Catholic bishops have prettier dresses than Anglican ones.

I can’t help but think that there might have been more that I should have got out of the service last night ;-)

It was the Commissioning service for Regenerate which is a mission into Reading, where all churches, all denominations, are involved. We’re going to run a summer barbeque for our neighbours as a thank you for the way they put up with us parking in front of all their houses and causing parking chaos once a week.

What amused me about the service was spotting the stereotypes that churches, particularly ministers slot into. The Catholic priests all looked smart in their still black suits. They all gave the impression of having washed behind their ears especially for the occasion and were hunting in packs. The Anglicans and Baptists however – I don’t think I’ve ever seen beards like them in the Catholic Church, and on the most part a black suit really meant a dodgy grey, and they were to be found wandering about by themselves looking a little lost and chatting to anyone they found. All a bit bizaare.

People from various churches were harder to identify. Apart from the Salvation Army. The Uniform really does give them away…

Motivation

Motivation seems to be sadly lacking at the moment. Instead of doing what I'm meant to do I end up with all sorts of other things done. None of which are that exciting.

Like posting meaningless blog entries instead of writing up my CPD (Continuous professional development). Why is it so hard to write up stuff that I know like the back of my hand?

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Dreams

I don’t normally remember my dreams. This makes last night all the more random.

I had a nightmare. About an RC drawing.

An RC drawing is a engineering drawing showing the metal bars that are placed within concrete structures to give them tensile strength - on it’s own concrete isn’t very good, but with reinforcement it rocks.

So it’s a weird thing to dream about. Not least, because producing those drawings isn’t my job.

I’ve been trying to remember the details. It seemed to be something to do with people dying because they couldn’t find the drawing. And for some reason, I knew where it was but I couldn’t find the words or communicate with anyone.

And no, work isn’t stressing me out at all at the moment, why do you ask? ;-)

Virus

There is a virus on the network somewhere in the global company. It hasn’t caused any problems in the UK at all. However, IT’s attempts to upgrade the software have so far cost thousands in terms of lost manhours within the UK. Apparently it’s harder than I thought to upgrade virus protection.

Grrrrrrrr.

Currently I’d rather have the virus. At least I'd know where I stood and could officially not do any work.

Bags.

Sometimes I think I work for a global American business. Occasionally I am reminded that actually it’s a British engineering company. Today is one of those days.

Working in the environment sector we’re always keen to look like we actually are sustainable and environmentally friendly. Putting our money where out mouth is.

So today we all got given our very own shopping bag.

It’s not bad actually – blue canvas with the company logo on the side. The idea is that we can stop using plastic bags so much. It’s already been determined that the bags will make pretty good wine bottle carriers.

But somehow personal shopping bags seems more British than American. Is that stereotyping?


*I’ve just realised that I have referred to the business using the words ‘us’, ‘our’ and ‘we’ – It’s official, I’m a company girl. But I still have no intention of learning to play golf.

Kevin Lilley RIP

Kevin was in the same hall as me in my first year at uni. He was one of the same crowd as me, but I've not really seen him much since graduation. It's weird to think that he isn't about anymore, but good to know that he benefited from the charity set up in memory of another friend, Bryony, from the same group of friends and hall of residence, who also died of cancer.

Skittles. A very English game. And a slightly random one.

It’s good fun though – and I’m not just saying that because I won a pack of biscuits. The fact that I wasn’t drinking may have helped, that and the fact that I was hitting the skittles rather than those people at the far end of the alley. Rubber balls may be quieter than wooden ones, but wooden ones do have the advantage of not bouncing.

But it’s ok, of all the places to risk injury in a room full of 30 odd first aiders is surely a good place to do it….

And when I say odd, I really mean it.

USB gadgets

For Christmas (or was it for birthday ?) my brother gave me a USB powered heated coaster. The idea is that you plug it into your PC and it heats up. Any mug you place on it is therefore kept warm and you never have that horrible mouthful of cold coffee.

Great so far.

It may be a little gadgety – but hey, I’m an engineer. I’m not as gadget orientated as say, the electrical or mechanical guys, but they’re still fun.

It’s currently on my desk next to my USB powered fan, my mobile phone holder, my helicopter shaped pencil sharpener (when you press the tail the rotors spin round - and all supporting the Air Ambulance!)

Now the only problem with the USB powered coaster is that it doesn’t actually keep my coffee warm. A significant oversight. Apparently it only works if you have a steel mug. Now, the only time I would consider using a steel mug would be when camping. And, despite appearances, I don’t actually live in the office.

So I’m trying to work out how to set up the heating element of the coaster with the USB fan so that I have a sort of portable heater.

Problem is that since we ‘engineered’ the fan blades for grater efficiency (post it notes attached to each blade to provide a greater surface area) it now tends to fly across the desk when you switch it on unless you’ve selotaped it down first.

The trials of work. I don’t know how I cope...

Questionnaire

1.How old will you be in five years? From now? 31. But I feel the question needs more clarrification.

2. Who did you spend at least two hours with today? My colleagues, the Net Leaders and anyone else who makes it to the pub

3. How tall are you? 5'7"

4. What do you look forward to most in the next six weeks? Sleeping more?

5. What's the last movie you saw? The Holiday.

6. Who was the last person you called? Dad, to let him know what I’d volunteered him for in his absense.

7. Who was the last person to call you? A supplier for work

8. What was the last text message you received? ‘There is also chocolate’

9. Who was the last person to leave you a voicemail? no idea.

10. Do you prefer to call or text? Depends on what it is for. Normally text.

11. What were you doing at two last night? Sleeping

12. Are your parents married/separated/divorced? Married

13. When was the last time you saw your mom? Last Night for food

14. What time did you wake up today? 6am.

15. What are you wearing right now? Brown trousers, brown and blue stripey jumper, white shirt, brown boots.

16. What is your favorite christmas song? That Elton John one.

17. Where is your favorite place to be? I’ve been told before that just saying ‘bed’ to that one gives the wrong impression.

18. Where is your least favorite place to be? Anywhere where I have to talk into a mic.

19. Where would you go if you could go anywhere? other than the answer to no. 17???

20. Where do you think you'll be in 10 years? Still in Reading, a Chartered Engineer and, hopefully, married with kids

21. Do you tan or burn? Burn.

22. What did you fear was going to get you as a child? Using the telephone.

23. What was the last thing that really made you laugh? Trying to get a cork out of a corkscrew. Using another corkscrew and then a socket set. I’d explain more, but you mostly needed to be there.

24. How many TVs do you have in your house? Currently 3. All in the living room. 2 of them even work.

25. How big is your bed? Double.

26. Do you have a laptop or desktop computer? Desktop

27. Do you sleep with or without clothes on? I wear PJs.

28. What color are your sheets? Orange

29. How many pillows do you sleep with? Two

30. What is your favorite season? Spring.

31. What do you like about fall? Colours

32. What do you like about winter? It being acceptable to go to bed early.

33. What do you like about the summer? Daylight!

34. What do you like about spring? Smells.

35. How many states have you lived in? one. New England.

36. What cities/towns have you lived in? Reading, Boston, Wokingham, Birmingham

37. Do you prefer shoes, socks, or bare feet? Socks

38. Are you a social person? Ish. Depends on how much sleep I’ve had.

39.What was the last thing you ate? Porridge with golden syrup.

