Read the previous post first. Or don't ...

'So I decided that for Lent I would make an effort to say something nice to someone every day. And I began today.'

I was telling the men who'd come to the chaplain's hour in prison about how I'd accidentally given up chocolate for Lent last year - I don't know how it happened but I suddenly found myself committed to not eating chocolate for 6 weeks - and that this year I was going to do something more positive for Lent.

'So, this afternoon, when I was in Tesco's I was standing next to a lady and I started sniffing. I said, "You smell nice." She looked at me like she'd just realised she was standing next to the loonie on the bus and she said, "Do I?" "Mm, yes." She paused a moment and then smiled. "Well, thank you."'

So I think I told the story quite clearly but at the end of the evening, several people said to me, 'Good luck on giving up chocolate.'
'No, no, I'm not giving up chocolate. ... Am I?'
The girls who'd come in with me to sing thought this was hilarious. 'You've done it again,' they said. 'You're going to have give up chocolate again!'
'Noooooooooo!'

Incidentally one of the men started asking me questions, which would have been all right if a) he hadn't known the Bible better than i do; and b) I'd been able to understand everything he said. As it was I had to give an answer to a question that might not have been the one asked.

I must have done all right though because before he left he came and shook my hand and said, 'I like you. Will you come in again next week?'

At least he didn't walk out halfway through like one of the others.