Christmas

What a Christmas. Graham (Jules's dad), Lisa (sister-in law), and Sandra (Jules's Aunty) came over for Christmas Day. Graham arrived from South Africa last Tuesday week (18th) and is staying till the new year. Lisa came over on the evening of the 24th. Anyway, the 25th was a good day. We all opened our presents, and then had a large lunch followed by Christmas pudding. It was all good.

New Year

I am now on holiday. I will be spending New Year at home with Jules, Graham and Sandra.

Tomorrow we (Jules and I) go on holiday.

I would like to wish all who read this a very merry and wonderful New Year.

Next year I hope to change the theme of this journal, so it may be a week or two before I get going on it.

Have a good New year

My Birthday and work Christmas lunch

Even though its my birthday today, I still had to go to work... shame....

But, we still went out for Christmas lunch and the local pub. Food good and the company good too.

Here we have Vasi, Nick, Fivos, Ian, George, Sabina and John.

And here Vasi is taking the photo.

And now I'm on holiday for 5, yes 5 days. Yay.

Todays blessing

Yesterday, Jules wasn't feeling very well at all. she had been sick a few time through the night and felt delicate throughout the day. Last night we prayed for healing. and this morning Jules is feeling much much better, far more than expected. Praise God.

This week

Well, Sandra, Jules's aunt has moved out into her own place in Enfield. I am slowly making friends at work. Jules isn't feeling too well at the moment so we're not too sure if we'll make her work Xmas dinner on Friday. I hope we do.

Looking forward to tomorrow (Wednesday) evening as we're (Jubilee Church home groups) are meeting near Chingford. Should be good.

More later in the week when I have more time...

The Pond (Stoney Cove at sunset)

The Pond (Stoney Cove at sunset)
Originally uploaded by james4coffee

Sunset at the end of a good days diving, we had all passed, yey.

This is the lake (ex-quarry) where we dived. It is quite beautiful, below the water as well as above.

Next stop, diving with sharks off the coast of South Africa....

Between dives (Second day)

Between dives (Second day)
Originally uploaded by james4coffee

This was on a Saturday morning... boy was it cold...

Between dives (First day)

Between dives (First day)
Originally uploaded by james4coffee

A pleasant Monday morning...
This was after the first dive and waiting with egger anticipation for the next chilling episode...

In the water

In the water
Originally uploaded by james4coffee

This was taken on November 12th at Stoney Cove. It was cold although we were waring semi-dry suits.

The second two

The second two dives for my Padi certificate was last weekend (Saturday). Sam and I drove up. We left home at 4:30am and arrived at Stoney Cove at about 6:45ish (I think). After waiting to get in, there was a long cue of cars before us waiting in the car park, we parked up in the lower car park, next to the water. We didn't have this problem last time because it was a Monday, and not many people go diving on a Monday. So a little wait with a coffee. Then kitted up and into the water. It was so cold... still, we did what was necessary and out for a cuppa. After a break, it was back in for the final time, and after, we were all smiles and hand-shakes and well dones as Andy explained to us the we'd all passed. Hurrah.

So now, two on the course are off to Oz for a bit of the reef. Another is off to Maritius, and I'm off to South Africa with Jules to dive with the sharks (friendly ones mind!)

November, the beginning

It's well through November and I've said very little...

As you might of guessed, November has been rather busy. At the beginning, I had to go to Dudley in the West Midlands for a days training with Computeach. Their facility there was quite impressive.

Then a few days later I did the first two of four open water dives for the Padi certificate. This turned out to be a rather cold time as we set off on a Monday morning for Stoney Cove, a dive centre and ex-quarry full of water. After sorting out a few things like hiring the semi dry suits, we got kitted up went to the water. It was freezing. A shock to the system. All of us felt it. Andy, our instructor said he felt the cold, but he was in a dry suit which happens to have a good layer of insulation. I think he was saying that so we didn't feel to bad... At the end of the two dives we retired to the bar after cleaning up and putting away the kit. The cold didn't go for a couple of days. A two week wait for the next two dives...

On the following Wednesday I started my new work at Chase Farm Hospital. The work is so different and yet the same as when I was at Smiths Medical. It is a much better environment because the attitude is far different. Get the job done and everyone's happy. At the moment, there is no 'time management' or time analysis which means there is far less pressure in the work place. The work still gets done.

So much

So much has happened over the last couple of weeks I haven't had time to write up anything. I will over the next day or so write up what has happen. as a little flavour, I went diving, drove to Dudley and started a new job....

