phillsacre.me.uk

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!

This weekend was good fun. On Saturday, Phil’s parents came up to help us with the garden. We planted a few new shrubs and things, including some Seedums (if that’s how you spell it) and a Cotinus (again, not sure about spelling). We also planted a couple of little trees which I’m not even going to attempt to spell, but they’re basically miniature fruit trees! We have one apple tree and one plum tree. I’ve got some photos of all of them on my PC which I shall upload to Flickr later.

In the evening we relaxed a bit, and watched “Thank God You’re Here” (which I’ve mentioned here before…)

On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and then came back home for lunch. In the afternoon we went for a rather nice walk around Bourne Mill, but this time I brought the camera! There will be some photos of that on Flickr later on as well.

In the evening we went to the lent service at St Albright’s. It was the second in a seven-part series, led by Andy Saville, on the “I Am”s of Jesus – this one was on “I Am the Light of the World”. It was very good!

Afterwards we came back home to have dinner and we watched ‘Lark Rise to Candleford’ followed by ‘Run, Fatboy, Run’ (which I’ve just bought on DVD). Run, Fatboy, Run is a really good film, it was definitely worth buying!

And, that’s just about everything for this weekend. All for now…

I think it’s probably safe for me to mention now — I have a new job! It’s a software development role with a company based in Chelmsford. I’m starting there on 3rd March, my last day with my current company will be 29th Feb (although I’ve got the last week off on holiday, so I’ll have a week off before starting there :-)

Aaaanyway. As for the weekend – on Friday evening we went out for dinner at Prezzo. The meal was delicious! – I can highly recommend the honeycomb cheesecake!

Afterwards we went back home and watched Spider-Man 3. It was a very interesting film actually, dealing with some quite ‘Christian’ themes — mainly revenge and forgiveness. It’s a shame that they didn’t do more with it though, it was all set within a very secular humanist “you can choose to be better if you want to be” kind of framework. Still had some good moments in it though. And I think it was probably the funniest out of the three Spider-Man movies so far — when Peter Parker turns to the ‘dark side’, he becomes absolutely hilarious.

On Saturday, we did a bit of shopping in the morning, and then in the afternoon met up with Alex and Elisa at the Playhouse for lunch. Then in the evening we went to a concert at Ipswich Corn Exchange with Matthew and Ellie. Matthew has already written a review of the evening, so I will just add that we had a great time and I’d definitely love to hear the Rachmaninov again!

On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and in the afternoon we had our next-door-neighbour round for tea. Afterwards, I went to a Lenten course at St Albright’s Church in Stanway. It was the first part of a lenten series on the “I Am”s of Jesus – this one was about “I Am the Bread of Life” from John 6. Andy Saville from Fordham was supposed to be preaching, but unfortunately he wasn’t well enough, so the rector at St Albright’s had to step into the breach – but he did very well given the circumstances! I’m quite looking forward to the rest of this series – Phil and I have decided that although we’re not going to give anything up for lent, we will go to these services and prepare for Easter that way.

Well, I think that pretty much sums up our weekend, all for now!