Fasting Friday Failure Followed-up

Last Thursday week I failed to remember that on Friday we were going to a quiz night. The quiz night was to raise funds for new floodlights for our ailing local football club, to see old friends and enjoy ourselves.  Had I remembered, on the Thursday I would have fasted, but I was certainly NOT going to fast on Friday and drink in the evening - that's a sure fire way to get drunk on almost no alcohol at all, and I hate being drunk.  So come Friday I had failed.
Thinking about how I would fit two days fasting into a very short week left me puzzled and unwilling to even try.  I needn't have worried.
 
Andy, Jess and Leo have suffered a bug that was almost certainly Norovirus.  By Sunday, I was starting to think I had caught it.  So much so I was close to not preaching!  Some prayer later and I managed it (it was an eventful one, including some technology failures), but by Sunday evening I was struggling again - beginning to feel very cold.  I stayed at home Monday and tried to get warm with little success, it was a miserable day until about 4pm when the fever broke and I recovered.  On Tuesday I went to work as usual, the late Tuesday evening the 'second half' of the illness hit me.  By Wednesday mid-morning my insides were empty, along with my energy reserves, I didn't eat again until Thursday lunchtime, but I didn't do anything except sleep, read and watch TV, nothing close to activity at all.
On Thursday I missed an important (to me) funeral that I had a day's holiday to attend, and in the evening the Agape feast at Christ Church.  Today I have managed to exercise the dog and take part in the walk of witness, but that was it - the limit of my abilities, so I missed the service following the walk, and I am missing our innovative service for Good Friday - Eastingle - as I write.  My daughter, jokingly, said God would smite me if I missed any more important festivals, I replied, less jokingly, that I thought He already had.
So I have managed two days without food (very nearly) this week, even if I haven't managed anything else.

If you're wondering how we did at the quiz night - we cane 7th of 10.  On one round, we scored as full 10/10, but didn't play our joker.  The round was words that sound the same and are spelt differently, the clue was 'provoke' and 'understanding'.

The answer: incite and insight - my only unique contribution to the round.

And yes, I did provide unique input to other rounds, but we didn't get a perfect score on any of them.

Billericay Town 1 Swansea City 2

About noon on Saturday we left home for the reasonably short walk to the New Lodge football ground. There were lots of people already there. It is many years since I last attended a match, but this was Billericay's big day. The first time against league opposition in their history. After various introductions, including one from the Billericay town crier, the match got underway. There were TV cameras in the ground (I'm not sure if this was a first?). The Billericay crowd supported their team and made lots of noise. The game started rather nervously - especially from Swansea, who were not playing their first team. After about 10 minutes the players settled down, but the quality of the football from Swansea had not improved greatly. So the surprise of Billericay scoring first (Wayne Semanshia) was not as great as it should have been. From the kick-off Swansea did not look as though they were that committed to coming back. Giant killing thoughts entertained the spectators. Our apparent lack of television coverage in the lead-up also got a few mentions. Still 1-0 at half time. Play resumed in much the same vein, but Swansea were starting to get the upper hand. Their equaliser was no surprise, Billericay had been under pressure for a while. After the goal, you would have thought Swansea had settled for the draw. They did not seem to be trying that hard. Then a defensive mistake let Swansea grab a second. Billericay did fight back, but during this period Swansea played some of their best football.
This was not a classic game, but showed that although 170+ places below Swansea, and admittedly with a team at less than full strength, the difference between the two teams was basically limited to the accuracy of the passing.

A word to 'supporters' (the ones just behind me): I'm pretty sure these are regular Billericay fans, so please get behind all your players, even if they aren't at the top of their game.