Wednesday, May 31, 2006

 

Fellowship and the Body

Sally thanked me today for encouragement. I don't feel very encouraging - in fact, I feel in need of some encouragement myself. I went to bed a little down last night, and had a chat with Moo, where she identified the main point at issue, and what I've been wanting to write about since then. Now I've got down to it.

Fellowship: it's what's missing in my Christian life at the moment. Maybe in life more generally. On the more general side, we've never had a great number of friends: more a few that we are very close to. Since Jo, we've been out less, and over the past few weeks, a couple of things have happened which means that we've seen even less of our best friends than usual: Si and D have bought a caravan, and are enjoying themelves away a lot over weekends, and the weekends when they've been around, we've been out doing other things. That's just one of those things, and we're getting to the stage where we know we should be getting out more, Jo's settling down better at night and, crucially, we can afford a babysitter from time to time. We've got some other friends we need to catch up with, too, so that's out of the way.

On the other piece, then. Since starting the ERMC course, I have a peer group, and I really look forward to the weekends when we get together. There was a blip a couple of weekends ago, but I had such a good time last month that I'm really looking forward to this coming weekend. John, my spiritual director, is very good for keeping my feet on the ground and helping me to iron out the wrinkles, tutorials with Alan show me how to apply theology to ministry, and supervisions with Keith are about integrating things.

But I don't feel fellowship, really. I make it to some services locally (though with lots of family visits at the moment, ERMC and my trip to Canada a job interview, probably not enough). I feel welcome and at home in our local church, but it's a small congregation, and it doesn't feel like home. In order to feel part of the Body of Christ - for me, now, at least, I want to feel closer to some of the members. Sally's helping. I need to call on a few more members of ERMC. Unluckily, noone lives near me from the course. I'd go to evensong at King's from time to time, but I don't want to miss Jo's bedtime, or make Moo have to do all the work on her own.

Not helping, also, that I'm snowed under by assignments, and I'm sure that the uncertainties of a new job provides more unsettlement (is that a real world?).

I shouldn't whinge ("Whinge" was nearly the title of this entry), but I am. I decided early on in this blog to attempt to be as honest as possible about how I feel at any particular time, so that's what I'm doing. Thanks for listening - or just ignoring, which is probably what I need.


Tuesday, May 30, 2006

 

DNS done - exim4 still difficult...

Says it all, really. Thanks to Andy for the help with DNS. Still struggling with exim4.

Some interesting discussions with Sally yesterday. Little sleep, just one of those things.


Monday, May 29, 2006

 

Godfather visitation

Got up, had some breakfast, went back to sleep. Didn't get huge amounts of it, as Jo spent the night with us. More nice time with Jen, Jake and the crowd, and then a fried lunch. Collected all the clothes, baby gyms, etc. for Jim and Nina's expected (July 1st, last we heard), and headed back home. Moo and Jo slept for quite a part of the way, but the A12 exit was closed from the M25, so we had to make a diversion via the M11 and A120. We also detoured into Braintree to see if we could find a Citroen garage (I'm thinking about a new car), and stopped at a Tesco's for some food for the week, so by the time we got home, we'd been on the road for 3 hours.

Rain, thunder, and power cuts. Didn't get the machines powered down in time, but no harm done, it seems. Need to get apcupsd (?) configured correctly.

Before the power went, I'd got an email from Simon, Jo's godfather in the UK (as opposed to the one in China), asking for some computing help, so he came round for supper (home-made beefburgers, backed beans and bread), and we had a good chat. He's got a new job next term, and is still over-working. Not sure how we can stop him doing that. Anyway, hi, Simon!

Started work on an exegesis of Matthew 3:1-12 this evening, then blog. Speaking of which, Sally's is particularly worth looking at today (which it always is, of course!). I stand in awe of her energy and what she manages to do! I hope to learn lots from her over the course, and wish I had something obvious to offer in return.

