Mike's musings

Into London

(backposting) Or maybe not. Set off nice and early, things were looking OK until I got to Witham, and then it started snowing big-time. And settling. I nearly made it to the station car park when I realised that if it carried on like this, I might get into London, but I certainly wasn't going to get back home, even if I made it to Witham.

So, I worked from home. Got lots done, too, but didn't get the chance to talk to my boss about career development stuff, etc..

Labels: weather

Snow, more snow

(backposting) Mel really doesn't like driving in snow, so I drove the girls over to her house. I then went and bought my very first yarn. Very exciting, and you can find all the details over at my account on Ravelry (I'm MikeCamel there, as everywhere else).

Back home, and spent 90 minutes on the bathroom, then did the kitchen, too. Even wiped around. Astonishing. And got the new work email account working on my phone.

I went to pick up the girls in the late afternoon, and the weather got rather interesting on the way back. Not fun, and I was aware that Moo was driving home at the same time, but we all got home safely in the end.

Labels: girls, weather

Weather

The weather's been good, which is excellent. Went to get another gas canister for the barbecue (the last one ran out yesterday) with Miri when Jo was at ballet. And went for a bacon and sausage sarnie, obviously. And wandered around Clare church, which Miri loved.

Lunch, bikes in Clare Country Park, Si, D., Morgan and Boo around for a barbecue this evening. Good to see them all, and sardines in the garden is a whole lot more fun than with just 4 of us. Particularly when Miri keeps shouting, "hiiiiiiiiiiding! Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere!"

Got "MikeCamel" as a username for Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MikeCamel. I've had the same nick for around 14 years now, so it's nice to keep it. Moo doesn't see the point: neither does D. Si does, natch. Oh, and have you any idea how difficult it is to find a (working) Bible reader for an S60v5 phone? Dull.

Labels: friends, phone, weather

The hot weather continues!

(backposting) Barbecue's still great. The girls are still enjoying themselves, and we're still enjoying them.

Trying to find a good Symbian Bible app for my phone (a Samsung i8910 S60v5), but am failing somewhat.

Labels: bible, weather

Weather

I know I'm British, but what's with the weather at the moment? Had a good walk, and didn't get rained on, but there's a lot of it about. I suppose that's what an English spring should be about.

Labels: weather

Road or river

(backposting) Lots of rain led to big flooding outside our house, though it wasn't as bad as 8 years ago. In the end, the police closed the road, but in the meantime, we kept trying to turn people back, as most of them would either: get stuck, as their car wasn't big enough; go too fast, creating a bow-wave that caused more flooding (only one house under water this year, but 2 more were threatened). You'll find pictures here and here. For some reason, Flickr doesn't want to post them here.

Labels: weather

Miri and the phone

(backposting) Miri loves phones. She'll pick them up, talk to them, hand them to you, take them back, talk some more, all of that. But when there's actually someone there, she seems entirely freaked by the whole business, and will just look at it in a slightly bemused fashion.

Today, she talked back. She seemed to realise it was me, and even responded to "kiss, kiss" (and a kissing noise from my end) by kissing the phone. In fact, she pretty much slobbered all over it, and Moo had to clean it afterwards, but it was really sweet. I remember when Jo suddenly seemed to get it, and it makes phoning home so much more rewarding.

A really busy day in Mississauga (my company's HQ) today, which is excellent, but tiring. I popped to a Mall in the evening, bought some books and some clothes (so cheap over here), some of which are presents for Moo and the girls. On the way back, witnessed an amazing thunderstorm in the distance, with ragged lightning across the sky: God works in truly fantastic ways.

Labels: god, miri, travel, weather

Rainy

Is it just me, or has it been rather rainy today? I know that this isn't of great theological import, but it does seem to have been the main point of the day. Oh, and Miri went to her 6-9 month check-up today, at just over 11 months. She's still over the 100th centile for weight (even measured against the 11 month numbers!) and 91th centile for height.

Can't think where she gets those from.

Jo's being lovely and thoughtful and polite at the moment: it's just gorgeous. She's also started noting that her other friends aren't...

Labels: Jo, miri, weather

Back to Polzeath

(backposting) We arrived a little later, partly because we knew that the weather wasn't supposed to clear fully till the afternoon. On arriving we went and bought some postcards, a bucket and spade for Jo, a hat for Moo, and a wetsuit for Jo as well. We should have got one earlier in the week, but there's some room to grow into it, and we'll be back in a month or so.

Jo looked great in the wetsuit and it certainly kept her much warmer. We put up the UV-resistant tent (for Miri - it's been very helpful all week), and I took Jo to jump in the waves and do some rock-pooling (which she'd enjoyed yesterday). Then we went back to Moo. Although the weather had cleared from the morning (there'd been rain overnight), there was some _serious_ cloud coming in from the Atlantic. We then saw the rain coming down, which meant that we had some time to prepare. People were running for their cars, Moo put Miri into the tent, and got Jo in there as well. No room for me, so I hot-footed it to the sea and the surf. I was already in my wetsuit, and it was much warmer in the sea, and I stayed there until it finished raining, lovely and warm and happy.

I got back to the tent really worried that a UV-tent wouldn't be water resistant, but it turned out that the girls were all dry, and had had a fantastic time.

We had a good rest of the time, and towards the end of the time we were there, some people set up a booth. Turned out it was the Polzeath Family Mission. They seemed to be offering some good entertainment for the kids, and I was pretty impressed. Caught a couple of minutes of a - what? sermon? homily? chat? - well something that was being amped up. Arguing from natural theology - "we're called to look beyond what we see to a creator, who created all we see around us", that sort of thing - isn't my thing, but they had a decent number of people, and I picked up a flyer: they're doing quite a lot of work.

