Little interlude inbetween my Mongolian recollections

Saturday 26th June was the lovely part of the past weekend. After extended relaxation in the home all morning and into the early afternoon, I pootled off down to Rochester to watch St Mary Magdalene’s deacon Liz Chapman become ordained as priest. The walk in the clement weather was most gratifying and, though there were a few distractions such as a dance festival throughout Rochester, I largely stuck to the task in hand and reached the cathedral precincts after 45 minutes. It was a delightful service. As the various readers and current priests processed in at the start of the service in the august surroundings, the clergy of Rochester Cathedral in their emblazoned finery entering last, it was reminiscent of the closing scene in Star Wars Episode IV. There were some rousing hymns and a very insightful sermon by Peter Lock, touching on what life is and an anecdote of a shaggy black dog bounding from the sea and seeking game with an unfamiliar child on retrieving and collecting a cast pebble, all contacted along the coastline in “PadStein, I mean Padstowe,” a joke which raised some wry laughter.
Afterwards, I got home for the conclusion of this series of Doctor Who. Matt Smith has done very well, greatly growing into his role (or maybe we are just more used to him). He’s not David Tennant yet in my affection – where Tennant’s Doctor would ramble on in an eccentric adult manner, Smith, working with the dialogue he’s given, affects his soliloquies in a more childlike manner, mirroring a large swathe of the audience) – but he’s still very good. I must congratulate Steven Moffat and the writing team for brilliantly wrong-footing the eagle-eyed among us, when I’m sure not a few people saw what looked like a continuity error in Flesh and Stone, but was actually the Doctor being catapulted back through his life experiences. Exquisite. And it takes considerable chutzpah in addition to bags of ingenuity to plan two series in advance. As for this first series, the end was suitably apocalyptic before the status quo was restored. Bring on the Christmas special.