Busy weekend! I feel like I need a second one to recover from everything. Friday night's concert went very well. It was almost a sell-out! It was in the Salisbury Arts Centre, which is in an old converted church. I really could not think of a better use for a church that's no longer in use (it merged with the church I attend, St Thomas') - a fair-trade/local/organic cafe and bar, theatre, and wonderful stage with professional lighting and sloping theatre seating. The sound quality was okay, but deadened a little by all the black-out curtaining. Shame, because churches have lovely accoustics. Tom came along to support me (my parents were going to but they were in London seeing Spamalot, harumph) and said it was a nice concert though there wasn't enough of me! :P

Saturday was one of those too-much-to-do-not-enough-time days. I was supposed to be going round estate agents house-hunting, but didn't have time. Instead I went into town to get some photos done; large prints of my three chosen photos for the work photography competition. In the end I ignored the poll and went with corn, evil duck, and frog. While I was waiting for the re-prints to print I wandered round the chairity shops, which is usually my little haven of calm on a busy Saturday morning, but for some reason they were all heaving and I couldn't browse properly! Still, I got a nice heavyweight grey skirt from Oxfam which will be lovely when the weather gets colder.

After lunch Tom and I drove to Bath for his auntie's 60th surprise birthday bash. It was in a nice little restaurant/bar called Le Flamma; buffet was provided and very nice it was too - more pizza than we could eat! I really wanted to drink a few glasses of wine but had to restrain myself as I was driving back, boo! We got back to Salisbury just before midnight, and pretty much collapsed into bed. I was horrendously thristy from too much coffee, coke and salty pizza.

Sunday we went to church. I was tempted to give it a miss this week but it was Harvest Festival which is always fun. I felt a little guilty at not bringing a food donation, so gave generously to both the church collection and the Brownies collection at the end. I've also decided to be charitable and organise a work Christmas Shoe-Box Appeal this year, just within my department.

After church I had a quick half hour at home, then off to rehearsal. It was a hard rehearsal - five hours of stressed and grumpy director, noisy children and forgotten lines. We got a lot done, but it was hard work and as soon as I got back I ran myself a bath and played on my DS for a bit, after which I felt much better. We had a lazy evening in - I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire which was on TV and I'm all of a sudden excited about the next film!

( Not a Hungarian Horntail, but more specimens here )

It would appear I had a dream that I was a jedi last night. I can't remember the details, but I'm sure it was kick-ass. I don't have a jedi avatar so my ninja one will have to do.

I'm getting confirmed tomorrow. Not sure if I should be nervous about it but I don't seem to be. I'm definitely looking forward to it though! I've really enjoyed the little pub-based lead-in sessions we've had with the vicar - a chance to thing things over and discuss many many aspects of confirmation and religion in general. We're going to carry on having the meetings for a while after this week as well, just as a kind of support group I guess (is it really going to be that traumatic?).

Mostly I'm looking forward to seeing my parents and my brother (my older brother is coming down from London, but I'm not sure if my little brother will come or not. I don't really mind if he choses not to - he has his own life, after all). And of course Jam's family, though I only saw them last weekend.

I tried to start learning my audition song last night. Did i mention I have an audition for the local singing group? Can't remember. I'm going to sing On My Own even though really it's an alto part and I've always sung soprano. It's a lovely song though and one I've done many times before. I downloaded the track from the Les Mis album and it's not really a good one to learn to as the girl singing is a bit reedy and warbly (too many liberties taken with the music layout I feel) so I downloaded the karyoke version which is pretty dire but at least I can sing along without competing. I'm not sure where I'm going to practice - normally I do this in the car but I don't have car alone time much at the moment. I'm a little self-conscious about singing in from of Jam so I guess I'll have to practice when he's not in the house. Daft, aren't I?

e just officially booked the church for our wedding! Woo! The vicar came round and had a chat and a cup of tea and we talked about the logistics of the wedding. I was expecting him to discuss pre-wedding couples councelling or whatever the proper terminology is, but the subject didn't come up. It's not something I'm at all bothered about, but I'd do it if it was required.

Lots of good news - David says a Friday wedding is good because it doesn't interfere with all the Saturday plans of the church (I guess they hold most of their social events on a Saturday). Also the law says that as we're on the church electoral role we can get married there no problems, with just the reading of tha bans in that church and our local parish church, which would cost a grand total of £20. There was no mention of the cost for hiring St Thomas, but as we're members I guess we just have to pay the legal costs, which is something like £250, plus any other donation we feel like giving. Payment to cover the organist and bell ringers would be needed as well I guess.

David has also stressed the imprtance of this being a personalised and unique wedding, rather than just a process. I've got to start thinking of ways of making the ceremony fun as well as the reception now. :)

Jam's mum was pretty excited to hear the news. She informs me that she's picked out her dress and is making it, apparently from a 1957 Vogue pattern! I'm quite excited about that!

I just made an appointment with the vicar to talk about weddingy churchy stuff. Eek!

Why does anything related to church-going scare me so much. I was literally sat there with his phone number entered into my phone trying to pick up the courage to hit 'call' for about five minutes. He's such a nice, friendly, chatty guy! But it all scares me...

