Aliens

Today I was woken by an alien invasion. I couldn’t see anything but I could hear them transporting people away with their machines that make funny noises. For some reason they decided not to take me.

Of course it could just have been the B&Bs hot water system coming on.

But then - why are the aliens invading the hot water system?

Leaving is good for you

I’m beginning to get paranoid. Just as I leave Reading there are lots of exciting things starting to kick off. I’m beginning to wonder if it’s all because I’m leaving…

My parish church is starting too run some Life in the Spirit seminars, and having seen what they did for the chaplaincy at University, I’m expecting great things to happen. Except I won’t be there to see it.
(Having said that, the last time I was there, a parishioner took one look at me tidying the hymn books and said ‘we will miss you when you go’, leaving me with the distinct impression that she was more worried about the hymn books than anything else. Great.)

And then last night, at my last youth group session, God was again working in power. And I’m not going to be there to see what happens next, or what the kids do next and how God moves in their lives. And that’s soooooo frustrating.

So, by that logic I need to leave places more often. It seems to be good for other people.

- So are you moving in with your boyfriend ?
- Oh no, but my current housemate is.
- Ok. He’s moving to Birmingham to?
- Yes, his girlfriend is up there.
- So his girlfriend lives with your boyfriend?
- No, she lives in a convent.

I probably should have elaborated at that point but where’s the fun in that?

The Last week

It’s my last week before the official move.

My diary looks for this week looks a bit mad. By Friday, I have to fit in 5 full days of work, 4 trips to the pub, one set of Birthday drinks (not in a pub), one youth group session and two Red Cross meetings.

And Pack.

So, much as I’ll miss people when I’ve moved, I’ll be quite glad to have some time to sleep!

Go Ape

You know sometimes you agree to do something and then realise a little later that it’s a bad idea.

www.goape.co.uk

I’m not good with heights. I’m sure it’ll be good for me. Wibble.

I have just over two weeks to work out how on earth to get over the initial ‘I’m not climbing that’ issue.

Last time I tried something like this one of the kids from the youth group pointed out that ‘It’s ok, if you fall off and die you go straight to heaven and that’s better than school’. Which is logical, but not entirely reassuring.

2 - 4- 1

Two houses. Four leaving events. One Life.

It’s official. I’m moving. I have written confirmation and everything.

Lots of people seem to be making fusses about it all. I’m not good at being fussed over. I’m even worse at coping with being complimented so if any more people try to be nice to me the chances are that I really won’t cope and may well dissolve. And I’ve taken to dissolving in the most inconvenient of places – I’m sure the people at the church I was at on Sunday thought I was a complete weirdo for crying through half of mass. It’s just not expected outside of charismatic circles.

I suppose I should be glad that lots of people feel the need to tell me that I’m wonderful and will be missed, but how on earth are you meant to react?

‘Yes, I’m wonderful – things will do downhill when I’m gone, just you wait and see?’

I want one of these

When I'm a grown up can I have one of these please?

lull flowering lamp

Pretty please?

Crash, Boom, Thud

I have a reputation for breaking things in the office. It used to be printers, these days it’s normally paper stuff and it’s usually because I’ve spilt something all over my desk. So when I haven’t broken anything in a while comments are made. A colleague just noticed my phone and was impressed that it still looked like it was in one piece, particularly given that I’ve had the same handset for over a year now. I accepted the compliment and mentioned that it was probably because I’d broken my watch clasp instead. I then showed him the defective clasp.

It’s now mended.

He went for the classic engineering approach with a twist. The twist being that instead of hitting it with a hammer he used a stapler.

Apparently it’s the most job satisfaction he’s had in days.

Carried away

Sometimes I get carried away with cleaning things. I find it quite satisfying to get things to a state where you can see an improvement. This explains why I bleached the bin last night instead of going to the gym. Well, it partly explains it anyway.

Our landlord seems to have similar issues. Since we told them we were moving out they’ve been sorting out the garden of the house. A tree fell down in the floods which they sorted out last week. Last night I got home to discover that they’d felled another three trees. I can’t help but think that they’ve got a little carried away. Particularly given that one of the trees was a rather nice one. No idea what species it was but the leaves were a pretty maroon colour that contrasted nicely against the green backdrop of the weeping willow behind it making for variety of colours. Apparently the landlord isn’t that artistic when it comes to trees.

More amusing though was the squirrel. The squirrel is the reason I was late into the office this morning as I got sidetracked watching a it wandering around the tree stump. It looked just like it was looking for something but couldn’t quite work out what was wrong. Much the same look as I’ve perfected in the mornings.

Now I just need to work out how to get carried away with presentation writing or tender analysis. Hmmm. This might need a little more effort. Maybe I’ll just go wash my mug.

Hmmmm

I just got to my desk to find a note saying 'Please Resign'.

This is a lot more obvious than normal, and I'm not sure what I've done to upset them this time.

Of course it might just mean that they want me to re-sign the updated drawings - but that's not actually what's been written...

And finally the car is all mended

The trim which fell off the resprayed doors is now restuck. They told me not to wash the car for 24 hours to ensure that it stays stuck.

It's a sacrifice but I'll try. And just when it was due it's annual wash too.

So how is it that one of my eyes looks tired and the other one doesn’t? How does that make any sense? Particularly given the amount of sleep I’ve had this weekend. Hrumph.

I’m sorry, I’m not drinking due to the police incident. Yes, they asked me to leave my car there, hopefully I can collect it later.

