00.002+01:00

Mark from The Cumbria Clock Company has arrived today to put the hands back on one of our clocks at St Philip's. It'll be nice to have all four clock faces working again. We snapped this photo as Mark was just passing through the church on his way up the tower. We happened to be around for our photography session.

Caelidh/hoedown/barn dance

2011-10-06T10:04:00.000+01:00

Whatever you like to call it, we had a great time at our Silver Wedding Celebration at Salford Lads Club. It's great fun dancing and good exercise too. The nice thing about this sort of dancing is that there isn't anyone who looks really good at it so anyone can join in. It doesn't really matter if you make mistakes because lots of people are doing it worse than you! We had a great live band for ours, featuring our friend Stephen McCusker. We've got another one this Friday at St Philip's, in the church. No live band this time but Fred who is an excellent caller. Should be a lot of fun.

Manchester School of Samba at St Philip's School

2011-10-06T09:53:00.001+01:00

Tony from MSS recently took some drums into St Philip's School and did a Samba session. The kids really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. Tony does Samba drumming and dancing (well actually Danny does the dancing) every Wednesday at Sacred Trinity Church, Chapel St, Salford. Session runs from 7 pm until 9.30 pm. There is something quite special about a group of people getting into rhythm together and naking a great sound.
MSS website is at http://www.sambaman.org.uk/

Bishop Mark visits St Philip's School

2011-09-19T09:59:00.000+01:00

Bishop Mark is chair of the Diocesan Board of Education and visited St Philip's CE Primary School on Friday. He went down well with the kids and the the staff and parents.

The Travelling Band at Ramsbottom Festival

2011-09-17T16:39:00.001+01:00

Pretty good line up here. It's just a shame about the weather! So far I've enjoyed Kid British, Denis Jones, Cherry Ghost and this lot. Looking forward to Badly Drawn Boy.

Joan As Police Woman

2011-09-07T20:57:00.000+01:00

A rather wonderful concert at St Phil's last night.

We scrub up well!

2011-09-03T15:34:00.002+01:00

This is St Philip's ready for a wedding this afternoon. The church looked beautiful and you'd never guess there'd been a noisy rock gig in there last night! Congrats to Holly & Sheldon on their wedding.

Our Zoe is very proud of the banana bread she's made

2011-08-31T17:12:00.002+01:00

It's still the holidays for the kids even though us grown ups have to work for a living. We've been trying to make suggestions of exciting things to do and today Zoe made a banana loaf with her sisters. She's very proud of it and here she is showing it off. We'll get to taste it in a bit!

Dramatic fire last night

2011-08-16T08:04:00.000+01:00

This fire on Adelphi St wasn't rioting but I think people had illegally been dumping tyres on one of the "development opportunity" sites between the road and the river. Presumably kids had started the fire. It certainly caused quite a stir with the smoke being visible for miles and I had one call from a concerned friend checking that it wasn't my house on fire!

Message from my daughter when I opened MY computer!

2011-08-15T23:50:00.002+01:00

When I got in from the pub quiz I saw this message - I'm impressed by her creativity, lots of people would make do with a post-it note! She's busy uploading video. We won the pub quiz, although in the doldrums of August, there were actually only 3 teams. Steve (Landlord of the Crescent) still gave us the usual amount of beer tokens, thanks Steve!

Leavers' service at Church

2011-07-22T15:00:00.002+01:00

Beautiful singing, a few tears, one or two laughs - a lovely service as usual.

Well done Sainsbury's!

2011-07-19T09:09:00.001+01:00

Sainsbury's are doing a major refit of their Salford store and for a while there have been no Cycle stands. However this morning I noticed that they've now opened the new entrance and revelealed all these new Sheffield Stands - a lot more than they had before, so well done Sainsbury's! It would be really nice if the other half of the retail park put some stands in as well. It would also be great if it was made easier to walk around the site instead of feeling that you have to drive across the car parks because it's not safe for pedestrians... but I suppose we can't have everything...

