It's all gonna be ok...

ok, i give up.... I've got the message. I will now try to stop complaining all the time.

I complain about my job.
I pray about my job.
Millions of amazing oppourtunities appear all at once, and people are nice to me at work.

coincidence? I don't think so....


Coupled with that some of my course mates were emailing round Christmas greetings today. I think I've got it far better than I thought. Very few people seem thrilled by their jobs, but I haven't been asked to take a pay cut, threatened with redundancy, or become completely and utterly demotivated. See, I'm only slightly demotivated, and even that seems to be changing since this praying thigy wotsit...

when will I learn? God answers prayer. I know that. I tell other people to pray! I should really listen to my own advice that little bit sooner shouldn't I! Ah well, better late than never I guess!

WOOHOO!

How cool is God?

Just had the best confession! :-)

God is generally cool.

murder mystery

I am my own person! I am not my mother! I am not Charlie! I am individual! Unique! So it was perhaps unfortunate that at Jen’s murder mystery party I bumped into Charlie for the first time in…err…. When did I last see her..? I’ve a horrible feeling it might have been Greg’s funeral… surely I’ve seen her between then and now.. How did that happen..?

Anyway…. We were both playing men in the murder systery. (I was meant ot be camp. I didn't find it to hard to let my feminine side show through)We both have fancy new phones. The same phones. On the same contract. Having left the same contracts with our old phone companies at the same time(which incidentally were the same company last time too) . The new phones have the same ring tone. Ok, as if that wasn’t bad enough we’re both taking the same time off work etc for Christmas, and both played best friends in the party….

The fact that we can be so similar just highlights how different we are in so many other respects. When we were at school it didn’t surprise people when we did similar things at the same time. But now that we’re still doing it despite rarely seeing each other is a bit more random. You can tell we grew up together. It’s kinda weird. She took life one way. I took another. As paths go they’re not so different. Just one involves God, and one involves security guards. Maybe one day she’ll come back to the God side of things. She herself will tell you that God hasn’t given up on her. Even she can see it... acting on it, now there's another concept entirely...

So that was an interesting evening. Good fun though. Steve did it! It was him! Ahem.

Energy consuption...

Part of my job at work is to publicise and encourage recycling and minimise energy usage in our offices. This means that from time to time lucky members of stuff get the lucky treat of getting a post it notes on their monitors reminding them that they should really switch them off overnight.

One colleague has been leaving his monitor on every night for the last few weeks. Today he has informed me that it’s so that we can have that moment together. Isn’t that sweet.

Speaking of sweets he sys he’s going to leave me sweets to eat while I write the post it notes in future.

I can’t help but feel that the message hasn’t quite got across about energy consumption….

holepunches have feelings...

The holepunch hates me. And now it’s got the paper on side. I’m feeling got at. The holepunch won’t cup the paper, and without fail whenever it does I manage to get a paper cut. It’s all out to get me.

Sympathetic colleagues are of course helping the issue… (ST transcript)

Mary Wells : the holepunch hates me
Clare : i can understand that
Clare : ooops no i didn't say that
Clare : poor mary

????

A quote from my friend Mike Starkey…

"I want to go home now. My brain is broken"

I really can’t add to that today.

Oh yes,

We rule.

I officially am part of a winning team. The fictitious business I’ve been helping run at work has one it’s group stage.

Oh yes oh yes.

And I was right. Oh yes.

Tactics ‘R’ us.

Pity I’m losing money hand over foot on this real work thingy wotsit.

in hindsight...

following smoe thought it occurs to me that maybe those love bites are something to investigate in more detail in future.... ;-)

love bites? I wish... ;-)

Ok, So I have spots at the moment. It’s due to chocolate. Or as mum put it on Sunday "not looking after myself"

Fine. I have spots.

This has provoked discussion in the tearoom. Having decided that they’re not bruises from having been beaten up they are ‘obviously’ love bites.

Uh huh.

Love bites on the chin and forehead.

So not only am I concerned by the fact that this was suggested in all seriousness (says something about your average engineer) but also makes me wonder what they really think of me! Think I’d better watch my step for a while….

Good days bad days

I’m in a complete whirlwind at the moment. So much is going on. Some good stuff, some bad. It’s all too confusing…! I’ve just been told that I’m defiantly staying put up here at Terriers in my new role so that’s good. My new phone is connected. And the car is all in one piece.

