Mike's musings

Good book, and a good friend

(backposting) The plane was late, but that meant I had lots of time in the airport. Did some shopping, had some lunch, and read Charles Stross' The Atrocity Archives, which I enjoyed. Funny, clever, chilling at times, but a good read.

And the other thing was that, via a chance Twitter from my old mate Mr Harkaway, I ended up having a very good chat with one of my ushers. With whom I'd not spoken for ages. Oh, we've corresponded on his blog, on Twitter and Facebook, but not on the phone. For ages. He's still very funny, and we really, really must try to get together at some point.

Got to the hotel late, and had a couple of beers with Phil, who's working with me for this customer. A good guy, and I think we'll have a good week.

Labels: books, friends, work

Abigail's Party

(backposting) I've never seen the original "Abigail's Party", but Kate and Mac (with whom we're staying this weekend) have copy on DVD, so we watched it last night. Very funny - quite a twisted genius is Mike Leigh - and the ending was a real surprise. Moo had to go up to bed - Jo came down and was rather insistent - so she's not seen the ending yet: hopefully we can borrow it from them.

I've tried to log on to the VPN of the customer that I'm working on at the moment, in order to finish something off before tomorrow, but it doesn't seem to be available at the weekend, which is a right pain.

Oh, and Jojo was very sad when she discovered that I won't be around next week, particularly as I won't be around to read her the Hobbit, so I've recorded some sections of it on my phone, which I must remember to put on a CD so that Moo can play it to Jo.

Labels: books, work

The Hobbit

(backposting) When I was young, I had a set of tapes of The Hobbit which I listened to again and again and again. I recently decided that Jo's probably just about old enough to enjoy it, in short snippets, so I ordered a copy, which arrived today, and have started reading it to her.

In unrelated news, from time to time my sweet tooth gets the better of me. When this happens, I tend to go to the shop next door, buy a tinned syrup sponge, heat it up, add milk and _extra_ golden syrup, and eat the entire thing. I know that this will make me feel ill, and guess what: it did. I'm not proud of myself.

Labels: books, food

The Life and Work of a Priest

A few days ago, I finished The Life and Work of a Priest, by John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford. I've been meaning to review it, as it's an excellent book, right up there with standard works such as Ministry in Three Dimensions, by Steven Croft. It's got a strong Anglican bias, given the authorship, but I'd say it was applicable to all those considering priesthood or ministry. I even rang up the head of ERMC, my theological college to tell him about it, and was very pleased to discover that they already recommend it to their students.

It's a very realistic approach to priesthood, with real humour and humanity. I particularly liked the discussion on prayer, but most important was the realism. Pritchard knows that none of us can be perfect, and neither does he pretend that we can ever expect to be. The priests he's talking about are broken individuals who are hopefully striving to something closer to godliness. There was a little about MSEs (Ministers in Secular Employment), but I'd like to have seen more about ministers like me - those in "normal" 9-5 jobs, who have little opportunity for explicit ministry in their employment, and whose main ministry is elsewhere. Still, a very, very rewarding book, and I'd heartily recommend it to anyone involved in ministry in any way.

Labels: books, ministry

Off sick

Today I took the day off sick, which I really needed. 3 hours+ of sleep this morning and a quiet afternoon in front of the TV were just what I needed. The antibiotics are still making me a bit tearful ("It's a miracle" TV shows seem to be good tear-fodder, as do random moments in West Wing re-runs), but I'm feeling much better than I was.

I've been enjoying some good banter with a good friend, Nick Harkaway, on Facebook. I know I keep saying it, but you should really read his book, The Gone-Away World. You'll like it.

Labels: books, friends, illness, work

Anathem

Finished it. It's pretty good - not easy, and I'd say that to get much out of it, you need to have a decent background in philosophy, or it's really going to be pretty hard going. Not as good as Nick's The Gone-Away World.

Labels: books

Anathem

I'm really enjoying Anathem, by the masterful Neal Stephenson. I bought it at the airport on the way home from Toronto, and it's a big, but interesting book. It's difficult to talk about what the subject really is, as that only becomes clear through the course of the story/narrative(s), but there are similarities between this book and my current favourite, Nick Harkaway's The Gone-Away-World, which I still strongly encourage you to read.

