Always get a second opinion

Yesterday, I was driving home from Colchester and I realised that my odometer wasn't working.

This morning, after Jazzercise and collecting some apples for various people from one of the congregation, I headed to the place where I brought my car and asked them to fix it for me. Initially the receptionist said that they couldn't fix it because they didn't have the right tools. I kicked up a little bit of a fuss, because I'd brought it from them, and the guy (who was in the showroom but kept well away) said that if I had any problems I should bring it back and they would fix it. I was also told that because they didn't have the right equipment I would have to go to Dunton to get it fixed. So I insisted that they should at least have a look, but they wouldn't unless I had a warranty. I said I wasn't sure if I did and the receptionist asked me to go home and check my paperwork.

(Now I realise that they took a copy of everything and could easily have checked instead of me driving two miles, urgh! I've only just started)

I do have what I thought was a warranty, but I was told that it didn't cover the problem I had. They had a mechanic look at it for me, who simply hit the top of the dashboard and the display reappeared. The problem was a bulb apparently, and yo replace it would cost money and take time. So I would have to pay for the labour, an hours work to replace a bulb at a cost of £85. I told them that I would be seeing my own mechanic to get a quote from him before I went ahead with anything.

So I headed off to Phil's at Gooseberry Green to see what they could do for me, and if what I was being told was right.

Car + regular Jo(sephine) = Always get a second opinion

Malcolm at Phil's was great, he discussed the issue with me and said that he would ring the Vauxhall help centre to get a proper idea of what needed to be done. He also said that warranty's are useless unless the car blows up whilst being carefully driven and even then the company who sell the warranty can dispute the claim. So there really is no point in having one, but chin up and he would give me a ring when he'd discussed it with the right people. He did, very promptly and explained that it was the bulbs filaments that cause the problem, a bulb is £1 and the labour for an hour is £48 (potential saving of £36). It doesn't have to be done now, so I will give them a ring when the bulb eventually dies.

Always get a second opinion.

Especially if you feel like you're being treated unfairly or being pressured into something. Especially if you know nothing about cars and don't like dealerships who try to charge you too much money.

Default

"Default option - an option that is selected automatically unless an alternative is specified."

My default option after this weekend seems to be singing. I was with Chris on Saturday night, at a Harvest Supper in the wilds of North Essex, and found myself singing a lot of the time to the music that was playing. It seems that whilst I'm concentrating on something else, if there is music playing in the background, I will sing along to it. Of course, this is made easier by the knowledge that all the songs were really well known to me, but still, when I woke up the following morning and realised I had a sore throat, I had to think as to why that was. Strange. I sing a lot of the time. Some times are better than others, but mostly I do it for my own amusement/to worship God.

Anyway, like I said, I have spent most of my weekend with Chris and seeing family that I haven't seen for a very long time. Catching up with news is always good, it's nice to hear that things are moving on, but the way that it happens doesn't change very much...

This week is half term and I will be preparing for Christmas with my free time and preparing an essay for CCS. This will be my first attempt at writing such a think in more than three tears, so I'm a little apprehensive to say the least and I'm trying to figure out exactly how I'm going to fit it in whilst working, because the last time I had to write the only focus was the essay. So time to read up and answer the question! I'll tell you what it is when I've got some idea of where I'm going, because I haven't got the piece of paper that's got the exact title in front of me... but it's definitely something to do with the story of the Exodus and Christians today.

So here's to spending a week reading and planning!

P.S. The links are different for Chris' name because he now has a photography website and a blog!

Gathering together...

Yesterday was a busy day and started with a late arrival for me at the 8am service. I some times forget how quickly a spoken service can go, so before I knew it, it was time for breakfast and then time to start preparing for the next service.

The third Sunday of the month is always a little strange. The children are in for the whole of the service, it's shorter and more interactive. I do enjoy it a lot as I'm often at the front doing something or helping with an activity and this months service was no different!

We had Peter Hylton and his team from St Mary's take the majority of our service. They were launching Operation Christmas Child for our church, which went down really well. We had a fuller congregation that normal because we had over 50 children from the uniformed organisations join us. It was great to see so many faces and hear from people who had been out to places to give out shoe boxes. (We sang Father Abraham, which I haven't sung for ages)

After that it was time to head home for some serious rest. To watch the gymnastic world championship (well done Beth Tweddle on your gold) and the Brazilian Grand Prix.

That period of time went far too quickly and I found myself willing Jenson Button on (He won and became the 9th (?) British F1 champion) as Mum and I walked the short distance to the Catholic Church for the penultimate CTB pilgrimage service. I've never been a part of a traditional Catholic service so it immeadiately caught my attention as something that I'd like to go to.

