phillsacre.me.uk

Well, it’s now official 2010 (and has been for a few days now), so I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all my loyal blog readers a happy new year! (All my unloyal blog readers can take a running jump :p)

It’s been a good new year for us. We came back home on the Tuesday after Christmas, after which I proceeded to get a nasty cold :( Well, it left me in bed for a day or so. But apart from that, New Year’s Eve went well – we had over a whole bunch of people for a mini party. Kirsty, Sarah, Anne-Marie, Alex and Heather all came round and we played some silly games, at lots of food, and generally chatted.

We didn’t get to bed until late that night (or early that morning, I should say) so we didn’t do much on New Year’s Day in the morning! In the evening we headed round to Anne-Marie’s for dinner and Doctor Who. We did enjoy the last episode of DW, although – to be honest – I’m not sad to see the back of Russell T. Davies. The episode was good although I did feel it went on a bit too long at the end, how much can you drag that kind of thing out? Still, seemed a fitting end for what is really the end of an era. All hail Stephen Moffat, though, I see the weeping angels are back for the next series so that’s something to look forward to!

On Saturday we did a bit of shopping for various random things, and then in the evening went to the pub with Alex, Tom and Heather. Then we went on for a curry at the Ashiana, before heading back to ours to watch some random DVDs.

I think that’s pretty much all that happened in terms of new year festivities… in general, it’s nice to get back to work for a bit of a rest ;) But here’s to 2010, hopefully it will bring many good things!

Speaking of which – I’ve just sent off an email to the Diocesan Warden of Ordinands. Basically that’s the first step on the rung of becoming an ordained Church of England minister. Scary stuff! But exciting, too – hopefully I will hear something back about that soon. I will keep you posted.

The Christmas break has been pretty good so far! I am currently writing this from Phil’s parents’ house. We came down here after the carol service at Fordham on Christmas Eve. We had a pretty safe journey – it was well above freezing (well, above freezing anyway) so there was no ice to worry about. (The ice and snow has all gone now, don’t know what it’s like in Colchester but here it’s all clear).

Anyway. Quick overview of the time so far: Christmas Eve – we both took the day off, so we went over to Ipswich to exchange presents with my parents. In the evening we went to the “Carols by candlelight” service at Fordham, which was absolutely packed as per usual!

Christmas Day – spent the time with Phil’s parents and sister, went to church in the morning, and just relaxed for the rest of the day.

On Boxing day morning we went for a walk nearby with some more of Phil’s family. In the afternoon some family friends came round and we played silly games / had a sing song round the piano etc. The usual kind of stuff!

Yesterday we didn’t do very much, but in the evening we went round to Julie and Dave’s and had a nice evening there. Which included watching Top Gear – I really enjoyed the special! I think the Top Gear specials are my favourites. Can’t believe the most unreliable car in the world… turned out to be the most reliable. (Who saw that one coming?!)

Anyway, this afternoon we are going to see “War Horse” in London, I don’t know much about it but hopefully it will be good. The write-up looks good anyway.

Well, that’s all for now! We’re back in Colchester tomorrow, and then we’re off to see my family on Wednesday. That’s all from me for now. Hope all my loyal blog readers are having a good week!

And I wish you a very happy New Year.

(Don’t forget, if you’re around in Colchester and don’t have any plans – our place for a new year party type thing. Let me know if you can make it :))

Firstly, let me just wish all my readers a happy new year (if I have not already done so in person)! Our new year began well – more on that later.

We had a really nice Christmas break. On Christmas Eve, we went to the carol service at Fordham, which was absolutely packed! It’s been getting more and more busy over the past few years, and this year was no exception. We had people sitting down in the choir stalls, even a few chairs down by the altar! It was great to see so many people there. Straight afterwards we headed down to Kent to stay with Philippa’s parents for a few days.

It was a fairly standard Christmas (i.e. presents, seeing friends, having Christmas dinner etc) so I’ll just post up a few notable bits. On Boxing Day we went into London to see a production of Rapunzel at the Queen Elizabeth Hall (see a review of it here). It was really good – an innovative take on the traditional story. Well worth watching if you can go – it’s not just for kids!

On Friday, we came back home overnight, and then on Saturday went to Ipswich to see my parents. We stayed there until Monday, and then came back on New Year’s Eve. Matthew and Ellie had a party at their house to see in the new year, which quite a few people came to. That was a really good evening, much fun was had. We played a game of ‘Chinese Whisper Charades’ (or whatever you call it), which is a cross between chinese whispers and charades (amazingly enough!) which was incredibly funny. I recorded a short video of it which I may post up at some point.

On New Year’s Day, we went to the Sun Inn at Dedham with Alex for lunch. For some reason they were serving Italian food (I don’t know why a pub in the Suffolk countryside was serving Italian food?!) but it was certainly very delicious.

Anyway, I should probably mention a few Christmas presents… I got a new guitar from Philippa, which I will try and learn to play gradually. I got Philippa a Logitech Harmony 525 Universal Remote Control (she doesn’t like the fact we have a rapidly growing number of remote controls). I will definitely be blogging about that at some point in the near future – I’m still awaiting a reply from Logitech support…

I think that’s a quick summary of what we’ve been up to over the past week or so!