So... been absolutely terrible at even THINKING of things to blog about. It's weird, because I always have things that I want to talk about to someone... often it doesn't even matter who, which is the amusing part.
And then I thought, hang on, it's coz I'm blogging when I've nothing better to do - or when I suddenly remember I was going to try and blog more often. But what are the interesting things in life? People, events, everyday happenings. It's these that I miss out when I'm blogging. And I was thinking, I've not updated my blog in ages...what has happened since then? Well, a lot, of course. I might not be working at the mo, but I'm doing a lot of other stuff. And then there are the usual events that come and go regardless of whether we remember them.
So since October, what has happened? Let's think. (Gets diary out...)
Ah yes. On the 2nd October I had coffee with Valerie, our church music person. Talking about how the music worked, when the practices were, etc etc. As always happens in these cases, since then I have discovered that things don't work quite how she described them! Unfortunately. But hey, it's close enough. I've played in church several times since that meeting, and even lead worship there for the first time. Progress! And have been getting lots of positive comments which is definitely a good thing. Especially profound is when I feel as though nothing special has happened - say I was distracted by something, such as last Sunday when I was actually freezing from head to toe - and then someone will say (usually to someone else, not to me, which is best!) that they really felt like God was in that place, that it felt so worshipful and so on. I love that so much. It shows that I don't have to be in my best place of worship in order for the congregation to be in theirs. Incidentally it would appear that I have been put down as a worship leader officially, as I am now on the list and rotaed in as much as the other leaders... doh, more work!
Sometime around here I did a short session of light painting with my siblings. It was partly because my bro needed to do some for his college course, and partly because I'd never really done any before. Well, with hardly any props, and only some rubbish torches for light, we were pretty limited, but we had fun making some random shapes, and also painting around their little house. Sweet! (See right)
On Saturday 3rd Oct I went to the Craven Arms Men's Chorus concert, held in Church Stretton. The repertoire was all musical theatre, welsh hymns and some secular songs; it worked well. They weren't the best choir in the world but it was an enjoyable concert. I am slightly scared of the choirmaster though.
This is the choir my Dad's in, by the way. My Dad is like a scouser musical genius. In other words, he can only just read music, doesn't have the hugest music knowledge, but can play anything pretty much straight off on the piano, and often better than the original recording. It's classic. No offence to scousers either - anyone with a Liverpudlian accent is a legend in my books.
So anyway, my Dad being my Dad, he saw me at the concert and immediately was like, you've got to come meet the choirmaster! Um, ok. So I did. He was scary. But anyway, couple'a weeks later there I am at their rehearsal showing 'em what I can do. And now they want me soloing at their next concert... well it's all compliments I guess! Saying that, as long as I don't have to speak to the choirmaster too much, it's all good...
Onwards and upwards. (Love C. S. Lewis, by the way.) So yeah, the day after that I was singing at Wyson Chapel for the first time in a couple of years. Was really nice to be back there. The people are cute, and the acoustics are fab! I sang a modern worship song, can't even remember which one it was now but it went down well. Ben Cantelon, I remember that.
Bloomin' heck, this was a busy weekend - the next day I went to see Last Chance Harvey, put on by the Flicks in the Sticks people. We're not really in the sticks but hey, we don't have a cinema anymore so I'm not complaining! Plus the Sticks films cost something like £3 to get into. Genius compared to stupid cinema prices these days. So anyway, went to see that with my mum and a few siblings, was a nice film.
(Skips past some mundane things that happened)
The next thing of consequence was my Auntie's operation, on the 13th Oct. She's got cancer which really sucks. However she had a successful first operation and is doing very well. She'll be having another one early next year, and we all hope that that, along with chemo, will make her better. I love you, Auntie, get well soon!(Left: a keyring I made for her)
More singing at church, lunch with my mum (quite rare but always nice!), then Sam over for the weekend. He's autistic, and he's getting so much more 'difficult'. I mark it like that because, really, he's only difficult if we want him to fit in with what we're doing. In reality he sits and watches Thomas the Tank Engine and builds the railway while doing so, and is perfectly happy the whole weekend. So really, no trouble at all. He might ask for some toast and water please, or whatever food takes his fancy, but that's about it. Sadly, it seems that now that he's not going to school any more, he's getting too fond of staying indoors all day every day, so much so that he doesn't even seem to want to go shopping for his favourite sweets, and nor does he want to come to church any more. The latter gets quite difficult when both Simon and I are helping in church and there's no-one to look after Sam! Of course, he's a little more difficult to put to bed as well, but thankfully he will still go to bed eventually, even if he doesn't sleep. *sigh* I don't doubt that this is just another phase - he's not always wanted to watch Thomas, for example - but we can but wait and see. I just have to make sure I do my very best to love him.