40. <---- where'd it go!?

41. What is your favorite ice cream? Have to be in the right mood for ice cream – no particular favourite. Just not cherry.

42. What is your favorite dessert? Chocolate.

43. What is your favorite kind of soup? Depends on the soup. Turkey soup was good but I also like Potato and Leek

44. What kind of jelly do you like on your PB&J sandwich? Probably Strawberry.

45. Do you like Chinese food? Yes. Mmmmmmmm.

46. Do you like coffee? This is a trick question? YES!

47. How many glasses of water a day do you drink? Depends. 2 or 3.

48. What do you drink in the morning? Water at home then coffee at work.

49. Do you sleep on a certain side of the bed? I have no idea. I’m asleep.

50. Do you know how to play poker? No, never really needed to learn,

51. Do you like to cuddle? Yes :-)

52. Have you ever been to Canada? No

53. Do you have an addictive personality? Not particualrly.

54. Do you eat out or at home more often? At home

55. Do you know anyone with the same birthday as you? Yes, at least two other people in my office. We have to make sure we don’t all bring cakes on the same day.

56. Do you want kids? Yes

57. Do you speak any other languages? Complete rambling nonsense. And some french.

58. Have you ever gotten stitches? No

59. Have you ever ridden in an ambulance? Yes – but only volunteer ones.

60. Do you prefer an ocean or a pool? Pool

61. Do you prefer a window seat or an aisle seats? Window

62. Do you know how to drive stick? Does that mean manual? If so, yes.

63. What is your favorite thing to spend money on? Books.

64. Do you wear any jewelry? Yes. A necklace and earrings.

65. What is your favorite TV show? Firefly or Doctor Who.

66. Can you roll your tongue? into what?

67. Who is the funniest person you know? I get the giggles with my housemate a lot – does that count?

68. Do you sleep with stuffed animals? sometimes. Mostly they sit on the shelf these days.

69. What is the main ring tone on your phone? Ringing.

70. Do you still have clothes from when you were little? No

71. Closest red thing to you? Coffee mug.

72. Do you turn off the water while you brush your teeth? Yes

73. Do you sleep with your closet doors open or closed? Closed

74. Would you rather be attacked by a big bear or a swarm of bees? neither?

75. Do you flirt a lot? I don’t know. Don’t think I do these days.

76. What do you dip a chicken nugget in? nothing

77. What is your favorite food? Chcolate.

78. Can you change the oil on a car? No

79. Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket? Yes.

80. Have you ever run out of gas? No

81. What is your usual bedtime? I aim for 2200.

82. What was the last book you read? Fiction: Winter in Madrid, Non Fiction: God’s Big Picture.

83. Do you read the newspaper? The Online versions of several.

84. Do you have any magazines? I get my professional one – the NCE.

85. Do you watch soap operas? Hollyoaks. Sadly.

86. Do you dance in the car? no

87. What radio station did you last listen to? Radio 2

88. Who is in the picture frame closest to you? I’m at work, I don’t have any pictures here.

89. What was the last note you scribbled on a piece of paper? Some actions from a committee meeting

90. What is your favorite candle scent? no real preference

91. What is your favorite board game? Again, no real preference. I like jigsaws and they’re on a board. Or maybe backgammon.

92. When was the last time you attended church? Last Sunday.

93. Who was your favorite teacher in high school? one of my maths teachers.

94. What is the longest you have ever camped out in a tent? Two weeks.

95. Who was the last person to do something extra special for you? Dunno. Probably Alice who organised some gig tickets for BNL and Tim Minchen.

The voices in my head...

OK, so how do I stop doing things? I couldn't sleep last night because all the things going round and round in my head were getting too loud. I've been told recently that I'm doing too much, but I don't quite know how to stop...

• Do I stop the voluntary society - despite believing in their principles, and the difference we make to the world?
• Do I stop the church committee - despite believing that there is important work to be done and things that need to happen in our church to glorify God?
• Do I stop the Youth Work - despite believing that young people need places to ask the questions that I never found anywhere to ask?
• Do I stop the paid work - despite needing the money?

Problem is something needs to give because stopping the sleep just isn't working! The alarm going this morning wasn't so bad as it could have been - not as bad as yesterday anyway.

However, lack of sleep and lots of things requiring conflicting emotional responses have meant that whilst I'm technically at work, and have been for 35 minutes, I haven't quite managed to actually do anything useful yet.

Ho hum. Maybe decaf coffee was a mistake...

Something profound.

Ok, so I haven't posted for ages, so I thought I'd break the silence with something profound...

Our cinema has new seats!!!!!!

They're big, and they're comfy! A whole new cinema going experience!

Went to the cinema and saw 'The Holiday' which is a cheesey rom-com. I quite enjoyed it, but then I really like rom-coms. You should see my DVD collection. Only problem with watching films where beautiful people get together against the odds and live happily ever after is that I come home and know that I'm not living that dream.

Which explains why I'm online and have a beer in hand. However, I don't have back ache from bad seats either.

Sick to the stomach

I woke up this morning and felt a bit sick, but it's ok I thought. It's just a morning thing. I'll just put the radio on to check the cricket score.

Decided after much deliberation that work wouldn't appreciate an illness form stating "Sick to stomach due to Ashes score"

Grumble grumble grumble we invented the game grumble

I get paid for this :-)

For the last few days I've had scale cut outs all over my desk and have been trying them in various configurations in order to get the whole thing to fit into the space available. There's something rather satisfying about the result. Other people are less enthusiastic.

In other news we have a church Christmas social coming up. Panic, toys out of pram and chaos. I don't understand why it's so complicated. Maybe I should have just volunteered for the organising group from the start.

And have I mentioned that young people are CRAZY? Almost, but not quite, as crazy as the leaders.

Long time no post

I got asked yesterday what exciting things I've been doing recently.

I'm not sure I've done anything exciting and I can't decide if that's good or bad -I do things because I like doing them, and some things I do because God tells me to do them whether I like it or not. But they're not exciting things. They're just every day things. Aren't they? Should I be excited about them? They never seem to sound exciting when I try and talk about them!

I'm getting paranoid!

The only thing I could think of in response to the question was 'I managed to make my finger bleed on a polystryrene toggle in aquafit'. Not just anyone can do that. And it supercededs my housemates injury with a mechanical pencil last week which, until now, was the most ridiculous injury we'd managed.

it may not be exciting, but it continues to be random. Ho hum. Here's hoping that I manage to work out what I'm doing sometime soon!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 2,888 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Now what's even more random about that is the statistic the site gives me. Apparently in the US 99.66% of people with the first name of 'Mary' are female. Now, by my maths that gives 0.34% of men who are called 'Mary'. With the numbers the site gives that means there are 13452 men called 'Mary' in the US.

Doesn't that seem a little odd? (or am I just prejudiced?!)

Bleugh, I want to go home. Oh, I am home.

The above are the important and wise words uttered by yours truly when I got home last night. It's fair to say that my housemate was very much amused by the statement.

However, it does sum up things at the moment- I'm not quite sure if I'm coming or going!

