We were discussing giving E a lift to her end-of-school Ball, and debating who was going to drive. Remember that S is also now learning to drive …

S: I could drive you

E: But you haven’t even got beyond 2nd gear yet

S: You don’t need more than 2nd gear …

Clearly something to remind S of in future …

Emma’s learning to drive, and she’s now good enough to get taken out by her us in the small car. Today we thought we’d get her to drive out a bit further and get some practice on fast roads, and Martha realised we could combine that with a Sunday roast lunch at a pub. She drove well out to Andoversford - about 10 miles. And then for the first time, both Martha and I could have some wine, as we had a chauffeur that could take us back! And she got us back fine, too. She just needs more practice at good ol’ parallel parking. She should be ready to take her test after the exam period.

The pub, by the way, was the King’s Oak. It had quality food - particularly the ‘Belgian Waffle with Chocolate Sauce’ pudding - but wasn’t cheap.

I always expect it at Greenbelt, but I forget it might happen at Spring Harvest too: bumping into old friends or family. Last night I spotted Rob from work — who I didn’t even know is a Christian — coming out of the Tim Vine gig. Today I bumped into Auntie Rosie, and then later managed to have a great couple of hours catching up with her and Dougie. Clearly important things are going on at their church in Lymington under Peter Salisbury, ably assisted by Sarah. We bump into them later on, plus Nicola and Roger (from LiveWires) and Toby (from school).

All of this happened in the ‘Skyline Pavilion’ with its pretensions of being a big tent. (Which Tim Vine had caustically noted in a short interview make this a perfect place not to attempt doing any stand-up comedy. Which made for a surprisingly serious, and rather pointless interview. But I digress.)

All 4 of us went to this concert recently, at Birmingham’s great Symphony Hall. It included such classical ‘pops’ as Grieg Morning and In the Hall of the Mountain King, Strauss Radetzky March, Delibes Prelude and Mazurka from Coppélia, Elgar Nimrod, Tchaikovsky The Sleeping Beauty Waltz.

In the second half it moved to emulate the ‘Last Night of the Proms’ with the likes of The Dam Busters March, Jerusalem, Nessun Dorma, Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory. This was all accompanied by hundreds of flags - mostly Union Jacks, but some English and Welsh ones too. Plus some form of red ensign I couldn’t quite identify. I felt slightly uncomfortable seeing all this. Partly because it’s so rare to see lots of national flags in the UK (except at sports matches I never attend), and partly because the movement was almost enough to make me feel sea-sick! I also feel I ought to know what’s right and wrong with nationalism, but I can’t claim to. All I know is that the US flavour of it - with their flag everywhere — feels crass and slightly xenophobic because you can’t get away from it.

But back to the music. The tenor and baritone soloists weren’t that audible, but appeared to do reasonable justice to Bizet The Pearl Fisher’s Duet, Nessun Dorma, and leading the singing at the end.

The highlight for me was hearing Delius’ On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, which I hadn’t really
appreciated before - a beautiful piece. Oh, and the seats up on level 5A opposite the stage, have headrests.
Worth remembering in future.

For once, I’m feeling quite Christmas-y, which is a surprise. I’m normally a bit humbug-like at Christmas, and don’t enjoy messing with trees and decorations. But maybe because we’ve put the tree downstairs this year, and it looks gorgeous, I’m feeling more in the spirit.

We celebrated early in Edinburgh with a fine meal out at [Mamma Roma's](http://www.mamma-roma.net/). Their steaks are to be recommended

Emma’s busy taking driving lessons, and we hope that she’ll have passed her test earlyish in 2008. At that point we want to buy a second car at that point so she has one she can use. But this raises some important questions …

Is this just following the herd? We went down to just 1 car soon after we got married, partly to be more green, partly to save money, and also because it would encourage us to walk more. All of which it has done, and we’d happy with that. So are we being anti-green? (And what colour would be the opposite of green?)

Then what sort of car to get? Given that its much more likely that prangs and accidents will happen in the first year or two of driving, it makes sense to get an old banger for a few hundred quid. But these don’t tend to have got very good crash safety ratings. So do we get a secondhand car with good safety but at 5 or 10 times the price? Or do we go more expensive still, insure it well, and aim to have that as the replacement for the estate when we no longer need that?

So, after some frantic extra ordering of food, as we couldn’t count the number of family and friends properly, we all had a great time at the meal. Emma got out of making a speech, but she did (wo)manfully try blowing out her sparkler candles. Young Joshua gots lots of attention, and was fascinated by the way that balloons defy gravity. Much fun. Thanks for the occasion, Emma!

See the pictures [in our gallery](http://picasaweb.google.com/thejgc/EmmaS18thBirthdayMeal), or via the Gallery page link above.

Martha still has her painful tennis elbow and Emma’s mostly got over her sprained Achilles tendon. Then we hear that Paul’s father died fairly suddenly on Friday. So Paul won’t be able to get to Emma’s 18th Birthday Family Meal tomorrow at the Storyteller in Cheltenham. We’re praying for Paul and his mother.