3rd July 2005 – Ordination of Chris to Deacon
We got into the city of Derby in about 30-minutes, arriving at around 1pm. We parked in the car park outside Matalan and walked into the city centre, seeing Derby Cathedral in the distance. It was odd to find that it was not listed in Autoroute 2005 (under the ‘attractions’ category or in any other in fact), but not more so that finding that Derby city centre had completely failed to sign post it. Nothing highlighted the existence of the building.
We arrived and checked the time for the ordination and then left to look around town and find a cinema. Sunday lunch time in Derby was quite busy, but I suppose there isn’t really a day in the week when any town isn’t busy. We asked the lady at ‘Customer Relations’ of the city’s shopping centre for the nearest cinema who gave us some vague idea of its location. We left and headed in the vague direction of northwards. A taxi driver was turning around in a small entrance area and suddenly his dragging front-left wheel guard got caught under the wheel and the thing came off. He began to drive off leaving a bit of his car in the entrance when we stopped and picked it. He too stopped and turned around. We threw the rubbish into his boot and I took the opportunity to ask him directions to the cinema.
Unsurprisingly, we were going the wrong way and needed to walk back and take a different road. I suppose we were kind of expecting that to happen. We backtracked and after some more walking, found the cinema. It was about 2:15pm, we decided to watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith (a good and fun film, worth watching) at 3pm, so we used the time to go to Morrisons to get some lunch. We strolled back to the cinema, watched the film and hurriedly walked back to Derby Cathedral.
The ordination was interesting to watch and everyone was happy to see Chris and congratulate him. He got a gift from the cathedral Deacons/Fathers and his lovely fiancée, Suk, received a big bouquet of flowers. I also managed to see a few others from Southampton and get some chit-chat time with them. Nav and I found out that the cathedral was founded in 1927 which greatly explains the design of the building – it didn’t look much like the cathedrals we had seen on our travels, looking much more modern with the orderly fashion of the roof structure and the flatness of the walls. It may also explain why Morton didn’t write about it in his travel book. I have to say, it looked like less personal man-power had gone into building it, and the advantages of machinery and such like had been utilised. No doubt it took a lot less time to construct than those that are many centuries old. Ultimately, it made it less personal cathedral. Also its size represented more towards church-size than that of a cathedral, but this is probably explained by being restricted (in terms of building ground) by the surrounding buildings that must already have been established before the cathedral was even thought of.
The service was finished by 8pm and we gathered for refreshments and talks. Around about 9pm, Nav and I said our goodbyes and well-wishes, and left for the car. And there begins the end of the whole adventure. The first stop was north London for myself, involving a drive down the M1 where we encountered a car accident at Junction 9-8. We stopped off at my home for a cuppa, a rest and to sort out the stuff that belonged to whomever. And then Nav set off for home or Southampton; my leg of the journey finally finished, and Nav’s to follow shortly.
And here ends this blog; ‘Round England with a Coolbox’. I hope that all those who have followed it have enjoyed reading it, but either way please pass on any comments about anything you wish. They will be read and responses given if necessary (by me commenting on this, my final post). It’s been fun writing it, especially in the colloquial style that is allowed for this type of log, so watch this space for other (and probably less interesting) blogs.
I’m currently at the stage of putting together some extra photographs – mainly panoramic shots that can be scrolled around with using Quicktime VR. Copy and paste the following URL to find the extras:
www.mrjoll.plus.com/steven/blog/extras/
So long and thanks for all the fish [sandwiches, Nav]
-- steven
We arrived and checked the time for the ordination and then left to look around town and find a cinema. Sunday lunch time in Derby was quite busy, but I suppose there isn’t really a day in the week when any town isn’t busy. We asked the lady at ‘Customer Relations’ of the city’s shopping centre for the nearest cinema who gave us some vague idea of its location. We left and headed in the vague direction of northwards. A taxi driver was turning around in a small entrance area and suddenly his dragging front-left wheel guard got caught under the wheel and the thing came off. He began to drive off leaving a bit of his car in the entrance when we stopped and picked it. He too stopped and turned around. We threw the rubbish into his boot and I took the opportunity to ask him directions to the cinema.
Unsurprisingly, we were going the wrong way and needed to walk back and take a different road. I suppose we were kind of expecting that to happen. We backtracked and after some more walking, found the cinema. It was about 2:15pm, we decided to watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith (a good and fun film, worth watching) at 3pm, so we used the time to go to Morrisons to get some lunch. We strolled back to the cinema, watched the film and hurriedly walked back to Derby Cathedral.
The ordination was interesting to watch and everyone was happy to see Chris and congratulate him. He got a gift from the cathedral Deacons/Fathers and his lovely fiancée, Suk, received a big bouquet of flowers. I also managed to see a few others from Southampton and get some chit-chat time with them. Nav and I found out that the cathedral was founded in 1927 which greatly explains the design of the building – it didn’t look much like the cathedrals we had seen on our travels, looking much more modern with the orderly fashion of the roof structure and the flatness of the walls. It may also explain why Morton didn’t write about it in his travel book. I have to say, it looked like less personal man-power had gone into building it, and the advantages of machinery and such like had been utilised. No doubt it took a lot less time to construct than those that are many centuries old. Ultimately, it made it less personal cathedral. Also its size represented more towards church-size than that of a cathedral, but this is probably explained by being restricted (in terms of building ground) by the surrounding buildings that must already have been established before the cathedral was even thought of.
The service was finished by 8pm and we gathered for refreshments and talks. Around about 9pm, Nav and I said our goodbyes and well-wishes, and left for the car. And there begins the end of the whole adventure. The first stop was north London for myself, involving a drive down the M1 where we encountered a car accident at Junction 9-8. We stopped off at my home for a cuppa, a rest and to sort out the stuff that belonged to whomever. And then Nav set off for home or Southampton; my leg of the journey finally finished, and Nav’s to follow shortly.
And here ends this blog; ‘Round England with a Coolbox’. I hope that all those who have followed it have enjoyed reading it, but either way please pass on any comments about anything you wish. They will be read and responses given if necessary (by me commenting on this, my final post). It’s been fun writing it, especially in the colloquial style that is allowed for this type of log, so watch this space for other (and probably less interesting) blogs.
I’m currently at the stage of putting together some extra photographs – mainly panoramic shots that can be scrolled around with using Quicktime VR. Copy and paste the following URL to find the extras:
www.mrjoll.plus.com/steven/blog/extras/
So long and thanks for all the fish [sandwiches, Nav]
-- steven
posted by Steven | 2:17 am
3 Comments:
I'm glad you had fun doing it. So what is your next adventure and are you going to blog about it?
Hi Jane,
Cheers for the support/comments you made - most appreciated. Nav and I were thinking about Ireland (the whole of) and maybe using Tony Hawks (sp?) 'Round Ireland with a Fridge' as a guide although Morton also wrote 'In Search of Ireland', so we have a couple of choices. As for when, we don't know, but probably not for a while.
No doubt I'll be blogging it again - it's pretty good fun writing up stories. I'll probably add a post to this blog to let people know of the new blog - there's something called RSS (or RRS) which allows people to get emails re: updates to blogs, etc. so check out that internet service to be kept informed.
Cheers
Steven
One other thing - I've uploaded the missing pictures from the final day of the trip.
Pretty proud of the last picture.
steven
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