Or maybe not, as her suggestion wasn't to simply spend an hour gazing at my face, but instead to wander around the art gallery. Now, I'm a big fan of art galleries, and so it's to my shame that I have never visited the one which is housed in the same building I have worked in for the last two and a half years. But I'm definitely going to return to this one very soon.

Some amazing and very detailed paintings, both old and new, plus interesting sculptures and ceramics, lots of interactive stuff where you can create your own art (although it's probably more geared towards kids, but that didn't stop us) - and it cost absolutely nothing!! Entertaining and edumacational, and all totally free!! Genius.

*yes, I know; it was painful to type too, but I'm short of ideas tonight.

One of the answers seems to be coming to me at last... but I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it now.

Tonight was supposed to be a great night out, and thanks to the people I was with, it was. But compared with other times I've been to the same place, tonight the music was lame and there were so many people on the dancefloor that it was impossible to move at all, never mind with anything approaching rhythm. Disappointing.

Why did our ex-housemate come round today to get changed and use our loo, when the place he was going to is about two minutes from our house and would have had facilities for him to do both things there? Not that it wasn't nice to see him, just that it would have been nicer if he could have come for a cuppa instead...

It would appear my impending 30th birthday is going to become an excuse for doing about ten different social activities over the next six months or so. Hurrah for that.

Why do people never compliment you on things until you tell them you're thinking of changing them? Then you find yourself in two minds about whether you should still change them, or go back on what you've told everyone you're going to do.

I know the person I want to talk to. But they're not around. And they've told me to email them, which I have. And they said they'd reply, which they haven't. And anyway, some of the stuff in the email is irrelevant and out of date now. Ho hum.

I'd better hurry up and finish emptying my brain into my computer, as I probably should have been in bed at least half an hour ago, if not more.

And on that last point, I'm off. Goodnight campers.

...did that work?

Anyway, I've never really mastered the art of posting links into my blog (if anyone can advise I'll be very grateful), but I'm hoping this one will work. An old favourite of mine, that came up in discussion with one of my housemates earlier... Bill Bailey's guide to the influence of Cockney music on the great classical composers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyMxn8RmSDw

This morning's talk was about how we deal with unanswered prayer. Which was great, but unfortunately by the end of the service I was rather confused by two issues which I've been wrestling with for a while, because I started to feel like God was now giving me different answers to the ones I've been getting up until now. Have I been getting it wrong? Has God changed His mind? Are the new answers even right?

I don't know. But what seems interesting (for want of a better word) is that, in both of these situations, the answers I was being pointed towards this morning are ones that I have considered in the past, but then decided are so difficult and so unlikely that they can't possibly be right. Well, actually, I'm not sure that saying they're \"too difficult\" is the right way of putting it, but I think I've dismissed the ideas before because I couldn't see how they could possibly work and have resigned myself to the idea that I should just opt for Plan B instead, because Plan A is far too ambitious.

Perhaps I need to remember that all things are possible through God. Because most of the time, all I remember is that many things are not possible through Steve.

Identity fraud is a very serious issue; we're constantly being told we should be careful about giving personal information out and that, in particular, we shouldn't just throw things in the bin if there's a chance that someone could go through the rubbish and pick out that information later. Understandably, my bank are particularly keen to remind me to be careful with details of my home address and bank account.

Of course, this would be made a lot easier if I didn't have to regularly dispose of unwanted letters offering me loans, with personal information about myself and my account all over them, which have come from... my bank.

Grrrrrrr...

The main reason for taking this week off (other than I haven't had any holiday in a long while and have been working extra hard in the last couple of weeks and was generally bloody knackered) was that dad was having surgery last Friday. Following his heart attack, he needed a stent inserting into the artery where the problem had been in order to help keep it open and unclogged. Apparently, though, when the surgeons took a look they decided the artery was sufficiently long enough to require not one, not two, but three stents. So, Tina took a couple of days off at the end of last week to help out around the house and be there for mum, and when she left on Saturday, I turned up to do much the same as dad came home. He's doing very well so far, and hopefully will soon be able to do the lifting and stretching that I had to do for him while I was there.

Since returning home a couple of days ago, I've largely been taking it easy, and trying to sort out some of those little bits and pieces that I've been putting off for months, or in some cases years. I'm just hitting a point where I'm feeling motivated to change some things, do some new things, and generally push myself to not just sit on my fat arse feeling miserable at the fact that I've been putting these things off for so long.