Labels: books

25 hours

(backposting) Well, I ended up phoning the girls before I went to bed, an hour or so after they'd got up, which confused Jo more than a little. I was up for 25 hours, with a couple of short naps in the middle, with a day which went like this:

• driven to Heathrow - a couple of hours
• plane to Calgary - 9 and a half hours
• plane to Las Vegas - a couple of hours
• shuttle bus to Caesar's Palace

It looks quite simple when you lay it out like that, doesn't it? Doesn't show the waiting times, either...

On the plane to Calgary, I read Alan Bateman's book They Gave Their Lives. about 12 different members of the Salvation Army who gave their lives for their faith. It was very inspiring, and quite emotional in places, too. I'd not had a chance to take communion today - I always try to do so on a Sunday, as is my canonical duty - and this, for me, was a kind of sacrament.

Labels: books, faith, travel

The Gone Away World

The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway is an astonishing book. I used to know Nick very well, and I'm not surprised by the book: he's a very bright, funny and imaginative guy, and the book sounds like him. It has his voice.

It's funny, learned, complex, exciting and many other similarly descriptive words. I can't rate it highly enough, or encourage people to read it enough. I'm trying to think what more to say, but I suspect it's going to be one of those books I read again and again. Think: Tibor Fischer, John Welter, Neal Stephenson, Iain Banks. All of these are favourites of mine (and should be of yours).

Labels: books, friends

Book title

"Aberdeen Angus and the Hedgehog of Doom"

Note: you need to use a comedy Scottish accent and have your voice rise as you say "doom".

Labels: books

A veritable wee!

Miri managed her first wee in a potty before her bath today. Yay! We've been sitting her on it from time to time, but she's never performed, so we made a big thing of it today. She's young for potty training, but has been patting loos quite often (and patting, for her, means that she wants to sit somewhere), so we thought we'd give it a go.

The other big news for the girls was Jo's first big-girl book. She's really enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on DVD, so we thought we'd try her on the book. It's the first non-picture-dominated book she's had, and she loved it. The chapters are a good length, so I read one to her before the bath, and Moo read her one as she went to bed. Go Jo!

I had lunch with Viv, and talked about my first month as a deacon - which really isn't far away now. Things are really getting close.

Despite the upcoming excitement, I've got lots of work done today, and I'm quite pleased with it.

Labels: books, Jo, miri, ordination, work

Speaking

(backposting) At first, this looked like it was going to be a problem this morning. I woke up with a sore throat and little voice. A little unfortunate, given that the whole point of my trip was to give a presentation for someone else. Luckily, by 1600, when I was on, things were OK, and it all went rather well. I really enjoy speaking in company - even when the audience, a bunch of intellectual property lawyers - aren't the obvious constituency. However, I was invited, provisionally, to give another talk on the same topic in the future, so it must have gone fairly well.

Plane got in around 2330, home before 0100.

Finished the Cobb book, read a good deal of Introduction to Jungian Psychotherapy: The Therapeutic Relationship by David Sedgwick. Fascinating.

Labels: books, travel, work

Toronto

(backposting) Off to Toronto today. A later flight than usual, so no need to pack last night, but things got a little frantic in the end. Someone was coming to pick me up at 1000, and I ended up packing rather later than I'd intended. And I could _not_ find the book that I needed to take. I was aware that I'd not seen it for a while, but was pretty sure that I'd left it in my suitcase, but when I opened it up, it was nowhere to be found. Moo (and even Jo...) helped look for it, but I had to leave around 1010 without it, rather more stressed than I'd intended.

Easy drive to Heathrow, where I checked in, with an upgrade voucher meaning that I'd get to go in Business Class. Flight fine - watched Surf's Up, most of Sunshine (until it got a little too scary) and Ocean's Thirteen. Landed, through customs, went to pick up my hire car, opened one of the secondary zipped up compartments of my suitcase, and there was the book that I'd been stressing over. Oh, well.

Usual hotel, all well, food, evensong, bed.

Oh, I'm re-reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, as I've not read it for a while.

Labels: books, films, travel, work

Oh - and Harry Potter

Walked into the cafe yesterday with the Harry Potter in my hand, and said "Who'd have thought he dies in the first chapter, then?".

Had to apologise.

