My last post on this blog was back on the 6th December 2011 and I have been encouraged by the number of people, who seem to have missed reading my daily blog, to get my finger out and start re-blogging again. So here we are. Unfortunately, my daily routine of blogging was disturbed by quite a lot of work during December - both for my consultancy, Complex Services Limited and my ministry training studies - I needed to complete and submit two assignments (essays) by the 19th December and also I had a trip to Croydon to accomplish to appear before an employment judge in one of my cases. This also required quite a lot of preparation beforehand as well as the day itself. On top of this has been preparations for Christmas which, although largely in the hands of Sara, I have had to write and send over 200 Christmas cards. If you were a recipient of one of these you would have also received our annual newsletter which also had to be written and printed. So, quite a few weeks of hard work which left me feeling quite exhausted at night and not feeling very inspired to write much more. Over those weeks we had Mary's birthday on 14th December when we all went over to North Baddesley for an excellent Chinese meal at The Water Margin (her favourite restaurant) where we had their excellent buffet and they brought her a small birthday cake which we shared. On the Saturday she had five friends over to celebrate her birthday again which included a session at Mandy Milford's photographic studio. Mandy took over 500 photos of Mary and her friends and they clearly had a wonderful time. Sara and I drove them all over to Wilton where I left them and spent an hour and a half at the Wilton Shopping Village buying Christmas presents and visiting their tearooms. Tom and I have attended a couple of Southampton games since my last blog. They lost their home win run with a 2-2 draw against Blackpool. It could have been worse but for a late goal from Ricky Lambert. On Boxing Day they managed a comfortable win against Crystal Palace with West Ham only managing a 1-1 draw against Birmingham City. As I write this, Saints are now three points clear at the top of the championship. The weather has been quite mild over these few weeks. We have managed to bank about another £2,000 from Calendar sales and Sara and others did a Calendar signing at Waterstones in the run up to Christmas. Mum announced to us that her doctors had detected a growth on one of her kidneys and she is fearful that they might have to remove this and that the "cancer" she thinks she might have has gone into her bones. She went to my sister Heather's home near York for Christmas but returned back to Grimsby early as she was not feeling comfortable there. I am concerned about her continuing health. Her illnesses seem to affect her badly. As we move into 2012 the amount of work is now piling up. I will start my practical ministry training in January with leading one church service and preaching at another. This means quite a ,lot of preparation at the same time as preparing for a tribunal in Croydon. I need to complete my first portfolio and will also begin my next module's study on the topic of interpreting the bible. I have decided to attend three full Saturdays rather than ten Thursday evenings. I anticipate quite a few trips to Sarum College library in January. Tom and I hope to get tickets to see the Saints play at Brighton's new stadium on the 2nd January. This will entail getting up very early indeed tomorrow and queueing at St. Mary's to try and get the last small allocation of tickets. I have promised Tom that if we are unsuccessful, I'll try and get tickets for the 3rd Round FA Cup tie at Coventry. I hope to report back tomorrow that we've got the Brighton tickets. Must close now. It feels good to be back on track again with the blogs and it was really good to know that so many of you missed reading them.
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