I had a nice informal meeting with the vicar from St Thomas' last night (in the pub!).  There are three of us adults on what we're tentatively calling 'confirmation classes', though David (the vicar) says he hates calling them classes because it sounds like some dire bible-study group with exams and pressure.  He'd much rather meet once a fortnight in the pub for a pint and an informal chat about pretty much anything and everything.  Last night, being the first session, we all met each other, introduced ourselves with a brief history of our lives (vaguely focusing on our religious leanings but not really) and the talk soon divulged into natter, bad jokes, dead pets, awesome things that kids say and musical tastes.

One of the ladies there is very much the properly old rich eccentric.  She's from a rather mad background featuring mansions in the Wiltshire countryside, Marc Bolan, afairs with famous artists and pagan relatives.  She's very likeable but tends towards the flamboyant, and has that slightly annoying habit of repeating single words during someone else's talk ("Yes, guitars!", "mmm... cheese", "Tuesday".  That kind of thing).  I think I like her, but I can see how you could easily become overwhelmed and irritated by her need to be noticed and heard.

The other lady is quite quiet and reserved.  Her 17-year-old daughter was actually baptised a couple of weeks back, and it's through her daughter that this lady has started going to church and thiking about confirmation.  her daughter announced suddenly and unexpectedly that she is now a Christian, and her mum has spent the past coupld of years trying to help her daughter decided where she wants to place her faith in the vast and confusing Christian religion (thankfully skirting past the rather scary Born Agains with their 'ours is the right way and any other way must be evil' outlook on life).  It's been interesting hearing her tales of other branches of the church!

David himself has a very fascinating background, and is full of brilliant stories and many many bad jokes (frequently poking fun at Catholics.  :P).  

Anyway, another meeting scheduled for a fortnights time, after a short ceremony held by local monks at the church.  Apparently it's a musical ceremony from which you are meant to silently retire to bed to meditate on Stuff, but as David said we can silently retire to the pub and meditate over a drink.  :)  I like this man already.

Just like the title says. Apart from Paint Shop Pro dying that is (I've ordered a used-but-as-new copy of PSP X from Amazon for a mere £25. We'll see if it holds up, or I'll be selling it and buying PSP7 (or even 6! People seem to like that one. I've been told to stay away from 8 and 9)).

Saturday morning was supposed to be glorious and bright and cold and frosty, so with the promise of awesome photo ops I woke myself up at some ungodly hour (6.45am) and took myself and my camera out for a drive onto the New Forest. Bad choice. There was barely a frosty verge, let alone a crisp Winter Wonderland! Had I made the decision to drive North onto Salisbury plains I suspect I would have been okay, but I have a soft spot for the Forest an was hoping to get some pics of it. After a good long drive I turned round and came home, having failed to find any spectacular views.

the rest of saturday was spent rediscovering Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. I'd picked up the game a couple of times but for whatever reason hadn't got very far on either occasion. Something to do with lack of time, Christmas, and Lego Star Wars I suspect. :) This time however I'm really into it and it's the first thing I reach for when I have 20 minutes to kill. Good thing since my DS was being a bit neglected of late.

Sunday we had an awesome service at church. The usual vicar is off ill, and the visitor was everything I think the CofE should be - he preached tolerance, politics, questioning everything. He actually said that what's written in the bible is man's interpretation of God's word, passed down and translated like Chinese whispers, so we should take it with a pinch of salt, question it, debate it - never take what it says as Gospell. He then said that there's no evil in this world like the man who is convinced he is doing right ("take heed George and Tony!"). It was very inspiring, and very refreshing.

After church we headed to the Guildhall for a wedding fayre. Much the same as the others I've been to (fewer freebees though - boo!), but I got contacts for a few more local businesses so that's good. I also managed to source the dress I'm after at a shop in Southampton for more than £200 less than the Salisbury shop charges, so woohoo! Going to visit the shop this weekend for a try on and to find out what that price comes with (alterations and the like).

Much of the weekend was dedicated to gaming. It's odd, because there's nothing specific I need to be doing, but I feel like there should be so whenever I sit down to play on the computer I feel a little pang of guilt. Like I should be doing my homework!

Last Sunday we went to church for the first time in waaay too long. I've never really been to church properly - I used to go to Sunday school, but mostly I think because some friends went and it kept me out of the way on a Sunday morning. I love going to the Crib service at Christmas, but that's about the only time I ever go. Jam used to go quite regularly when he was living at home, or visiting on a weekend, but neither of us has ever gone regularly, so we thought we'd try seeing as I need to be Christened at some point.

Wewent to St Mary Redcliffe Church, which is about 20 minutes walk away and absolutely gorgeous-one of those stunning huge gothic-style old churches, with huge and detailed stained glass windows and decorative arches. The service was actually harvest festival, which we weren't expecting, but was nice as it meant that there were children present, which is always more fun. I absolutely loved it! The vicar was excellent (quite young and a bit of a hippy), and the service was a good mix of fun and tradition, some good hymns and readings, and a mad American vicar who tied us up with string! It's a shame we're leaving, really, because I'd really like to start going regularly and I think I'd fit in to that church well. Hopefully we'll find somewhere just as nice in Salisbury.

Jam is sadly ill at the moment. I think he's got flu (though it may be Man Flu). He's holed up in bed and needs a lot of sympathy at the moment, poor thing. :/