Went up to Brum recently and caught up with the old Cathsoc committee. It was 2000 that we were in power, although I'm not so sure power is the right word. There are many other words that seem more appropriate. It's weird seeing where we've ended up - two auditors, an engineer and a PhD student. Sounds like it should be a responsible group till you put us all in one place. Ho hum. Was good to see them all anyway.

Also met up with more people down in Reading last weekend in the pub.

When we got home we later spent an inordinate amount of time at home trying to determine how many teeth we should all have. There's something very amusing about watching people try to count their own teeth. Following some research we determined that you should have 32, including wisdoms. Which means that I do have wisdom teeth - I just never noticed them coming through. Which means I am wise and grown up. Which I'm sure you all know anyway...

Mattresses

Sarah has the most amazing blow up mattress! You plug it into the wall and it blows itself up! You just watch as it pootles away to itself and then there is a fully blown up mattress! And you just reverse the fan to deflate it. It's sooo cool! And, apparently, I'm very easily amused.

The reason for the above discovery was that I stayed over at Sarah's last night for a proper catch up. We spent a lot of time nattering about all sorts of things - jobs, houses, her wedding, how cool her engagement ring is.

We also drank a pizza and ate a bottle of wine.

Which, along with the sleep deprivation, is making today rather more effort than normal.

Toes. Like Fingers but not.*

*Quote from McChicken and THE Chicken circa 1999. (Not to mention a whole lot of the other chickens, although those two started it. They have a lot to answer for.)

I never really think about my toes. They're just random things that are normally inside shoes.

However, since slipping half way down the stairs last night and stopping only due to the supreme effort of toe against banister, I've discovered a new appreciation for the things. I'd never really considered them or how much you use them to walk.

Ho hum.

Monday morning.

So, I'm back at work. Woohoo. And it's everything I remember from before I went on leave. And yet somehow worse. Ho hum. We've been playing 'nick the network cable' all morning as IT still haven't quite managed to provide one for each desk. We're going to be in trouble if the whole desk cluster is in the office at the same time. Various options have been suggested, and there is strong competition on the issue of which person gets to stay home so that they don't need a network cable…

Having spent much of last week asleep I've now had a busy weekend and could do with some more sleep. Such is life.

Saturday went to parents and ate lots of lasagne and met some peoples the parents know from Thornbury way (although now in Oxford). Mum admitted afterwards that maybe me and the boys have calmed down slightly since we were primary school age… Given that we're now all in our twenties this is quite a statement. Maybe it's just because we don't live at home anymore…

And for the record, it's not a good idea to get the giggles with a mouth full of mouthwash. It's messy, a little painful, and all Anna's fault.

Holiday

I'm on leave!

I recommend being on leave. It's far better for one's sleeping patterns than being at work. Apparently sleeping on one's desk is frowned upon. or at least, not advised if you want to progress at all in your career. ho hum.

So I'm at 'the Shed'. This is the new name for the 'other' house down in Bristol. Apparently other men have shed's in the garden. Dad has a whole house at the other end of the motorway but it serves the same purpose.

The theory about coming to Bristol was to get some sleep, some CPD done and to relax.
Sleep - yep. Relax yep. CPD - well, I kinda wrote an essay last night. Anyone want to know about the History of the Institution of Civil Engineers? It started in a coffee house, which is basically the 1818 equivalent of a pub. And that's still where you're most likley to find a Civil Engineer...

I've upgraded blogger. Anything could happen. Please let me know if it all goes pear shaped. Hmm... a pear shaped computer. Noone has built one of those. How do I get a patent?

I just shouldn't be allowed out.

As many of you know I recently got a new phone. My new new phone will be arriving this week after I broke the screen on the old new one. I'm not sure how. I think I sat on it.

This is brilliant. old but brilliant.

YAY! Dangermouse! Woooo!

Dangermouse is coming back to TV :-)

2 hours and thirty minutes, or 150 minutes, or 9000 seconds or 9e+012 nanoseconds

That's how long it took me to get to work this morning. Thirty minutes to get to the bottom of the hill. 2 hours to go about 4 miles across handy cross roundabout.

I've named various traffic cones on the route. Please say Hello to Jack and Tom when you pass them.

I think it's the first time I've been caught up in real gridlock. Something else to cross off the list of 'things to do'.

Then when I got to work, and got myself a coffee the milk was off… Things were just improving. Then I dropped my pen into my mug of herbally infused water.

Please can we rewind and start today again?

Just for Martin...

Martin is the best example of blokeness I have ever seen.

And this is not written under duress. And I'm sure his girlfirend would agree.

He's also asked for semi-revealing photos.

This is a semi revelaing photo...

They're married!

ok, so I should have posted this sooner, but hey. On the 19th August, two of my best friends got married. To each other.


I was one of the best men. (I like to think that I was the best best man).

So yes, I was on the stag do. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

The wedding was great. I've attached some photos. We all look very grown up. It was really weird because it was a very local wedding so everyone knew everyone else. Half of us had grown up on the same estate (that's essentially how I know both Natalie and Ryan). Natalie looked beautiful - she always does, but particularly on the day.

We all drank a fair bit at the reception - although not as much as we did the ngiht before. We were playing drinking games with Ryan's Dad. I have no idea what the rules were I just drank when told to. Dave was in a far worse state than me the next morning.


I think my tankerd was empty.


Me and Charlie.

Only downside of the evening was a minor onw - I lost my bag so had to crash at Ryan's parents house that night as I coudln't get back into my parents house. I also lost my phone so if anyone has been trying to contact me recently I'm sorry. My old number will be active again tomorrow when it's ported across to a new phone and network (which actually has signal in my house!)

Cold, Not Cold, Cold, Not Cold

It's amazing what you can learn when you're out with Friends. This weekend I went to Greenbelt.

I will never be the same again. Although, with luck a hot bath ought to sort out my back. Man was not meant to camp. Perhaps Alice and I should have camped so that we weren't on slopes such that we both ended up in the same corner of the tent by morning. On the other hand, that sounds a little dull.

Greenbelt was good. I kept bumping into people that I've not seen for ages. I was working in te ticket office again so I also met lots of new people who are all completely mad. There was a beautifulo moment where some people were pretending to be automatic doors at one end of the box office, and we were checking wrist bands while salsa-ing at the other end. Punters generally looked pretty scared - but we took lots of money - more than the target by LOTS. We rock.

Got to see some good bands - YFRIDAY, Sounds of Salvation, One Nation. Some interesting talks - Timothy Radcliffe, Norman Kember
and eat some great food. Although I'm still craving salad. And vegetables.

If you've not been to Greenbelt it's well worth a look. Don't expect a life changing experience, but it's good fun. And a lot less crazy than Reading festival. Which, incidently, my brother survived.

Incidently, the title refers to a discovey that a very intelligent PhD student made in the ticket office. When the door is open - it's cold. When it's closed - it's not. When you repeat this observation over and over again people start to go crazy. Here's praying that Alice's write up is more intelligent...

BBC NEWS | Have Your Say: Have UK airport delays affected you? ...

Second comment down.

Genius.

BBC NEWS | Have Your Say: Have UK airport delays affected you? ...: "Wednesday, 16 August, 2006, 11:34 GMT 12:34 UK "

Should I be worried...?