However, Gran’s in hospital, The commute in the dark is hideous. There’s just no two ways about it. Driving in the dark is just painful on the eyes not to mention tiring., and as a result my prayer life is in tatters.

On Sunday someone described how life can be like a whirlwind of too many things happening at once. But it doesn’t matter what is going on around you if your foundations are strong and you are standing on the rock that is the word of God. It’s an interesting image. After all, nothing in the whirlwind has really hit me or done serious lasting damage so far. So there’s some protection somewhere. Am I really in the eye of the storm looking out and seeing chaos without appreciating all that God is actually doing for me in the calm eye of the storm.

After all, There’s a lot of good about, and he’s doing his best to make me see him around the place. Mainly that seems to be by pushing me so far that I almost break and have to admit that I can’t do it alone. After all, who can really survive the strong winds of a whirlwind once they’re caught up in them? The legal term for such events is translated as ‘the hand of God’. There’s a memorial in Reading for a man who was caught up in a whirlwind at Reading Station and died. It’s fascinated me since I was tiny.

Maybe what I’m trying to say is that whirlwinds can happen anywhere at any time. Even in the most unexpected of times and places. But there is no need to be scared of them, if you remember what the important things are – God!
The wise man built his house upon the rock….. :-)

Pretty colours...

WOW!

look! The blog has changed colour.

(It's a slow day)

For anyone who is interested, my parents claim that it was illegible before. And they're right - it was illegible on their home monitor whch does intersting contrasting things. So anyway, now it's green, and is apparently easier to read.

Aren't I nice.

Not a lot else going on at the moment. I bought some new star trek DVDs and have been being incredible sad and watching them all week instead of doing anything useful...

life goes on?

How is it that when something bad happens for the right reasons, even for your own reasons it still hurts? When you can be almost sure that if it happened any other way it would be worse..?

I guess it's not really a new concept. Bad things happen. It's not often they happen and you actually get some kind of a say about what those things are and what they mean. Generally they happen to you. And there's no way you can influnce it. It's literally in the hands of the Gods (as it were)

So why is it that you can be upset by something that you are sure is the right thing. If you're pretty sure that the good outcome in the end (feels like that'll be years away) will be worth the pain at the moment?

The positive side is that I have a friend who knows precisely what it feels like to go through a painful time in the hope/knowledge that it will be for the best in the end.

And I can't believe that I've just compared spliting up with Nick to Jesus' crucifiction...!

aging...

Uh Oh

I’m getting old.

Yesterday was my birthday. This is not what makes me old (except in a purely physcial sense). What makes me old is the knowledge that I really am turning into my mum. There’s no excaping it. We look and think in similar ways.
What makes me old is the realisation that I don’t think that this is a bad thing. In fact, I’m actually proud to be like her… now how weird is that? That’s not meant to happen is it? But both my parents are great people… I could do a lot worse!

Mum says I’m turning into Gran though… not so sure that that’s a good thing… as I really don’t want to be a teacher…

I've been thinking....

....and it's all my brother's fault.

He's started talking about staying in academia (haha! And Mum thought I was expensive...). The main reason for this change of heart (at least as far as he's concerned - it's been blindingly obvious tot eh rest of us for years) is that teaching isn't as bad, scary, and impossible as he had once thought.

So, this got me thinking. He's tried his hand at helping a friend through their course, and as a result has found a possible new path for his life that he would not otherwise have considered.

Does this mean I have to try some of the things I always said I wouldn't do?

There is a limit on that though..

• I always said I couldn't do youth work.. so obviously I'm not involved in Youthnet at all...err....
  
• And I always said I'd never move back home from Birmingham..err...opps...
  
• But trust me on this one I really am never going to get a tattoo.... honest...
  

I guess it's tht whoe expect the unexpected and don't let yourself be pigeonholed. Even by your own mind. Which means that me and my mind are blatently at odds.

It's now worked out how to make me do stuff I really don't want to.. bother.

I guess it could make life a challenge though...

Answered prayer...

And yes...

Alleluia!

Amen Lord!

and any other cheesey expression of delight that you can think of...

