pumpkinstrokemarrow

Proceedings were opened by one Sarah Foot talking about medieval translations of the Bible into English, or at least what passed for English in those days. It turned out that it was the same Sarah Foot that wrote the biography of Aethelstan which attracted a very warm review in last week's TLS, so off to a good start. Sadly, a bit downhill after that. Despite being an eminent and experienced lecturer, I found it hard to hear what she was saying and fell prey to afternoon sleepiness, an ailment which used to be the bane of courses when I was in the world of work. No good at sitting still just listening; have to have something to do with the tongue. And despite being an experienced listener it did not occur to me to stick up my hand and ask her to get the microphone turned up a few notches - any more than it occurred to her to check that we could all hear. Must have been the unusual context. Net result was that I was sort of half awake during most of the talk, not awake enough to get much from it. There were some odd visual effects by way of compensation. So went away with the thought that in this 400th anniversary year of King James' Bible she ought to have been talking about that, rather than its remote ancestors.

Proceedings were closed by a sung Evensong, sung according to the old rite. That is to say, not the Good News Bible or some such. Very impressive it was too, with the singing fully up to the standard of the church. A church with a very impressive apsed and panelled chancel with a fine wrought iron screen. A light and airy thing which served to make the chancel special without cutting it off from us. One oddity was having a conductor standing in the middle; that bit did not seem terribly holy. Catholics, I believe, sometimes hide their music behind curtains.

All of which made this unbeliever see some point in it all. A ceremony to bring the community together, to bring the sacred and profane into contact for a short span. This last being nicely pointed up by the contrast between the rather extraordinary singing of the choir and the rather ordinary lesson reading of the mayor. It also struck me that to work well, it needs to be the whole community. Not the same at all if you are a minority sect.

Closed the outing with a visit to Il Ponte of Epsom (http://www.ilponte.co.uk/about_us.php) which I had confused with Pontis of Oxford Circus (http://www.pontis.co.uk/jsp/pontis.jsp). Despite the confusion, we had a good meal, helped along by a lot of their wine coming in half as well as full bottles, which allowed for more careful consumption management than might otherwise have been the case. It also turned out that the confusion was not that unreasonable. The names were similar and the format was similar. Family run Italian restaurants involving real Italians.