Paul & Sue Hazelden
- Family News -
July 2011 Onwards

July 2011

Thursday 7 July: Sue is on MSN talking with Philip when he hears that they have found Tom in another hostel. Lots more details - he still has not reported his passport missing yet - but it looks like they are starting to get themselves sorted. Sue decides to come out to Keynsham with me after all.

I have my supervision with Dave Wiles - he is helpful and insightful as always.

Saturday 9 July: the final Saturday volunteer training session before we start again in September. It's always an emotional event saying goodbye to people at the end of these courses.

After the session, Clive, Gay and Val get in a car, and we all drive over to the Triangle. Next problem is that the car park entrance is closed, so we are part of a group of cars turning round and finding the other entrance.

We find the car park, and both park quite easily. Walk round to Cosmo and find Sue waiting for us - she has just arrived, after catching the train to Clifton Down and checking out the local charity shops.

We are warned that we only have 45 minutes or so before the food ends, but we think this will be fine. And it is: we have a splendid time, both the food and the conversation. Clive slightly surprises us by telling us that the latest update from the hospital is that his cancer is 'more agressive' than previously. It sounds like they don't expect him to last much longer, but he probably has not been given any specific timescale. Despite this, the conversation is encouraging and uplifting.

After the food is over, Sue and I ask if folk would like a coffee. Yes, they would. So we take them round the corner to Papa Deli, the café at the RWA. They still have the wonderful photographs in the main seating area, and we sit talking and drinking for most of the afternoon. It's a long time since we last sat just talking and relaxing with friends. We must do more of this.

Eventually, we wander back to the car park. Gay drives Clive and Val home, and Sue and I head off to do some shopping.

Monday 11 July: over to Parkway Methodist in the afternoon to do a short talk for their lunch for the local elderly people. Very friendly and welcoming, but one or two of those old ladies were quite sharp about analysing the value of our work. Unexpected but stimulating.

The local Neighbourhood forum meets at 6.30. We are telling people about the planned Wet Clinic, and giving them the opportunity to talk to us about our plans. Alan does a good and brief introduction, then we man a table. No challenges. A few people coming up to be supportive, and a couple asking for some details to clarify what we are planning. Nobody upset about it at all, which is very good news.

Thursday 14 July: I am working from home today, but have also promised to give Ian a lift to his new flat. He started renting it from 1 July for one year, and we are taking Naomi's things to the flat in order to make more room at home. Parking is dreadful: it is just off Whiteladies Road, close to the Clifton Down shopping centre. But we manage - I stay with the car while Ian runs in with Naomi's stuff. I don't actually get to see the flat, but no doubt there will be other opportunities.

Do a bit more work, then in to the office to print off a number of documents for the Homeless Forum in the evening, and a bank statement for Martin.

Friday 15 July: Meaningful Occupation Group in the morning. Lyn from Aspire shocks the meeting by announcing that her job is disappearing. We talk with her afterwards, and nobody can quite believe that both she and Don are losing their jobs. As someone comments, they are the only two people who make anything happen at Aspire. It sounds pretty much like the beginning of the end for Aspire, which is very sad.

I'm running later than planned, so straight off to the BCAN steering group. A useful meeting, which unfortunately clashes with the lunchtime CCM prayer meeting for this month.

Back to the office for a couple of hours while Sue has a physiology appointment, then she walks over to Stapleton Road and we head off to the Orpheus to see the latest and last Harry Potter. We love it.

Saturday 16 July: down to Sea Mills station to catch the train in to Lawrence Hill. A couple of our coffee shop volunteers are on the platform; he is there to wave his wife off, so we sit together and have a fascinating but troubling conversation about children's access to x-rated violent films and games. She tells me about showing a film about the Holocaust to some school children (year 9?) and the boys all responding with how great that was, so many people killed - can they watch some more? Of course, in their games, the more people you kill the more successful you are. In such a universe, a concentration camp must be a wonderful achievement.

Off the train and walk over to Carpenter House. Finish preparing and printing some documents for the trustees and staff and our strategy day.

It is hard work, but in the end a very good day. Some useful work updating our strategy documents and thinking about governance, but the key discussion gives us some clarity and direction on the future of 12 City Road. It looks like we won't sell after all.

We finish an hour late, at 4.45 pm. Sue drives over and picks me up, then we head off to Newbury and Philip Peacock's 50th birthday party.

The party seems a tremendous success. They have dreadfully over-catered, of course. Some interesting conversations, but for much of the evening I sit and listen to the music, a welcome relief after the sustained concentration of the discussions through the day.

When we leave, we take Philip's parents to the 'Ramada Newbury' - the hotel where they and we are both staying. We have a very nice room, by the entrance and away from the main house, but the Internet access is not working. On the other hand, they do provide Redbush tea.

Sunday 17 July: in the morning, we use the spa facilities. They have a swimming pool for Sue and a sauna for me.