No sign of Tosha's little daughter yet. Stick with it, girl.


Sunday, May 28, 2006

 

Off to Jen and Jake's

(backposting) Up fine and went to church with Jo: Moo had a lovely lazy morning in bed. We had an early lunch and headed straight off to Jen and Jake's. We'd managed to keep Jo awake (just) all morning, so she slept well in the car, and we had a good drive down to West Norwood.

A lovely time with everyone: Jo just loves spending time with Turtle, and is great with little Mouse, too. She always comes away with more vocabulary and more attitude: this time it included "lide" for "slide" and "lay" for "I want to play with ...".

Unluckily, all that playing didn't get her very sleepy, so she was up with us till around 11pm.

I blogged a while ago that I won a chocolate fountain, and we tried it last night. Two problems: there seems to be a problem with the bearings, so it makes a noise like you wouldn't believe; oh, and the chocolate tasted rank. I'm hoping that we got a bad batch of chocolate: we can always change that. Maybe the bearing's a bit more a problem...


Saturday, May 27, 2006

 

Catching Sally up...

Huzzah - I've now got two of the four assignments done for mid-June. Sally - worth checking whether it's 3 or 4 we have due in, though I know that it may well be different for you. Anyway, having done lots of reading last night, started it this morning, and finished it this evening, despite lunch out and a trip to Colchester zoo. It helped that I chose Ecclesiastes 3:1-13, a text that I'd already studied earlier this term (this is allowed - even encouraged - so I'm not cheating!). Fascinating, and I'm really pleased with what I've produced. I'm also pleased to have got a "popular culture" reference in again: last term, I managed to get U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb", and this time it was The Byrd's recording of Pete Seeger's "Turn! Turn! Turn!". OK, so popular culture's pushing it a bit these days, but it's well known, and it's hardly academic.

It was raining - hard - at Colchester zoo, and (unlike Moo), I didn't have a hat. Jo kept lowering her anorak hood, presumably in sympathy with me, so we both got very wet hair.

Fi, my godmother, phoned today, to chat and catch up. She looks at my blog from time to time, and it's nice to feel that she keeps in touch that way.

Don't think I've mentioned it before, but Jo's now saying "please" and "thankyou" (well, it sounds like "dup", but it's the best she manages most of the time) quite a lot. At the right times, and she knows that she's supposed to. Now, if we can only keep this up.

Oh, and I managed to get her to say "geek" today, which made me rather proud, in a sad kind of a way.


Friday, May 26, 2006

 

How wrong I was

After reading Sally's blog and making a call to ERMC this morning, I discovered that I was wrong, very, very wrong. Although I've finished one assignment, I still have three more to do by June 16th, and then another one for early July. Gulp. Better get moving...

Thursday, May 25, 2006

 

Finished an assignment

So, the first one's done. Only two more to finish before the 18th of so of June, and then one more by mid July, but it's feeling more doable now, particularly as the one I've just finished - about using online tools for exegesis - was one that I'd had real trouble scoping.

About to start work on the second - an exegesis on Ecclesiastes - then another early night, hopefully.

D has been offered, and accepted, a job in Cambridge 2.5 days a week teaching AS & A level biology. Go, D! Oh, and we realised that we missed her birthday, which was a couple of weeks ago. Whoops.

Things finally seem to be settling down, thank God. I'm not having to travel to Switzerland next week, which really helps, but with Carolyn back, Moo's job really beginning to come together, and a few deadlines being extended at my work, things are on the up.


Wednesday, May 24, 2006

 

Bedtime earliness

(backposting) The main reason that I'm backposting this is that we went to bed very early. In fact, we were asleep by 2200, which is really quite early, even for us. We're both quite tired, and need to catch up a bit, and are hoping that a few nights like this might help.

