And so Day 2 draws to a close. We had our first set of Event Crew onsite today, but I had severe cycle difficulties.
I had cycled down Sandy Row (take me home, Sandy Row, to the place I belong… Streetreachers from 2005 will get the joke) and had just turned into Bruce Street when I had a serious puncture – my rear inner tube and the valve tubing had split at the join. Finally getting to a local bike shop with a badly out of shape wheel (he told me to give up and get a new wheel – I needed a new tyre and inner tube anyway), I picked up forty quid’s worth of wheel, tyre and inner tube at lunchtime.
Just after four I started to head up the road again. I travelled 200 yards from my office and got another puncture… eek. A trip back to the bike shop revealed that a piece of glass had fallen into the tyre in the shop when a guy had accidentally smashed a fluorescent tube lifting down a bike some time ago – so I got another inner tube, this time for free. One of those things, but more on that later.
Arriving onsite over an hour later than planned, I found that the NOMAD staging (from the Big Top, also the Pavilion at New Horizon) had been put up in the Alexander Hall, and we were taping down carpet. Yes, you will have mojo barriers on CARPET this year!
Otherwise we moved around a few crash barriers (including at the showers), and I looked in on the 24/5 venue. Not going to say very much (or I’ll spoil the surprise), but even the preparatory work is rather exciting.
Tomorrow I’m hoping that nothing else will happen with the bike. What’s bothering me right now is that every time something goes wrong with it, it seems to be when I’m trying to do something for God (eg Summer Madness) or just be with God (last month at a 24/3 weekend in Rostrevor my rear axle broke altogether).
My conclusion, and two others agree with me so far, is that there’s stuff happening in the spiritual realms, in the business of distracting me. If I’m worried about my bike, I’m probably not thinking about God at the same time – and that reduces my effectiveness.
Keep praying. I need to keep my focus where it belongs, and I’ll be praying about the whole thing, but others’ prayers always help.