We drive to London - we are back at the Old Rectory, but in a different room this time. Stop off to collect the keys and drop the bags, then on to my parents. My father is pleased and surprised to see us, which is par for the course these days - it doesn't matter how often he has been told we are coming.

Thursday 21 July: long day. FareShare board meeting 8.30, which involves a very early train. A couple of other meetings during the day, and then down to the Crypt at Woodlands for an evening of Prayer for Social Action. Very good time: enthusiastic prayer, well led, and useful networking afterwords.

Friday 22 July: Sue goes to the Physio in the morning, then in to work and a couple of meetings.

Leave work a little early, and drive up to London. Boys get the train, as we are not going straight back to Bristol.

Saturday 23 July: breakfast and straight out. Instead of going directly to my parents, we go to the railway station to pick up tickets for the afternoon. However, the sat nav takes us on a strange detour away from the main road and the direct route. No idea why: the route is fine when we drive back.

We have booked to see the 'Lion King' stage show to celebrate mother's birthday. All eight of us drive to Eltham Station, Roger and I park the cars and walk back in good time to catch the train.

The journey goes well: we don't lose anyone, and father only repeats his questions about where we are going and why, occasionally getting a bit irritated when we repeat a detail he remembers.

We have decent seats, two sets of four, one in front of the other. We put the boys - the tallest members of the group - into the back row, along with Roger.

The show is just astonishing. Very close to the film, far more than I expected, and it is worth coming just to see the design of the animals and how each one is worked. And the stage is wonderful - it does so much. Never seen a stage act its heart out so well.

Ian's reaction to the usual Disney nonsense is great: this whole 'circle of life' thing in which everything belongs sounds really good - every creature belongs: from the highest to the lowest, everyone has a place, except, of course, for the Hyenas, who just don't belong here.

Back home on the train, then order a Chinese takeaway for a change. Mother reluctantly accepts that it doesn't make sense for her to cook.

Sunday 24 July: breakfast, pack and leave the Old Rectory. We get to my parents in time for coffee. The boys and Roger start playing a new game Alan has brought.

Back to the George and Dragon for lunch. Another excellent meal and friendly service. Ian is disappointed by the lack of a starter, but it is a fun time with the three boys and my parents and brother: the three boys together always have an interesting conversation, and Roger adds another dimension.

Too soon, we have to head off. Roger takes Alan back to the station, and Sue and I take Philip and Ian.

Holdups on the motorway, so we change our plans several times. The question is whether we can get the boys to a station in time to catch a train to Bristol which connects with the last Severn Beach service. The first plan is Swindon, the second Reading, and when this fails we revert to Swindon and they miss the connection.

Despite this, we bid them goodbye and drive on to Wooton Basset and the Howes. The rest of the journey is fine, and we find the place easily enough: a group of holiday homes on a golf course. But we don't know which one, and Mark is not answering his phone. There is a set of keys waiting for someone in the reception, but they don't know if we are the the people who are picking them up.

We drive round, seeing if we can spot a car with French plates, but then we get a call and are directed to the right house. Mark had been asleep - they did not expect us so soon.

We unpack, then do up to the reception and the gym. Sue goes in the pool, and I use the sauna. Not terribly warm. However, the steam room is the second hottest I have ever experienced, and more than makes up for the tepid sauna.

Monday 25 July: a late breakfast and a lazy morning. Mark cooks us an early lunch, then we drive off to visit Cirencester. Visit a few shops, find the museum and decide to come back another day.

Coffee and ice cream, then the Abbey gardens, and a quick tour of the church. They have a labyrinth in the Trinity Chapel. They have a leaflet about it, which is probably trying to say too much or too little. "At the centre we encounter God. Here and everywhere is the presence of Christ..."

Back to the car, a quick trip round a supermarket, and home. Sue goes for a swim, then we watch 'New Tricks' together.

Tuesday 26 July: we spend the day in Avebury. Sue and I had been before, but it is Mark & Susan's first visit. It's still an astonishing place.

Wednesday 27 July: the four of us visit Farley Hungerford Castle. An interesting visit, with well presented stories about the different areas of the site and the different people who lived there over the years.

Then we drive on to Bristol. Sue does her Spanish lesson while I show Mark & Susan around Carpenter House and take them into Cabot Circus - built long after they left.

Thursday 28 July: lunch together, then Mark goes back to do some programmming while Sue, Susan and I go back to Cirencester and do the museum. The first few galleries are terribly warm and close, and I persuade the others to take a break and get a drink in the café before continuing. This is very welcome, but we don't have time to finish a large part of the museum before it closes. Maybe we will get to return some time. In the autumn, they have a picture exhibition which would be worth visiting, so it's a possibility.

In the evening, we watch a DVD Mark & Sue have brought: Invasion. A remake of the classic film, or perhaps a new interpretation of the original book. Nicely done.

