| • | July 2008 |
| • | August 2008 |
Wednesday 2: The we:Network 'soft launch' at lunchtime - lots of good networking, as expected. Then sit down with Philip Nott and a potential new trustee to talk about our statement of faith. Not something I've had to do before.
In the evening, David and Karen speak at the Global Partnerships meeting at Highgrove about their trip in January to Uganda, and they talk about the work Romans is doing there. I knew much of the background but it is wonderful to hear more details and see pictures of the people.
Thursday 3: Sue and I have massages in the morning, then Sue drives up to Warwick to bring Alan home. Ian wanders off into town, a bit vague about when he will be back.
Sue drives some bits round to Alan's new house, and them comes back, loads him up and they come home. Ian rings: he is round at a friend's house, it's late, can he stay?
Saturday 5: Prayer meeting at St Edyth's this morning, but I can only go for the breakfast because we are driving up to Guildford and setting off at nine, in theory. We actually set off soon after half past, which is not bad going.
I drive and Sue talks with the boys about sorting out what we want to do in the holiday we're planning to take to New York and New Jersey. On the way, at one point we are all splitting our sides: Sue mentioned a new lad, Simeon, who will be starting at Ian's 6th Form College in the Autumn, and we suddenly discovered that Ian does not ever remember seeing the name written down, had assumed it was spelled 'Simian' and thought it was a cruel name for parents to give their son...
Arrive in Guildford just before the schedule of 12 noon, Sue drops us off at the Cricketers and goes to pick up David Race. Very pleasant meal and then back to David's for coffee and a solid session of catching up. David also gives Alan his 21st birthday present: a well-presented set of four Escher prints.
We also manage to stop off at the Prydes for a short while on the way back, deliver a small birthday present, and do some catching up with Steve and Sally.
Sunday 6: After the morning service, off to St Edyths for a barbecue. Not that many of us go, which is a good thing because we are horribly late, and they are just finishing when we begin to arrive. Oops.
In the evening, there is a secret drink for some of the men in the church, to celebrate Adrian passing his flying licence. For some reason, it has been rescheduled for 9pm - the original plan was to meet at 7pm. Paul kindly picks me up just after 9, and the men's final at Wimbledon is still playing on the radio. I have no interest in sport or tennis, but the atmosphere is clearly electric. The match is won just after we park, and discover that Adrian and John, who arranged the celebration, have parked right next to us, also waiting for the match to finish.
Over a pint or two, I have an interesting, and at times disturbing, conversation with Mike about the right way to treat the people who make up CCM's clients. He believes the loving approach is to be nasty to them, so they will change their ways.
Monday 7: Alan's birthday: he is 21. We gave him his cards and some presents last night, as for some reason he didn't want to be woken up before we leave for work this morning.
CCM Trustees in the morning: low numbers again. I think several people failed to note the changed date for the meeting.
In the evening, Claire from One25 was addressing the Saint Pauls Unlimited Community Safety Partnership meeting. She describes the comparative numbers from June this year and June five years ago, and we are pleased to hear there are significantly fewer prostitutes on the street and in the squares now. But one lady tears into her, with essentially the same argument as I was hearing last night: if you are nice to these evil people, they will continue to destroy the lives of ordinary, good people; the only answer is to be nasty to them and discourage what they do. She fails to understand that the best way to discourage what they do is to be nice. Their lives are already incredibly painful and unpleasant: they know how to handle that; what they need is some hope, some help to believe that it really can change.
Tuesday 8: To the doctor first thing. Tell him the results of the consultation two weeks ago. I failed to get the prescription yesterday, so he can't give me the injection, but he gives me a prescription for the bone strengthening pills.
Thursday 10: A joint CET BCAN event this morning, with Professor Glyn Harrison on 'reaching men' - nothing new, but a very well presented and thought-through event, and clearly much of it was new to many of the leaders present. I just wonder what, if anything, will be done as a result.
Mark Howe arrives while at Woodies, and I join Mark, Steve and Sue at Valentino's for a lunch that is, as always, informative and entertaining.
