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oh, by the way, got a 2:2 in my degree :-)

Everything is new...

So it's something of a transitional period for me right now...

Started my new job on monday, this week is handover week and then i'm on my own as of next monday! So far I'm drowning in a sea of new names and TLA's (three-letter abbreviations - thanks dad!) It's all quite a lot to take in. But come monday, the I'd-like-you-to-meets and here's-a-powerpoint-of-my-job-descriptions should come to an end and i'll be getting down to the nitty gritty. After 2 weeks of training ;-)

that all sounded a bit negative didn't it? actually im loving all this, i think it's just cos im tired - 9 to 5 is hard to get used to when i've had 3 1/2 years not doing it! I'm having to become un-nocturnal again...

And at the end of this week, i'm moving into my new flat - which should be amazing! not least because it's been a bit lonely in my house all by myself, but also cos it's newly refurbed and generally pretty cool :-) So i have to spend the next few nights putting things in boxes. Which all feels somwehat pointless because my new flat is a grand old distance of 20 metres across the road from my current house! ah well, at least i'll get good exercise dodging burgess road traffic with arms full of stuff!

And, last of all, irritatingly, my home network has gone down. So no t'internet for me. which is why my blogger/messenger presence hasn't been fantastic :-(

till next time,

C.

Its a Deep One Today...

Ahh, Gordon Ramsay's back on the telly... And this time he's got even more poor members of the public to yell at! From the look of the 'coming next week' clip at the end, someone tries to yell back at him next week - i can't wait to see how much of a mistake that'll be!

I'm gonna miss having a TV...

Who am i kidding? apart from cooking shows, i'm not gonna miss it at all!

On to more interesting things - I was at a City Prayer evening today, and Debra Green was down to talk to us about city-changing prayer - a subject which i could hear her talk about for weeks on end! That woman certainly knows God's voice as far as cities are concerned! As far as a lot of things are concerned, come to that... Everyone there came away with a lot about how to pray for our city, most of all, Vision, Unity & Positive Focus (which i'll come to later...)

Debra Asked if she could pray for me at the end, and she said she felt God say 2 things: 1) a picture of carpenter's tools - that i would be involved in building (literally!) something - something multi-storey - for God... and 2) that i should meditate on John 15 lots.

2) makes sense, 1) doesnt make so much sense... but we'll see...

so, positive focus... I'm wondering if what i'm about to say is controversial...

When Debra talked about this, it brought back to my mind something i've been thinking about a fair amount recently...

Why do many of us pray against stuff?

I don't understand the point. We read the Bible using Jesus as a lens, in other words, we are looking for the love and grace in every story we read in the bible, as well as every situation we encounter in life... Many times when i have been praying for many different reasons, i find myself praying against something. Now, I dont think that it's wrong per se (except praying against another person, but that's a different story), but i'm talking about praying against the enemy, or an illness, or whatever... I have found myself talking to illnesses and injuries, telling them to be healed. Here's where i hit a problem, Jesus did talk to deamons, and cast them out.

But here's what i've been mulling over: I think it's fairly well accepted that anger breeds anger, hate breeds hate and so on... well then, by reasoning love should breed love. So I can hate the devil, and the stuff he does, but if i talk to him in an angry way, or even talk to God about him in an angry way, is it possible that I'm allowing the love that God is trying to grow in me to be compromised?

I'm wondering if what i've said is making any sense... I'll try and give an example:

Instead of "less illness", "more healing"... instead of "less curse", "more blessing"...

I'm aware that this seems like a case of semantics and all i'm doing is playing with antonyms, but I'm worried that things I say maybe run deeper... Because with God's grace in my life, im convinced that (no matter how hard it may be sometimes) I can always find the positive, and especially always pray in the positive... So I'm gonna give it a shot... and also see if I can clear up my thoughts on the matter, especially regarding Jesus' example of instructing deamons etc...

I'd really appreciate comments on this; your thoughts, disagreements and any Bible references you think may be relevent!! This means you! I want comments - Dad, I know you read this on the quiet so no excuses now!

hehe God bless guys

C

Why are Fat, Drunk Men Funny?

