Blog archive December 2003
<< November 2003 / January 2004 >>
31.12.03 / 03
the visit of the magi is a piece i did for grace's 'nine' service december 2002.
31.12.03 / 02
The Last Waltz: how the Church never made it past 1967 parts 1, 2, and 3
i wrote this piece in response to an article in british 'Youthwork' magazine about 2 years ago. it never got sent anywhere or published because i couldn't resolve it to my satisfaction, but the ideas in it have informed my thinking and writing since. so it's a kind of missing link.
31.12.03 / 01
finally finished recoding smallfire in xhtml, including the long-delayed labyrinth section. amazing what you can do given a few days at christmas.
21.12.03 / 02
went to covent garden to do some christmas shopping [can't say exactly what of course in case certain persons read this :)]. it was a comfort to my soul re point 3 below hanging round all the skate-oriented shops of my universe. was delighted by the new bionyc shop. big original canvases for sale, camo-print easy chairs, some amusing sarcastic christmas stuff espec the snowshakers.
21.12.03 / 01
just added some new stuff and diagrams on network church. this was partly published as a column in movement magazine in the autumn.
20.12.03 / 02
watching fifth element and iris simultaneously.
20.12.03 / 01
back from the office christmas trip to barcelona. we flew friday pm, had so-so meal in hotel, went for a drink in a picturesque part of town. then some of us ended up in a truly fabulous nightclub. up after 3 hours sleep to see mies van der rohe's barcelona pavilion in the morning sun. then the long journey home.
1. it's a long time to travel. about 6 hours each way, though only one and a half hours each way in the air. low-cost airlines go from airports miles out of town.
2. the 70s are alive and well in both styling and cuisine in at least one hotel.
3. i feel like i come from a parallel universe or different reality when in the company of my work colleagues. maybe each one of them secretly feels the same way.
4. i'm embarrassed by my lack of spanish. i keep getting muddled up with italian.
5. barcelona has ugly industrial suburbs with bad smog.
6. it messes with my sense of time to find myself somewhere warm and sunny the week before christmas. a relief though in the cold grey english winter.
17.12.03 / 04
my age a source of shock as usual. these things emerge at parties. i'm 44 but people think i'm 27-35 [tonight's guesses]. i'm just styled that way. and the look-ten-years-younger thing i inherit from my mother. but there's a truth, in that i am the person i appear to be. it's just my birth certificate that's adrift. the pros are, i'm glad to have seen the 60s, and my outside matches my inside. the cons are, everyone thinks i'm the office junior in my job. whereas i actually have more experience than they do. this makes my life harder, because i don't carry weight in certain situations.
17.12.03 / 03
party gossip. turns out work colleague hung out with the stranglers as a schoolgirl [but no naughtiness in spite of their public image]. jj burnel, wilco johnson and billy idol's boyf [apparently] in the same block of flats, listening to doors albums and drinking tea.
17.12.03 / 02
have headache already from wine and champagne. we were at zinc bar which is in the street that forms the cover of the ziggy stardust album. ten years ago it still looked the same except for k. west's updated sign. now all those buildings are bars and it's barely recognisable. shame.
17.12.03 / 01
got home from the barclays christmas party tonight to find the house all decorated for christmas.
16.12.03 / 02
this guy is the real thing of which i am the pale xerox
16.12.03 / 01
i'm barely scraping into the 'two-week rule' for active blogs atm. christmas has bitten hard. i have too much work and stress at work. the stress and hours have supressed my immune system and i'm trying not to have a cold. last week my spare time was spent struggling with imovie for the first time to produce something for the grace service last saturday. then there's the christmas cards. and the shopping for presents. with a painful foot. so unnecessary things like blogging have been neglected in favour of sleep [good for illnesses and stress].
ironically the office christmas parties [barclays team all tomorrow pm, pringle brandon to barcelona fri-sat] make the situation worse because there's still five [maybe seven] days work to do in three. tonight i was supposed to work late but started to feel ill with cold. if it wasn't the week before christmas i'd carry on, but nobody wants someone sniffling and sneezing through their christmas meals.
09.12.03 / 01
it's kind of charming, that the government sends ozzy osbourne a get-well message. i'm sure that's not in the game plan for a lord of darkness.
08.12.03 / 02
you know, it's so funny - as soon as i slit the envelope, i thought of that blog entry. so i put the card aside to blog about it without even taking it out of its envelope. i noticed it again hours later. it's from my grandmother - always the first to send a card. she'd never understand about the blogging though.
08.12.03 / 01
a defining moment - the first christmas card from a relative. better get my act together!
06.12.03 / 03
just added 'some notes on how to get started' to alternativeworship.org. they were originally produced for a greenbelt seminar in 2001, where the extra copies proved highly popular. i only rediscovered the file in a grace planning meeting a couple of weeks ago, because i'd put it in the wrong place.
06.12.03 / 02
of course radiohead concerts and trade shows sourcing cushions don't help the feet. :)
nor will christmas shopping.
06.12.03 / 01
should blog something. have been working late. spare time spent fixing smallfire.org, which is about half done. have got plantar fasciitis. and an injured nerve in my thigh, which feels like your cheek after a visit to the dentist [though not that bad]. the fasciitis requires painful physiotherapy and strapping. my lifestyle atm is the problem - i either spend too much time on my feet eg standing all the way to work on the tube, or too much time sitting down eg at my desk.
