Team Armstrong

This weekend is camping weekend

2010-05-27T09:54:00.002+01:00

This weekend we are off camping. It will be the first time we have properly used the new tent and the new camping equipment. We have worked out that it will all fit in the car, but we have not actually worked out if everything will fit into the tent. I guess if it doesn't we can always use the car as extra storage. Either way I can't help but feel that there will be more room in the tent than there is in the house.

disappointment

2010-05-25T13:51:00.003+01:00

I have just watched the last episode of Ashes to Ashes and was kinda disappointed. I had enjoyed Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes until that point. And then in the last episode we found out that everything we had thought previously was not as we had been led to believe it was. It was very strange. I'm still not sure I fully understand what it was all about. But it did make me wonder how often we live our lives, or part of lives, as a lie. As people we can try and be who others want us to be in in order to be accepted. We cut out parts of our lives that don't fit in in certain circumstances, and we exaggerate other parts. And then sometimes we just completely be ourselves. Although the more you get used to living not as you, the real you starts to feel less like you.

really?

2010-05-19T10:31:00.003+01:00

I have just been listening to a debate about whether parents should push their children into particular careers/uni courses, or allow their children to follow their hearts. Surely if a parent pushes their child into something they are not happy doing they are just moving towards a working life of unhappiness. Our parents have allowed us to make our own choices, whilst offering advice and support. This has led us all to follow very different paths based on things we enjoy and what our intellect will allow. Had we have been forced or heavily encouraged into something our parents wanted and not what we wanted I can't see that we would be as happy as we are.

On another note - apparently left handers die earlier than right handers.

Wiping the dust off

2010-05-13T14:22:00.004+01:00

It has been a very long time since anything has happened around here, I am thinking about changing that although I guess that everyone has stopped reading it anyway. But I have some thoughts I need to release somewhere and this might be the place.

But just for the minute I need to go and make a shopping list because I keep having a forget about the things I need to put on it.

2009-08-19T13:24:00.001+01:00

I found this funny

2009-07-12T08:36:00.001+01:00

Problems

2009-06-16T16:08:00.003+01:00

I seem to increasingly find that when I have a problem with a person, or a group of people or a task that is before me, that it turns out that I am more the problem than the problem I perceive to be in front of me. And then I find that when I sort myself out, its not really such a problem any more, more of a bit of challenge to get over.

yes

2009-06-02T13:16:00.002+01:00

It is June already, this year is going a bit quick like.

Why is that some days I wake up and I feel good and I feel good all day, and then some days I wake up grumpy and groggy and feel grumpy and groggy all day. It seems like how I wake up has more effect on the day than anything else.

Paul has finished his exams. You might think that this would mean the he will blog more, but you can't really be sure. He has been doing some more stupidpaul stuff if you are interested in that kind of thing. It's not new stuff, more upgraded old stuff.

This weekend I am going to Sizewell. It is two years since I have been there. I am looking forward to that. Before that I am having my hair cut but one of the few people who can actually manage to cut my hair well. I am looking forward to that. Before that I get to have lunch with the father. I am looking forward tot hat. After the weekend I am going to college for the week.

hmmm

2009-05-29T14:21:00.002+01:00

Right so here is a thing that I don't actually understand. Why is it that when there is no-one else in the office (like all week) I get more distracted and find it harder to work than when there are other people around?? I don't actually understand that.

forgiveness/guidance

2009-05-27T15:39:00.002+01:00

We had an interesting discussion at the boyfriends cell group last night (note that subtle mention of new man in life). We were looking at Psalm 25, which appears to have themes of forgiveness, guidance and protection running through it. We were then talking about whether you need God's forgiveness before you get/accept his guidance. And then had a bit of a discussion about God's guidance, and God's path for us. There were three points of view represented.

1. God has only one path for us, if we wander from it we have to get back to it.
2. God has many plans and paths for us. Wandering from one path does not necessarily mean we have to get back to that path.
3. God knows where we are going and our wanderings become part of his plan for us, therefore God only has one path for us, the one that we are on.

I joined the conversation arguing point 2, but now I am having to think about point 3.

Tommy K

2009-05-20T09:09:00.002+01:00

I bought some Heinz organic tomato ketchup because it was ridiculously reduced. Oh my word I think I have died and gone to ketchup heaven. It is so amazing. I am going to be so sad when it is finished and I have to revert to normal ketchup. In honour of the amazing ketchup this weeks sandwiches have had a corned beef and ketchup filling.

In other food news I made a really random curry yesterday, it was one of those that had in it any ingredients that needed using up. It was quite tasty. In the process of cooking I did manage to spill uncooked rice all over the floor. In the process of dishing up I managed to spill cooked rice all over the floor. I'm not quite sure what the rice had done to deserve being spilt quite so much.

Life as a student who works full time means....

2009-05-15T11:02:00.003+01:00

- writing as many words and reading as many books a day as you can squeeze in between everything else. This is hard as your brain has to keep switching modes.

- spending lots of money on books, and finding creative ways to stay awake and squeeze study time in around everything else.

- getting home from work, being tired, and still having to keep the brain switched on and find motivation (oh if only there was a library to study in.)

- never having time to go out

- having a real life job that carries responsibility and is all scary and grown up, but also really complicated

- not much time or inclination to blog

- wondering what on earth you used to do with your time, and what friends are. Now you come to mention friends, I did used to have some of those but work and study seem to have taken over my life, maybe I will find some again when I have more time.

Oh to be a full time student.

The most unpleasant experience of my week.

2009-05-09T14:18:00.003+01:00

The other evening I went to see a friend to take my spare key back to them. I had had to use the spare key when I left my not-spare key at work. I find it best to take it back to them so that the next time I lose my not-spare key I can still get into my flat. As I was walking back to my flat I rang Paul. We were having a lovely little chat when I heard something make a big bang or pop kind of noise. I looked around and saw a lot of feathers and a pigeon kind of fly up into the air. The pigeon made it across the verge and onto the pavement, where it kind of lolloped around before stopping moving. 'Paul,' I said, 'I have just seen a pigeon get hit by a car.' 'Is that what that big bang kind of noise was,' he says. 'Yes', I said. And then I stood by the road for a bit not knowing what to do, and feeling quite sick. Paul kept on talking to me, and I carried on on my way home. I don't think I want that to happen again soon please thank you.

Food

2009-05-05T18:44:00.001+01:00

I thought I was having stir fry for my tea tonight. When it was defrosted it turned out to be chili. The chili turned out to be better than the stir fry would've been. End of story.

If I was a writer for Neighbours this is what would've happened this week

2009-04-30T11:32:00.002+01:00

Zeke: Hello my name is Trent. I am Phil Adams son.
Rachel: No you are not, you are my brother, your name is Zeke.
Zeke: And who are you?
Rachel: I am Rachel, I am your sister.
Zeke: Ah yes, there is something familiar about you. Do we not have another si
Rachel: (interrupting) She so not talk about her, the actress who plays her does not want to be in neighbours at the moment, so even though we thought you were dead she never came to be with us or to help look for you, or to your thanksgiving service or anything like that, so we try not to mention her too much in the hope that the viewers don't think its too weird she's not around.
Zeke: Oh. OK. So my other sister isn't even going to come and see me now that I am found and not dead.
Rachel: No.
Zeke: OK. And who are you.
Libby: I am Libby, your step-sister.
Zeke: Ah I have a step-sister.
Libby: Yes, after your mum died your dad married my mum.
Zeke: Right so my mum is dead.
Libby: Yes.
Zeke: Thanks for telling me.
Libby: I had forgotten that you had no memory.
Zeke: So where are my dad and your mum, can we go see them.
Libby: Hmmm, that may be tricky.
Zeke: Why?
Libby: Oh look, here come my mum and dad now, they will explain to you. Mum, Dad, come and speak to Zeke.
Susan: Zeke, we are so happy you are alive.
Zeke: Please can I see my dad?
Susan: No darling you can't see him, he is dead.
Zeke: Right, so my mum and dad are dead.
Susan: Yes.
Zeke: But they didn't die at the same time.
Susan: No. Your mum died quite a while ago.
Zeke: And then you married my dad?
Susan: Yes. I was married to Libby's dad Karl.
Karl: Hi.
Susan: But then I divorced him, I can't remember why now, it might have had something to do with the fact that every so often the actor who plays him goes to England and plays gigs for students, and so the writers thought the best way to cover for his absence was for us to get divorced.
Zeke: Ok.
Susan: Then I met your dad.
Zeke: And you got married?
Susan: Yes.
Zeke: And we all lived together as one happy family?
Susan: Well not quite so happy, this is a soap after all.
Zeke: So then what happened?
Susan: Well your dad died. And then the actor who plays Karl came back to Australia and wanted to be in Neighbours again.
Karl: The writers thought it would be a great idea if me and Susan married again.
Susan: so we did.
Zeke: Right so let me just get this straight, Rachel is my sister, I have another sister but we can't talk about her in case the viewers think it is strange she is not here in such a time of family distress. My mum died, my dad married Susan, who used to be married to Karl. My dad died. Susan married Karl again.
Rachel: That's right.
Zeke: Is this normal round here then?

