A special day

In September last year Gavin became a member of a London livery company, and today Luke went through the ceremony to become his apprentice. Anyone can become an apprentice of a member of the livery company (who becomes their 'master') if they are prepared to take them on. It's a four year apprenticeship whereby the master has to teach his apprentice the aims and ethos of the livery company and in practical terms Luke should attend a few of their traditional social functions during that period. While it may sound silly and insubstantial, this livery company, like most others today, no longer practice their medieval trade but rather is involved in charity work, and in this case it is the running of a number of schools and alms houses. So while it seems like a bit of fun it really is all about giving back to society. One can become an apprentice between the ages of 18-25 years old in the hope that one day when these young members are settled in their careers and have the wisdom and time to share, they will willingly contribute to the running of the livery company's charitable institutions (as Gavin does now).

The ceremony, like all old English ceremonies, had some strange but significant moment - like when Luke had to pay his master a peppercorn for taking him on. Payment with a peppercorn has traditionally been used as payment for a nominal consideration, think of the term 'peppercorn rent'. Luke was given an actual peppercorn by the beadle which he then had to give to Gavin.

We then had a quick but lovely lunch in the city before Gavin rushed back to work and Luke and I came home, he to his ice machine and me to catch up with some of my committee work. Luke is doing so well with his rehabilitation, he is well ahead of where he should be in his progress as he has been working so hard at it. He is also fortunate to have the most fantastic physio who understands his need to get strong again for sport and is totally knowledgeable about his exact injury. The bend of his knee is already at 125 degrees and she wants him to get to 135 degrees before he goes back to Berlin on the 15th so he is working very hard on achieving that.