Roll of new Acquaintances, so far
16 ordinands
10 men, 6 women
3 new, 13 continuing
And we remember the names of 14 of them.
13 spice (yes, actual word, plural of spouse.)
6 men, 7 women
And we remember the names of 9 of them.
At least 18 children
A variety of genders and ages.
At a push I think I could venture the names of 7 of them.
I know this to be the case, because I have started writing it down on a piece of A4 paper with the headings 'ordinand', 'spouse', 'children?', 'home', 'course' and 'notes.'
Yep, we are making acquaintances like there's no tomorrow. The best forum for this is morning prayer, generally because there's only 6 or 7 people every morning and you've got plenty of time to gaze at the people sitting in the pews opposite and try and work out whether you've met them before and, if so, if you remember their names and whether a cheery question such as "so, how are the kids?" is an appropriate opening gambit in post-prayer conversation.
Everyone has been extremely friendly to us. Keen to find out about us, where we've come from, where we're living now and how we're getting on in our new home. It's the feeling of a community and, although I'm only at the stage of tentative small talk at the moment, I've a feeling I'm going to make friends here.
After prayer this morning Kate, who is also a new student, invited me back to hers for a cup of tea. It's the first time I've had an opportunity to sit with someone and have a proper chat. She and her family have been here a week so are very much at the same stage as Paul and I - getting settled into their home and just starting to make connections with the wider community. It's nice to know there are others in the same boat as us.
Talking of morning prayer, in a typically Hannah-esque moment I have volunteered to lead it on Monday. The students take it in turns to lead, but so far it's just been continuing students. I decided to volunteer because I just want to get stuck in. I'll make sure to spend some time writing intercessions and choosing a hymn over the weekend. If I make a mistake I'm sure no-one will mind. I'll let you know how I get on.
Mum and Dad came to visit on Monday and Tuesday. We went to the Bat and Ball on Monday night and the Railway on Tuesday so I am feeling well-fed! And we went to Blenheim Palace on Tuesday which was ever so interesting. A picture of Mr A, Mum and Dad there is attached.
We're off to see Kat and Matt in Reading tonight which I'm really looking forward to. Actually, we've got to be there at 6pm, so I ought to head off!
I am hiding under the desk looking altogether embarassed. Let me explain why.
Paul and I went to a lovely church this morning. Quite large, big congregation, liturgical worship, friendly atmosphere, good hymns. All was going well until I walked back from communion feeling happy and content. I turned left into my pew and smacked my head on some form of wooden pillar decoration. (Stop laughing!) I wasn't knocked out or anything, but it made a very loud clunk and all the people in the pews behind me gasped. Those of you who go to a traditional form of church will know that you're supposed to sit looking very contemplative and reverent when returning from communion. Not walk into things.
So I sat down and tears came to my eyes. Initially because of the shock of the bang I think, but sadly they didn't stop. And for the rest of the service I couldn't stop my watery eyes. I wasn't crying (in the sense of bawling, wailing, sniffling etc.) but I just couldn't stop the tears. Quite what the lovely people of Holy Trinity Headington throught of me I do not know, but I managed to pull off a number of brief conversations (including with the vicar) after the service in a perfectly polite and well-mannered way while wildly dabbing my eyes with tissues.
Oh dear. Well what's brought this on? It certainly wasn't the bang on the head. But neither am I feeling particularly unhappy at the moment. I think it's just being somewhat out-of-sorts, out of routine and in an unfamiliar place. It must play havoc with the subconscious. At least it's only the second most embarassing occurance of me crying in church (many of you will know the first...)
I think I will go back there next week (in disguise of course, I don't want them to think "oh, there's that girl who cries again") and of course I'll watch out for pertruding decor. Sobbing incident aside, I had a very lovely morning there. It's great that we've come across a church that we feel comfortable in so quickly. In term time I will be in placement churches, but Headington will be perfect for the holidays.
Chin up and move on then. We are British! I'm reeeeally excited about tomorrow as Mum and Dad are coming down. If they get here in time we're going for dinner in the Bat and Ball tomorrow night, then on Tuesday we're going to Blenheim Palace. Should be good!
Well hello again. As I type I am sitting in my study (yes, it's got a desk and a sofa and a book case and a cassock hung on the door and a nice view out the window - evidence attached - it's definitely a study not simply an office or a room with a computer in it) reporting to you after a funny up and downish sort of few days.
If I describe my movements since Friday in any sort of detail you'd probably keel over and die of the boredom so here's a snapshot of things Paul and/or I have done in the last 5 days in no particular order. You can work out who did what;
- Built a flat-packed desk
- Cooked a steak
- Bought cushions
- Spent 1 hour and 45 minutes trying to park in Oxford
- Been to an assessment interview
- Been to Morning Prayer
- Built a flat-packed wardrobe
- Hosted a visit from Sazzle
- Contemplated Turner and Constable / grumbled about Bacon in the Tate Britain
- Stood in the Commons (physical not metaphorical standing)
- Drew a picture
- Browsed Church House Bookshop
- Drunk a glass of wine in the Bat and Ball
- Met an assortment of people and can't remember any of their names
It's an odd sort of feeling being here. Now we've arrived and are unpacked we have very little to do and it's sunk in with gravity how different life is going to be. Learning a new place is tiring. When you know a place you can drive anywhere without really thinking, you know the busy roads to avoid, the shortcuts. You know the layout of your local supermarket and where to find a cash point. And meeting new people is tiring too. You don't want to put on a face, but you know you have to act your best or else they'll start off with a bad impression.
