Mark wanted, most sensibly, to arrive at the place where he was to give his talk 45 minutes early. To give him time to lay out his books, limber up and get ready. We got him there about 30 seconds late. Welcome to the world of the Preece family. Fr Massie made the unprecedented move of allowing somebody to sell books in the place where he usually sells Faith Magazine. Nobody tell Fr Hugh.

Mark kicked off with his 101 reasons not to be Catholic which is really entertaining, you can get some of the gist of it here. He then went on to talk about "Who do you say I am?" and the various (limited) options for explaining Jesus Christ of which only one really makes any sense. I didn't hear too much myself because I had Phil Cunnah sat to my left laughing rediculously. Although I've pretty much heard the whole talk before in Mark's Sheavings, Blog and Books (as well as Chesterton and Lewis books) it was still great fun and he does it really well.

After the talk we all headed to the Old Grey Mare pub (as is the tradition) and had beer and guiness while we caught up with Phil. We got home late and went to bed later after a long discussion about the price of flying heavy cases of books to Ireland (Ryanair are swines). Tomorrow we are leaving Mark in Michelle's capable hands while we head off to a funeral. It's been great having him around. I hope it all goes well for hin in Ireland and he has a safe journey there and eventually back home to Seattle.