JEDI July: Day 12 - The one where Kev played golf

I was on visuals at church this morning, which meant a hurried breakfast and speedy shower before a brisk walk round the road in order to be briefed by Richard about the service itinerary - thankfully nothing too complicated. The focus of the service was 'Being Adopted', with Reverend John discussing our adoption by God out of our slavery to sin and into His kingdom. The visuals ran smoothly and, despite having a duty to fulfil, this didn't stop me from enjoying the worship and engaging with the message. I spoke briefly with Wendy after the service and also Matt, who was off to Reading in the afternoon to see some uni friends before returning to Swindon tomorrow.

Back home Dad and I had a go with my bumper blackener on Jalopy. We found this worked well in abrasive areas, though on pieces of trim that had been smoothed out we had to resort to using shoe polish, which actually worked just as well as the spray can. As a result of our efforts the wheel arches are no longer a nasty cream and the car is looking that little bit more loved than it had done before.

After Mum's delicious Sunday dinner Ernest called and we went to collect Kevin for our pre-arranged round of golf. A rather dazed-looking Kev was surprised at the amount of equipment that Ernest and I had brought with us, not to mention the luxury of trollies, and thus was not best pleased at having to walk around the course carrying six weary-looking clubs in an overgrown smarties tube with 'HIRE' emblazened across the front. Upon reaching the first green we also discovered that the dopey dude in the club house had given left-handed Kevin a right-handed putter, so me and Ern treated our golfing guest by watching him run all the way back up the fairway to fetch a replacement.

In spite of all this, we still enjoyed a good couple of hours thrashing around the sunny course and I was pleased to finish on 40, four shots ahead of Ern and with two pars to my name. Kev made it round in 49, which wasn't at all bad for a beginner (49 is what I got on my first nine-hole round and I had already been playing pitch and putt for a couple of months previously).

By this point it was a very warm afternoon (26 degrees from the car's temperature reading). Once Kevin had been taken home, Ern dropped me off then I sat out on the patio with my laptop listening to Ashes test cricket, Mum kindly bringing me some picnic tea.

I was supposed to be going to a youth service with Holy Smoke however when I walked round the church to meet in the car park there appeared to be no-one around, so I returned home to listen to an exciting conclusion to the cricket. After a tense final few overs, England managed to scrape a draw against Australia - no mean feat having been 70-5 and still 170 runs behind at lunch earlier today. Apparently it was a match that will live long in the memory, so I felt privileged to have been able to hear it out.

Plainly in a cricketing mood, I decided to bat a ball around in the garden for a while and when Ernest arrived to watch Top Gear he bowled me a few balls and vice versa. We paused to join L and Dad in the lounge, finding the slow one watching the conclusion of the cricket highlights on Five (showing only continual boundaries in between tedious crowd shots and advert breaks). Top Gear was accompanied by two bowls full of popcorn, together with drinks kindly served by Lydia, and featured an interview with 100m record-breaker Usain Bolt, as well as the usual high-octane, testosterone-filled fun.

After this Ernie and I returned to the garden to see out the fading daylight by smashing a few more tennis balls about, with Ern's powerful batting out-smashing my more considered stroke play. Charlie turned up talking about Mike Shelley (yet again), then Ernest retreated upstairs to see Lydia, leaving me to clear up the garden.

To try and put a stop to my recent trend of rather late nights, I made an effort this evening to turn in when everyone else did and am writing this on my laptop whilst already in bed. It means I'm already half way to getting some shut eye, as I find that sitting at my desktop PC distracts me from wanting to get ready for bed. I hope no-one minds!

To round off...today, as I'm sure you are aware, is 12th July. This means three things...

1) It is a month since my final exam (though it seems a lot longer)
2) It is one month until Soul Survivor (yay!)

Most worrying of all however...

3) It is six months since my last birthday, meaning that in just half a year I will no longer be a teenager!

And on that bombshell, I shall have to end. Thanks very much for reading. See you tomorrow!