Click here for Christmas Newsletter and photos.   more »

Toni and I enjoyed a random night out last night dancing and listening to music in one of Bristol's up and coming venues. One of Toni's colleagues is the lead singer in the group The Love Vultures and they were playing at The Blue Lagoon on Bristol's Gloucester Road. Good fun. You can listen to some of their tracks on their web site.

Our dive club in Melksham, The Divezone, won a national award at a ceremony at the Dive Show in Birmingham a few weeks ago. This was the 2008 Coastal Challenge Award from the Marine Conservation Society for contributions to the ongoing cleanup of beaches, in this case particular work on Chesil Beach. This is also a bit special because it is the silver jubilee of the MCS this year.

Well done!

The Divezone November December 2008 newsletter is here.

I've been missing my singing!

I have rejoined local community choir Singing in the Round, and survived an attempt by a local choir in Chippenham to poach me when I accidentally attended a singing workshop at the Wiltshire Music Centre by Northern Harmony from the USA.

After an enjoyable holiday in Turkey this summer, Toni and I are looking forward to travelling back there in April next year with Tony Fensome, lately local vicar, and McCabe Pilgrimages. This will be a tour of "Istanbul and the 7 Churches of Asia." It looks great, and includes famous sites such as Ephesus as well as Istanbul.

This was an exciting weekend as we delivered Steph to university for her first term. It was great to see such a suitable Hall of Residence, and to meet her flatmates. Toni and I felt emotional leaving her, but pleased for her. Steph just seemed excited!

On our return we stayed overnight near Ashbourne, and very much enjoyed walking around Dovedale on the Sunday with excellent weather.

I've enjoyed three separate weeks of holiday over the Summer: a week skippering a yacht in the Solent, a week exploring Cappadocia in Turkey (including balloon flights over the extraordinary scenery), and a week scuba diving in the Red Sea (at Nuweiba on the Sinai peninsula) so we are all now Advanced Divers.

Great fun, but I should get back to work?

Happily we had bright enough weather on Saturday to enjoy a repeat visit to the festival. We enjoyed the many busking morris dancers on the High Street, and the action in the arena (below). We returned for further great concerts that evening. Click on the photos for more details.

                    

Steph is off to Ghana soon, so we took a day out to go scuba diving at Vobster Quay again. This was my first dive since I qualified, and I felt a bit nervous and "rusty." However the water was clear an I enjoyed myself and felt a lot more confident after our three dives. Again I was wearing three layers of wet suit, but the sunny weather meant that I stayed warm in between dives. Good fun!

This is an unusual sight even in Wiltshire!

I am surprised to write that I have joined an evening life drawing class in Bath. Joshua wanted to improve his art skills to help with his future career and university application. I decided that it would be easier to join in than to drive backwards and forwards delivering and collecting him.

Besides, "join an art class" is on my unwritten list of things to do before I'm 90 (no, I'm not nearly there - just a little over half way).

I've never done life drawing before, and not attempted much drawing since I left school when I did not think I was much good at it. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it and that I created somethng recognisable at the first session!

Today as we went out for a celebration meal we discovered filming going on a few yards from our house. See 3 photos.

The last two weeks have been good, as Toni and I have been on holiday. We spent a week in Lyme Regis, Dorset (see photos), enjoyed Easter, had a day in London including seeing the musical version of Billy Elliot, and last night a great party at home with family and friends to celebrate 50 years of me.

Apart from great food, great company, and great games (as the night wore on), a highlight was an extraordinary photo collage of my life that my family had secretly put together.

Thanks!

What a way to celebrate my birthday: a fitness test at the local gym (First Steps near Corsham). Toni joined some months ago and her subtle persuasion finally worked.

The fitness test went OK, so the next step is that the trainer puts together a personal programme for me.

I've just returned from a week in Austria, organised by Accts MMI (see other articles in this blog) and hosted by the Austrian army chaplaincy.

There were around fifty participants from about ten European countries: mainly from the former communist area plus a lot from Austria. We had gathered to enjoy fellowship and skiing together, as well as to explore what it means to be a Christian in the armed forces. There were impressive speakers giving lectures and Bible studies (I led one of the Bible studies) and participation was enthusiastic.

This is an enjoyable way to do Christian mission, and it was great to see relationships growing during the week.

Last weekend we enjoyed staying with friends in London (officially Kent). Apart from eating well, we saw the musical Fiddler on the Roof for the first time. It was well-produced, but is a sad tale of persecution of Jews in Russia in the early 20th Century. It is famous (in my mind) for the cry to God something like: We know we're Your chosen people, but couldn't You choose someone else once in a while? I found myself sitting next to a woman from Israel who had wanted to see the musical for some thirty years.

This weekend we were back to scuba diving in swimming pools - to enjoy being part of our local diving club and to stay in practice. It seemed a bit tame after near freezing Portland Harbour, but good fun anyway.

I find myself starting to think about resolutions for the year ahead. Sometimes I come up with long lists of things I want to achieve.

This year what comes to mind is a desire to have fun and listen.

Last year seemed to have a lot of downs as well as ups, and as a family we could do with building on the "fun." Work should be fun too, so this is in part about developing the new business.

Listening is about getting to know and being responsive to people, but it is also about listening to God - every day should be attentive. The best image I have of a close relationship with God is that of a pair of dancers who need to be very attentive to one another's every move including the footwork! (The image here is of dancing from the days when people used to hold one another - so "Strictly Come Dancing" style not disco - I must be showing my age.)

