I was waiting to calm down before writing this......

....but I haven't yet!!

For the last few weeks I've been going to gigs, TV recordings and parties. I've met lovely people and had a lot of fun. There's a long story of meeting people and getting invited to stuff that ended up 2 weeks ago with me being at the recording of a new sketch show in London. I got into conversation with the assistant floor manager and before I knew it he had very kindly offered me the chance to come and work on the show the following week.

And so last Friday I went along to the studios at 8.30am and had an amazing day working there.

When all was said and done I got invited back this week and so tomorrow will once again be the floor runner.

I've been asked a lot by friends and people who I met if I enjoyed it and my answer is always the same. Sometimes when you want to do something for a long time with no success when it finally happens it can be a let-down. Last week was the opposite, I loved it, all the waiting around, all the getting food and drinks, all the nice people, all the crew, all the laughter and all the great conversations.

Amazing!!

Mr Leeder look away now

Last year we went skiing and after much umming and ahhing (great NI phrase for you all) I decided to ski instead of snowboard. This was mainly down to my good friend Matt Leeder who really wanted me to ski. I had a great week learning and really enjoyed the experience of skiing......but something was missing.

My ski mentor and all round great guy Roland Spencer told me halfway through the week that he thought I should give boarding a go. He couldn't explain why but he felt I should try it.

Anyway I put the thought to one side and assumed I would be back on the slopes this year on skis but now things have changed.

I really want to try snowboarding!!

So I've asked Christina to buy me a day pass at the snow dome in Milton Keynes for Christmas to give it a go (well.....8 hours) to see how I feel about it and get ready for April in Les gets.

Only time will tell but whatever happens ski or board I will be proudly wearing this bad boy

A week of many parts

The last week has been full of experiences.

All of these have been positive (even the ones that didn't feel that way at the time). I enter this week to come with new hope for a number of areas in my life.

Today at carus we looked at influence and prayed for influential people around the world and ourselves and the influence we have each been given. It was a really helpful time for me and was the culmination of a number of decisions and conversations I've been making and having recently.

This week is full of opportunity and as I head off to bed looking forward to tomorrow I leave these words from Henri Nouwen:

"All the great spiritual leaders in history were people of hope. Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Mary, Jesus, Rumi, Gandhi and Dorothy Day all lived with a promise in their hearts that guided them toward the future without the need to know exactly what it would look like. Let's live with hope".