Just thought I’d include a quick personal update, because blogging over the next two or three days is going to be tricky. Tomorrow sees another trip to the vet for the new cats, an ECG at the GP surgery as part of the background checking on my blood pressure situation, a family haircut crammed in between the end of school and Rebekah’s weekly Rainbows, then out early evening to Bishops Stortford for a meeting in the Methodist District for those ministers and circuits where a minister’s current invitation runs out next year (as mine does). Then it will be up early Tuesday morning for admission to hospital and the nasal op I keep droning on about.
So with that in mind, if I don’t get to post tomorrow and Tuesday, please understand! (I think you will.)
Today also has been one of those times where The Two Ronnies would have said, ‘In a packed show tonight’. On the surface, not a demanding day: two communion services, one at 11 am, the other at 6:30 pm. However, we always try to do something with the children on a Sunday afternoon, to maintain some pretence that Sunday is a family day. So when I arrived home around 1:15 pm, Debbie had sandwiches ready, they had to be gobbled, and it was off to town with the little monkeys.
Mark (who is still storming ahead at home and school with his reading skills) had been given a book by his teacher on Friday about art. He had got into the notion of ‘public art’. That seemed to mean – er – graffiti, and I don’t mean Banksy. So he and Rebekah were excitedly pointing out all sorts of public art as we walked along the river into the town centre. Thankfully, they didn’t notice the ‘art’ I saw which featured words beginning with ‘f’.
Rebekah bought a Princess Diana doll at the church May Fayre yesterday, and we found her a cheap book to help her understand who she was. (Diana died 1997, Becky was born 2003.)
BBs didn’t have any ice cream so our usual treat was out – the kids opted for combined red and blue slush puppies instead, and we took some bread to feed the ducks.
Back home for me to cook, Debbie to have a bath, and when I’d gobbled my pasta, salad and garlic bread, it was time for evening service. Back home afterwards, it was all domestic tasks for an hour or so before finally sitting down.
I’m typing this while wifey watches the double-episode season-closer of Lost.
I guess it’s been a typical minister’s Sunday?
See you soon.
Big Circumstance 
Hi Dave,
I’ll be praying for you and your op today.
I have been reading all your daily blogs but haven’t always found the need to comment, but for the sake of your health, I do notice you seem to ‘beat yourself up’ quite a lot in all areas of your life if you don’t meet certain standards . I’m not sure whose standards you are trying to maintain (God’s?) but in my humble opinion you do more in a normal day than I do in a month sometimes! OK, I’m not a minister, but it’s no wonder your blood pressure is always high! When do you really relax? I have to ask myself whether your doctor knows your true schedule 😉 Your children are a real credit to you and Debbie, but I’m sure they’d rather have fewer outings or treats with a healthy Daddy around than one who is dibilitated by ill health.
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Hi Mary,
Great to hear from you again and glad to hear you’ve still been reading! The schedule over this current week is abnormally heavy, directly as a combination of catching up after the sabbatical and then squeezing things in before the surgery. Tonight’s meeting in Bishops Stortford is a case in point. The meeting is being put on twice, but the second time is tomorrow morning, when I’m in hospital, and my District Chair understandably wanted me at one or other of the meetings, as we now begin the process formally to discern whether we stay here in Chelmsford beyond next year. However, it does make life fraught.
Interesting to hear your perception about me beating myself up. I think I do at times, but I’d hoped it was less now. At one stage a few years ago (I mustn’t be more specific), there were two or three church members who latched onto everything I did and turned it into poison. I thought I’d got that out of my system, but maybe there’s something still lurking there. There are other things I can’t mention at all in a public forum like this. But thank you for mentioning it: I’ll try to be aware of it more.
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Dave, I am adding my prayers for your operation to go well and restore you quickly to health. The ECG – Isn’t it usual to have an ECG before an operation? I think so. We look forward to having you back on line with renewed vigour.
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Olive,
Thanks – you always leave such kind, encouraging comments here. The ECG was prescribed by my GP, not the hospital, and it’s coincidental that I managed to get an appointment before the surgery. It arose out of the meeting with the GP last Friday week when we talked about my unusually high blood pressure at the pre-op assessment earlier that afternoon. I go back to see him about the BP in a month, when I shall also have had another blood test just to confirm that my kidneys are OK with the new medication.
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