Got to ad break. Don't return to hear Zeke's question answered because it is a silly one. In fact don't return to this storyline for another three weeks.

2009-04-27T13:57:00.000+01:00

PCC

2009-04-26T14:00:00.001+01:00

I have either done a silly thing, or a listening to God thing. As of today I am now on the PCC of my church. This could be fun!

PA

2009-04-23T16:23:00.002+01:00

I had to do the PA for a service this morning. I was rubbish at it. It's not the first time I've done this job and been rubbish at it. Makes me wonder why I got asked to do it again. I guess at least this time I didn't play a CD during a prayer.

Door step

2009-04-22T09:23:00.002+01:00

For the very first time ever in my life I washed my door step yesterday. While I had been away someone had either been sick on it, or spilt something on it. I didn't really want to keep walking over it so I did the actual washing of the doorstep. It made me feel like I was some kind of housewife of yesteryear.

Hello

2009-04-21T11:43:00.003+01:00

I am literally back in the land of blogging. It took me a little while to get back to this green and pleasant land after Easter, there was some kind of holiday thing that I went on and while I was on this holiday thing I had NO INTERNET AT ALL so it was a bit hard for me to blog.

The trouble I have now is that there are lots of things for me to blog about because I've not done it for so long, but I don't know whether to catch up on those things, or ignore them as if they are not there and start with things that are all now and current and all that.

My car is in the garage today having an MOT and service. I always worry when it is in that something will be proper bad with it and cost me a lot of money.

My internet is not working at home AGAIN. It seems to be more not working than working at the mo. A fixing man is coming on Friday. This will be the third fixing man that has been out in the last seven weeks. Hopefully this one will be an actually fixing man and not an imposter. The only reason I can think that the last two didn't fix it properly is that they are actually imposter's and not real fixing men.

No blogs

2009-03-15T21:11:00.002Z

I'm doing not blogging for lent. I am not reading them and not writing them. But as it is Sunday it is a feast day and so I can feast on blogs all I like. I am just catching up on Let's Dance for Comic Relief. I find it amusing. I've been to two good services today, at different churches. I'd been a bit all disconnected from the big God man for a while, but the last few weeks I've been getting a bit more connected up which has been all a bit good. I've got a major college assignment going on at the mo, and am getting on with it better than normal. I'm just trying to think if I have anything more to say, or any amusing annecdotes, but I'm not so sure I have. If you've not seen Smithy and the England team from Comic Relief then do make sure you watch it, it was funny funny ha ha ha.

btw - there are probably spelling mistakes in this, it won't let me check and I'm not clever enough to spot them myself.

2009-02-22T23:17:00.000Z

I seem to be rubbish at this blogging thing. Sorry.

I also was going to be a copier and let you know my favourite song

2009-02-02T21:33:00.002Z

but when I try and copy and paste the right bit from The You Tube it only copies part of it. So you just won't be able to know until I get more technologically competent, or until one of you tells me how to do it.

overheard.

2009-01-28T15:10:00.002Z

Here are some things I heard people say at the weekend.

I think I'll wear it on a non-day (said by a five year old)
It's her granny knickers innit (said by a fifteen year old boy, sat on the train with two friends.)
Will everyone at church know its my birthday? (said by another five year old)
Why does everyone have to have a voice? (said by a four year old)

Pauls pictures.

2009-01-20T11:34:00.002Z

I don't understand the pictures Paul has been putting up. He did explain one of them to me, but I still didn't really get it. I keep looking at them in the hope I will understand, but however much I stare I just don't get it. I think I must generally be a bit thick at getting things. I love to watch the BBC television program Hustle. In conversation with other people who also watch Hustle it turns out that they often understand what is going on a long time before it is revealed, whereas I generally seem to get it as it is being revealed (and sometimes not even then). I wonder if there is somewhere that people who don't get things can go to help them learn how to get things more quickly/better.

Thank you's and surprises.

2009-01-14T13:07:00.002Z

Before Christmas in the lunch clubs we run we were thinking about being thankful. As part of this the children were making a thank you card to give to someone who had done something for them, or been a great friend, or such like. Several times children said to me 'can I write mine to Father Christmas to say thank you for my presents.' Every time I was asked that question I had to stop myself just before I answered, because the answer I was about to give without thinking was 'No, we are make these cards to send to real people.'

In my dreams last night Gareth and Hayley broke into my flat because they thought it would be a nice surprise if they came and visited me without telling me. And they thought the surprise would be even better if they were already in my flat before I got home. So when I got home and saw I had been broken into I ventured inside to find the intruders were Gareth and Hayley. Gareth made the surprise even bigger by hiding behind a door and jumping out at me. Hayley added to the surprise by having tea cooked ready for when I got home.

Technical

2009-01-09T09:47:00.003Z

One of the school's I work in has a service in church at the beginning and end of each term. Sometimes I participate in this service, sometimes I just go along for the fun of it. Yesterday I was meant to be going to the service for the fun of it, but ended up operating the sound desk. This should not have been a tricky job. The system had been turned on and set up. Only one mic was being used, and that could be left on when it wasn't being used. For two of the songs being sung CD's were being used. A different CD for each one. For the first song I put the CD in the CD player, cued up the track and got ready to press play. When it was time to press play I pressed the eject button. This did not play the CD, instead it ejected it. So I had to reinsert CD, cue up the right track again and then press play. While everyone was waiting. When I had done this and pressed play the CD wasn't playing loud enough so everyone missed the beginning of the track while I worked out how to turn it up. For the second song I put the CD in, got the track lined up and managed to press the play button at the right time and have the volume at the right level. Just after the song two children were leading some prayers. The song stopped, one of the children said 'Now we are going to pray' and then another song started. I had forgotten to press the stop button on the CD player. I wonder if I will get asked to do that job again.

Joke.

2009-01-04T21:00:00.001Z

Augustine, Calvin and Barth find themselves waiting outside the throne room on the Day of Judgement. Augustine goes in first, and after half an hour comes out and says to the others: 'It was wonderful! I had all the mysteries of sin, grace and salvation explained to me!'
Next, Calvin goes in, comes out an hour later and says to the others: 'It was wonderful! I had all the mysteries of election, predestination and divine sovereignty explained to me!'
Finally, Barth goes in. After two hours, God comes out and says to the others: 'I've still got no idea what he is talking about!'

Joke.

2009-01-03T22:19:00.000Z

A new pastor was visiting the homes of his parishioners. At one house it seemed obvious that someone was at home, but no answer came to his repeated knocks at the door. Therefore, he took out a card and wrote "Revelation 3:20" on the back of it and stuck it in the door.

When the offering was processed the following Sunday, he found that his card had been returned. Added to it was this cryptic message, Genesis 3:10." Reaching for his Bible to check out the citation, he broke up in gales of laughter.

Cold

2008-12-31T10:22:00.002Z

Minimum temperature today is -3
Maximum temperature today is -2

Definitely a day for the thermals.

