Tales of a wandering minstrel...

The prodigal returns....

2008-03-02T00:29:00.002Z

Ok, so I know its been a very long time since I last blogged, not quite a year but very close!

But I was recently encouraged by someone very close to me at the moment(you know who you are) to maybe start blogging again. So here I am.

Life for Joely has been as busy as ever, lots of Uni work keeping me busy and then all my other jobs that bring in the pennies and keep me out of mischief. Did the usual Panto thing over Christmas, and then had a load of coursework deadlines right after Christmas which was a pain, but I managed to get it all done in time.

Been trying to take it a bit easy work load wise since then, which has been nice, but things are starting to pick up again now.

Also, for those of you who don't know, there has recently been a young lady in my life.

Her name is Kirsty and you will hopefully hear more about her in later blogs:)

Anyway, thats all for now, be prepared for more blogging soon...

Living it up in Le Biot!

2007-06-08T19:59:00.000+01:00

So as my first year of Uni came to an end, so started my 2 week break from work. I'm usually really bad at taking time off work, a lot of the time I just end up taking a random few days here and there. However, I decided it would be a good idea this year to have a decent stretch of time off, so I booked it off nice and early and coincided it with the end of term at Uni.

Its not easy booking holiday when you do a lot of freelance/casual work as its always difficult turning working down, especially when a good gig comes up. But I've managed to stick to my guns, and I started my holiday by flying out for a few days in France with some guys from my Life Group at church.

We were staying in a lovely villa in a little village called Le Biot which is just on the edge of the alps. I cant even begin to describe some of the amazing landscape and views you get there. The pictures don't really do it justice, but they give you the general idea.

So yeah, nice views, cool weather, good company. What more could one ask for??? We didn't do a lot while we were out there, went on a few nice walks, including a river gorge walk which was really cool(see a pic below), played lots of Scrabble, Yatzee, Ludo, did some reading, watched some DVD's(including a channel 5 sitcom called House which I think I got a bit addicted to), and just generally relaxed.

It was just what I needed as the last year since starting Uni has been non stop busy-ness, so some chill out time was definitely welcomed!

I have now returned back to wonderful Luton for a few days, today I popped into Uni to drop off some library books and then stopped off to visit my grandparents for a few hours, which was nice as I hadn't seen them properly for a while. Monday I continue my travels by going up to Sheffield to visit Spencer my cousin, then on Tuesday I'll go on to Leeds to visit my old buddy Adam. Thursday I come back to Luton to fly out to Northern Ireland with my good friend Gareth, to visit one of our old housemates Rob.

Monday evening I return back to Luton and that will be the end of my break and small tour of the UK. Hopefully I will be refreshed and ready to take on the busy-ness that I'm sure the summer will bring.

I'll let you know how I get on!

University of Hertfordshire Summer Ball 2007

2007-06-07T19:56:00.000+01:00

It is true to say that i love doing anything technical, so when the chance came to work on the crew for the Uni Summer ball, I jumped at it.

Before we go on we must define the term "Summer Ball". When you see this term you might think fancy doo where everyone dresses up in suits and ball gowns, and then maybe a band play and people have a bit of a dance. I soon learned that this is not what ther Summer Ball actually is. Basically its like a mini festival that runs over night. There's 3 stages, Main Stage - Where bands and DJ's play throughout the night, Urban Stage - Where they play mainly Hip Hop and have guest DJ's and MC's throughout the night, and the Dance Stage where they have DJ's nall night. There is also a fun fair, lots of food stalls, Champagne reception, street performers and lots of other random stuff happening. Most people still dress up in suits and gowns.

So we started Wednesday afternoon by building the stage in the rain(luckily we were under a marquee). I didn't think much of the ali-deck stage, I'd never used it before and I didn't really trust it, but it seemed ok in the end. Give me lite-deck any day!(For those of you not in the know, ali-deck and light-deck are different makes of staging)

Thursday all the gear arrived at 8.30am in an arctic lorry! This was the fun part unloading it all, and setting it up. Sometimes I enjoy this bit more than actually doing the gig! We had lots of fun toys to play with including 4 mixing desks, about 5 racks of outboard, and a shed loads of Par cans and moving lights. It was a long day, and I ended up heading back to Luton at about 11pm, as I needed to get back to Luton to pack for my holiday!

Friday came, the day of the ball, and we were just tweaking things, focussing lights and getting ready for the bands to arrive. Unfortunately Sandi Thom dropped out on the morning which was a shame as I was looking forward to hearing her and her band. Apparantly she had a sore throat but I think it was more to do with the fact that she'd done a gig in Europe the night before and she was doing another gig in Europe the next day.

The gates opened at 8pm and the event finished at 4am. I was based most of the time at the main stage, kinda hanging around, baby sitting the gear while the main engineers weren't around, doing the stage change overs and just looking generally techy like. Here's a cool pic of me at one of the big Midas XL-4 desks(probably one of the best if not the best analogue mixing consoles in the world)

I have to say that it was a step down for me as I'm used to being a bit more involved in engineering, running things a bit more but it was a good opportunity to work with a new bunch of people and some really nice equipment. My good friend Chris the lighting guy was even kind enough to let me play on the moving lights for some of the evening.

For the last 2 hours I went and did my shift on the dance stage which basically involves standing stage side with your earplugs on making sure the DJ's don't push the amps too hard.

Then when 4am came it was time to pack it all away. Luckily we had some hired crew come in to help us at about 5am as by that stage we were all really tired. We managed to get everything packed up and pretty much ready to go by 7am when the arctic lorry arrived to take all the gear back to the warehouse.

It was a long couple of days, but I really enjoyed it. I got paid for it, but the real reason I did it was for the experience, and I'm hoping it might lead to a Casual job with the Uni Ents Crew next year. Also met some new people and hopefully made a few good contacts for the future.

So I arrived back in Luton at about 9.30am on Saturday morning, to catch a flight to Geneva at about 1pm, but I'll post more about that soon!

Carnival rained off!

2007-05-28T17:51:00.000+01:00

Well, today was supposed to be "Europes biggest one day carnival" yes you've guessed it Luton Carnival!

I was due to be stage managing the Market Hill Local Music Stage, which I was quite looking forward to because as many of you know I enjoy working on shows, concerts and events, and also stage management is a good way of learning new stuff, as you're working and liaising with everybody.

But alas, at 8am I was awakened by a call on my mobile from the Technical Mananger to say the whole event had been called off due to the rain and flooding and that I wouldn't be required to work. This was both a dissapointment and annoying, as I was going to use the money I was going to earn working(which would of been quite substancial with it being a Bank Holiday and all) to pay for my holiday.

