Saturday, 27 December 2014

It does not help

Our resolve to have low-cost summer holidays in 2015, when Canadian Affair (who we booked this years Canada trip through) send us information that looks both good and decent value too.

We are going to stay in Europe this coming year, and spend time away with the church in the summer.

Monday, 15 December 2014

Well, I've just pushed a red button.

Wonder what kind of process that's set in motion (though I rather think I know reasonably well). More later, and it might have to be quite a bit later.

Friday, 12 December 2014

I have never known a time when shopping online was so lousy.

For several years now we've been shopping online, but this year, along with a real growth in the online retail industry, there seems to have been an increase in the number of retail sites that either work really badly or simply fail to work at all. I've just been trying to use www.puzzler.com, and apart from being a tram-smash of a design and nasty sneaky people who make the default subscription option a direct debit, the page where you actually put in addresses etc simply doesn't work.

And there's a kicker.

You have to give them your email address before you can go through to the address form, meaning they have it on record, but you don't have a password (because that's not been set up) so when you try to buy again on a different platform you can't get past their login. Now I have an email address I give to the retailers only, and it gets spammed by them 6 ways from Sunday, but I REFUSE to give a decent, working email address.

Wonder how I'm going to unpick this one?

Suddenly, going shopping in really shops seems a really attractive idea.

Wednesday, 10 December 2014

I'm guilty of neglect, indiscretion and looking forward to a dump.

Partly it's trying to re-focus myself, get life back in order etc. To a degree that's helped, and I've rediscovered energy for work, which has been so lacking these past months, though I'm hardly a ball of dynamism and enthusiasm yet. I'm also finding that I just flop into spending time on social internet in the evening when I could be doing so much other, useful stuff, and it's a real waste.

So the blog has gone-hung for a bit.

Old habits are hard to break as well, and I can't easily say what I think anymore because having ones thoughts on stuff actually out there is difficult for people who don't like to hear things that way. I would liken it to Nigel Farage's comments about breast feeding in public - courtesy and good manners require that such a natural process is done discretely, rather than flaunting it in front of people. There are many things that we all do which, never the less, are much better done quietly and discretely away from the public eye.

And talking of discretion, I'm really looking forward to a big dump*.

Of snow, that is.

In Morzine, France.

We're off to see Ben 'at work' in in Les Gets in January, and hoping for plenty of snow to arrive by then. We'll be staying in Morzine, the next village along, because Les Gets was just a bit too spendy for us (£1000 each for a hotel for a week? Are you out of your mind??!) but if there's enough snow it should be possible to get a lift up to the top of the crag in between and ski down the otherside into town, and if not then there's a shuttle bus between. At the moment the resorts are warm and green with the exception of Avoriaz that's at about 1800 meters and has a foot or 2 of snow already. There's still a few weeks to go, so I'm expecting plenty of the weather my dear Canadian friends hate so much in time - why do you guys insist on living in the flat bits? ;-)

*Link entirely safe for work.

Thursday, 4 December 2014

Thoughts fly away, like birds in the garden.

There's been quite a bit of stuff running round my head - almost always when I can't write about it - and when I do get time then those thoughts fly away.

There are also things I'd like to write about that are not for now, if ever, and there needs to be a bit more time passed and space given before putting them down. I am, however grateful for the grace of God, that enabled me to keep doing the things I HAD to do, not letting me go when I did the things I should not do, and allowing me to hear when it was essential to do so.

Stepping out of leadership creates odd feelings in ways I'd not expected. Like suddenly only having 2 church activities a week at most. Not having any preparation to do either, but to just turn up and have other people serve and try to bless me seems amazing. I'm sure it won't last, but at the moment I can just go home and do whatever I want most evenings, and while there's a certain amount of guilt, it's also good to just relax and enjoy the time without pressure.