Mike's musings

Facebook, "boo!" and the IT crowd

After a bit of a trawl, I found lots of friends from King's (where I went to college) on Facebook, including Kate, Jason, Amy and Michael. Yay!

Miri gets "boo!" - and will hide herself behind a blanket pretty much to order. Lots of "Daddy" today, which makes me very happy indeed.

I never really got into The IT Crowd. which is great, because it means that now we've rented it from Amazon. Unluckily, it's all about me. I can laugh at myself, really. Good thing, too.

Labels: facebook, television miri

"My own bed..."

0610 this morning:

Jo (waking up next to me in the spare room bed): "I slept in my own bed all night!"

Me: "No, you didn't!"

Jo (plaintively): "Why?"

Me: "Because you came into my bed in the middle of the night."

Jo (with conviction): "I'll try to sleep in my own bed tonight."

My night?

• Last night, bedtime - Miri's unsettled, so Moo takes her into our room, I take the spare room.
• 2310 last night, Jo gets out of bed. I take her back to her room.
• 2340 last night, I go back to bed: Jo seems to have settled.
• 0015 Jo comes into the spare room.
• 0420 Moo comes in to say that Buster's barking. I go downstairs, then up to my side to do some Facebooking.
• 0450 after some time with Buster, he still won't settle. I let him outside. I watch some TV to give him some more time.
• 0510 I let Buster back in, and go back up to bed.
• 0610 Jo wakes up (I haven't got back to sleep).

Not exactly standard, but I've had worse...

Apparently Turtle, Jenny's eldest, won't watch Underground Ernie, which Jo loves. When Moo asked Jenny why, she answered, with a shrug, "Talking Underground trains?".

Labels: buster, facebook, family, Jo, miri, sleep

Heroes

(backposting) It just keeps getting better, doesn't it? We couldn't face staying up till 2220 (!), so only watched the one episode tonight, recording the other: no spoilers, please. My mate Mark Brown has joined Facebook, so welcome along if you're reading this.

I grabbed a few minutes when I would otherwise have been having a cup of tea yesterday morning, and joined Jo, Miri and Mel (who's also just joined Facebook) at toddler group. It's lovely to see Jo running around, and I'm completely unfazed (sp?) by being the only bloke there. Seems that I get some looks, but I don't care. I noticed yesterday (as I have in similar situations before) that I immediately get lots of attention from other children. This can sometimes be quite disturbing, depending on how they relate to you, but on this occasion it all seemed happy and healthy enough.

Started using the Vulgate for some of my readings for evensong since coming back from the latest ERMC weekend. I'd forgotten how lovely it is, and it appears that I've not got too rusty.

Jo's started recognising "J for Jojo" all over the place, "squiggly snake S's", and the letter "O". She knows that when two "o's" are next to each other as friends, they tend to make an "ooooo" sound, and she goes around finding examples and telling us all about it.

Labels: bible, facebook, Jo, miri, television

Away for a few days

In Sunningdale, of all places. The place I'm staying feels like a residential care home, but I'll hold off judgement until I've spent a little longer here.

Jo went to pre-school this morning. We were a little worried, of course, and Moo, Mel, Miri and I accompanied her up the hill. She immediately started playing with the toys, sand, plasticine, etc., and didn't even notice when we went. We were, of course, gutted. She's doing 2 sessions a week, and had such a lovely time there today that she's looking forward very much to the next one, tomorrow.

Miri's not been great today: seems that her digestive system is taking a while to get the hang of "solid" foods. Fair enough, and that's as much detail as you want.

I'm addicted to Facebook, which also works on my mobile. I'm trying to avoid the "how many friends have you got" line, but there are lots of little applications you can add. Fun, fun, fun.

Labels: facebook, Jo, miriam, travel

Double preaching

I preached at both Shimpling (0900) and Long Melford (1030) today. Same sermon, though it went better second time. According to Ian - who officiated at both (I took up to the Eucharistic Prayer, excepting Absolution) - I was very "ummy" and "ahhy" at the beginning, first time round, and he came out of it intending to tell me that I really need to write down my sermons (which I've tried, and don't like), but second time round it was much better and more fluid. It seems that I need to work on the beginnings. I tend to run through sermons lots of times in my head, but I think I need to work on the very first few sentences better, as that's what seems to let me down. Useful feedback.

Poor Moo (who wasn't feeling great) had Jo and Miri for four and a half hours in the morning, in the end, and was very good about it. I took Jo for a good swim in the afternoon, and after the girls had bathed, took Miri and Buster for nearly an hour's walk. Pushed it hard, and my calfs (calves?) now hurt.

Joined Facebook last night, after Mark invited me. It was going to happen one day. You can find me there: "Mike Bursell".

Tomorrow is Jo's first day at pre-school. Oooh!

Labels: facebook, Jo, preaching, swimming, walk