Friday 29 July: we aim to be out of the house at 10, and are only about 20 minutes late, despite Susan going out first thing to post her book back to her mother. We drive off to Oxford, find the park and ride, and catch the bus into town.

An early lunch - very nice panini. Sue and I go up the Carfax Tower while Mark and Susan wait at the bottom. It is steep and narrow, and the third stage is very long, but the view from the top is wonderful.

Wander round Oxford, visit several tempting bookshops. In one, I browse the postscript to Pullman's ridiculous book about Jesus: he throws out the challenge to all Bible believing Christians to try what he calls a 'thought experiment' - if you could go back in time and prevent the crucifixion, would you? And, if not, does that not not make you no better than Judas? Two obvious responses: firstly, your logic is somewhat mistaken; and secondly, no, I don't think I am better than Judas - that is rather the point of the gospel message. God loves me despite my sin, not because of my goodness. It really is quite astonishing.

Over another coffee, something reminds me of the old question about colour I keep asking: how do we get to a circular three primary colour model from a linear spectrum of frequencies? We spend most of the rest of the afternoon throwing this one around. In the end, Mark satisfies himself that it makes sense on the basis of the colour receptors in our eyes, but I don't really follow how.

It costs lots of money to go in the Cathedral, and there are long queues, so we walk around it instead. Look for a cream tea, then give up and buy the necessary bits in Sainsbury's before catching the bus back to the park and ride.

The satnav does another odd diversion as we leave the car park: it sends us left, when we should have gone right, then almost immediately tells us to turn around and go the other way. The rest of the journey is fine.

When we get back, there is no power in the house. And none we can see in the other buildings around. We walk over to the reception, which is also in darkness. A bit of a clue. The are expecting an update from the power company in about five minutes, and the restaurant may heve some hot water left for coffe, so we walk round in the hope of some coffee and cake. No hot water left. We are about to walk away, when the electricity comes back on. They put some coffee on for us, but only have two pieces of cake: one banana, which I can't eat, and one coconut, which I don't like. But we sit and have a drink, then Mark and Susan head back while Sue and I go for a swim.

Saturday 30 July: Mark gets up early to collect Joseph: he is off before 7.30. I get up and take one of my tablets, so spend a hour on the computer before breakfast.

Susan wants to stay behind sorting and showering, so Sue and I drive off to Wootton Basset alone. We walk down the High Street, exploring the town museum, the charity shops and book shops.

When we get back, Mark has returned with Joseph. On his return, the traffic going into the West Country was queuing all the way from Bristol. Poor people.

Getting ready for lunch means bringing another chair to the table on the patio. Two chairs are nested and don't want to separate. Joseph and I go to help Mark with this, putting a hand each on the arm rest of the lower chair. Mark yanks the other chair again, and it comes free; the seat comes up and crushes our fingers. We should have seen it coming. Absolute agony for a while, then slowly dulling. Eventually, the painkillers seem to have some effect. I caught it worse than Joseph fortunately, as I have the larger and thicker fingers.

Later in the afternoon, we drive into Swindon to see the latest film: Captain America. Not a character I am familiar with, beyond seeing the figure on covers in newsagents. But it is a decent enough film, and surprisingly, the two people destined to be lovers all through the film don't get together at the end. It is a fascinating piece of alternate reality, somehow mixing futuristic technology - levitation and disintegrator rays - with all the familiar technology and setting of WWII. But somehow it works.

Sunday 31 July: up early, breakfast, and get Mark & Susan out of the house a bit before 10. We finish packing and are out before half past. The fingers are still painful, but opening and closing much as they should, so it doesn't look like anything is broken.

It proves to be more difficult than expected to find Nathalie and the SU camp - the satnav keeeps directing us down closed-off roads. But we find a route, and arrive just before 11. Fifteen minutes after the end of camp performance is due to start, but a few minutes before it actually does.

it is a very odd affair. As Mark says, some of the kids are more talented than others, but on the whole it is a very high standard of performance. But the material is mainly trite and old: much of it was around when we were young and doing this sort of thing. Quite disturbing.

We congratulate Nathalie on her performance as Daniel, then say goodbye to her and to Susan, Mark & Joseph.

Back to Cirencester for lunch one last time - it's on our route. Find a very nice but quirky place to eat above what seems to be a small shop at the front, but it just goes back and gets bigger as you explore. Several times, an apparent dead end turns into an opening into a whole new vista. Absolutely incredible. Then a final look around the other shops, and we head back home.

August 2011

Monday 1 August: Alan is hitch-hiking around Europe. We try not to think about what could go wrong. He's a big boy now.

Friday 5 August: Sue has another Physio appointment in the afternoon, so we get away from work in good time. We attend the appointment, have a coffee and diary check in a café opposite, and then go home afterwards.

Sunday 7 August: doing the words at Highgrove. A few last minute panics as usual, but it all works in the end.