From a Christian point of view, there's something here about knowing, and living out, the "joy of our salvation."

Watched this film at the Little Theatre, Bath, last night.

It is the moving true story of Chris McCandless who, having not got on well with his parents, after graduation chooses to vanish on a journey around the USA of self discovery.

Having brightened the lives of many people he encountered during his explorations, he heads for the wilderness of Alaska to prove that he can survive there. Sadly he does not.

Having enjoyed some months, the turning point comes when he notes that true happiness needs to be shared with other people. Having chosen to return to human company, he finds himself unable to do so because of a flooded river. No longer pleased to be where he is, a kind of panic seems to ensue resulting in futher poor judgements.

Sad, but moving and insightful. Journeys have to end somewhere.

I made it (and so did Steph). We completed our qualification as Open Water Divers today at Fathom and Blues dive centre, Portland, Dorset.

We dived to about 12 metres inside the harbour wall, twice, to do some underwater exercises (like removing and replacing our dive masks) and to peer at a wrecked ship through very murky water. All this in three layers of wet suit and water at 9°C (warmer than the air at 6°C).

Yes, of course it was fun. We also enjoyed a ride on a RIB to the divesight and practised falling off it into the water - just like they do in the films.

You may remember that all this is to get Steph set up for her diving in Mexico, however the rest of us are also starting to plan for warmer and more colourful diving.

Last night had a great time with my sister listening to the "Buffalo Gals" at a local village hall. They were very lively and great fun, representing traditional American (Appalacian) music with fiddle, banjo, etc. interspersed with good humour and percussive step dancing. Good fun. Check out their site and listen to tracks on it.

This afternoon went for a pleasant walk during a sunny gap in the rain, except the rain started again - but there was a brilliant rainbow to look at over Corsham church.

 

Yesterday we braved the cold waters of Vobster quarry for our first two open water dives. I had expected to feel really cold, but although I could hardly move in three layers of wet suit, the trickle of 10 degree C water down my back quickly warmed.

It was more fun than I imagined. I had never thought of quarries as pretty places, but full of water and with a caravan selling burgers and tea they can be very attractive.

The training included compass work, coping with air running out (simulated not real), clearing a diving mask of water, and so on. The pay-off was swimming around with the trout and gazing at the wreck of an aeroplane!

See photos.

Last night all four of us started our PADI^® Open Water Diver course, taught locally by The Divezone in Melksham (formerly Aqualeisure). We'll be learning in pools in Melksham, Bath, a disused quarry at Vobster, and hopefully the sea.

You may think that this is cold time of year to be diving in UK waters, but enthusiasts say, "What does it matter!?" The tuition is good here, and the timing is governed by Steph's extensive gap year timetable, leading up to some diving she will be doing in Mexico next year!

The course got off too a good and exciting start, although it does seem strange sitting on the bottom of a swimming pool, looking up at the surface, and breathing!

This morning I had my first piano lesson for about 35 years! Having given up playing the piano when I was in my teens (due to lack of resolve if I blame myself, or else...) I decided I wanted to start playing again. It took some courage to find a teacher (a nice one) and play the piano in front of someone. It went well - lots of encouragement and suggestions for improvement.

The two men of the family spontaneously decided to cycle to the New Forest and back, staying at Salisbury Youth Hostel on the way, and then a B&B in Beaulieu.

We enjoyed each others' company, and shocked ourselves by cycling 190 miles (in four days). My thighs, unaccustomed to such exercise, are still recovering. I also put on weight: maybe this is because muscle is heavier than fat, or because we did a lot of eating out!

We enjoyed different cycle routes in each direction, and saw lots of lovely scenery and animals. (Photos to follow.)

Today I returned from a week of sailing off the west coast of Scotland. Excellent sailing weather (winds force 4 to 5, light cloud cover most of the time but only occasional rain); breathtaking scenery; great company.

Sailing with friends, we chartered the yacht from Portway at Craobh Marina south of Oban, and sailed anti-clockwise round Mull, with overnights at Tobermory, Bunessan and various picturesque lochs (Spelve and Craignish). Also passed through the Sound of Iona (which unfortunately was misty, spoiling views!) and visited the islands of Staffa (seeing Fingal's cave from the sea) and Lunga (famous for its bird colonies).

For more photos see my album and also Ken Boullier's blog. Ken has now finished a three month sabbatical, from his work as a parish priest, to gain his Yachtmaster ticket and to explore sailing a way of developing leadership skills and of spiritual retreat. I think he's on the right track!

 

I've discovered a new hobby - ecotherapy.

According to the latest issue of The Week, this appears to be any kind of outdoor exercise or labour. According to researchers at Essex University, after a country walk 71% of a sample said that they felt less depressed and 90% said that it had boosted their self esteem. By contrast a shopping trip can make people more depressed!

So today we enjoyed some ecotherapy, a.k.a. a walk in the pouring rain, with friends staying for the weekend, and felt much better and cleaner for it.

Pleased to enjoy some sailing this week.   more »

We've had several weeks or extraordinary hot sunny weather for April, including the week of dinghy sailing after Easter.

Today we continued to enjoy it by going for our first family cycle ride of the year - enjoying the Wiltshire countryside for two hours and checking that our bikes are in good order.

This afternoon I attempted to put new felt on the roof of the garden shed, as the previous roofing was a wreck. I think it will keep the water out, but I won't describe myself as an expert at the first attempt!