New Wine Old Wine Wickets and Runs

Grommelage. Means mutterings in French. A favourite word of mine.

Just got back from something called new wine. There was a certain 'what the hell am I going to this for? I haven't been to a church conference for years and I'm going to be stuck in a field with a bunch of christians'. And the only reason I thought I was going was because some of my friends were going. Sometimes it is good to be wrong. My friends and I belong to and run something called hOME. hOME is a bunch of folk who are very interested in the emerging church and doing something that is a little more relevant to the club and pub scene in Oxford. As it turns out, the conference was excellent. Managed to mostly stay away from the things that frustrate me in the church. Things like feeling guilty for not leading a life that one is expected to. Instead I found lots of brain and spirit food. The sort of brain food that leaves you cream crackered. Stuff that I wish I had been told a long time ago. It got to the stage that I needed to stop listening to stuff because my brain was full and I needed to process the stuff that was already in there. One of the most useful things I heard was that it's more effective to soak in a little bit of the Bible rather than try to read it religously and end up with the inevitable guilt when you fail. Maybe it's me trying to justify myself for the fact that last week I opened mine for the first time in two years but I figure that anything that inspires me to open it again can't be bad.

Next week I am doing old wine. I am off to Chianti with my friends Rhys and Monica and Katie and Grace.

Yesterday I had my best all round cricket performance of my life. Nine overs, one maiden, three wickets for 23 runs, a run out and 60 runs with the bat. Sadly, it wasn't enough as Brackley Cricket Club bowled Wallingford Cricket Cub out for 116 and beat us by 29 runs. Still, I feel that if it were not for the Grace of God I would not have managed to get a team out, and I have had worse days in the field. Now I must go and help coach youngsters in the sport of kings.