So in response I decided to spend the day doing my washing and ironing, and watching episodes of Hustle with my brother. Great way to enjoy the bank holiday, many thanks to the great british weather!

The art of blogging...

2007-05-28T17:46:00.000+01:00

So, it seems that there is a particular art to blogging, that I personally don't seem to have mastered yet.

My main problem is that I can't blog regularly or consistently, and I know for some people this becomes frustrating, and a burden to them(Tom I'm sorry man!).

But I have again (for about the 20 millionth time) returned to the wonderful world of blogging, and I will endeavor to be as regular a blogger as is physically possible!

Annoyance

2007-03-19T22:10:00.000Z

Do you ever feel really annoyed about something, but it feels like there's no one you can talk to about it.

Thats how I feel today.

Day 10 - A busy day

2007-02-22T23:31:00.000Z

Ok, I know those of you who know me well will probably say every day of mine is a busy day, but today was particularly busy.

Tho actually reflecting on it I didn't do that much stuff, its just I was rushing around the place so much...

This morning I was down the church, and I just had so many little bits and pieces to get done. Had a few chats about different stuff with other members of staff that were in, and ended up leaving much later than I wanted to, thus making me late for my 2pm lecture, something I always try to avoid(being late for lectures not the 2pm lecture)

When I eventually got there after a long wait for a bus at the train station(no I'm not losing it by waiting for buses at train stations, the buses go from outside) I discovered that my lecture which normally consisted of 250 people, had about 20 sitting in there. It turned out our normal lecturer was away in India for some reason, and instead we were having a lecture on creating a CV. Considering we'd already had this lecture twice before, many people had decided to leave. I decided I could make better use of the time by doing some coursework in the studio, so I also left... whether this was the right thing to do or not I don't know.

Then had another lecture, which was about digital audio and was very interesting(yes really, it was), but I just missed the bus which made me late for work at the theatre. I was about half an hour late in the end, but my boss didn't seem to mind. She knows I study all the way in Hatfield and I don't have a car, so understands when I'm occasionly running late(I don't make a habit of it... well... today I did)

Show was 'Fiddler on the Roof' being put on by Kings School, a christian school in Harpenden. There was 2 of us tech'ing it and I had an easy job as all I had to do was run 1 sound effect, keep an eye on three float mics, and make sure they were safe back stage and kept all the fire exits clear.

The show was very good as well, considering it was all school kids I was very impressed.

I'm now off to bed!

Day 9... I cant drive in my new trainers!

2007-02-21T23:03:00.000Z

Ok everyone, it is official, my trainers are not fit for driving. Well they probably are, but its just I find it really difficult. They have quite thick soles and it makes it really difficult to feel where your feet are on the pedals. Ok, so it was also a good excuse to explain my poor driving in my lesson today, maybe passing that test is further away than I think.

My 2 main problems are that I sometimes panic and busy junctions and I don't check my mirrors enough. Simple enough things really, and hopefully I'll overcome them before my test.

In other news I'm trying to work out where and how I can record the sound of a steam train for a piece of coursework I'm doing to do with sound for radio. All the places that do steam are so far away, and without a car I don't think I will have much joy.
If anyone has any good ideas or wants to drive me to a steam railway this weekend, then let me know.

Not sure if anyone is actually reading any of these posts, I left my blog idle for so long I think people gave up.

Hopefully someone is somewhere and whoever you are, I promise I'll try to make the posts more interesting as we go along.

Day 8... and still tired.

2007-02-20T23:35:00.000Z

Ok so had 2 proper nights sleep, and still feeling sleepy after the weekend away. Normally I can return back to normal after a day or 2 after a weekend away. But then again I did only get 6 hours sleep over the whole weekend, partly due to someones snoring... I won't mention any names...

Anyway, Tuesdays is my main Uni day so was there most of the day. Had some good lectures, learnt some cool stuff, and performed a piece of music that involved reading a magazine article... following on from the bottle hooting we performed last week.

The CU are having a week of outreach this week at the Uni, seem them about with fliers and stuff. Because I still live and work in Luton its been hard for me to get a long to the CU so far, but seeing them around and doing stuff made me thing maybe I should try and make an effort.

This evening I was leading worship at my friend Andy's prayer meeting for the charity he's trying to start. The charity is being set up to do work in Africa, where Andy went out to for a year about a year and a half ago. We watched a video from Blue Peter where one of the presenters had gone out to visit some orphans. It made me realise again how much poverty some people are in, and how less fortunate they are than us. I've seen it firsthand when I went to Bosnia, and when I went to Romania last year, but its so easy to forget and get sucked into our Western Consumer world. But part of me keeps saying I should do something more to help some of these people in some way, but I'm just not sure exactly what, when, where or how.

Day 7, has it been a week!

2007-02-19T23:57:00.000Z

Well I am on day 7 do that means it has been a week since I started my crusade to blog every day for a month.

This is gonna be a short one as I'm tired, still recovering from the weekend away.

Today we had a staff day at church, which I was there for most of, which involved us watching and listening to some teaching DVD's and CD's. It was really good and although I was quite tired I got a lot from them.

It made me realise tho, that I spend so much time serving in the church that I often don't make enough time to take in and its something I should make an effort to do more often.

Did a bit of jamming through some songs with Liz my boss, and was accidently late for a shift at the theatre, sometimes I wish I could just jam all day. Shift was music club which this week was a performance by a solo pianist. My responsibilities involved fading up the lights at the beginning and then fading them down again at the end. The music was good and while listening to it I read through a sound and lighting magazine.

I finished the day by buying chicken which I ate when I got home.

What more could you ask for?

Day 4.... and 5 and 6! 11-14's Weekend away

2007-02-19T10:16:00.000Z

Ok so I apologise, I didn't stick to my blogging every day thing. I have a good reason tho, as this weekend I have been in Standlake Ranch just outside of Oxford with 40 11-14 year olds, having lots of fun and talking to them about the bible and Jesus and stuff.

I was hoping there would be some form of wifi network present, but being in the middle of no where it seemed these facilities were not available.

So Friday morning, we loaded up about 9 cars and a van and headed off on our adventure. I was navigator in our car and I only managed to make one wrong turn(but considering I'd been there before and I had a map, that was a bit naff really)

Friday we went for a walk right the site, started our JAM sessions(Jesus And Me, not Jam as in Toast and Jam, and not the type done with musical instruments) and had some group time together. The group times were probably my fav part of the weekend. What we did was in the JAM times the kids had a bit from the bible they had to go and read on their own, and some questions about what they read to think about. Then we would get back into our groups to have a chat about what we'd just read and thought about.

