Mike's musings

Daddy's squidgy ordination cake

Moo insisted that I take this picture and show it on my blog, simply because it looks like a cowpat. Things went wrong (separately) with not only the sponge, but also the icing. It tastes lovely, and meant that I had some fun Daddy-Jojo time, but it really looks pretty darn awful.

Things are taking off with SecondLife: more information to come, because nothing's official, but please keep an eye out.

Moo and I both took the day off today, which was lovely. We spent most of the morning together while Jo was at school and Mel looked after Miri, and after lunch at a pub we sent Mel home (with a bottle of wine which she probably _shouldn't_ have finished on her own this afternoon) to spend time together with the girls. It was a real holiday, and what we all needed, I think.

Although I get pretty upset at some of the Gafcon and anti-women bishops stuff, this is nothing compared to how riled Moo gets about it, so I've taken the step of inviting her to write piece for this blog. I'm not sure if she will, but I'm going to keep prodding. I've said she can write whatever she wants...

Lots of contact over the past 24 hours from friends around the ordination, which is great. Some good pictures up on Chris Newlands' pages on Facebook, if you can see them.

Oh, yes: this morning, Jo had asked if I'd take her to pre-school in my "priest's clothes", to which I'd agreed. It turned out that she meant my cassock, but I did consent to clerical shirt and collar. With it I wore what I'd have worn anyway: sandals, cut-off jeans, and mirror shades. "TV Comedy vicar" is how Moo labelled the look, somewhat hurtfully, I thought. I had to dash to the kennels to pick Buster up immediately after, and got accosted by someone there: "Ah, a vicar!" he said. I explained that I'm but a deacon, and it turns out that he's the vicar of Balsham, across the border in the Ely diocese. I'm going to have to get used to being stopped in odd places when I'm collared-up.

Last, but not least, my good friend Sally published a lovely post for me yesterday, to which I promised to link. Thank you, my friend.

Labels: church, food, ordination, secondlife, women

Vietnamese and Brazilian

No, not new waxings, but the two meals I had today. Vietnamese for lunch, and Brazilian for supper. Preferred the latter, to be honest.

Work still not good.

Back home tomorrow.

Labels: food, work

I give in

Yup, I've done it. The new barbecue arrived today, and it's a gas one. It's just going to be so much quicker to have barbecues, particularly for the girls, who aren't great at waiting for food. Tried it out for Moo and my supper, and it worked very well. Put it together all on my own, as well.

Started on my final ERMC essay tonight. 6,000 words. I've got the first 1,000 or so done, which I was dreading. The next 3,000 or so shouldn't be too hard, and we'll see after that.

Labels: ERMC, essay, food

Barbecue

(backposting) Not only did we barbecue today, we barbecued last night as well. In the drizzle. Kate and Mac have a thing about this. Didn't bother me - I wrapped up warm - but it is a _little_ odd, don't you think?

Wales were knocked out of the Rugby World Cup by Fiji. This is huge, and won't easy for Lee, my brother-in-law. After the match, which Jo had watched some of, we went outside to play some football (not having a rugby ball with us), and she kept picking up the ball and trying to spin pass it out. _Go_ girl.

Labels: family, food, Jo, rugby

Down to Cornwall

(backposting) We noticed today that Miriam has started taking a great interest in the food that other people are eating. This was a big sign for Jo that she was ready to start on solid foods, rather than just breast-milk, so we'll keep an eye on it for Miriam.

The trip down to Cornwall was pretty good, actually, and the cottage lovely. A 20 minute poo stop isn't as bad as it might seem.

Labels: food, miriam

Gardening, barbecue

(backposting) In a somewhat desperate attempt to make the garden habitable, I cleared lots of brambles today. It's nice to have blackberries, but I prefer them not actually to grow in the garden. The other reason was that Victoria and Grenville came over for a lovely barbecue this evening. They waited until Jo was asleep, brought Sennon around, put him to bed, and then we had a lovely time. Grenville headed off around 2200 to do some work (!), so the rest of us stayed up. Moo went to bed around 0000, but came down at 0100 to tell me to sort the dog out, as he was still barking. This saved Victoria and me from drinking even more of the Scotch/Irish whisk(e)y that we'd been consuming, and was generally a good plan.

Today's toddler quote is "I got some in!". Jo had said that she'd get herself some milk, and had gone to the fridge to do so. I'd told Moo not to worry, because Jo's milk (full fat) wasn't opened, so she wouldn't have a chance. The sounds of "glug, glug, splash" made us realise that the other milk _was_ open, and being a resourceful young person, Jo'd gone with that. The cry "I got some in!" was accurate, but the stress would have been better placed on the word "some". Well, Buster got to lick lots of milk from the floor, and Jojo felt pleased with herself.

We prepared Miri's room today. Soon, we'll put her in there overnight, but Moo didn't think that today was a plan.

