New Vicar

Looks like I'm going to be the first person to break the news to the world. Christ Church, Billericay has a new vicar. His name is Warner Pidgeon (yes I laughed too!) and he's from Southampton.
So nothing unusual, except I'm linked to him. Yes there are a lot of Christians in England and some how I am slowly being linked to all of them in one way or another. How do I know this guy? He knows Gav, I know Helen and Helen and Gav work in the same church, got it? Weird, but I guess there's a reason behind it, though I can see my church and Helen's church doing swapsies!
For those of you wh are doing or have done a dissertation, mine is 7,321 words done. Thats 2 and a half chapters pretty much. I'm getting there, though I'm not as pressured as some to finish.

A lesson in youth work

I had a wonderful meeting this morning that was totally not focused on the task ahead, namely that I am talking on Sunday about love IT (standing for informed truth). It's difficult to become focused when the person you are working with isn't particularly in the mood for a bit of a business chat. Any way we got it done, and I am confidant that the youth will totally understand where I am coming from and what it's all about (maybe not).

Apologies to Karen and Nick, I didn't realise we were using Karen's blog as a forum for wedding ideas! Ed in a blue tie - well worth it, if he matches properly - I hope he doesn't look too girly. Ed and Danielle getting married, still something I have to get my head around, in fact I'm still trying to get my head around my own! Ed does have to make his own decisions, but thats only when it comes down to best man and possibly stag do, otherwise it's totally Danielle and her bridal party I'm afraid!

It's the little things...

Well, actually, it's more like mile stones in life. I completed another chapter of my dissertation today. Two chapters and 6,300 down, 2 chapters and 3,700 words to go!
Needless to say, I'm having a rest!
My Dad has published a photo that I'm sure is going to be close to my heart in the coming years. Thanks Dad. It's taken in the grounds of the church that we're getting married in. Lovely!
Right back to work, I have four essays to plan this evening and dinner to buy!

Dripping wet

I'm half talking about the awful weather this morning and my washing that I had to put out. One of my housemates, I am yet to find out who, decided to pull my washing out after only spining it once. Now this wouldn't be a problem if our washing machine wasn't ancient and I hadn't filled it (but not over filled). So I went to lift my basket and almost broke my back doing so, tipped water all over the floor and was late for my lecture because I had to wring everything, and even then it was still dripping. I did text everyone to let them know my dilemma, and I'm so glad I cleaned the bathroom last week. I'm still majorly annoyed though. It takes five mins to spin again, the person who did it is lucky that I don't leave things to do at the end of the day!

I have decided to spend next year at Bristol. It's going to be a good place for me. A mixture of schools, church and student work (be aware all those at UWE!) that will give me some good experiences to help me get a proper job.

The course administrator emailed me this morning. Apparently I don't have enough knowledge of the curriculum in the surrounding area and of RE in general. This is down to a number of factors from my point of view. One - the school I was placed with didn't allow me to watch their classes. Two - RE syllabuses differ from LEA to LEA. And finally - I don't have a heart for it any more. I would love a qualification to teach, but not at the moment. Yet again I am taking a break from academia to learn fromn the Bible and experience.

Nick - what can I say, maybe I just don't promte my cause enough!

Back in Cheltenham...

and back to work. Trying my hardest to juggle amounts off work with time off, otherwise I will die.
This evening's fusion was about the Holy Spirit and gifts there of. There are many - found in 1 Corinthians 12 mainly and naturally we were asking God to bless us with the gifts. The version you have just read (or are about to read if you click on the link) is quite good, though obviously not exhaustive. The great thing is that verse 11 says 'He (God) decides who gets what, and when', they are there for a reason, for a moment, to be used, appropriately. I'm looking forward to discovering my gifts and asking for more over time. I know at the moment I'm lacking in certain areas.

I've come across a chart song that speaks volumes to me. It's a little weird when that happens cos I tend to read far too much into secular songs, when I really shouldn't! Anyway its from the new snow patrol album (which I am so tempted to buy!) and is called 'All I have is you'. Frame of mind is definitely a weird thing, but this speaks to me, in so many ways. I'll let you try to fathom what I'm thinking!

I'm lucky if I get 5, Nick - how do you do it?

Funeral

Today has been full of mixed emotions, understandably. Lots of tears, but also incredible amounts of joy and wonderful stories of my grandad and his life. I think I'm now old enough to appreciate family, close and far.

Thank you for all your messages and support.

Nick, thanks for the hits! It's nice to see numbers growing rather than shrinking - maybe I can do the same for you (even if it is in secret!)