Tom and myself had the youngest group of boys, including 2 guys who don't really have a church background at all but started coming to church through the soccer fun weeks. It was a really good dynamic in the group having these guys mixed in with guys who have pretty much grown up in church. They all had some really good things to say and questions throughout the whole weekend, and I was really impressed with their approach to it all.

Other highlights to the weekend included a walk into the village, trip to the sports centre, horse riding(for watch I got to lead one of the horses and get very muddy in the process, and Tom and me having our hair and make up done(pics to follow).

Overall I think it was a great weekend away and my hope and prayer is that the kids got a lot out of it, both in terms of relationship building and learning about growing up as a Christian.

For me it was a very tiring weekend(which they always are) but it was a good kind of tired. I really enjoyed just being there, hanging out with the other leaders and kids, and trying my best to help them with their walks with God.

Day 3 - A bit late I know...

2007-02-16T00:36:00.000Z

Ok so I know this is technically Friday but hey!

The reason being is that I finished work really late.

I was showing a film, which usually means you finish about 9, 9.30 at the latest. I was asked if I'd mind taking down the film when it finished, which normally takes half an hour so I thought thats fine be done by 10 can catch the 10.20 bus home.

Firstly the film went on for ages, didn't finish till 10pm. Then, whilst I was taking the film down, the film came off the platter, when i still had 5 reels to go, and its virtually impossible to get it back on when that happens. After some improvisation with glorious gaffa, and winding the film off really slowly, I eventually finished at 11.30pm!

I go away on the church 11-14's weekend away tomorrow, and my plan was to get home pack, and get an early night.

As you can see its about qurter to one, and I'm still in the middle of packing!

Roll on the weekend...

Day 2 - Romance is in the air... or not!

2007-02-14T22:35:00.000Z

So Valentines Day comes round again and alas I have not yet found the one.

I didn't get any Valentines cards, but as someone else rightly pointed out today, I didn't send any so why should I expect to receive any, but i can only live in hope.

So the excitement of today, the leaders at church who commissioned me to make the DVD watched the final product this morning and apparantly they really like it (I wasn't there to hear this first hand but this is what I was told by my accomplice)

I'm glad they were pleased but more glad I've finished it as it had taken up a lot of time!

Went into Uni this morning for a lecture that lasted a little more than 45 minutes, which means I spent double the amount of time I was in the lecture in travelling there and back.

Then I returned to Luton to the church to get some bits and pieces done, ended up staying there till about 7.30pm, partly cos at one stage I locked my church keys in the church office which meant I couldn't get into any other parts of the building until my good friend Ron came down with his set of keys so we could retrieve my set. Oh what fun it was!

Then just been chilling out at home, cooked me some dinner as my bro had eaten and mum and dad are out, doing some ironing, watching TV.

So a pretty ok day as they go.

Day 1 - The Saga begins

2007-02-13T23:41:00.000Z

Ok, so I could go back and tell you about everything that has happened since I last blogged properly, but that would take forever. If I have nothing exciting to talk about over the next 30 days then I might reflect on it, but for now we're going with up to date stuff.

So today I was at Uni, almost missed the bus, but luckily the driver was a friendly one and didn't drive off without me(and yes this has happened to me before)

This morning was a lecture on Logic Pro, a very powerful Audio editing and midi sequencer program. I was with it all until the last half hour of the lecture where I started to get be a lost and began day dreaming.

Anyway, this was followed by a performance lesson, for which we had to each bring in a glass bottle. In the half hour between lectures I realised I had forgotten mine, so went on a hunt through the Uni campus, only to find that they are not aloud to sell glass bottles anywhere on site!(Tho one nice bar girl told me I could probably find some in the recycling bin round the back on the Student Union) I eventually ventured to a nearby petrol station where I acquired a bottle of J20 nwhich I swiftly downed.

The lecture was quite fun. It consisted of us playing a piece of music which involved us filling our bottles with water, blowing across the top to make a sound, and gradually drinking the water so the pitch changed. Quite random I know, but it beats sitting and taking notes for an hour and a half.

This afternoons lecture was cancelled, so I returned to the church as I had a DVD to finish editing. This DVD is about our Life Groups(Small groups, cell groups, care groups, whatever you call them), and has been a little project I've been working on for the past few weeks, and I just finished about an hour ago.

Its been a good experience but editing videos takes a long time. Working it out I reckon I've spent atleast 30 hours on it over the last three weeks, and considering I only work 14 hours a week(and I have other work to do as well) its quite a lot of my time taken up.

I think I could have done it in less time, but I like to get things as good as possible, and cos I'm doing it on my old faithful laptop, it sometimes takes a while to render stuff. Anyway its done now, hopefully its what they want. I think its a bit American cheesy, but thats how they wanted so I guess I fulfilled the brief.

I'm now off to bed...

Returning to the world of blogging

2007-02-12T23:23:00.000Z

Okay, I admit, I am probably the worlds worst blogger, forgive me if you can (Tom man I'm doing this for you!)

But I am attempting to make a return to the world of blogging whether this is a good or bad thing we are yet to find out.

To help me with this venture, I plan to blog everyday for the next 30 days (I remember hearing somewhere that if you do something for 30 days it becomes a habit)

I'll be honest and say this could get a bit boring by the 3rd day, but we'll see how it goes.

Some posts might be short some might be slightly shorter.

Some might be made during lectures, others might be written in staff meetings.

This will all add to the excitement!

Can a good thing get any better...?

2006-10-15T20:07:00.000+01:00

Some of you might know that for a long time one of my all time fav bands has been the boys from Littlehampton, Delirious? And can you believe it, its been 14 years since they started out playing at a local youth event.

Last week they released a new live DVD/CD combo and being a hard core fan I had my copy on pre-order and last Monday on return from a hard day working at Uni (ok maybe not so hard working) my copy was waiting for me. So not being put off from the fact that it was getting on for midnight me and my bro sat down to watch the DVD.

The DVD is absolutely amazing and it never ceases to amaze me how the band continue to release such good quality products. Those of you who have seen the band live will know what an awesome experience it is, and the DVD captures it so well. Recorded live at the Willow Creek Conference in Chicago, and directed by the Willow Creek team and long term Delirious video and lighting director Andy Hutch, the DVD would easily match up to anything released by a secular band, and it is a lot better than some other live DVD's I have seen.

The sound quality of both the DVD and CD is amazing, captured by Sam Gibson who recorded and co-produced the most recent Delirious album The Mission Bell. And the visual experience is on par, with some great moments being created with both lighting and video, integrated seamlessly. But what the DVD captures really well, is the worship experience that a d:conference is. Ok, so it is a concert and there's a certain amount of performing, but the band are true worshippers and they seem to be able to take the attention away from themselves and onto God, and going to their gigs is like worshipping with ur fav band playing.