Into Novemeber, which brought my Mum's birthday on the 4th and Sascha's birthday on the 5th. I got Sascha a fairy snow globe which she seemed to really like, and my mum a gorgeous suncatcher thing.
Then it was Bonfire Night, which is one of the few 'great' events that Church Stretton holds. By this I mean that there are very few events to which most of the town goes to! The fire was made up of those crate things they use in shops, and thus was absolutely huge but sank like a ship once it got going. I say once... it took aaaaages for them to get it lit properly! Yes, it had been wet, but I've never seen them struggle like that before. It was all the more amusing since they lit it really late - by which time half the crowd had been there ages and were freezing there fingers off with cold and boredom. Finally they got it lit, and then we milled around watching it until the fireworks started. They were quite nice, and they had music again this time - huzzah! - but it wasn't loud enough so the effect was completely lost on anyone not standing right next to the speakers. I think the reason they cut the music last year was because of complaints of it being really loud. OH FOR GOODNESS SAKE! It's one night a year, just about the only successful Church Stretton event - and people go and complain! I know who it'll be... some old biddies who don't understand that not everyone younger than 70 is a complete lunatic, and that they could simply put some ear plugs in for the evening. Or heaven forbid, lose a teeny tiny bit of sleep for one night. Oh, for heavens sake, it's not even late. The noise finishes at around 7:30pm!
Anyway, I jolly well hope that whoever complained got evicted from Church Stretton. I don't care that you can hear the music a mile away. Stretton is only just over a mile wide!
Lol, rant over.
It was the same as always, and yet different as always. Remembrance Sunday/Day should never be dropped.
The 21st held the Christingle and the 'Turning on of the Christmas Lights' in our town. I was playing piano for the Christingle - and nearly didn't make it! Oh it's bad when you know everyone's relying on you and you have a bad stomach!! I made it with a few minutes to spare, and could just about play.. wobbly arms don't help. But it went well, and the church was packed. Then everyone made their way to the square, where there was a brass band playing, a guy dressed up as a snowman giving out lanterns, and lots of fake snow! When they turned the lights on and the snow was swirling around the old fashioned lampposts I was off dreaming of Narnia... Shockingly I didn't take any photos... must've been away with the fairies!
On the eve of the 27th I went with the youth group to see Delirious for the last time. I think their very last show was the day after ours. It was a good show, but the venue was RUBBISH. Unless you were sitting in the gallery or happened to be standing extremely close to the front (I've no idea what time those people arrived...) you couldn't see a thing. I say this because the gallery was so low that if you tried to jump up to see from the ground floor, the roof got in the way. So you had to be at the front, or jumping somewhere very near the front. I tell you what, the only good thing about the venue (which was the O2 Academy in Birmingham, by the way) were the toilets. There were tons of them. I didn't have to queue once!
But moving on swiftly, because in all honestly I would have held til I burst if it meant I could have actually SEEN something of the show. As it was, I edged round the sides with my friends, and managed to get a sort-of-view-of-Martin-Smith's-head. Not worth £20, I can tell you. But, y'know, it would have been ok, I would have put up with it, if the sound hadn't been rubbish as well! Honestly, I don't know what they were doing but it was like they had some students on the desk. It was okaaaay most of the time, but then often there was tons of feedback, at one point I couldn't hear Mr Smith singing at all (when he definitely was), and... all in all, I'd rather not go back there again. But I'm glad that I saw them for the last time. (Above: Me, Lucy and Hannah at Delirious - standing under some weird purple and blue lights.)
Although, I'm still a bit peeved that I missed their gig when I was in Brighton. I'm pretty sure that was in the Concord 2 venue. We had some of our lessons there! I would have been able to see the whole band even if I was standing right at the back, because even though it's quite a lame little venue, it's actually designed WELL.
Boy, am I ranting today! Maybe it's because it's sunny - for the first time in weeks - so I probably feel I can let go of some pent up anger? haha who knows.
Anyway, that's most of my diary up to now. Another sing song at Wyson Chapel Sunday evening, and playing piano for the prayer meeting last night, brings us right up to today. Oh yeah, not to miss the photoshoot for the Robinson Family Calendar! Man, it's hard to get the kids all together when it's LIGHT. *frown* They're doing a letter each this year, so that when put together it'll spell T-H-E-R-O-B-I-N-S-O-N-S. Genius, right? Only just... there happens to be eleven people in the family, so it's fairly simple, everyone gets a month to themselves and then we group for December! (Above: Alex doing a 'B')
And my thoughts for today... how on earth did I manage to give Cross Rhythms my parents' postcode? That's hilarious! I've never had to stop myself from writing it so many times as I have now - now that I'm living in the same town as them again and have the same first part - diggin' the SY6!
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