Being in Bristol...

...Well actually Stoke Gifford. I was meeting someone I may work with next year, finding out what I would be doing if I went to work with them. St Micheals is a lovely church and I could see myself working there. There are a lot of opportunities for me, maybe even assistant youth minister in a few years.
I'll keep you up to date. I've not made up my mind yet, this is a tough decision to make.

The joy and wonder of a tracker

Have you seen my tracker? Its the little box at the bottom with a globe and a 'heartbeat' around it. Dare you to click it and see what you get!

Its a great thing - it gives me the numbers of people that visit my blog every day and normally where they are from. The best days are mondays (almost a quarter of the weekly total), with a majority of people visiting the site just after dinner it seems (between 5 and 6pm). Its all very interesting and gives me much joy knowing that there are people who regularly log on to have a read.

The wonder part of it comes from the web pages and IP addresses I get in the individual tracker section. In turn I learn a lot from it. I recognise some of the addresses but not others and when that happens I do a little bit of searching. You can probably guess which ones are the most intriguing and also who visits the most!

These little things - boy I'm glad we haven't got ID cards yet...can you imagine?

Wedding stationary and other things

Karen, wedding stationary was good fun, we've got some good ideas, but now we have to decide between that or some else, and we probably should see what other people can do for us, or even if we can do it ourselves! Eek. They were lovely though and will go in the book of ideas, which needs to be updated. About FLickr, the http it gives me for each photo doesn't have a .gif, .jpeg (blah, Blah) on the end of it so I can't do it that way round. More advice please!

I am going to start work in a bit after a very late start. No lectures because it's bank holiday. I was going to get up early and work hard but the rest of my had other ideas! Hence the late blog and being annoyed at self!

Someone has got to tell me of an easier way of doing this!! Can I change my profile pic without posting a new photo of myself every time?
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Oh dear!

What can be more boring than watching the final of the Snooker World Championship? For a start its being played by the two slowest professionals I've seen in a long time - Dott and Ebdon, as well as it being Snooker, nuff sed!
And secondly, what have the BBC decided to do? Show it in ultra slow motion using a special camera. Joy. Yes of course the wonders of technology, blah, blah, but please, wondering about what a ball actually does as it gets hit by a cue or another ball, seriously? Sad or what? Plus Channel Four have been well up on this for at least a year, if memory serves me correctly (and do correct me if my memory is crap!). They used it to show that some cricket players close their eyes when they are going for a big hit off a fast ball!

Rant over. (Very good illustration of how my mind works - I only watch when nothing interesting is going on, I couldn't tell you at this moment who is winning)

One exciting piece of news. I'm going for my first job interview, with Ben, to Bristol. I'll give you the details when I know more. Its on Wednesday, so I am looking forward to the beginning of this week, and less towards the end.

Final exciting piece of news, well a fact. Did you know that there are different types of coal in the Bible? Get your Hebrew out! The coal that is mentioned when Peter denies Christ, is different from other types of coal (because of what it is made from) and is only mentioned again when Peter and Christ become friends again on the beach after the resurrection. A nice little fact to impress your friends and don't ever say I don't educate you!

Updated my Flickr account - take a peek!

Weekend!

I have done pretty much nothing this weekend. Ok so I've not spent the entire weekend sleeping, I have done a few things. I played squash with Henry, which I lost, I am geting better though and I do enjoy playing. I am definately becoming a gracious loser, but thats because the person I am playing loves to gloat!
Watched Scary Movie 4 - which was ok, its not as funny as the first one, but thats because I haven't seen some of the movies that were included in the spoof. The new cinema in cheltenham is good, but stupidly over priced.
We went for lunch this afternoon, and played some pool. Henry won, but only by default. Now we're just sat around chilling, trying to work at the same time though!

Orange!

Well sort of red with anger actually. I sent my letter off this morning, with a little help from my housemates, and then got a phone call from my mum telling me I'd got something from Orange! Argh! Frustrating!

Work on the other hand is going well. I'm pacing myself, waiting to find out what student services can do for my severe lack of concentration at the moment.

Back to work I go!

Being at home

I'm in Essex for less than a day now, but I thought I'd blog because I've not got the mind capacity to concentrate on work. I have done a couple of hours this week, enough to get me started on various projects but I'm looking forward to going back to Cheltenham tomorrow to see everyone and catch up on things that have happened during Easter.

If you've read Karen's blog you'll know that my Grandad passed away on tuesday after fighting cancer for a year and a half. I'm going to be all over the place until his funeral. We've been chatting about him for a while now as a family and I realise how much fun we had with him during his life. He told me that my double chin was coming along well on sunday - the cheek of it! Any way we had a laugh. Bless him.