So, whether you're into the band or not, I highly reccommend the DVD, and it also has some great bonus features, including the delirious story and a backstage insight into the making of the DVD.

Hooray!!!!

2006-10-15T19:54:00.000+01:00

For those of you regular blog readers (I think there's 2 of you) you may remember last week I posted about my frustration at the Uni messing my timetable about, and moving a lecture to a Wednesday lunchtime.

But to my suprise, but also to my pleasure on attending the lecture this Wednesday we were informed that the lecture would now be moved back to a Monday, hence leaving my Wednesdays free to work down at the church. Yipee!

Worship in the new hall!

2006-10-08T21:07:00.000+01:00

So, at LCF we have recently had our church hall refurbished including the installation of a new floor, creating a whole new level.

So its now time, after all the time spent planning, building and finishing the place, to start using it to its full potential. Today we had our first worship time on the new level for the 11-18's, and having a worship time for this age group on a Sunday morning is something we've committed to doing for the long term. Our aim is to really encourage and inspire the young people to worship and to create an environment and atmosphere where they feel they can be themselves.

But this morning didn't come without its teething problems. Firstly the space is like an echo chamber, with about 5 seconds of reverb on every noise you make. Consequently we have to push all the sound levels higher to get everything heard meaning it gets quite loud, even for youth worship. Then when we turned the video projector on we realised that being closer to the sky lights in the roof makes the space a lot brighter and consequently you couldn't see the words on the screen. So if anyone has any ideas about acoustically treating the hall, and how to block sunlight both on a tight budget then let me know.

But it reminded me how much I still rely on technology sometimes. Being a techy geek I always like things to sound and look as good as they can, but at the end of theday we dont really need any of it to worship God. In fact we don't even need any instruments. All these things can help us, but they are only aids to help us worship and they shouldn't become the focus of our worship times.

I've also been thinking about engaging all the young people in worship. I know for some guys they find it really hard to worship in the standard way of singing songs altogether. Don't get me wrong I don't think we should ever stop worshipping together in that way, but I wanna be able to engage those kids who find it hard so they still part of it.

I've got a few good books about interactive worship which I might re consult, but if anyone has any ideas of stuff they've tried or maybe not tried then please let me know.

Frustration!

2006-10-04T20:06:00.000+01:00

For those of you who don't know for the last 2 years I have been working part time for my church LCF, and I am hoping to keep my 14 hours a week going while I am studying, as the money will be handy and I want to keep developing the work I've been doing. So it was with great relief that when I received my timetable last week I found there was a nice free Wednesday that I could use to do most of my church work.

But alas, nothing is ever that simple and having just got in from the church(which currently has no internet access, I have picked an email informing me that one of my Monday afternoon lectures has been moved to Wednesday 11.30am to 1pm, right slap bang in the middle of the day.

I fear there is nothing I can do about it, I should be able to work my church hours around it but it is just frustrating cos it means I dont get a clear shot at the church stuff. The flip side is we get a new timetable in the 2nd semester which starts mid- Jan so chances are everything will change anyway.

It just still annoys me tho, but what can you do!

Uni Student, can you believe it?

2006-10-02T22:50:00.000+01:00

Believe it or not I am now a Student at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, and here's the proof...

Do you like the slightly confused Napolean Dynamite look in my photo? I'm sure they make you look silly on purpose.

It feels in some ways a bit strange starting Uni when most of my old friends from 6th Form are almost finished or even finished and moving onto other things, but at the same time it feels like the right thing to be doing.

Last week just involved registering and was a general induction week with lots of seminars and lectures about University life, and things like "How to meet coursework deadlines?". But strangely enough I've just been really looking forward to getting stuck in and started with the work. For some reason I've just got to the stage where I'm really eager to learn and take stuff in. I don't know how long this will last but I hope it lasts a while.

The course I'm doing, Sound Design and Technology, is such the right course for me as well. Just looking through all the different modules and stuff over the last week has really made me excited about it, cos its all stuff I really wanna learn about.(its sad I know!)

Anyway, this post has probably sounded a bit geeky so far, but there is the other side to Uni life which is probably the bit I'm more worried about. While studying at Herts Uni I'm still going to be living in Luton which has its advantages; its cheaper and means I can still keep contacts and stay involved with stuff here in Luton. But it also has its disadvantages the main one being missing out on the social side of living on Campus especially in the first year.

Being naturally quite a shy and quiet person I find it hard at the best of times to get to know people, especially in new places, and I don't wanna be a student who just goes to Uni to study, I wanna get to know people too, and be able to be a light for Jesus to them.

I'd really appreciate your prayers for boldness and opportunities to get to know people.

The one really good thing about being at Uni tho....... roll on student discounts;)

I am back!

2006-10-02T22:24:00.000+01:00

After an extended break from blogging, in response to certain peoples comments on their blogs (not mentioning any names, Lillie!) and after persistent nagging from certain other people (yes thats you young Thomas) I have decided to make a come back to blogging.

Well, the summer has passed. LCET camp was a lot of hard work but an amazing thing to be part of, Soul Survivor was a new experience but just as good in different ways. I spent 3 weeks filming and editing videos for our cricket and soccer weeks at the church, and then finished August off by going to the last few days of Grapevine Bible week with my family. Although it was only short it was nice to get some input.

The church has now opened the newly refurbished hall, and a lot of September was spent getting ready for that. I also played with a jazz band, got food poisoning, and managed to solve a radio mic problem at the church.

That kind of briefly rounds up what I've been doin the last few months, but read more soon about University...

Once upon a time... Joel went on a trip to Romania!

2006-07-17T22:31:00.000+01:00

Ok, I know, I'm rubbish at blogging and I promised ages ago that I would post some more stuff about what I've been up to. I've just been crazy busy the last few weeks.

So way back at the end of May I went to Romania for about a week, and I thought I'd tell you a bit about it. The trip there was quite amusing. First we got to the airport and it turned out to be a different terminal to where they usually fly in, and Pastor John who was picking us up was at the other terminal. After making a few phone calls to speak to some people at the church who didn't speak much English we managed to meet up with Pastor George and get on with our long journey through Hungary to Romania.

It was a long old journey and about half way the mini bus started making funny noises so we pulled over and it turned out we had a puncture. The Pastor had borrowed the mini bus, and so didn't know how to get the spare tyre off which was suspended from the bottom of the bus. There was a sign which said services in 5 km and he seemed convinced we could get there and get it sorted out. But as we drove on the smell of burning got worse, and eventually we had to stop again about 500m down the road. Basically all that was left was the rim of the wheel. After a good bit of thinking and team work we managed to get the tyre off and changed. Here is a picture of Pastor Alan (My boss) putting in some hard work.

