My friends, I am so sorry to have let you down last night, but as I mentioned, Mrs C and I were dining elsewhere until quite late.

Well thank you, Chaplain, for initiating theological discussion and debate in Newton! Having heard about teddies being blessed, etc, I, as 'Chaplain's assistant' or whatever I am, was asked by a Newtonian whether I, too, would be so good as to bless a few teddies. Er, no. The reasons being that (a) only an ordained cleric can bless, and (b) I'm not in the habit of blessing or praying for inanimate objects. As I sad to my enquirer, I might as well bless a light bulb or a bed. Anyway, that, as you can imagine, was a long way from being an adequate response in the minds of my charges, so we then involved ourselves in a lengthy and involved theological discourse about the differences in belief shared by the two main parts (I don't mean denomination, that's something else) of Christianity: Calvinism and Arminianism. I'm sure you don't need me to explain the differences, but at the risk of teaching grandmothers the skill of sucking eggs (not that I'm implying .... ), basically the former believe that everything's pre-planned by the Almighty and the latter taking a more moderate standpoint, that we've been given the gift of life andf it's up to us to determine how it goes. I'm of the latter view, but I didn't confess that to my conversational partners. The discussion was, I must say, quite remarkable - and great fun. As with any theological exchanges, no conclusions were reached!

Down in the Clubhouse, of course, X-Factor was proving to be an alternative to hermeneutical exegeses, with Miss Chloe going into complete rapture about someone called Justin Beaver, or some such. She could hardly contain herself!

It's the report-writing season, of course, at the moment, and every time I go into the staff room I scare myself witless by seeing how advanced so many of my colleagues are with their deliberations: I really must knuckle down tomorrow, and Tuesday, and get back up to date. I will try not to write things akin to what one of my esrtwhile colleagues wrote once, namely

'This boy has all the characteristics of a tree stump, but he lacks the personality.'

How could he?

Oh don't worry, it never reached the parents .... !

Goodnight all.