On a personal note ...

I spent this past Bank Holiday weekend camping with friends at the Big Church Festival  ...  along with 35,000 other people!!!

This was our third time camping in the grounds of the beautiful Wiston House estate, in West Sussex.

Paul and Chris were delayed in arriving, so Simon and I got the tent up, before taking a wander around the site.

My best moment of day one was discovering that my nephew, James, and family were also at the festival, helping to man the iSingPop tent.

My great-nephews, Reuben and Jonah. along with James' wife, Lydia >>>

There are five different stages to choose from during the weekend, plus book tents, mission displays, challenges, numerous cafes, and much, much more ...

Chris, Simon, Paul and I

One highlight of Saturday was doing the Mission Aviation Fellowship CUBE challenge. This consisted of five challenges in 10 minutes, a bit convoluted to explain the different tests, but suffice to say that I loved it and felt like we worked really well as a team!!!

The weather for the entire weekend was absolutely gorgeous ... hot, hot, hot!  Sadly, that was only during the day. At night we were all totally frozen;  I, for one, had not gone fully prepared for such a drop in temperature.

Our favourite was the Garden stage, mellow setting, some good mellow music.

The other attraction to the Garden stage was the sale of ice cold Pimms 😀😀😀  I enjoyed a wide variety of music, including London Community Gospel Choir, a bit of bluegrass and a touch of country.

I

Sunday night was the only time I went to the Main stage to see the Hillsong UNITED band.

All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend and we've already booked for next year 😀😀😀

Thought for the week ...

Introducing HUGGLES

Some weeks ago I was gifted this wonderful emotional support 'monkey/bear' by the Chaplaincy team at Canterbury Christ Church University.

There began a voting competition to suggest a suitable name. Believe it or not, I received almost 90 responses!!  There were some I couldn't pronounce, some not quite so suitable, and it was a real challenge to reduce that number down to just FIVE potentials.

I really want to thank all those who took part.  Thank you especially for humouring me as I took 'monkey/bear' from my office to the Drill Hall Library, to TABLEtalk and World Cafe.

Following votes submitted by friends, family, work colleagues and students, there was a very clear winner ...

In joint THIRD place came Blossom and Mr Wibbly Wobbly, submitted by two students, Jane and Misbah.

In joint SECOND place was Pistachio from one of my colleagues, Tala, and Tchissola (meaning happiness) from a student, Janete.

And finally, in FIRST place, from my colleague Samantha Lewis, we have the winner  ...

If your name wasn't chosen, or your favourite didn't win, I'm sorry 😢😢  but Huggles is happy 😀😀😀

Day Trip to Brighton

Jane

   Our student day trips are sooooooo much fun.

A BIG THANK YOU goes to Global Greenwich

who do all the organising in advance ...

I just get to show up on the day

and help it all happen 😀

My own day began, as it usually does, with a stop off at a coffee shop.  Swiftly followed by a visit to the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, which included an excellent display of photographs by Roger Bamber.

I was so very tempted to have a wee lay down

on this sofa and just had to take an image of

my teenage heart-throb, Marc Bolan 😵😵

After that I had a wonderful lay in the

Pavilion Gardens soaking up the sun 🌞

Enzo

Janice

Nonso

Mustafa