Sometimes I think it's great to get nervous and worrisome about things, because the relief when it all works out beautifully just seems to enhance the situation! I can't seem to help it, and felt really quite nauseous when I "found myself in a Strange Town" yesterday afternoon and spent over half an hour trying to park. One thing tho that I never question is my ability to find somewhere. Anywhere. All I had was a rendezvous with Tara and Andrew in Yates's in Stevenage Town Centre, and yet I was able to leave the Westgate carpark and turn several corners in the general direction of the place before I asked for guidance. "Just down there, mate. Past the clock and turn right."
Easy peasy.
And what great people! Thank you SO much guys for the relaxed welcome and warm converstation. OK so we talked about music, Utravox, music and er…Ultravox, but the two and half hour session went by so quickly I could have sat there all day. Seems a shame now that I have decided that I can't go to the second Voxgate in London on 19th.
Especially in the light of a chat I just had with RH, who is now considering going to that and the possibility of postponing our meeting in Oxford. It won't matter I suppose, and I can understand his logic, but I am NOT going to London, so that will be disappoinitng. He rang though with the most exciting news - I am the first person In the World to know about the uploading of the revised official website. Not even John knows yet, apparently, and I feel quite light-headed at the thought of being in this privileged position. We discussed briefly several other projects too, some of which are quite sensitive and did in fact cause me a little discomfort yesterday afternoon. It's weird, but does give me cause for reflection and has helped me reconsider my role in the forum and in email conversations etc. There is definitely a case for keeping a lower profile, especially with other less tactful and trustworthy people.
As if this wasn't enough, just as we left for Hitchin yesterday, the postman handed me a package from MetalBeat containing copies of the two Astrea Redux albums "Language" and "Fractals". No chance to listen to them yet. I have so many new CDs to listen to now - five in the last two weeks. It really has got very exciting very quickly.

Great to see Mervyn on such good form yesterday and in very high spirits. He is clearly enjoying visits from Elsi and Stan in particular these days, and I'm really glad we did go up to see him. Another example of His divine hand in things, bringing plans and ideas together, was the surprise arrival at 3 o'clock of T'x brother which of cause had all the kids shrieking round the garden in their excitement. Always good to catch up with him, and a relief to see his new role in the Squadron working out so well for the 2006 season.

We put a horribly wet and great afternoon to good use today,and sorted out FOUR bin bags of unwanted toys and books for the Christmas Box project and Church Bazaar, Embarassing really that we have accumulated so much "junk" over the past year or so - and a real lift clearing it all out.
And the Church Meal worked like a dream too. Everyone said the kindest things about my Harvest Vegetable Casserole and a guy I hardly know called Pete came in the kitchen to help. He worked really hard, chopping, washing up, etc etc and we got on well. It's always a massively stressful experience, and this can manifest itself itself in my taking on a kind of Gordon Ramsay persona (which is why Trx and I never cook together!). Chefs, eh? Perhaps its true what they say after all. But I don't think that came out too bad with Pete - he just worked behind me and I let me get on with it.
Too much food though. We had to give out bread and apple pies at the end. Poor turnout probably due to the rain - less than thirty people came along. And I completely missed all the service, even communion, which was disappointing. Stayed to help clear away tho, which is a first!