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If you’ve been following my Twitter for a while you will probably have seen photos of the Chelmer before. I often walk down there at lunchtime. I think rivers are just about my favourite subject matter for photographs, particularly on a sunny day. There’s just something beautiful about them, the reflection of the trees rippling gently in the water. If you click through to my Flickr fleed you’ll find a few more photos there. This was my favourite, just about, but it was difficult to choose (not because I’m a good photographer, but because I’m bad – I always take a few photos, and they all look about the same to me. I wish I was more artistic. Still.)

I should warn you that I will probably return here several times for photographs – possibly even this week! So I apologise in advance if you get a bit bored. I’ll try and make it interesting.

Anyway, it’s time for a quick holiday update! Some of it I’ve mentioned in the photo updates. Last week we were off, but we were at home. We spent some of the time looking for curtains! – next month we are going to spend a bit of time redecorating out front room. We’re going to replace our blinds with curtains – we think it will look a bit more ‘homey’!

I also booked up a couple of college open days. I’ve been thinking about theological colleges for next year, so in November we’re going to look at a couple of different ones! Exciting stuff.

On Wednesday we went to Walton on the Naze, which we hadn’t been to before. We did a nice walk around the seafront and along the Naze. It was a good day for walking, not too hot, and we managed to do it before it started raining! Result.

On Friday we went to the cinema to see Scott Pilgrim vs The World. It was awesome! Brilliant film – I definitely want to see it again. Probably not at the cinema, not at the price they’re charging at the Odeon in Colchester (daylight robbery, I tell you!) but I’ll hopefully get the blu-ray when it comes out.

Um, I think to be honest there’s not much else to say. We saw Sarah a couple of times and watched some “Flight of the Conchords” and “Starter for Ten” (because it’s got Benedict Cumberbatch in, who is very funny although a much different character from Sherlock). I’ve already talked about what we did on Monday.

So there you have it: that, in a nutshell, is the second half of our holiday: didn’t do loads but it was relaxing! I feel much better for the rest – beforehand I really needed some time off! Felt much better at work today because of it.

That’s right, I’ve finally been connected and am writing this message from my new phone. If you’re curious, I’m using the wordpress app for Android.

It seems pretty good so far although I wouldn’t like to write a novel on it!

Anyway, I take back some of my previous moaning about mobile networks. Just a little bit. That’s all from me for now…

Just a quick update because we’re currently on holiday! We’re staying with Phil’s parents for a few days. Things we have done in the past few days: visited Roz and Matt in Reading, had a look round Canterbury Cathedral, been to the National Portrait Gallery, had dinner with Alex in Rochester… I could go on.

Anyway, that’s why I haven’t updated recently!

I was hoping to be writing this on my phone, but unfortunately Vodafone still haven’t transferred me across. I think I’m going to have to ring them up and give them an earful, so frustrating! Still, it will be great when it finally works…

In the past few days, stuff has happened. On Friday night we basically had a night in, which was rather nice! – unusual to have a Friday night in with nothing going on, so we savoured it. Then on Saturday I went up to town to buy a couple of things, including a new mobile phone. Which I haven’t got yet. More on that later.

In the evening, Anne-Marie came round for some dinner and we watched “Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra”, which is fantastic! We’d seen some of it before (on TV they showed a cut down version), but the full version is definitely worth it.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning. My parents also came as they are on holiday, and then afterwards they came back to ours for dinner. After eating we walked up to Hilly Fields, it was a beautiful day for it! So we had a really nice afternoon with them.

After they’d gone we washed up, and then headed round to Anne-Marie and Sarah’s. It was Sarah’s birthday (well, technically the day after her birthday but still), so we had cake :) Phil made a cinnamon and Nutella cake, and Sarah’s Mum had made a chocolate cake. All in all, it was a pretty good evening cake-wise ;) After eating cake we watched the last of the “Sherlock” mini-series. We really enjoyed it – and that ending! Well, if you’re going to finish on a cliff-hanger, that’s the way to do it ;)

I really, really hope they do more. It’s looking quite likely from what I’ve read, but still.

