Last night saw me at a bowling alley in Oxford with the High Sheriff’s Cadets, confidently stepping up to the lane and being comprehensively outplayed at ten-pin bowling. It turns out confidence is no substitute for skill. Youthful reflexes, teamwork and a healthy lack of overthinking are, it seems, a formidable combination. My own technique,…
This afternoon, Mark and I spent Christmas Day in Oxford with care leavers, and with the volunteers who made today’s Christmas Dinner for them happen. It was generous, warm and quietly extraordinary – one of those afternoons that settles you, lifts you, and reminds you what Christmas can look like when people decide to show…
Last night, Christmas Eve, Mark and I were at Christ Church Cathedral for the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols – one of those moments in the year when time seems to slow, and the familiar becomes newly luminous. There is something deeply grounding about this service. The shape of it – scripture and music…
Yesterday afternoon brought one of those moments that perfectly captures the spirit of a civic Christmas. I was delighted to be a guest of the Lord Mayor of Oxford, Louise Upton, at her annual Carol Concert at Oxford Town Hall. Over the past few months Louise and I have shared a number of public engagements,…
A real joy this evening to join the Oxford Bach Choir and friends from the Oxfordshire County Music Service for their Carols for All concert at the Sheldonian Theatre. This time, I managed to turn up on the right night – a marked improvement on my slightly over-enthusiastic arrival a fortnight ago, two weeks early,…
Yesterday Mark and I spent a full shift with the neighbourhood policing team in Bicester, accompanying PCSOs Lou and Jules as they went about their work in the town centre, and later heading out with Lou across her wide rural patch. It was one of those days that quietly but powerfully reinforced just how important…
This evening I attended a carol service at HMP Huntercombe that I suspect will stay with me for a very long time. The hall was full – staff, prisoners and visiting volunteers – including Mark, Anne and me – gathered together in a way that felt both ordinary and quietly extraordinary. From the first moment…
This afternoon I had the genuine pleasure of popping into St Edburg’s Church in Bicester for their Christmas Tree Festival, and what a quietly joyful thing it is. More than 70 real Christmas trees fill the church, each one sponsored and decorated by local schools, community groups and businesses. Taken together, they create something rather…
Mark and I managed a textbook “May–Johnson misadventure” last night. We turned up at the Sheldonian, feeling very pleased with ourselves for being early (for once) and ready to support the Oxford Bach Choir at their Carols for All. We were met by a handful of slightly puzzled – but wonderfully warm – staff and…
This afternoon’s Christmas drinks with Quest for Learning were an absolute joy. We were welcomed into Heather and Adam’s beautiful barn conversion in Blewbury, complete with a spectacular double-height Christmas tree that set the tone perfectly – festive, elegant, and full of warmth. I first came across Chris Higgins, Quest for Learning’s Chief Executive, a…