I just opened the office door to someone from another office. He works in a different field to me - Cleanwater instead of Dirty. Yet when I introduced myself he said 'oh, I know that name... not sure why'

It could be good.

Or it could be very bad.

Either way I appear to have a name for myself.

Things I have recently learnt at work:

To reboot - to remove the computer's shoes and later replace them. The smell of sweaty computer feet apparently works in a similar fashion to smelling salts.

Also, apparently there are right and wrong responses to someone saying that their baby son has put on 2lbs in two weeks. Right - "wow, he's getting big." Wrong - "oh yes, well I can do that too…"

My kinda God....

Spot the odd one out

President of the Institution,
MD of the company,
HR director,
My business unit leader,
Another business unit leader,
Senior Technical Manager,
Future Leader, Inspirational Leadership candidate,
Technical Expert and my supervising engineer,
Me.


How did I get myself into this one? We’re all going for dinner at a posh hotel and discusing the state of the industry.

Important things not to say: "Not sure why I'm an engineer really" "well, I suppose it is an ok company" "well, you'd expect that from HR" "not that bothered about getting chartered really"

This is going to be interesting. :-s

Branded with the cross.. and a seatbelt

I went to Norwich over the weekend. It's a great city! We drove up on Saturday morning and it was beautifully sunny. It takes 3.5 hours to get there and I had the window open. So I arrived with one red arm, a red neck and chest… and a small white cross and a white line where the seatbelt sits. As I arrived at Annette's it wasn't too bad. By the time we went out Saturday night it was really very very funny. Thankfully by Sunday it had all calmed down as it wasn't actually burnt!

So what did we do on Sunday? Go to the beach. I'm still not burnt, but you can tell I've been out in the sun …

Norwich is great though. Well worth a visit. It has the most random street names I've ever seen. Upper Goat street, Lower Goat street, Golden Ball Street, Rampant Horse Street...! Seriously.

And they have the best waffle house in the entire world. Mmmmmmmmm. Could barely move afterwards but oooooooh it was good waffle.

Two people face each other across a crowded room. There is no other way to resolve this, they turn and walk away from each other - 50 paces each.

They turn

They fire

"So can you do Tuesday?"
"So can you do Thursday?"


Diaries at dawn.

Did I mention I was going to do a very long walk?

I did it! I took part in the Playtex Moonwalk on the 20th May which is a 26.2 mile walk. The walk takes place overnight and involves 14000 women and 1000 men all wearing decorated bras. I started walking at 2335 on Saturday night and finished at 0735 on Sunday. By which point it is fair to say that I hurt. Quite a lot.

However, as the photo to the left shows, at the beginning I was quite cheerful about it all.






The event was amazing, although it did take me the best part of a week to recover. My name was in the Daily Telegraph so that makes it all worth while :-s I've also raised about £800 which is a far better outcome. Thanks to all who supported me…

To prove I did it here are some photos. And no, I'm not doing it again. Nor am I running it next year.
The Team bra decorating night. Bras and Butterflies everywhere!

The team before we started, left to right, Mary, Barbara, Bethan, Janet, Judith, Helen. All in matching pink bras with lots of butterflies on them!

And we all got to the end, Left to Right, Bethan, Helen, Barbara, Janet, Mary, Judith. Note the amazing pink tent in the background - they called it Playtex city and it was the first time I've ever seen a baby pink circus tent!!

After this photo was taken we all went home where I slept for 16 hours out of 24.

More photos from the telegraph

Productivity.

Given that I am only productive in the morning OR the afternoon I believe that I should be allowed to leave the office at lunch time if I've achieved anything in the morning, as experience suggests that I won't get anythign done all afternoon.

The fact that I would quite like to listen to England drawing the cricket is nothing to do with it.

IQ tests

Got sent through a link to a IQ test. The numbers are meaningless to me, and to be honest, half the test involves spacial awareness and identifying patterns which I ought ot be able to do for work anyway, so it's a bit of a nonsense but this one comes up with a comment about you that is quite interesting.

Your unusual talent of being equally good at both mathematical and verbal skills, paired with the way you learn through experience, makes you an Inventive Inquisitor. You understand the world by "learning through living" and are able to teach others by taking them through actual experiences.

Most people search their brains for previously stored information that might help in a given situation, but you are open to an unusual amount of change and take things as they come and see things as they are.

What is interesting is that it actually sounds like me... although there is an implication that I don't search through my brain enough! :-)

(BTW I have an IQ of 127 according to this test)

I like people.

This weekend I went up to Birmingham. By train. Now, trains are great. However, the complete chaos of knowing when and how you're going to get to your destination does allow for a certain amount of unexpected excitement in a journey. And that's putting it nicely.
Got up to Brum and pottered along to the pub where I was meeting a mate for lunch. It was closed. Felt like a student all over again as I pottered around Selly Oak with a Rucksack and then sat outside the pub waiting for it to open. At this point a different mate turned in to the pub to turn the car round, enabling me to organise myself into another pub trip later in the day. Really felt like I was back at uni . Although, of course, I did more than socialise in the pub at uni (I also worked in the pub).

I organised my weekend around food, so Saturday was pub lunch with Andy, and Balti with Dave and loads of others in the evening and Sunday was roast dinner at Newman House. On each occasion it was great to socialise with people and actually chat about how things are with them. I suppose it's inevitable that it's easier to meet up with people in Brum when I have no other responsibilities or demands on my time than it is at home, but it is a little frustrating. Need to get my priorities straight.

Newman House was great too. Mass at Newman is one of those things that never fails to inspire. Maybe it's because I don't have to worry about organising anything there these days! Had an interesting sermon too, which I actually managed to remember (which is unusual for me - I just don't learn from being talked at. I take in pretty much nothing at all.). It was all about how after his conversion Paul was so enthusiastic that churches he visited desperately tries to get rid of him. It was an image that is very easy to identify with, and gave me some interesting things to ponder about being overenthusiastic and trying to do too much.

Lunch at Newman is always good for a laugh too, and the discussion over lunch pretty much sums up the gathering. We chatted about married priests, female priests, condoms, captain pugwash, apples, alcohol, cathsoc, how to cook potatoes, Bach (the profane works), abortion, how to find and use the Catholic Catechism (which was only got out once, along with the Canon Law) where the cables in the building go, and if anyone knew where the milk had gone. I really miss the kind of randomness that Newman house has always had. There aren't that many places where you can meet complete strangers along with old friends and have that kind of variety of conversation!

Michelle and Chike's Wedding

Wow. It's always great to see lots of old friends, and Michelle and Chike's wedding on Saturday was a case in point. I knew most of the guests!

Michelle looked beautiful and Chike looked handsome. A lovely couple. Halfway through the reception they disappeared and reappeared in Nigerian traditional costume and cut the cake making it a real blend of the two cultures that they combine.

I did a reading, and managed not to mess it up or trip over the altar steps, and made it through the 'till death do us part' line.

It doesn't seem real to see Shell married, but then we're all growing up now and she's definitely found her Mr Right.

And I'm still looking for that millionaire….