I can play that up nicely until you realise that I have no idea what the police incident was, the car park exit was closed hence the car still being parked in the car park, and that all things considered it wasn’t that inconvenient, I just didn’t have a chance to get changed properly for the meal as it had taken me 1.25 hours to go down two floors of the car park. I listened to a lot of the book of Genesis on my audio Bible though so it’s not lost time.

I made it to J’s meal eventually – her second hen night. There were about 10 if us, and it didn’t take long for me to realise that a lot more people knew of me than I knew them

Oh so you’re Mary… I work with your mum…

Oh, yes, Mary knows him from Church…

Oh you’re Mary – you used to play with my daughter when you were 10, you have changed…

There are times when it’s good to still live in the community you grew up in, and times when it’s not. I’ll let you decide which is which.

Still, it made conversation easier over the food. As ever, when they all wandered off towards a bar I panicked and went home. Not quite sure why I like pubs so much but can’t handle bars… Although at the moment it’s more just not handling large groups of people in noisy places. Which, conveniently, is also my current excuse for not going to the gym... :-)

Happiness Survey

Oh no! I'm in a happiness dip.

Women were also happy in their late-teens and early 20s - scoring 7.55 - although they dipped to 7.1 between the ages of 25-34.

I figure this means that I need cheering up, so please feel free to send me chocolate, flowers, hugs etc... :-D

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6947481.stm

How do you describe people?

Yesterday I was back at my old university halls in Birmingham, UH, where we scattered some of Kev’s ashes in the garden. A couple of people spoke about him and H was able to come up with a few memories of Kev in UH that reminded that rest of us who’d lived with him of some happy, albeit random, times. Which sums up UH nicely too – happy but random. She picked out things that the rest of us had forgotten. It’s strange the things that you remember about people and the different things that people remember as important, but those anecdotes only add to the memories of Kev that I have, they don’t work as a whole description of the man.

Afterwards I went for a chat with L, after we’d wandered round UH trying to remember where the bar used to be and swapping memories of UH. She then asked me to describe my other half, and I was stumped. I couldn’t find a way to describe him that even began to cover it or that would make any sense to anyone other than me.

So how do you describe someone so that it actually reflects that person and that makes them sound as interesting to other people as they are to you? Or do you just have to resort to anecdotes, and hope that they’ll make sense if they ever actually meet the person you’re describing?

I have my car back

My car was recently backed into by a van. This was rather inconvenient, not to mention a bit of a surprise. Thankfully the garage to whom the van belonged took responsibility and have sorted out the mess.

They took my car away for just over a week and mended the dent by replacing the door and wing on the passenger side. They also took out a dent that I'm pretty sure was nothing to do with them and sprayed the scratches on the bumper that were definitely due to a bush at Reading University.

So now It's all mended and shiny and clean. All good.

Now I have to learn to not reverse in first gear.

It seems to worry people as I zoom towards things instead of safely reversing away from them. Not least the people at the garage last night as they watched in panic at the attempt I made to leave their forecourt.

Worship Style

I've found a quiz that helps you to determine your worship style. Not because this is especially important, but because it might make you think a bit about worship and how you prefer to do it.

I found it through the Rejesus blog, but the direct link is here

Apparently I prefer to worship God by caring for others, which, to be fair, does fit with everything else in my life, so it's probably about right. Not sure about the things that come second and third as they both imply I'd prefer silent meditation and worship, which doesn't entirely sit right with my normal preferences.

It seems to be more of a character assessment than a worship style assessment, but maybe that's the point - worship is part of everyday things after all :-)

Thought provoking at the least.

Caregiver - Loving God by Loving Others:

Caregivers serve God by serving others. They often claim to see Christ in the poor and needy, and their faith is built up by interacting with other people. Caring for others recharges a caregiver's batteries.

Contemplative - Loving God through Adoration:
These Christians seek to love God with the purest, deepest, and brightest love imaginable. They want nothing more than some privacy and quiet to gaze upon the face of their heavenly Lover and give all of themselves to God.

Ascetic - Loving God in Solitude and Simplicity:
Ascetics want nothing more than to be left alone in prayer. Let there be nothing to distract them--no pictures, no loud music--and leave them alone to pray in silence and simplicity.


link

Dead flies.

On Thursday I went to see a friend in Oxford. She’s finally re-entered the world of sociable people, and as a result I didn’t have to be sympathetic about dead flies at all. This is good, because I’ve never really found the right words to express my true feelings on that matter. She did make me look at her thesis, and I proved, again, that I just don’t have the right vocabulary for the topic. But what a lovely front cover the document has. Beautiful.

We spent most of the day telling each other how wonderful our other halves are, and occasionally even also listening to each other. We may also have been shopping.

Incidentally, apparently Alice’s new bloke reads this blog occasionally. So I’d like to express my condolences on two points:
1. The content of this blog is hardly intellectual or, for the most part, intelligent.
2. Just general condolences/sympathies for coping with Alice. There were lots of reasons for that which were evident Thursday, but just now I can’t remember what any of them are. The principle still stands though.

Still, it was good to catch up with Alice. It also turns out that she is moving in the opposite direction to me. Just when we’d managed to live within shouting distance for a while. I’ve decided to take it personally.

Oh yes, the Birmingham move is now happening, which probably means that I need to get organised - you know, find somewhere to live, sort out all my junk (bet you didn’t know I had a Chinese boat).

Cardboard bridge.

I have a new aim in life. Amoungst the other life aims I now want to build a bridge out of toilet rolls.

It is possible.... link

Mousetrap for water engineers

What do you mean you don't know what mousetrap is? I think Gran still has the version we used to play. Hmmm. I think I need to head over to Gran's to check :-)

Either way, how cool is this? I want one!
link


link now corrected!