Happy New Year

It happened Wed, Dec 27... sometime in the morning the hard drive of my laptop packed in, checked out, died, crashed.
And with it all the data on it.

I found this blog where the author describes going through the various stages of grief: denial, anger, depression, bargaining, acceptance. I admit that I brushed along such an experience myself in the last couple of days. Though I won't change the drive myself. The machine is still under (extended) warranty.

The drive is not irrecoverably damaged. I don't think the read/write head scraped along the surface. But recovery is expensive (and somewhat inaccessible in Bermuda). Are the files on my drive really worth hundreds of dollars? Or is it just sentimentalism that makes me wish I had them back.

Life goes on without having access to some photos, some old word documents, and other stuff. I just have to learn to adjust, and live without them. Some information was important, and I will have to re-acquire it. Some documents were valuable as I had poured time and effort into creating them. But nothing is irreplaceable. They can be recreated, if necessary--probably not exactly as they were, but better, in that when I have to rewrite a document, recreate a presentation, I have to take the here and now into consideration, not the there and then that lead to the original creation.

And so 2006 ends with the painful rearrangement of my (still somewhat disorganised) life. Maybe all things really do work for good to those who love God (Rom 8:28).
I read a small book, Who Moved My Cheese, this morning.
My hard drive cheese was moved. It's gone. Time to adapt, move on, improve, and reap the blessings of the Master Cheese Mover.

Happy new year!

Ho Ho Ho

'Tis the season.... to remember that Jesus is the reason for it.
Or so I should write as a pastor. The reality is that a lot of people don't think about Jesus, but rather food, presents, decorations, and travel--on that note, if in London add this thought: will I catch my flight before Xmas is over?
Christmas posed that challenge every year (not the foggy one). And it seems that Bermuda is not too far from its 'motherland'. Only, it's a lot smaller. So most things here are on a smaller scale. Except for the Christmas decorations. Some are beautiful, others make you wish Easter came a lot faster.
Today I went to "town"--that's local lingo for the city of Hamilton--and the crowds and the traffic reminded me a bit of being back in England. Only the warm sunshine told of a different location. Yes the sun is still shining.

And the bus pass is still purple.

BUT... on Tuesday I met a church member at the airport. She's gone away for the holidays, and she wanted me to look after her car... :-D
So for a few blissful days, we've got a car. And it's a comfortable 4x4. I consider it a Christmas present.

Merry Christmas!

Is it really December?

My goodness... I've just remembered there's a blog that I used to write :-)
And it seems the months are passing as quickly now as did the days and weeks when we first got here. Tomorrow, 4 months ago, we left the UK--and arrived a day later than planned, thanks to the hyperactive gate personnel of Virgin Atlantic who would not let us on the plane. That's so long ago, yet the memory is still lingering...

So what's happened since Thanksgiving? Funerals is the first thing that comes to mind. Quite a number of them which I either conducted or attended. Moments to re-order one's priorities, and align them more along the values of Infinite Wisdom. Also moments to cherish what the old-time churchgoers call: The Blessed Hope!

At the beginning of the month Barbara and I had the chance to get off the island to attend a conference in Huntsville, Alabama--deep South, and freezing cold. That was quite nice, seeing how cheap stuff is in the rest of the Western world--good grief, is that the first thing that comes to mind? Commerce? Shopping?? Have I acclimatised already?

Do I miss the UK? It's difficult to say, one gets used to new surroundings astonishingly quickly.
Church life is good, but challenging--just like back in England.
Christmas is coming round, and with it probably some homesickness...

Temperatures have come down, not as low as in England, but low enough to feel "cold". However, the sun comes out every now and then during the day, and, unlike in England, is actually quite warm. The other day I sat in the sun, in a T-shirt and had to remind myself that it was the beginning of December. DECEMBER!

And? Well, the bus pass in December is purple.