Elizabeth's induction

Our lovely minister Elizabeth left our church at the beginning of June to go and take up a post as minister of three churches in Dorset. Today was her induction service at one of her new churches and a group of us from church went along to wish her well, plus a couple of people from the church she was at before she came to our church which was really nice to see. Her new churches have been minister-less for two years so are very pleased to have her on board. Hopefully we won’t be minister-less for quite that long!

Waiting for the weekend

Ah Friday – the weekend is almost here! Not that this usually makes much difference with my job – I’m on call six days a week, which usually includes weekends but I have a day off the pager tomorrow and so I feel like I can justify winding down a little to the weekend. Weekends are usually a little more relaxing anyway – I tend to book in fewer visits and don’t feel guilty for not going in to the office if I have some space in my day. Hopefully Michael won’t have to work either and we can spend some time together!

The ebb and flow of everyday life

Every so often, I find myself back on the emotional rollercoaster again. Fortunately over recent months, the peaks and troughs have become more manageable. I think it has partly been helped by a shift in my attitude towards them – I’m much more inclined to treat them as part of the normal ebb and flow of daily life rather than plunging into the depths of despair and assuming that everything is wrong just because I’ve had a bad day. I’m learning to take a step back, take a deep breath, pray and then respond rather than just react to the situation.

The Storyteller

Went to see the tap show ‘The Storyteller’ this evening and really enjoyed it – whilst the acting and Irish and American accents were decidedly shaky at times, the choreography and dancing as usual were excellent, very slick and sharp and everyone on stage was enthusiastic and animated throughout. Unfortunately there were a few hitches – the constant low-level feedback coming through the sound system was somewhat irritating and there was an awkward moment lasting a couple of minutes when the wrong track was played and the stage remained empty. Overall though, a fabulous show as always – well done to everyone involved.

Musical Masquerade - review

It’s always nice to get a good review of a show and the review of Musical Masquerade was pretty positive from start to finish – in fact, there was only one negative comment in it which was sandwiched in between two positive comments and so passed almost unnoticed. I’m feeling very chuffed after reading the review – I’m mentioned twice – the trio I sang in is described as “a particularly beautiful blending of voices” and then later on I’m singled out again with my solo number getting a mention. This is definitely one review that will be going in my shows scrapbook!

Introduces babies Seren & Sian...

In my family, we seem to celebrate the arrival of a new baby reasonably frequently (most years see the arrival of at least one new baby but it’s still an exciting event when it happens all the same!) Today saw the arrival of the first new babies in Michael’s family for 31 years (since his birth, in fact) when Michael’s cousin Clare gave birth to twins Seren Niamh (weighing in at 5lb 3oz) and Sian Ciara (weighing in at 6lb 9oz) this afternoon. We haven’t met the new arrivals yet but hopefully will do so in the next few days.

Open house

Every summer, we have a series of Open Houses at church which are usually in the evenings or after the Sunday service. This afternoon it was Brian & Rosemary’s turn to open their house to everyone at church for lunch and an optional swim in their pool – as usual Michael and I were the only two to go for the swim! Over the last few years, we’ve always to dash straight off to rehearsal after lunch though. It made a nice change this year to be able to have a swim and still have time to chat to people afterwards.

Musical Masquerade - last night

Another show has come to an end. The last night went reasonably well – in fact, considering how completely under-prepared the company was two weeks ago, the entire show has gone reasonably well. The best moment of last night’s show had to be in the last number ‘You Can’t Stop The Beat’ when Bryan came on in drag much to the surprise of most of the cast (it is the way the number should have been done normally but we were performing it in T-shirts and jeans rather than in proper costumes). Not sure what the director made of it though!

... and relax!

Show week + final creative assignment deadline = potentially stressful situation. Fortunately, it hasn’t been as stressful as I thought it might be. Being away on holiday last week and having a break from everything including assignment-writing really helped. Plus, I’ve found myself procrastinating a lot less and actually sitting down and writing which makes a nice change. I’ve written my short story and submitted it this morning. It is such a relief to be able to completely relax and not have to try and write in between show numbers! Plus I can do craft projects again without feeling guilty!

Unexpected call out

There I was relaxing in the pub with friends, having a couple of drinks after opening night (sadly non-alcoholic as I was driving) thinking that overall the show had gone reasonably well, when my phone rang. I’m on holiday this week which means I don’t get called out, or so I thought. It turned out to be Michael, working on an event in central London, but having left a crucial piece of equipment back at the office which he needed ASAP. Sigh. It seems I can’t completely escape being called out at night even when I’m not actually at work!