Last day

Today is the last day at my present job. Brought in some doughnuts and cookies for everyone. The main thing I am looking forward to is not having to get up at 5:30 each morning. Although I am sure I'll still wake at 5:30 for next few days! I am sad (well, slightly) to leave this job as I have enjoyed working here. Of course there have been problems and as usual with large companies the bureaucracy is phenomenal, along with internal politics and personal snipping, but overall, it has been good. There is a good sense of team and a genuine willingness to help. The biggest problem for me has been the distance. Driving 50 miles round trip may not sound too bad, and it isn't really, its just that most of it is on the M25 motorway, which as some of you know is sometimes a carpark when there is either too many vehicles or an accident. And this is what makes the job tiring. I know others have a harder life, worse job, longer hours, further to travel, so I consider it a real blessing that I now have a new job closer to home and with more standard hours.

Ecto

I've been using ecto for a while now, and now a new "beta version" has been released to try. And I'm using it now. It is such an improvement over the previous, I'm delighted. So, what is ecto? Ecto is an application that lets you type up a post for a blog off-line, or on-line, edit it fully, and then publish it when its ready. So handy. At the moment, the new version only works on the Mac, but the old works on windows. I don't know if the new version will be made available for windows. Oh, before I forget, ecto isn't free, the guy who spent many hours putting this together needs to eat...

Oh joy...

An other great weekend has just passed by, sadly far too quickly. Jubilee Church was blessed on Sunday by Steve Tibbert from Kings Church, Catford (that would be South London). His sermon on Guidance can be heard or downloaded here

So a new week starts, and I'm sitting in my car in the car park at work. Oh joy! Well, this is joy of a type as this is my last week here, well, when I say week, I mean last few days as my last day is Wednesday. Then I move on. I have two weeks rest before starting my new job at a hospital. Jules and I are looking forward to not waking at 5:30 each morning. Oh joy.

The weekend

Sandra wanted to buy a laptop, so we all went down to Tottenham Court Road in London to have a look. The shops down there were still doing the cheap deals, and after about an hour or so looking at laptops and going from one shop to another, we found one, a Levano for a good price.
Getting to and from Tottenham Court Road was another story as the tube (London Underground) had delays and lots of people trying to travel. Going from home to Liverpool Street Station was fine. I do, however, consider that we had a good run on it as we didn't have to wait too long for each train and the carriage wasn't over-crowded either.

Sunday afternoon

Scuba diving with a dry suit.

On Sunday afternoon I tried out diving in a dry-suit, in the swimming pool. It was quite an interesting experience. The dry-suit works by keep all the water out. It can be "inflated" with air, to create a cushion of insulation. Buoyancy was fun too, cos as you inflate, you can turn yourself up-side-down and be suspended by your feet, mind you, trying to get the right way up is a bit of a struggle.

Sunday morning

This Sunday was a marvelous day. The weather was sunny and bright, but with a cold start. I am part of the "set-up" team for Jubilee Church, who meet in a cinema in Enfield, and Sunday morning was a little different. There were baptisms. This wasn't the "sprinkling" that some churches do, but a full emerson baptism. So, the set up of a "bath" with heated water was interesting and a challenge that the team rose to, and succeeded. I arrived to set up the audio at the usual time to find the "font" in place and full of lovely hot water. All that was needed now was a bottle of bubble bath...
Besides a few hiccups, all went smoothly. Six were baptised and Tope spoke about singing to God which can be heard here. It was a wonderful, blessed morning.

PDA and an organised life

I've been considering using a PDA to help organise my life, my ordinary day to day life that is, just so that I know when I will be going on holiday, when Alpha is on, and not to forget my wedding anniversary! I had tried this before but found that it didn't work too well, nor did an ordinary diary for that matter. This, I think, was due to my life style and that having and living a chaotic life, and not putting in place some sense of order so that it can be managed, meant that this was doomed to failure.
Now, my life has changed some what, like being married and a normal job and having holidays etc. I think the diary/pda would work. So I dug out my old pda, a Sharp Zaurus SL5500. An interesting machine that has a built in keyboard, which is quite usable, so much so that it surprised me. I bought this device in 2002 in Singapore mainly because it used Linux as its operating system. I tend to dislike Microsoft products since I've found them either to have bugs or they don't do what they're meant to do. Anyway, I've installed another linux system onto the Zaurus called Openzaurus, developed by a small group of enthusiasts which comes with different options, applications and themes. As standard it come with the usual calendar, address book and stuff, also audio and visual stuff. There are also websites out there which have loads of other stuff for the Zaurus, wireless cards and the such like, most of which work straight out of the box. The only problem now is that the up-dates for it are few and far between, if at all. Which is a shame as it is a good device. So I shall use this to see if it works, and if it does, update it with a newer device (also running linux or may be Palm?).

Technorati Tags: life, linux, Pda, Zaurus

A welcome visitor

This morning (Tuesday) Jules set off with Lisa to collect from Heathrow their aunt, Sandra, who will be staying with us for a while. Sandra's plan is to move here so we'll be be helping her to find a place to live and find a job. Basically to help her settle in to English life. She has lived most of her life in South Africa, so the weather is going to be the first shock, just hope she brings some African weather with her... The other will probably be the culture shock. Sandra visited the UK many years ago, and I know that things have changed since.