Spring cleaning/Recycling

Nobody had to get up early this morning but out of habit I still got up at 7 p.m. and made tea for us both.  I had not had a very good night partly because Sara was tossing and turning (I went downstairs and watched some TV from 1 a.m. until 2.30 a.m.) and we had more wind and rain in the night.  The flagpole was swaying quite a bit when I went downstairs so I dismantled it - yet again!  The pole has been up and down more times in the last seven weeks than in its entire history!  I started, today, to go through lots of old papers in the study and managed to clear some space on my desk.  It has been annoying me over these last few weeks, paper mounting up over paper, and today's blitz left me feeling much more in control.  I threw away loads of old minutes and agendas from various committees and organisations I work with and decided to be quite ruthless - somebody somewhere has them all neatly filed away.  From April I will not be serving on any church committees - just attending the odd meeting and in October I will be relinquishing my role as lodge secretary which will mean a substantial amount of paper going across to the new secretary.  Much of my records is in electronic form anyway and can be put on a memory stick.  I also had a very long telephone call from Nikki of the British Titanic Society asking for some information about Cunard personnel.  We hope to meet up with here and Richard at the titanic Convention in Southampton in April. This afternoon I drove into Andover to deposit the old kitchen blind and Dyson vacuum cleaner at the household recycling centre. Then on to the bank and Tesco for some goodies for tonight's house group.  Back home I continued my clearing up in the Family Room and Study ready for our guests for the weekend.  I even started writing up Ashley's notes on theological reflection for my folder.  This afternoon I really felt like cracking on with my academic work - feeling so much more motivated.  I feel that God's plan for ministry is starting to come together and I was quite focussed tonight with our house group - talking about how we should interpret scripture using an extract from Adrian Plass's "Bible Blind Spots" and John's Gospel. Some very good discussions.  I have to be up early tomorrow for Ambassadors' and my chaplaincy duties at Alabare.  I can't believe that a week has come round so quickly.  time is really flying.