Friday 12 August: Sue has a 'New Yorker' calendar, with a cartoon for each day. Today, it shows a father sitting in an armchair, looking down at his son dressed as a doctor with a "Li'l Doctor" playset bag and items around on the floor. The son holds up a clipboard and says to his father, "Because of your age, I'm going to recommend doing nothing."

Sue goes off to Newbury to spend the night with her mother, and I go to the Mill House to have a drink with Don. Long time since we have just sat and chatted.

Saturday 13 August: a pleasant surprise in the sauna today. Most people are friendly, but they only talk to people they know. At the start, I am alone with a chap I don't know. Get him talking, then a lady comes in; manage to turn the conversation a bit and get her involved, too. A little later, another lady turns up, so she joins in. I go out for a shower. When I return, only the two ladies are present, and they have discovered that they are both Spanish - not a great surprise - and also that they come from the same place. Couldn't work out if it was a town or a region, but either way, they discovered they had a lot to talk about. And had a lot of fun doing it.

Sunday 14 August: early to church, as the Global Partnerships offering today is for CCM, and Chris has agreed to talk about us. He arrives soon after us at 10.15, and we get a while to chat about the church before the service starts. Don recognises Chris from the coffee shop, and joins us for a while.

Chris has to dash away at the end, but everyone who talks to me says how well he did.

Back home, we are planning to take Ian out for lunch - Philip is working at the Orpheus, and I took him out yesterday. But Ian is not interested, so Sue and I change our plans slightly and head for the RWA eating place.

They have changed the pictures in the dining room: paintings have replaced the photographs. Interesting, but not nearly as stunning.

We do a quick tour round the Vetriano exhibition. They have a display of the photographs which were used in many of his paintings, and the combination of the two is brilliant.

On to work. I put together a couple of IKEA book cases while Sue browses. We try to see the Red Arrows over the balloon fiesta, but this doesn't work - we hear jets go by, probably as they finish the display.

On the way home, there are load of people working on the hillside beside Bridge Valley Road. They are clearly making a lot of progress, putting down netting to secure the path and road from falling rocks.

Home for a bit, then we decide to go to the Orpheus and see Super 8 - an entertaining homage to Spielberg.

Monday 22 August: work and prayer meeting at Pip 'n' Jay. Confirm our booking of the hall and grounds for the sleep out next year. Back to work briefly, then out to pick up Sue and drive her to the Physiotherapy appointment.

Chrissie, a lady we have not seen before, has a bit more experience than the others before her. She is wondering how much more improvement Sue can expect. She gives us some instructions to massage the back of the shoulder every day, and tells us to come back in a week.

Sue heads home; I go for a sauna and then back to work for the monthly prayer meeting.

As I am heading home, I find Chris, our Duty Manager on the phone to Alan, our Coffee Shop Manager. Chris is trying to find somewhere for a family of 7 who have nowhere to stay tonight - a mother, father and 5 young children. After some discussion, I agree a plan and a backup plan, and leave Chris to it. I am so pleased that we were there and available to them, and delighted that we have people like Chris who can handle this sort of problem - but furious that the system has failed this family so badly. We fail to care for adults on a regular and systematic basis, but we as a society are supposed to be looking after children. Better stop here.

Sunday 28 August: we have lunch with Philip, then Ian appears! We had assumed he was working, but he wasn't. Then the Orpheus ring, asking where Philip is. Philip had also thought that Ian was working this afternoon, but it seems he was wrong too.

With Ian's help, we get Alan's desk out of the garage and into the car, then drive it over to Müller House, for a lady who needs a desk there for a year.

Monday 29 August: Bank Holiday. Sue and I go for a swim and sauna at the Triangle, then drive to the National Trust place at Tyntesfield.

Fascinating place. We love the way it is still being renovated, and you get to feel a part of that. We bump into Steve and Liz Smith, who are making a return visit.

September 2011

Saturday 3 September: incredibly busy day. Pick up a large vehicle, take out the rear seats with some help from Philip - turns out they were in the wrong places, which made it much more difficult than it should have been. Then we all drive to Alan. Take Chris' things round to his parents, then load Alan's belongs and bring them home. Unload some, and load Philip's bits. Drive up to Coventry. Unload Alan, then drive round the corner and unload Philip. They are living within shouting distance of each other, quite unplanned.

We leave Ian and drive off to the Village Hotel for the night. Very nice room, but we are not in it for long.

Sunday 4 September: Sue gets an early morning swim, then breakfast, packing and back to Alan. Everyone else is already there - the three boys, plus my parents and brother. A quick drink, then we all drive into Coventry and visit the transport museum.

At the end, Roger drives my parents home and we drive our boys back to Alan's place. Some final bits of sorting, we say goodbye to Alan and drive Philip and Ian home.

We have a good journey back, but we are running a bit behind schedule by the time we get near to Bristol.