I am moving job. I am leaving the world of hydraulic modelling and moving back into civil engineering.. well, at least I think I am. No-one has included me in on any of the emails that have organised this feat so anything could happen. The first I knew that it was actually happening was when the secretary called me to ask if I wanted to keep my phne number (to which the answer is no... that way no-one from modelling will ever be able to find me...;-))

However, as of Monday I will once again be a civil engineer working on a big tender for a WwTW and pipeline in Maidstone and Broadstairs. Somewhere near Kent international airpost (yes, apparently it does have one.. I always knew Kent was in France so I guess it's international anyway)

So tonight I'm going to Oxford to celebrate Alice's birthday and my new job. She runs her college bar. Pound a pint. Pound a shot. oh dear. She also likes lock ins apparently. Oh dear oh dear.

Should be fun though... just don't expect me to post again for a while... I'll need a recovery period...

work

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

just needed to get that out of my system.....

Long time no see

Recently I've been a little disillusioned. Why write anything down on here, as there really is nothing interesting to say, and definately nothing interesting to write about that happens in my life.

We have a new priest at church.

He has other ideas.

And I have a feeling that he might just have a point.

He made a comment in passing at a meeting last night. (The church steering commitee - an no we haven't crashed the church. Yet.) He suggested that what we are suppoed to do, as part of our commision in Christ, is to be the best version of ourselves that we can be. I have an obligatin to enjoy what I do, and to do what I do with as best I can. So that means no more getting bored, because getting bored means I'm not trying to do something for the glory of God with the best spirit that I can.

so that's a nice easy concept. good. I will not be bored. not even at work.

We just decided to open a teddy near fatory at work. It'll give us something to do inbetween jobs....

How did it come to this?

How did I accidently become a professional engineer? I thought for a while that I'd accidently fallen into this job, but it looks more and more like it wasn't accident at all. Someone up there had this planned and I'm significantly better off than most of my friends in terms of my job.

Sat in the pub last night, we were chatting about jobs, prime numbers, nude statues, and various pubs in Birmingham (which later became a rather cliquey conversation between two of us.. have you ever been to the Selly Park Tavern.. oh you must... just ask for Chrissy...). ANd if you've never sat in a pub reciting prime numbers then you really haven't lived. or something. Maybe. :-/

Amidst all that it became increasingly obvious that I really really really shouldn't complain about my job. It's not nearly as booring as most people have to put up with. And it's a lot better paid than Sainsbury's.

So, positive thought for this morning. This job is not so bad. It's significantly better than a lot of things, and anything I've ever done before. So therefore I'm goign to try to stop complaining about it. I said I'd TRY so that doesn't mean that it's the lst you'll hear on this subject! :-)

why??!!!

Have you ever wondered why?

Has it ever crossed your mind that sometimes bad things will happen and you're powerless to do anything about them?

Isn't is weird that when things seem to be going well, your prayer life is sorted, and God seems to be really blessing you, that that's the time that something unexpected happens? That's when something that has always worked before goes belly-up?

I'm not so sure it's weird at all... In fact I'm sure that it's not. After all, when things are bad you rely on God. When they're not you get compacent. When you're in a good place spiritually, you're sure to have left the back door open elsewhere....

like now, for example, I've been away on soul in the city and sion summer camp (WOOHOO!!!) and now I'm back at work. Second day back and I'm going pretty well, I'm actually working faster than normal and not surfing the internet nearly as much as usual. So what happens? The software comes up with an error that no-one's heard of, and that no-one, not even the developers, can decipher, as the lead developer has left the company.

But that's just the backdoor that was left open for the devil to try to influence my life. Well, he's not about to win. He can make my life as difficult as he wants, but he'll never win. In fact the more he tries, and the more I know he's there, the more I KNOW that Jesus is here.. by which logic the devil should just leave me alone :-)

My brothers blog

It's generally way to intelligent for me, but take a look....

http://www.who-are-you.co.uk/

oh, and his name's Michael by the way...

Spinning Chairs

Spinning chairs are so cool aren't they?

I mean, they go round and round, they can go clockwise as well as anticlockwise; if you're really lucky they might also go forwards and backwards, and possibly even up and down!

Such a simple thing, and yet such a beautiful one!

With one chair you can get as much simple pleasure as you get from the horses merry-go-round at the fair.

I do not recommend eating boiled sweets or drinking tea while spinning

in the beginning....

This blog exists merely so that I don't have to remember to sign posts when commenting on other people's blogs.

Having said that it will also be a place for me to record good things and God things that happen so that I can't forget about them!