Graduale Nobili

2011-07-15T09:49:00.000+01:00

A wonderful, wonderful concert by this excellent Icelandic choir. There were some pieces that almost brought a tear to the eye, in fact for some people they did. It was especially moving when they stood around the church singing. A very special night!

On the tower at St Phil's

2011-07-14T11:00:00.001+01:00

at St Philip's Church we have recieved a grant to have our masonry repaired. We're currently working on a full assesment of the needs. Today Skyline carried out a survey of the tower. It caused a bit of puzzlement whenever people looked up. Good fun though!

Church this morning

2011-07-10T09:58:00.000+01:00

The rather pleasant setting of General Synod

2011-07-09T18:18:00.000+01:00

A very cheeky squirrel in our window box!

2011-07-08T09:10:00.002+01:00

We did have strawberries in here but probably don't now! I was a bit worried that the birds would eat them but I didn't think about the squirrels...

Eloise all dressed up

2011-06-30T10:02:00.001+01:00

Eloise went for the 1950's retro look for her school prom and looked fantastic of course. Weird that she's now a woman of leisure with no school to go to.

Fuzzy Lights

2011-06-16T22:41:00.001+01:00

This was a really good concert and I got some nice photos. You can see more at: https://picasaweb.google.com/the.andy.salmon/FuzzyLights?feat=directlink

Emmy the Great at Sacred Trinity

2011-06-07T08:21:00.000+01:00

The gig was a sell-out and many more people would have liked to be there. Emmy mainly did songs from the new album that comes out on Monday but she did some of the old favourites as well. It was a really good gig; great sound, great atmosphere, wonderful band. Grace Petrie, the support act, was also very good. Solo singer songwriter with a great voice and very good songs.

Emmy was very sweet and said lots of nice things about Sacred Trinity and the team... all true of course!

St Philip's school off to Lledr Hall

2011-06-06T09:41:00.001+01:00

This is the bus leaving with the rest of the school waving them off. It's year 5 & 6 who have gone and I'm sure they'll have a wonderful time. They'll come back with lots of exciting tales to tell and the teachers will come back very, very tired!

Live radio 4 service from Salford

2011-06-05T09:00:00.001+01:00

It was a very early start to the day but it was lovely to be in the BBC Philharmonic's new studio for this service. Hayley, the chaplain at mediacity, did a great job and the orchestra sounded fantastic. It was nice to see lots of familiar faces and say hello to people too. You can listen to the broadcast on iplayer here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011p10r/Sunday_Worship_All_ground_is_holy_ground/

Ordsall Hall

2011-06-04T17:06:00.000+01:00

Last Sunday we went to Ordsall hall. It only reopened a month ago and it looks stunning now. There are more rooms open, there are lots of opportunities to try on Tudor costumes and the grounds look great.

Bristol Area organists visit to St Philip's

2011-05-22T11:11:00.001+01:00

Eloise's GCSE Art Exhibition

2011-05-22T08:15:00.000+01:00

At Trinity High School on Friday they exhibited GCSE Art work from the students, so we went along. We'd seen most of Eloise's work already but it does look very good and we were very pleased to see it all. A lot of the work was very good. Eloise hopes to do A level Art and it'll be interesting to see how it all develops.

Threatening letter from TV licensing

2011-05-17T20:44:00.002+01:00

This letter has come to "the occupier, St Philip's Church". They're investigating why we don't have a TV licence. It's come about because of our gaining of a postcode, so TV licensing now think we're a new address. You'd think though that just looking at the address would help the investigation, we're a church and we don't watch live TV.

Last Harbour at Sacred Trinity

2011-04-29T22:15:00.000+01:00

Another fine gig from the Little Red Rabbit people. Always lovely gigs and Last Harbour were very good. The next Little Red Rabbit gig is on Monday 16th May.

Dawn from the roof of St Phil's this morning. Beautiful.

2011-04-22T09:08:00.001+01:00

Nice day and nice view from the Edge

2011-04-20T18:26:00.000+01:00

Moments in love exhibition launch at Trinity.

