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Tuesday 14 September 2010

Are you sitting down???

Hello again! I hope that you are sitting down, otherwise the shock of me blogging so quickly again after my last post (given my recent record) may actually cause you to fall over with shock!!

I forgot to mention in my last post that at church now I have started serving not only at Low Mass, but also at a couple of Sung Mass services, in the absence of Roy. I'm getting there...slowly...the prompts are becoming a little less frequent. However, I did have one, shall we say, incident, involving charcoal and carpet!! Still, I confessed to Bishop Damien, and so I was forgiven...although Roy mentions it fairly often!!

The shop is going well, sales seem to be picking up a little, footflow is still good and we are getting a very positive response in general. Our range of stock is increasing regularly, and this will have a positive impact on sales. I think that we could be, I say we...I mean I!!), very busy with the run up to Christmas.

There have been one or two people that have come in wanting to enter into some kind of theological debate, but I have handled it well I believe. Some rather unlikely looking characters have also come in and purchased items that you would not expect them to. I suppose that we are all guilty of sterotyping people though. Mind you, saying that, one of them purchased a rosary, and he asked me what it was, he just wanted it for his girlfriend because it looked nice!!

We have now started taking stock photos for the website, so hopefully, God willing, it wont be too long before that is up and running.

On a more personal level I have decided that I will shortly be filling in the application form for ministry. I have printed it off of the church's website, and now need to find a quiet time to complete it. Saying that, I first need to find my educational and employment history things at home. They were all kept in a document folder, but I can't find it for love nor money...I reckon that Debbie has either moved it or thrown it away by mistake, although she'd never own up to it! I last had it when I was filling in the application form for this job, and thought I knew where I had left it. I suppose if the worst comes to the worst then I could always ask the Bishop for a copy of my job application, or rather just those bits of it.

Oh well, that's enough for now, if I keep it short and sweet it encourages to update it more often...famous last words!

Until next time......................

Tuesday 7 September 2010

Hello Stranger!!

Well hello!! I've just realised how long it has actually been since my last posting, just under 2 months....what can I say??????

It's been a roller coaster of a period though, so I'll try and keep it to the point and try not to waffle to much....well maybe just a little waffle...actually, thinking about it, Belgian ones with chocolate sauce...mmmmmmmmmmmmm

Let's try and start back at the point of the last blog, or around that date.

Everything was going as planned, getting the shop ready, etc. I then had a weekend away at Alton Towers on 29th July. The journey from Ashford to ALton Towers was somewhat eventful though. About 30 miles from the amazing theme park, at a roundabout off of J24 of the M1 we were involved in a car accident. We were stationary at the roundabout and we were hit from behind at an estimated speed of 35 miles per hour....did it hurt?? Not too much initially, but problems have been present since.

Luckily my wife and son were uninjured, thankfully Hollie was not in the car with us, as the impact was on the rear driver's side of the vehicle and that is the side that she sits. I initially felt a twinge in my lower back and neck, but over the following days this developed and became worse. It ruined my weekend, as I couldn't go on anything at Alton Towers!

My neck now seems better, although I do get the odd spot of discomfort. My lower back is still causing problems, although it is a lot better than it was. I now have a constant dull ache present, which flares up periodically. Thankfully I am receiving physiotherapy, which does help.

The woman that hit us was fine, although very upset. Her insurance company accepted liability within about 2 hours of the accident happening. The accident caused chasis damage to our car and as a result of the reapir estimate our insurance company declared our car to be a write off.

Then started the insurance battle with regards to a valuation figure for our car. They initially offered peanuts, it would not have been enough to buy a suitable replacement vehicle comaparable to our car. After a lot of telephone calls and threats of referring the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service, a figure was agreed, but it took them about 2 weeks to pay out!

Once we had the money we were able to find another car. We purchased this a couple of days before we went on holiday to Lanzarote. We ended up buying an ex-police car, at least we know that it has been well serviced!

Anyway, holiday was nice, but the flights were not, thankfully the medication that my doctor had precribed made it a little easier. The weaher was very hot, and I managed to get sunburn, as did my wife, the kids escaped with a nice tan though!!

By the time that I came back from holiday it really was time to think about the shop opening on 1st September. We still needed to price everything and stock the shelves. Luckily Roy and the Bishop were able to help with this. So we had three or four long days (working into the early hours on a couple of them!), but we did it! Finally going home at 4am on the morning of the shop opening, getting about 4 hours sleep, and then back to Canterbury for mass, followed by the Shop opening last Wednesday.

The opening was a success, we celebrated with a blessing of the shop by the Bishop, and followed this by a glass or two of bucks fizz and a piece of cake (which I had arranged through a cakemaker that I know.

That evening the Bishop, Roy and Gregg had arranged for a meal at Deeson's, which is a very nice British restaurant in Canterbury. It was a multi-celebration event, as we were celebrating the 10th anniversary of Credo Care and the opening of two new Credo Group businesses on 1st September, one being Canterbury Church Shop and the other being Credo IT Services. It really was a lovely evening, and I felt honoured to be part of it. Debbie also came along, and I know that she felt the same. It also had the added bonus of giving her a little break from the kids!!!

I have to say that the food was very good, I even had pigeon as a starter, something which I had never tried before...needless to say that any thoughts of a diet that evening were well and truely dismissed!

The shop is generating lots of interest, and will continue to develop as we increase stock ranges, etc. It is still early days, and the only way is forward. We're hoping that the website will be up and running very soon.

That brings us pretty much up to date now....I'll try not to leave it so long next time.

So, if you're in Canterbury, pop into the shop at:

Canterbury Church Shop Ltd, 13 Orange Street, Canterbury, Kent. CT1 2JA
Tel: 01227 379777 - www.canterburychurchshop.co.uk

Until next time...............