We stuck around for a late lunch (pasties, chips), and then headed back to the house. As we were heading back, we had a call from some friends of Kate and Mac (and therefore Moo): Sally-anne (sp?) and Mike. They live near Redruth, and we'd left them a call earlier in the week. Although it was last minute, we ended up joining them - and about another 20 people - for a lovely barbecue. Jo stayed up past 2100, not having slept on the way, being absolutely manic, mainly with the youngest of their kids, Christina. The family - and, in fact, all the guests, many of whom were also family - were great, and we had a fantastic evening. Because we're not stupid, and as I wanted to get some sleep - I'll be driving lots tomorrow - we put Jo in with Moo and Miri.

Labels: girls, holiday, weather

Renewal of baptismal vows

Went with Jo (who slept through past 0600 today, as did the dog!) to a service at Long Melford today which including a renewal of baptismal vows. Ian, the Rector, had worked very hard not only on the liturgy, but on the numbers. He told me that he'd personally invited at least 300 people, and there must have been around that number there. The service was very good, and even though, at an hour and a half, it was long for the younger members of the congregation, it all went very well, and there were things for them all to do. We all trooped past the font - and a mini-font for children - signing with the cross ourselves with the water that was there, and after communion, we were all given a candle, and they were lit from a flame which started at the Easter candle. We sang a hymn, and finished off the service with a blessing. It was a very good service, and I was very impressed.

After that, I picked up Moo and Miri and went went to Freeport, via The King's Head at Gosfield, where we enjoyed a very good meal (particularly the puddings!), despite some rather weird company on neighbouring tables... Only bought a pair of sunglasses at Freeport, and Moo spent most of the time feeding Miri in Starbucks. It was beginning to rain harder and harder, Moo lost it a bit with Jo (who was playing up), and we went home. Jo watched a little TV (CBeebies), and then, despite the rain, came outside to play on her new bike.

Once Jo finally went to sleep, I took Buster out for 50+ minutes. It rained very, very hard. No, really. My Akubra (hat), Drizabone (coat), Brashers and moleskins (trousers) did stirling service, but by the time the dog went into the lake, it was unclear whether it was making him wetter, or the other way round.

Labels: baptism, bike, dog, placement, services, weather

Getting rained on

Today has been a beautiful hot day, with temperatures at least above 20 degrees Celsius. I took Buster for a walk at lunchtime, and as we'd been moving rather fast, and he was pretty hot, I let him have a swim in a lake nearby. I stood under a large willow tree - around 20m tall - and was somewhat surprised to find that I was being rained on.

There was a gentle, but steady, fall of drops from the tree under which I was standing - I've never come across anything like it. I went out of the shade of the tree, and it stopped: it was definitely coming from the tree. I wondered if it was respiration (which produces water) or some condensation from the air (though it didn't feel that humid). In the end, I sent this SMS to AQA (Any Question Answered):

I was just standing under a large (20m+) willow tree by a small lake. Although the temperature is in the high 20s Celsius under a clear blue sky, and it's nearly 2pm, the tree was dripping water on me, like light rain. Why? Condensation, respiration, or other reason?

I got the following helpful answer back a few minutes later:

AQA: The tree was losing water by the process of "transpiration" through it's (sic) leaves. On a hot day a large willow tree can lose up to 5,000 gallons of water.

That's nearly 19,000 litres of water, folks! I suspect that I knew about this when I did biology at school, but it was good to learn something nearly new.

Labels: walk, weather

Homewards bound today

I was a bit worried, given all the snow that there's been, that I might not be able to get home tomorrow (the flight leaves today, gets in tomorrow), but it appears that the thaw is already beginning, and I should be OK. Well, OK to fly, at least. But I've managed to lose my voice again, which isn't particularly useful, as I'm supposed to be the booth host, giving out prizes, talking the talk, etc. Well, we'll see if I have anything voice-wise by 1500 local.

Moo's taken some lovely pictures of Jo in the snow, which I've seen, and I had a little chat about it with her (Jo) on the phone this morning. She told me that she'd made a snowman, which is cool, and then offered me cake, which was a little surreal. But nice, of course. I'm very much looking forward to seeing both of them. I'm supposed to be traveling next week, as well, but at this rate, I'm just not going to be well enough, so we'll see how it goes.

I'm aware that I've not been very theological recently, but there we are. If you want something that's likely to raise your ire - for one reason or another - you might want to look at this open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury and associated petition.

Labels: travel, weather

Cold?

(backposting) Apparently it's quite cold. -6C? Don't know what people are on about: we're forecasted 12C here... However, if there really is snow on Thursday at home, it might make my return journey home rather interesting, which would be bad.

Went to buy a new case today, as mine finally died on the way over. Didn't think to report it, so won't get any money for it, but a new one over here only cost $34.99 + tax (under $38 - around £18-£19), so I'm not complaining too much. I do, however, love to complain about the fact that over here in North America you never know how much something is going to cost you until you take it to the till! Sorry to shout, but this really exercises me. They don't put tax-inclusive prices up, and as taxes vary from state to state, you've basically got little chance to know what you're actually paying. Aaaaaaaaargh!

The show continues busy, and my MC work is winning plaudits (just being loud and myself in front of lots of people isn't _that_ difficult, but hey), so people seem happy. I'm full of snot and not sleeping well, but apart from that...

Labels: weather, work