I'm sat using my housemate Andy's laptop watching Jonny Vegas drunkenly ramble, and I'm in stitches... it's coarse and horrendous (sp?) but I'm in total hysterics - especially since he hates Sex and the City as much as me!

interesting things today - last Union Council of the year, followed by a dinner as a bit of a thank you to council members... was a bit of an odd feeling, knowing that next time we went into council, I'd be Vice President Education & Representation... this job is rapidly becoming pretty real ;-)

Also, got my dissertation grade this afternoon - i got a 65 for my project which, added to the 68 for the lit review, leaves me with a pretty strong 2:1 for the diss! whoo! unfortunately I don't think it'll be quite enough to pull my overall classification up to a 2:1 overall, but hey, I'm happy with what I've done.

England V Sweden tomorrow: COME ON!

Thought for the day: how did I just manage to burn a simple pasta sauce i've cooked a hundred times?

Late-night Library, Carlton Room-Temperature and The Fun Lovin' Criminals

*ahem* so, yeah, it's been a while, sorry....

the last 6 weeks have been - memorable.
I'll work my way through them...

First two weeks - Coursework deadlines. Thats all.


Next three weeks - Study leave and Exams. and I have to say, they weren't too bad... the late night library opening hours over the exams period were really useful - the place totally changes at midnight... I remember Roald Dahl talking about the witching hour in the BFG, when everything becomes silent and that's the time for magical things to happen... Well, I now have experienced this - at midnight in the library, people finally stop chatting to each other and a magical thing happens - I get work done!


The last week has been celebrations week. Here I am, on Friday morning totally frazzled after 8 days of almost non-stop parties, clubs and BBQs. Man, its a hard life. :-)

Some highlights and musings:

Jesters to celebrate the end of exams (wed)... always a dangerous combo! in fact, Jesters seems to be a dangerous combo with anything...

Skipping out on the Psychology social (thurs) which was taking me BACK to Jesters, and fleeing to the Wonder Years in Rhino Club. Cheese of a different nature - actual good music, but still popular and well-loved by all - Jesters, Cube, Academy - take note! Brief aside: Can Carlton Cold still be called by its name if the bar staff serve it at room temperature? If I'm paying extortionate prices, I don't expect false advertising - Maybe Carlton Warm or Carlton Room Temparature would suffice. ;-) reminds me of the wisdom of Strong Bad: clicky

Cube was crap on fri. shock horror.

Saturday saw the last ever 57 party at Graham and Joe's - This is what summer parties should be - 2pm for football on a big projector (not a great game, but hey, we won!) 4pm for BBQ and later than that for houseparty :-) it would seem my homemade burgers went down well.... I'm ashamed to say I bailed a bit early (1am) before the party properly kicked off, I think the last 3 nights were catching up with me!

Skip over a few minor nights out to..... Wednesday: Grad Ball #1. Twas a good night. After a VIP reception (I know, I know!) we headed on up to the main room to hear the band, Fun Lovin' Criminals - not a bad set... I only caught about half of it, but was fairly impressed :-) Fearne Cotton (generic attractive celeb DJ) was ok too, at least she knew her audience i suppose - somewhat reminiscent of the playlist in Jesters though!

And now here's the icing on an all-round awesome week. Grad Ball #2, last night. Had told myself i would catch the FLC's set properly, right at the front... SO glad I did! the set was ten times better than wednesdays, and so was the audience for that matter! Huey (frontman) dedicated a song to me! I think it was something to do with the fact that i was head and shoulders above most of the rest of the people i was with, and my newly-bleached hair is a bit luminous! Needless to say, i was officially chuffed! and i made a lot of people jealous ;-) the girls think he's pretty fit, it would seem. My pal Rachel threw her bra at Huey during Scooby Snacks. *ahem*. Edith Bowman comes on after the end of the set and proceeds to play a few good tunes mixed in with the queso...

So just when im thinking my night can't get any better, Phil the Webb hooks me up with an AAA pass. So we go backstage and chill out with the Fun Lovin Criminals. Huey makes a good Margarita (the sign of a good person ;-)). I dont think i need to say much more, i can just lean back and bask in my own coolness. hehe. seriously, it was a little surreal, but certainly a night for the scrapbook.

Till next time,

C