Tag Archives: life in general

03/23/10

Day 35: Wedding Planning

Since Jo and myself started planning the wedding in August we’ve realised that actually it’s not that difficult to plan a wedding…there’s been a few difficulties but when it comes to the actual planning, idea collecting etc we’ve both realised that we tend to sing from the same metaphorical hymn sheet with both of us agreeing on pretty much every aspect of wedding stuff.

I haven’t really updated my blog on wedding stuff much largely because we have a wedding blog but I thought today I’d give a very brief update!

We have so far organised: church, reception venue, meal choices, guest list, suits, website, photographer, flowers and invites. We handmade all the invites (video blog below) and posted them about a month ago. In the last few days we’ve sorted our order of service, finalised the worship band and I’ve sorted out the bans being read here in South Cave.

All in all doesn’t feel like there’s much to do…bring on July

Here’s the video blog...more over at www.markandjoanna.co.uk

03/16/09

The End Is Near

For those seeing the picture and reading the title and thinking ‘Ooh a Five Iron Frenzy post’ then I’m sorry because this is nothing to do with FIF…although I have recently purchased Brave Saint Saturn’s latest album and Roper’s one album and they’re awesome (both bands with the lead singer of FIF).

If you’re thinking ‘Who are Five Iron Frenzy?’ then get onto itunes and buy some… you’ll love them!

Anyway back to topic!

The end is near for me! In less than 4 months time I shall have finished my time in Peterborough at Park Road Baptist Church, in less than 3 months time all uni work will be done which means I’m currently in mad rush mode!

I have less than 12,000 words left to write for essays/dissertations however that’s still 12,000 words and I’m experiencing the ‘light at the end of the tunnel just need to make it’ effect. Sitting down to write stuff and not feel like I’m writing poo is difficult although I’m hoping to finish an essay tomorrow!

Park Road stuff is great however worries of the future loom, we need more volunteers but I don’t know if people will get off their bums and get involved… City Centre joint church youth work is great however I don’t want to be the one organising it…I love it and it really excites me but I’d like someone else to do it to make it sustainable.

In the middle of all of that I’m busy applying for jobs and church/Christian youth work jobs are such a pain to apply for, the forms seem to want to know all kinds of things…it’s like doing a portfolio all over again! I’ve also written a C.V for one job too, I’ve applied for 2 so far… 1 more to apply for tomorrow and just waiting to see what else comes up.

So it’s all exciting, crazy, stressful and fun in Mark-land at the moment!

In dull news I’m pondering buying marktiddy.co.uk and linking it to the blog…possibly getting rid of himynameismark around Christmas (when it expires)… thoughts? good idea? don’t care less? Write to me!

10/1/08

It’s all go…with occasional stopping

I’ve had a pretty busy first few weeks back in Peterborough what with residentials and uni and the like so keep finding that although I have things to blog I tend to never get around to physically blogging them.

So here’s my life in brief…

London - I’ve been heading down to London on tuesdays for lectures…it’s nice only have one day of them a week however tuesday evenings seem to have become full of meetings so last night I got home, had 10 minutes to eat then left the house again!

Letton Hall - I’m quite excited about getting to go to Letton Hall with The CROPS Trust as a leader in half term, I last went to a CROPS letton about 2 years ago. This time I’ve been asked to lead a set of worship which I’m really excited about and I’ve also been asked to lead a seminar on reading the bible.

Youth Services - I’ve been provisionally asked to speak at a youth service in Yaxley (Peterborough) early November which is exciting too as it’s not often I get invited to speak at youthy events! I also met with an anglican minister of a city centre church a few weeks back with the view of trying to organise some joint ‘City Centre Churches’ youth work in Peterborough and we set a date to do a joint youth service on the 23rd November which’ll take organising but be great!

Other New Events – We’re almost at the stage of launching a new lunchtime event for young people from the local secondary school who tend to wander into town at lunchtime. The event going by the name ‘Park up’ will see us open our doors on a monday lunchtime offering a ‘drop in’ style youth club. Also in the pipeline is some kind of more in depth, monthly get together for the older young people which should be fun too!

IPOD – Having now been in the world of ipod owners for over a month now I thought I’d reflect on the difference it has made to my life, there’s been two main aspects I’ve noticed a change…firstly when driving I now just plug my ipod into the car which means I get a nice range of music and I don’t spend time changing CD’s whilst driving which I guess makes driving safer! Secondly I’ve been listening to the ‘Holy Trinity Brompton’ church sermons (from their podcast) weekly on my train journey home from London and it’s really nice to feel ‘fed’. The variety of dynamic, interesting and challenging speakers means I actually get to hear a sermon each week at the moment rather than always being busy with youth work!

Anyway I think that’s all for now…in any spare moments I have I’m still trying to mix all the tracks I recorded during the summer…alongside finding I’m writing more songs I want to add!