Anyway. Yes, I was going to mention mobile phones. I mentioned last year that I bought a new mobile. It was an Orange Pay-As-You-Go mobile, which I really bought so that I could update my calendar online and also do basic internet stuff. Well, as they say, “if you buy cheap, you buy twice”: it’s a decent phone but it doesn’t really do anything well enough to use it that much. The calendar still doesn’t sync with my PC – I have to use Google’s online version, which basically means… I don’t use it. The online version is OK, but doesn’t really work as a main calendar. Also, the internet browsing is fine for mobile pages (Twitter is pretty good for that), but rubbish at anything else. And the screen is, well, it’s OK, but nothing like as good a sthe iPhone / iPad style screens.

So, I decided to upgrade to a contract phone. Obviously it would have to be an Android phone (it integrates really well with Google’s services, given that it’s developed by Google…) I did like the look of the HTC Desire, it’s a great phone which has been getting a lot of positive press, but in the end decided it was too expensive and I didn’t really need all the features. I went with an HTC Wildfire, which is the model down from the Desire but had a fantastic review on Reg Hardware a couple of weeks ago.

I went into the mobile shop on Saturday to get one, except … I couldn’t. It turns out Vodafone couldn’t issue me with a temporary number – because of the mobile phone number I already have. I have no idea what kind of weird system they’ve got at the moment: (i) Why should my old phone number have anything to do with it? (ii) when I got my previous phone, I didn’t need a temporary number. I just bought the phone, then transferred once I’d got the PAC code from my old provider.

Anyway, they said I’d need to get the PAC code from Orange before I could have the phone. Doh! It’s been a bit of a mission getting the PAC code from Orange (I will post up a brief blog about that soon), but it’s all done now so … hopefully I’ll be able to pick up the phone this weekend.

At the end of the day, having to wait a week for a phone isn’t really a problem, it was just annoying at the time because it was right there in front of me, but I couldn’t have it! There are some days I think I haven’t progressed since being a child (but then, I am a man, so… ;)

Yes, that’s right! I’m eschewing a weekend type update for a “midweek” update. In which I tell you about what’s been going on, mostly at the weekend, But hey ho, never mind.

The past three week nights we’ve been out for dinner with people from church: on Friday night we went round to James and Tash’s for dinner, and we had a very nice BBQ and spent some time with them. Then on Monday night we went round to Tim and Katie’s for dinner. Tim is our home group leader, and they live not far away from us, so that was also a very pleasant evening. Then, last night, we went round to John and Christine’s, where James and Tash were also having dinner! So that’s been three nights out with people from church – bliss. (Or, perhaps, bless, whichever is more appropriate).

Aaaaanyway. Apart from being out to dinner several times, on Saturday we spent a fair amount of the day preparing for the arrival of Peter, Martina and Albert – our friends from Germany. They arrived late afternoon / early evening kind of time. Albert is now 17 months old and he’s quite lively – he’s at the age where buttons are fascinating, and it was quite a challenge watching out that he didn’t (a) harm himself; (b) wreck the place! Still both Albert and our stuff managed to survive.

On Sunday we went to Fordham in the morning, to both services, and then came back for lunch. In the afternoon we had a few people from church round who wanted to catch up with Peter and Martina (Peter was formerly the apprentice at Fordham). After dinner, Sarah came round and we all watched “Sherlock” together.

I didn’t think this week’s episode was quite as good as last week’s but it was still very good and we really enjoyed it. I really hope they make some more episodes, it’s just been so enjoyable it would be a real shame if they never made any more!

It’s been a busy old couple of months! I think of the past two months, we’ve had one weekend where we weren’t out on the Saturday doing something. This Saturday was the last ‘big’ date we had in the diary: we travelled up to Northampton for a family birthday party (Phil’s family). Anyway, it was a nice day, I feel like I’m gradually beginning to get to know Phil’s family after seeing them a few times now! And our journey to and from the party was pretty good.