It's not all bad. We went to London today and had a superb time, the best day out we've had in ages. Paul's the happiest I've seen him since I can remember. He felt that his initial assessment at the college went really well, and he's excited about the future and about being here.
We're going to a college coffee morning tomorrow, which should help us get to know some more people. And we have a visit from Mum and Dad next week, and visiting Kat, and hopefully visiting Ellie. Good things to come.
After precisely 3 years and 3 weeks, I have left my employment at Devon County Council.
I've actually had a really nice time. More so the first 2 years than the last one, but I've really got very little to complain about the whole time I've been there. Nice people, interesting work, ok-ish pay. I know that I'll keep in touch with the friends I have made there.
These 3 years at work have mainly been important to me because I've proved to myself that I can hold down a 9-5 job with relative success. I'd been worried up until this point that I'd grown to enjoy the student lifestyle too much and I wouldn't react well to the discipline. But actually I've really enjoyed being a 'normal' person with a proper job and a proper house. Given that I will be spending much of my working life as a vicar with normal people with normal jobs, normal houses, normal overdrafts and credit card bills, it's actually been really important to have a taste of that lifestyle myself.
And now for something completely different...!
I can't keep you very long on this blog post as tomorrow at 6am (yes, 6am, we want to avoid the holiday traffic!) we are leaving for Oxford for good, and I really need to help Paul pack! Hopefully the nice BT man will come and install internet on Monday and then I'll do another blog post and let you know how I'm getting on!
My colleague wrote a poem in my leaving card which I would like to share with you. Quite how much of the taxpayers money in work time he spent on it I do not know, but here it is...
So Hannah's off, nothing could be slicker
Than training to be the UK's sexiest Vicar
As she earns the right to wear that white collar
All the heathens will shout and holler
"Let us be part of your flock
You're one hot vicar, baby you rock!"
They will all queue for your weekly session
Begging to give you their darkest confession
You'll be like catwoman in cape and a mask
A holy superhero... You've got one heck of a task
Back to Devon perhaps you'll return one day
Converting us all the Alderson way
I have such respect for your chosen path
Leaving behind the data aftermath
Small Grants and Fasbers, oh how inferior
And tears from Beryl, our Mother Superior
I hope you like this farewell rhyme
I wish you well, and have a great time
For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory
For Ever and Ever... Amen Ory!!!! (well it had to rhyme!!)
Written by the very talented David Johnson.
(Make of it what you will....!)
I've just woken up from a 2 hour sleep. And I never sleep in the daytime! Probably not the best of times to write a blog, but somehow I feel inclined. So much has happened since I last wrote.
The house sale completed on Friday, just as it should have done. The removal chaps turned up at 8.30 and all the contents of the house were loaded by 9.30. As we took one last walk around the place I felt curiously unemotional, but welled up when one of our neighbours caught us on the way out and gave us a good luck card. Even though we did so much of the DIY ourselves, I don't think I'm particularly attached to the bricks and mortar of our house. But I'll miss Stoke Canon a lot.
The call from the Solicitors came at 10.30. Paul took it, I was driving. The house we had bought 20 months ago with the intention to set down roots in Devon for good was no longer ours. We had stepped off the cliff and into the unknown.
And so we headed off to Oxford. The journey was fairly uneventful, we took what we needed for Friday night. To-ing and fro-ing from car to flat we met 3 other people who live in the block, and all were lovely, asked us whether we had everything we needed and if there was anything they could do. What you'd expect of trainee-vicars I suppose.
We had dinner at the Bat and Ball pub in the village which was absolutely super and for the one and only time that day it actually felt like it might just be my 25th birthday!
Yesterday, the men turned up again at 8.30. We spent the morning unpacking boxes and positioning furniture, a job we didn't manage to complete, and headed back to Somerset at midday, a journey which should have taken 2 hours 20 minutes but took almost double that due to all the holiday traffic.
This morning was our last morning at St Davids and, actually, the most emotional moment of the whole weekend. I knew it would be. St Davids has been such a wonderful place to be. I somehow managed not to cry through repeating the mantra of 'now come on Hannah, you're going to be a vicar, if you blub now however are you going to manage weddings and funerals?' But it was a struggle. We'll visit, of course. But my valuable days of being a normal congregation member in a church now appear to be over. I think that St Davids will feel like 'my church' for a long time yet.
On the way back to Somerset from St Dave's we snuck by Barton Close. There is a car and a van outside, a blue sofa in the lounge and mobiles in the bedroom window. I felt strangely happy that someone was enjoying the place.
