Another bad night's sleep. And another exhausting start to the day. I began by finishing arranging next Sunday's service, then I went to Lowestoft to arrange a funeral. The pain is bearable at the moment, But I need to get through the rest of this month to see how I manage. In the absence of anything else to write I thought I would write about the difference between hearing and listening. In the song, " The Sound of Silence " Paul Simon wrote the line: " People hearing

First of all, I need to correct what I wrote yesterday. That's the problem with reading things when my eyes are closing. The Methodist connexional wellbeing person doesn't want to talk to me, so it doesn't matter that she is off until the 13th March. She wants me to have a conversation with my chair of district about my phased return. And she (chair of district) has to fill in the Risk Assessment with me. It's sole purpose is to see if I am about to crack up. And so to

There it is! Brain the size of a planet and the best title I can come up with is Day One of being back at work. I left it late in the day to write this one and it's a good job because an email came in that I have to mention, but I'll write things in order. Friday night I actually did sleep well, surprisingly. But last night I slept from approximately 10:30-1pm. Then I was awake until around 3: 30am, and then on and off with weird dreams until I gave up and got up at 6:30

This is the last blog post labelled according to days off work sick. I am taking tomorrow as my day off, so I expect to sleep perfectly tonight and to have no pain tomorrow. It is 8:53am as I am writing this with abdominal pains and a headache, but at least I slept reasonably well last night. I don't really expect tomorrow to be pain-free, but I will be having a day off. I have come up with an imaginative title for Sunday onwards; you will just have to wait and see what i

This morning I drove to Corton for their new monthly coffee morning. They have just started monthly. It took half an hour to get there and I had to sit in the car for a minute before I could go in. I have been awake since 3am, so I'm tired. When I went in I was greeted with a hug. There weren't many people there, but I had several conversations, catching up with a few people who had been ill while I was off, some of them still are ill. I was also blanked. Completely ignor

I will have to start thinking of another title for these. I am officially back at work on Sunday, so I can't keep counting my days off. I had my Occupational Health meeting online this morning. We talked about having a phased return to work over the next 3 months. I don't know how easy that will be, but I will try. I have to take days off and rest on the times when I'm not working. I can think of one or two people on this circuit who won't be happy about that - they wi

I have just read yesterday's blog and I was amused when I read that my eyes were closing as I was writing, because I found at least 4 typos. All corrected now! I got rid of my razor blades in the early evening yesterday. I was relieved - without pain! I had a better night's sleep, but still awake before 4am. I lay in until just before 6 because I have a webinar at 5 this evening and a Churches Together meeting at 7. It's a reasonable walk to the Salvation Army, and if I

Well, yesterday was painful. And today is not looking better. It's like peeing razor blades. I know this because .... But, a rare congenital anomaly. I was born with this. If this is the cause of the abdominal pains then maybe, just maybe, it can be fixed. It may require an operation, but I'll find out when they call me back in again. The urology department has been the best so far, and they respond quickly, so I'm expecting to hear something before the end of the week

I didn't have anything to say yesterday, but I have today: OUCH!!! I'm just back from my cystoscopy and it was and still is painful. I arrived early and it turned out not to be the unforgivable sin. There was a big waiting room with a lot of chairs and at its fullest there were 3 of us in there. The nurse (with pink hair) came to take my sample away and then she came back to take me away to do the paperwork. Her last question was: "Are you happy for the procedure to go ahead

The sound quality isn't the best. I can't make out everything I'm saying, but you should get the general message. The chair of district is sitting behind the camera and I talk directly to her a couple of times.

This is the first of a 2 part video. I don't have the technological ability to splice them together. Part 2 will be added later today. This is part of the closing service of South Lowestoft Methodist church. July 2025

Yesterday I had a letter in the post. Inside it there was a pile of postcards. Do you remember the other day I asked for answers on a postcard? I said I like postcards, and so postcards came, from a church I am associated with in Dorset. There were no answers. I wasn't expecting any. But there were words of encouragement, support, and prayers. And after so long without any church that made my day. I have been told from time to time that churches are praying for me, bu

Happy Ash Wednesday! I'm not sure if that's an appropriate greeting because I've never understood Ash Wednesday, or Lent. This ancient religion of a dying and rising god is beyond my experience. I remember first encountering it 30 years ago - my first year as a Methodist minister - I was asked to lead an Ash Wednesday service. I had no idea what to do. I chose, for one of the hymns, "Thine be the glory", and I was told that we couldn't sing that because Jesus wasn't risen

I thought today I would look at some historic events that have happened during my ministry. Here's a few of them: The Cold War officially ended with the fall of the Soviet Union on Christmas Day 1991, IRA ceasefire on the 31st August 1994 The Dunblane Primary School Massacre, 13th March 1996. The death of Princess Diana, 31st August 1997. The Columbine High School shooting in Colorado, 20th April 1999. 9/11 2001 Facebook was launched on the 4th February 2004 Boxing Day Tsuna

At the risk of sounding like a ... (insert your own word here) I was in pain all day yesterday, and all morning so far today (it's 12:55pm as I write this). It is bearable, but between the pains, my yawning all the time, and my eyes having trouble staying open, I don't know. And yet, this morning I was working on my Genesis project (sounds like a Star Trek film), and I had my first online meeting with my supervisor for the psychology degree I am just finishing. I didn't y

It's Sunday again. Next Sunday morning I have my cystoscopy, so I'll write something after I get home. The Sunday after, I'll be preaching, so I may just write about what it's like to be back. I don't know how it will be though. We went for a meal at one of our garden centres yesterday and I could easily have fallen asleep at the table. These disturbed nights are not getting better. Anyway, as I said, it's Sunday again, so Paul, facing his imminent death, wrote to the P

It's Saturday - Day off. I can't be sick on my day off from now on. Two weeks tomorrow I am taking my first service and in the week leading up to that I have something on every day, including my first evening meeting. It's in Beccles, so a walk down the road, but evenings have not been good for me lately, so it will be interesting to see what happens. But for now, that's it. I'll be back tomorrow.

It really is tiring! I did a few things yesterday. And at the moment a few things is my limit. I had a phone call yesterday afternoon from the hospital, asking me if I could come in for a cystoscopy this afternoon. I couldn't, so now I am booked in for Sunday the 22nd February at 9:45am. Cystoscopy is the only camera I haven't had yet. It examines the bladder. There is only one way into the bladder 🥴. I am not looking forward to it. The information that comes with it

I feel like time is running out. in 2 weeks I will be sending in my order of service for my first church service since the 2nd November last year. I have prepared the sermon already. Can I still talk about results that I haven't yet received? I suppose yesterday's are not that important, but there are biopsies to be sent out and there is that cystoscopy that will no doubt clash with something else in my diary, even if they find nothing. When I started this I was expectin

I can't use letters for the numbers anymore because the numbers are getting too big to write. But this 101 (just like the Dalmatians). I have been out and about today, getting rained on and splashed with mud. And I feel better for it (I'm talking emotionally and psychologically here, not physically). I am still yawning, because my sleep is being interrupted still. Anyway, I drove to Lowestoft this morning - a 25 minute drive each way - to arrange a baptism. This is th