Unpack, and with Philip's help we manage to get the seats back into the car - the right way round. We pack Ian's belongings into it, and drive him round to his flat. Sue gets to meet Naomi as we are unpacking. Then we drive home, Ian loads up a rucsack with some washing and kitchen bits, we wave him off and he cycles back again.

Sunday 11 September: Sue is preaching at St Edyth's this morning, on behalf of One25. And Alan is running in the Bristol Half Marathon, so I can't go and hear her.

Drive Alan into town, down to the bottom of Park Street. Very little traffic either way.

Alan is due to set off with the 10 am batch of runners, so I get down to the Portway around 10.15 am. It's a lovely occasion, with a nice mixture of serious runners, people in silly costumes, and people who are really struggling to keep going.

Just opposite us is a bin for runners to throw plastic water bottle into. One misses, and gets blown around under the feet of the runners for several minutes. Nobody else does anything, so I pick a quiet mopment, go into the road and retrieve it.

Alan passes me at 10.42, a few minutes later. I manage a quick photograph as he goes by, and another of him disappearing into the distance. Then I walk round to the other side.

Alan passes again at 10.51, looking happy and fresh. He finishes in just under 1 hour 45 minutes, which is very respectable.

Monday 12 September: at 14:25 today, the page counter on our web site displays 320,000 hits. A milestone, of sorts.

Sunday 18 September: almost every night when I'm at home, I do some sit-up, some press-ups and some steps on the little step machine we bought a few years ago. I've been limiting myself to 500 steps for some time, but the other two are not as easy. I started with being able to do around half a dozen sit-ups, and worked up to a hundred. Then I started to use a weight, and worked up to a hundred again. Then a few months ago I increased the weight again, and tonight, for the first time with this weight, I manage to do a hundred.

Monday 19 September: driving in to work this morning, I notice that the end of Pennywell Road is blocked off: they are removing the scaffolding from Saint's Court, the housing development on the end of the St Nick's site. Oddly, a large chunk of the building seems to be missing from the mostobvious corner, running almost the entire height of the building. They must know what they are doing.

Friday 23 September: in the evening, it is the start of a conference at Kensington Baptist on the Gospel and Culture. The invitation sounds astonishingly interesting and relevant.

The talk by Tom Holland is brilliant, if not what I am expecting. He talks about the necessity of interpreting Paul and the other NT writers in the cultural context of first century Jewish thought, not first century Greek culture. Absolutely. I have argued this point on many occasions. Apparently I have Tom to thank for this insight and for initially publicising the idea. Afterwards, I thank him for the talk and describe briefly some of the ways in which his thoughts have shaped the ministry we are engaged in.

The other main talk is almost the opposite of what I was expecting: affirming the centrality of the core gospel message (whatever that may be!) and the relative unimportance of the cultural differences in our expression of that core message. I thought the point of this conference was that culture matters!

Saturday 24 September: back to the conference at Kensington by train. At least, that is the plan. I arrive at the station in good time, and the train is already there. It has stopped on the way out because of a customer who was being abusive and threatening, and then left the train at Sea Mills. Then somehow the brakes became locked and they can't free them. Then the Police arrive and take statements. Then the Police go. Then the brakes start working again, but we have to complete the journey out before we can come back.

So I'm rather late arriving after all.

The rest of the conference is not nearly as interesting as the first evening. And several speakers take almost the opposite line from the one I was expecting from the title. Talking in the breaks, a number of us feel that there is a really helpful conference on this subject somewhere, but this is not it.

In the evening, Sue and I sit down with Steve and we get a little more clarity on his plans and timescale. We need to work on the basis of finding £310,000 to buy him out, or selling the house; and we need to do this as soon as we can manage. Help.

October 2011

Saturday 1 October: some nice people from Fellowship of the King, working as the Bristol Besom, come round to us and help attack our garden. Two ladies and two gentlemen. They work hard all day, just breaking for lunch.

It is another hot day, but despite this, we make an astonishing amount of progress. By the time the ladies finish - a couple of hours after the gentlemen leave in the afternoon - we can see parts of the garden I have never seen before. Now all we have to do is keep it clear ...

Sunday 2 October: words at Highgrove. Set up the playlist without difficulty, and all is ready for the service in good time. Then I get a request to show a PowerPoint during the service. Copy the file and try to load it. No joy. Can't import it. Can't run it on the PowerPoint installed on the machine. Then I have a thought - my netbook is sitting by my side. Copy the file onto the netbook, open the presentation in OpenOffice, and save it in an older PowerPoint format; copy the new file back and it opens on the church machine. The formatting is a bit wonky, but all the content is present, and it is available for display just a few seconds before it is needed. Another small victory for my netbook and Ubuntu.

Thursday 6 October: in the evening, Sue and I go to the Orpheus and see  Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Brilliant.

We had planned to take Esme to the circus on the Downs, but she was not feeling well enough

Saturday 8 October: training in the morning goes really well, but Clive is not well enough to go out for a meal afterwards as we had planned. And for some reason Val is not with us and not answering her phone.