Anyway, I stayed with the wonderful Sarah and Emma who are absolute stars and also the delightful Dylan who managed to wake me up most mornings at about 5am to play games. The best one was when he grabbed my phone while I was half asleep and started to call the emergency services. I think he just wanted to play games but dialling 999 was all he could do while it was locked, but I didn't tell Sarah he did it...

The whole trip seemed to go very quickly, we saw a lot of stuff while we there. A highlight for me was definitely going to see the Romanian Relief Safe House in Tinca. Its a really awesome place, and its amazing to see the difference that its making to the childrens lifes. After we'd been there we went to the childrens hospital in Oradea where alot of the children come from and that really hits you in the face. Before I went me and Tom had spent some time putting together the DVD for Romanian Relief and I had trawled through quite a lot of footage from the hospital, but when ur there and the kids are in front of you it really hits you. Just the fact that they've been abandoned and they have no one really to give them any love and care. There are nurses but there's so many babies they cant give them the proper care and attention they need. There was one baby who was crying away and you could tell she were just hungry but who knows how long it would be till she was fed. A lot of the babies are quite deformed as well, or have disabilities. It was really hard being there, you feel so helpless. And just thiking about it even now I think how little they have, and how blessed we are here in England. I cant understand how things get so mucked up like that, it just makes me angry inside. It really bought to life how much Emma and Sarah have done in setting up the safe homes. Even looking back at video of the kids a few months before and seeing them now, you can totally see the difference it has made. And thats only half of what the charity does, for more info have a look at their site www.romanianrelief.org

Big up respect goes out to Sarah and Emma, as they've done an amazing job setting up and running the charity, and they've sacrificed so much at a young age to go out there and do it. It cant be easy at times, but they've had the faith and motivation to keep going. Its really made me think about my life and all that I do and what stuff really makes a difference or is a positive influence on other peoples lifes. It was really cool to spend some time with Sarah and Emma and they were a real inspiration to me.

So, hopefully I'll go back again sometime soon. We went and saw a load of stuff with the church as well, but I'd like to go back and maybe actually do some stuff if I can. It was nice to go and see all this stuff, but it did seem a bit pointless in some ways, so if I go again I'd like to actually go and specifically do something.

Me and Tom are hoping to go in October but we'll have to see.

Thats all for now!

TBWNN @ LCF

2006-06-20T23:08:00.000+01:00

Ok so having made the decision not to move to Manchester and work with the TBWNN, the following weekend was when the band were visitng LCF. It was a bit awkward, and had some interesting conversations with the guys in the band who obviously knew I had had an interview for the job.

But all in all it was an awesome weekend. It was a big thing for me, as I was overseeing all the technical side of the event, and I also put together and played in the support band "Busted Fly". We put in a pretty meaty 10k sound system, and a completely new lighting rig including 4 moving lights (which i hasten to add were very excellently programmed and operated by Mr Andy Pullinger) as well as a big rear projection screen and a very big extended stage. It pretty much involved me living down at the chuch for 4 days prior to the gig(well not quite but I was there from about 10am and didn't finish any earlier than 11pm most nights) but the end result was well worth it.

The band were amazing, the stage looked and sounded excellent, and the additional staging that we had quickly knocked together the week before didn't collapse( and is still intact to this day) On top of all that quite a few young people made commitments at the gig, and the band were absolutely blown away by how well organised the gig was and how well we looked after the during their stay.

So over all I was pleased with with how it all went. Special mention goes out to the guys who played in Busted Fly, you were all awesome as ever, and also big up respect goes out to Tom and Lucy for being such excellent hosts for the evening.

Long awaited update

2006-06-20T22:49:00.000+01:00

Ok, I know I'm a rubbish blogger and I haven't updated my blog for so long, but I am now trying redeem myself.

So much has happened in the last 6 weeks its hard to know where to start. I have decided that rather than trying to update you in one mammoth impossible to read blog, I will uppdate bit by bit over the next few days in smaller bitesize blogs.

First update is that I decided not to take the job in Manchester. It was a really tough decision, but in the end it just felt right to stay in Luton, and to be honest I still dont totally know why, but I feel at peace about it. I've decided I want to do a degree course, but somewhere close by so I can stay in Luton and keep my job at the church. It just feels like the right thing to do right now, but we'll see.

So I'm busy trying to get my application done, as the deadline is the 30th June!!!

A close shave with a couple of tyres...

2006-05-12T23:06:00.000+01:00

So, it was a lovely sunny morning, and Neal my esteemed colleague and friend and myself were driving round the edge of Luton when suddenly... out of no where a truck came hurtling round the corner and 2 tyres flew off and came bouncing towards us.

Luckily they missed the wind screen and bounced off the bonnet, denting the bonnet slightly and smashing one of the headlights. The worst part was the guy in the truck didn't even stop or anything to see if we were ok, or to even get his tyres.

This leads me to believe that either he didn't realise he lost the tyres off the b ack, or it was too much trouble for him to stop and swap details and stuff, and he would probably get in trouble because the tyres weren't attached properly in the first place.

Either way, it shook us both up a bit. If the tyres had bounced a slightly different way they could've hit the wind screen, which would've easily smashed with the weight, and things would of been a bit more fatal.

But luckily we were ok, and have lived to see another day. Does bring things a bit into focus though when stuff like that happens.

BIG Decisions!

2006-05-03T23:51:00.000+01:00

So, today I travelled all the way to sunny Manchester for a meeting with a guy from The Innervation Trust about the possibility of a new job next year. I wont go into all the details, but it is a job overseeing and maintaining all the technical requirements for the trust including looking after and touring with their 2 touring bands thebandwithnoname and TBC.

Everything about the job is so me, I was just sitting there talking to the guys thinking, "this is my dream job...". There are only 2 major stumbling blocks stopping me.

1. All 29 staff who work for the trust aren't paid by the trust, they have to fundraise and get sponsorship from supporters to help pay for their living costs etc. I would be expected to do the same.

2. It would mean a complete move and re-locate to Manchester.

The fundraising thing isn't really that big a deal to me. I had to do it for Nexus, and deep down inside I know that God will provide the money if its the right thing for me to be doin.

Its the moving away that I will struggle with. I just always find it hard to go somewhere new and have to make friends all over again and this time I will really know nobody. And its not like Im goin somewhere to study and everyone's in the same boat, I'd be goin to start a job and I could be there a good few years.

