I spent yesterday afternoon and this afternoon in St Mungo’s Episcopal Church in Balerno. I had been invited, along with a number of other people , by a counsellor training organisation called `Vital Connections’ to be a consultant counsellor and work with a small group of trainees for the two afternoons. It was great fun and I really enjoyed it.

The bit I enjoyed rather less was driving to and from Balerno.

For the uninitiated (as I certainly was yesterday morning), Balerno is a small town/big village a little south West of Edinburgh on the A70.

It really should have been remarkably easy to get to (Forth Bridge, M9, M8, City Bypass, A70 for those who care about such things) but on both days I went wrong on the City Bypass and ended up having to turn around and retrace my steps. Without going into undue detail as that might be a little boring, a number of factors caused my downfall – the chief of which were that there is no direct exit from the City Bypass on to the A70 (you have to get off at the exit before and go via a B road) AND (and this is where I went wrong today) there’s no exit even to the B road if you’re travelling east, which I was!

Anyway, interesting as that may be, that’s not the point either. The really weird thing is that yesterday as I drove down I was listening to Test Match Special on the car radio (England are playing New Zealand, you might remember) and, during the lunch break, Jonathan Agnew conducted an extremely lively and amusing interview with Lesley Garrett, the opera singer. Well actually, that in itself isn’t all that weird! What is strange is that somehow in my mind, I associated notable moments in the interview with notable moments on my journey to Balerno – and, in particular, with places where I had to turn around or where I thought I was lost. And, what is most uncanny is that today, as I listened to TMS again, rain stopped play – so they replayed the interview with Lesley Garrett and (and this is the really weird bit) the timing was such that the same notable moments in the interview coincided with the same notable points on my journey as they had yesterday. And that really did feel strange. Like a ten minute episode of pure deja vue. Wierd!

Anyway, back home without getting lost once. All that remains now is to write a sermon on the Trinity. Perhaps the Edinburgh city bypass isn’t so difficult after all!