Labels: books

Disappointment, but affirmation

Up at 0515, which really wasn't great. The SecondLife ervice started a little after 0805 - I'd managed to get the streaming working at around 0755 (having woken Moo up at 0730 to look after Jo, though the former had also been up at 0315 for Miri - why?), but it didn't seem to work for anyone else, so we went without. We had a congregation of around half a dozen, I was robed in a cassock, and was ready with cut and paste for a complete BCP Mattins. The only parts which I didn't cut and paste were the intercessions - I invited suggestions from the congregation, and we ended up paying for a goth outreach for Birmingham Cathedral, the Anglican communion and other issues and people - and the sermon, which I constructed as we went. I'd done some preparation, obviously, and preached on condemnation, starting off with Mary Magdalene, who is commemorated today. I talked about condemning the sin, not the person ("I look out in front of me, and I see sinners. But then again, I look in the mirror, and I see a sinner, too"). I really enjoyed preaching, and got some feedback during the sermon, too.

Hopefully someone's videoed the service. If so, I'll probably make bits available.

Had an interesting conversation with a member of the congregation afterwards. A non-believer, but interested. Brought in partly due to his interest in physics and creation. Need to think about it. I've said I'm very happy to talk more about science and religion if he'd like - I have some background in the subject.

Finished the Harry Potter around 1100 (I've been busy, which is why it took over 24 hours), have so far failed to find anyone to talk to about it, who's also finished it. No spoilers, but it's a very good ending, more deaths than I'd expected. Got a little sad towards the end...

We've been so tired today. Cafe Clare for brunch, played in the playground there, back home, played with Jo. I had a bit of a sleep (Moo had tried before, but been kept awake by the Miri monster), then took Jo for a lovely swim. I see what Moo means about her really getting it. With a backfloat on, she's really capable - can go quite fast and steer, as well.

Bath: Jo didn't want her hair washed, but went to sleep in under 2 minutes.

Labels: books, reading, saint, secondlife

Friday five

This is Sally's fault.

1. Fiction what kind, detective novels, historical stuff, thrillers, romance????
Sci-fi. I'm sorry, but we keep getting there. You don't need to suspend disbelief, and there's a certain amount of being allowed to avoid characterisation if you wish. But you get to explore opportunities, and ideas, and thoughts.

2. When you get a really good book do you read it all in one chunk or savour it slowly?
All in one chunk. I read desperately fast, and often need to go back and re-read books or parts of books to get the most from them.

3. Is there a book you keep returning to and why?
A few: Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson) and Snowcrash (also Neal Stephenson); Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen); the Harry Potter books (in English, Latin and French, which is a bit sad, of course) (J.K. Rowling); Emily Dickinson's complete works; George Herbert's complete works. And Coverdale's Psalter in the BCP. I went through a phase as a pre-teen to mid-teenager of re-reading the three Lord of the Rings books (J.R.R. Tolkein).

4. Apart from the Bible which non-fiction book has influenced you the most?
Stranger in a Strange Land (R.A. Heinlein). I went through a phase of reading all of his stuff, and it feels rather contrived and dated now, but "Stranger" made me think and be critical in a way I hadn't before.

5. Describe a perfect place to read. (could be anywhere!!!)
Half-way down the stairs in my parents' house in the sun. I just used to get a few steps down, and then stop and read. For hours.

Labels: books

Cambridge

(backposting) Nursing bras need special fitting, apparently. So we went to Cambridge (where there's a special shop called Bravissimo), and I got to take back some UL books. Unluckily, Jo was a real pain pretty much all of the day.

Labels: books, Jo

Well, well

Jo's been showing more of an interest in words recently. On the page, that is. For instance, if you read the wrong words to a book she knows, she'll point at the ones on the page and tell you to read those. Also, she asked where the sentences were this morning when I was reading a book, so we had to explain.

This evening at bedtime, Moo was reading her a Topsy and Tim story, and Jo got very frustrated: "where are the words?" Moo pointed at them. "But I can't read them..." So Moo had to point and give her clues, and she told the story. She's started learning the alphabet (it's just another song to her!), but at this rate, we're going to have to decide how to proceed with words. I'm scared, I'm telling you: I'm not trained for this sort of thing!

Maybe she'll just let it go, but she's a dogged little child, so we'll see.

Labels: books, Jo, reading

To Zurich - just

(backposting) Just made it to Zurich. They cancelled my plane due to fog at London City airport, but I managed to get onto the last flight out, just because I happened to be close to the ticket desk when I discovered the planned flight was cancelled, and got into the queue quickly.

Met an old mate from Cambridge University Press and APM (now well merged into Citrix), Steve Cunnew. If you're reading this, Steve, then Hi.

Got in late, but managed to get through evensong before going to bed. Enjoying SPIN selling (see blogs passim), somewhat to my chagrin.

Labels: books, Citrix, CUP, flying, sales