Crumbs

According to the Melbourne Herald Sun (not to be confused with Sydney's Sun-Herald), to-day is National Leftovers Day; while I don't like newfangled secular commemorations, this one is certainly appropriate.  For lunch we had the last of the vegetables from Christmas dinner, plus helpings of turkey stuffings (we have two, one for each end); the newspaper suggested the horrifying idea of turkey pizza; may I suggest for British readers a variant of a native dish - turkey tikka marsala?

To-day of course is called Boxing Day (so-called because once gifts were given to employees; nowadays, it's the start of yet more buying at the post-Christmas sales); in Australia, it's marked by two great sporting contests: the Boxing Day cricket test match; and the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, which we've all just been watching on television.  It put me in mind of visits to Sydney, and the hospitality of Bp Fisher, who, as one of the good Cardinal's auxiliaries, has the cure of the parish of Watson's Bay - complete with a presbytery-cum-episcopal palace with a million dollar view: walking up the hill behind to watch the New Year's fireworks was unforgettable.

I recall also the nice old ladies who made up most of the weekday congregation at the parish church: they'd had no parish priest for eighteen months, and thought there was little prospect of getting another one, fearing their parish would be suppressed; so they'd prayed and prayed, and got - a bishop.  I've often said I wished I'd asked them what novena prayer they'd used...