Calling the God hotline

Where would we be without good friends to look after us? My best friend has the most amazing ability to make me feel better about myself no matter how low I am, plus has a mum whose prayer network seems so effective, we call it “the God hotline”. I’ve been making an indirect call to the God hotline and have come out of it feeling that this current low patch isn’t so bad after all and that somehow I do have the strength to look the world in the eye, smile and know that, no matter what, I am loved.

What defines a Christian upbringing?

I’ve been up and down with the mood swings again lately and Michael asked me this afternoon how I managed before I had God (i.e. before I “became” a Christian). The more I thought about it, the more I realised that I never had to. I didn’t grow up in a church-going, Bible-reading household but my mum would occasionally sing songs from her Sunday school days (“Jesus bids us shine” is one I particularly remember) and I’d pray before falling asleep at night. Maybe it wasn’t a Christian upbringing in a stereotypical sense, but God was always part of it.

Games night

Having friends over for an evening is something we haven’t had much opportunity to do recently with all the wedding planning and then settling into married life after coming back from the honeymoon, so it was nice to be able to have an evening in and invite friends over for a games evening. Tonight we had enough people round to play a couple of team-based games – Chain Reaction and Lyric. Why is it though that when you get an easy challenge (for instance, sing a song lyric with the word “and” in it) does your brain always go completely blank?

A surprise start to the day

It is lovely to receive something nice in the post, and all the more so when the something nice is something that is completely unexpected. We were woken up this morning by the postman delivering a parcel containing a surprise wedding present from a couple of Michael’s clients – a lovely hamper containing wine glasses, champagne, bottles of wine, savoury biscuits and other yummy goodies – what a nice surprise to start the day with! Consuming the wine will have to wait until I’m on a day off but I’m looking forward to sampling the rest of the contents over the weekend.

Character part challenge

The cast list is out and with it the confirmation that I am just too old for either of the parts I was hoping for (the feeling of suddenly being too old for something is not a nice one). Instead I have been cast as a ghostly old hag with the director trying to soften the blow by saying that it “requires a good singer”. What tosh. It requires someone to wail like a banshee – I wasn’t aware that banshees were noted for their musical ability. It might be a fun part, but at present, my overriding emotion is disappointment.

Name change nightmare

Trying to find information about changing names after getting married is a nightmare. Most of the information I have found says that there is no legal obligation to change your name; but websites such as the DVLA say I have to inform them of a change of name. So far, I’ve changed my name at the bank, but I want to keep my maiden name at work and use my married name elsewhere, and I can’t work out what constitutes legally changing my name – is it changing my bank details, my passport, my driving licence or none of these things?

Sat-nav woes

I really should have learnt by now to stop trusting the sat-nav, particularly with regard to the traffic updates which don’t seem to be particularly accurate. Today, the sat-nav diverted me off the main road (which seemed perfectly clear as far as I could see) straight into a huge traffic jam thus making my journey considerably slower than I suspect it would have been had I ignored it and continued with the original route. Fortunately I was running ahead of schedule and so still managed to get to my appointment on time, despite the traffic, but it was very frustrating.

Goggle-box grumbles

I’m not the biggest fan of sitting and watching television. I can go for days without ever switching the TV on, although when Michael is home, the TV is almost constantly turned on providing background noise. We’re complete opposites in that respect – if Michael is working from home, he finds it easier to work with the TV on whereas I struggle to concentrate unless it is quiet. If both of us are trying to work from home, this can be a bit of a challenge – thank goodness for laptops which mean we can work in separate rooms and stay sane!

Catching up with family

I’ve been spending the afternoon back home visiting my family for the first time since the wedding. We now have the official wedding photos so most of the afternoon has been spent showing them and reliving the memories of a wonderful day. Most of my family live within a mile of my parents’ flat, which seems to be the official drop-in centre for everyone. This makes it easier to see people on my visits home as spending a few hours there generally means that I can catch up with several members of my family without having to go anywhere else.

Am-dram barbecue

Today was the annual barbecue for the am-dram company I’m involved with. It has poured with rain for most of the day, but in true British fashion, we have been sitting outside under gazebos continuing with the barbecue anyway. Usually there have been various games going on, but the rain stopped play so Michael set up SingStar on the Playstation to ensure we were treated to tuneful renderings of various songs by members of the company to make up for the lack of games. The rain hasn’t stopped the barbecue being a success – we’re only just packing it up now!