valedictory 2008 – pictures

This is a lovely picture of Elise, Eva and I with Bishop Roger Sainsbury and his wife Jenny at yesterday’s valedictory service.

I no time to blog! Here are some more pictures of the valedictory on Marks Picassa site

last day with my Trinity friends

So, today was the last time together here at Trinity. The valedictory service went off ok…no tears, only a small fight with Mark at the start and a last chance to say goodbye to people. My head is so full of moving that I was hardly able to take it all in. But it is all done now.

The house is now in complete chaos and it sounds like our new house is a bit chaotic too. The carpets can’t get cleaned until the day we actually move in so I have a feeling that the carpet cleaner and the removal people are going to meet on the stairs. hey ho.

Mark has nearly finished cleaning the cooker and there is only Eva’s room to sort and the outhouses to clear. So, we are on target. I can’t remember it being this last minute when we left Liverpool.

Right I am off to try to sleep. Got to still my head and quieten my heart. The apprehension has kicked in now and worse case scenarios are playing away in my head. My fertile imagination isn’t helping very much!

all done

The exam is done and I am now free! The stress of this has been building for so long it feels very strange to be free of it. I can’t really discuss how I did and I am finding it difficult to process the whole thing (I shall never speak of the exam again!). I now have a nasty headache and a lot of nervous energy. However, I have got a new haircut (I got a lovely head massage and sat in the massage chair for quite sometime which was great) and I also have collected my special linen black ordination trousers which were specially made for me. So, all is well.

I am sitting in front of the telly, awaiting a plate of chicken curry and a glass of white wine (it will be just a glass as I have a busy day tomorrow and my new boss is coming to stay – he arrives very late this evening). I have a few post-Trinity leavers chores to do and seeing as Liz H has gone into hospital (perhaps a baby might come out in the next 24hrs?) I have a few more bits and bobs to do than I had expected. It would be so great if she gives birth soon because I ould love to see the baby before I leave. I am actually very very excited about the prospect of a small Hassall child.

So, the next few days will be quite busy with meetings and parties. A wonderful combination – and quite typical of the Church of England. I will keep you posted.

not much to say about exams and the like

I have my family back. They returned home last night. It is great to have them back, I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed them. Having said that I couldn’t get to sleep for ages after they’d got back and ended up staying up watching a documentary about The Who and eating crisps until very late. This morning has been a bit tough as a result. Eva didn’t wake up until 10am (so I was spared the early morning call of “Muuuuum, can I watch TV? I’m hungry!”) Mark is at Snappy Snapps (his last Saturday). So, Eva and I have been lounging about – some clergy shirts arrived this morning (I think I look like a bit pudding but Eva says “they’re beautiful” The puffy sleeves are stupid and my need resewing).

I have to do a bit of exam revision today (just a little each day is going in like small pippet of knowledge into a big bucket of irrelevant ideas – my head is awash with irrelevance, knowledge is struggling to survive). I feel I have little hope of being sane by Tuesday. Exam stress is taking on comedic characteristics – slurred speech, comedy wind, the eating of weird combinations of food, forgetfulness and sleeping with the light on holding chamomile tea. I will be so happy at 1pm Tuesday. This stupid, mean, torturous exam will be over.

Anyway, I am off to the shops to buy a duvet and take the car to the car wash.

revision

I have a lot of revision to do so have promised myself not to spend too much time on the internet (who know what ‘too much’ actually means – it is a subjective thing and therefore open to interpretation) I will do my best to achieve this goal. So, if you (dear reader) feel abandoned I am sorry but this is the last hurdle to cross in my theology degree, and despite the obvious injustice if a 20 year old dyslexic woman having to sit an exam, I am determined to give it my best shot.

I am all alone now (Joe and Eva got to Belfast safely) so apart from a few college meetings and a garden party I have a few days of complete quiet and revision concentration.

Anyway, times up. I must go and read more about the three fold ministry…

odd day

Today has been quite strange, not least because I started off by being alone and going to St Peter’s for the last time on my own. It was a lovely service and I got quite emotional saying goodbye – they gave me a the lovely ordination stole which I had asked Ann to make for me and some very useful books. I had got quite used to St Peter’ and have appreciated the support of the vicar – Jenny Low. She really has been great for me and I will miss her.