Funny

2008-12-30T12:15:00.003Z

Someone said something the other day that amused me. I was going to blog about it. Now I can't remember what it was.

There is something stuck under my 'i' key that means I have to press it very hard to make it type.

I am at work, writing next terms assemblies, whilst listening to The Archers omnibus. They are enjoying some pantomime shenanigans. Apparently it is much funnier now they have the giant props.

Peter Sissons.

2008-12-24T15:27:00.001Z

Christmas is happening tomorow. Happy Christmas.

Gutted.

2008-12-16T12:11:00.001Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/7783738.stm

Hallelujah

2008-12-14T12:53:00.003Z

On the X Factor last night the 1st and 2nd place sang Hallelujah, as this is the song the winner is releasing. I was watching this with a family that have two teenage children. As one of the final acts was singing said song one of the girls turned round and said 'Oh this is the song from Shrek'. The youth of today! Forget Leonard Cohen or Jeff Buckley, no no no it is only known as 'the song from Shrek.'

Lump

2008-12-12T10:39:00.001Z

Does Magilton normally have a big lump on his forehead, or has he been walking into doorposts?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/i/ipswich_town/7773209.stm

Mission

2008-12-08T21:17:00.004Z

Christian mission can only happen when Christian people understand the sending nature of God.

I'm not so sure I agree with this statement, do you?

Praise the Lord

2008-12-07T13:36:00.001Z

I was in church this morning doing the listening and praying and singing and all that. We sung one song that contained the words 'let everything that has breath praise the Lord'. The man sitting next to me very definitely at one point sung 'let everything that has breasts praise the Lord.'

Dull

2008-12-03T10:08:00.001Z

At the moment life is dull and my brain is dull. That is the reason for the lack of postings around here from me. I would post, but it would just be dull.

Seasons

2008-11-29T14:51:00.003Z

I can tell what season it is by the knicker to sock ratio in my wash load. I do a wash load whenever I have enough clothes to make up a wash load - none of this sorting colours and whites or types of materials or anything like that for me. In the summer there are less pairs of socks than knickers. In the autumn and spring there are even numbers of pairs of socks to pairs of knickers. In the winter there is at least two pairs of socks to every pair of knickers. I would like to point out that the numbers of pairs of knickers I wear each day remains constant, it is the amount of socks I wear that doth flux.

Breakfast

2008-11-12T13:50:00.003Z

I think I might have not eaten my breakfast on Monday. I normally have a yoghurt for breakfast, not out of any healthiness reason, just because I am not very good at food in the mornings but I can normally manage a yoghurt. When I got home from work on Monday there was a yoghurt sat on the side. I can remember getting it out of the fridge, but I can't remember eating it. I also can't remember not eating it. So I do not know if I ate my breakfast on Monday, and I guess now I'll never know.

Radios

2008-11-10T13:45:00.004Z

I flicked Radio 2 on on Saturday when Jonathan Ross should have been doing his show, and later in the day when Russell Brand should have been doing his show. They have replaced them with possibly the two most boringest people ever to have graced the air waves. I think it was Richard Allinson and Alex Lester. They are quite often used to fill in when other DJs are away and they are boring then. This means that they have replaced the two most entertaining DJs with the two most boringest ones. I don't think this is very clever of them, they shall lose listeners aplenty. I am not even going to go on now about the wrongness of Brand and Ross not being on the radio, ask me sometime it you are interested and I will bore you with my views.

The other thing that has annoyed me about the radios is a thing on Jeremy Vine today. It was about the goalkeeper who had done some drunk driving and caused an accident and some people did die. That is all quite sad really. But they were going on on the radio about the victims and speaking as if goalkeeper man has no remorse and won't suffer for what he has done, and speaking as if the relatives of the dead people were the only people that will carry this through with them for the rest of their lives. They were also saying that Norris's goal celebration on Saturday was a bad thing. So when one of our friends has done a bad we are meant to not be friends with them and not support them and help them through what they have done? The people on there were silly and did annoy me.

Weferwee!

2008-11-05T08:04:00.003Z

There are quite a few people around where I live that are not happy with referees at the moment. It has something to do with goals being disallowed for no reason at the end of game that it is being drawn 1-1. It is not the first time that particular ref has made a big mistake.

I decided to get to the office nice and early this morning as there is lots to do at the moment. When I was in the shower I realised that I don't have the office keys (we are only allowed one set between two of us) and so the waking up early was pointless.

I have got my Christmas decorations up. I was getting so fed up with life that I decided I needed something to cheer me up, and a reminder that there is fun ahead.

When I woke up this morning

2008-10-29T13:03:00.003Z

I thought of something really good to blog about, I even had a witty title for the post. Now I can't remember at all what it was about. So instead I will tell you about some journeying I have done recently.

On Saturday I drove to Ipswich. This journey started at about half past four. It finished at about ten past seven. It was quite a pleasant journey. I got to see a lovely sunset as I was driving. I was stopped at the services at the point of dusk that makes my eyes goes funny when I am driving. The traffic was really clear. It was dry the whole journey.

On Tuesday I did the same journey, but in reverse. It was important to do this, if I didn't I would have still been in the place where Saturday's journey took me to, and that is not the place I live. The place I live is where Saturday's journey started from, and so this is why it was important for me to do the journey in reverse.

I set of on this journey at about quarter past 4. It was dark not long after I started my journey. I was driving at that point in dusk that makes my eyes go funny. It rained pretty much the whole journey. There was a lot of surface water, meaning there was a lot of spray. There was a lot of traffic. There was one part of the road where we had to go down to one lane because of roadworks. During the whole stretch there were no road works, just some cones. Within an hour and a half of driving I passed my first full services. I didn't need to stop at this point. It was nearly two hours before I reached the next services. I really needed one before then. It took so long to get there because of the aforementioned traffic and weather. I eventually got back at about half past eight.

I much preferred the journey I made on Saturday. Partly because of the lack of traffic, good driving conditions and time it took. But also because of the people the journey was taking me to see.

The good old days

2008-10-24T10:57:00.002+01:00

Right so Paul has got me to do this fantasy footballs thing. I don't really know what I'm doing with it, so I picked my team a bit randomly. I got an email from them today saying this will be your team, if you want to change it then do so by 11:30am tomorrow. It then listed the premiership games being played over the weekend. There are ten games. Four are being played on Saturday. Of those four only one is being played at 3pm. Whatever happened to the good old days, when all teams played at 3pm on a Saturday. It added to the excitement to listen to the scores at half time and try and work out what would happen in the league if the scores stayed the same, and then to listen to the scores at full time, or on the radio when you got back to the car and hear how those around you the league had done. And it means not being able to see highlights of all premiership games on MOTD on a Saturday night. Footballs is not what it used to be.

Triangle

2008-10-23T14:24:00.002+01:00

What's the difference between Spurs and a triangle? A triangle has three points.

Right so that is a joke I nicked from somewhere else and have now told you.

I was going to show you a funny picture here, but I can't seem to put it here - probably due to my technical incompetency. I shall see if Paul can do it when I see him at the weekend. Oh yes you heard that right, I will see Paul at the weekend. That is because we are both in Ipswich. So maybe I will see you too if that is where you are.

Dreams

2008-10-21T13:18:00.003+01:00

I had some really scary dreams last night. In all of them this man was trying to attack me. Sometimes it was in my flat, sometimes it was in a different flat that the council were letting me stay in to try and hide me from this man. Interestingly the council flat had 7 beds in it, some of them were doubles. I couldn't work out why the council were letting me stay there when there must be families that needed big flats.

In one of the dreams this man was attacking me in a car park. There were other people about and none of them seemed that bothered I was being attacked. Then walking into view come dad, Steve, Paul, Gareth, Kev and Crug. So I think they will rescue me from this attacking man. I call to them, but they don't hear. So I start calling them all by name, they still don't hear. Calling them gets harder because the attacker man is trying to strangle me. Eventually they hear. A couple of them glance over and walk away. Some of them walk up to us, so I think they are going to help me, then they just shrug and walk away. Crug comes running over, pulling some ninja moves as he does so. I'm convinced that Crug is going to save me, but he runs right past, and helps someone who has fallen over, or something trivial like that. By this point I really can't breathe at all, and I can see all these men I know and think will help me standing watching. And then I wake up. Bizarre and scary.

