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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? ;)

This month has turned out to be a pretty busy one for various reasons! We were quite grateful to have a bit of a break on Friday night actually – there was 21, but instead of having our usual meeting some of us were watching the England football match. I didn’t see the previous England match, but I have to say this match was probably one of the worst performances I’ve seen by England – ever. Absolutely pathetic really! Still, that’s England for you I suppose! It wouldn’t be the world cup if we weren’t all disappointed.

Anyway, on Saturday we did a bit of shopping during the day. Then in the afternoon we headed round to Anne-Marie and Sarah’s to watch some I, Claudius and Doctor Who. This week was the penultimate Doctor Who of the season, and I really enjoyed it! I think it was left in a pretty hopeless place (in terms of bleak, not that the episode wasn’t good) but I’m really looking forward to seeing the last episode to see how it’s all resolved. After Doctor Who, however, we had to head off pretty quickly to Fordham: the Savilles are unfortunately leaving us in a few weeks, so we were having a leaving party for them. It was a really nice evening as well, a fitting send off for them I think!

On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and then afterwards we were round at the Savilles for lunch. We felt quite privileged to be asked actually – as mentioned they are leaving soon, so we thought they might have more important people to see or things to do than have us round for lunch! Anyway, we had a really nice afternoon there.

Afterwards we popped round to see Anne-Marie and Sarah briefly, to discuss Doctor Who and Life on Mars and various other things. Then, we came back home and… watched some Life on Mars. So that’s pretty much our weekend!

As I said at the beginning – this June has turned out to be pretty busy. This weekend wasn’t bad, but next weekend we have the 21 weekend away. That will involve camping and I’m not entirely sure I’m looking forward to it! That said, I’ve taken the Monday off work so I’ll have a bit of chance to recover. I bought a new sleeping bag a couple of months ago which is apparently rated down to -9 degrees, which should keep me nice and warm at least! – despite the month it does get quite cold in a tent overnight.

Unfortunately that does mean we will miss both the IT Crowd AND Doctor Who, but I think we’re just going to have to suck it up and catch up when we get back on Sunday. Speaking of which, I don’t think we can actually record channel 4 so I guess we’ll have to put up with the crapness of 4 on demand. Aaaanyway, I’m a bit tired, I think it’s time for bed!

… that pretty much describes our Friday night: at 21, we were studying Haggai. Laura dressed up as Haggai, in something which was meant to look a bit like sackcloth, and did the talk in character. I think the kids really enjoyed it! – and there were less of them this week, so it wasn’t quite as manic.

Afterwards we came back home and watched – that’s right – Ashes to Ashes! Sarah came round as she had just had dinner with her work colleagues in town. So, the three of us watched Ashes together. What an episode! [SPOILER WARNING] I still don’t really have a clue how it’s all going to end. I really don’t know. I still like the purgatory theory, with Keats being the Devil or something like that… but beyond that… ?! How the whole Ray and Shaz “Life on Mars” music thing fits in, and them seeing stars, I don’t know. Either way the next episode is shaping up to be good.

Late on Saturday Anne-Marie and Sarah came round as they had just been somewhat let down by a letting agency / tenant / landlord / some combination thereof. After judicious application of the internet, maltesers, and pink lemonade I think they were feeling better and went off to look at another house round the corner. We then headed off into town to do some shopping. In the evening we went round to A-M and Sarah’s house to watch Doctor Who, followed by a few episodes of “I, Claudius”.

I thought this week’s Doctor Who was excellent – probably the best of the current series so far (better even than the weeping angels). It was funny, a bit silly, but at the same time had a good story – even if it didn’t quite stand up to close scrutiny it was good. Just what Doctor Who should be like, in my opinion.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and then went our separate ways for lunch: Phil had a ladies lunch at Fordham with Laura, Jen and Tash, and I went over to AJ’s with James and we had pizza and watched “Platoon”. I’d never seen Platoon before – it was good! Quite harrowing, but worth watching. And John C. McGinley a/k/a Dr. Cox from Scrubs was in it! He was really different but quite recognisable. Strange seeing him in something else.

Anyway, after all that we went to Sunday@6, and then came back home and watched “Mallrats”. So that was pretty much our day :)

I had to get the bus into work today. The car developed a bit of a shake since it was serviced a couple of weeks ago, so I had it looked at. Apparently the driver side drive shaft needs replacing – it had seized up completely! So bizarre. To coin a phrase, “Cars do the darndest things”. I have been wondering about maybe replacing the car – although Saabs are generally good quality and last for a long time, they’re not immune to things wearing out – it’s a ten year old car and I drive it a lot (250 miles per week, give or take a bit). I did look into the cost of leasing, but that would be £3000 per year, and you’d still have to pay insurance on top of that!

So I still think the car’s worth keeping around for a while longer. I’ve had it 18 months now and only had two things go wrong, which is not bad for a ten year old car!

