Day 4 - IOM 2019


Usually this is the time of the week when tiredness kicks in! However, you wouldn’t have thought the boys had been here for 3 days already as they all had room check, breakfast and bank and arrived at the St Thomas’ practice with great punctuality.

After a shortened practice and break, with no free time in town to follow due to the unforgiving winds of the Douglas coast, we came back to the hotel to a lunch of chicken nuggets and chips, a favourite within the boy ranks for some reason, and got packed and ready for the practice in St Lupus Malew and the subsequent trip to the Peel swimming pool to burn of energy.
It is safe to say the trip was successful as the boys got dressed and drearily returned to the coaches fully expended of all prior energy, with still a service to go in the evening. The evening meal was devoured as always, with balsamic vinegar on melon a heated topic of discussion on the dinner table. This was followed by either salmon, hot pot or vegetable lasagne and the popular dessert of Eton mess.
The boys gathered in the lobby and set off for the church. After the thirty-minute journey we arrived and got robed and led a very good service, both musically and religiously. Well-expressed and thoughtfully delivered readings from Finlay Walsh and Michael Carrick-Pollard set the tone for the service. Prayer readers Daniel Harper, Alex Hodson, Finlay Ratcliffe, Jacob Egan and Jacob Mason spoke with great clarity and demonstrated the potential of our younger choristers not only musically but in readings, too. To finish the service, first time soloist Jacob Mason led us impressively in ‘O God you search me’; hopefully the first of many.
After the service we received a very kind reception of cakes, pizza and drinks from the congregation of St Lupus. The boys also took great excitement from searching and hearing about the apparent vampire grave of Mathew Halsall, hidden in the large graveyard of the church. An eary sight even for our Head Chorister! We returned late and tired and quickly went to bed in preparation for another busy day tomorrow. All in all, a day of great fun, excitement and efficient use of practice time.

The Head Boys  

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