Would I mind helping out at the Fire Station...?

Apparently they were surprised at how fast I answered that question! Like there was some sort of a choice to make; Fire Station = Firemen (in this case Blue Watch)

Unfortunately, it is further evidence of that minor problem I've developed over many years of not being able to say 'No' when asked to help with something.

Maybe I should take it to confession and then call the Saturday morning at the station 'penance'.

RIP John Dunster

Grandad faded out today.

Again, as with Grandad Wells it's hard to be that upset about it. He wasn't really himself anymore and definately not the man who I have memories of with a glass of wine in hand and a copy of the New Scientist. Or, for that matter, the younger man I remember crawling about on the floor pretending to be a lion...

He'll be missed, but I'm glad this horrible period of undignified fading is over. Praise God for that.

Exercise.

So how is it I can walk 21 miles last weekend and not hurt, and yet I play ‘it’ with 5 other people at Fusion last night and can barely move today? It can be nothing to do with the fact that 11 year olds are faster than me and the walls are rather hard when you run full tilt into them..

And yes, you unbelievers, I did walk 21 miles without serious after-effects last weekend. We walked all around Windsor Great Park, round Virginia Water twice, and to the Castle and back. I’d forgotten how pretty it is round there, and actually how close it really is to where I live!

I really should make the most of these things. Maybe this weekend – although going to Windsor on the weekend of HRH The Queen’s birthday might be a mistake.

Chances of me doing anything much this weekend seem to be diminishing due to laziness. If I’m not careful I’ll actually do some of the Continuing Professional Development, and that’s just not healthy… although perhaps a good idea to hit one of my work objectives this year….

Lifestyle advice from the pub

I found a notice in a pub.

"A popular and distinctive premium beer, brewed with finest malt and hops for a well-balanced character"

So that’s where I’ve been going wrong; To become well-balanced I must drink.

Cheers.

Everything is fine.

So I'm told. Seems like a fairly wide ranging statement so I thought I should pass it on to the rest of you.

Everything is fine. There is nothing to worry about.


(unless of course you get between me and the chocolate.)

No, just no..

There is an article on the BBC today about people being buried with their mobile phones. More worryingly, people now apparenlty sometimes want to be cremated with them.

The concept of being scared that you'll be buried alive is fair enough where burials must happen quickly, but cremating a phone is just bizarre.

Whether you're religious or not you surely can't believe that having a phone amoungst your ashes is going to help you in some way? And how do people get so attached to their phones that they even consider it?

There's more to life!

Get thee down the pub and talk to people face to face!

How rumours start

While talking about the Moonwalk

Stefan: So when’s the big one?
Me: 20th May

Andy: You’re getting married?

I am still alive!

Things seem to be easing off. The clock changing has meant that I’m actually awake, and the 18 mile walk on Saturday has left me with no lasting injures except for strained abs. I really wish I knew how I’d done that as I was expecting sore legs...

The Moonwalk

In May I'm going to be walking 26.2 miles.
Through London.
At night

It's for Breast Cancer causes and I'm looking for sponsorship..

so if you feel so inclined follow the link below...

My Fundraising Page

I know it's mad and a long way to go. My training hasn't been going so well recently due to it being rather cold a lot of the time at the moment. So any helpful incentives would be much appreciated! :-)

Quotes

One has to watch out for engineers - they begin with the sewing machine and end up with the atomic bomb.

- Marcel Pagnol
Critiques des Critiques

Or in my case, they begin with a simple problem and suddenly develop a horribly complicated solution that noone wants to build. Apparently exploding pipes are generally considered to be a bad thing. Some people have no sense of fun. Just because it's big enough to drive a landrover with a canoe on top through this pipe changes all the safety parameters (oh come on, we have to scale it all somehow!).

so why wouldn't Jesus be hit by a bus...?

What would happen if Jesus comes again and lands in the middle of the road. Why wouldn’t he get hit by a car?

One of the kids was praying that Jesus didn’t come again as he thinks it will just cause war as all the Jews will get left behind. He doesn’t think he’s good enough to go to Heaven so he doesn’t want to find out just yet. And does Hell really exist anyway?

There’s a tendency to answer those questions with a ‘don’t be silly; it won’t happen like that’. But to be honest, they’re valid questions and I wasn’t really sure how to address them. I don’t see that there is any reason to not be apprehensive about the second coming. It is an unknown. How can we possibly know what will happen? If we trust God then we know that it will all be ok, but my experience is that even knowing that it’ll work out doesn’t make the process a whole lot of fun. God’s idea of a good thing tends to be quite similar to very hard work as far as I’m concerned.

I admit I’m no expert on this – I figure I’ll work it out when it happens – but what do you say to a kid who is curious and for whom this is a really big problem without sounding patronising?

Finally, a diet I can handle...

Times Article

Brilliant. I'm off back to bed.

Things I have learnt recently

1. 8 mile fast walks are fine until the last mile.
2. Re-hydrating after 8 mile walks with beer instead of water may not be a good idea but you do sleep well.
3. Hazelnuts really can’t replace chocolate.
4. Death is not dignified.
5. In hydraulics there is a very big difference between litres and metres-cubed. Don’t get them muddled.
6. It will snow whether I like it or not
7. Driving in daylight is lots more fun than driving in the dark.
8. If you pester Red cross enough they offer you training courses you need. In Windsor :-s
9. I will be able to get my REd Cross IHCD exam by the summer. Which means Mary might soon be a fully fledged little Red cross ambulance crewperson. Because I don't do enough things already...

It's all going to be ok.

Good.

Can someone wake me up when it is please?