Drive Karen back to pick up her car. The journey takes a long time - the roads are very busy for some reason. Andy And Gay phone - they are still up for a meal, so pick up Sue and drive down to Cosmo.

But by the time we arrive, it is about 2.30 and the food will stop very soon. So instead we walk round to PapaDeli and have a lovely meal there - good food and good conversation.

Sue also had a productive morning: both a flu jab and a haircut.

After the meal, Sue has a swim at the Otium while I sauna, then she walks up and we have a coffee and quick diary check. Then we drive off to Morrisons and do a proper weekly shop - the first one for several weeks.

Sunday 9 October: a quick lunch at home, then I drive in to work. Preparations for the AGM tomorrow. See Val: she overslept yesterday. Doing too much. Very apologetic.

Leave work around 11.30 - haven't done all I hoped to finish, but the most essential bits are in place.

Thursday 13 October: there is a consultation about the Junction 3 project being held in Trinity Art Centre. I go and try to find out what they are consulting about. One lady isn't sure: all their plans are esseentially finalised by now. They don't have tenants, but that can't happen yet. Another explains that they are consulting about whether I have any questions for them. I ask about parking (there is not enough) and public transport (there is none - nothing direct to the site, and no additional capacilty in the area) and what they plan to do about it (nothing, but we do know this is important).

Sitting in my office a little later, I become aware that various vehicles are sounding their horns. Look out and see a man sitting in the middle of the road in front of a bus. It's not clear if he wants to be run over, or just doesn't care. Alan and a few others from the shop go out and help him to the side of the road. He is horribly drunk, and distressed but we are not clear why or if there is anything that can be done. After a while, he wanders off. p>In the afternoon, we have a 'Time of Rememberance' for an ex-client, Leroy Macdonald, whose funeral was this morning. It gives his family and friends a chance to share. The tributes to Leroy are moving, as you would expect: a lovely person, even when drunk. But what moves me most are the memories of the home he grew up in - a children's home, run by a couple who really cared, and who built a real family. The kids thought of them as Mum and Dad, and they were all brothers and sisters. One of the grown-up kids said, "It was the best, most loving family, anyone could possibly wish for" and others said similar things. A wonderful tribute to some amazing people.

Friday 14 October: in the morning, we have a joint meeting of the BCAN Homeless Forum and the 'Serving the Poor Alliance'. Long and tortuous conversation, ending with a fairly predictable conclusion: we look for a new name for the BHF and keep going as planned.

Friday 28 October: prayer meeting at lunchtime, quite a select group this time. Then another meeting with Lyn and Claire from Mind - much the same as before, but it seems to make Lyn happy.

Anabaptist Network in the evening. Alan is in Bristol, but meeting friends and not ready to leave when I'mm driving home. He turns up eventually, but rather late so we don't see much of him.

Saturday 29 October: Men's Breakfast at Stapleton Road Congregational Church. Their first one, possibly ever. Decent breakfast, interesting conversation. I struggle a bit with the speaker afterwards, but everyone seems happy with the way it goes. Alan was not interested in joining me, and I'm probably quite happy that it was not really his sort of thing.

Back home, Alan is not up yet. Not really a surprise. He is very unclear about his plans: meeting friends again, but not clear exactly where or when.

Off to CostCo with Sue. The plan is we are just looking at a few things, but we end up buying a new TV. We have needed one for some time. This is a lot larger than I had expected, but it is significantly reduced as an ex-display model. Slightly marked, and no box, remote or manual. They say we can buy a remote control and download the manual, so we go for it. If we're not happy for any reason, we can bring it back, so it's not really a risk.

Back home, Alan helps me to carrry it in from the car, and then disappears in to town and back to Coventry. Nice to see him, but a bit frustrating.

November 2011

Saturday 5 November: Sue doesn't like the TV from CostCo: it's too complicated to operate, and there seems to be no way to record from the built in Freeview receiver. So we put it back in the car and return it to CostCo.

A little later, we are having lunch in Shirehampton Village when I suddenly start to feel rather unwell. I am hungry, but also feel very full and struggle to finish the jacket potato - not a large one. We head home.

I am supposed to be preparing documents for the board meeting next week, but can't get my head around any of it. Not feeling at all well.

Sunday 6 November: Sue goes off to meet her mother and sister in Swindon. I stay at home all day, mostly just sitting and dozing. Church is not an option. I manage to get down a small amount of breakfast around lunchtime, but that's it for the day. Things aren't good at the other end too. This seems more like food poisoning than 'flu, but no idea what might have caused it.

Monday 7 November: stay home all day. My first actual day off work sick for a while. Again, a little light late breakfast, but nothing else to eat. Start to feel a little brighter in the afternoon, but still can't concentrate on all the urgent paperwork.

Tuesday 8 November: have to go in to work today: we are interviwing, and messing this up would cause too many problens to contemplate. Feeling rather fragile in the morning, but much better by the end of the afternoon. And the interviews went well, too. Lots more paperwork to do.