Jo had a temperature for a lot of the day, and we suspect that it might be because she's reacting to the MMR (not as badly as Digi, though, I'm pleased to say): this is quite common a week in. She's fine otherwise, but we weren't sure early afternoon-ish, so I went home early. No problems, in the end.

I've started one of my assignments, and I'm maybe a little over halfway through - it's a guide to how you might do exegesis using solely online tools. I'll probably post it when it's done.

Last, and least, I've decided that if I'm going to be working from home more, I need to sort out some bits and pieces on the home network. Current plans include:

Should keep me busy.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

 

Exegesis seminar

(backposting, because I was back late) Busy day at work, getting some work done on a couple of RFIs/RFPs (never sure when something is one and when it's the other). Managed to find a few minutes to get my phone working with the work 802.11 wifi AP using WPA. Was initially having problems, but it turns out that the AP's a little flaky, and keeps going down.

Did I mention that I've got Google Maps running on my phone? Doesn't make sense to use it with 3G (cost) (or even, perish the thought, GPRS (speed)), but with wifi, it's brilliant. And I do mean Google Maps, and not just maps.google.com.

Had a seminar (last one of the year!) in Stowmarket today, on exegesis of the New Testament. I wasn't entirely happy with it, for two reasons which I'll try to elucidate. Neither of them is really a reflection on the course - and certainly not on the teaching - but more on me, and where I'm coming from.

  1. the first reason comes down to the fact that I've got a bunch of languages that most of the people on the course don't have, just due to my academic background. The first, and most obvious in this context, is Koine - New Testament Greek. My first instinct is always to go back to the text - and as close to the original text as I can. So I really want to use the Greek where possible. An example from the pericope that we were looking at yesterday is that a Greek word in it is translated in all of the English versions at which looked as "lift out". In fact, this misses a huge amount of meaning of the story (Matthew 12:9-14, if you're interested), because the word used is closer in meaning to "raise". More importantly, it's a word which is very common in Matthew's gospel - the word (or versions of it) is used 36 times in all. So, anyone reading the sotry in Greek would have realised that an allusion was being made to Jesus' resurrection, because it's the same word used for that. But we really couldn't go into this. In the course notes, we're also advised not to use older translations of the Bible, mainly because the language has changed quite a lot from, for example, that used in the Authorised ("King James") Bible. But I know that language very well, so I think it's actually probably quite a good place to come from. The same goes for the Latin (the Vulgate Bible): my Latin is good enough to follow it pretty well, and it might be able help to tease out some of the issues around the Greek on occasion, or just to provide a different view on how a passage is used from time to time. So, this isn't a complaint, just a commentary on the fact that there are areas of the formal process which I should probably be adapting for me.
  2. the second reason is rather different. I was trained at university - particularly during my time reading English at King's - to take a very particular view of text, and to be very aware of how we read texts, and how they affect us. A lot of the approach that we tend to take when doing exegesis is very modern - or should I say, is firmly rooted within a modernist agenda - and I tend to espouse a more postmodernist approach. I'm unhappy lending too much weight to authorial intention or capability, and more aware than most, I guess, that we face real dangers if we try to impose our cultural expectations on the texts that we're reading - or if we do so un-selfconsiously, at least. This is all fine, but I need to try to work my way through it. Interesting.

Monday, May 22, 2006

 

New phone

Yay! It arrived: my new Nokia N80. It's brilliant, and I've even got most of it working with Linux. Not dial-up networking yet - but I'm trying from home, and it's not obvious why I'd bother with nasty slow GPRS anyway. Wifi access is pretty cool, it has to be said.

The main problem is a serious lack of ogg players for S60 v3. I'd naively assumed that S60 files were just compatible with each other, but no, no, no.

Still, pretty pleased: syncing with Lotus Notes, amazing, seriously amazing camera.

Told people at work today - and they were very nice about it. Difficult to stick with it, but pretty much managed it, which is good, as we're busy.