St Davids aside I thought I was handling the weekend pretty well; chilled-out, relaxed, taking it in my stride. And then I came over monumentally tired a couple of hours ago. I said to Paul, I think sometimes you think you're taking things in your stride but the effects of change run pretty deep. And, I suspect, the effects of 4 hours sitting on the A303 staring at Stone Henge run pretty deep too.
Well, writing this post has woken me up at least. So I'll splash my face and get myself off to Nan's. These few days are for finishing off at work and making the most of some quality time with the fam. See you later.
We are moving tomorrow.
Yes, it's all come as a bit of a shock. The call came from Sue by Name at 1pm on Monday which was actually very convenient timing as I'd just downed half a cider at the Coaver Club and was therefore able to take the news relatively calmly. "Oh, so the Buyers want to move on Friday do they? Oh yes, fine. We'll pack up all our stuff and arrange removals in 93 hours. Not a problem."
So we exchanged contracts this morning (better late than never...) and the men from the appropriately-named Bishops Removal Company will be turning up at 9am tomorrow. We'll close the front door of 5 Barton Close for the very last time, travel over to Oxford to pick up the flat keys, go for a birthday meal somewhere (did I mention I'm 25 tomorrow...?), sleep overnight on the floor of the flat then take receipt of our furniture on Saturday.
My last day at work is Thursday 4th August, so we'll be travelling back to my Mum and Dad's on Saturday and staying with them til next Friday.
It's been a hectic few days but I think we're just about there with packing and admin.
I'm starting to feel sentimental about Exeter. I was driving round Exe Bridges yesterday when I got a sudden surge of nostalgia, which is not an emotion I normally associate with Exe Bridges. It's amazing to think that it was almost 6 years ago Mum and Dad dropped me down to Exeter for University. We got lost and ended up at Exe Bridges, luckily managed to take the exit onto Bonhay road which took us in the right direction. I remember looking out of the car window at the river as it ran down past the Mill on the Exe and how beautiful it looked. 6 years and 5 houses later (D101 Nash Grove, 19 Vic Street, 13 Danes Road, Victoria Place and 5 Barton Close) I'm leaving. And it's just starting to sink in.
Ho hum, I'll try and hold myself together! After all, there's so much to look forward to.
Life is largely unproductive at the moment. My particular place of work is famed for being very quiet in July and August due to the huge number of people we're involved with who work term-time only. I've been trying to keep myself busy but I spent a significant amount of time today watching a man on a large ride-on lawnmower go up and down the grass outside my office window.
I thought to myself; that man can look back on his day's work and see that he's achieved something. I'm not sure I can say the same at the moment.
And I'm not sure I'll ever be able to have that sort of 'job done' satisfaction as a Priest, not very often anyway. People are messy. Relationships are messy. So Churches are messy places, and the Priest's job isn't to fly in like Superwoman sort out everyone's problems then fly out again, satisfied with the neatly-mowed lawn. It's about getting alongside people and trudging through the long grass together.
Well, that was my thought for the day. Incidentally, I did some gardening this evening. A bit of weeding. Felt very pleased with the result although I've only cleared the weeds down one side of the front lawn. More to do tomorrow. A bit of digging is good for the soul.
It's been a while since the last Blog entry and if I went through all the to-ing and fro-ing we've had with Solicitors and Estate Agents and Surveyors this post would go on forever. Some highlights from the Buyers solicitors questions to us;
"Does anyone have permission to hold a fair on your land?"
No.
"To the best of your knowledge does anyone has any interest in your loft?"
Even I'm not very interested in my loft.
"You have got some outbuildings built without permission. Why have you got these outbuildings built without permission?"
They were built in 1966 so if you're looking for someone to blame...
OK, slightly rephrased by me, but surprisingly not that much.
After all of this we're looking at exchanging (probably) next week and completing (probably) on Friday 5th August. So there's a couple of probables to deal with, but it feels like we're nearing the end. Hence, clearing the weeds.
It really is feeling like an unbearable wait now. It's worse for Paul as he's home all day. By the time I come home from work in the evening I'm up for a bit of dinner, TV and sleep, but he's had those options available to him all day. I don't envy him. Even if work is a bit slow at the moment at least it's something to wake me up in the morning.
Did anyone see 'Alex:A life in Fast Forward' on BBC 3 last night? It was a documentary about a young chap of 22 with terminal bone cancer. Knowing he didn't have long to live he had decided to live life to the full for the little time he had. My description sounds a bit cliched but Alex came across as such an endearing young man I'd recommend a watch on iplayer if it sounds your sort of thing.
It provides some food for though for those of us inclined to moaning regarding house sales.
Mum and Dad came to visit on Monday and Tuesday. We went to the Bat and Ball on Monday night and the Railway on Tuesday so I am feeling well-fed! And we went to Blenheim Palace on Tuesday which was ever so interesting. A picture of Mr A, Mum and Dad there is attached.
