For a few weeks – basically, since my ingrown toenail healed – I’ve had occasional pain between the first two toes of my right foot. It started again on Tuesday, and didn’t stop for once – so I went to see the doctor on Friday after a few days’ hobbling.

So I was prescribed Ibugel, which I found WAS actually cheaper on prescription than off the shelf (50p less for 100ml compared with two tubes off the shelf). And it’s made a difference.

My foot’s a lot more comfortable after only one day. Woohoo!

In other news, Thursday was the regular Boiler Room meeting – but with my foot as it is, I stayed behind in May Street Presbyterian with two of the ladies, and we had an impromptu worship time without music. It was great.

Apart from that, it’s Saturday, I owe my mum £8.65 for getting my suit dry-cleaned, and it’s church tomorrow. Must e-mail Tony.

20 days until I fly into Heathrow again!

ENTJ: The Evil Overlord

The ENTJ is best characterized by his charisma, his ability to grasp complex situations and to think flexibly and creatively, his keen and active intelligence, and his overwhelming desire to crush the world beneath his boot. ENTJs are naturally outgoing and love the company of other people, particulalry minions, henchmen, slaves, and the others they rule with ruthless efficiency.

ENTJs usually die at the hand of secret government agents in a fiery cataclysm that destroys their entire underground fortress. Often, Evil Overlords will have a secret clone whose implanted memories contain all the knowledge and ambition of the original, stored in cryonic suspension in a safe location. The clone will appear in a sequel.

RECREATION: ENTJs enjoy spending their leisure time in groups, seeking out the company of others with whom they can exchange strategies and ideas, and test their mind control rays. They also enjoy competitive games which challenge them intellectually, such as chess, go, and “tell me where the missles are or I’ll open the pirhana cage and the girl dies.”

COMPATIBILITY: Ideal companions include ENTPs, whose inventive natures often most useful; and ESTJs, who make excellent henchmen once the neural realignment is complete. ENTJs often employ the services of ISTJs but don’t usually make good romantic partners with them. Under no
circumstances should an ESTJ ever date an ENFJ; no good can come of it.

Famous ESTJs include Ming the Merciless, John Bigboote, and Charles Montgomery Burns.

See http://www.xeromag.com/fun/personality.html for more.

When you get to be 32, do NOT sit up until 1am on Monday morning playing Mafia and Cheat. That is all.

Not as good as seeing Becky…

but…

I’ve been shortlisted for the Summer Madness Development Officer post!

Interview is going to be on Monday. Keep praying, because much as I’d love the post, it must be God’s will.

In other news, my BP was holding steady on Friday at 138/86 – seeing the doctor again on Thursday week. The weekend was good… Saturday night I got the train up to Sydenham (very well known to Becky after last Sunday…!), cycled round to Peter Boyd’s, and apparently just missed seeing myself on TV in the video of the Global Day of Prayer at Stormont. It was great to see the footage – I stayed for an hour or so, talking to Robin and Margaret Clarke (Margaret having been one of the folks behind the event).

Sunday morning the new sound desk was in place (WOOHOO!), which made life a bit easier. We had trouble with the radio mic, though, but I had that fixed half way through the service, in time for Communion.

In the afternoon, I rang Lois and Alex Kane, to see if I could borrow Lois’s bass guitar, but they had to say no due to lack of time. One of those “oh well” things, but then Lois rang me back and said Alex had got the bass out of the garage where they’d left it behind some of Emma’s toys – how cool are they!

So I was playing for the service for the first time in a few months. It was great – even though I missed Tony’s cue not to repeat the second half of the last verse of Before the throne of God above. Oh well…

Otherwise, very little to report. I’ve got 22 days to start and finish my novel for nanowrimo – maybe I’ll do it sometime.

Didn’t even get in until midnight last night, but it was worth it. More on that shortly.

Anyway. My last real update was Monday before last.

Wednesday, Becky arrived, and we went to grandma’s to meet the family. It went well – so the next scary step, sometime next year, is family meets family. Hmmm… maybe one to put off a while.

Thursday after work (yes, I worked on Thursday!) we went to the Belfast Boiler Room meeting. It was a good chance to introduce Becky to the folks, and explain what’s been happening. We prayed for individuals again, and also ate some of Nigel Smith’s pumpkin pie… there were about ten or eleven there, which was really encouraging. We moved from our usual room at the top of May Street church to a corner of the church with comfy seats – and a sofa just big enough for the two of us.

Friday was Autumn Soul day. After a slow start (always nice), we went to Bangor for lunch at home – then Becky cut my hair, we went to the doctor’s (BP – 138/88!! Thanks God!), I got new shoes, and we went off to Autumn Soul.

It was a really good weekend – I so enjoy worshipping God in doing lights and turning the place nice colours.

Sunday was fun for a number of reasons. I saw Becky off onto the 11am train, then went home for lunch – and she got into the airport, checked in and found out she was on the 1945 plane, not 1310. So back to Bangor she came… and we got an extra 4.5 hours together!

Sunday night was more interesting. I had borrowed a minidisc player to record Sunday night at church – it was a Catholics and Evangelicals Forum, this time on the sacraments, and we had PA problems (no surprise there). Anyway, I was asked to get the guitars to turn themselves down (the vocals were up high so they were too loud, but the guitars were still on top of them)… only Paddy then asked the guitarists himself and interfered with the discussion on how to fix it. I really didn’t need that, because it’s a hard enough job for me to do sound. I’m now thinking about whether I want to do sound at all or not.

Monday-Wednesday were fairly routine work days, although I’m still sneezing away. And I keep staying up late at night talking to people.,

Today I was out on the ground. One of our buildings has a basement where you have to crawl between sections – gaps in the wall about 3 feet high, which is no fun if you’re 6 feet tall. But we had a look anyway…

Tomorrow I get my blood pressure checked again. Hopefully it’ll be low again – on the other hand, in Becky’s absence…!