Sunday, May 21, 2006

 

Driving around

As Jo hadn't got much sleep, she was absolutely knackered this morning, so I was commandeered for chauffeur duty, and drove around Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire for nearly two hours so that she could sleep for an hour and a half. She was better, but by then, _I_ was knackered (particularly as I was in bed pretty late). Got back, had a doze, which helped.

We had a lunch at which Jo ate her own body-weight - hold that - probably more like _my_ body-weight in chicken, roast potatoes, carrots, strawberry frozen yoghurt and rhubarb crumble. She just kept on and on eating, to the astonishment (and, at time applause) of the collected multitudes. I've literally never seen anything like it. She sat on my knee, using a grown-up fork (and fingers, when that failed, as it did from time to time) and just ate. Wow.

When we got back, and after Jo was on her way to bed (Moo put her down, as usual, so I was able to carry on with other tasks), I did an exegesis on Matthew 12:9-14 (the healing of the man with the withered hand). I rather enjoy exegesis, and it's good doing it on a New Testament text, because it means that I can go to the original Greek and use that as a tool. There's one word, in particular, that is inconspicuous in the three English translations we were given to look at - "lift out" and "pull out" are used, I think, in reference to whether one would leave a sheep in a pit - but which, in the Greek, is a key one for Matthew: it's the word "ἐγερεῖ", which is used when talking about Jesus being raised from the dead.

Started thinking about bits and pieces I need to sort for the new job, and I'm getting excited. Laptop, travel insurance, business cards, stuff like that, but I love it.


Saturday, May 20, 2006

 

Nana's 90th

Had a great time at Nana's 90th birthday part in East Leake today. As always, Kate did a great job on the catering front, and a lovely time was had by all. Jo, in particular, got on so well with Turtle and Mouse, and was a star. She didn't get to bed before 2300, but there was so much going on that this was no surprise.

Nana's quite frail, and keeps falling and hurting herself, but there's been nothing serious as yet, and she's certainly all there mentally. All of her grandchildren were there bar Peter - whose wife is expecting their first any time now - and all three great-grandchildren were, too.

Didn't say evensong this morning, but as I was awake from 0315 (thanks Jo) to 0530, I said morning prayer then instead.


Friday, May 19, 2006

 

phone and job

So, it happened, finally. Yes, I phoned up Orange upgrades, and the Nokia N80's available for upgrade customers. £49.99, but that's fine. So excited.

Very busy at work.

Oh, and Certicom came up with an offer which I've accepted. And I handed in my notice. That was very hard, because Peter (my boss) really feels like a friend, and I know it'll make things difficult. I'm glad that a 2 month notice period will allow us to sort things out. Peter's going to tell people at work after the weekend.

Phoned Tosha, who's frankly bored of having a cold and being very pregnant.

Spoke to a variety of people about the new job, including Kate, Jim, Poll, Si. Tried phoning Mum and Dad, but they're apparently not yet at their hotel, so I emailed them on the boat (they're on a Swan Hellenic cruise, where Dad's lecturing). I'm feeling very happy about the decision, but, bizarrely, rather more excited about my new phone on Monday that the (rather intangible) new job stuff.

Tomorrow? 90th birthday party...


Thursday, May 18, 2006

 

offers

(backposting) A busy day at work today, which was good. I was hoping to get an offer that would work today. Got one that we needed to work on a bit. At least work kept me busy.

Had a good tutorial with Alan this evening. Some work on exegesis on Jeremiah and Ecclesiastes. Alan's agreed to continue next year as my tutor, as well, which I'm very, very pleased about.

The offer never arrived. Gulp. But I spoke to Anna (HR from Certicom), who explained that she was just waiting for sign-off, so I wasn't too worried.

Lovely to see Jo this morning. I'd actually spent some time with her last night, but that wasn't the plan...


Wednesday, May 17, 2006

 

proper work

(backposting) A major meeting today with other members of a project we're bidding on. Cancelled my flight, and took the train with the others, and spent some good time talking to John.