Wednesday 9 November: Voscur AGM. I'm leading the discussion at one of the tables, and presentinng the accounts in the absence of the Treasurer. The discussion is interesting, but doesn't lead to much that will challenge the big name speakers.

Back to work for the rest of the afternoon, then have a quick coffee with Sue at the Boston Tea Party before she goes off to her Spanish class and I go beck to run the training session.

Heading back along Ashley Road, I am hit by a car.

I'm just crossing a side road as a car comes speeding along in the opposite direction. Just as it comes up to the junction, the driver appears to change her mind, indicates and turns simultaneously. I'm surprised by the speed, but not unduly worried as I'm already halfway across and there is plenty of room for the car to go behind me. But it takes the corner at speed and very tightly, and the wheel catches my heel.

The touch is comparatively gentle, but it's still rather a shock. The driver realises she made a mistake and stops to check I'm okay. To be honest, I'm not sure how I am - just coming to terms with the reality that I have narrowly missed a nasty accident. Like Sue and the recycling box, but this time I was just a fraction of an inch in the right direction. No harm is done and I walk on much more carefully.

Saturday 12 November: Sue drops me off at Trinity Tabernacle for the volunteer training. Clive is looking well, and we have a great bunch of people. Keeping on topic is tricky at times, but it is really stimulating and they jell together well.

Finish on time and pack up quickly because Sue is picking me up. We have lunch at Hooper House, then walk into town and look at TV sets in PC world. A couple of very helpful assistants answer our questions, but we are going to keep looking.

Sue drives off to Newbury, to see her mother and spend the night there.

Sunday 13 November: Ed is preaching at Highgrove this morning, and does well. I remember to take the One25 job advert, and give it to Ed to put up at the back. Long and interesting conversation with Jeff, one of the older chaps at church, been around for a few years but never really talked to properly before. He is going to email me the details of his web site.

Quick lunch, then catch the 1.59 train down to work. Spend the afternoon preparing for the board meeting tomorrow, while trying to work out if we have enough people coming to make it worth while meeting. In the end, we decide to cancel. Sue comes and picks me up, and we go home.

Tuesday 15 November:

In the evening is the Multi-Faith Forum AGM. A number of us struggle to find the venue, but we get there just in time to eat something before the meeting begins.

Simon is standing down - work requires other priorities of him - but fortunately Tracey is willing to take over. Nobody else is interested, so I remain as Treasurer for another year.

Interesting facilitated exercise, helping us listen to the views of the people present - what should we be doing to make a difference to them? Lots of good content.

Wednesday 16 November: conversation with Simon, our computer chap, at work. I want to do a proper review of our IT; Simon is understandably concerned that this means we are not happy with his work. He is a wonderful volunteer, but we really need more reliable support.

We need to open the Ladies' Night Shelter, so I volunteer to stay overnight with Val - after phoning Sue to check she is okay with this.

Homegroup is Wednesday this week, a joint one with Andy Street's group because we have a pastor from Togo visiting. A fascinating insight into life over there.

Dash off at the end, back home, pick up my toothbrush and slippers, then drive back to work.

No problems overnight, although I am woken at 4.30 am by a car alarm going off somewhere near. I listen to it, then think: a car alarm! Get up and check, but it's not our car.

Thursday 17 November: no problems overnight. Share a small cooked breakfast with our client, and a plastic pot of instant porrige - surprisingly good.

Catch up with a few urgent emails, then off to the hospital: Sue and I are booked to see Mr Sarangi. It is the anniversary of Sue's broken arm, so it is time for a check-up.

Sue rings as I'm driving. She slept through both alarms, and is just catching the bus. I knew I should have rung her. In the end, she is only about ten minutes late. Mr Sarangi is not in the clinic today, but we see a very nice gentleman who says that they are very pleased: Sue's recovery is nearly perfect. Her range of movement might improve slightly with time, but not significantly from what it is today, but it is as good as they could have hoped for.

From the hospital, we go to the Bristol Guild to see a sculpture Sue wants to show me. We meet the artist and have a wonderful time looking at and admiring the works. He knows Andy Luxford, who used to work for me. And then, as we are about to leave, Andy and Gill turn up to view the exhibition. It's lovely to see them again, and Andy is looking very well - keeping as busy as we would expect.

A quick lunch in the Guild café, then I have to go back in to work.

Global Partnerships in the evening, Esme hosting us as usual. A couple of new faces are expected; one turnns up early, and the other doesn't make it. But a good evening.

Friday 18 November: at lunchtime, I drive up to a BCAN Steering Group. Lots going on, which is good, but different folk have different priorities about the direction of the Foodbank, and it is hard seeing a common way forward when everyone is so enthusiastic and passionate and wanting good things to happen.

