Weirdest moment at work

- I'm finishing up in the ladies bathrooms and reaching to hitch up my trousers when my phone rings. The place is empty so I answer. It's the lady at church in charge of the kids and is worried about a projector not working and needs me to direct her to someone in the know. I help out best I can, suggesting one or two folks, before finally making it out to the sinks. Luckily no one walked in mid-conversation. That would have been weird.

Normal service has been resumed! Thanks to gnimaerd for helping me cope with the photoshop madness that went on here. I am hoping to get an actual new layout up soon.

Worst cramps known to womankind this weekend. According to Mum, it's from Granny P I have inherited this pain as she had terrible period pains too. Still I beat them down with pain pills and hot water bottle. I soldiered through my first carol services. It was amazing, candles everywhere and a very awesome powerful choir. I did get mad when students kept telling me what went wrong during the first service though - we had severe technical hitches. According to Anthony, I looked like I wanted to garrott someone. The thought crossed my mind. But then he took my home and rubbed my feet and watched Top Gear with me :)

Awesome Christmas super short video - Doctor Who BBC Christmas ident. I want a ride like that!

I have bought sparkly pretties for the Braithwaite girls, three lovely necklaces, and a nice earring and necklace set for Baby Mel. I was going to wrap them up last night but then I run out of sticky tape. So I listened to 'Rumours of Angels', the best Christmas music arc ever, and wrote my Christmas cards. I've already sent off the ones that need to be posted. Hope they get to those of you I have addresses for!!

Cousin Anna's wedding this weekend, yay! I get to share a hotel room with Ali and spend time with my family and see my favourite cousin, Harriet. We're sitting at the same table at the reception, woohoo. The mission shall be to keep Dad calm and make him realise that there is no pressure on him. I am up for the task. Mum deserves to enjoy herself!

Busy busy busy. It's not even Halloween yet and already I am preparing for Christmas. It's that Dalrymple side of me coming out to assert control, more than usual anyway. I have presents bought for half my family and am struggling to think of something for little sis. The plan is to take those presents, wrapped and presentable, down with me when I visit the parents in November so that I have less to haul with me on December 24th when Anthony and I make our way there for Christmas itself. Travelling on trains is hard enough at Christmas without the lumpy awkward baggage of presents.

I also feel as though I am spreading my wings and jumping off from a great height as I fire off emails to all those far and wide who work computers and cameras at church for that great difficulty of my year - organising the Christmas rota for church service visuals. There are many services and naturally, my operators want to enjoy their own Christmases. But still, eager young Adam, only twelve and already straining at the leesh, is keen to do many duties now that he has learnt what to do and I have found wonderful Doug, computer sciences student who knows his Red Dwarf, who wants to learn everything. I'm gonna get him to ferret out more of his fellow students to join team, as we losing the ever wonderful and man of all answers, Jeremy as his work shifts him to Salisbury. I shall miss his reassuring presence very much so. Also the fantastic Mr Todd wishes to break away but has agreed to be emergencies only Pray for me and send all good thoughts that I would get this all fixed and ready by middle of next month.

Alas, we lose another. RIP Barry Letts. The man who produced the Jon Pertwee era of Doctor Who, who created the character of Sarah-Jane Smith, and who cast Tom Baker in the role and so changed everything. I feel I owe him so much and wish I'd met him to tell him so. Thinking of him gives me a warm nostalgic feeling. Today, I found a lovely message from his family to the fans. It says all it needs to:

"Barry always had a warm respect for the fans of Dr Who. As Barry’s family, we would like to thank everyone for their good wishes on the websites and forums following the news that Barry had died. We have been very touched that the many messages and tributes show such an appreciation and understanding, both of his work and of the very kind and wise man that Barry was."

For the first time in many years, I went to a morning service at church. The occasion was that it was baby Kendra's blessing service. It was a really lively noisy time, the 9.30am service is always the one for families and young children, and Kendra behaved herself beautifully. There was cake afterwards :) It was tremendous to see people like Chrissie and Gemma who'd come back especially for the occasion.

