Date: 21 December 2005 16:50:26
Being without a phone line is a good thing, it means I don't waste time and do lots of constructive things instead. Not. I miss daily internet connections SO MUCH! - 29th Dec seems like forever away! (and BT, in their *cough*efficiency-and-accuracy*cough* have sent me a new letter to replace the letter I called the call centre about (see a couple of entries ago) and it now has the right name on it, but the email address and password which they had previously got right are now wrong! Gah).
Anyway, all sorts of things have happened in the last few days. I picked up the essays, and have now been through a few of them with a couple of the lecturers, where I discovered that they are a lot more generous than I am. But I think that generally it will be OK, and they said that my comments seem fair and that I'm on the right lines. I saw a couple that will probably get an A, and one which is an absolute shocker of a fail. They *must* have not turned up to any tutorials, as God knows I've given them enough guidance. What I didn't tell them (and which I shall definitely have to do next year) was that they need to spend lots of time gemming up on the correct use of apostrophes. I can see this is going to really wind me up - one essay kept referring to "the Baltic's". The Baltic's WHAT????????? Grrrr.
In other news, my stuff finally arrived on Monday. I was expecting the removal guys to arrive at lunchtime, so you can imagine my joy (not to mention panic and general disgruntlement) when they rang the bell at 7.45AM!!!!! So I sent them packing to get a cup of tea whilst I ran round like a headless chicken getting dressed, removing the final bits of masking tape from the living room (which now looks lovely - I painted it in Homebase Stone, following chalky's suggestion - after the first coat I still wasn't sure, but once I'd done a second coat I'm really pleased with it) and generally flapping. My only minor mishap on the decorating front was that the living room windows are now permanently shut - whoops - but as the only openable bit is right at the top I'd have needed to climb a ladder to open them so they always were going to be shut more often than not anyway. Anyway, the Stately Pile is now chaotic but at least it's nice chaos and it feels much more homely now, though there's still a lot to do. The lovely derf came round yesterday evening for a tour and wine and general affirmation that it DOES have potential and isn't a disaster, she was my first proper visitor (the workmen don't count). I shall have to be more sociable in the new year when it's a bit less chaotic.
I also went to my local Episcopal church on Sunday, and it was LOVELY. It was more traditional than I'm used to, and I was sad that in such a large church building there were so few people, with nobody much other than the curate and one other person that I spotted my sort of age, but what they lacked in numbers they more than made up for in friendliness. One guy told me how nice it was to see a young face in the congregation :D (it's so nice to be considered young, that doesn't happen so often these days!). I found myself being introduced to all sorts of people, and others coming up to me and introducing themselves, it turns out I was at a table over coffee with one of the women whose gift seems to be welcoming and introducing newcomers. There was a lady called Pam at my last church who always did that too - for my first several weeks at the church she would always make a point of introducing me to people, and I felt that I'd really arrived when she started introducing newcomers to me! Anyway - I'm sure that's definitely where I'll end up, though I'll check out a few other churches in the new year as there are a number within walking distance, and if nothing else I did say that I'd do some more Mystery Worshipping. I only once (I think) found myself thinking "I still miss Christ Church, I wish I was there instead ...", but I think that's natural, and I'm sure that as I get to know St N's better it will feel more like 'home'. At least the communion wine didn't taste like cough mixture ;)
The curate's sermon - on the Annunciation - was excellent, definitely food for thought. She started with a question which I think others have considered over the years ("What if Mary had said 'No'?") but then took it in a different direction, wondering if in fact Mary wasn't the first person that God had asked over the years, but was the first who was prepared to say 'yes', and I loved the image of God continuing to search for others to say 'yes' to him but never forcing himself - waiting for the 'yes', for our consent (Mary over in "A Raid on the Inarticulate" - see my links, left - has included a poem which also explores this theme). It's left me thinking a lot about my own life, and how aware (or not) I am of God asking permission of me, even before I think about how ready (or not) I am to say 'yes'.
It was a very spiritual weekend, as on Sunday evening I went up to the city centre to a service run by the Iona community, this happens once a month for most of the year. The church where it is held has an amazing sanctuary, and I enjoyed the songs too. The first half of the evening is in the form of workshops where you discuss issues, and the second half was the worship. It seemed to me to be very similar in some ways to Greenbelt (the toilets were much better though!), and I must admit it did strike me (as Greenbelt does too) as sometimes a bit earnest, but I think I'm getting really cynical in my old age, so I'll keep going to the meetings as I need to move beyond cynicism to seriously engaging with God and life and the world, and I think this is one likely way to at least make me think seriously about the issues.
Phew - that's a lot of stuff!
PS Ian - sorry for the haggis confusion. Check out the Haggis Hunt link (left) to find this annual seasonal procrastination-fest, but beware it gets very addictive! Congrats on the 'cremation' - I loved the photos!