I found it intriguing that nearly everything was sung and there was Latin as well. I missed some of the bits of the service because I was reading the Latin, but I got the gist of it and found singing Latin really easy! I would recommend going to a Catholic service if you don't attend a catholic church regularly when you're giving the opportunity. The last service is at St John's so I will hopefully be going there in November.

When I find the piece of paper I'll tell you what the service was called.

Then it was quickly home for a bite to eat and out again to see the Baptist church in action. We've joined forces to help with the leader situation and to see how our youth groups can work together. It was good fun. I was definitely ready to go to bed when I got home!

National Chocolate Week

We're coming towards the end of National Chocolate week and to celebrate I made cakes for the Shaken Up lot. So if you weren't there, or have been on my facebook recently, here is photographic evidence that they turned out really well and didn't all get gobbled up by the boys...



Decorated and tasting gorgeous. I would really recommend the recipe from Divine if you've got an afternoon to spare. They got the thumbs up from everyone at Shaken Up and my family liked them too... I've just got to see what Chris and his mum think!!

On other chocolatey matters - have you seen these



I love popping candy, I'm not so fond on Chocolate Orange and I don't know if they are fair trade but the box and the idea is just amazing!! I hope I get one of these, either for Christmas or sooner...

What!?! Why!?!

I'm sensible about my driving, I do a lot more of it than I ever imagined, so I look after my car, because if I don't it will cost me a lot of money in the future. I hope that the price of petrol will continue to fall, though I don't know that we will ever go back to the 79.9ppl!

Of course, free is the best price so I was shocked when I realised that Tesco have started charging for air! It's 20p for 5 mins. I guess air only costs when it's being pumped through a pipe... It doesn't break the bank, but it is another cost that we really don't need, and that Tesco really shouldn't be doing.

So the plan is to change my pattern ever so slightly and foot pump my way to success! I get fitter and not nearly as much money is spent!

This week has been an interesting one, I've been into school 4 times, which is a great encouragement to me. I do love that part of my job.

Giving Blood

Is a different experience every time. This time Chris and I headed to Christ Church to share the experience.

Strangely, I enjoy giving blood. I love that I can do it, and do it as regularly as possible. I have a rare blood type, so I know that it is important to give. I'm A RH Negative so I'm already in the 16% of the population that are negative.

I got in first and it took about 8 mins to fill the bag up, with some pain, but I thought I was going to be ok. Chris took about half that time and although it's never a competition, he was pleased that he was quicker than me.

I got a bruise that was quite painful. I normally don't bruise so I was a little worried, but I think it was just down to not applying pressure in the right place after the needle was pulled out.

So 17 weeks from now, I will be donating again unless I get ill...which hopefully I won't.

I'm starting to get into a routine, not all of the pieces are in place yet, but I am trying my hardest to make my week flow so that I know where I am and what I'm doing without having to think too much!

CCS

The Course in Christian Studies is a course for those who want to find out more about Christianity. It is plugged as a discovery course, and so far so good, though the Christian element is a lot stronger than I thought it would be. (With a lot of things recently I haven't really known what I was getting myself into until the day/course/service/activity has been over with, so I find myself saying 'I don't really know what to expect' a lot!)

So when we got to talk through an actual passage like we were there, it became really interesting for me... I'm sat with a group of Christians, who know Christ personally and there's no worry about saying the 'right' thing, so the conversation is very honest. I haven't done that sort of thing for a very long time, so I listened intently and found myself as spokes person for the evening for the groups that I was involved in. The questions that the worksheet asked were really helpful for the groups, it directs the discussion, but also keeps it on track, it's intense and once you get into the stride of it, it can be really rewarding. In all my years doing a degree, I never looked a bible passage like this and I have a feeling that the New Testament module would have been sooo much more fun taught in this way!

So it is going really well, and our tutor told a story that really spoke to me about why Jesus joined us on earth, I'd never heard it before, but it is plain and makes proper sense!

"A boy decided that he was going to collect ants, and the colony grew quite large. The boy's parents decided that the ants were causing too much trouble, so they went to boil the kettle, so as to kill the ants. The boy heard their plan and ran to the ants, because he wanted them to live, he was shouting at them, telling them to run and save themselves. The ants didn't understand, they stayed in the colony and were killed by the boiling water. Of course the only way that the boy could make the ants understand him was by becoming an ant."

Really short, and if I ever get to use it at church I will embellish it to make it sound a little more dramatic! I love stories and I wish I could tell them more often. I miss working with pre-school!

There is a lot more, but maybe for another day... as the thoughts unravel I will blog and share my thoughts!