Anyway, apart from that, not much else to say. Went to St Andrews on Greenstead on Sunday morning and I now have a few dates booked in to go and observe (did I mention my observation placement last time? No? Well, I might have to do a separate blog post about that at some point). In the afternoon we went to a leaving picnic for Laura and James, the apprentices at church. They will be very much missed at church, not just because of what they do (which is a lot) but because they’ve been such good friends to many of us.

Anyway, in the evening we went to Sunday@6, and then afterwards wandered round to see Sarah and watch “Sherlock”. Sherlock was amazing – very clever, very funny, and somehow managed to update the Sherlock Holmes story while at the same time staying true to the original characters. (Not that I’ve read or watched any Sherlock Holmes stories in a while, but from what I remember they seemed to do pretty well).

And the story seemed very Conan Doyle like as well, at least the last half-hour or so. All in all, I’m really looking forward to next week’s episode! ;)

Well I feel like a bit of a social butterfly after the weekend we’ve just had!

On Friday night we enjoyed not having 21 by inviting Anne-Marie and Sarah round for dinner and general watching of things (The IT Crowd, I Claudius…). Then on Saturday we headed down to Kent for Alex’s housewarming / birthday BBQ. Despite the M25 being about the worst I’ve ever seen it (it took about 1.5 hours to do the ten miles between the A12 and the Dartford Crossing) we got there in the end and had a really good time. It was nice to see a few friends again who I haven’t seen in a while too. The time we had was all too short but fortunately the drive back was quick and uneventful!

We had to drive back that evening because on Sunday morning we were out to see Makaila Pepper-Bradbeer’s christening. It was a lovely service, Makaila even smiled during the christening! – and I think everyone enjoyed it. Afterwards there was a bring and share lunch, so we stayed for that too.

That concludes a rather rapid round-up of what’s been going on! To be honest it’s a bit too hot to go into more detail… it was apparently 32 degrees on my way back from work today (according to the car at least!) – it seems to have cooled down a bit now but that’s still pretty warm. Hopefully it will cool down a bit tomorrow. That’s pretty much all for now!

Well it’s that time of year again! The summer holidays are upon us … to an extent. Last Friday we had the last 21 of the term, which was basically a social and a goodbye party for Laura. It was her last youth club with us, which was sad, but at the same time she has a new job to look forward to which is good! Anyway I think it was a good send-off for her, and next year she’s only going to be in London so we will still get to see her :)

On Saturday we met up with Phil’s parents at Chappell Railway Station and had a look round the East Anglian Railway Museum. It wasn’t a huge place but it was very interesting – there are lots of trains and things being restored, and I enjoyed looking round the old station buildings! I have a couple of photos on my phone which I will upload when I get around to it. It’s well worth visiting anyway, if you’re into trains!

After that we came back home and had dinner with Phil’s parents, then they headed off and we wandered over to Anne-Marie and Sarah’s for a bit.

Sunday was a pretty ordinary Sunday for us – church in the morning, lunch / chilling in the afternoon, then another service in the evening! Things might change a bit over the summer though – as part of the ordination process the DDO has asked me to undertake a placement at St Andrews, Greenstead. It’s basically just an observation placement so I wouldn’t actually be involved as such, but it should be an interesting experience nonetheless.

Anyway. This week has been much quieter than the last few weeks, which I am very grateful for! We’ve had a chance just to chillout a bit and catch up with a few people. Right, that’s all for now. The weather is cooler now, which I’m very grateful for as I think the heat was beginning to drive me insane! Apologies if this blog still reads like it’s fairly insane, though…

This weekend was a hot one! On Friday it got up to about 30 degrees, which for these parts is pretty hot! I don’t deal well with the heat – I’m glad that I don’t live in a country which gets much hotter temperatures! And I’m particularly thankful that they have air conditioning at work – at the first place I worked at out of uni, the office was sweltering in the summer and it was very difficult to get anything done!