09/4/08

Blogging has resumed…

So it turns out my original thought of blogging resuming on tuesday just didn’t happen…however I’ve been back in Peterborough 3 days now and I’m just beginning to get my head around the million and one things which need doing.

I shall continue blogging when I can think of something else to post!

08/28/08

Blogging resumes shortly…

I’m not gonna be blogging the next few days because they’re so manic! This weekend I’m in Peterborough/Wolverhampton for Stuart and Steph’s wedding, helping Joel and Vicki move house then travelling back to Yarmouth to back my stuff up to drive back to Peterborough for the new term on monday.

It’s gonna be a strange year…I only have ten months at Park Road Baptist so it’s gonna be weird doing things knowing they’re my lasts….it’ll be sad too.

At the same time today I do what’ll probably be my last ever shift at Haven which’ll be quite sad, I’ve been there since I was 16 so it’s the end of 5 years work so here’s a photo of the Wonderbar where I’ve spent many-a-shift serving pop corn, candy floss and slush to the masses!

This year is going to be full of lasts, this time next year I’ll have a completed degree and hopefully a job doing full time youth work somewhere…it’s a unknown though which is exciting yet scary!

Anyway blog readers I shall come back to you on tuesday or wednesday with some new blogging thoughts, musings and things that make me giggle!

08/7/08

Thoughts…

It seems that all my intentions of serious blogging has gone out the window…I’m trying to work on a ‘sex before marriage’ blog which will hopefully appear this evening….who knows!

I’m also sorting out all my music videos on my mac and itunes!

06/23/08

Busy-ness…

So yesterday having returned from a brilliant weekend away with Park Road Youth I slept for ten hours…and today I’ve been with CROPS for the day over at Haddon (a tiny village of 60/70 people just outside of Peterborough) doing some clay pigeon shooting and driving a tractor…it’s been awesome…and tractors are hard to drive!

I wanted to post some photos from the weekend on here but can’t really so go to the Park Road Youth Website (link) to see them!

06/19/08

Bike Rides & Sermon Writing…

I have just over a week left in Peterborough before an extended summer break and this weekend is a youth residential which I’m really looking forward to, the following sunday I’m preaching in the morning service at Park Road which’ll be a first for me…another first is that I’ve been given a specific topic.

The topic is ‘The ascension’ as Tim has been working through the apostles creed in the morning services that last few months so the given title is ‘I believe in the ascension’ and the part of the creed it comes from is ‘He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father’.

This afternoon I headed out to Ferry Meadows with my bike…I haven’t biked in over two years so having managed about 6/7 miles with a break I’m feeling quite sore…however sat by the beautiful surroundings (see photo) I began to write my sermon and I’m loving the challenge of having a set topic at the same time as hating it, I think I’m starting by asking myself the questions people in the congregation would ask themselves if they took the time to think about the creed and slowly I seem to be forming a sermon!

This next week is going to be a little crazy but a lot of fun, the youth weekend is near Cromer so a weekend of sun (I hope), sea and sand will be awesome and the young people from Park Road are brilliant….I then have a few bits and pieces/lose ends to next week alongside planning a session on ‘Sex and Relationships’ titled ‘The Urge to Merge’ for Doodles which’ll be my last bit of youth work until september…although I might do some in Great Yarmouth.

The last couple of weeks I’ve been feeling a little sad that I’m not going to a Christian festival like Soul Survivor this year and although I did Springy back in April it’s not the same…I’m gonna try and do Soul Survivor of Momentium next year!

Anyway ramble over…hope you like the photos!

05/6/08

Portfolio Update…

For anyone remotely interested I have now donw 16 out of 36 sections for my portfolio…which doesn’t sound a lot but it means I’m over a third there…I’m taking it for a trip to London tomorrow to check it out with my tutor so hopefully that’ll be positive.

In other news….the house is out of milk so I’m drinking black coffee…my itunes A to Z has me listening to the rockin’ MxPx and I wrote a song today/yesterday called ‘Something So Unbreakable’

05/3/08

Woah…

Regular readers will note a lack in recent posts, it’s not that I’m not thinking but that I’m over thinking, this week has been manic, I’ve been writing essays, writing sermons, planning sermons, having worship band practices, going to uni 2 days, having house groups, going to deacon’s meetings and travelling to Sheffield for 24 hours…all in all it’s been manic and it’s still manic…tomorrow I’m leading the service at church and preaching, most of which is now planned other than a video which I need to make this afternoon.

Monday night at youth group we’re having a murder mystery night so I’m trying to plan that too….

So here’s a couple of brief blog thoughts…

1 – I was amuse to see Boris Johnson win as mayor of London and I am intrigued to see how things will pan out. I also don’t think old brown has a chance in the next elections…which makes me happy!

2 – I finished ‘God on mute’ and have several people I want to lend it to/want to borrow, I shall make some more comments on Greig’s book tomorrow

3 – Hayfever season is here and I don’t like it

More blogging soon…