When I was at 6th Form, it took me over a year to make proper friends, and when I was at Nexus it wasn't till the end of my first year that I strted to get to know people properly. And even when I came back to Luton, a lot of my old friends had gone and its only been this year that I've started to have friends closer to my own age again. Particulalry recently I've had some really good friends around me and I don't know if I can let them go. I just hate saying good bye.

Anyway, I have a week while me and the guy from the trust ponder it some more and then I need to let them know if I definitely want to continue with interest in the job. Not saying I have to decide I definitely want or dont want the job, I can still back out of further down the line I don't feel its right, but if I say yes it menas we'll start working towards me starting work in September.

So your prayers, thoughts and any advice or words of wisdom would be much appreciated over the next week.

The tale of the dodgy S-Video cable...

2006-04-26T20:53:00.000+01:00

A tale fresh from the floor of the day...

So this morning I was picked up by the lovely Lucy at 7.15 to go help the lovely LCET team with their Sex Presentation at Lea Manor High School. My job in the team is to make sure all the technical stuff gets set up ok and then to run the technical side during the presentation, which includes Sound, Lap top, projector and sometimes lighting. I was a bit worried cos we only had half an hour to set up when we usually have 45 mins to an hour!

Anyway, suprisingly everything went relatively smoothly, even got all 3 radio mics working properly.

Everything was ready and with minutes to go i was just checking the laptop and video feed to the projector. It had been working fine, when suddenly the picture started to flicker! I wiggled the lead a bit and it stopped but then started again. My heart started to beat faster, the year 9's were starting to come in the hall. I decided to un plug everything from the vision mixer and plug it all in again but it still flickered and then we lost the signal altogether.

In a last desperate attempt I plugged the long s-video cable that ran down the length of the hall straight into my laptop thinking it was a fault with vision mixer, but alas nothing, and thus concluding it was in fact a dodgy S-video cable. So running through the program in my head, I realised that without the laptop and projector working that was a few big chunks of the presentation gone. But, to my dismay the teacher was just introducing the presentation and I was out of time to do anything.

The presentation started with the drama, and then went on with Gill doin a lot of improvisation. Then I suddenly had the brainwave that if I whisked the laptop down to the projector at the front I could plug it straight into the projector with the shorter s-video cable that hopefully still worked. This meant atleast we could use the stuff that didn't have audio on it as the laptop was now miles away from the mixer and me audio cable was no where near long enough.

However, a but further into the presentation I then realised I could plug the laptop audio cable straight into the amp for the speakers which was at the front near the laptop, which would allow us to use the audio stuff as well. So sneaking behind Gill and Lucy during their interview(which I think was completely unplanned cos they were tryying to cover for the lack of other stuff) me and Tom sneaked on and wired it up and it worked.

So we managed to get to the end of the presentation having most stuff in their as we would usually have, maybe not in quite the same order and format but most of it was there.

A big well done needs to go to Tom, Lucy and especially Gill for keeping going and improvising as stuff went wrong and then started working again. You guys are awesome:)

But just remember this story and beware of dodgy s-video cables. And if you fear that one may be dodgy then always carry a spare. I have warned you...

Back in the swing!

2006-04-26T19:12:00.000+01:00

So after a week off to refresh myself I'm back in town and back into the swing of life.

In the weeks running up to Easter I was house sitting for the Hurst family, some friends from church, and looking after their cat and dog. Please note the cat doesn't wee all over the work tops like Tom's cat, tho the dog did wee on the floor a few times...

But I had a good time there, and it was nice to have my own place for a couple of weeks. Made me really miss living away from home, and now I want to move out even more. The great thing as well was the week before Easter, which had the potential of being a very busy stressful week, I ended up having lots of time just to chill out with friends, which I haven't really done properly for ages, so thank you to everyone who came over, and who invited me out including Tom, Lucy, Gill, Andy, Steve, Tim, Christine, Kate, Tim H, Harriet, Ron and anyone else I forgot. It just made my week really great and helped keep the stress levels down so thankyou:)

So with Liz(my boss at the church) off to have her operation, the responsibility of leading worship for the big Easter Sunday Celebration fell to me! I was really really nervous about it, as any of you who spoke to me pre that day would know. But in the end I just gave it all to God and as always he did an awesome job. It was still a bit scary but I felt comfortable and confident in the job that he had given me to do. I think that its good to be a bit nervous about doin stuff, I always getting a bit nervous if I'm leading whether it be big or small. And I even get nervous when I do sound and techy stuff, whether its church stuff or anything. Maybe its me, but I find it helps me be more focussed, and not get too complacent about it.

So, also in that busy week before Easter I had my first 2 rehearsals with the new band I've just joined, the "Frank Soul Lovers". We are a function covers band playing a variety of Soul, Funk and Jazz. Its been really fun to play drums in a band again, but also hard work, cos I've had to do a shed load of sight reading. We've only had 2 rehearsals and our first gig is this Saturday, so I'll be reading the charts for most the songs. But if you want a good fun covers band for any weddings, anniversaries or birthdays then let me know.

So after that busy week, I was on my long awaited week off. It was a bit strange leaving the LCET office Tuesday lunchtime as all the LCET guys were just back to work after their holidays. After negotiating the Trains and London Underground(at one stage I managed to get off the tube to make a connection only to get back on again after finding out the station I had got off at had no connecting lines as I had expected) I arrived in a rather over cast Salisbury. This was a shame as while I was in London it had been sunny with cloudless blue sky. It was really great to see my friends Steve and Lianna, and catch up with all that they're doing. I pretty much spent the week just chilling out, which normally I'm not very good at, but bein away from Luton and work helped. I went and nosed round Salisbury a fair bit, went on some nice walks, had a look at the Cathedral (I'm starting to sound old) and on Saturday we went shopping in Southampton. It was really good to go to a different church where I have no responsibilites, something I should do more often. I take a lot more in, and feel more relaxed.

So now I'm back and swinging again. Next big thing is Townwide prayer meeting which I'm leading worship for, another thing I took of Liz when she went in for her operation. I'm probably more nervous about this than Easter as its gonna be a spontaneous spirit led evening, so there's no set plan. So if anyone reads this before then your prayers would be much appreciated, or I guess even after cos God is outiside of time.

Anyway, this post has become an essay, so will round it up there. Will post about some more up and coming stuff soon.

Worship... with a bang!

2006-04-03T22:10:00.000+01:00

I love it when God turns up and has his own way.