Heard, on the train, that Certicom were planning to offer me a job. And so I had a few calls with them, trying to sort out the details of the package. I'd already told Moo that it I was offered the job, I was minded to take it, as long as she was happy, and once I got home, we had a good chat about it all. The main issues are:


Tuesday, May 16, 2006

 

back in the UK

(backposting) So, I've obviously never been away to Canada, oh no. Really not. I've been on holiday, of course.

Managed to get an earlier flight to Plymouth for a meeting in the evening (before a sales pitch tomorrow). Met John from work and some people from the project, and had a good evening - even if supper wasn't as good as we'd hoped. Got some sleep on the plane and in the hotel, so felt vaguely human. Good preparation for the meeting tomorrow.

On a side issue, over the time I've been away, I've been rather pleased with myself for keeping the daily office going. Some days, it's been morning prayer, others evening prayer, but I've managed - mainly thanks to the Gideon's Bible in hotel rooms.


Monday, May 15, 2006

 

on holiday - hmm

(backposting) So, I'm still officially on holiday, but I'm still being interviewed by Certicom. Pretty much everybody from Certicom, starting at breakfast with David Sequino, and then on from there. It all went pretty well, and I felt very positive.

At the end of the day, I headed off to Toronto airport, and flew back home. Well, to Heathrow, anyway. Life's significantly weird.


Sunday, May 14, 2006

 

Sunday, so find a church

(backposting) I woke early, but had got maybe 7 hours over the entire night, which was excellent. I decided to try to find a church, and after some ridiculous confusion about where things were (and over a 3 mile walk), I ended up at The Church of the Holy Spirit for the 0830 communion. I turned up expecting it to be Roman Catholic (from information provided by the hotel), but the fact that the presiding priest was a woman was a bit of a give-away that it might not be. Praying for Rowan Williams and the Anglican communion sealed it.

Bizarrely, the sermon included some issues about changing jobs: God loves messing with coincidences, it appears. I had a good chat with Judith, the incumbent.

Then, to the first interview, with Darryl, at the Intercontinental. A good start. A couple of hours of nothing to do, so I went up the CN tower, and even managed to stand on the glass floor. Only just.

Then I drank some tea in a cafe, then found a church (St Andrew's, where there happened to be some people practicing for a service later on. There, singing, as Julia Churchill (I _think_ this is the right blog). She's a fantastic singer, and the band was good, too. I'm not usually into the sort of music they were doing, but I found it really inspiring, and wished that I'd been able to stay for the service.

After that, a meal with Micke, Harri, Johan and Gil. A good meal, and a great chat - I began to feel that I might fit into the company.


Saturday, May 13, 2006

 

Canada - really?

(backposting - sorry that I've not been able to blog until now (2006-05-19), but you'll see why...) This morning, we spent some time with the lovely neighbours from the Londis shop next door clearing some trees, shrubs, etc. that were up against their wall. Had an interesting chat with Bik about being a Sikh, and various issues around Christianity.

In the afternoon, we started watching the Cup Final (Liverpool vs West Ham). Managed to teach Jo to say "'Pool!", which is, bizarrely, traditional.

And then, around 1630, I left to fly to Toronto via Heathrow. I listened to the end of the match, and Liverpool won, in the end: yay! Phoned Kate - less sober than you might expect...

So, in a plane to Canada.

Why? Because, on Monday, I had a contact from a head-hunter for Certicom. After some discussions, on Thursday I agreed to fly out for a set of interviews, because although I'd not seriously been looking for a new job, the opportunities from both a salary and career point of view just made it impossible not to consider it. So, I flew out to Toronto, and arrived a little before midnight. Slept for about four hours on the plane, which is good, and then to the hotel.