Anyway, things are going well and overall I'm a happy bunny. Huzzah.

B: \"So are you still watching Scruffs then?\"
S: \"Eh?\"
B: \"Is it Scruffs?\"
S: \"Do you mean Scrubs?\"
B: \"Yeah, that's the one. Of course. Scruffs is the dog show, isn't it?\"
S: \"No, that's Crufts.\"
B: \"Oh, yeah.\"

(well, it was amusing if you were there anyway...)

I must admit, I tend to find myself in a bit of a Christian-ised ghetto a lot of the time; I'm not used to going to funerals or weddings that don't have any religious element in them, and when the music was playing I did wonder how I was supposed to react (some gentle foot-tapping and subtle mouthing along to the words seemed to work). The funeral made me think about a lot of things, and one of the biggest was the way I have so few non-Christian friends, and how that's not a healthy thing. Sure, it makes for a comfortable and un-challenging life - until I find myself at a funeral of someone that I wish I could have talked to about Jesus, but I couldn't because I hadn't been hanging out with them.

On a slightly happier note, the funeral allowed me to catch up with some old school friends and reminisce about the good old days when life was easier. As well as Pat, who I'd seen at Rich's party a while ago, another of my best mates from the time, Rupert, was also there and gave me a lift from Cambridge down to Epping and back again. That allowed us plenty of time to discuss pretty much everyone we were at school with, where they are now, when we last saw them, what we know of their current situations (thank you once again, facebook) and whether we'd ever want to see them again. One thing Rupert pointed out was that, in the last couple of years at school when the four of us (Richard, Pat, Rupert and me) were always hanging around together, we weren't part of any crowd; we weren't in with the cool kids, and we weren't in with the geeky swots, and we sure weren't in with the sporty guys. We were just us - four blokes wandering about the school discussing last night's TV and our English coursework and how much we fancied Emma (who sometimes hung out with us but was clearly way out of our league). In a way, I think I'm still a bit like that. I'm not desperate to be Mr Popularity, but I'm happy that I have true friends who seem to find me genuinely likeable (even when I don't) and enjoy spending time with me, and likewise I enjoy spending time with them.

Anyways, now that we're all back in touch with each other, Pat, Rupert and I are planning to keep it that way. And hopefully sometime soon, we'll try to all get together to catch up a bit more and raise a drink or two in memory of Richard. Given his reputation for alcohol-fuelled adventures, I suspect that's what he would have wanted. (Incidentally, it seems Rich was also a fan of getting naked at the slightest provocation; no offence to the other guys, but I think for everyone's sake it might be best if we don't continue that tradition.)

Rest in peace Richard. You were a great mate and one of the funniest people I ever met. I know you didn't believe in God, but I hope and pray you're with Him now. And I'm sure He won't mind you wandering about in the buff, as that's kind of how He made you in the first place...

Drop everything. Those are our current instructions at work. We have big deadlines this week for a particular part of our job that comes round each year, and due to the time-consuming nature of it, we have been told to prioritise this particular task over everything else. Basically, anything non-essential is to be left. Which is all very well, except that I told at least three different people this on the phone today, and all of them refused to accept the simple idea that I couldn't just sort out their situations immediately. So, of course, I ended up dropping the essential task for comparatively non-essential tasks. Although I feel quite happy with my progress today on the big task, it's just irritating and frustrating to not be able to concentrate on my main priority.

Tear drops. I may produce a few in the next couple of days. Richard's funeral is on Wednesday. Given the work situation, I'm quite fortunate to be able to take two days off for it. I'm travelling down after work tomorrow, so need to take my bags and suit with me to the office, and then get out sharpish to catch the train. I think, knowing the kind of guy Rich was, it won't necessarily be a sad occasion; of course there will be some sadness and emotional stuff, but I suspect there'll be a lot more fond reminiscenses. As the old cliche goes, it's what he would have wanted.

Drop of sunshine. It's not all doom and gloom. The weather's quite nice, it's almost pay day, and when I get to my parents' tomorrow night Dad's going to make one of his famous curries. And when I get home on Thursday, I'm looking forward to having dinner and a DVD with some lovely people. Now, if the person who was providing me with the recipe would just hurry up and provide it...