phillsacre.me.uk

Well, sort of.

On Friday night we went round to our next-door-neighbour’s for dinner. We had a lovely evening – we sat outside chatting before dinner, drinking some French liquer (we didn’t realise it beforehand but apparently it was about 45% proof! – I felt a bit woozy after that…) And we had a nice chat over dinner.

Then, on Saturday morning we went shopping, and in the afternoon went round to our other next-door-neighbour’s house for tea. We stayed there until late afternoon, and then came back home to do some preparation for dinner on Sunday: we were cooking a roast for my parents!

On Sunday morning we went to church in the morning – to which my parents were able to come, the first time they’d been to a morning service at Fordham. It was a good service, they very much enjoyed it and so did we! Mike was preaching a good sermon, all about healing in James 5. Very interesting and worth a listen (needless to say it’s on the Fordham Website ;-)

After church we headed back home and made our roast. Well, to be completely honest, Phil did most of it! And I must say, did a fantastic job. For a first time doing a roast it went really rather well, I thought! After lunch we took advantage of the sun and went out for a walk around Bourne Mill.

Then my parents headed home and we cleared up and watched a couple of episodes of “Fawlty Towers”. All in all, quite a busy weekend (well, it felt quite busy) but an enjoyable one!

Not much to say this weekend. It was fairly quiet for once!

On Saturday afternoon we went round to Anne-Marie’s to help out with some gardening. I have to say, I think it went quite well. The garden now looks much more like a garden again (as opposed to a jungle), and although we couldn’t get rid of the brambles this time they do at least look like they’re more under control. All in all, we managed to get quite a bit of work done – six people over the course of an afternoon (not including a couple of people who helped out towards the end) knuckling down meant it all took shape pretty quickly.

Afterwards we ordered pizza and watched “The Shawshank Redemption”, which I hadn’t seen before. Really good film – I’d heard that the film was a bit bleak, but that isn’t the case at all. It’s actually quite positive towards the end … definitely worthy of being called one of the best films of the 90s :-)

Oh, and I should also mention A-M’s backing – she baked us a banoffee pie for dessert, plus a lemon cake which we had during the afternoon. Delicious, particularly the pie.

On Sunday morning we went to church in the morning, and then in the evening we went out to church again for a Bach Cantata. It was Bach’s Cantata for the ninth Sunday after Trinity, performed by the Curlew Ensemble (well, I thought it was the Curlew Ensemble – it was the same people as last time but they seemed to have a different name which I can’t remember. Doh). Anyway, itw as absolutely beautiful, particularly the soprano’s aria.

Afterwards we came back home, had tea, and watched a couple of episodes of “Fawlty Towers” (because Rich is staying with us this week, while he’s doing a teaching job at the university). Anyway, it made me realise (again) just how brilliant Fawlty Towers is – it’s probably the only sitcom ever produced which has made me nearly cry with laughter. Particularly after having seen the episodes several times before! They don’t make ‘em like they used to ;-)

Right, that’s enough rambling for now.

The title says it all really! On Friday evening went to help out with ’21′, the Fordham youth group, which was good fun. On Saturday morning, we went to Colchester Food & Drink festival in Castle Park. It was packed with stalls selling lots of lovely things – we managed to spend quite a bit of money almost by accident! We bought some lovely cheeses, including one which was tomato and basil flavour, also root ginger! So we’re looking forward to having those. We also bought some chocolate, an organic veg box which is going to be delivered on Wednesday, a couple of loafs of unusual bread, and a few other bits and pieces. All in all it was a very pleasant way to spend a Saturday morning!

On Saturday afternoon we went to Anne-Marie’s to watch this week’s Doctor Who, ‘The Stolen Earth’. Wow, what an episode that was! I know the guys at Behind the Sofa have highlighted a few flaws in the episode… still, wow. I can’t wait for the conclusion, I really don’t know how they’re going to get the Doctor out of the predicament he’s in! All I can say is: “I’m Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister”… “YES, WE KNOW!!!” And, of course: “TO. BE. CONTNUED”…. sweeeet.

Aaaanyway. On Sunday morning we went to Fordham, and we heard Mike speaking about Proverbs 31 (the passage beginning “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.”) I thought Mike’s talk was excellent, and conveniently enough it’s now located on the Fordham Website so if you’re into that kind of thing it would be worth a listen.

In the evening we went round to see Matthew and watch Top Gear. Top Gear was very funny, as usual! And then we spent a bit of time discussing a new website which Matthew and I have planned. Nothing solid on it as yet, but watch this space!