Labels: children, food, friends, Jo

Two important lessons

(backposting) These lessons are:

1. don't take a pushchair to the beach unless you're _sure_ there are no rocks to clamber over, and the sand will be firm;
2. don't try to change a baby only a couple of metres from the shoreline if the tide's coming in.

I think you get the picture. We had a lovely time, though, and Jo just kept running from pool to pool saying "I love this, I love this". I got to have a copule of minutes in the surf in my wetsuit, which is frankly too short, a problem which is not helped by the fact that I could do to lose some weight, if we're brutally honest.

Ice-cream, doughnuts (don't start - we're on holiday).

We'd started off in Boscastle, and then headed off to Trebarwith, which is a lovely beach. We were there around 1400, which was a little late, as the tide was coming in very quickly, but we'll know better next time. May well return on another occasion. Without pushchair.

Poor Jo's being very good about not scratching, and she's been better in herself today. Had a lovely hour or so running around in the cottage's garden, pretending to be various animals, hiding, chasing, playing with a beachball: all that sort of thing. She really gets play with other people now, and it was a real joy: _she_ was a real joy to be with. No spots on Miri so far.

Labels: food, holiday, illness, Jo

Yes, there _was_...

... something wrong with the freezer in the cat kitchen. (A moment of explanation: we knocked through to the next door cottage - which we bought! - 18 months or so after we moved into the house, and the original kitchen is used (among other things) for feeding cats, so is known as "the cat kitchen"). It's dead. Light on, nobody at home. Well, it's not keeping things cold, anyway.

So, after ordering a new one online, we had a full cooked breakfast with Mel in an attempt to use up some of the food in there.

Ice-cream for lunch, methinks...

Labels: food

I spy

Jo's beginning to get "I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with ...". Obviously, we make the letter sound, rather than the letter, but she loves it, and wants to play as well. This morning Moo, Jo and I were sitting downstairs, and Jo and I were looking at a book. We started playing "I spy", and I did a few.

Then Jo piped up with "I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with ... cake!" Moo's immediate comment was "well, she's certainly a Bursell". Compounded by her saying, a few minutes later, "I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with ... pie!" OK, OK, embarassed.

Labels: food, Jo, play

Freising

I was doing an audit today, for which we'd scheduled two days, but in the end - for various reasons - we got what we could do finished by around 1330 local, so Ian (a colleague) and I went back to the hotel in Freising, did some work, and then wandered around the town (had a beer and an icecream, that sort of thing). The town's lovely, and we had a good meal at what bills itself as "the oldest brewery in the world": Weihenstephan.

To bed early, as my flight leaves at 0625 local.

Labels: food, travel

Supervision

While I remember, I said that I'd blog about a very nice place that we've been going to recently for coffee, brunch, lunch, etc.. If you're ever in the area, I heartily recommend Café Clare. Lovely people, lovely food, lovely atmosphere.

I had a supervision today with Keith. It was to cover topics that we were down to deal with in late February:

• Eucharist in the local context;
• denominational identity;
• denominational organisation.

We went out for lunch, and had a very pleasant meal at a pub in Finchingfield.

Labels: ERMC, food

Oslo, Copenhagen

A useful day, workwise, followed up by a lovely French meal. Escargots. Trou normand (1984 Calvados), Tournedos, St Emilion (2000), Muscat (lost the plot as to years by then), chocolate mousse with passionfruit icecream. All by a French chef. In Copenhagen. Oh, yes.

Labels: food

A day out at Felixstowe

Visited the FBI today (not that FBI) for lunch. Then a walk along Felixstowe beach. Didn't go very far, partly because Jo didn't fancy walking much (why would you bother when you can sit on the sand or throw shells and pebbles in the sea?), and becuase Moo was finding it heavy going (she _said_ it was because she was having a stretchy tummy day, but I think that the enormous helping of haddock at chips may have had something to do with it). A lovely day out, though.

Labels: food, sea, walk

A day with Jo

(backposting) In an attempt to give Moo a day to improve somewhat, I decided to take Jo out and spend as much time with her as possible. We went out of the (unavoidable) "coffee and cakes" to Freeport, and then to Crazy Kids, an indoor play centre not that far away. We walked there from Freeport, and it hadn't occurred to me that after around 45 minutes of (hectic) fun, it might be raining. But it was, and it didn't help that I left the change bag. Didn't go back for it, but on to lunch at a Chinese place.

Jo's first try at Chinese food. Good thing they do chips and mince pies as well. I had a good meal, though, and then we picked up the car and drove back to Crazy Kids to get the change bag ("silly Daddy!"). Back to Moo, who had benefited from sleep and rest, and then off to swimming. Jo loves her swimming, and it's become a little thing for us to enjoy together.

Labels: food, Jo, swimming