Harvest

The response from our Harvest service has been really good this year. We spent a lot of time preparing and chatting through what would go in the service.

And the congragation seemed to like seeing the young people actively involved in the service. It was wonderful to have so many young boys in church, all of whom are more than willing to be a part of the family. So it was nice to have a lot of people saying thank you and well done.

We shared lunch together - which whilst being like every other gathering we've had, was ever so slightly different, with a lot of new families joining us and different types of food on offer. We even sang happy birthday to a little girl in our congregation.

The rest of the day was spent, for me, preparing for the week ahead, thinking about communication and labyrinths, doing my reading for CCS and resting as well after a bit of a busy month.

Tonight were meeting as youth and childrens leaders to have a look at nativity and the future of the groups that we run as a church.

My count of nights out in a row continues to grow...I've not done a top up, but I know there's only one night where I was confinded to my bedroom because of the start of a cold that never really materialised (I think that's due to going to Jazzercise and drinking plenty of water, plus some paracetomol!) the rest of the time I've been working or with Chris but on balance, my days aren't too busy, so I'm resting sufficently during the day.

There are some exciting plans in the pipelines, so keep an eye out for details!

The Secret Life of Twins

I've spent a lot of my time thinking about what it means to be a twin in the last 25 years... if you hadn't cottoned on to it, or don't really know me at all Karen is my other half.

She's my best friend and although we don't live together any more, we do still have a very strong connection and quite quickly get back into being really similar when we're together.

There have been times in our lives when other people have confused us and there was one moment that I won't forget for a very long time, when my boss couldn't tell the difference between us, because apparently we sound exactly the same.

Being a twin is unique in nature, so I think that I am really lucky to be a twin, I am also intrigued by it, by what science says, by what the bible says and by what other people say about Karen and I.

So I payed close attention to The Secret Life of Twins, a BBC programme over two nights, exploring nature and nurture, and the science behind it all. Why twins exist and the sort of things they can encounter in life, from being separated at birth to spending their entire lives together doing exactly the same things. If you're interested in multiple births, its a really good programme to watch.

I certainly want to find out more about whether Karen and I are identical or fraternal and if the things we do are nature or nurture...there is a really interesting point in the first programme that suggests our choice of profession is a genetics thing... Karen and I are both youth workers, so it could well be genetics, but we came to it by different courses, so it could just be God's helping hand??

Still, intriguing for me and for those around me... it's a push in the right direction to be a member of the database and find out some scientific stuff about being a twin!!

What a disappointment

Essex County Council have been disappointing in the past... yes I know they gave me a job, paid my wage and still let me walk around their offices on occasion (if I was a terrorist...) but in the last 6 months since they employed someone to paint the town yellow and put up some restrictions (see March of this year), I have not seen one traffic enforcement officer (traffic warden in old money) in Billericay. The only day I saw a little yellow pouch on someones windscreen was the day they painted the lines.

Now look at what has happened



Complete disregard for the law and not a person in sight to tell them that they can't do it. Part of my would like to apply for a job to patrol my estate (say once a month) to see how much money I could earn from issuing parking tickets to parents who have decided to park in my road during the restrictions.

How much did the council spend on line painting and how are they recouping the money? What's the point of having the lines but not issuing the fines?

On other news, we've been preparing for harvest with the young people in the church...praying and painting



Come on Sunday to Christ Church to see what else we're doing... 10am!

Drinking

Is something I really recommend after an hour of Jazzercise...though I seem to have really failed in keeping my liquid levels up after exercising! Hydration is key for my brain to work and I learnt this very quickly in second year after having too much of the stuff I'm going to talk about in the next paragraph...

Beer, particularly the Chappel Beer festival, which I promised I'd talk about when I found the one that I really enjoyed drinking. Chris and I had more than a couple of beers between us, a few which we really enjoyed and some that weren't so great...the two outstanding beers were the first ones we'd picked to try. I had a Raspberry Wheat Beer from the Milestone Brewery which was really enjoyable and I could drink a lot of, it wasn't too sweet and the flavour was at the back of your mouth rather than the first thing you taste. I liked it as an amateur, though if you type it into google the reviews are less favourable. Chris started with a beer called Bodger from the Idle Brewery which was really nice.