Grandad's funeral

Grandad's funeral was on Friday. It was a really nice service and a beautiful church. Mum used quotes from here in the eulogy which took me by surprise, but apparently the image of Grandad with a glass of wine and the New Scientist was one that most of the congregation could relate to.

But despite the funeral being a time to say goodbye to Grandad it seemed to me to be more about the rest of us. It was far more to do with recognising a landmark in our lives and understanding that things had changed for us in a way that could not be reversed. Life has changed, but then, it always does.

It served as a marker to say 'what am I doing and why am I doing it?'
To which the only answer can be 'ummm….?'

Grandad's obituary is here

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.

I want...

I NEED one of these

oh, and one of those too...

Teabags.

Teabags come in individual packets. What are the chances of managing to tear the teabag in half as well as the packet? Grrr.

Fortune Cookies.

Last night we went to a noodle bar as part of the leaving drinks for a colleague. At the end of the meal you get a fortune cookie. Everyone else got nice little random comments. I got told to work harder. If it wasn’t for the fact that I had a pretty good performance review I’d suspect my managers of fixing the cookies…

Which Firefly/Serenity character are you?

You scored as Simon Tam. The Doctor. You have a gift for healing that goes beyond education. You took an oath to do no harm, even when your patients have tried to kill you. You are out of place where you are, being used to refined society. However, if you take that stick out of your arse you should be fine. Simon Tam 81% Kaylee (Kaywinnet Lee) Frye 75% Shepherd Derrial Book 69% River Tam 63% Capt. Mal Reynolds 63% The Operative 56% Zoe Alleyne Washburne 50% Inara Serra 50% Hoban 'Wash' Washburne 50% Jayne Cobb 13% Which Serenity character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

I'm kind of glad I'm not much like Jayne to be honest...

Update

ok. so I've not updated in a while. I've not been able to think of anything that really seems that interesting to report to the whole world. I've been to the cinema, done red cross, been to YouthNet... Lots of stuff that I've enjoyed doing but somehow nothing that is that exciting to write about.

I seem to be trying to do so many things at once at the moment, and they’re all so important. But I’m spending so much time trying to balance them all I just don’t seem to have time to get my priorities straight. What is most important; Work, Red Cross, YouthNet, Church? Which sets of friends do I see? Why can’t it just be simple?

But if it was simple then I’d complain that I was bored.

I guess the problem is that I just don’t seem to have time to listen . Every time I try something comes up. God tells me to spend time with him and I try but have you ever tried praying about what you should be doing whilst in the midst of it? It absolutely does not work - there’s just no time to listen. Although having said that he is showing me more and more of the beauty of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eucharist at the moment which can only be a good thing. That helps me to at least stay more or less grounded.

It’s just hard to be happy being grounded in life when you really just want to fly.

It's a Death Melon!

There just isn't anything to say. Go take a look at this video clip

Cartoon

This one came from my Dad. I like it. :-)

Well that's that for another year

Once again I appear to have survived the excesses of Christmas and am back at work (And I'm very pleased to be here. Honest.).

Where is the full stop meant to go when using brackets? The above looks very wrong.

I spent much of my two week break catching up with people, eating chocolate and occasionally even exercising. Unfortunately the ratio between chocolate eating and exercise was a tad unbalanced. This means that I'm going to have to do some more of this exercise thing for a good while to come.

So do I have and new years resolutions? No. I'm too lazy to come up with any. I'd never stick to them anyway.

Here is an interesting article on the BBC. For all those who have ever wondered how wet you get in the rain. An ever important query.

Christmas!

Christmas; A time for renewal, rebirth and celebrating the way in which God enters our lives in the least threatening ways that he can, as a baby. Once he's in there he starts turning everything side down. In his ministry he waited 30 odd years. He's started early on me - I'm only 25.

It's sometimes difficult to picture God as the helpless baby who just needs to be loved and cherished. All to often he's the man I want answers from. Generally not the answers that he gives me though. Ho hum. Such is life.

This week has been great. I've chatted to people, slept and generally unwound. Maybe that's why today has been so hard. Visiting elderly Grandparents is difficult; I know that people get old but it's still hard to watch. It was hard with Great-Grandma and I remember thinking then that it was a scene I was going to have to watch over and over again. One day it'll be my parents. That's something I've got years and years to try and prepare myself for.

It seems to me that it's all connected to Christmas but I can't quite work out how. Maybe the way in which they need to be protected and loved until God's timing is complete.

And now on a less serious level; Alice claims she's getting here tomorrow by 4. It's here in writing as evidence. Mainly because I don't believe a word of it... :-)

BLUE!

The world is a very odd place without the colour blue. Everything looks red and green. Most bizarre. You don't realise how much you miss it until it's back.

Our TV feed did odd things last night, meaning we had no blue colour. Watching 'Strictly Come Dancing' with no blue is a tad random. After all, half the fun is commenting on the dresses...

However what was more weird, and still on the same theme of Blue, is that watching William Hague this morning on Sunday am he sounded sensible and normal. The conservatives seem to be sounding sensible. Not that sensible but more so than in the past. Scary stuff.

Oh deer

So does anyone know how much it costs to replace the front headlight (drivers side) and plastic radiator bit on a polo?

A deer decided to say hello to my car this morning.
It will no longer being saying hello to anyone else.

And I’ll calm down soon too.

Cars, People and smoke.

On Friday I sorted out the tail light on the car. Simple. Open Manual. Yes, that looks pretty simple so I bought a bulb.

Now I want you to imagine something. Imagine me. Sitting in the boot of my car (with legs dangling) holding up the parcel shelf with my head, trying to get the lighting unit out of the slot so that I can replace the bulb. Now imagine that I’m in halfords car park in Selly Oak.

It’s a miracle I wasn’t arrested!

***************************************************************************

The rest of the weekend was less eventful. Saw zillions of people and nattered to a few more. It’s nice to get up to Brum once in a while. On the way back down I stopped at Mike/Mic/Michael’s (Can’t remember which spelling to use!) for lunch and we went to the nicest pub and ate really nice pizza. Mmmmmm. If I could remember what’s it called I’d tell you all to go there. Due to the fog I stopped in Oxford as well to break up the journey further and see Alice. She fed me muffins. So by the time I got home I couodn’t be bothered to cook so I had beer. Beer counts as food right?

All in all a really nice, relaxed weekend.

***************************************************************************

Followed by the commute from hell this morning. Yes, it’s a big fire. No that’s not smoke from it. So many accidents today; I swear people are looking at clouds wondering if it’s smoke and driving into each other. Grrr.

Well that was fun.

Useful meeting followed by a rather nice meal, some rather expensive red wine (which we discovered this morning not only tastes nice but you don’t get hangovers) and a few beers in the Walkabout afterwards.

As the only woman there I was a little apprehensive about going drinking with 15 men, but it did mean that they could remember my name, if only by process of elimination. "oh you must be Mary…" And to be fair, they did decide not to go into the table dancing club. It was at that point that someone said in surprise "You can be very assertive can’t you". Most of the people who read this blog may well have realised that one already. Although the word commonly used is ‘stubborn’.