Right, that’s enough for the time being. I’m off to se what people think is going to happen to Doctor Who…

This weekend turned out to be fairly quiet, for a change!

On Friday evening we helped out at ’21′, which went well. On Saturday we went out to a BBQ at Roy and Janette’s (friends from home group).

Afterwards we headed over to Wivenhoe to watch the new Doctor Who (“The Doctor’s Daughter”). It was a pretty good episode, but there were a few things that bothered me somewhat:

• If the ‘clones’ (for want of a better word – the output of the machine) couldn’t create clones from clones, how come they’d managed to survive through generations?
• How come the general was so comparitively old? Unless they just had a shorter life-cycle, but that wasn’t suggested by anything else.
• The death scene with Jenny, and then the coming back. It was a little cheesy… to put it mildly.

Still. Afterwards we watched Nancy and Pushing Daisies (which I’m liking more and more with each episode).

On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and then headed out to Mersea: one of Phil’s colleagues was opening a gym there, and it was the “grand opening” on Sunday. After popping in, we had lunch at the Art Cafe, which was delicious. Then we headed back home and did a bit of gardening (well, Phil did at least!)

In the evening we went to “Sunday @ 7″ at Fordham, where Andy Saville was talking about the Divinity of Christ. It was a really interesting talk, and most of it will be available to download from the Fordham Website shortly (unfortunately the mic gave out five minutes before the end, doh!)

After the service we came back home and watched “Wild Hogs”. I quite enjoyed it – it wasn’t the best film in the world ever, but it was quite entertaining and good fun to watch. If you’re in a video rental store of an evening and don’t know what to get, I can recommend it.

Well, it was a less “Weddingy” weekend this time round!

On Friday night we helped out at ’21′, a youth group at Fordham for those in school years 7-8 (or something like that). It went pretty well, although I was a little apprehensive because I haven’t done any youth work before at all. We’ll be helping out there every fortnight for the time being, so hopefully I’ll get more confident with it as time goes on!

On Saturday I spent the day not doing very much! – Phil was out sorting out wedding stuff with one of her work colleagues, so I stayed around and did a bit of gardening, playing the guitar etc. In the evening we went round to Anne-Marie’s and watched Doctor Who – and I must say, I rather enjoyed it! It was probably the best Helen Raynor episode to date, although there were a few things that were a little cliched: villains wanting to take over / threatening the whole world, check. People all over the planet buying the same piece of technology, check. Still, it was well paced and written with some humourous moments – I loved the “explosion” of the SatNav unit!

On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and then came back home to sort out a few bits and pieces for various weddings! – it turns out that we have been invited to the wedding of one of Phil’s cousins which is happening in May (the day after Phil and Esther’s wedding!). This means that we’re now going to have three weddings in May, the total for this year being seven so far. Anyway, there wasn’t much to do – just research transport!

In the evening we went to the “firm foundations” course at Fordham, led by Andy Saville, where he was speaking about the evidence for Jesus. It was a really good talk, but unfortunately it wasn’t recorded because Andy wasn’t miked up. Still, it’s good to know that there is enough evidence for believe in Jesus to be rational, even if it isn’t coercive!

And that pretty much brings us up to date.

Hmmm, I’m a bit exhausted after this weekend! It was pretty busy for most of it – although very enjoyable! On Saturday we spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen as one of Phil’s work colleagues and boyfriend were coming round for dinner, and we were preparing all the food. It was worthwhile though, we had a good evening and all the food went down well.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning, where Mike preached a very helpful sermon on communion (this will be available to listen to on the Fordham Website later — we were out most of yesterday so I didn’t get a chance to upload it then).

Afterwards we went to a sort of student lunch at Simon and Lara’s house in Wivenhoe. We had slow roasted pork (apparently one of Nigella’s recipes – it needs to roast for 24 hours) which was delicious, and it was good to chat to a few of the Essex Uni people who come to Fordham.

We spent most of the afternoon chatting there, and didn’t get back home until about 5:00! We just had time to do a bit of washing up (left over from the previous evening) before going to the last of the lent services at St Albright’s. It was on “I Am the True Vine”, and I found it quite helpful – although unfortunately I missed some of it because I was a little bit tired!

Afterwards we headed into Wivenhoe for Matthew’s birthday party. We had a very nice ploughman’s for tea, followed by a quiz (food for the mind?!) about Devon and then some birthday cake. All in all, the day was rather packed but good fun – I’m just glad that we only have four days at work this week!