The rest didn't quite have the same impact (Brewer-Beer)

Stonehenge - Pigswill (not much better than it's name)
Green Tye - Union Jack (Meant to be biscuity, but wasn't)
Brentwood - Chockwork Orange (Very dark, very strong)
Cathedral - Eight Bells (a little too lemony)
Red Fox - Hunters Gold
Oakham - Warped

Being at Chappel was a little strange. I felt like I'd been there before and when I had a conversation with my mum she thought that we may have been there too. It's a railway station with a footbridge and there's a museum too. When my grandad was alive, he worked in the train industry and one summer, my younger brother drove a steam train with my grandad. I can remember the experience really well, and I think there are some photos somewhere of it. But other than that, here's not much else to go on. I might ask my Nan if she remembers it, because I can't imagine that she would've missed a day out with her grandchildren! If I get any more info, I'll let you know.

Talking of families, my mum continues working on finding out what the members of our family did for a living and where they've come from, she's been clearing out the loft, slowly and has come across literally hundreds of photos of my great grandparents (we think), grandparents on my dad's side and auntie, and of course my dad when he was a lot younger. So the saga goes on, we're not sure whether we're of German decent with an Anglicised surname, because my great grandad's birth certificate isn't in England, and he married a servant girl.... Interesting! I'll keep you posted!

Finding the time

It feels like ages since I last blogged. But I look at the post below and realise that it's only a matter of days.

It's a bit strange, because I don't really know what I've done with my time to be able to blog about anything significant.

Monday was the beginning of Everybody Welcome at Church, which Dad has blogged more in detail about here. I'm looking forward to Everybody Welcome, I have been since I went to a launch night for it, way back when (again it feels like absolutely ages, but is probably not more than 3 months ago), and when Warner decided that he was going to run the course, I decided that it was something I should try to fit into a schedule that is busy at the start of term.

This busyness means that tonight is potentially 10 of 19 nights out in a row...granted not all of them are work related, but most of them have been. That shocks me a little, but the ones that haven't been work related have been a lot of fun! ;-)

Last night we joined forces as the youth and schools workers of Billericay to discover what it means to be stronger with God. Gary spoke about the need to be in a situation, praying and worshiping all the while, whether good or bad, but he particularly focused on the more difficult situations that we find ourselves in, and giving in to Jesus as the best way of dealing with it, letting Him take over and take the lead to find a way through. I always hear this message loud and clear, though following it up is always difficult.

I'm about to start a two year course, that has a requirement of reading the bible in 48 weeks. I'm going to find it really tough to keep the discipline going, especially if I'm away or particularly tired. I've never even tried to embark on what I consider to be a great feat, but rather that this time, it's being thrust on to me. I guess that I was going to do it at some point, and I suppose that sooner rather than later can only be a good thing. I really do just wonder if I'm going to get anything useful from it (though I'm being negative about the most transformational book in the world) and whether I'm going to fall asleep at the boring bits and be tempted to skip over the bits I already know! Any tips for reading the bible in less than a year? I've got a reading plan to stick to, but still, a little help would be great!

Dates for your diary...

Ok, so I don't blog about dates. I do however blog about events.

So head to http://www.christchurch-billericay.co.uk/html/events.html#BillLegend to find out more about The Bill Ledgend Band at Christ Church on Saturday 26th September.

And pop along to http://www.ridinglights.org/o&l to find out about The Riding Lights Theatre Company Tour that is hitting Billericay in November!

Woop...other dates to be released shortly. And I'll blog about the Chappel Beer Festival once I've found my favourite online!

09/09/09

Apparently, according to Cake Wrecks, it's the unofficial day for the Emergency Services, with the date being 999 and all! Quite a funny blog to be fair... Just thought I'd point it out, cos I don't really blog about other dates!

Jazzercise

Today, more like last night as I was falling asleep, I decided that I was going to start doing some exercise... not Wii fit exercise, because as much as I love it, I've pulled muscles from not warming up properly, but proper class exercises, ones with warm ups and warm downs. Ones where I can push myself in a safe environment, where there are people watching what I'm doing and I get a lot of different exercises.

So Jazzercise, which happens in the church hall just behind where I live, is the perfect combination of aerobic exercise and weights. So I can burn calories and build up some muscle tone as well. It should also help me sleep a bit better.

I went for the hour long session this morning for the first time and didn't find it difficult to keep up, some of the moves are a little more complicated and not very well taught, but done so many times that you can easily get into step. I enjoyed it, and will go again, hopefully it will get better as I get to know the steps and get to know the instructors.

I hope that I won't get lazy about it!!!

Here it is...

The email that was promised has been delivered, so here is a photo blog with captions and photos by Chris...and the rest by me.

The weekend just gone was spent with numerous people, some whom I haven't seen for a long time, others I have spent a lot of time with recently.

