Now I’m blogging again…. I won’t feel bad about plugging SCM…

See blog here.

I stopped blogging midway throught this year because life is really good. I am back now, not because life is not good but because I may actually have something to say again. I’ll jus give you a wee update so you know what I’ve been up to

• I did my elective in haematology in Belfast. I thought that I maybe liked haematology becasue it was my first experience of medicine and I looked back at it with rose tinted specs but I love it. I had a great month in Belfast with a lovely fellow medic called Cara. We did all those med student thing- got in the way, asked silly questions, gave the patients someone to talk to. The lovely thing about it was I had a lot of time to think.
• The rest of the summer was a blur- I did very little for a few weeks and then came back to Glasgow before heading down to the miracle that is Greenbelt. I adore Greenbelt. You would have to go to understand but for me it was a weekend of pie, tea, coffee, live music (Foy Vance, Foreign Slippers, Duke Special….), inspiring chats with crazy people and very little sleep.

• My highlights were

1. the Ikon event on Friday night- pyrotheology (very late blog post about it may follow but have a wee look here) for those of you that have questioned why there is a match in my blackberry case- I was given it after this event and that’s where it ended up!
2. The HASS blugrass eucharist
3. Really enjoyed Nadia Bolz-Weber’s talk that I got to
4. The outerspace service “waiting the long night” was really touching. Glad I went. Nearly talked myself out of it. Rediscovered my love of Kate Rusby among other things. The other things were much more important. See the service sheet here.
5. Beer and hymns obviously
6. Meeting new friends and old friends I haven’t seen in years!
7. The Pie
8. After dinner mints for breakfast

Honestly, my greenbelt experience this year wasn’t life changing. My life has already changed enough in the past year. But it was life affirming. I felt like I was being wrapped in a warm blanket of loveliness. I felt like I could totally be myself and from my past experiences this is an odd situation to find oneself with Christians. God bless Greenbelt.

• and then we went to London
• George took me to see Wicked for my birthday. Best present ever! Here I am with cake that George’s mum made.

• Then I went home just in time for our Barbara’s birthday party

• Then it was my stepdad’s bithday. We had the party in the same room!
• Then Granny and Papa’s 50th anniversary party
• Then back home to Glasgow
• The some fun and some public health. This picture shows the fun…

So… that’s you caught up then. I shall try to blog more…

(I thought I’d already published this…)

Sho, my ssm was a lot busier and more tiring than I expected and there really wasn’t that much to report beyond

• In palliative care a lot of patients die
• this isn’t as hideous a work environment as you would think
• a lot of patients don’t die which is nice
• I learnt how to fill in death certs and crem forms which could prove useful at some point
• I learnt loads of random stuff which is already proving useful (palliative medicine has loads of good signs!)
• I can take blood
• I can clerk in patients

That was pretty much it! I loved it and am loving haematology! Hopefully blog more now I can do it from the phone! I’m never in…

Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep

If I should die before I wake

throw my journals in the lake.

(HT revruth… link to be added when I’ve worked out the bb app!)

Just 2 this week… Janis Joplin (just go on… she died young there isn’t that much) and the album So Still by Mozez which I found via spotify this week… v chilled!

I will hopefully return to the blog properly at some point towards the end of next week. I have quite a lot to post about and I’ll finally have some time to go back and edit the post that I’ve written to remove all the crap and slander.

In the mean time- George wrote a good summary of how we’re all feeling atm which I suggest you read

See you at the other side (or, you know… today, tomorrow or at church)

This week’s offerings

• Foreign Slippers… she’s swedish, she’s crazy and she supported Duke at Oran Mor last week
• Johnny Cash- America IV the man comes around
• Nivana- bleach
• Janis Joplin’s gratest hits
• Rufus Wainwright Want 2
• Bradley Hathaway I love him… even though he is a skinny skinny boy
• simon and garfunkel
• Red hot chilli peppers… stadium arcadium.

Go forth and spotify…..

Sometimes I think Jon Birch @ asbojesus is inside my head… this is a good example. I’m pretty bad at being all judge-y of people who get all judge-y…

This week I have been mainly listening to

• Affirmation by savage garden (while standing on a chair dancing and remembering old times)
• REM (a bit of accelerate and some automatic for the people)
• Leonard Cohen (started with a bit of chelsea hotel #2 and then a bit of alexandra leaving and then cried a wee bit)
• Some Laura Marling (alas I cannot swim)
• Those Foy Vance limited ed eps
• and finally… some Duke Special tonight at 8ish in Oran Mor

• I worked all morning… nicely productive
• Watched newswipe on iplayer with lunch… you have to see it if you haven’t
• Did comm. skills… misdiagnosis of cancer… hideously intense
• had an off mic discussion about the pay divide
• and an on mic one about mortality/swine flu/the aporkalypse
• Got a bit excited about Carol Ann Duffy maybe being the next poet laureate
• Got a little bit sad at the lacklustre response from others to this news
• Came home and read parts of rapture to celebrate
• Talked at length to Fran about the importance of ritual in spiritual life among other things (deserves a post to itself)… followed up by her understanding of human relationships being sacred and my understanding of the significance of the incarnation… we sometimes have deep chat!
• Now I am trying to atone for all the coffee today by drinking pints of water and listening to Indigo Girls
• Looking forward to this tomorrow. You should come if you’re in Glasgow!

So… that’s my day. Sorry for all the bullet points but it was a very fragmented day and it was good!

I wish I could be coherent about this but it’s just so awful and sad. I wish I still had it in me to be shocked by Christians.

On a brighter note Warwick (assistant minister of my old church in NI) has been called to be the minister of 1st Presby Ballymoney (proving that sanity is alive and well in a small and surprising corner of Co. Antrim).