2011-04-17T19:44:00.001+01:00

Moments in Love - Holy Week Art Exhibition

2011-04-15T20:54:00.000+01:00

We're doing an Art Exhibition next week at Trinity. The launch is on Sunday night at 7 and it'll be open Mon - Sat, 12-4. There'll be various pieces including a few photos from me. There will also be some good stuff too!

Puligny String Quartet tonight at St Philip's

2011-04-11T09:31:00.002+01:00

The Puligny String Quartet play at St Philip's tonight, 11th April. Programme to include works by Schubert, Webern and Brahms.

Venue: The Church of St Philip with St Stephen, Wilton Place, Salford, M3 6FR
Time: 7.30 - 9.00pm

Admission: £4.00, £3.00 (concessions). Free for students. Tickets on the door.

Our new picnic hamper

2011-04-11T09:13:00.000+01:00

Okay, perhaps it's a bit OTT but we got this picnic hamper for Christmas and it is lovely. There are 6 of everything, so enough for the family plus one guest, there's plenty of room for the food as well as 6 champagne flutes! We gave it a first outing whilst meeting our friends, Jeni & Patrick at Chatsworth. Only down side is that it takes up an enormous amount of room in the car.

Low Anthem

2011-04-11T09:08:00.000+01:00

Low Anthem were very, very good. Music that really worked well in the church. They kept changing instruments and moving around and the mobile phone trick was really quite clever...

The Head & the Heart at St Philip's

2011-04-11T08:54:00.000+01:00

The Head and the Heart were the support band for the Low Anthem. They did an acoustic set which was utterly brilliant and very beautiful. It really worked in the church. Low Anthem were excellent as well, of course.

Trembling Bells at Manchester Cathedral

2011-03-30T20:43:00.000+01:00

Guess where my girls have been tonight?

2011-03-29T22:58:00.001+01:00

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

2011-03-19T16:42:00.001Z

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!

2011-03-18T16:49:00.001Z

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

2011-03-15T16:23:00.000Z

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

2011-03-15T07:44:00.001Z

This morning: A run in Peel Park

2011-03-11T09:36:00.001Z

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

2011-03-09T21:41:00.001Z

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

2011-03-07T20:31:00.000Z

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!

2011-03-05T22:28:00.001Z

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

2011-03-04T20:01:00.000Z

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

The new footbridge at mediacity

2011-03-02T22:44:00.001Z

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

2011-03-02T18:46:00.000Z

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

Gruff Rhys

2011-02-26T21:17:00.000Z

I've been so lax with my blogging recently. There just doesn't seem to have been time. But I took some nice photos when Gruff Rhys and Y Niwl played at St Philip's and here is one of Gruff. There are some more on Picasa at: https://picasaweb.google.com/the.andy.salmon/GruffRhys?feat=directlink

Video being made in our crypt.

2011-02-26T18:53:00.002Z

The band are called Derision and they're making a video in our Crypt at St Phil's, which is very exciting.

It looked pretty good as they're filming it, so I'm sure the finished work will look really good.

Went for a run around Westgate-on-sea this morning

2011-02-10T17:22:00.000Z

St Philip's Church on Film

2011-02-07T20:18:00.000Z

Our Eloise has made this great little film about St Philip's. People talk about what they like about St Phil's, how long they've been coming and they talk about their baptism. I find it quite moving. They are genuinely a lovely bunch of people!

CPO notices have gone up at last

2011-02-04T08:44:00.002Z

we've been waiting a while but at last a Compulsory Purchase Order is being published for lots of the derelict buildings and sites down Chapel St. I see this as real progress. I've found a bit more information about it here: http://www.propertyweek.com/news/news-by-region/north-west/salford-submits-chapel-street-cpo/5012867.article. It will be great if we start to see some new building happening soon.

Sign I've spotted in Lambeth Palace

2011-02-03T13:36:00.000Z

Little screen a long, long way away

2011-01-31T12:22:00.000Z

Baptism of Jesus by St Philip's Sunday School

2011-01-29T20:26:00.000Z

My middle daughter is a very talented young woman and has helped St Philip's Sunday School to produce this animation. Brilliant!