Friday 11: Back to the doctor for my injection. He has received a letter from the endocrinologist, confirming my report of the event. He agrees that it doesn't make sense that he can explain to me, but this is what we have to do for the time being.
Saturday 12: Volunteer training in the morning, the last of this series. Sue drives me in then goes to work, picks me up afterwards, and we have a bite of lunch together, fill up a printer cartridge, and visit the Health Club where Sue uses the gym while I sauna.
Then we head off to Morrisons for the weekly shop, following the list that Philip emailed to Sue at work in the morning, and we are still there when John Stevens phones me to say he will be late picking me up. We arrange to meet up an hour later than orginally planned.
John's daughter drives us to the pub and picks us up again afterwards. We have an immensely enjoyable time, picking over the book by Naomi Klein and related topics. Must do it again.
Monday 14: Sue is now on the second part of her sabbatical leave. I drive in to work early for a meeting with Olly and Ailsa, but Ailsa fails to turn up so we go back to York Court and chat for a bit about what can realistically be done to help homeless people more effectively in the current climate.
Tuesday 15: Housing Strategy Group in the morning. The most interesting bit is the new Homelessness Prevention Strategy: I identify a number of fairly obvious flaws with the new document, and this results in some concern but also some surprising denials. There is not a strategy to raise the barriers to homeless people accessing the help they are entitled to, and there was no problems in the production of the strategy. We agree to meet up again outside the meeting to discuss some of these issues more fully.
Thursday 17: Drive Caroline Virgo to Portishead for a very useful BCAN Steering Group meeting. Then in to work - was supposed to be working from home, but various bits need to be cleared away before I disappear tomorrow.
In the evening, Sue and I take Esme off to see the Thornbury Amateur Dramatics people perform in aid of One25. Several entertaining pieces, but the best was a monologue by Peter Tinniswood. The star of the evening was the cat, stalking along in front of the actors and looking at the audience, clearly telling us to depart.
Friday 18: Alan and Philip go on the train to London; Ian, Sue and I squeeze into the car with all the luggage. Sally the Satnav tries to take us through the middle of London, but after heading down the A329(m) to Bracknell, it suggests we try the M3 instead of going all the way down to Guildford. We try this, and it works much better.
Alan and Philip meet up with Roger at his work, and travel with him on the train to Eltham. We all meet safely at my parents house.
Saturday 19: The plan was to go on the Thames Ferry between the London Eye and Greenwich, but this doesn't work out too well for various reasons. We have problems parking, and go on the Greenwich version of the Eye, only in Greenwich for a few months. Afterwards, we enjoy the Painted Hall.
Sunday 20 - Wednesday 30: Our holiday in the USA - details will eventually be posted on the 2008 Holiday page.
Thursday 31: At 11, Father drives Alan and Philip to the station to get a train up to London, and Sue, Ian and myself leave in the car to drive home. It's a long but uneventful journey. Sue drives most of the way, and I take over at the last break. Alan and Philip are back before us, and the long process of unpacking and sorting begins. I help for a while, Sue drives off for some urgent shopping, and a little while later I walk up to Graham's house for a CCM prayer meeting.
Friday 1: Sue and I have 'Biobank' appointments in town at 9am, so we drive in and park at the Gallerys. We get ourselves checked and measured. No surprises, except that they think I am 5 ft 9 in tall, when I have always put down 5' 8" on forms. I thought you were supposed to get shorter with age? Sue drops me off at work, and goes shopping.
While we are having our medical check, Alan and Philip are being picked up by Mark Howe and taken off for a weekend in Southport for a session on programming virtual reality worlds.
Sunday 3: I am doing the words at Highgrove this morning, and it is nearly a total disaster: nothing displays on the projector. I fiddle with all the controls on the computer, but nothing works. Re-boot. Again, nothing. Eventually I locate the projector settings, and it is not set to display from the computer. At this point, it is just a few minutes before the service starts, and I have not entered the play list. But we manage to get everything set up just in time.
