Night and Day

As I mentioned in the previous post, I visited the Texas Embassy last night to meet Paul Burgin and some other friends. The Texas Embassy is a restaurant built on the site of, not just the Rugby Football Union but, you guessed it, the Texas Embassy when it was an independent country in the 1830 - 40s. 

Also present was Tim Roll-Pickering whose blog can be read here. Tim is as tory as Paul is Labour so there was some good gossipy political conversation going on. Well, I say gossipy, but it was also pleasingly non-malicious. We also discussed our earliest political memories. I thought the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981 was mine, but now I am not so sure. I may be thinking about what I read of it after the event. I certainly remember the Falklands war, though.

This morning, I was at the parish church for Mass. Happy Palm Sunday everyone! Fr Nicholas was preaching. During his homily, he mentioned that one of the alternative names for today is Flower Day. The Latin for flower is florida and the American state of that name was so called because it was discovered today! 

After Mass, we had a cup of coffee together with a someone who in September will be joining the Birmingham Oratory. Both the coffee and this information were very pleasing. The Birmingham Oratory, apart from being Cardinal Newman's home, looked after J. R. R. Tolkien and his brother, Hilary, after the death of their mother, Mabel in 1904.