Collecting my thoughts

In some ways this has been an uneventful year, in others it’s been as much of a rollercoaster as the preceding three or four! So simple lists of things that have stayed the same and things that have changed will largely suffice.

I’m still…

• Living in Leicester
• Working at Just, The Fair Trade Shop, a job I enjoy and which is teaching me lots about lots of things – what I’m good at, what I’m not good at, leadership, management, social enterprise etc.
• Involved in church-type things although roles (and, indeed, church attendance) are evolving.

I have…

• Moved twice this year – initially in with my brother-in-law’s sister and then to another vicarage occupied by a single lady clergyperson. I’m hoping not to move again for at least a whole year…
• A second part-time job which starts after Christmas, primarily cooking for a drop-in for vulnerable adults, but hopefully with the scope to develop new areas of working particularly using my growing passion for baking…
• Learned to make bread! With my own hands, not a bread-maker! Simple pleasures!
• Rediscovered knitting in a big way.
• Been on a silent retreat – not as silent as I’d anticipated! A great way to take some time out and reflect on all sorts of stuff.
• Made a wedding cake for a friend. One of the scariest experiences of my life. But said friend then commissioned me to make a 40th birthday cake for another friend, so it can’t have been too disastrous…
• Put on hold my exploration of ordained ministry for now. But watch this space… Not literally. That would be really dull.