Day 2

Some lessons learnt from the last day;

1. Adam White is an awesome muscial actor. The school play was really great and Adam made a great Daddy Warbucks, he can even dance!!

2. Belfast is still a beautiful city and Clements still make the best hot chocolate anywhere!!

3. Chinese food in Northern Ireland just tastes better.

4. Beth and I had a chat today we have officially moved beyond the DYO/young person into 'you're my brother's girlfriend' territory.

5. There is only one place to get kebabs, made with fresh hot naan bread - LaHore House Kebabs, Newtownards run by my old primary school friend.

6. Simon sucks at FIFA

7. Playing in a brass band competition is not my idea of fun........but the rehearsal tonight was a laugh and it was nice to have all the men of our family in a band together.

8. I love Karting, we went today as a celebration of Adam's birthday - I won despite my dad's best efforts to cheat me out of victory.

9. I am really blessed to have a great family, so far have seen my grandparents and one set of aunt and uncle hopefully getting to see the other tomorrow.

10. I really miss Christina, I don't like being away from her.

Homeward Bound

So I have returned home to Northern Ireland for a few days to celebrate a few things;

1. My brother Adam's Birthday he was 11 yesterday
2. My brother Adam's stage debut in 'Annie' he is Daddy Wharbucks - it's tonight.

Wednesday evening was spent in IKEA with Christina's brother Mike and his girlfriend Megan it was a lovely evening and we bought lots of silly little useless things.

A quick celebration from me. Air Berlin is really good!! Way better than "IronyJet' and well worth travelling on. You get a seat number and everything - I hate budget airlines!!!!

Over on Matt Leeder's blog there has some malicious talk of me being a blog bully, I'd like to refute these allegations fully. I am here to help those that stumble along the (blogging) pathway get back on track - it's a biblical principal and one for which I receive pathway but because of this "bullying" we have got to read some great thoughts from Matt L and his love for Chell and on some thoughts on Kids worship from Liz which are really worth a read.

I'll accept thanks and apologies in writing..........I also like cakes!!

There's a pot and a kettle somehwere who need some mediation.......

So after weeks of giving people a hard time about not blogging I realised I hadn't blogged in ages!!

The last few weeks have been busy and exciting. I had the annual officer's retreat which was a great few days away and this past week we celebrated Christina's 25th Birthday by buying a rabbit!!

Yes after 24 years of never having owned a pet I decided this was the time to buy a rabbit. We tried a few pet shops which I discovered no longer means 'shops that sell pets' instead 'shops that sell all manner of things for pets and to do with owning pets but not actually pets'. So we eventually found a lady selling two mini lop rabbits (floppy eared was Christina's only tick box in buying a rabbit) and went to buy a hutch and then tochoose a rabbit.

We arrived at a lovely farm to be met by the owners who were really nice and introduced us to the 2 rabbits for sale. Firstly was the larger, healthier rabbit. Now because it was freezing and getting dark Christina decided to wear a t-shirt on out trip and so was unable to hold the rabbit as here arms were bare, I on the other hand had a jumper and coat on and so was handed he rabbit to see how we got on;

We got on well!!

And so we met rabbit number 2 and this time I declined a hold instead choosing to admire her from a safe distance (after all I didn't want any of the blood currently pouring from my face to spoil her coat). So we selected her and brought her home to live. We orignally decided she would be an outdoor rabbit but having tried that for 2 hours and barely being able to contain the guilt she now lives inside where she is already getting used to us all being around and is already showing signs of being litter trained. And so I live you with Elfie (named after the wicked witch of the west which is no slur on her rabbit character......she was misunderstood.......you need to go see 'Wicked'

A very boring round up

Well this weekend's been and gone and it's been another busy one (a recurring theme).

We headed to the Midlands on Thursday for Christina's grandma's funeral. The funeral was on Friday and was a really fitting farewell to Kath. One of th most moving moments was the reading of something called 'Kath's covenant'. She had written this over 20 years ago in a meeting and it was a statement outlining her desire to give God the keys to every aspect of her life. It was beautifully written and was clearly something very important to her as over 20 years later she still carried it with her in her handbag. It was also incredibly inspiring to note that she'd written it in her late 60's and clearly wasn't about to let age hinder her from making a new and fresh commitment to God.

We came home with Christina's parents on Friday evening and were joined by The Mitsons and Leeders (roll on December) and played some games.

Saturday was the ROOTS YaYA team day and having missed the team meeting on Friday I was feeling underprepared for this day. We arrived in good time and I had a chance to catch up a little with the latest stuff before the day began. It all seemed to go really well and the Bible study from Chick was a real highlight of my day....week.......month......2007. Full of inspiring and really challenging thoughts, the folks in the Big Top are in for a treat!!

Saturday evening Christina made fresh soup from scratch (very healthy) and I made chocolate caramel shortbread (not so healthy) the whole cooking process was supervised by Glyn who did very well except for allowing Chris to stab herself while chopping swede (the vegetable not Henrik). The meal was lovely!!

Sunday was church and we're continuing our 40 days of purpose. I played drums (it's a rare thing for me to play at my church) and I really enjoyed it. Matt L, Ben, Dave and I formed a little combo to play for a couple of songs and so far today no e-mails or phone calls to complain - Good Times!!

This week, lots of jobs to be done and stuff to be written and I'm aiming to be very productive. Early mornings, 3 good meals a day and exercise...........I'm just finishing breakfast number 1 - chocolate caramel shortbread!!