We finish a bit late, and I phone Sue. We had planned that I go from the Steering Group to have a quick sauna before we drive up to Coventry, but Sue is running ahead of schedule and suggests a revised plan.

I drive home, we throw the bags into the car, and drive up to Birmingham. We spend a blissful few hours in the Clover Spa before continuing our journey to the Ramada in Coventry.

Saturday 19 November: we had decided not to pay for breakfast at the Ramada, so we try a couple of pots of porrige. Unlike the one I had on Thursday morning, they don't have any taste - not a success.

Check out, drive to the University of Warwick, and Sue drops me off at the Science Block before parking and coming back. I register just before Philip arrives, then Sue returns and we chat until it is about to start.

In the first game, I'm white against someone my own grade - 8 kyu. It's a nice even game. I let him keep a large territory because I can't work out when to invade, and I fail to cut a long line of his stones which I should really have managed to do. Not played for ages, seems I'm quite rusty.

Philip wins by resignation soon afterwards, and we go and find Alan. Philip and Alan are both taking part in the game design competition a few rooms away from the tournament.

Sue walks back from the shops, we meet her and go for lunch in the Dirty Duck. Alan's game is about to be released on the iPad, the iPhone and Android. Philip is thinking of going to work in Silicon Valley next year.

We wander back just in time for the draw: Philip and I are playing each other. I make a successful invasion and then cut off a group of his stones, so it is all looking pretty good. Then we get into a complicated fight. Several times we both think I've won, but each time he finds a way to rescue his stones, and by the end of the battle he is significantly ahead. I try a couple of other approaches, but neither work and I resign.

The final game, I am up against another 8 kyu who has lost the first two games. He is simply better than me, and establishes a large lead. I manage to take a significant part of his space on the left through a neat sequence. I'm quite pleased about this, but it is not enough and he finishes the game with a win by a small margin. I'm just not playing enough games to enter as an 8 kyu these days.

Sue comes and picks me up, we say goodbye to the boys, and drive back to Bristol.

Sunday 20 November: taking the service at City Road Baptist this morning. A number of familiar faces. They are finding it very hard work, and I try to encourage them. Some good news: they have a baptism service planned for January.

Monday 21 November: the Voscur board meet this afternoon to review and discuss governance issues. A very useful session, very ably led. I'm usually left feeling rather frustrated by this type of session, but not today.

We finish on time, and I walk back to work for our first project review meeting for the Ladies' Night Shelter. Very encouraging: it has been hard work, but worthwhile, and everyone is working together well.

Wednesday 23 November: training session on 'Relationships with Churches' at One25. Dave Day turns up and Gill hosts, but nobody else comes. Frustrating. But we have a good time together for an hour.

Back at work, I have been sent a link to an interesting web site http://www.cosmicfingerprints.com/dna-atheists/ I don't think he proves the existence of God, but the reactions to his argument are fascinating.

Saturday 26 November: Sue has some banking to do in Westbury, then we meet at St Edyths for their Christmas market. Not a great deal there, but bump into various people, including Jonathan from work.

Sue goes on to her haircut and I take the car home. Then we pick up Esme and drive down to St Werburghs where their Goapel Choir are performing at the City Farm. Driving down the hill in Redland, a car coming up the hill suddenly turns without warning straight in front of me. I brake sharply and avoid an accident, but it is a bit of a shock.

Continue driving much more carefully, drop Sue and Esme off, and turn round to park under the railway bridge. Don't see them when I return. There is a fair amount going on, and it takes a while to wander round and see it all. Then a text message arrives from Sue: she is in the pub.

The choir practice in the pub next door, then do their performance very nicely. We wander around afterwards; Sue and Esme get vouchers for the mulled wine, and Esme gives me her voucher. Much appreciated.

Back to the car. Sue drops me off at City Road, then drives Esme home. I pack more books and files into boxes, then wander over to Hooper House for a coffee. Sue joins me, and we do our diary check.

Back to work, load the boxes into the car, drive over to Carpenter House and pack them into my office.

Home again. I do a pre-holiday haircut, then off to the sauna to wash the bits of stray hair away.

Sunday 27 November: to Highgrove for the 9 am service - only five minutes late. Very nice quiet and meditative time, no singing. Maria leading, with Esme assisting. Quick coffee and chat with people as they arrive for the next service - a baptism service - and then depart.

Back home to pick up the leaflet, then out to do a few stops on the North Bristol Art Trail. We manage five locations, then home for lunch: pies Sue picked up yesterday in Westbury, and a jacket potato.

Out again, and we do the venues on and around Bishop Road. It's the usual wonderful mixture of brilliant, creative pieces and the 'why on Earth did they bother?'. But most places have at least one or two which make the visit worthwhile.

Sue needs a swim, so I drop her off and then grab another sauna - a bit of a luxury as I had one yesterday, but I won't be able to get one tomorrow. Then home, and we both work until bedtime. Sue has some urgent accounting, and I need to finish an article for Voscur's next newsletter.