In one of the dreams the man had broken into my flat. I didn't know he was there, but from the window I see two police officers notice something and come running towards my flat, so I guess that the attacker man has just come into my flat. I go out onto the landing and he is there, he grabs me by the throat, the police officers come in. I don't know what happens next because I woke up.

In another one he was in my bedroom while I was asleep. He was sitting on my legs. I woke up aware that he was there. I could hardly breathe because I was sure that he was going to do something really bad to me. He comes and stands by head, I can't feel my legs because he's been sitting on them. He is stood by my head, I am tyring to ask him who he is, because I feel that if I know who he is I can stop him doing anything to me, but I can't speak, so I can't ask him. Then I woke up, and strangely I couldn't feel my legs at all for a few minutes.

Evoking memories.

2008-10-19T15:27:00.002+01:00

It's funny how a certain smell, or sound, or place can evoke a memory in you. Today I went to a church that is not my regular church. I went there because I had been invited to go and talk about the work I do. During the service several of the songs sung were ones that could be found on a set of CD's that were played quite a lot when my mum and auntie were in hospital and the hospice. The memory of place and emotion that came flooding back to me were overwhelming and unexpected. I have sung those songs since, so why was it that in this strange church they evoked such a strong actually and emotional memory.

Now here is something I don't understand

2008-10-14T13:05:00.002+01:00

Why is it that when someone has had a baby they think that it is ok to show people pictures of them feeding the baby with their boobs all on display? In my world its not normal to say to someone 'here look at this picture of my boob', or send an email with a picture of your boob attached, or but pictures of your boobs on facebook. So why is it that because there is a baby attached to the boob it seems acceptable to do this?

Dilemma

2008-10-13T14:22:00.003+01:00

Here is a dilemma that I have. On Thursday I could go and see Deliriou5? in Cambridge. If I did this it would mean buying a ticket (using money), driving to Cambridge straight after work, and then either driving straight back home afterwards, or staying with Steve. If I took the staying with Steve option I could either get up early and drive back, or take the day off work and stay at Steve's and study. Steve is going to Ipswich on Friday, so I could not stay the whole weekend, alongside the fact that I am at an Owl Hoot on Saturday and working on Sunday. Going to see Deliriou5? would mean seeing a friend that I've not really properly seen in a while. Staying in Cambridge on the Friday means having the option of seeing some friends who moved there at the end of August. Now this all makes dilemma levels of decision making for this girl who is rubbish at decisions. Add to this the fact that a whole load of work landed at my feet this morning (including a meeting on Thursday evening, and preparing for the working on Sunday amongst other things), and it just leaves me not really knowing what to do.

Today

2008-10-10T09:28:00.003+01:00

This very day I am going to finish work at 3pm. Then I am going to the house of my friend, from where we shall walk into town. When we are in town we are going to eat some food, and then see Jason Donovan who is performing in our local shopping centre. When we have done that we will then go and do some shopping because I need to get some clothes to wear for the Walley wedding. This in itself is all very exciting, but to add to the excitement I found five pounds in my jeans pocket this morning. I think this could be the best day ever. Well maybe not ever. But definitely the best day of the month so far.

Secrets

2008-10-08T16:30:00.004+01:00

Right here is something that happened to me recently (that's what you write about on these blog type things isn't it?)

Someone who I work with started going out with someone. It was obvious to everyone that they were going out, lots of people were talking behind their backs about it. They hadn't told anyone that they were going out. They hadn't shown anyone they were going out (no holding hands in public or kissing was seen to be done, in fact they were rarely seen in public together). And yet everyone knew they were going out.

I asked the person I work with if he was going out with this girl, because that is the kind of person I am. He told me yes. He said that it is not a secret, but that it is not public knowledge. So I said nothing to anyone. Even though a fairly large group of people had asked me if I knew for sure they were going out. I just kept my mouth shut.

I was talking with a family who are very good friends of mine. The person I work with knows they are good friends of mine, and that they get told most things that happen in my life/that I know. They asked me if I knew if these two people were going out. I said yes they are, and told them how I knew for sure.

When they next saw him, they were talking with him about his girlfriend. He asked how they knew he was going out with this girl. They said that I had told them. This conversation happened in their home, where no one else could hear it.

I then got in trouble for having told his secrets. I don't quite understand this. Firstly he had said it wasn't a secret. Secondly, I had told some people that he knows I tell everything to, and so knows that what he says they are likely to know. Thirdly, I had know for a while before I told them, and only told them when they asked me (I wasn't going to lie to them). Fourthly, if you are going out with someone, and you want to be going out with them, and you really like them, wouldn't you want to shout it from the roof tops and let the world know?

Maybe I don't understand people. Maybe I don't understand secrets. Ho hum.

Footballs.

2008-10-07T11:30:00.002+01:00

Hull seem to be having a cracking season so far. It really warms the old cockles to know that a team from the Championship can go up to the Premiership and beat some of the bigger clubs, and (certainly for now) hold their own. I heard an interview with one of the Hull City FC types who was saying that they are not getting excited by doing well yet, they are wanting to reach 40 points (or whatever the 'safe' number of points is), and then they will start thinking about what they can actually achieve.

Tottenham on the other hand are having a rubbish season so far. And they are one of the teams that you would maybe expect to do quite well.

Sepp Blatter is calling for stricter rules on foreign ownership of clubs. I think he may have a point.

Based on my extensive knowledge and experience of the music industry

2008-10-06T13:34:00.002+01:00

I think that Louis made the right choices, apart from possibly Girl Band, although on reflection they maybe they would just scrape into the top three, Cheryl made the right decisions, Simon made all of the wrong decisions, Danii I think made the wrong decisions as well.

Essay

2008-10-03T09:19:00.002+01:00

I am doing this college course. Yesterday evening I sat down to do some reading for an essay. It took me half an hour to read four pages. And this was meant to be one of the lighter easier books. Maybe this study thing is all a bit of a mistake.

I told a lie

2008-10-01T12:10:00.003+01:00

I said that I got everything off the shopping list. This is a lie. I had mayonnaise on the list, but I didn't buy any because I didn't see it when I walked past it, and I couldn't be bothered to go back for it. However when I got home I found a new jar in the cupboard that I previously hadn't seen there. I wonder if I have mayonnaise blindness.

The weekend.

2008-09-30T10:16:00.003+01:00

At the weekend I made a shopping list ready to go shopping. Then I opened my post. In it was a letter that made me very cross. I rang up the people who could help me sort out the reason I was cross. They helped me mostly sort it, but there is bit that can't be sorted. I then rang up my dad to tell him I was cross. This all meant that I left later for the shop, which meant I caught the beginning of the school traffic that I was planning on avoiding. This made me a little bit crosser. I had to deliver some important things to someone on my way, so I did that, and they chatted at me for a little while. I then went and payed some cheques into my bank because I had had them a little while and my account was crying out for the money. By the time I got to the shop I was running late, tired, hungry and still a bit cross. This meant that everything on the list got bought, but so did several other things as well. Like the cinnamon roll I ate on the way home from the shop. And the beer I drunk when I got home. And the random snack type things that I didn't need at all but still ate that evening. And the pot of herbs that may or may not grow and may or may not be of any use if they do grow. And all of this I blame on the letter that made me cross. It is also the letters fault that no tidying or dusting or hoovering got done over the weekend. And it is the letters fault that no essay plan got written, or studying got done over the weekend. Silly letter.

This weekend

2008-09-26T12:20:00.003+01:00

These are the things I need to do this weekend. I am writing this as a reminder to myself. It will not be of great interest to people reading, but I keep forgetting what I need to do and so thought I would write it down. I have not written it on a piece of paper because when I do that I put the piece of paper down and forget where I have put it.

