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I’m getting very slack – it’s now Wednesday and I haven’t updated with a usual weekend style update. Well, if you’re lucky, I might toss in some news of what we’ve been up to mid-week :p

Anyway. Friday night – 21 as usual. Saturday – I spent most of the day preparing for Sunday morning. In the evening Phil went to Chelmsford for Rich’s party, unfortunately I was still preparing so couldn’t go. But I did go to Sarah and Jon’s for a couple of drinks – they are leaving Colchester (sad times), so I thought it would be nice if I could pop round once I’d finished my preparation. It was a really good evening anyway – I caught up with them, and Andy B and Helen. We also played ‘Buzz’ and ‘Singstar’ on the PS2, which was good fun! At the 21 Christmas party this Friday we will be having a Singstar competition, should be good fun.

On Sunday I spoke at church, as I have already mentioned, and then we went round to Dennis and Christine’s for a sort of student lunch. I say “sort of” because they invited a few students along, but also invited us. But it was a nice afternoon anyway – I was very full by the end of it! And then we went to Sunday@6 in the evening.

So there you have it! And the mid-week update, as promised. This is very exciting stuff, as I’m sure you can image: on Monday Phil had a PCC meeting, so I stayed in and started re-watching Torchwood (“Children of Earth”). Then, last night we went out for dinner with Jo, who now lives just round the corner from us. (She has a 6 month old baby so she appreciates having adults to talk to!)

Um… yes. Not much else to say at the moment.

This weekend was relatively busy, things are picking up after the summer and we’re now virtually back to a full schedule. On Friday night we helped out at 21 as per usual. Then on Saturday morning we did some shopping, and then in the afternoon popped round to see Jo and David’s new flat.

Then we went to Colchester Baptist Church for a performance of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”. Anne-Marie was singing and narrating (not at the same time), so we went there and joined Sarah to watch it. It was a really good performance, took me right back to primary school (I was in a performance of it then, although we didn’t do all the songs). The band and singers were all great, with the exception of one poor girl who got so nervous she had a little trouble keeping time! Afterwards A-M and Sarah came round for a cup of hot chocolate.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning as per usual. And then in the evening I went off to Sunday@6! After that we came home and watched “The Boat that Rocked”.

I quite enjoyed the film although it was a bit long. It was a “Who’s Who” of British comedy, part of the fun of the film was trying to identify all the actors! One thing I wondered about was that the soundtrack contained absolutely no Beatles songs. Given that it was set in 1966/67, I found that quite strange. At the end a lot of album covers were shown, and “Sergeant Pepper” was one of them. I thought perhaps the Beatles hadn’t given permission for their songs to be used, but can’t find anything about it on the internet.

Anyway, that was our weekend!

This weekend was a pretty quiet one actually – which I think we both needed! Friday evening we didn’t do much – just watch the usual selection of TV. I like the fact that QI is back :)

On Saturday we did a bit of shopping. We bought ourselves a new Kenwood food processor and blender, our old food processor died a couple of months ago and they are actually surprisingly useful. We have a few recipes which call for their use, including a very nice cashew nut curry. We didn’t have a blender before, though, and we made good use of it on Sunday. But more on that later.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and then afterwards Laura came back with us for a “comedy-a-thon” (as we called it). Basically, Laura is an apprentice at Fordham and we discovered recently that we haev pretty much exactly the same taste in comedy as she does :) So we invited her round for lunch and a watching of lots of various comedy things, which was great. She’s loaned us the first series of Black Books which we haven’t seen before (amazingly enough), watched a couple of episodes of it yesterday and it was great.

Oh, and we used the new blender to good effect – we made a milkshake using a cadbury’s fruit & nut bar. Not as good as a Shakey Jakey’s, but not bad for a first try! Anyway, the afternoon went well, we will have to arrange another one soon…

One more thing to mention: we also managed to sell the car :) £361 in the end, which isn’t a bad price at all considering webuyanycar.com offered me £50! I’ll feel happier when I have the money in my hand, but still – the winning bidder is coming to pick the car up this afternoon. Now I’ve started, I might try and sell a few other things on eBay – I’ve got lots of bits and pieces I don’t really want but I’m sure someone would be interested in.