For much of the meal the construction end of the team tried to headhunt me for site experience. My lead design engineer was trying to bribe me to stay put. I’ve explained I only take bribery in the form of money, but he did insist on trying by just refilling my glass. Although on the plus side, he did claim that if I found the bonus scheme stuff filled it in and told him who to send it to then he might do it. Trying to decide if I’m really that cheeky. And if such things should be taken as meant after a few too many glasses of wine.

Weird thing about drinking with colleagues. Even at the end of the evening we were comparing drinking beer to the flow control devices we’re going to be using on site. There’s something very wrong about that.

And I wish I could remember how the conversation at kicking out time went that moved from me not wanting another beer, to a closed gate flow control valve to me probably not really being menopausal yet.

Looking back...

Ferijen has put together an interesting list of what she’s been doing over the last few years.

I considered doing something of the same. It’s a little scary though. Do I really want to re-examine all the things that have made me who I am? After all, I spend a fair amount of time trying very hard not to do that.

So I guess it’s good for me. So here goes. A potted history of some of the things that make me me.

*********************************************************************************

This time 10 years ago I was year 10 I think. GCSE year 1. Reasonably happy and trying to work out who I was. I’m still trying to work that one out.


This time 8 years ago I’d discovered drink. On and was overworking on 4 A levels. One of which I later dropped when school friends reminded me that living on coffee and proplus was bad. I’ve come so far….


This time 5 years ago I was in second year uni. I was beginning to understand what it meant to be chair of Cathsoc and looking forward to passing on the mantle because I’d had enough and Alice had had to support me a lot through the year. Graham once told me off for describing the vice-chair’s role as ‘a shoulder for the chair to cry on’. Perhaps it wasn’t the best role description ever; certainly not for advertising purposes. I was living with the Chickens who are still wonderful people and friends although I’m not sure that I really miss the physical nature of the house. Particularly those slugs on the carpet.


This time 4 years ago I was going downhill with depression. By this point it was obvious to some people but not others. I was eventually diagnosed in January after failing a few exams. Not a good time. And not a time I can remember a lot of at the moment to be honest. However all in all I seem to be stable now so hey, it does improve. Well, Stable in the sense of ‘if you give me chocolate it’s all fine’ ;-) Can't believe it was 4 years ago! Time flies!


So, this time last year, I’d been working for a year and a bit. I’d started working on a suite of work that I’m still working on and had come across the beautiful software that still causes me much grief today. I’d also just met some really nice people in the office who I hadn’t met before and who I now value as very good friends to me. I also began the weekly task of talking several of them out of leaving the company because’ it’s not that bad’. Thus earning my title of counsellor. The company still hasn’t provided training for that. And I’m still better at telling other people why to stay and what to do than telling myself.

Outside of work I was wondering what to do with the newly developed spare time I’d been given by not living on the M40. Today I’m not sure what I did with it. I was, as I still am, living with H, H and A. I think I was coping.


And now… I’m doing too much, not sleeping enough, and generally not quite getting the work/life/God balance anywhere near right. Life has gone mad but is generally calming down. And my manager just signed my leave form. Oh yes.

Life is good. I just don’t give myself enough time to appreciate it.

Company wide Emails.

Every now and again an email comes out to the whole UK company. It is generally treated as it deserves. Below is today’s example. To clarify it went out to 1500 people this afternoon. And doesn't have a whole lot to do with the business. I've left the grammer alone.

EMAIL 1

Dear All,

I am currently considering to buy a flueless gas fire for a living room. The chimney breast and flue having been removed by the previous owner of the house.

I would be interested to hear comments from anyone who has such a fire, or knows anyone with one.

I have doubts about possible problems with condensation.

EMAIL 2

you could leave a window open

or buy another house with a chimney - that's what I done.

Life is so complicated.

F9 to refresh my email
F5 to refresh explorer and get up to the moment cricket scores.

F5 in my email clears all my data and asks me for a password. Which I have done about a million times this morning.

And after all that it’s a draw.

Oxford.

I went to see my friend Alice this weekend.

I arrived in Oxford a mere two hours later than I'd originally intended due to sleeping in (which was probably good for me. I know this really)

Alice suggested we walked down the river to a nice pub. Now this really is a plan that I can't fault. We weren't really expecting the walk to be a beautiful as it was. And then at the pub I learnt how to use the camera on my phone. Downloading the photos was another matter entirely. I bluetoothed them to Alice's Mac as my home PC is too antiquated to let me install the phone connection software onto. I suspect this means that I NEED a new PC so we spent a happy half hour later that evening comparing laptops on the web.

But anyway, the pub was gorgeous. I remember being there years ago with my grandparents. You might think that this weekend with its freezing temperatures is a little too cold to be sitting outside. Let me tell you that with a good glass of mulled wine (or maybe two) that is really not the case.

So here are some pictures of the walk. As we walked back the fog was rolling in beneath a lovely sunset. Would have been quite romantic if Alice hadn't developed an evil cackle laugh half way home. ah well.

I can't help it, I spent the time Alice was at the bar working out the discontinuity losses of this. I am VERY VERY sad. For the non-engineer that's the energy loss factors of the water)

oh look, I've learnt how to do panoramic photos. This is the Trout pub in Oxford. A really nice pub.

The view from the path we took.

There be dragons.. err.. I mean ducks. Ducks can be quite dragon like though.

Cows in the mist. According to Alice this is far preferable to cows on the footpath as we'd previously encountered. Apparently I didn't help with my comment "ooh, look, small cows". I am informed that they were enormous and scary. Maybe the cows are the dragons.


We got back to Alice's and watched CSI, drank beer, and Alice cooked the most amazing food. Mmmm. She is such a good cook. I can't remember the name of the dish but it was a typical Malaysian breakfast dish. A little too spicy and complex for breakfast I think, but that's just my opinion. When I was over there we did have curry and that early morning too. Guess it's the culture difference thing.

But anyway, the food: noodles, with chicken bits, egg, beansprouts, and seafood (prawns, muscles and squid) in a soup of chilli and stuff. Absolutely great. Apparently Alice is happy to feed me weird food as she knows I'll give it a try. This is good. All I need to do now is learn how to cook so that I can return the favour when she comes over here. It's my new aim. Eating and cooking properly (as in preparing interesting dishes, and enjoying eating them) How hard can it be..?

After dinner we went to a 'bop' at one of the colleges because 'someone' was DJing there and Alice had us on the guest list. I've remembered why college parties are things you stop doing. If you want to dance to M C Hammer in no space at all and spend half the night queuing for drinks then it's great. Actually I did have fun even though I made Alice go home early. I just can't cope with staying out till 2am. I'm getting old.

The journey home is was beset by a question. To summarise the answer which I repeated often in the half hour walk; 'Yes, he seemed to like you. No I couldn't see his face; you were in the way' (That should suitably embarrass Alice.)

Sunday morning involved getting up, having a full fry up (mmm) and pottering along to the Oxford Chaplaincy for mass. Didn't really know what to expect as Oxford seems to be full of quite high churches. The mass was really good though. Perhaps a little too much incense, but to be fair to them they were in a big hall with a high ceiling so it wasn't too bad. There was a really nice feel to the mass and the preacher had some interesting things to say. The bit that caught my attention was the phrase 'The kingdom can be found in the heart of a devout believer'. That's not the whole statement, but it's an image I like. The whole talk was about the way in which the kingdom is proclaimed and visualised today, in 2005. I'd expected to be blinded by Academics. Instead, I was challenged to think, and actually spend a little more time being aware of the religious politics type things. If I'm not careful I'm going to have to subscribe to the tablet. Maybe I should do that anyway. Although, it's a little heavy

So anyway, on the way back from mass we accidentally went shopping. But I need NEED clothes so that's all right.