Thanks.

Firefly.

It's great I said. You'll like it.

Ok, she says, We'll watch one episode.

8 episodes later I left Alice watching while I went to bed...

He's got the whole world in his hands...

which is probably just as well.

This is a concept that has been on my mind a lot recently. It occurs to me that if you imagine a picture of hands holding the earth then it looks VERY similar to how my hands look when I'm holding the host at mass. God holds the world in his hands, at mass I hold Jesus/God (and therefore the world?) in my hands. It's like the continuation of a wider pattern and the wider meaning of Eucharist starts to make a little more sense. Intersting.

But then it works on the small scale. I was off work yesterday with a nasty cold, but being off work meant that it was relatively easy to drop everything and take Mum into hospital for an x-ray when she called at lunch time. She has a fractured ankle and is now hopping about madly on crutches. Hopefully she won't do any more damage to herself with the crutches...

Skittles

I had no idea that a skittle night at a local pub could be so much fun! If you ever get the opportunity then do it. It may have helped that the Wokingham Red Cross are all complete nutters. Last night we had our Christmas do, which was only a little late. We managed to get 22 people together and a good time was had by all. It’s always good to spend time with people socially that you work with. It probably also helped that I wasn’t half asleep and lets be honest, a pint and a half, and being chatted up by two regulars in the bar probably also helped my mood…! Although as chatting up lines go this was a little unusual: “You’re wearing a cross, are you a good Christian? It’s hard to tell because it’s all inside isn’t it”

SoulNet

This weekend five of the leadership of EarleyYouthNet pottered along to Elvedon Forest Centre Parcs for Soulnet. Soulnet is a youth leaders gathering run by Soul Survivor. I think it’s fair to say that we all arrived on Friday slightly frazzled by one thing or another, not necessarily anything major – just life in general. By the end of the weekend everyone looked more relaxed although perhaps a ‘little’ tired (apparently Laura and I were sleeping in shifts in the car on the way home).

There were good talks, but more to the point lots of God speaking. Now all I need to do is process it and work out what it actually means in my life right now. There’s a nice simple undertaking. God originally inspired YouthNet at SoulNet so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that he was started to invigorate it again in the same place. Lots of ideas floating around so now it’s just a case of working out which ones are of God and which ones are just us.

It was also the first time I’ve ever been to Centre Parcs. I was really quite impressed although I’m not sure I’d want to be there for a whole week. It’d end up costing you a fortune! However, It was really good to spend concentrated time with some of the other leaders. It really helps to know the people you work with, and I think I’ve eaten more over this weekend than in the previous week!

Now, I MUST NOT log on to either St Andrews bookshop or Amazon. How hard can it be… :-$

Bananas

Just bought 16 small bananas for £1 at the market. That’s a saving of 92p on Sainburys price for the same weight. I think that I might need to get organised and do more of my shopping at the market. How hard can it be to spend some time working out what I need and the relative prices...?

My week

Having posted random nonsense on my blog for ages now I though I should update on the state of my life.

Can’t think of anything to say.

Hmm. Maybe this wasn’t so good an idea.

Last week was one of those crazy weeks where I just try to do all the same stuff as normal.

Monday: Went to work, then popped into Cath’s to collect rope for Youthnet on Wednesday. She didn’t have rope so sent me off to the local cub pack who looked bemused by the concept but let me have large amounts of blue rope. Perfect for tying knots in. Completely failed to make it to Red Cross. Oh. What. A. Shame.

Tuesday: Went for a 5 mile walk with Mum. We both survived but it was touch an go on the hill in Barkham… Later, Jeremy popped in for a cup of tea and to update me on Red Cross gossip. Gossip that cannot be passed on in front of various other members at meetings. Suffice it to say that the politics have become too much for one long standing member and he has officially left the society. It’s a real shame, not least because the politics were just calming down.

Wednesday: YouthNet. It really should have occurred to me that short lengths of rope could be used for whipping as well as knots. A useful lesson for future. Really not sure how much we got acriss to the Kids. A major rethink for this one group is required. No idea when that is going to happen… Then went home and tried to write a presentation on First Aid for work.

Thursday: Got sent home from work for falling asleep on the desk. Went for another walk with Mum in the evening to try and physically tire myself so that I can sleep when I’m meant to.

Friday: oohhhhh Nothing to do! So what did I do? I started reading a Papal encyclical. Think I need to learn how to switch off…

Saturday: Bought new trainers. And 2 new shirts. And a scarf. As goes without saying they were all vital. Anyone would think I’ve just been paid… Later walked to Bethan’s house for her Birthday party. Was good fun got to natter to Youthnet peoples instead of just plotting sessions. Then pootled to Wokingham for Ryan’s Birthday gathering. As I was walking past the station a train was pulling in so got the train instead of walking. Got to the pub in time to discover that all my friends are getting way to grown up.

Sunday: Got up and went to mass. Managed to get stuck in the middle of a row and had to walk along the pew itself to get out to minister. That’ll teach me for assuming I’d have a week off… I later chatted to Dave who texted me to check I’m alive. I am, and so is he. Afterwards went walking and got sidetracked exploring public footpaths. By the time I got home 6.25 miles and 2 hours later I was shattered. Having said that I discovered that within 30 minutes walk of my house there are cows and deer frolicking in the fields (a far more sensible place for them than roads north of Wokingham for example). Ended up near St James’ parish church which is quite simply one of the most beautiful churches round here. Probably aided by the fact that there were clear blue skies and birds singing in the trees..

And now it’s Monday again. Tonight is Child Protection at Red Cross. I understand that this is some sort of self defence course.