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!

This weekend, Philippa was away from Friday night until Saturday evening. So, on Friday evening I watched “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, which I’ve been meaning to watch for ages but haven’t got around to it. It was a great film – I can see why it got about five oscars in one year! It was very sad at the end, but worth it. It also made me think how clever “Spaced” was – they managed to reference the original film quite accurately, while still managing to keep it part of the story! Oh, and I spotted a couple of references from Spaced which aren’t in the ‘restaurant’ episode. (Well, one reference at least).

Anyway. On Saturday I spent most of the day working on Gift List Central – it’s coming along quite well. Unfortunately I also managed to find a couple of other sites which do the same kind of thing – why couldn’t they have come up when I was searching BEFORE starting work on it? Doh! Still, one of them looks like it was started in 2008 so perhaps it’s not all bad. On the internet, competition is good – and they’ve given me a few ideas as well ;-)

I also watched the latest episode of “The IT Crowd”. It was great – this series is shaping up to be as good as the first, after a rather disappointing second series.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning. In the afternoon we went to dinner with one of Phil’s work colleagues and her fiance – they are getting married in December and I am DJing at the wedding, so we discussed the music. It was good fun, and I think I’ve got a much better idea now of the kind of thing that they want.

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!”

So, this weekend Philippa and I went all the way to Milton Keynes (well, actually to Newport Pagnell – just outside MK) for the 9:38 Annual Conference. This is a conference which is geared towards people who are considering full-time Christian work, and had a variety of useful seminars and talks designed to help people think through the issues.

We drove down on Friday night (through rush-hour traffic) – and somehow managed to get there in good time! We had dinner (the food was excellent, as it was all the way through the weekend. We were staying at the De Vere Harben venue. Although it is quite possibly one of the ugliest buildings in the area (viewed from outside), it was comfortable and well-equipped inside.) After dinner we had the first talk from Vaughan Roberts, and I played piano for a few hymns. It was rather nerve-wracking as I was on my own, but there were only three hymns which I knew so it went OK. Afterwards we all split up into prayer groups for a while, and then went to bed!

On Saturday we had a rather packed day. In the morning we had a prayer group session, as well as two talks / meetings: Andy Gemmill talked about “What is Gospel Ministry?” and Tim Silk did “How do I know I’m called?”. Both were very helpful and gave plenty to be thinking about! The music went well too – I was joined by Philippa on the clarinet, and three other people playing violin / piano / guitar / hand-drum (or combinations thereof). So we had a little music group going, and I think by the end of the time we were actually sounding quite good.

Aaaanyway. After lunch, we had some free time followed by a couple of seminars – we had chosen one on Anglican ministry, and then one about apprenticeships and training. Again, both of them I found very helpful and with lots of food for thought! After dinner, Vaughan Roberts interviewed four people who had been involved in gospel ministry career-wise, and it was really interesting to hear all their stories. No two people who I spoke to at the conference had the same story – some were similar, but it just goes to show: when God calls people, he definitely cares about the individual, it’s not just a matter of a “one size fits all” kind of plan. We then had another prayer group and went to bed.

On Sunday, we had one more seminar on theological education, and then it was time for the final prayer group session. After that we all came together as a group one last time for Vaughan Roberts’ second and final talk, which was very good, and then lunch and home.

*phew* Sorry to take so long writing that up… I thought it might be useful to have in case anyone else was thinking about going on a 9:38 Annual Conference! We both found the experience tremendously helpful and would happily recommend it to anyone thinking about going into full-time ministry. It’s definitely challenging but there are plenty of people who are very willing to help you talk through the issues. I also very much enjoyed meeting and talking to people who were in a similar position to us, it was really encouraging.

Right… I think I’ve rambled on enough about that now. Sorry, etc. etc….

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!