Favourite Quotes

"When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window." - The Sound of Music

Sunday 4 July 2010

Christmas Carols, Uncookable Rice and T-storms

I woke up at 3:30am this morning. I lay in my parents' spare room and went though the Twenty Questions of Nocturnal Awakeness. Did I take my medication last night? Am I too hot? Am I too cold? Am I hungry? Am I thirsty? Are those wretched birds singing outside the window? Am I worried about something?... and so on. No good. Could not pinpoint the source of the early morning wake up at all. So I laid there, amused myself by telling a story in French, and finally got back to sleep.

Sunday mornings come too early as it is. The whole first part of the day is a rush to get out of the door on time, with everything we need. Quiet Time-Bath-Dress-Breakfast-Clean Teeth-Pack-Leave. With a very slight chance of a 'check e-mails' if the clock allows...

Then when we got to church there was this slightly unreal sense of being at the right place, but at the wrong time. I suppose the sight of my father reading 'The 31 Days of Christmas' should have forewarned me to some extent, but nevertheless I really wasn't expecting to sing a Christmas carol in church. In July. However, I have to admit that a) the said carol really did fit with the sermon, and b) having spent the whole of last December in hospital, it was quite nice to sing a Christmas carol, as I missed that experience last winter!

Sermon was excellent too. Unfortunately I am still suffering from 'stuffed-with-sawdust' syndrome (wasn't that the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz?) so what should have been a real encouragement and blessing to me was met by an intellectual consent but an emotional blank. I don't like feeling blank. Must talk to my psychiatrist about this.

Am having a bad day rice-wise. Lunch's rice refused to cook, and the rice pudding I am trying to cook at this moment is showing the same stubborn resistance to heat and moisture. Obstinate stuff.

My mother's weather forecast this morning was 'T-storms'. Not an item of clothing, or a hot beverage, but, apparently, a shortened form of 'thunderstorm'. And we had one. Right in the middle of this evening's service. The thunder itself was unimpressive, but the rain was so loud I struggled to hear the preacher. But, rather like the proverbial tea-cup storm, it was of short duration. Still hot and heavy weather though. Hope the workmen let me have my windows open tomorrow.

Saturday 3 July 2010

Welcome to my world...

So, here I am, first blog. Never done this before... but I feel the need to muse about my life in general so I thought I'd give this a go.

I went to the Montreux Jazz Festival today to man the Kiosque Biblique with my dad. It was warm and beautiful by the lake, although the white, graffiti-marred tents did rather spoil the view! I wandered the stalls bare-foot, gathering lots of ideas for my next projects at Ergothérapie - why spend the money when I can create a personalised version for free? I have to say I didn't actually hear much jazz - or any other music for that matter, apart from the single CD of African Music that the soaps-and-hair-braiding stall across the way played over, and over, and over again!

Rather disappointing on the witnessing front, not a single conversation (although people did take free literature). I didn't manage to accost a single stranger - but I did do my 'compliment of the day' - to my dad.

I had a little wobble whilst reading 'Daylight at Midnight' (about the book of Esther). What was supposed to be research for my next book but it turned out to be a little too close to home leading to difficult thoughts about responding to the challenges God sends in our lives. But a chat with my dad and a walk smoothed that over (plus one of my little white pills) - doctor's advice followed, and, as usual, it worked!

May be back for more later... let's see how it goes.