Tidy up
Hoover
Dust
Clean bathroom
Clean kitchen
Pay cheques in
Make shopping list (RUTH YOU MUST NOT GO TO THE SHOP THINKING 'OH I KNOW WHAT I NEED', WRITE IT DOWN OR YOU FORGET BY THE TIME YOU GET TO THE SHOP AND BUY THINGS THAT YOU DON'T NEED AND NOT THINGS YOU DO NEED)
Do food shopping (remember to buy tissues and toothpaste)
Write an essay plan
Do some reading for essay
Make cherry buns
Make curry
Make sponge pudding (maybe at same time as buns)
Phone Paul and Dad
Think about making Christmas cards
Go out for lunch on Sunday

Eggheads

2008-09-25T15:40:00.001+01:00

The Retrosexuals need to apply to this. They would be much better than most of the teams on there. And they could win some monies. Apply boys. Go on.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/beonashow/eggheads.shtml

Tea

2008-09-24T18:25:00.002+01:00

For my tea tonight I had a chicken, tomato and muchroom omelet. I always feel there is something a little bit wrong about eating chicken and egg together.

Thread

2008-09-24T15:30:00.002+01:00

I currently have my mum's old sewing threads sat on my table. Looking at them I realise that some of them are catorgerised by number and others by colour. The ones that are catorgrised by colour are called Filbert, Dark Elephant, Venetian Red, Old Rose and Gay Kingfisher. They are quite old sewing threads.

More playdough

2008-09-23T17:12:00.002+01:00

When I got to work this morning the playdough turned out to be brown. Either the playdough elves had been working on it overnight, or I was looking at it strangely yesterday. The event that required the playdough also went really well, which is good because it had the potential to really not go well.

Playdough

2008-09-22T17:40:00.002+01:00

Tomorrow I need some brown playdough. I don't have brown playdough, nor have I recently seen any for sale. I do however have several other colours of playdough. So I thought I would mix my own brown. No matter what colours I seemed to add to the mix, all I could make was a strange greyish-pink. I don't really understand this. Maybe I need to return to the colour wheel.

Pinch and a punch for the first of the month

2008-09-01T12:12:00.001+01:00

and no returns.

Mamma Mia

2008-08-29T16:18:00.004+01:00

I saw this film about a week ago. A lot of people had told me that I would really enjoy it, so I thought I should trundle along. I had not read anything about it, or heard anything about its storyline. I realise this was a bit of a mistake for me, because I like to know whats going on. I had gone with someone who had seen it a couple of times before. In the first 15 minutes or so they did have to tell me several times to 'just watch it' instead of asking them what was going on, and who was that, and what are they doing, and are they related etc. When I did know what was going on though I really quite enjoyed. I didn't feel like any of the songs had been levered in, which could so easily have happened. It had Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth in it, so plenty of eye candy, no-one seemed to mind a bit of singing along (although not many people outside of those I was with seemed to sing a long). There was a bit of it that made me cry. There were lots of bits that made me laugh. Some bits made me laugh a lot. I walked out of the cinema wanting to see it again on the big screen, I think that is quite a good indicator that I rather enjoyed it.

Greenbelt

2008-08-27T15:49:00.004+01:00

Over the weekend I went to Greenbelt. Normally you would stay in a tent at Greenbelt, but I have a friend who lives about a mile from where Greenbelt happens, so I stayed at hers. This turned out to be quite a good thing. The weather was a bit wet and windy and cold, especially at night time, the walk from tent to main bit of Greenbelt was a little way, and there were no showers and only port-a-loos. All very good reasons to be grateful for house staying in.

Here are some of my favourites bits of Greenbelt.
- Seeing friends I don't see very often.
- Watching a deaf dance group from Tanzania
- Woebegone Brothers. Three brothers, all very musically talented, amusing, good time.
- Brian Houston. Absolutely brilliant. Really funny, great songs, brilliant performer. Fightstar were meant to play after him, but they were late so Brian marvelously extended his set and filled in.
- African jazz band.
- Bumping into people I didn't know would be there.
- Pie Minster. Best. Pie. Ever.
- Beer and Hymns.

Bed hopping

2008-08-20T15:56:00.003+01:00

On Friday night I slept in a converted farm building in Wales, on Saturday night I slept in a vicarage in Preston, on Sunday night I slept in a flat in Derby, on Monday night I slept in a b&b in Youlgrave, on Tuesday night I returned to the flat in Derby. I will sleep in that bed for two more nights before sleeping in a house in Cheltenham. I've enjoyed doing different things in different places, but I will quite enjoy it when I am in one place for long enough for it to be worth me going food shopping and unpack my wash bag.

Music

2008-08-05T11:21:00.003+01:00

Stupid Paul has added another song to his myspace. It is of the kind of quality that we have come to expect of him.

In the last 12 days I have been to Soul Survivor, helped at a holiday club, had Rich to stay on his trip round the country, and had Ben and Leanne to stay for the weekend. I am just tyring to work out which bits of those things I share with the interweb world.

Sometimes

2008-07-23T11:48:00.002+01:00

Occasionally I like to read old blog post. Not just on here but on other people's blogs too. It reminds of things that have happened in the past that I might have forgotten about. It is a nice thing to do. It also makes me think I should blog more so that when I forget things I have a way of remembering them. The trouble is I just don't remember to blog.

Today

2008-07-21T11:41:00.003+01:00

I am a little bit sad today. Paul and Steve came up to stay this weekend. Now they are gone I am a bit sad. My flat feels all empty. There is no-one to cook with. Or to chat with. Or to play games with. Or to question as to who is responsible for that smell. Or to pop out on a little walk with. Or any of the things you quickly get used to when there are people around. I am also a little bit sad because I don't actually know when I am going to see them again.

I am a little bit happy today. I have only three half days left of working with someone who is hard to get on with. I have only three days left before going to Soul Survivor. It is only 10 days before Rich comes to visit on his trip round the country (he's doing it all for free, trying to not spend any money, and in the process raise money for the Christian Alliance Housing Association). It is only 11 days before Ben and Leanne come for a weekend of birthday fun. It is only 19 days until camp, that is going to be a whole load of fun. It is only 32 days until Greenbelt. There is a lot of happy making things coming up in the next month or so.

Top speeling

2008-07-15T16:49:00.002+01:00

This are some words I came across today when writing some things some 7 year olds had written.

fowd
noo
yooneform
scicesec
sayns

I was able to work out what they all said. This either means my spelling is not so great, or I have read a lot of things small children have written and have developed the knack of working out what they mean.

This made me do a little cry, but I am a bit soft.

2008-07-10T21:59:00.005+01:00

Right being a bit on the not bright side I can't work how to do this properly so you will just have to click on this here link. Try and have the sound on, although it's still good without.

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=8616c1559ab4221b3910

(ignore the last 30 seconds, he manages to turn something very moving into a 'give us lots of money' bit - some people eh!)

Yesterday

2008-07-09T11:06:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I did this thing called ‘having a birthday’ (my thanks if you sent birthday greetings). Now normally I don’t really like ‘having a birthday’. But yesterday I quite enjoyed it.

I think one of the things I don’t much like about ‘having a birthday’ is celebrating it. I don’t like having to do the thinking about how to celebrate, who to invite, and then actually doing the celebration. I do sometimes think about doing nothing. My fear then is that someone will either take over and organise something that I don’t want to do with people I don’t want to celebrate with, or that someone will organise a surprise. I dislike surprises more than I dislike ‘having a birthday’. So I normally sort something myself.

Last year I combined it with doing a ‘Ruthie is leaving’ thing, so that the focus was off ‘having a birthday’. The year before lots of us watched a film in the park and I got really rather tipsy (which took my focus off ‘having a birthday’.)

So this year, why did I actually quite enjoy it? Well mostly because I didn’t celebrate it. Very few people where I now live knew it was my birthday. Those that did know know I don’t like celebrating it, so let me not celebrate. No one mentioned it when we were in school, so the children didn’t know. I went to someone’s for tea, they just said ‘happy birthday’ and gave me a card, didn’t make any more of it than that. And then in the evening I went crown green bowling with people from church (most of whom had no idea it was my birthday). And so by not celebrating I actually had an incredibly pleasant birthday.