All in all a great weekend. I should do relaxing stuff more often.

This is painfully true.

Sometimes you get a forward that is just too true. My thanks to Jeremy for this one.

You know you have been in the Red Cross for too long when...

• You've put more into the training night tea kitty than you have into your pension.
• You no longer watch sporting events to see the scores but to see how the medical crews handle the accidents.
• You refer to motorcyclists as "organ donors".
• Your Hi-Viz is no longer Day-Glo yellow but faded in the sun to dishwater white.
• You stop looking at clothing for fashion, and look at it for function and durability.
• Reflective clothing patches become a searched-for fashion plus.
• Your Christmas wish list only includes items from Britcross, SP and Laerdal catalogues.
• You have a pet name for your defib.
• Your spouse/partner has his/her hands on you but it's to practice body checks, not passion.
• Matters of the heart refer to CPR and not romance.
• You put your shoes on as soon as your home phone rings.
• You refer to "Blues & Twos", "999" and "Casualty" as "educational television".
• Your greatest fear in life involves a pregnant woman shouting; "IT'S COMING!"

You know you have been on duty for too long when...

• You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says, "it's really quiet".
• Your idea of a great meal is one that's warm.
• You've been thinking up ways to convert a wheelchair into a dune buggy.
• You get very, very scared when a child is "too" quiet.
• You are convinced that the amount of complaining by a patient is inversely proportional to how sick they are.
• You've ever said (to anyone) "so, did you find the finger?"
• You've ever wanted to put a notice in the First Aid post saying: "If you are moody, irritable or just plain rude, there will be a £10 surcharge for putting up with you".
• You automatically multiply by two the answer to the question "how many drinks did you have today?"
• You automatically multiply by three the answer to the question "how many cigarettes did you have today?"
• Your own dog won't let you into the family house because it no longer recognises you.
• You won't let your own dog into the family house because you no longer recognise it.
• You are the only one at the dinner table NOT allowed to talk about your day.
• Your greatest fear in life involves a pregnant woman shouting, "IT'S COMING!"

The next question you should be asking is 'so why do you do Red Cross then?'
That's a good question.
Why do I do Red Cross..? ;-)

Must be something to do with the people involved, helping people, and working for an organisation that believes in Humanity, Impartiality, Neutrality, Independence, Voluntary service, Unity and Universality

Youth are like hedgehogs.

Profound words from my Solutions manager.

Kinda prickly and you don’t want to go too close cos you might hurt yourself. Young people give you colds; hedgehogs are spiky. And young people can also be spiky in their own special way. Like when you ask them to do something.

This follows a discussion of why half the office are off sick. We’re blaming it on the toddlers.

WE WILL remember

Let us pledge ourselves anew to the service of God and our fellow men and
women: that we may help, encourage, and comfort others, and support those working for the relief of the needy and for the peace and welfare of the nations.

Lord God our Father, we pledge ourselves to serve you and all mankind,
in the cause of peace, for the relief of want and suffering, and for the praise
of your name. Guide us by your Spirit; give us wisdom; give us courage; give us
hope; and keep us faithful now and always. Amen.

The above is a quote from the Remeberance day service.

Today we processed through Wokingham to remember and to show respect for all those who have died in war. It's one of the only times that we wear the dress uniform for Red Cross. And it's probably the only time that it really is appropriate to have the right hat and shoes etc. There weren't many people there to watch who weren't in the parade itself, and most of the town probably didn't know that it happened at all. But it was right that we were there. That the parade happened and that wreathes were laid at the memorial.

At mass this morning the scouts reminded us that 1968 has been the only year since 1939 when noone from the forces has died in war. I don't know where that stat comes from or if it's true. But as the scouts prayed this morning: Lord, Give us more 1968s.

GARGH!

I've just been reading through a couple of blogs.

Why oh why can't people think about what they type. The BBC and the Times websites may be usefuresearchch sites but not on their own! Never ever use just one source to base an opinion on! It's madness! And please if you're going to link to a vaguely political site then state something about whether actuallyully agree with it or are just tying to be ironic.

And just when I was about to decide that maybe the stereotypes of Americans were unfair.

Right. I've got that out of my system for the moment.

In other news life is 'interesting'. I'm hoping to work out which way is up shortly. I mean how hard can it be?
In better news my Firefly boxset arrived. Happiness :-)

I got asked an interesting question yesterday.

I was in Birmingham yesterday representing my company at recruitment fair. Major news of the trip – Newman house, the catholic chaplaincy now has a dishwasher – Praise the Lord – prayers answered!)

While I was there, and over a Balti, a current Birmingham Cathsoc member asked me how I knew that God wants me in Reading. As opposed to, say, Africa.

As I was applying to uni and later studying for the degree I always imagined that at some point I would use those skills in places where they are really needed. Maybe going out with the VSO. Obviously you need experience for that so it was always a long term thingy. Except I’m beginning to get that experience but I’m not considering going to the VSO website. Well, not much I’m not (and if I’m honest, I don’t yet have the kind of experience I’d need. Getting there but not just yet).

So why am I so sure I should be in Reading? I seem to be involved in lots of stuff. There seems to be amazing stuff going on across the town. There is also terrifying stuff going on as we start to see gun crime and violence becoming more and more prominent in a way that it really wasn’t 10 years ago (and that’s without the rose tinted glasses too). There’s so much that needs doing in Reading, and occasionally I kid myself into thinking I’m indispensable. I’m useful, but Reading would still be here without me.

So why am I so sure that I need to be here?
I’m not sure at all.

I could go anywhere, but I do kinda like it here. One day I’m going to have enough money to live in two whole rooms instead of one, but other than that I’m happy enough. Why move? God does seem to use me here, and despite the fact that I really don’t spend enough time with him he still lets me play.

So I’m here in Reading for no better reason than because I’m not somewhere else. Currently it’s wet cold and miserable so I’d far rather be somewhere else. But I’m honoured to be able to work with the people I do (both professionally and not) and to be able to get to know an awesome bunch of people, and have fun all at the same time. How many people can claim that?

Maybe eventually I’ll put down some deeper roots. Maybe one day I’ll learn to appreciate what I have that little bit more and stop faffing. Now that really would be a miracle.

Would I like to go to Birmingham?

They want me to go help out at a career fair at Birmingham university. Do I know where the great hall is? Umm? Lets see now ;-)

It’s the careers fair where I first came across MWH and essentially why I applied to work here. Talk about returning to your roots!

The Good News about HADES

Having previously taken the mickey out of the Work 'Good News' wall - guess what I'm currently writing. Yes, that's right. A poster for that very same good news wall.

I probably shouldn't have mentioned to a reviewer that the internal software had been really helpful.

