Grandchildren

Today we took out a small boat in Christchurch harbor. The Hampshire Avon and the Dorset Stour meet at Christchurch close to the beautiful Priory, an eleventh century church which is the largest parish church in England. A few years ago I preached there at the St Luke's Day service.

We have had our grandchildren with us this week and it has been a great joy. On Monday we took them to a country park, yesterday to a farm for heavy horses and today on the water. We took the little motor boat up river fpr about 20 minutes and then back down into the harbor, almost out to sea, and then back against the current and teh wind to our mooring. It was a lovely sunny day and quite calm. There is something about being on the water that thrills the blood of an Englishman - it's probably the Viking in our blood. We are a hybrid nation - I can trace German, Irish, Cornish and Jew in my ancestors. There are probably many other strains.

The cricket match was exciting. Pakistan more than matched England's forst innings total, but Andrew Strauss scored a century in England's second innings and Chris Read got a 50. England bowled well in the Pakistan second innings, particularly the two British Asians Mahmood and Parnesa; Muslim and Sikh respectively. They at least passed Lord Tebbit's cricket test.

Before we went on the water the childen sat down with me and watched the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber Joseph as performed by the English National Theatre with Dickie Attenborough, Joan Collins and Maria Friedman. I can't get the songs out of my head. I know people say that LLoyd Webber is very derivative, but Joseph, his first musical remains a wonderful performance piece, originally written for schoolchildren.