For those of you who think it makes me sound all rather boring, I am being made to celebrate this Friday, but it was organised all last minute so hardly anyone could come, so I can pretend it has nothing to do with my birthday and is just about a few friends having fun. And then there will be a weekend later in the month when I see family and so I might use the excuse of it having been my birthday recently to get them to cook me dinner and buy me beer, and another weekend next month when I shall be involved in a triple birthday celebration with some dear friends as at the beginning of the year we decided this would be more fun than buying each other presents. Somehow though, those celebrations being not that close to my birthday make them ok celebrations. So yes, this year I think I coped rather well with ‘having a birthday’, mostly by not having one.

I have got some new glasses

2008-07-07T13:19:00.001+01:00

I've not really got much more to say than that. Other than maybe I have two new pairs of glasses. They are both wider than my old glasses, which means I can clearly see more of the world around me.

Gareth wins

2008-06-30T20:45:00.002+01:00

Well done Gareth. You had the winning team. That makes you a winner! As your prize you can claim a hug off any/all the Armstrong's. I'm told the final was a good game. I couldn't watch it coz it made me feel too nervous. I watched Top Gear instead. It wasn't so funny this week, and there was a lot in about cars. Dr Who was good this week. Does anyone know if he actually regenerates? It's just that normally you hear about that kind of thing in the news, and I've not heard anything. Today I heard some of my least favourite words. They are 'with Scott Mills coz Chris is on holiday'. I don't like those words very much. But it does mean I get ready quicker in the morning coz I spend less time lying in bed listening to the radio.

Ring and camera

2008-06-27T17:06:00.004+01:00

About six months ago I lost a very lovely ring that my wonderful Paul had bought me for a birthday several years ago. I was rather upset that I had lost it. I had looked and looked and looked for it, and I had got other people to look for it in case I had lost at their houses.

A few weeks ago I lost my camera. Couldn't find it anywhere. I was fairly sure it was somewhere in my flat, but really didn't know where.

Today I thought I would just check those bags on top of the wardrobe in case I had taken my camera somewhere in one of them and left it in there. My camera was not in them. BUT my ring was!!!!! Yipeeeeee. Woohoo! Whoop whoop! I was so excited I did a little dance and then rang Paul to tell him I had found it. Hurrah!

As I went to pick up my phone from the base where it doth rest, right next to it sat there looking at me all forlorn was my camera!!! Double joy!

Footballs

2008-06-26T21:59:00.002+01:00

Listening to the footballs on my radio I found myself thinking 'ooo how exciting, we have an all Europe final'. I'm thinking maybe I missed the slight clue in the whole competition being called 'euro 08'. I blame this entirely on tiredness and not at all on lack of brain cells.

Bananaman

2008-06-23T14:42:00.000+01:00

Last week I got a Bananaman costume. It is possibly the most exciting thing I have ever owned. After my megaphone. I am very very excited about wearing it. So much so in fact that I keep on putting it on around the house just to have a little practice at being Bananaman. My life rocks!

Two football stories that amused me, taken from the BBC football gossip page

2008-06-20T10:16:00.000+01:00

Switzerland's railway staff will now wear yellow vests instead of orange ones after Dutch fans followed a worker onto the tracks as they thought he was a football fan. (Daily Telegraph)

French coach Raymond Domenech knows exactly why his side failed so miserably at Euro 2008. It was the team's hotel. "The layout of the hotel was all wrong," he said. "It was in a kind of cul-de-sac with only one route in and out. Plus, there were no proper directives from the Swiss about gatherings of people watching us eat." (Daily Express)

Footballs and non-uniform

2008-06-20T10:00:00.000+01:00

Portugal are out. Doh.

The school over the road from where I work has a non-uniform day today. If children come in non-uniform they have to bring in £2 or a bottle of wine for the school summer fayre.

Quarter finals

2008-06-18T09:09:00.000+01:00

Spain (Gareth), Holland (Steve), Italy (Paul) and Portugal (me) are all through to the quarter finals. Spain will play either Holland or Italy, so one of you will knock one of the others out, so to speak. I've not seen loads of the games, but what I have seen has been enjoyable and entertaining.

In other news, in my dreams last night I was engaged to someone, but I have no idea who. I'm not entirely sure I was happy about being engaged either, so maybe it was someone I didn't want to be engaged to, or maybe I wasn't happy at not knowing who it was.

The Apprentice

2008-06-11T12:35:00.000+01:00

Tonight I am going to watch the final of The Apprentice. I have been quite enjoying this series. I think it's only fault has been that Michael should've gone much much sooner. The interviews last week were rather interesting. Lee was maybe slightly daft to do his strange dinosaur impression, but I think if someone asked me to do something in an interview I would probably do it. It was interesting to see all those that had done the interviews not quite agreeing with each other, and there was no one clear person tat stood out head and shoulders above the rest. I was really surprised when Sir Alan kept four of them, so surprised that I rang my bro and asked him if he was watching. He was. And he graciously spoke to me for a few minutes before telling me that actually he was still tyring to watch, but couldn't with me wittering in his ear. So we put the phone down.

While I am looking forward to the final, I am wondering if the Radio Times is giving something away. On their website the description for tonight's You're Fired says 'we meet the two who almost made it but fell at the final hurdle.' So there are four people left in the final. We are expecting one person to be hired. The Radio Times are saying two people fell at the final hurdle, that suggests to me that two did not fall. I think the people most likely to win are Clare and/Alex. I think Helen is not so good, and Lee is OK but would be fairly annoying to work with.

Footballs

2008-06-08T12:40:00.000+01:00

Portugal won 2-0 yesterday. I saw the tail end of the game. It was good.

Steve is supporting Holland.

Euro 08

2008-05-28T12:03:00.000+01:00

Right so this year we cannot support our own country in the upcoming football tournament, so I think we all need a team to support to make it a little more interesting. I am going for Portugal. Who will your team be?

When I say church, you say quiz.......

2008-05-21T10:54:00.000+01:00

On Saturday I went to a church quiz. It was run by Littleover Churches Together, and so there were people there from many different churches. On my team there was me, two 16 year olds, a 13 year old and two people in there 40's. We were the youngest team there by a long long way, the rest of the room was fairly dominated by white haired type people. The quiz master was 20 minutes late, as the advertising in his church said it started half an hour later than it did. The first round was bible stuff - fair enough you think for a church quiz. He gave us the answer to the first question, not even by accident, he did it on purpose. The first question was, ‘what was the name of Isaiah’s horse?’ The answer to this was ‘Isme, because Isaiah said ‘Woe is me.’ It turned out the rest of round had answers like that. Another question was ‘what vegetable did Noah not want on the ark?’ Answer: a leek. At this point we wondered if we had come to a quiz or a guess the corny punchline evening. It unsurprisingly turned out that no-one got more than about 3 points out of ten in that round.

The quiz did pick up slightly from there. There were some good questions, many of which we could answer. We played our joker on a round that we got full marks on, so that was pleasing.

Round 8 was due to be a music round. We were unsure how we would do with this round as with this kind of round it often depends on who has put it together as to how easy it is. Had the quiz master have put it together it would have all been music from before when we were born. It turned out that someone else had put the round together. It also turned out that when they gave the quiz master the tape, they didn’t give them the answers. This was realised at about round 6, so the score person went off to see if they could get the answers. They couldn’t

Between each round they kept trying to get hold of the person who had put the music round together, to no avail. We did round 9 and round 10, in the hope that the answers to the music round (round 8) may come available. It was getting a little bit late by now, and some people wanted to go home. We were asked if we wanted to do the music round. Many people didn’t, but we thought it would be quite fun, and as the most vocal team, our voices were heard and the music round began.

The first song was All Saints, Pure Shores – I had half a thought that it was All Saints, but didn’t remember the song. Someone else on my team thought it was Kiss Me by Six Pence None the Richer, so that is what we gave as our answer. We had a few more bits of songs, most of which we knew the title to, and some of which we knew the artist to.

