World Championship Venue

A cloudy day to start with, but the sky cleared during the day and the temperature was a steady 3C, but it didn't feel as cold. Clare made our Saturday pancakes for breakfast. Afterwards I finished tomorrow's sermon. The heating at St German's is still broken, so I was advised to make the liturgy shorter reduce the risk of hypothermia in church. A five minute sermon takes just as long to write, if not longer. There's a long second lesson and psalm which can be omitted. That should reduce duration by ten minutes or more.

Then we went for a pre-lunch walk in the park, As Clare had already made a fish stew from leftover flesh and bones of our most recent filleted salmon purchase, so it only needed heating while the table was laid. Comforting on a chilly day.

Last night before going to sleep I started writing a reflection on the life and thought of St Paul for Morning Prayer on his feast day, two weeks hence. Advance preparation for recovery time after next Friday's gall bladder removal operation. I continued writing after lunch, then went for another walk down the Taff on the Bute Park side. On the return leg I called into the Sport Wales National Centre adjacent to Sophia Gardens, to use the toilet. I was delighted to discover the Centre is hosting the Wheelchair Fencing World Championship this weekend. That was a surprise!

Before supper I recorded and edited the reflection I'd written. The rest of the recording will wait until I have the house to myself when it's quiet. Afterwards, with nothing better to do, I watched a couple of episodes of 'Bones'. I learned from IMDB that there are 245 episodes to date of the twelve years the series ran. NCIS is still running and has clocked up 459 episodes so far. I don't think any of the 21 series has made it to catch up on free UK TV channels yet. 

The temperature went down to zero after dark. Extra layers definitely needed for church tomorrow. Having printed my sermon, I went to bed early. I'm not used to rising early, but it would be good to get into practice before next Friday, when I need to be out for the house by a quarter to seven to get to UHW for the operation. It's been a long time coming, six years in fact. I'm not nervous about it, and resigned to the fact that it may yet be cancelled due to the current junior hospital doctor's strike. I don;t know if this will affect specialised hi-tech' surgery.