Well, not really, but I was on Saturday. For most of the day. The reason was, on Friday night we had the 21 overnighter. Now, I’d love to tell you why it was an overnighter, but the truth is I’m not really sure… we basically spent an hour or so playing games / praying for the ‘JOY’ event that’s happening in a couple of weeks, and then spent a couple of hours playing on the Wii or watching a film (the former for the boys, the latter for the girls) and then we went to sleep. Well, that is to say, some of us went to sleep.

I tried to go to sleep, but I met with limited success. AJ had left the heating on so it was very warm in the barn (it didn’t help that I was in a sleeping bag which was rated down to -9! I guess it will come in useful at the weekend away though – last year I was too cold in the sleeping bag I had), also I was sleeping on an airbed which was not the most comfortable think in the world. So I was pretty tired by the time morning came round!

Still, it was a good night. The kids really seemed to enjoy it anyway, so that was positive.

On Saturday we did a bit of shopping. I bought a couple of new CDs (Seasick Steve’s album, which I’ve wanted to get for a while now, and also ‘Is This It’ by The Strokes which I’ve always seen but never got round to actually buying before. They were on offer in HMV…) I also bought the Black Books box set (three series of comedy brilliance for £12, bargain), and I also bought a new shirt and trousers for work. In the evening we didn’t do much! Anne-Marie came round and stayed for dinner, and we watched some Black Books and Frasier, so it was quite a relaxing evening which I think we needed!

On Sunday we had church in the morning, as per usual – although as per, well, not usual – I was down to lead. Only I didn’t. Unfortunately I only found out about it this week, and due to one thing and another I felt like I couldn’t really lead! So I will have to lead that service some other time. Not really a big issue though. Then, in the evening we went to Sunday@6 and afterwards watched ‘Lark Rise’.

So that’s pretty much our weekend! Not much going on this week, tomorrow evening Anne-Marie and Sarah are coming round and we’re going to watch the last part of ‘Ashes to Ashes’ series 2. Apparently the two final episodes are some of the best TV the BBC put out last year, so I’m quite looking forward to it!

This weekend was pretty much all taken up with the 21 Weekend Away! 21 is the 11-14s youth group at Fordham. On Friday night after work we drove down to Assington Hall (Assington is about half way to Sudbury from Colchester). The evening was mainly spent with setting up camp, then dinner, and then a wide game in a nearby forest.

After that we all came back to camp and went to bed… but not to sleep. Well, not in my case at least. I’m not very used to camping, so I didn’t find it very easy to get to sleep. And then I woke up early in the morning (about 4AM) due to the cold, and couldn’t get back to sleep again. I ended up going for a shower at 5:30AM – much earlier than I’d been hoping for! But I think a lot of other people were up and about, and actually some of us went to the football field and had a game before breakfast (which has got to be some kind of record for me – football before breakfast!)

Afterwards Laura did her talk on Galatians 1, and then we went out for the second part of the wide game in another nearby forest. This involved our team carrying Laura on a stretcher to the minibus… too complicated to explain here, but we really enjoyed it! Afterwards, we came back to the camp and had lunch. Then we all had a “team challenge” set of games, which were really fun. Then, it was my turn to do a teaching session on Galatians. I think it went pretty well, all told, although everyone was pretty tired due to getting no sleep the night before!

Anyway. After that we had some free time before the evening’s entertainment – “Assington’s Got Talent”! Which was great fun, although some of the talent entries were slightly dubious…

We all slept better on Saturday night, I think. I certainly got at least twice the amount of sleep, which I really needed! After breakfast we had our third and final teaching session from AJ, and then we did some archery. I’m useless at archery, I have decided – but I enjoyed trying! Then we had lunch, cleared up and left.

I think that’s pretty much a summary of the weekend away – I’ve probably missed out a few things but they’re the main details! When we got back home we pretty much crashed out. We did go to Sunday@6, though – and afterwards we came back home and got a take-away curry!

Oh, and Top Gear is back for another series. I can’t believe they revealed the identity of “The Stig”… although actually I don’t think he was the real stig. We’ll never know ;)

This weekend was the good kind of busy. On Friday night we went to 21 and I did a talk on Judges 6 (Gideon and the Midianites who say “Ni”). It seemed to go pretty well, despite me inadvertantly calling bits of the Bible boring! I don’t envy whoever has to do the talk on Judges 7 and 8 though – particularly Judges 8, where Gideon seems to drift into apostasy.

Still. On Saturday we went to Colchester Winter Ale Festival, which was put on by Colchester CAMRA. We met up with a few other people including Tom, Dan, Alison, Alex, Elisa, and a couple of people from the uni who I hadn’t met before. It was a great afternoon – we had some good conversations, and it was a really relaxed atmosphere. Phil isn’t really a fan of ale so she tried a few of the ciders (which were very nice), and I had some ales, as well as a cider and a Belgian beer. (Must try and find out where I can buy some Belgian beer locally, by the way – I had a top cherry beer which I can’t quite remember the name of).