Tuesday 5: Up at 5 for a coach to London for an NEF workshop and consultation on how to solve the problem of homelessness. They changed the venue and time, so my coach booking no longer works: I have to get off at Earls Court and dash to get the Underground from there to Canary Wharf. Amazingly, I arrive just after the 9:30 start.
It is an excellent day, possibly the best I have yet attended. the presenters were fine, the material they were presenting was very high quality, and the feedback from the people present was also very helpful. I have issues with one or two details, but overall it was a great time.
Part of the day was the presentation of some research they had done on the cost of getting work, and how to ensure that people will want to get work from an economic point of view. Very important material - what is really getting in the way of more people getting employment?
The logistics, however, did not work. The original plan was for the day to finish at 3 pm in central London, but the revised plan finished at 4:30 in Canary Wharf. So my 5:30 return ticket was no longer a relaxed end to the day. What made it worse is that we were nearly ten minutes late finishing, so I only had 50 minutes to get across London.
With hindsight, this was an amazing journey. From the conference room on the 39th floor, a lift was waiting to take me non-stop to the ground, then I walk to the Underground station and straight on to a train. Change at Westminster, and, again, when I reach the platform there is a train for me. Even the traffic lights on the road are working in my favour. I literally don't stop from the time I leave the conference room to the time I am at Victoria Coach Station. There is just time to buy a coffee and sandwich, then I walk straight on to the coach. Someone was looking out for me.
Friday 8: Annie and Simeon arrive in Bristol for a visit. Annie is a friend of Rosemary Jenkins, and Simeon her son. Annie is about to start at Trinity this Autumn, and Simeon is about to start at the Redcliffe Sixth Form Centre, with Ian (assuming he passes his exams...). We buy an Indian takeaway and some wine and take them roud to their new flat. Very pleasant evening.
Wednesday 13: Sue and I have lunch with Andy and Gay Paget. The original plan was to go round to their house, but their floor is up at present and various bits of work still in progress, so we meet at The Huntsman instead. Decent food, very reasonable prices, and excellent company.
Thursday 14: Philip gets his results: 'A' in Maths, Maths and Physics, 'B' in Psychology and Law. We are very pleased. So, not surprisingly, he is off to Warwick in the Autumn, joining Alan there for one year. He also has a 1 in a STEP paper he took last year; this year he got a 2 in one STEP paper and somehow failed the other. But overall, we can't complain.
Philip goes out in the morning to get his results, and then disappears with his friends. He doesn't come back for tea...
Friday 15: Philip comes home soon after 6 am, after staying the night with a friend. But he doesn't wake us up.
I take the day off work because Sue and I plan to visit Abbey House Gardens, Malmesbury, today. We intend to arrive when it opens at 11, but are only driving in to the Long Stay car park by the river just after 11:30, and it is full. We drive away, find a spot to park on a roadside and walk back, so it is midday before we are finally at the gardens.
It is a beautiful day. We have a coffee, then wander round the upper, more formal part of the gardens, and make friends with a lovely and very active tortise. One oddity is that there are various pieces of sculpture, but they don't say who created them. They have a raised fishpond by the coffee bar, which contains a large number of the largest fish I have seen. One black fish must have been over 2½ feet long, and kept sticking its nose out of the water in a most menacing way.
After lunch, we wander down the slope and explore the rest of the gardens, including a waterfall and a delightful metal fish with a fishing rod and a small man.
The weather is almost perfect: dry with intermittent cloud, but not too hot for Sue in the sun. A degree or two warmer would have been even nicer, but you can't have everything, and considering the weather we have been experiencing recently, it was brilliant.
We finally leave about 5 and wander around Malmesbury. We were there a few years ago, but it was at the time when Sue was experiencing her dizzy spells and she does not remember much of that trip.
I finish writing up 'phase one' of the report on our recent holiday: the bare details are there, but I plan to go back over it and fill in some more when I get time, and add some links to some photos if possible.
Crisis Centre