So, after writing about my birthday party (two posts ago), I figured I should tell you about how I spent the following week-the one just gone. And I hope more people read it than the same post from this time last year, which is still my least viewed post. So far.
The party finished fairly late (or early, depending on how you look at it), but I was still quite awake; so I went online for a bit, and eventually got to bed about 4 in the morning. Thankfully, the next day was the first day of a week off, so I spent the day relaxing. I'm pretty sure I didn't see any more of the morning, and didn't do much in the afternoon. Except work on a blog post about my sponsored child, Benjamin. Which I didn't finish. I could have gone to a party in the evening, but frankly the thought of going somewhere where there were a couple hundred people didn't really appeal. However, relaxing did-so that's what I did.
Sunday was pretty much as normal, because I don't generally do much on Sundays anyway. Except go to church in the evening. It was a bit different, because a friend was celebrating her birthday, which actually was on that day. Not the same birthday either-she has a fair few years to go before getting here. So that meant fun and frolics at the pub, and, well, cake. Another friend had made her a cake, which was very nice. Cake is always nice.
On Monday, I didn't do much. Again. Except finish one blog post, and start another about the party. Oh, and join Twitter. Which is fun. I mean, that was the reason I got a smartphone in the first place-because God wanted me to join it. If anyone wants to follow me, you can find me at @neilfix.
But Tuesday was much more energetic. I actually got up in the morning. Without trying. I wasn't expecting that. I was meeting up with the friend who'd come down from Leeds for the party. He was staying with friends for a few days, and so we got to spend the day together. Well, the afternoon, anyway. Which involved wandering around town, reading books in Waterstones, and praying in a pub. Well, what else would one do in a pub? I was feeling a bit stressed due to a relationship that is not going well at the moment that I can't do anything about, except wait and pray. So we did that. And then in the evening, I went along to help with Alpha again. And got given a card, which I wasn't expecting.
Wednesday, I didn't leave the house all day, which I was glad about, as the weather was horrible-but that didn't mean it wasn't busy. People came to me. First, my mum, at about lunchtime. She stayed for a few hours, and appreciated the cards and presents with me. I got all sorts of things; some of which were sort of expected, like socks-I pretty much always get socks. Usually brightly coloured ones. Or black ones. Or a mix of the two. So that was nice. And then she left, in time for me to get ready for small group, which was happening at my house. I hadn't planned that specifically, but it was nice. I was hoping that some of the alcohol left over from Friday would be consumed; but, because the weather was so bad, everyone drove. So I'll have to come up with something else to get rid of it. I may even have to drink most of it myself. When we were praying at the end, someone prayed for me; praying that God would bless this year, and bring to fruition all the things I want from the year. I have a suspicion He wants more than that, and I definitely want to pray that what He wants happens, rather than what I want. Which, often, is actually quite limited.
Thursday and Friday, nothing much happened, except emotionally. Thursday, I didn't have any plans until the evening, which was definitely a good thing. I spent most of the afternoon praying about this relationship which has broken down. Which was quite painful. It gets that way at times. I went to Hungry in the evening, and I felt more or less fine when I got there; but at one point, there was a offer for people who felt exhausted for any reason to come up to the front, and I was then being ministered to for the rest of the evening. Friday I had been planning to visit a friend in Gloucester, but that didn't happen; so I got to recover from Thursday. Which I needed, as Saturday was another busy day.
My sister and my niece came over about lunchtime, and handed over my card and presents. Which were books that weren't books. My niece played the piano for a bit, which sounded nice. Which was amazing, when my sister mentioned she'd never played before. But before she complained too much, we went out for lunch. Sort of. We went to Bela Luna, which is an ice cream parlour that also does crepes and waffles. Thumbs up all round-I definitely recommend it. The assistants were all very friendly and happy to offer us free samples of some of their weird ice cream flavours-especially one girl, who was incredibly bubbly, and I had the weird feeling I'd met her before. But, frustratingly, I couldn't place her-if I even was correct in that.
Neil met us there, and then we all went back to my house, where the adults all tried our best to ignore my niece-as much as it's possible to ignore a very loud, incredibly energetic nine year old. Not much, is the answer to that. Then they left, and me and Neil hd some quiet to pray again, as we'd prayed on tuesday. But this time we had more time to listen and wait for God. Neil said he felt that God wanted to do some healing in ih of us separately at the moment, which is entirely possible. I just don't know what God is doing, which makes it difficult to co-operate with Him.
And then I went round out to tea at another friend's. Well, two of them, actually. We had a great conversation that started off talking about vision, and then moved onto watching funny videos on youtube. Just what I needed at that point. And Sunday night was pretty good, too. After church, I met our newest cluster member, Adelaide Read, who was 10 days old at that point. We actually have another new member now; name and weight currently unknown to me. And then I went out to meet up with another friend who I hadn't seen for a while, and it turned out she'd invited a few others. And a great time was had by all. Lots of laughter, and the posssibility of seeing her in a comedy gig in Bristol at the weekend...
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