Friday, May 12, 2006

 

gadget envy

It's an ugly thing, but I'm suffering from it badly. First, Moo's MP3 player that I very kindly bought her arrived at my work today: a Samsung YP-U1 512Meg mp3/ogg player. It's lovely, it really is, and the sound quality's amazing. I'm sitting in her office while she puts files onto it.

Second, the Orange website moved the Nokia N80 out of the "coming soon phones" section to the "now available" section. So, obviously, I immediately phoned the upgrade group. Only to find that they're only available for new customers for now, and that it's like to be next week before they're available for upgrades. Grrr.

Tosha asked about phone blogging. If your phone can send emails, you can set it up so that you send an email to a particular address, it recognises that it's come from you, and it adds it to your normal blog. Pretty neat, really. Didn't work the other day, though, so I had to copy it all in by hand. :-)


Thursday, May 11, 2006

 

Home nice and early

Managed to get home much earlier than expected from the meeting in Wembley, which was due to last all day, but finished around 10am. So I was home around lunchtime (though I forgot to have lunch...), after a rather slow trip round parts of the North Circular (ooh, there's a change). Lots of people wanted to talk to me on the phone this afternoon. Hmm.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

 

Take that...

(backposting) Had a full day's meeting today, went well. Finished a little early, did some writing up, had a beer in the hotel bar, didn't fancy the restaurant buffet. So, I asked the reception for advice on where to eat, and they suggested the Ugly Duckling near Wembley arena, about 5-10 minutes' walk away.

Indeed, not too bad, and friendly staff - but on the way, I passed many, many women. In their early 30s, mainly. All heading towards the arena.

Why? Take That concert. If only I'd known, I could have tried to get a ticket...


Tuesday, May 09, 2006

 

North Circular

You know it's bad when you're blogging via your phone, from your car, stationary on the A406 at 2328. Apart from that, the day's been fine. Got a change in day-to-day responsbility on a major project which has moved to a new phase, helped finish off a re-arrangement of the office, that kind of thing. Moo wasn't back till nearly 2100, and I had a nightmare trying to get Jo to sleep (cough and teething), so didn't leave until 2135. And now I've been here for 40 minutes.

Recently there have been a couple of important things that I've felt unable to blog. One because it's personal and confidential to someone, and one because it would frankly be unwise. I do try to disclose what I can, but there are limits. Importantly, neither of these things are issues that I need to hide from my family or best friends, so I feel able to ask for support where relevant. From the beginning of the process of blogging, I've made the decision to keep what I can fairly anonymous: on most occasions, those mentioned will be able to identify themselves, and sometimes friends, but on the whole I think it's safest to leave it at that.


Monday, May 08, 2006

 

Bit more time, a little less tired

I'm feeling rather embarassed and shamed by Sally's blog. I'm sure she was just as tired as me, but has found time to write lots more about the weekend: and even to write a comment on yesterday's entry (hi, Sally!). Like me, she's rather worried about the amount of work that needs to happen in the next few weeks: looking at the dates on the ERMC website, I note that two assignments are due by the 19th July, but that the two reflective pieces have another month. This is an immense relief.

Briefly on today: left home late, after showing Cheryl around. She seems to have had a good day with the Jo, and will be with us until Thursday - and quite possibly some or all of next week, too. As I was late into work, I had to stay a little late, too, so missed Jo's bedtime, but that's life, sometimes. I'm off to Wembley for an audit tomorrow, but won't leave until at least 2100, I suspect, so at least I'll be able to put her to bed, which is a treat. In fact, I've only done it once before on my own, as Moo's always been around before.

A little more on the weekend, then. What things spring to mind?

Well, that's a bit better, isn't it? I'm sure there are more things I should talk about, and I'll try to make more of an effort to be theological, but I'm so busy, to tired...


Sunday, May 07, 2006

 

Tired

Up too late again last night: my own fault. Group work on Paul's approach to talking to non-Christians in Acts, then an "informal" (but liturgically "safe" Common Worship) eucharist based on charismatic principles. I generally rather enjoyed it.