God's in all that we do, I know that now more than ever.

well apart from phone companies! I received a new phone last week and only this morning told them that it keeps rebooting itself. They told me that they couldn't do anything if there was nothing wrong with it because I'd passed the 7 day return period. SEVEN days! You've got to be kidding me. How am I supposed to make up my mind in 7 days? I've got to charge it for 3/4 of a day before I can even start using it, oh and I have to manually transfer my phone numbers over so thats a couple of hours work, and for all they care I might not be using it and find a fault after the 7 days! As far as I'm aware it only says about the 7 day return policy on the invoice, nowhere in the actual term and conditions does it say that. ARGH! Anyway, Dad got on the phone and threw in his two cents worth. Nokia and Orange have gone down in my list of good companies, etc, etc!

I was also going to unblock my old phone and give it to my mum, telling the customer service bloke that email was the way I wished to be contacted. What did they do? Send me a bleeding letter, to the wrong address. So thats useless! Technical support my a!!e.

Rant over with, go back to work!

Calm...

I have calmed down since yesterday, kind of. I've got another application form to fill in today to send before the 4th May. It's actually in Kent this time. Deal. Umm...I'm going to read the job description and fill in the application form.

I watched a programme last night that ended rather sadly and felt biased against young Christian couples. It was called Teens that tie the knot. I'm not sure if it was a one-off but when the final couple were introduced as committed Christians I was interested. Simon and Sarah had decided to abstain from everything before they got married. The programme was divided between three couples, the first couple who were madly in love and both 17 (and she was four months pregnant when they got married), the secound couple had a huge age difference and the final couple were, as I said, Christians with a 2 year age gap. It followed the before, during and after, from dating to marriage. The funny thing was that none of the mothers approved of the weddings, their daughters were to young, inexperienced and it wouldn't work out because of various factors.

For the Christian couple it didn't work. They struggled from the week they got married and seperated after filming finished. I don't know why, but there were things I could see that make me ask questions about my own relationship as I head towards marriage! Maybe even questions for myself that I haven't thought about since the start of my degree, like where do I see myself in five years? And all about my future.

Still through all of this I know that God is there looking over me, looking after me!

Don't panic, Mr Mainwaring!

Ok so I'm not in the same situation as the home guard, but I did almost hyperventilate. The first job I applied to, which is in London, have delayed making their shortlist becuase one of the panel is still on holiday! Oh my goodness, there was I thinking 'if I don't hear anything soon I will be disappointed', now I have a reason to worry. Have they contacted me because it's likely that I will be on the shortlist or have they just contacted everyone? I have a million and one things going around in my head and I still need to work! Argh. My head is all over the place.
Pray if you're inclined to, I have to!

She knows she loves me! This is Helen, the birthday girl at the grand old age of 23...well she's not that old...
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Complaining

Is something I tend to do behind closed doors...but when something really gets on my wick, I'm going to say something.

So extra housemate is paying bills even though proper housemate thinks I'm complaining about the fact that extra housemate is living here. Extra HM is fine, no problem, proper HM is the one causing the issue. O and no-existent HM has left me to find and sort out a problem that we should've told the Landlord about ages ago. Lets just say, there's no clean water in the toilet. So having phoned the landlord to sort things out and getting the answer machine I will now have to ask non-existent HM if she knew anything about said problem before she left, which I am not looking forward to because I may get angry.

La La La - not fusion to calm myself down, this can't be good!

Southampton!

I'm here for Helen's birthday, and a bit of a holiday as well as doing some work! Its all good fun. I've met most of her family since monday which has been a laugh. Not a lot else has been going on, I have been working but as always I can't do that 24/7 so we've been shopping too! I'm the proud owner of a new skirt and some flat shoes. The shoes are incredibly sparkley and will go with almost anything, umm I'm going to live in them for the summer I think.
Anyway we're off to Gunwharf Quays this afternoon for some more shopping!

When things explode!

My hair dryer when putp! this morning. Smoke every where and a nasty smell. Not nice. I'm hoping that God will bless me with a cheap and good hair dryer that will last!

Another thing that exploded was St Aidans and St Silas this morning! We went as Fusion to show that there are some young people in the parish! It was great, I am really impressed with those who turned up to play and read. Ben is a good preacher. We got a great reaction from the congregation.

Happy all over. I'm off to Southampton tomoro, so I have to pack at some time, but first I have to go to st Matts to speak to their congregation about being a Christian Student.