After I got back I had a spot of lunch and then had to go off to get Eva from Badminton – I took Elise and Wayne with me because when I dropped Eba off we got stuck in the mud and I needed moral support. Eva had had a lovely time, she was completely pooped and all she wanted to do was eat and got to sleep. However, the reality of an early night was slightly different – it has take her ages to calm down and get off. So here I am thinking another day has past and I haven’t got much revision done. I am starting to feel I am going to have to go into this exam a little more stressed than I had hoped. Anyway, I had better get back onto looking at the sacraments.

By the way – I was well peeved at the Eurovision result yesterday. I deciced having seen al the acts that I liked Israel and Denmark best (with Sweden next – but actually she was too strange for me to fully plump for in the end) I had a smidgen of respect for Russia but I have no idea why Uk came so low down – surely Spain (who got booed) didn’t deserve to do better than us? Anyway, I have to say I don’t know what to think about it all…will we ever be liked in Europe again? Are we such social pariahs that we can not even make it off the bottom 3? Very disappointed indeed! Hey ho.

infant baptism and eurovision

…An unlikely combination but that is what my day will be focusing on (what’s left of it). I have a strict revision regime to stick to and if I haven’t don’t know enough about infant baptism by 8pm then I am in for a sad eurovision night. So, I am not going to hang about here…I am just going to play you what Phil Jackson and I think will the winning song (well hedging our bets it should come in the top 3).

Eurovision 2008 Sweden Charlotte Perrelli – HERO (performance in the semifinal)

leaving – getting ready to go – pretending to be a vicar

These are the first of many leaving photos. The first one is of me and George Kovoor (the Trinity College principal). The other one is of some of us who are leaving wearing our new clergy-wear. Now, I know that technically we shouldn’t be wearing our collars and that it is illegal to impersonate a vicar but this is just a dress rehearsal so please don’t take this as a final vision of how we will actually look when we are church of England curates. I haven’t decided on hair colour (please state your preference – though red is out of the question because that wouldn’t go down well in Everton) and this isn’t the stole (the red scarf like thingy) I will be wearing on the day – that will be white (but it is still being hand-made by a member of St Peter’s Lawrence Weston church).

I am still feeling a bit sick from the fish quiche incident, I’ve been to college today to panic about the exam (revision is not going well) and have to sort out Eva’s stuff for Brownie Camp which starts tonight. So, best get on.

Baptists

You may well know that Trinity college is ‘in a relationship’ with the Baptist College (they call it a Federation – which is another way of saying they love each other very much but there is no kissing). Well, the Baptists are great! I say this because I have just read a book about the way they do church, what they think is important and general stuff about the way they developed their theology of church and I found myself being very sympathetic to their decisions. Don’t worry I am not turning Baptist but I can see why my family were congregationalists…whilst not the same as Baptists their self-governance and commitment to mission is particularly compelling. I am an Anglican through and through (cut me in half and “CofE” is written round my inside) but I think I am a Baptist sympathizer.

On another subject altogether. It is 3 weeks till we move! A fact that slightly disturbed me today and I got stress tummy. I wonder if my study in the vicarage will look like this:

another fab cartoon (click on it and it gets bigger) by Dave Walker who now is writing the Church Times Blog. Genius at work.

last academic board

Every day I seem to face a new ‘last thing’. Today it was academic board. In my past life I was also on academic board as a senior academic but it was quite a different experience – it was hostile and unforgiving, you had to watch your back, be on top form and watch out for aggressive tactics from other departments (and sometimes those in your own). Being on academic board at Trinity is so far removed from my previous experiences that it has almost (but not quite) restored my faith in such assemblies. It is possible to approach the rough and tumble of academic disciple without it being at the cost of others. I can’t actually believe that I will miss it…what a geek!

Anyway, we have a busy family weekend ahead – my mum’s here and we have everyone coming over on Sunday for lunch. Another ‘last thing’ = the last time we will all be together as a family in Bristol. I might need tissues.