Sunday 2nd October 2011

More Swimming and Church
 

Given the heat and a strange hotel bed, I slept well. I woke at around 7am and watched Match of the Day; Sue slept until 8:30.

Our room rate included breakfast. Service was not outstanding .. there didn't seem to be enough staff, but we did get a reasonable breakfast. My cough seems to have returned this morning. Hopefully it will ease through the day.

Today, we have the Hampshire Schools Relays. There is always confusion about entries, but we do have plenty of time. Many of the events are straight finals. We will take a minimal competition setup, two computers, one shared printer and one network cable.

Our next challenge is to get home before roads close for the Basingstoke Half Marathon, which we did. Our house was pretty chaotic when we got back, with 3 little people playing very busily. Cathy and the Jackson family left around noon, which gave us just about time to get things ready for the swimming competition.

As expected, we got teams that we weren't expecting. Managing the competition using "proper" meet management software meant that we could cope with late entries. There were one or two minor problems:

(1) I was obviously tired today. I set up the Schools Relays to use lanes 2 to 7 in a pool with only 6 lanes.
(2) Neither Chris nor I could make printer sharing work between Windows XP and Windows 7, so printing of results was a little tortuous.

Despite this, the competition went through smoothly and we were finished in time to go to the Evening Service at St. Mary's.

Both Sue and I were very tired and struggled to maintain concentration on the sermon. This was based on Acts 11 and 13 and looking at what made the church in Antioch so strong.

There were however some really inspiring words in the choice of songs

All my days I will sing this song of gladness,
give my praise to the Fountains of delights;
for in my helplessness You heard my cry
and waves of mercy poured down on my life
.

-
Stuart Townend 1998

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in his excellent Word!
What more can He say to you than He has said
You who into Jesus for refuge have fled?

In every condition in sickness and health,
In poverty's vale, or abounding in wealth,
At home or abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As days may demand, shall your strength ever be.

Fear not, I am with you, O, be not dismayed!
For I am your God and will still give you aid:
I'll strengthen you, help you, and cause you stand
Upheld by my My righteous, omnipotent hand.

Richard Keen 2003.

As usual lots of people wanted to know how I am. After church, we went to McDonalds for a sumptuous dinner.