The sixth song was Sex on the Beach by The Venga Boys. It was a part of the song were they sung ‘sex on the beach’ several times. Now bear in mind for one moment the demograph of the people at the quiz (elderly Christians). We found the looks on their faces rather amusing. The quiz master clearly had no idea that song was on the tape either. The next song was Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys. Normally this would not be amusing, but considering the song it followed it turned out to be rather amusing.

When we got to the end of the round, the tape was played again in case we had missed any. That meant that we got to see the interesting looks on peoples faces again. By the time we had listened to it a second time, they had managed to get on the phone the person who had put the round together. She didn’t have a list of the answers in front of her, so for her to give the answers the tape had to be played a third time so she could listen to the songs and try and remember what they were.

I done a good answer to another of the songs. It was Octpus’s Garden, which is a song originally done by The Beatles. This version sounded quite Beatlesish, but I didn’t think it was them. Thought the person singing sounded a bit like Ringo Starr, so we put that as our answer and it turned out is was right! Another answer I knew and I was quite proud of (I think this was in the geography round) was ‘where does Postman Pat live?’
Anyway the main thing really that is actually important from the whole evening is that my team won – by a clear two and a half points. That was good. Our prize was 8 bags of left over crisps – whoop! (oh and btw it raised about £100 for Christian Aid)

Grace

2008-05-18T20:29:00.000+01:00

At church tonight we were thinking about grace, different aspects and all that. Sometimes I hear stuff in church and think 'yes, but how do I now apply that to my life'. This evening I had no trouble applying it to my life, I was sat between someone who really could not sing but still sang at a reasonable volume and someone with dog muck on their shoe. Undeserved kindness was definitely needed to be shown to both those people.

Forgotten

2008-05-14T15:13:00.000+01:00

I just thought of something to blog. It took me six clicks and 35 key taps to be able to blog. In the time that took I have forgotten what it was I was going to say. I will be back if I remember.

2008-05-09T11:19:00.000+01:00

I have forgotten to go on here a bit. I don't really have anything to say (part of the reason I have forgotten), but part of the reason is also that the Hayley Gareth type blog has been down, and that is the main way I access this little bit of space. So really I place any blame to be apportioned on Mark. I will try and think of something to say one day.

Dream land

2008-04-24T10:35:00.000+01:00

Last night I had a really strange dream. I was at some kind of largish Christian type event. It was no specific one I have ever been to, but did have parts of different ones I have been to. There were people there from different parts of my life who have never been in the same place a the same time. That is not so unusual for dream world I guess, but I can remember thinking in the dream that it was weird that these people were all in one place, but put it down to being at a largish Christian type event and the Christian world being small meaning that sometimes you see people where you would not expect, or find out that that someone you know knows someone else that you know but you never knew they knew each other.

One of the people in the dream was Hayley. I had gone on a long walk as all the food we were being served was either very expensive or had cheese and/or chocolate in. For some reason this meant I should go on a long walk. I then met Hayley, who was staying with some of her uni friends in some caravans (the nice kind) near a railway station (it was unclear whether it was disused or not).

They were staying in the caravans as it was the cheapest way to go to the largish Christian type event. Anyway, it turned out that they had been robbed because they had left a little window open. Two of Hayely’s friends had had everything stolen (undies and all). Hayley wasn’t too worried because she had only had a couple of things taken, and they were things she didn’t really like anyway. Right so none of this is the interesting part, I shall start a new paragraph and get onto it now.

Right we were at the largish worship gathering, there were lots of CYM (of the Ipswich variety) staff and hangers on there. We reached the ‘ministry’ part of the worship gathering. There were lots of people praying for other people. These parts of a worship gathering always make me feel uncomfortable and God has to poke me a lot if he wants me to pray for someone or be prayed for. We were being told to get into two’s and pray for each other. The people around me had all paired up and there was no-one left for me to pair up with in the immediate vicinity. Because of this and my general uncomfortableness at these parts of worship gatherings I sat down, with my knees up and my forehead resting on my knees so that I could peek out and see what was happening.

There were lots of people praying for each other and that was great for them. There was someone else sitting down next to me, and someone else sitting down next to her. I don’t know of they were praying for each other or not. From my peeking out position I could see Dave Pepper was going round praying for people. I thought that this was not a right thing to do because we had been asked by the important man at the front to pray in pairs and he was not doing this, and also he was not on the ‘ministry team’ and so had no right to go round praying for people. I thought to myself, ‘he better not come and pray for me coz he’s not following the instructions right and he’s not meant to be doing that!’

Anyway he prayed for the person sitting next to the person sitting next to me. She stood up as he prayed. He prayed for the person sat next to me, she stood up as he prayed. As the woman sat next to me stood up while Dave Pepper prayed for her I found myself standing up as well. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t stop myself from doing so. As soon as I stood up Dave came and prayed for me, putting his hand on the top of my head. I kept feeling like I was going to fall over, and thought I must have stood up too quickly and that had made me dizzy. Then I fell right over in one big collapse. I realised I had been ‘slain in the Spirit*’. Now this has never happened to me in real life, so for it happen in a dream was incredibly strange. I was shaking, was tingly, was warm in a glowing kind of way, and it felt like there was a huge sheet wafting over me, and like someone was giving me an all embracing hug. Dave stayed with me and kept praying for me until the experience had ended.

* this is not a phrase I am particularly comfortable using, I think it is because it makes it sound like a bad thing, slaying happens with dragons and knights and all that, but I looked it up on wikipedia and it told me this –‘when a person enters a state with loss of all motor control over their body and falls to the floor during an event perceived as a personal encounter with God's glory and power, usually associated with occasions of public prayer ministry when the laying on of hands is practiced.’ This description I feel comfortable with.

Nowt going on round here

2008-04-21T12:41:00.001+01:00

Paul's internet is not very working so you won't find him on here at the mo. I have nothing to say that anyone would particularly want to read so you won't find me on here at the mo. If Paul's internet gets fixed, or my brain gets fixed you may find something or interest here, but until then you just won't.

Holiday

2008-04-16T11:23:00.000+01:00

Right so i can't think of any particular funny anecdotes from my holiday. This may be because there aren't any, but it could just be that I can't remember them, or that in retelling them they lose all their funniness. Instead I will tell you some things we did when we were on holiday.
- Went paddling a few times in the freezing cold sea.
- Went for a full dip in the freezing cold sea
- Done dome walking places
- Saw some old ruins
- went to a pub or two
- Drank some Guinness
- Paid some rather high prices for food
- Paid for carrier bags
- Drove places
- Saw the Blarney Stone (but didn't kiss it coz that's just a whole load of rubbish)
- Got a tea towel
- Watched one episode of neighbours, and one episode of Eastenders
- Read some good books
- Cooked some food, and ate it
- Went on a bus
- Made a sand castle, using spoons and empty food vessels as we had no buckets and spades.
- Told lots of random dogs to go away
- Watched/listened to a rather good Irish singer man in a pub
- Chatted with a drunk Irish lady

I can't think of anything else now. You can see now that it might be that there just are no funny anecdotes to tell as this is a list of possibly not exciting things to do. Please don't go thinking we had no fun though because we did. It just wasn't anecdotally funny. Right now maybe I should do something that looks a little bit like work.

2008-04-14T11:19:00.000+01:00

Right so my excuse for not blogging is that I've been on holiday. I know that this means that so many people have been terribly disappointed that there have been no incredibly boring posts to read. Paul's excuse probably has something to do with playing the guitar and making some songs up or something. The real excuse should probably be studying. But I don't think it is. I know that the lack of Paul's posts means the lack of amusing things on here. I would apologise for this but lets face it, I'm not my brothers keeper. If I feel like it I might tell you some things about my holiday. Like where I went. Or what the weather was like. Or what food we ate. Or who I went with. Or what we did. But if I don't feel like it then I won't. If you are my Facebook friend you can find out many of these things without me telling you here thanks to the joy and excitement of photo's. Today is Monday. Hello.