I was told yesterday that I was obviously very confident in my work. This was in a meeting of 20ish people - all men, all older than me. I was asked if the flow split would work. My response of "It works." Didn't provoke any more questions or discussion, in fact there was a short pause in the meeting. It would appear that I can blag confidence pretty well.

But it does mean I have no reason not to write this Good news thingy.

Somehow writing Good News about HADES is a little odd though...

(HADES = Hydraulic Analysis and Design Software.)

Intelligent Design.

Does Nature have an intelligent designer? Well, yes, but….
Are the gaps in evolution? Well, maybe, but…..

Currently in the USA Intelligent Design (ID) is on trial.

Is it science or is it religion?

ID questions natural selection and Darwinism. It suggests that natural selection couldn’t occur in the way that is generally assumed and therefore an intelligent designer must be responsible. That designer isn’t necessarily God, but by definition would have to be a deity or Supreme Being of some sort. Most of the proponents seem to be American fundamentalist Christians. Which shouldn’t get my hackles up immediately. Unfortunately it does. It doesn’t help that George Dubyah supports it… However, lets try to look at this objectively.

There is a universe. Well, lets start small – Earth exists. So far so good. Was it designed or was it not? The arguments for a non-religious start to the earth are well discussed and known; Evolution, asteroids, Bangs, suns etc. Natural selection theory does seem to work. It does seem to fit the way in which we can see the world around us operating.

A religious/Christian perspective can be that God created the earth, the universe, and all in it. There is a God who can influence the fabric of the universe; who can make things happen; who can change the world.

However, I’m fully aware that this is a belief. As much as I know it to be true I can’t persuade that to someone who is not willing to take the leap of faith and accept that there might just be a God. In addition I don’t see that there are any difficulties between the two philosophies. I can be a Christian and believe in evolution/natural selection with some intervention/steering from God at times.

So ID is another way of looking at things. Yes.
Is it Science? No.

Science is something that comes with fact and evidence. That a cynic can look at and understand (I’m not saying that the end result is agreement with the assumptions) but how can something be science when it starts from a basis of a leap of faith? That doesn’t mean that it’s not true and by all means talk about it, discuss it, but not in the same way as science is discussed, and not in science lessons in school.

God is present in all things. God is an intelligent creator. But that doesn’t mean that evolution is not possible. To be Christian does not mean that I do not have common sense. We have free will!


I await the outcome of the trial with interest.

Happy Birthday to me!!

And so I reach 25. As Charlie so nicely pointed out – I’m now halfway to 30. With friends like her... :-$

I’ve upgraded my phone as a birthday present to myself. New toy! Yay! It goes beep any everything!

Google mail is temporarily unavailable. Cross your fingers and try again in a few minutes. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.

Wonderful! One of the best error messages I’ve seen in ages.

And that’s including the great one on a work package: "Cannot divide by zero". Really… you can’t?!

What’s going on? I can’t keep up!

I’m really hoping that at some point in the near future the world will slow down for long enough for me to catch up.

Grandad’s funeral went really well. Car no. 2 was the grandchildren and associated cousins etc. By the time we got to the crematorium we were left with an interesting philosophical debate. If we hadn’t nicknamed the car the ‘B’ Ark, would the armrest have fallen off? Thankfully the giggling fit that ensued with the car subsided by the time we got to the crematorium. I suspect the giggling was mainly a way to vent some emotion however whether Gran would have seen it like that is another matter entirely. On the whole I think everything went really well and really smoothly. It was all as Gran wanted it to be. It’s just a shame that I learnt some things about Grandad in Dad’s Eulogy instead of from Grandad himself. I suppose it’s better to know people a little than not at all. It’s hard to visualise the Wilf Wells that I knew building his own house or playing tennis.

And today I’m back in the office trying to work out why on earth I would want an MWH polo shirt – oh wait.. It’s free. I guess it’ll do for the gym. Now when did I last go to the gym…?

We’ve also been asked to contribute Good news to the company to show off what we’re doing well etc. How tempted am I to send in something along the lines of "For God so loved the world…." Well, it is about engineering in a sense…. And it’s definitely good news….

Over.

Over
Out
What?
Errr.. red b…
What’s my callsign?
Um..

As a highly professional organisation it’s always reassuring to know that we can grasp new technologies with both hands in order to provide a better service. It would perhaps be nice If we could also grasp slightly older ones.

Last night was Red Cross radio training. We’ve had radios for YEARS. We’re had this set of radios for a fair while too. So it’s perhaps a little embarrassing when you realise that we’re still not entirely sure of the correct protocols. We can use them and get our message across in an emergency with no trouble. Can we all remember to say ‘over’ after a transmission, or tell left from right to pass on directions? Now that’s all a little more complicated. And that flashing red light… what does that mean…. Noone knows. Oh good. Let’s hope it’s not the self destruct.

Apparently for the Wokingham Winter carnival we’re going to use a radio net. This involves adding more people into the loop to ‘help’. The idea is that all communications go through one point where a record is made of the transmissions. All well and good until you consider what kind of situations we tend to need to use the radios for –Emergencies. The last thing you need in an emergency is a very very slow communication path. The whole point of radios is to speed up the process.

I can’t help but think that we’d be better off with a large net to catch the radios with when we inevitably get annoyed and drop them into the nearest water source… Looks likely that we’ll continue to compromise on some of our duties… mobile phones are wonderful things.

Out.

Uh huh.

Mary: Where’s the drawing register?
Stefan: On the computer. You’ll find it, it’s a small computer.

Stefan is the lead engineer on my project. As you can see we work together pretty well. We're both off our trolleys...

RIP Wilfred Wells

Pray, verb: to ask that the laws of the universe be temporarily annulled for a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy.

-Ambrose Bierce

Grandad is at Peace now. The above definition sent round by Cath yesterday kind of sums up what we've seen happening in that hospital.

ummmm

What do you call a small spoon that is used to make coffee? It’s surely not a teaspoon is it? Is there a separate object for a coffee spoon? Does such a thing exist? And if not, why not?

What am I meant to be feeling?

Happy or sad?
Enthusiastic or depressed?
Optimistic or scared?

This has been a weekend of extremes and I’m not sure how to react.

We took the youth of Earley away for the weekend. The youth weekend aspect was pretty good. Lots of learning points as you’d expect but I think all the kids got something out of it. It was great to see the little ‘uns asking questions about prayer and love (even if they did have their heads on the table at that point due to lack of sleep. I don’t know – no stamina – the leaders were in a far worse state on the whole. I’ve never seen so many green people…

Was fun though, and the kids really seemed to have fun. We talked about God. We made T-shirts. We played wide games. We made a spoof video of Harry Potter. We didn’t sleep. We checked lots of bumped heads for concussion. (When we say ‘don’t run’ we really mean it).

I really recommend working with kids. It’s great to see them learning and discovering new stuff and you really learn from what they’ve got to say as well.

On the negative side my Grandfather had a major stroke on Saturday. All family are on high alert and as many prayers as we can find are required. Mostly for the rest of the family. Grandad isn’t expected to recover. And it really doesn’t help your sleeping patterns.

So on one hand I’m hyped from a youth weekend, if not a tad exhausted. On the other I’m trying to work out how I’m meant to feel about the health of my grandfather as we wait for him to let go.

As ever. It’s all or nothing, and all at the same time.