Sunday morning, I was leading worship for our family healing service. All through sound check and rehearsal things didn't feel right, we weren't playing well together as a band and ...well it just didn't feel right. Anyway, started first song, and we were barely into it when bang, all the power to the sound and multimedia desk went dead. For a while I kept going cos my guitar amp was still working, but I soon realised what had happened. I proceeded to tell the church we had broken the sound system and went on a mission to the breaker box(which is in the hall next door which is currently a building site) meeting Dave Jeffs our head Deacon on the way who proceeded to tell me that everything tripped out when he unplugged a fan heater at the back of the church.

After pondering for a few minutes with Dave, Andy my electrician friend and a few guys from the sound team, I came to the conclusion that we needed to carry on with the service, power or no power. So after re-grouping with Alan and Liz quickly to work out what to do, I grabbed my acoustic guitar(which luckily was sitting in a corner at the back of the church) and started to lead the congregation. It was a really amazing time of worship, it was just really cool to be able to hear everyone's voices so loudly, and with no projection screens or anything for people to focus on, they really entered in. It just felt really natural and really right and like real genuine worship. I think God was trying to tell me and the church maybe that we soemtimes rely so much on technology and making things look and sound so good, that we forget what we're really doin which is worshipping God. We don't really need Plasma screens, projectors and big PA systems to worship him, we just need to come as we are.

Anyway, the service went really well, despite not getting the power back on. By the end of the worship as well as me with my guitar on the stage downstairs we also had cello, sax and a little percussion section goin on, the team pulled together really well. And I just really enjoyed leading worship, wish we could do every Sunday like that.

Anyway, I'm off to plan a prayer meeting for tomorrow. I also have to put together a video for Palm Sunday this week to the song Miracle Maker by delirious, but don't know when i will actually have time to do it. So your prayers for time and inspiration for that would be appreciated.

And wow look, I've blogged twice in the space of about 3 days!!!

I guess I'll be blogging again soon...

Everything is changing.... but I still stay the same!

2006-04-01T01:24:00.000+01:00

Hey dudes.

I am finding that blogging regularly is not as easy as I first thought. I always have good intentions with stuff like this, but at the moment other things always seem to take first place like sleeping.

But do not fear I am here to blog again, and update you all on the ins and outs of my life.

A lot of developments have taken place since I last blogged, meaning lots of things have changed. We are no longer doing our big Easter Opening for reasons you will see later, and this week I had to cancel our Kids Music Academy till after Easter cos of shortage of space due to building work and shortage of staff.

Basically Liz, who is the worship director at LCF and my boss, is having to go into hospital anytime soon for an operation. This means she'll be off work for a good few weeks leaving me in charge of it all, which is quite scary. Even scarier is I have to lead worship for the big Easter morning service!!! Please pray for me, as at the minute the whole thing is quite daunting for me and in all my time working at LCF Liz has always been there as a back up and someone to call on if I get stuck, so it will be scary not having her around for a while.

I mentioned in my last blog that I have been asked to play drums in a new band. The band is being put together by my old music tech teacher Ross, with a few other music teachers from across the region. It's gonna be a sort of soul/funk covers band problem mainly doin functions and stuff. I am really looking forward to it tho, as its the first band I've got to play drums in for ages, and hopefully it will be good fun, and a good way for me to relax.

Developments for next year - some of you may or may not know I've been looking into the possibility of next year Sound Engineering for a band touring round the UK who are based in Manchester. I'm off up to Manchester on the 3rd March to have a meeting with the guy in charge of it - a kind of informal interview I think. Your prayers round this are would be much appreicated. The idea really pulls me, but it would be a big move going up to Manchester, and it would mean leaving all my friends and stuff going on in Luton behind.

Anyway, life in general is busy as always. Have a lot of stuff to do between now and Easter and then looking forward to going down to Salisbury to stay with my good friends Steve and Lianna for a week.

I am very much enjoying being in my office at LCET, peace out to all the LCET dudes and dudettes(especially my pals Tom and Lucy, and Lillie cos she posted on my blog) you guys all work so hard and you rock!!!

I must go for now, but WILL blog again soon I promise....

Back from the future...

2006-03-11T19:12:00.000Z

Ok, I'm sorry I lied, I'm not really back from the future. But I am making a return to blogging after a few weeks of it being a bit quiet on the blog front. Apparantly some people were worried about my existence, but don't worry, I do exist and I am still here!

Reasons for not blogging are that I've been crazy busy, those of you who know me well will know that is the norm for me so I guess it isn't really a good excuse...

Anyway, some reasons for my recent influx of busy-ness are as follows:

1. Moving out of the church hall - Yes finally after about 2 years of the church saying it will happen it has happened and the building work is about to start on the LCF church hall. If all goes to plan in about 3 months time we should be able to get back in there and have a whole new level to play with. This obviously means everything in the hall having to be moved into storage, which has made this last week a bit chaotic. Wednesday I just spent the whole day loading up peoples cars with stuff! It has also meant I've had to move out of my office at the church, which is a bit sad, but thanks to the wonderful people at LCET I have a temporary office in the LCET building. So I am all moved into my new office now, which is nice and cosy with all my junk in it. Thank you so much to all the LCET guys and gals for making me feel welcome so far.

2. Kids Music Academy - Yes we have decided to run our Kids Music Academy at the church again this year, which is a lot of hard work, and I think we're a bit crazy to rn it again, but the Kids love it and get so much out of doing it. Things have been complicated this year by the fact that we now can't use the hall for the next 3 months, so it's taking some creative thinking to get round it. But be guranteed from now until the Kids VIVA event in July when it finishes it will be keeping me very busy. For those who like to pray you prayers for the planning and running of the music academy would be much appreciated.

3. Easter Opening - I know Easter seems far away but we are already planning a mammoth opening for our Easter Sunday Service. The idea is to tell the Easter Story through Song, Music, Dance, Video, Lighting etc in the space of about 5 minutes, to kick start the service and inspire people as it leads into a time of worship. Me being me I offered to put together all the visual, words and video stuff together for it including the click/backing track which holds the whole thing together. Its already involved a lot of work with initial rehearsals and stuff, and I haven't even really started putting together the video yet. The idea is that the video stuff runs like a click track so everything else locks in and syncs up to it. So again your prayers for inspiration and stuff would be great

Well thats some of the church stuff thats goin on. On top of that still be doin all my teaching and Hat Factory/Theatre work. For those of you interested my films have been goin a lot better lately which is cool, still freaks me out a bit tho. Also been asked to join a band, do sound for another band and there's been some developments about what I might do next year.

But I'll blog some more about this stuff soon

Hope you are all well xxx

Valentines day, life and beyond...

2006-02-14T22:52:00.000Z

As I sat in my office today, trying to get my head round the huge "To do" list that sat on my desk, I started to ponder.

