phillsacre.me.uk

Last Thursday it was Phil’s birthday. Her parents came up for the day (Phil had the day off), and then in the evening we all had dinner together. It was rather nice! The first of three birthday meals we’ve had over the past few days… but I’ll come onto that in a minute.

On Friday night we went to 21, as per usual. Then afterwards we headed over to the Three Horseshoes for a drink with Laura, Pete, AJ and Jen. It was cool to be able to spend time with them socially as we don’t usually have time, and we all get on well. So hopefully we’ll get to do it again soon!

On Saturday we spent the morning doing various random things in town. Then in the afternoon we went out for a walk round Castle Park with Jo and Evie. Jo had an ice cream, which I think was rather brave – although it was sunny it was still a bit chilly! We also saw the floor of the Roman house near to the Castle, which is fascinating. It’s the remains of a Roman house – just the flooring is left. It’s lasted pretty well given it’s about 1800 years old! And although we’ve been in Colchester for ages we’ve never seen it before for some strange reason. Afterwards we headed over to Ipswich to have dinner with my parents (birthday meal #2!) and enjoyed that.

Then on Sunday we went to church in the morning, and then out to the Yew Tree at Great Horkesley for lunch. We’ve been there a few times before. This time we had a “buy one main course get another free” voucher (you can get them if you sign up to the mailing list), so we had a relatively cheap and very tasty roast dinner! The service was a bit slow but they were very busy so I can forgive them for that.

Afterwards we headed out to Sunday@6, and then came back to see Jo and Evie for a bit. I played some more of Guitar Hero (Jo has a Wii, and it’s great fun. I wouldn’t like to get one though – I’d probably spend all my time on that rather than learning that actual guitar, which wouldn’t be good). And then we watched ‘Lark Rise to Candleford’, which was a nice gentle way to finish the weekend.

So, there you have it! Action-packed, as it were.

Well, I didn’t just have one day for a birthday this time round – I had a weekend! Well, sort of.

On Saturday afternoon, a whole bunch of people came round for a BBQ. This included, but was not limited to (just in case I forget anybody, which I hope I don’t!), Anne-Marie, Sarah, Kev L, Caroline, Tom, Alex, Dan, Jenny, Tash, and our next-door-neighbours Paul and Mary. I’ve put a few photos up on Facebook, so if you’re a friend of mine there you’ll be able to see them.

Anyway, it went really well – eating lots of food and playing random games up until the late evening! Apart from getting bitten by midges, I think people had a good time and it was really nice to see them all :) Particularly Kev L, who I haven’t seen in ages.

On Sunday morning we went to church in the morning, and then in the evening went to Sunday@6. Apart from everything that could go wrong actually going wrong (technically speaking that is – oh the joys of having a newly installed building!), it was a good service. The music particularly seemed to go well. Perhaps if things go badly you can’t rely on yourselves, which is maybe where God is able to step in. Perhaps a lesson to be learnt there in general, I don’t know!

Anyway. This evening we went round to Mum and Dad’s for another BBQ, which was really nice! It’s unusual for me to actually be at home for my birthday, so it made a pleasant change. Right, I think it’s getting late so I’d better stop there!

Well, we had a fairly busy week last week. The bathroom has now been painted, so that’s all done. The main thing that’s left to do is get the flooring in, which we will hopefully be able to do soon. But anyway, I digress: I should talk about the weekend!

On Friday night we stayed in and watched “Ocean’s 13″. It was a much better film than Ocean’s 12 – it hung together much better. I didn’t think it was quite as good as Ocean’s 11, but it was close – not bad for a sequel!

On Saturday we did a bit of shopping in the morning, and then in the afternoon we headed down to London to meet up with Elisa, Alex, Phil P and Esther for Elisa’s birthday meal. We went to Wagamama’s in Covent Garden. It was my first time at a Wagamama’s, and I really enjoyed it! I had a curry which was mild, but absolutely delicious. Highly recommended!

On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and then came back home for lunch. Afterwards we went round to Anne-Marie’s to have a bit of a jamming session (Anne-Marie is learning to play bass guitar, so I took my guitar and Phil took her clarinet). Then we watched another episode of “Life on Mars”. In the evening we went to the Sunday@6 prayer meeting (less than a week to go now! Scary stuff), and then headed back into Wivenhoe for a meal at the Bengal Spice. The meal was as tasty as they always are there, so I can continue to recommend it ;)

So it was a rather pleasant weekend, all in all! This week is shaping up to be less busy – now that the Moore Course has finished and we’re on a break from home group, we don’t have much to do in the evenings. Not that I’m complaining – might give me a bit more of a chance to practice the guitar!

I had a rather nice weekend, although unfortunately Phil was away at a hen weekend (I should point out that Phil being away had nothing to do with me having a nice weekend!)

On Friday night I went to Rollerworld and Quasar with 21. I didn’t actually skate, but I think all the kids did and really enjoyed it. After what happened in May (i.e. breaking my tooth while ice skating) I’m rather wary about doing anything like that, so I was quite glad just to sit it out and watch from the sides! Afterwards we had a round of Quasar, which was quite good fun. Although I am absolutely terrible at it – I would fire off about ten shots at someone without hitting them, and they’d turn round and shoot one at me and hit me!

Aaaaanyway, that was a fun evening. On Saturday we had a guy round from British Gas to service the boiler. Although he did manage to service the boiler OK, it seems like we’re actually going to need to get a new boiler installed in the fairly near future. That’s an expense we could live without, but I guess these things have to be done. It will actually save us a fair bit of money in the long run (our boiler is currently very inefficient) so it will be worth having. Annoying about the timing, but there you go! Such are the perils of owning your own house.

In the afternoon I did a bit of shopping in town, and then in the evening I went to Pizza Express for Sarah’s birthday. There were quite a few people there – I didn’t actually know a lot of them, but there were one or two of Jon’s old work colleagues and Sarah’s friends who I’d met before so that was good.

On Sunday morning I went to church, and then stuck around for the student lunch afterwards. There were quite a few students there in the end – around 35, I think. I helped out with a few bits and pieces like clearing up, but mostly I was just there to eat the food and talk to the students! I hope we have a few come back to the church, they seemed like a nice bunch.

After I got home, I decided to get the decks out as I’d been listening to a few of my old mixes and felt rather nostalgic. They haven’t seen the light of day since we moved house, so I was a little rusty, but I really enjoyed it! Digging through some of my old tunes, great fun. What I need to do now is retrieve the rest of my old records from my parents’ house, quite when that will be I don’t know.

Right, I think I’ve rambled on for long enough now… that’s pretty much it!