We started off with a trip to the pub, for my youngest brother's birthday. Like my Dad said, there are no more teenagers in our family. It's shocking to think that he's two decades old, when I remember him being just two days old. A lot has happened in the last twenty years. I'm glad our family keeps growing. It has changed shape quite a lot and that's a good thing. We had a full clan, all four siblings together, plus significant others. It's weird to think that we could potentially be ten strong, if we were all together in the same room. It's nice to be able to share and know that everyone gets along. There aren't any pictures of this event as far as I know, it would've been nice to have one of all 10 of us though.

So that was Friday, and Saturday started earlier than I ever imagined. Chris and I were out of the door at 7:20am heading to Brands Hatch to see the DTM Qualifying. We were there as part of Chris' birthday present. So spent the morning watching the free practice and the support races. In the afternoon we walked around the pit lane (the surprise part of the birthday present) and paddock, and the photo's tell the rest of the story...



Sparks fly as Alexandre Premat exits Paddock Hill bend.



Me and British Driver Jamie Green who finished fourth in last seasons DTM Championship. (Jamie was lovely, he must've been out signing for ages)



Johannes Seidlitz's VeggieTales.de sponsored Audi sits in the Garage. (So excited about the sponsor for this one!)



British driver Katherine Legge blasts through Graham Hill bend.



Pole sitter and race winner, British driver Paul Di Resta heads round Druids bend.



Ralf Schumacher signs autographs after borrowing Chris' pen. (Chris was super excited)



Me on the Brabham Straight with the grid behind.



Brit Susie Stoddard in her bright pink Mercedes. (I want this car)



Winner of more Le Mans races than anyone in history, Tom Kristensen exits Druids followed closely by Christian Bakkerud.

Aren't they all brilliant pictures? Chris spent a long time taking photos and I think he's done a really good job of picking out some great photos for my blog. Of course you can visit his website here.

Sunday started early too, Chris went to race day and i had to be at church for the start of term. Then I went over to lakeside to be a bridesmaid for the afternoon.

It's been really busy, and I am really still recovering, but very happy that I get to start the year doing so many wonderful things! long may it continue!

Waiting

Waiting on an email, before I blog about the fantastic weekend I had.

Back to School

It's September. It's time for everyone to head back to the classroom. For some, it's today, for others they've got a little longer to wait. It means for me that things are now going quickly and before I know it, it will be a week on Friday and I'll be faced with Shaken Up restarting. We'll be back into school and thinking about how we can effectively minister to all of the schools in the town.

I'm at home now, back from a long weekend in Bristol, staying with Kay and her family for the last time, since Kay is moving in with her brother on the other side of the village. So hopefully when I go back at some point, I'll stay with Kay instead!

I really enjoyed going to Bristol, there are so many things to do, and we always find something new to do. I didn't get a chance to see some of the tourist attractions when I worked there, so I get to do some of that. This time we went to Cabot Circus, which was only opened this year and we went to Salsa lessons, which was a lot of fun!

I'm hoping that plans for the new term will slot into place soon!

Karen is coming to stay for a couple of days so we're going to do some catching up and have a look at some Africa pictures!

Heading to Bristol

I'm half way through my holiday, so it must be time to head back to the other side of the country to see my surrogate family. So it's off the see Kay and Jenny, and visit all the old places. I can't believe it's been 2 years since I left, some times it feels like only yesterday, other times it feels like it's a whole other life!

Today I have set up the Wii Fit that I got for my birthday. I soon found out that my Wii Fit age was 36. So I spent an hour and got it down to 26. Practice makes perfect, now I've just got to start losing a little bit of fat and turning it into muscle. I love running and hula hooping, plus the step class! So I'm looking forward to the next couple of months, unlocking all the activites and getting fitter...then perhaps I'll move outdoors!

Tonight I'm going out for a few drinks, to catch up with a couple of people I haven't seen for a long time!

Then it's back to work and back to school all in one heavy rush!

The Time Traveler's Wife

Chris and I went to see The Time Traveler's Wife last night at the Odeon in Colchester.

I've tried to explain the storyline to Chris, with very little success, purely because it is really complicated to do so, without giving huge chunks of the story away. So we went to see the movie, I went out of pure curiosity to see how the director would play it out, I think Chris went just for the clarification!

The movie has some of the elements of the book, but for me the book is far more exciting and fills in the characters a bit more. So I was a little disappointing that we didn't get to properly meet Alicia (Clair's sister) and I imagined Gomez to be taller and skinnier. I will still imagine them this way, the movie didn't have a great effect on my imagination that has been building characters for a few years now.

Still I cried. And passed comment. And knew how it would end. And enjoyed every moment of it. Although sometimes the characters seemed a little cold, and shallow.

There are parts of Claire's and henry's life that you just don't get from the movie, that to me are important in the story.

Read the book first, please.