Back home, where Jo's got a bit of a temperature, and seems to be teething again. Heigh-ho. Cheryl came around to meet us, and will be nannying for us this week - quite possibly part of next week, too.


Saturday, May 06, 2006

 

Prison, hospital, banksy

Some very interesting sessions indeed today. They included one on prison chaplaincy, one on hospital chaplaincy, and one on using art and media in Christian apologetics. This last was by Ian Mobsby of the Moot project, and was fascinating. He talked quite a lot about the work of banksy, which I'm going to try to follow from now on: very provocative indeed. Ian comes from a similar place methodologically to me - lots of post-modernity engagement and semiotics - though he clearly has a visual and design language that I completely lack.


Friday, May 05, 2006

 

Off to ERMC

(backposting) Off to Ditchingham today - left work just after lunch, and just made it there in time for a seminar on exegesis. Was pretty much what I expected, so all was well.

Our group D has a new member, Iain, who seems very nice, and once he'd begun to get his feet (he'd never met any of us before, nor had he had a chance to look at the preparatory work), the group work seemed to go well, and he had stuff to say. The theme of it was the extent to which the church can (and should) engage with popular (or "contemporary") culture, and the possible models of interaction.

Good to see the old crowd, and up late (as usual) having some drinks.


Thursday, May 04, 2006

 

At last - a nanny

Well, it was all looking rather bad until I managed to contact Cosy Toes, and they phoned me back in the middle of my exegesis tutorial (I don't think Alan minded) to say that they might be able to help. And, true enough, they've found Cheryl, who looks interesting from her CV. I've sent it on to Moo, who's at her parents (again!), and if she's happy, she's going to try to get together with her on Sunday to see how they get on. Cheryl could do next week and the week after, so we might be covered.

ERMC tomorrow - it's been a while, and I hope it goes well. I'm looking forward to seeing a bunch of the people there, so that, at least, should be good, and we're working on pluralism, which is a topic of particular interest to me.

Si took me out in his new BMW cabriolet. Wow! Felt slightly sick afterwards.

Oh, and Jo fell down some stairs for the first time today: at Kate and Mac's. Apparently Moo was much more distraught than she was, but all is well now. All rather horrid.


Wednesday, May 03, 2006

 

Mad busy

A very, very busy day today, not helped by a couple of emails from my boss wondering why I was saying I was so busy, when a couple of tasks came up. I've dealt with that, I think. Not helped by the fact that he's not very keen on people working from home, which is what I've done today. I think I probably actually got more done at home than I would have done at work, but hey.

Jo did a cool thing today: Kate and she went out to the swings, and when they came back, Kate asked Jo, "what did we see when we went to the swings?" To which Jo answered, "ducks." It's the first time I've seen Jo respond to a question about her experience of the past, which is quite a big conceptual leap. Go, girl!


Tuesday, May 02, 2006

 

All going horribly wrong

I phoned Carolyn this evening just to make sure that she's OK to come back tomorrow, only to discover that she's not. It's getting to be such a nightmare that it's actually funny.

Luckily, Kate can come down again, so that's what's happening.


Monday, May 01, 2006

 

Butterflies and drakes

Butterflies, because we went to a butterfly place on the North Shore of Rutland Water. OK, but really not worth the 4.50 quid each to get in - at least Jo was free. We had a nice meal (hogroast) at a pub in Wing beforehand. I then drove back home (we'd had two cars), and Moo carried on to her parents with Jo. Our childcare arrangements are, admittedly, very complicated, but they should improve this week.

Drakes, because the other thing I've done today (apart from tidy the house a bit, make some supper, watch a bit of TV and do an exegesis of Genesis 9:8-17, obviously) is to install and configure Dapper Drake (a Ubuntu distribution version) on a server which I've commissioned. It all seems to be pretty much working, with one very minor tweak that I need to do. Very happy, and much less stress than expected!


This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?