It took place in St. Luke's Church, Chelsea - which turns out to be famous for having had Charles Dickens and the parents of Robert Baden-Powell marry in it. Anyway, it's closer to my soon-to-be-departed-from flat, so I'm here again tonight (and it's getting tiring, dragging all this stuff to and fro!). Google Maps informed me that my quickest route would be to take the 430 bus to South Kensington Station, and walk from there.
I set out in time to get the bus before the last one that could get me there in time. It wasn't very pleasant, standing there and waiting and being buffeted by the wind, but it wasn't long before it arrived. Unfortunately, this one turned out to be terminating there! So I had to wait - anxiously - for the next: which did, mercifully, arrive on time. Slight traffic delays meant it was slightly late getting me to the station, and I trotted off at speed for what was predicted to be a 10-minute walk. Streetview had prepared me well, and I knew exactly where I was going - and arrived, in the company of other frazzled people, just as the predicted rain started to fall, at the church door..
..Where we had to squeeze past the choristers, to get in; they were waiting to process into the church. I did make it to a pew before the lights were dimmed and they started to sing:
And they were simply marvellous! The service did progress as a regular religious one, albeit peppered with speeches about Christian Aid, and a re-enactment of its foundation in 1946. And quite a few carols - although, to be fair, this wasn't primarily a carol service, and the young couple in front of me left before the end - it probably wasn't what they were expecting. As for the carols, some I didn't know, but for those I did, I sang out lustily enough to make my throat hurt - I'm out of practice at carol singing!
It was serene, it was a lovely intro to the Christmas season, and I was glad I came. Mind you, the collection at the end was bad timing, considering I'd used up the last of my large change at the leaving lunch we had today. Well, at least piling all those small coins into the donation envelope (and thank goodness they didn't have to go loose on the plate!) weighed it down. And when the lights came on at the end, and the crowd dispersed a bit, I got a chance to take a photo of what is a lovely church:
We were offered mulled wine on the way out, but I don't like it. And gee, we got to shake hands with the clergy on the step as we left! Another difference from the Catholic Church - the first notable one being the collection plates, rather than the baskets used in Catholic churches. I think the baskets are more practical, myself - less chance of letting it all fall to the floor.
It was raining more substantially as we left - at least it's not a long walk back to the station, and I sang carols to myself as I went. I located the bus stop, just in time to miss my bus - and the indicator board didn't show another on that route for the next 27 minutes! despite them being supposed to come about every 8 minutes. Sod it, I took the Tube instead - the station was, after all, right behind me - and was home in under 10 minutes.
Back to Ireland tomorrow for the weekend (if it's not too stormy), and on Monday and Tuesday next, I have cheap tickets.. on Monday, I'm off to Contactless, a song cycle about travelling on the Tube. Seems like it might be one I'll be staying at the new place again for, as it's in SW12. And on Tuesday, I'm off to another classical concert, at Wigmore Hall.
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