Ricky and Bianca

2008-04-02T21:03:00.000+01:00

I had weaned myself off Eastenders, but thought I'd tune in to see the return of two great characters this week. They aren't half dragging it out though. This little video is more than we've seen of Bianca all week.

Shop door; further thoughts.

2008-03-30T21:43:00.000+01:00

Having thought about it, and having conversed with my occasionally sensible brother I am thinking that maybe a door that opens both ways would not be so good. The main reason for this is that if there is someone standing on one side of it who is about to open the door one way, and someone on the other side opens it the other way, then one of them will get a surprise and maybe a donk on the nose. This could lead to not happy customers, which would not be so good for business. A solution could be a revolving door, but as one who suffers from mild claustrophobia (due to a childhood dream involving a drinks bottle spout) I am not a huge fan of revolving doors. Maybe an 'in' and an 'out' door is the way to go.

Rather Dull

2008-03-28T18:51:00.001Z

Today for my tea I had baked beans and pancakes. I did not have these together, I ate the baked beans while I was cooking the pancakes. Also while I was cooking the pancakes Delilah by Tom Jones came on the radio, I turned it up loud and danced and sang a lot to it. As I made the pancakes I put them in a tray in the oven that was slightly turned on to keep them warm until I was ready to eat them. To eat each pancake I put the filling in and then rolled it up and then picked it up with my fingers and ate it all up. That is all with the exception of numbers 4 and 5 which I rolled up and then ate with a spoon.

This is what I had on my pancakes:

1. Peanut Butter and Maple Syrup. I really quite like Peanut Butter, and I am learning to like Maple Syrup. Together on a pancake they made a great combination. I would give this filling 7.8 out of 9.
2. Not Just Any Lemon Curd and Bog Standard Plain Yogurt. This was proper gorgeous. At this moment I thought things could not get better. If I had rated it at that exact moment I would've given it a 9 out of 9. In retrospect I think it should have a 8.6 out of 9.
3. Strawberry Jam and Plain Yogurt. This was even better than number 2. As I ate number 2 I thought nothing could be better than it, but this little number proved me wrong. I got no lumps in the jam, I think if there had've been a big lump it might have very rather spoiled it. This one received a top score of 8.9 out of 9.
4. Lemon Juice (fresh from the lemon) and Soft Brown Sugar (fairly traded). This was as tasty as any pancakeswith fresh lemon juice and soft brown sugar, proper tasty and all that. I give a score of 8.5 out of 9.
5. Same filling as number 4. This time with a rating of 8.4 out of 9 because the pancake was a little bit cooler.
6. Not Just Any Lemon Curd, Strawberry Jam and Plain Yogurt. I had no more new fillings to try at this point, so I thought back through the other fillings I had just had, and decided to combine the two best ones. For the first two and a half bites I thought that maybe I had made a big mistake, but for the rest of the culinary delight, I realised that no mistake had been made, but instead I had made a Thing of Great Delight. I ate it all up. I give this one a tip top score of 9 out of 9.

As I was eating these pancakes I had Hollyoaks on. It was either a bit of a dull episode or the pancakes were very good, because I can't really remember what happened in it.

If you have read all of that and found it Rather Dull I have no sympathy, the clue was in the entry title.

Shop door

2008-03-26T19:51:00.000Z

I was just thinking that if I ever owned a shop or restaurant or such like I think I would have a door that opened both ways, I feel that that would make it a whole lot easier for people using said door.

Hidey Seek

2008-03-25T14:15:00.000Z

We had a lot of fun playing Hidey Seek on Saturday. Me and Paul had had a sneaky game on Friday, but that was not as much fun as Saturdays game because on the Saturday game me and Paul and Steve and Dad played. It started when me and Dad got back from seeing the rather fantastic London Community Gospel Choir. I won three of the four games, and unfortunately lost the other game badly. My bestest hiding place was on the window sill in Steve's room. I had to stand a bit funny to fit on and not make the curtains stick out, but it was worth the funny standing. Dad was hiding in a cupboard in the next room. At one point he broke the cupboard a bit, and another point he did a big fart. I had to try very hard not to laugh when I heard both these things happen because it would have given away my hiding place. Paul was seeking for this game. Paul did possibly the best hiding place of all. It was the game I was seeking for, and I had to give up because I could not see him anywhere. He had hidden in the under stairs cupboard, right up in the corner kind of behind the shoe storage with a blanket over him (it is where the blanket is normally kept so it just looked like the blanket was there as normal). He had also pulled the hoover (it is really a hoover made by hoover, so by saying hoover I am not using a brand name to describe a generic sucking device, I am actually calling it by its proper make name) back into its normal place so it didn't look like anyone had gone in there. It was a good hidey place. Steve was the very worst, all the times he hid part of him was sticking out (at one point his whole head was not in his hidey place), which made him very easy to find. If I have spoken to you at all since Saturday night you will have already heard this story, I am not sorry you have heard it twice for I am sure you will agree it is a lovely story. The end.

Further injury

2008-03-19T11:27:00.000Z

To add the the overly bruised knee, I bit my tongue last night. It now has two lovely teeth marks in it and a couple of bits of flappy skin. I also feel quite sick today and have a headache, I am hoping that is just tiredness causing those two things, and not some bug or such like.

Completely unrelated, but a few weeks ago Paul and I realised that neither of us ever remember what out blog www dot is, but we do remember our friends so we go there and use the handy link they have to our blog whenever we want to post/find out what the other one is doing. So thank you hayleycornwell.com for having an easy to remember interweb address thingy.

Bruises

2008-03-18T10:05:00.000Z

I have five bruises on my right knee. I only know how I got one of them. Where have the other four come from? They are all in the general vicinity of the knee cap. I do generally bruise easily, but think that maybe I should've noticed bumping myself five times.

Sometimes people are not useful

2008-03-17T09:53:00.000Z

I had not told someone something as it would be rather unuseful for them to know this piece of information at this point in time (although they would need to know it at some point in the future). There were only three people who knew this piece of information. One of them told the person that I had chosen not to tell as it would be unuseful for them to know it at this point in time. Now I have to explain why I hadn't told them, and tell them more of the information than they would have needed to know when I was going to choose to tell them because this other person has told them some of the information. People!

I need someone to do nothing with!

2008-03-12T09:08:00.000Z

I found a website today that is advertising a CD of traditional nursery rhyme tunes with Christan words so that teaching children about Jesus is made much easier! In fairness it looks rather twee, but on the blog type bit of the website I did find this poem by Hazel Butler that sums up some of my thinking these days

I need someone to do nothing with!
To sit and just to be.
Someone who’ll accept me,
The simple, no-frills, me.
Someone who spots the difference
‘Tween grunts, a gasp, a moan;
Who knows when they should comment
And when to leave alone.

I need someone to pass the T-towel,
To turn the last light off;
Someone I hear breathing
Or give the slightest cough.
Someone who loves the silence
That sits between us both –
A mark of understanding,
Acceptance of our sloth!

I need someone who’s not frenetic
Or striving to achieve,
Not madly energetic
From morning until eve.
Someone who’ll smell the roses,
Light a candle, spot a shrew,
And boil two cobs for dinner –
‘Enough for me and you!’

I need someone to do nothing with,
Communicating love,
Accepting of the silence,
That frees my mind to rove ;
Exploring scraps of nonsense,
Inconsequential thought,
The dust that’s on the table
Or stuff that I have bought.

I need someone who knows the meaning
Of every breath exhaled ;
A groan that marks frustration
With plans that somehow failed.
A sigh of satisfaction,
Or a funny little thought,
A gasp ‘cos I’ve forgotten
To do something that I ought!

I need someone, when the day is done,
And crowd has been dispersed,
The celebration’s over,
And I’m looking at my worst,
Someone to do nothing with,
To unwind and relax;
To chew the details over
Of the feelings and the facts.

When I kick the slippers off my feet
And sink into the chair,
Someone to do nothing with
Is what I need right there!