Musical Masquerade - dress rehearsal

The dress rehearsal wasn’t completely horrendous but was far from perfect all the same. I started by suddenly forgetting my carnival mask for the opening number, having to rush back to the dressing room to get it just in time to step on stage and in my haste put it on upside down which must have looked very bizarre and made it very difficult to see anything. There were a few cases of people forgetting words, which is fairly normal for the dress rehearsal, a couple of forgotten costumes but overall it could have been much worse than it was.

Doctor Michael graduates

Michael finally graduated from university with his PhD today nearly four years after he left to write up his thesis. The process from finishing the lab work to the final thesis took two years and then he finally got awarded his PhD a year ago (the certificate arrived the day before our wedding so he actually could say he waited to finish his PhD before getting married!) but his graduation day would have been during our honeymoon so he deferred his graduation for a year. There were three others from his former research group graduating with PhD’s today as well.

The beginning of show week

Another show week has begun and we have all arrived in the theatre ready to perform our concert at the end of the week. We had the get-in yesterday so I spent most of the day at the theatre helping Michael with the sound set-up and today we have the technical rehearsal then a day off before the dress rehearsal. Unfortunately one of our performers has come down with laryngitis and so I have been asked to learn her part in a duet in case she has not recovered by the time we get to the opening night on Thursday

Chris & Jo's wedding

We arrived back home from our driving holiday through Britain by mid-afternoon and so managed to grab a few hours to relax (admittedly spent unpacking and preparing for next week’s show rather than relaxing) before heading into London for the evening to attend Chris and Jo’s wedding reception. We had a lovely evening, although we did only know one other couple there (friends of Michael’s from his PhD). Still it was good to see them again – we hadn’t seen them since our own wedding last year so hadn’t really had a chance to catch up properly for quite a while.

Day 5 - Beamish/Rugby

Our final full day of our holiday was spent at the Beamish Open Air Museum where we explored a restored colliery and pit village and an Edwardian town and had a ride in a vintage bus and tram. It was quite interesting to look around the restored buildings and try to imagine what life was like at the turn of the century. I also learnt a new rag-rugging technique which I’m quite keen to try out – but not until I get my creative writing assignment finished! We then headed south to Rugby to go for dinner with some friends there.

Day 4 - Falkirk

It was lovely to be able to spend time with my friend Gillian, a fellow midwife who used to work with me when I first moved to London, but now lives in Glasgow. We don’t get to catch up very often so it’s nice when we can do so. We had a lovely day visiting the Falkirk Wheel – a rotating canal boat lift which connects the Union Canal (at the top of the wheel) and the Forth & Clyde Canal (at the bottom, 35m below the level of the Union Canal) and went for a boat ride on the wheel.

Day 3 - Lake District/Glasgow

Day 3 of our holiday was summed up as spending the entire day intending to go to ‘Go Ape’ and completely failing to do so. The one nearest to our starting point (Cockermouth) was closed for training and given that we were heading to the north side of Glasgow, it seemed to make sense to aim for the one in Aberfoyle and go later in the day. Unfortunately we got stuck in a big traffic jam caused by an accident en route and arrived at ‘Go Ape’ to find that we had just missed the last session of the day.

Day 2 - Alton Towers

Despite the fact we were actually supposed to be travelling north, we started our day by driving south to Alton Towers. I hadn’t been for a few years and Michael had never been before. The last time I’d been, I thought I’d conquered my fear of scary rides by going on both Nemesis and Corkscrew and enjoying them so naturally Nemesis was the first ride we headed for. Unfortunately, to my great surprise, I didn’t enjoy it at all this time which meant I suddenly reverted into wuss mode and wouldn’t go on anything faster that the Runaway Mine Train.

Day 1 - London/Leicester/Bakewell

We celebrated our anniversary with a meal at L’Autre Pied in London and a night at a nice hotel in the West End. It felt quite strange the next morning to be wandering through London with a suitcase in tow on the way to get the tube back home when we both normally just see London from the perspective of working there. Then it was time to start off our holiday by driving to Leicester to go out for a curry with one of Michael’s work friends followed by a drive to Bakewell where we were spending the first night.

Race for Life 2010

One of the first things I did on my anniversary was to run away from my husband. Fortunately, I did come back though and raised nearly £400 for Cancer Research as a result. It was my 5th Race for Life yesterday, running once again with my friend Lindsay and this time we finished in 53 minutes which was a little faster than in previous years, although still quite a leisurely pace. As usual, I ended up pouring what was left in my water bottle over my head at the finish line which felt fabulous given the heat of the day!

