Proud

I guess parents have lots of opportunities to be proud of their children's achievements, but perhaps as a result we forget the achievements of our parents.

Today I got to be proud of my father.

He was presented with The Bishops Badge by the Bishop of Derby, at Derby Cathedral. I call it his 'services to God' award. He's spent many years working in the background - sidesman, churchwarden, gardener, carol singer, jumble collector, ..... the list goes on.

Well done dad!

I must admit its been a long while since I've attended a full sung evensong, especially one I wasn't expecting, and its far more fun when you are part of the choir and not simply sitting in the congregation. There were also some slightly odd musical choices - anything by 'Motley' surely gives you a clue and the Anthem (by Dove) had a mixture of prog rock/xmas/movie theme thrown into the overall mix (and I'm not sure it worked).

There was also a slight altercation with an elderly lady steward who, despite it being practically standing room only in the main areas of the cathedral, decided to hoike us out of the balcony as eldest and tiddler were a Health and Safety risk! In the end we decided to put it down to a long day (they also had the Archbishop of Canterbury there this morning) and being just a little too over zealous - perhaps we should have taken note of the little old lady with a stick that she also tried to stop climbing the stairs to the balcony for the same reason - she just kept on going :-)