Tag: rambling

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You give me fever…Fever!

Sigh…

As in the last post – illness has been doing the rounds in the Hartley household 🙁 And it’s still going around.

The coughs and colds refuse to go away and so, unfortunately, does the seriously nasty fever bug that has been going around. All the kids have had/still got it and so too has Mrs H now.

With fevers hitting over 39c (thats over 103f!) all we can do is keep the Calpol and Nurofen flowing on regular cycles and keep praying that it’s going to break. Unfortunately it’s really vicious as it will hit one day, be fine the next and then hit again the following day… and it’s been like this for nearly 2 weeks now.

The doctors have come out with the usual “it’s a virus” line and have told us to carry on as we are – the only useful thing we have heard is that there’s “a lot going around and people are struggling to shake it”. So useful to know that really.

And so we keep praying, keep plodding along and keep getting little to no sleep at all at the moment… and just when the year is at it’s busiest 🙁

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One day a year – you can be proud and nationalistic!

Ah… the proms – specifically the second half of the Last Night of the Proms.

A joyous occasion where sitting in front of the telly belting out patriotic tunes is fully acceptable and totally enjoyable. You just cannot beat it. A rousing chorus of Rule Britannia and the joy of our true national anthem (I wish!) “Land of Hope and Glory”

This years event was one of the best I’ve ever seen with the conductor really enjoying himself and looking so proud to be there (as well as actually sticking around to sing at the end) and Bryn Terfl was really going for it and joining in with the whole lot.

Sir Andrew Davies has always been my favourite conductor as he always did the proms justice, and since he left we’ve had nobody who has embraced the night with such passion but Richard Norrington was definitely up there with the best of them.

We let our daughter stay up to watch them this year, her first proms, knowing full well that it would be a very late night for her (since the proms never run to time!) and it was definitely a great evening sharing the event with her.

I did watch some of the other proms as well this year, and I cannot wait until they show the Dr Who prom of course – roll on the 2009 season! If it’s half as good as this years then it’ll be a supreme event.

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By the SEAT of their pants

I admit it – I’m not a big fan of Seat cars, nor their race teams and I am definitely not a Jason Plato fan… but I am stunned and disgusted by their almost cavalier announcement this week that they are quitting the British motorsports scene straight after the BTCC finale on the 21st September.

This means the end of Seat as a works team in the BTCC as well as the end of the pretty exciting Seat Cupra Cup support series which has been used by youngsters, wannabes and BTC “rejects” for the past few years and is always a laugh to watch, with some good racing as a bonus.

Now what really disgusts me – and yes, that is the right word as this affects a lot of people who work and race for the company – is the fact that the announcement has been made so late. The drivers heard about it on the same day as the rest of the world (incidentaly Plato was only one year into a 3 year deal with the team – breach of contract perhaps???) and the crews and all drivers will now be faced wondering what on earth they will do next.

Darren Turner has said he’s looking into GT – and good on him, he’s a great driver and I have enjoyed it when he has done well (which is a problem when he beats manufacturers I like)

It’s also a stun as BTCC is going through a major revival recently – it’s got brilliant TV coverage, Alan Gow is running the series really well and the racing and attendances have been getting better and better with each weekend… SO WHY PULL OUT NOW???????

It just doesn’t make sense – just when we thought the heyday of BTCC was about to re-emerge, this comes along and slaps us in the face. We need MORE not less manufacturers… why don’t Ford race their Mondeo against the new Insignia with VW putting the Scirocco in alongside the Accords/Civics of Honda and the Laguna Coupes of Renault with BMW 3 series being pushed all the way by the Toyotas/Lexusesesessss.

Yeah – there’s a credit crunch… our bank balance feels it all the while of late – but this form of marketing is great and hugely entertaining.

Come on manufacturers – open your eyes to the wonders of the British (and indeed – why not the WTCC) racing scene!

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2 Weeks – still shattered, but loads achieved :)

Blimey… that was a real corker of a “holiday” – I know some of you were really looking forward to my “Paint Drying” blog but I didn’t even get a chance to get on my PC for long enough to check emails, let along do any blogging.

Saying that – it all looks a heck of a lot better! Nice clean walls that aren’t disgusting colours, decent carpet downstairs and on the stairs and landing, tidier looking and a much cleaner and more spacious look and feel to the place.

We keep getting comments along the lines of “You won’t want to move out now” and there is a degree of that as it really does look good… but we do still want to move. There is a property we really like the look of that keeps popping up but until we are in a good place to take it further we are just praying that either it, or another one like it, are available when we come to the crunch.

For now though we are busy de-cluttering and packing bits and pieces as much as possible to make the house look homey but not cramped… and we are slowly returning to normality.

Normality… yes… great word – I suppose it’d be more accurate to say we are now entering the next phase as there is nothing normal at the moment.

Our girl started at secondary school last week, growing up fast and it’s way too scary for me too keep up with. I think I’m going to be one of *those* dads who can never see their little girls as anything BUT little girls…

Our big lad started back at school today, and out little’un returns to play school tomorrow… so it’s all going back to the normal 5-day-week but with enough changes and other periphery to make it feel quite weird.

Oh well…. I’ll post some pics at some point but thought I’d keep this place updated 😉

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One missing thing…

Driving into work with music playing, as always, and I started praying again (I do this fairly regularly – but not as much as I should do it must be said!) and really felt a gentle nudge about my personal relationship with God.

If you recall from my previous entries here – the big thing about me coming back to God was the realisation that I needed an intimate, on-to-one, faith and not just a corporate experience.

The past few weeks have been chaos, me and Mrs H are still worn out and barely seem to have enough energy to climb out of the sofa and walk up the stairs to bed at night… and during this I’ve let my personal time with God falter and get pushed out of the way. “I’m too tired”, “Got no energy” or the classic “If I close my eyes to pray I’ll be snoring in 30 seconds” seem to have become a ridiculous part of my lingo these days and I’m actually noticing the effects this is having – I’m finding myself slipping into “old-ways” of thinking about people or situations and even mentally responding in a way I used to do, and that had changed in drastic ways.

As with any relationship of any kind be it working, friendship, business, parental or intimate – my faith requires a commitment from myself and an effort in maintaining it.

It’s not easy as the intangible can easily be pushed out to make way for the tangible and it can often be too late before we realise how detrimental that can be. Thankfully I’ve been given a nudge to make me realise what I’ve been doing so now I can rectify it!

The other thing that struck me during this revealing time is that I miss Worship. “But wait”, I hear you say, “Don’t you have a time of worship on a Sunday” – well, yes we do but I’d classify most of it as Praise and although I really do enjoy it and love the songs we sing and the atmosphere etc, and even though I do meet with God during it, I miss the more intimate style of worship in many ways.

It’s kinda difficult to explain fully what I mean – but when we visited Trent Vineyard the other week, the worship there felt more intimate, even though there were a similar number of people present. The songs that were sung, the way it was led and the way that there was time left for the songs to soak in and for people to receive during the worship felt soooo refreshing.

Don’t get me wrong – I *love* KingsGate and love the worship there…. but if you compare a Hillsongs CD (which is pretty much how the worship at our Church operates) to a Vineyard UK CD (such as Holy or Hungry) you can feel a difference in where it leads you. It’s all about God but both have an equal place and a balance is what I need.

I guess I need to find time – no, MAKE time!! – to worship at home, pray and study Gods word and get that intimate worship as part of my life… but I also can see that visits to my parents are going to be, in part, about giving and receiving that more intimate style of corporate worship.