1st wedding anniversary

I can’t believe that Michael and I have been married for a whole year. It has gone by so quickly. Our first year of married life has been quite tough in places and there have been moments when we have realised that we have not always communicated as well as we could, when we have taken each other a little for granted. I look back though and realise that I have been very blessed to have Michael by my side throughout the last year, through the bad times and the good. He really does bring out the best in me.

Time with friends

In all the hecticness of everyday life, one thing that seems to often fall by the wayside is spending time with friends. Months can go by and you realise that you haven’t picked up the phone, you’d promised to catch up sometime and ‘sometime’ is in danger of becoming ‘never’ (and sometimes does). I’m looking forwarding to catching up with friends over the next week or so. We’ve just had a great evening catching up with a friend whom we hadn’t seen for a while as a result of Michael deciding to invite people over for an impromptu games evening.

Winding down into the weekend

Ah, the weekend beckons... Normally weekends seem to blur into weekdays for me – babies don’t tend to stick to “normal” working hours – the only difference in the weekend is usually that the traffic is slightly better, I’m not trying to fit quite so many visits into the working day and there is a reasonable chance of getting to spend some time with hubby. This weekend sees me winding down to two weeks off – no visits tomorrow, a day off on Sunday (wedding anniversary plus running in the Race for Life) and then going away for a few days with Michael.

Mid-week concert at church

We host a regular series of concerts at church featuring local musicians. These normally take place every other month on a Saturday night. However, last year we had a concert featuring young musicians from the local area which was on a Thursday night (two days before my wedding and despite intending to be there, somehow I just couldn’t seem to find the time!). This year we’ve repeated the Thursday night July concert with the young musicians which has turned out to be a great concert and we managed to get quite a good-sized audience as well – not bad for mid-week.

New pianist

First rehearsal with the new pianist – thank goodness he’s actually fairly reasonable and good at sight-reading – only two weeks left until opening night and three more rehearsals until we get in the theatre so not a lot of time left. This always seems to happen with the summer concert – we get to the last few weeks, the show looks set to be a disaster and then somehow it seems to come together and we put on something reasonable during show week. This year seems worse than usual though – let’s hope we can still pull it off once we’re on stage!

Quizzes and catching up

It was good to go to the quiz and catch up with friends again – recently there have been fewer and fewer of us going along to the quiz (in fact it seems to be just me and Michael most weeks!) Unfortunately having a larger quiz team didn’t result in us scoring more points – with a measly 27 out of 60, I think it was possibly one of our worst scores and we came in second to last. Still, it turned out to be an enjoyable evening catching up with friends even if success in the quiz proved to be elusive.

Time out

There are times when I wonder if I let life get a little bit too busy. I’m beginning to realise that I’m just not very good at stopping and doing nothing. If dinner is in the oven, I’m checking email while I’m waiting; if I take the tube to work, I use the time to work on creative writing assignments; if I’m sitting and watching the TV with Michael, I’m working on a craft project at the same time. I’ve decided to set myself a challenge – 10 minutes per day of sitting doing nothing. So far I haven’t managed it!

Cut!

With less than three weeks to go until the opening night of Musical Massacres, it’s chop and change time. The opening number has been deemed unsuitable, the company’s ineptness at learning the words and the dance has resulted in it being scrapped and so we start again from scratch learning a whole new song and set of steps. Admittedly it’s an easier number (well it would have to be at this stage). The pianist is coming to his first rehearsal next week and there are solo numbers which have yet to be heard. Ah the joys of doing amateur dramatics!

Family time

I’ve had a lovely day of catching up with family – firstly visiting my niece and her husband in their new house and getting to see my gorgeous great-nephew (who has just turned 1) then seeing my lovely sister in town before heading off to spend time with my mum and then on to my youngest brother’s 40th birthday party where I got to catch up with him and my oldest brother, plus a couple of old school friends. Visits home always tend to be on the short side – always nice to catch up with lots of family when I can!

Buzz off!

I sit at the computer, ready to focus on my writing coursework. The window is open next to me; a lovely cool breeze drifts past. I am relaxed, poised and ready to begin and then – the relaxed atmosphere is broken by an irritating buzzing noise. The buzzing noise gets louder as the object of my annoyance circles my head; I go to flick it away, it moves and then returns to annoy me again. I flick it away again – it moves away. This continues for some moments until frustration gets the better of me:

“Michael, put that bloody helicopter away!”

One of those days...

Some days just seem destined to be a bit manic from the moment you open your eyes in the morning, glance across at the clock and think “eeeek!” as the horrible feeling sweeps over you that either you slept through the alarm or didn’t set it in the first place and you have half an hour to get somewhere that is well over an hour’s journey away. Then as you catch up with your day, you become engrossed in a particular task, glance at the time and lo and behold you’ve done it again – time has run away from you.