Is manic at the moment. Examination processes; changing universities and all the bureaucracy associated with that; trying to get new students for next year. At present we have a 100% improvement on last year!!! That's good but there is also a new influx of enquiries post-Festival. Things are looking better. Quite a few students are also thinking of staying on for the FT MA and so on. Once here, people don't seem to want to hurry away. Might be a problem for some but I think I agree with most of the decisions. The book is finally being 'transmitted' - whatever that means. I had to cut some words and so the appendix of classical texts has had to go and some minors references here and there. However, I have managed to update some of the intertextuality stuff with reference to Iser's Prospecting and especially the Genette/Eco stuff in my Limerick Paper. Apparently Eco's latest book is not one of his best...a shame...he seems to have let intertextuality become a little too much the driving force. Following a hint from Sean Winter in Manchester I picked up Richard Hayes' Echoes in Paul - a great book and I couldn't believe it was written so long ago. I have been so involved in Johannine stuff that the whole world seems to have passed me by! So trying to read that and Sandra Schneiders Revelatory Text and still keeping up with the emerging church stuff. Too much to do and too little time to do it in.
Here's a pic of Grace on Blackpool Beach! We decided that over half term we would spend a day there...
Here's me and the kids as well - same beach. We had a great day - although I have to say that Blackpool seemed more charming when I was little. The candy floss was OK and the walk on the prom long but not really fulfilling. The Pleasure Beach was no pleasure - especially not to my pocket! And Theresa had to sit outside with the dog while I watched the kids spend a small fortune on nothingness. They laughed and loved it all, of course. Promised to do Alton Towers sometime this summer. I much prefer the Yorkshire Coast - Bempton and the Gannets calls!
Grace is a star...she is also super dog! Here is another pic - almost airborne! I really enjoyed the day - it was great to be with the kids and Theresa - but the kids are growing up so fast. I wish it was slower. Life travels too quickly. Work and work and work...things to do and things to be done...their life goes almost as quickly. And in the meantime, they are all grown up! That's life. I just need to get it into my head that that is what life is actually all about and not all this manic work stuff. How do you get the balance? I want to write - stuff to get off my chest about things...academic and non-academic - things I want to explore...time to spend reading and delving into the texts...students to work with and listen to and...
Been struck by God's grace again tonight at a service at College. He is just so awesome. I remember when I was on one of my first missions - we stood in the kitchen of this little Methodist Chapel praying with the team leaders...all of a sudden there was a heaviness in the air...none of us dared to look up...I still don't understand what it was all about - I did understand something of God's glory was there, of the weight of his presence, of his awesome majesty, of the overwhelming 'is-ness' of his being. Life is with God....heavier, more profound, more rich, more real. Martyn, our Principal is off up north for a few days...Northumberland...and I want to go to Lindisfarne again...where everything is heavy with God's presence....the beach, the sky, the clouds, the hills, the sea, the river, the castle, the abbey, the town, the moors, the people, the cows, the trains, the grass, the farms, the houses, the villages, Dunstanburgh, Alnwick, and the miles and miles of gold...
Evidently I've been listening to far too much of Coldplay's X&Y!
Pete
Hi Pete,
Welcome back to the blogosphere. As you'll see I took your recommendation and moved my blog to Typepad, too.
Yours reading Walsh and Keesmaat's 'Colossian Remixed',
Dave
Posted by: Dave Faulkner | June 16, 2005 at 10:46 AM
It's great to hear of these blogos really and hear the testimony of what God is doing in your life. All things are for His glory and so that you have a testimony to witness to His goodness.
He will reward your work and efforts with blessings and continue to give you ways and things to testify to.
God bless
Paul
Posted by: Paul Saxton | June 16, 2005 at 11:56 PM
Pete its good to hear God is working in your life, I pray little Grace gets well soon and I wish Theresa, the kids, and you a lovely summer.
See you at the start of the new term every blessing,
James
Posted by: James Church | July 05, 2005 at 10:14 PM