Mike's musings

The Shepherd's Pie of Lurve

Tonight, I made a shepherd's pie, and I wouldn't want anyone to be under any illusions: it's a shepherd's pie of lurve. Best of all, it should last for at least another 2 nights. Whether that means that it'll be a shepherd's pie of lurve for two other nights, who can tell. In fact, Jo may have something to say about it being a shepherd's pie of lurve tonight. And it's not as if I'm going to tell you guys and gals anyway, but hey.

Watching X-factor at the moment, and there's some excellent talent, some excellent talent (of the other type), and some real dross. Which reminds me: I don't like Elvis Costello, I really don't. And his name is misleading: Elvis is/was very good, and is/was a star (not to suggest that he's still alive). But Elvis Costello isn't. And never has been. At least with Luther van Dross the clue is/was in the name.

A good day today, as you may be able to tell. Apart from the period between 2:30-3:30 or so, Jo slept very well. I took Jo down in the morning when she woke up, and Moo slept some more. And she (Moo) even had a sleep this afternoon when I took the Jo out for a walk. We went out in the morning to Halstead (note: Jo's childseat does fit in my car, but only very just indeed) and bought some presents for Turtle and Voldy (Jenny's new baby - see blogs passim) who we're going to see tomorrow. We both did some bits and pieces during the afternoon, and Jo played like a star. Her latest trick is to make a break for the step down from the garden room. She can now crawl at speed, and you really have to be on your guard. I've tried starting to teach her that she _can_ use the step if she goes backwards, but it's a little too much to expect her to realise just yet that she needs to turn around as she reaches the step. Over the last two days, however, she's down a couple of other new things:

1. a new type of talking - less babbling, it sounds more like real words
2. we've got a toy thing that we're borrowing from Jen and Jake which is aimed at older children and comes with some plastic balls, which if you drop them in a hole in the toy, drop down through some holes in a jolly sort of way. We've done it lots of times, and she likes watching it, but today, she tried a couple of times to put the ball into the top hole on her own. We were astounded: she's not even 7 months old. What a genius child she is.

We're very much looking forward to seeing the new baby tomorrow, and it's particularly nice that Kate and Mac (Moo and Jen's parents, and my in-laws) will be there as well.

On Monday, I talk with Keith, my supervisor for the ERMC course who works with me on the pastoral (non-academic) to look at my "training agreement", where we come up with some areas where I can hopefully learn and grow over the next year. I hope that it's going to be an interesting evening - I'd written some notes, but left them in Moo's car, which is still being repaired, after a week dead (more below). There are a number of areas in which I know I need to grow - or would like the opportunity to do more work - working with people with mental health problems or developmental difficulties, working with offenders, working with the elderly - but I really don't know firstly how realistic these are, or even if I have any gifts in these areas. Much to discuss, certainly.

I'm not sure if I ever said what the problem is with Moo's car: the cambelt went. Unluckily, so did the (please tell me if I'm making this up, but this is what we think the garage said: we might have forgotten) cam drive shaft, cylinder heads and head gasket. Or something like that. Anyway, about 1500 quid's worth. Bugger. Arse.

Music today

• Ain't Necessarily So - Bronski Beat (The Age Of Consent)
• Suede - Electricity - Various Artists (Fresh Hits 99 CD2)
• Saint Saens / The Carnival of the Animals: The Cuckoo in the depths ofthe Woods - Classics for Children (CD One)
• Only A Nothern Song (1999 remix) - The Beatles (Yellow Submarine Songtrack)
• Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - The Tears Of A Clown - Various (The Greatest No.1 Singles - Disc 1)
• Paperclips - Travis (12 Memories)
• Columba Aspexit - Gothic Voices (A Feather On The Breath Of God - Sequences And Hymns By Abbess )
• 1.3: Air: "Si les doux accords de ma lyre" (L'Amour) - Gluck (Orphee and Eurydice (1 of 2))

Just had a thought: as it's made with beef mince, and not lamb mince, maybe it should be a cottage pie of lurve. But the whole cottaging thing isn't working for me, so I think we'll leave it there, thank you.