Samson & Delilah

2011-01-23T07:41:00.000Z

Anna and Sam from Samson & Delilah. A really good gig at Sacred Trinity. There are some more photos on picasa here: http://picasaweb.google.com/the.andy.salmon/SamsonDelilahAtSacredTrinity?feat=directlink.

Dan Jones at Sacred Trinity. Wonderful atmosphere at tonight's gig.

2011-01-20T21:04:00.002Z

Dan is the first support act. We are Willow are on next and then Samson & Delilah. There's a good crowd in tonght, the place is filling up nicely.

A walk around Anglezarke Reservoir

2011-01-03T23:20:00.001Z

We went for a really nice walk today. It was quite cold but the water was frozen and there was winter light, autumnal leaves and beautiful scenery. There are some lovely photos on picasa here; http://picasaweb.google.com/the.andy.salmon/AnglezarkeReservoirWalk?authkey=Gv1sRgCKTvys6hjd-dUg&feat=directlink

Our Christmas and New Year break

2011-01-03T23:12:00.001Z

Our good friends Deb and Brian with whom we spent New Year. Christmas was busy but very good. On Christmas Day we had a good service at Church and then had 15 people for lunch. After Christmas we headed to Nottingham for one night with Jeni and Patrick and then on to Weymouth to stay with Brian and Deb. Whilst down there we were able to see my brother, Pip and his family and Lol and Liz. It was really good to spend time with such great people.

There are some photos on Picasa here;
http://picasaweb.google.com/the.andy.salmon/ChristmasNewYearExcitement?authkey=Gv1sRgCIO41LmJpoGfIQ&feat=directlink

Serious snow.

2010-12-17T22:35:00.001Z

St Philip's School singing carols in Islington Park

2010-12-15T11:24:00.000Z

Burning bush

2010-12-12T19:08:00.002Z

We had a service at Sacred Trinity, prepared by young people from St Philip's and St James', Broughton on the theme of light. After a brief introductory liturgy people explored different prayer stations, including this burning bush outside. It was all very good.

Wooden Shjips at St Phil's

2010-12-11T12:51:00.000Z

Great sound and awesome visuals too from Sanae. I'd have loved to see Moon Duo afterwards at Islington Mill but I had to do a bit of tidying up at Church!

Dutch Uncles play St Philip's

2010-11-29T22:12:00.000Z

The Tallest Man on Earth

2010-11-26T22:03:00.000Z

2 Police helicopters over parliament.

2010-11-24T13:43:00.001Z

The helicopters may look small on this photo but they were very noisy and there were lots and lots of police everywhere. All out in force to stop student demonstrators from getting out of hand.

Me in Westminster Abbey

2010-11-23T20:55:00.002Z

Apologies that this picture is on it's side. I would put it right but I'm not sure how! Yes that is me wearing tabs that I had to buy at Wippells last Friday. I did look fairly ridiculous but then so did everyone else. Apparently the hood that I paid a tenner for, second hand, is a Manchester Uni MA hood that I am entitled to wear. The academic robe that I borrowed is almost certainly a specific one that I have no right to wear but nobody challenged me! The good thing about General Synod is that it does start with prayer even if there is a bit too much poncing about with it.

Assembly Hall of Church House

2010-11-22T21:01:00.000Z

Lovely autumn day in Drinkwater Park

2010-11-06T13:20:00.000Z

Quiet service at Trinity tonight.

2010-10-31T20:19:00.002Z

Rebecca led the service tonight. It's alays really nice to settle into the bean bag and find some quiet peaceful prayer.

British Museum, Robert Smirke who designed St Phil's also designed this.

2010-10-25T20:01:00.001+01:00

It took several years to build the quadrangle of buildings in very grand neo-classical style. Work started with the East wing in 1823 and finished with the south wing in 1847. The building on the right in this picture is Robert's design. His brother Sydney designed the round reading room in the centre of the quadrangle. The glass roof that makes it the great court was added in 2000.