Anyway. Quick update about what we’ve been up to the past few days. On Friday night we had 21 as per usual – it was the last teaching session before the summer holiday. On Saturday we headed off to Bradwell-on-Sea with Anne-Marie and Sarah. Each year there is an ecumenical pilgrimage there, to St. Peter’s Chapel. Instead of describing it here you can read all about it on its own website.

This year, Archbishop John Sentamu was there and he did a talk. It was very good – all about the good Samaritan (although I shouldn’t call him a “good” Samaritan, not because he wasn’t, but … well, I won’t go into it here). But the talk was interesting and held everybody’s attention, he is obviously a gifted speaker!

The time went pretty quickly, and by the time we needed to head off at around 3PM – despite being quite tired – it didn’t feel like we’d been there for long at all. Anyway, we did head off, and got back to Colchester without issue. In the evening we went to Colchester Baptist Church for a talent show that Anne-Marie was helping to organise. It was very good – lots of talent there, even if the odd item was a little dubious (not as dubious as the CU talent shows though). Anne-Marie’s poetry reading was very good!

So that’s pretty much our Saturday. On Sunday I went to church morning and evening, and in the afternoon we watched the Wimbledon men’s tennis final. It wasn’t an electrifying match like the Federer vs Nadal match a couple of years before. I felt like Berdych could have really threatened Nadal but he made way too many unforced errors. Still, it was his first time in a major final so it’s probably not too surprising that Nadal won.

In the evening we watched Top Gear, which was really good – again! I think they’ve toned it down a little bit from the excesses of last series, and it’s paid off: I’ve enjoyed the first couple of episodes of this series much more than I did last year. So… there you go! From the Bradwell Pilgrimage to Top Gear, on opposite ends of the spectrum I think…

Well that went quickly. The whole month of June seemed to go by in a flash! A lot seemed to happen this weekend. Apart from the 21 weekend away – more on that in a minute – there was the Doctor Who finale, a new series of the IT Crowd, a new series of Futurama, AND a new series of Top Gear!

How’s that for a weekend of televisual feasting? OK, I’m not a TV addict, but all those things I watch pretty much religiously. Unfortunately, due to the weekend away, we were a little delayed in watching most of them – but first things first.

The weekend away went well. We went to Assington Hall, where we had full use of the annexe this time round (last year we had to have a marquee because another group were using the annexe on the Saturday). It was so much better having the annexe rather than having to do things in the marquee!

I won’t go into the details of the weekend, but it seemed to go pretty well. The teaching was on 1 Corinthians 1-3, which is actually a pretty hard part of the Bible to teach to a youth group! I did a session on chapter 3 which I think went down OK, although it’s very difficult to tell. We shall see.

We spent the weekend doing a variety of games and activities, archery was good fun although I always feel like I’d like to do more of it! – my performance was quite, shall we say, variable. We had a camp fire on Saturday night which was nice, although it was a slight worry that one of the kids was going to set themselves on fire. That didn’t happen though – in fact, during the weekend there were remarkably few injuries… and no deaths! Always a positive for a youth weekend away.

Anyway, I think in general the kids enjoyed it, the leaders enjoyed it, and it was a successful weekend (if that’s the right word). It was very tiring though – I had the day off on Monday to recuperate!

So. That leaves us with TV: the Doctor Who finale. It was great! I really enjoyed it. Although it was not without plot holes, it was done in such a charming, humorous way that I was quite prepared to overlook them. It was just a very heartwarming, amusing, entertaining hour of television which – to my mind at least – put to bed the ridiculous finales of the RTD era!

The IT Crowd started up again as well. Great opener to the new series, look forward to seeing the rest! I haven’t yet seen Futurama, although I have it *cough* downloaded *cough* (yes, will buy the DVDs when they come out…) so will watch that soon. Top Gear also was good, I know it was a setup but Jeremy rolling over the Robin Reliant every time he went round a corner really made me laugh.

Right, I think I’m done for now anyway. Apologies for this blog not being very interesting recently (or ever, to be honest) – but then, it’s me, what did you expect? ;)