New Kid on the Blog

One of the reasons i have been so terrible at blogging for this past week or so is because i have been ripping all of my cds onto my PC hard drive for easy access, and it has meant that i have been listening to some of the music i've not heard for a very long time and loving it. It's great to rediscover your roots! I am amazed by some of the stuff i used to listen to constantly, as looking back it all seems a bit naff, but at the same time i still love it! Most of it was heavy rock - whitesnake, van halen, dave lee roth, king's x but some prog rock stood out and has stood the test of time, yes (preferred trevor rabin era, but like most of it) and marillion particularly. In fact in the past few days some of my old marillion stuff has been played again and again, both with fish and steve hogarth in lead vocal position. I loved the poetry of fish's lyrics, and the way he tackled tough subjects with depth and some beautiful words. I also remembered how excited i was w...

Thanks for the encouraging comments to my last post - it seems that time out is something of a luxury for many of us! There's an ancient Christian tradition of 'slowing' which is referred to by John Ortberg in his book 'The life you've always wanted' (naff self help type title, good book - I've probably said this before) - it is something that i have sought to undertake, as a kind of spiritual discipline, something that i do consciously to remind me of God's call and sway on my life. It involves simple stuff, not always rushing to get to places, weeding out the diary so there is plenty of time to travel, driving in the slow lane, deliberately choosing the longest queue at the supermarket and that kind of thing - not exactly rocket science, but when it becomes part of the fabric of life it creates a whole new mindset. Of course i am my own worst enemy when it comest to this, as recent posts would attest, but when i do follow this course i find my attit...

After the madness of the past few weeks (months? years?) i have a few days off, well kind of, i'm just going to a meeting now and one this evening which i set before trying to take the remainder of my annual leave this week. Anyway, a lazy monday, with wife and children away at the seaside followed by yesterday and today looking after the little ones with Jo at work has seen a sudden return of my 'not feeling quite so frazzled' vibe. I have loved just playing with the kids, laughing a lot and relaxing in the evenings. It's also given me a chance to read some enjoyable books (still getting through Alistair Cooke's Letter from America collection and have started Terry Pratchett's excellent Thud) and watch some TV (NCIS is a favourite at the moment, like CSI without all that faffing about in the labs and more chases!) I've also tried to rationalise my MP3 collection - having burnt gazillions of my cds onto disk for easy accesss i never really catalogued any...

Whilst surfing for a few points in the traffic exchange system (traffic pods, team hits etc) I am constantly amazed by the number of schemes that promise me untold riches if only i will sign up for this or that free scheme, or for a minimal outlay. I am happy to be proved wrong, but it strikes me that if any of them worked then the world would be awash with very rich people indeed. Or am i missing something? Naive, i know, but i make it a point to be naive as often as possible in the hope that i will be surprised by the goodness of my fellow human beings....

...unless we go a little crazy. Enough said, thanks Seal!

This weekend gone is notable for two of the services which i had the privilege and joy to be the officiant at. The first was the aformentioned wedding that took place on Saturday of the two publicans/hoteliers that was possibly the most relaxed and enjoyable wedding i have ever taken part in. It was possibly also the most scatty service i have ever had a part in... It was a ridiculously busy week ending up with a ridiculously busy Saturday. I started by leaving the house at about 8.30am to help at a worship leader training day - not sure how much use i was as i felt i had to busk the session, because my preparation didn't seem to fit the feeling of the day... Fortunately being relatively well read about the subject of worship history and liturgy i don't think i made a complete hash of things... Anyway, leaving that early around midday i dashed back to the Rectory to get my stuff together for my first wedding of the day which took place here - a very enjoyable event with a c...

When i say around here, i mean on the blog - that's because it has been anything but quiet in the real world in these parts. It's been a good week and there is lots i could say about it, and will do so as i process all the information through my internal spam filters... so i'm not filling your brains up with lots of junk (or at least no more than usual) Spent lots of the week feeling really tired and wishing i had been able to take a couple of days out to recover from this heavy cold rather than just feeling grotty for ages. Things have been very busy though, and this week has seen a clergy 'vision' day as we discussed the next move for our team of thirteen parishes, a couple of sessions of 'wedding preparation' which had to be fitted in around a school governors meeting, team council meeting, two wedding rehearsals, two PCC meetings, two weddings, my final Harvest Supper of the year, visiting and a variety of 'one to one' meetings with churchwarde...