Afterwards, we went to the Ashiana curry house. I had a chicken jalfrezi, which was delicious but very hot! And then after that we headed round to Tom’s flat and watched QI followed by Shaun of the Dead. So all in all it was a pretty successful day, must have more like it!

And I’d definitely recommend anyone to try going to an ale festival, it was a really nice atmosphere in there and there were lots of nice beers / ciders / wines to try.

Sunday – I’ve gone on long enough so I’ll just say we went to church in the morning, had our next door neighbour round for tea in the afternoon, and then watched Lark Rise in the evening.

Oh, and this morning it took nearly two hours to get into work. TWO HOURS! For a 45 minute journey. I wish people would drive more carefully on the A12, we’ve had loads of delays due to accidents recently. Still, I’d rather it happened in the morning than in the evening!

Sorry about the lack of updates recently, it’s been a bit busy! This weekend was no exception. On Friday we had the 21 Christmas Party, which went well. Then on Saturday Phil was playing at a wedding at midday, so I met up with Chris I and his friend Eleanor in town for lunch, and then they came back for a cup of tea. Afterwards, Laura came round for a cup of tea, so we did lots of tea drinking that afternoon :-)

In the evening, a work colleague of mine was playing in a band at the Cambridge Arms, so we went up there to hear them. Their set was great, the only bad thing about it was that it was too short!

On Sunday morning, I got confirmed. Yes, that’s right – I’d already been baptised, so I decided to go for the full set. Joking aside, I felt like it was a good thing for me to be doing – particularly thinking about potentially going into ministry in the future. It was a really good service, I think everyone enjoyed it (except for the kids – unfortunately it was quite long!).

After the service we went to the Anchor at Nayland for lunch with my parents and Phil’s parents. The food was delicious (as it always is there, or at least has been when we’ve got in the past!).

Afterwards we headed out to Eight Ash Green for the Lessons & Carols service.

And because it’s Tuesday, I’ll include Monday night… last night we went to the All Saints Club (basically Sunday School at Fordham) Leader’s Meal. Great food and great company, what more can I say?

So, this is just a quick precis of the weekend:

- 21 on Friday night, followed by “The IT Crowd” (again, very good this week)
- Down to Phil’s parents on Saturday, had good time
- Back to Fordham on Sunday morning for the Advent service
- Rest of the day spent not doing very much

There was something I was going to blog about here, but I’ve forgotten what it was. Doh!

Well, last weekend was pretty busy once again! (It must be that time of year again, you know, the time of year that we’re really busy. That’s about three quarters of the year!)

Anyway. On Friday evening we went to 21. I did the talk on “The Church” which seemed to go pretty well. On Saturday, my parents came round for a brief lunch and then I headed down to London with them to see my sister. She had had an operation the day before, for breast cancer, so we went to the hospital to visit her. She seemed to be in pretty good shape considering (and is apparently now vastly improved). We came back late afternoon, and Mum and Dad stayed round for dinner before heading back home.

On Sunday, we went to church in the morning, and then came back for lunch. In the afternoon we both headed off to Fordham. I spent the time preparing for the youth service, while Phil went off to hear a beautiful Bach Cantata (I was really annoyed I had to miss it, but there you go). But I think the youth service went really well though – the music was good (despite a few minor confused moments!).

Anyway, that’s about all for now. Someday I hope to write something on this blog which ISN’T about what I did for the weekend, that’d be a revelation, huh? ;-)

We’ve been incredibly busy the past few days, and it’s not set to slacken off for a while. On Friday night we helped out at 21. I was leading and AJ did the talk. It seemed to go pretty well, although I wasn’t sure whether any of the kids were listening in our discussion group. C’est la vie, I think the best you can do with youth work is hope and pray that something goes in despite everything!

On Saturday Phil was out most of the day visiting her sister in Reading, so I did the weekly shop in the morning and then spent most of the afternoon preparing for the Moore Course next week. In the evening, we went out to a home group meal to celebrate our home group leader getting married, so that was rather nice.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and then Phil’s parents came round for lunch so that was rather nice. In the evening I went out to a music practice for the youth service at Fordham next week! So that’s our weekend in a nutshell.

I may not be posting up so much over the next couple of weeks though, here are some edited highlights of what’s coming up for me:

• Pub quiz tonight with work colleagues
• Music practice tomorrow night for youth service
• Doing a talk at 21 this Friday on “The Church”
• Going down to London on Saturday to visit my sister (she has an operation on Friday to remove a cancerous growth)
• Youth service on Sunday!
• Confirmation preparation class a week today (I will be getting confirmed on 14th December – more on that some other time!)
• Church re-ordering committee meeting next Tuesday
• Moore Course meeting next Wednesday
• Home group on Thursday evenings

Some of those things are optional and, in fact, I think I may duck out of a few. But I still don’t quite understand how I managed to end up so darned busy? As I’ve said before (in this very post) – “C’est la vie!”