Dan was wearing a key around his neck last night like me. Anthony reckoned it was the key to Dan's TARDIS. Dan said he couldn't confirm or deny that. I love my friends.

It's been raining and pouring here and I guess old men have been snoring as Steve is back from Texas and spent the day sleeping off his jet lag lol. Also Anthony and I went to see Quantum of Solace. Much better than I had been led to believe.

( Muchly spoilers for Quantum of Solace )

Just come back from seeing the Mark Drama at my co-worker Bill's church. It's set in the round, rows of chairs set in a circle with the action happening in the middle, and no one wears costumes. It tells the story of Mark's Gospel, all the events acted out, everyone playing multiple parts, apart from the guy playing Jesus of course. It really was wonderful, very affecting. I'd love to act in something like that, I miss it more than I ever thought I would. Mum and Dad keep saying I should join an amateur dramatic group. It's a fun though slightly scary thought.

So I have begun some Christmas shopping as I have three families to buy for - my own, Anthony's, and the family I live with. I've been planning for a while and yesterday ordered a CD of awesome Christmas music called Rumours of Angels for my Mum (she's had the cassette tape of it for years, I figure it's time for an upgrade), Schott's Almanac 2009 for my Dad, and This is Spinal Tap on DVD for Si. I'm gonna buy Disney's Sleeping Beauty for Ali, it was all she watched when she was younger. The girls here will get pashmina scarf things (it was jewellery last year), crystalised ginger for Jane and chocolates for Steve (to share with his engineering monkeys should he wish to). Mum and Lee (Anthony's mum and stepdad) will get chocolates and wine and I am stumped as to what to get for Mel, Anthony's sister. That will take further investigation.

Ah working on the Christmas rota for church tech as well. Three people want to join the team *happy dance* which is awesome, though they will need training of course which means I've still gotta stretch my poor current team to work for all the Christmas services and the list of that is never ending. Gotta keep the faith.

It was a truly lovely evening yesterday. We had a BBQ out on the patio at the back of the church centre. There were paper lanterns strung along the fence and hung in the trees and a bouncy castle in the hall. The weather was so warm and summery and the smell of the BBQ brought back childhood summers for me. There was only a smattering of students cos of exams but it was lovely to see them and the bouncy castle was exhausting and so much fun. And I felt ridiculously loved-up with Anthony lol. Just couldn't stop smiling cos life at that moment was glorious and right, you know? A perfect little summer snapshot that I'll hold close to me. I feel blessed to have such moments.

 I'm not dead, at least not yet I'm not.

The wrestling was truly great. Anthony needed some cheering up after a really rotten week and the All-Stars really delivered. I got to see Robbie Brookside twice in one night so I was thrilled and he won the royal rumble that closed the show. Kids poured down to the ring and surrounded him after he made it to the floor. It was really exciting, and yeah some of the workers aren't exactly highly-skilled but they're entertaining and it's so interesting to see wrestling so close up. The only thing that slightly spoilt the experience was the small groups of smart marks yelling for the heels and ruining the atmosphere. I'm so going to see the company again when they come back in the new year.

My weekend was busy - two twelve hour days of techy gloriousness. I helped rig everything up for the church vision day on Sunday and then helped run things on the actual day. It reminded me of just how much I loved being on stage crew and I'm so glad I get the chance to do similar stuff now. I was the queen of the scaffold tower lol. Once again I was the only female techie and we had fun, getting our meals later and later and laughing through our sheer exhaustion. Mine wasn't helped by the week of full days I worked last week, I'm doing more this week til Thursday - that's the golden day that I can gain a couple more hours sleep, bliss. 

Plus my little bro comes to visit me on Friday, his first time seeing where I live and meeting my friends here. He's really looking forward to it and so am I. We don't get to spend much time together when I go home cos he works nights so this'll be a treat.