So here I am, another Valentines day, another year, still a single guy. Does it bother me? Maybe a little, but I'm not going to start ripping myself apart over it. Its one of the things most friends who I haven't seen for a while ask me, am I seeing anyone, is there anyone on the horizon. I'll be honest and say yeah, I really wanna find that special girl to be with but at the same time I'm in no rush. The most important thing for me is finding the right person, I don't want to just run into the first relationship that comes my way.

One of my ambitions in life is to get married and have kids, I don't know why but for a while now I've wanted to be a dad. I know its not easy being a parent but its just something I really want to do. But as I start thinking about my future more and more, I seem to face a dilemma. I'm 21 now, gonna be 22 this year and to me that feels like I'm gonna be really old, but I know I'm not. Those of you who know me know 2 of my passions in life are being a muso/techy and my ideal job would be somewhere in these fields. The thing is within these spheres most jobs are not very family friendly, often working long unsociable hours, being away from home for long periods and having to put a lot of work and effort in to get anywhere. They're mostly not 9-5 jobs and most of you probably know I couldn't really cope with a 9-5 job anyway. So here is my dilemma. Can I do what I really want to do and have a family? Or somewhere down the line am I going to have to choose one way or the other.

I don't wanna be the kind of dad/husband who is never there for his wife and kids or who is always away working, but at the same time I dont wanna being doing something I'm not passionate about. I guess the key is finding the right lady as well. I recently read Lance Armstrong's biography and he had an amazing wife who supported him through and stood right by his side through his Cancer recovery, and onwards as he started to re-build his career in cycling and went onto to win the Tour de France. She stood by him and supported him all the way, and had their baby during this time as well. But really its a 2 way thing because he had to be there for her and support her when it really mattered as well.

I guess thats the thing about marriage, you're not 2 separate people anymore, you become one. Well atleast thats what I've heard people say. Thats why I think its so important to find the right person, someone who understands me. But will I ever find that person?

Any thoughts please post.

Pet Sitting... Part deux!

2006-02-14T22:32:00.000Z

The saga continues...

I walked into the Wade family kitchin on Monday night to find as usual the dog going completely mad, and jumping up and down on her hind legs, and the cat sitting on the worktop staring at me like she's planning some kind of attack.

But alas, there was no sign at all of the cats bowl, where had it gone!!!! After a few minutes of Inspector Clueso style detective work, I sussed it. The dog had obviously gone a bit too mad at some point in the day and managed to get the cats bowl off the work top and take it and hide it in the garden. After much asking and pleading she refused to tell me where she had put it, and as it was very dark outside I admitted defeat and sought another temporary bowl for the cat to use.

This morning I managed to do a full scout of the garden and found the bowl hidden in the garage, and I also found a nice, smelly package that the cat had left behind the kettle. Oh the joys!

Pet sitting!

2006-02-12T20:16:00.000Z

I am currently "pet sitting" for my good friends the Wade family. This involves going to their house twice a day to feed the cat and dog, and make sure that they and the house is all alright. They did say I could stay over and house sit if I liked, but work is so busy at the moment, its just working out easier to pop over twice a day, plus they only live 10 minutes away.

Having never had a cat or dog myself I am not overly experienced with them, and some of their behaviours seem strange to me. Firstly the dog is absolutely mad and goes looney whenever I come in the room. Today I had left the kitchin door open while I was watering some plants, and the dog came out into the hall way and proceeded to lay on her back obviously wanting a belly rub. So I obliged but that obviously wasn't enough as she continued to do this for the next 20 minutes! After telling her several times and pointing dramatically at her bed in the kitchin she still wouldn't budge. Eventually I managed to trick her by opening the back door and pretending to go outside, which got her back on her feet and back in the kitchin in a flash!

The cat scares me cos she bit me once when I was there before, but she seems ok, doesn't really do a lot tho. But I came into feed them yesterday and the cat had done a wee on the work top. Tom, if you're reading this is this spose to happen? Anybody, is this normal behaviour for a cat? I mean, there's a cat flap so surely if the cat needs to do her business she can go in the garden and do it? Maybe she didn't make it in time? Anyway I cleaned it all up and disinfected it, but its still a mystery to me.

If anyone can shed any light on these matters then please do.

Airports and showing films...

2006-02-10T22:51:00.000Z

So.... a few months ago (November to be precise) the airport card on my laptop decided it didn't want to recognise wireless networks anymore. It wasn't really a huge inconvenience, as I could still access the internet by plugging it straight in. But, as a good friend pointed out to me, I did spend a lot of money on my laptop and as it is still well within its warranty I should get it sent back and sorted out.

After numerous calls to Apple, and finally managing to get the message through to them that it wasn't a problem with my ISP, they said they would take it in to look at. Monday lunchtime they came to pick up the laptop and by Wednesday it was back with me with a new airport card fitted and me wireless and mobile once again. This has one great advantage which means I can surf the net from my garden, which is a bit chilly this time of year but is groovy in the summer. So hats off to the people at Apple.

On a more frustrated note I showed another film tonight. For those of you who don't know I've recently been trained up to do film projection at The Hat Factory. It started as being quite a fun thing to do, and obviously you get to see films for free! But more recently the novelty has worn off and things have started going wrong. It started at the beginning of January when I was testing a film, The Constant Gardener, and it jammed and snapped the film. It makes a horrible noise when this happens and it takes a while to sort out before you can start it again.

This was only a film test, so there was no audience in, and its happened several times since either when I've been testing, or lining up the film before the audience comes in, so it hasn't really mattered and I've had time to sort it out. But now I'm really worried its gonna happen while the audience is in and its made me really unconfident about showing films. The fustrating thing is I don't really have much control over it. When it happens, it doesn't seem to be a result of anything I do wrong or do differently, my boss says its just an old projector that really needs replacing or atleast servicing.

Anyway, this evening it did it again while I was setting the film up and I was so paranoid about it happening again that I spent the whole of the film showing praying and watching the platter and projector to see if it showed any signs of jamming again, I couldn't tell you what happened in the film. I found it really stressful, and those of you who know me well, know I dont get stressed easily. I'm not sure what to do, cos there's not much other tech work going at the moment so its a good way to get some extra money, but at the same time I don't really enjoy it anymore.

Your prayers and any words of wisdom would be much appreciated

Starting a blog...

2006-01-31T22:45:00.000Z

It has come to my attention that having a blog is a good way to keep distant and infrequently seen friends informed of developments and significant events in my day to day life, that otherwise they might not know about.

So, I have decided to start a blog, posting will commence soon, watch this space!!!