st_martin_a

When my wife finished her job as a youth worker, the church gave her a gift - a day at a Spa for two people. I've never been to a spa day but I imagined it involved sitting around not doing much and it didn't seem like my kind of thing.
Anyway, I went along and it was an unusual day.
It took place in an expensive hotel on the edge of the countryside. Perfectly sculpted gardens, golf course, fountains, ... We had a good look around the inside of the hotel too because we couldn't find the spa and everything looked perfect, like something from Stepford Wives.
Then when we found our way to the spa area we were given white dressing gowns, white slippers and a white towel. It felt kind of weird walking around with other people all wearing white dressing gowns.
Then we went for a Fire & Ice experience. There were about 10 rooms all with low lighting. You went into each one wearing swimwear and sat with a few other people. Some were steam rooms, some were ice cold showers, some were Jacuzzis. There weren't many men there either which made it slightly strange too.
It was a good day out though. Just nothing like I've experienced before.
And my skin felt really clean afterwards.
: )

I've joined this crazy men's Bible study group at my new church. There's about 10 men that go and they're such a motley crew. They're not all Christians. One is but was a heroin addict previously and has been in prison 4 times. I've never heard the F word said so much during a Bible study group before. Lol
But they're honest and it's refreshing compared with the middle class church I've been to for the last 15 years. I like it because it provides a place where these guys can go and be welcomed and accepted. I'm off there tonight. : )

I've started back at school and it's fairly quiet so far because the students start the year in dribs and drabs. They'll all be in by Friday.

Meanwhile, my 16 year old son wanted to have a go at boxing. He found a club, which was in a rough part of our city and wanted to give it a go, so I drove him down. While we were parking the car, a heavily tattooed guy wandered out onto the street wearing nothing but boxer shorts. He looked like a proper psycho. We got inside the building and the receptionist told us that the boxing was behind this door which he pointed at. He said "you might want to take a look". We opened the door and the room was full of about 30 tattooed guys beating the hell out of punch bags and sparring with each other. There was aggressive music blasting through speakers and a lot of testosterone in the room. Anyway, the guy behind the desk explained that it was £5 a session and he would work my son hard but he was welcome to join them. My son said ok.
He was then subjected to an hour of intense boxing/exercise. He was dead by the time he finished, but kept up ok. I was proud that he had the psychological strength to take part. It was quite an intimidating atmosphere. And the physical strength to keep up with the exercise. He's going again next week.
: )

I've been regular on Live Journal for 7 years but have got out of the habit of posting and reading recently.
It's partly due to getting out of the habit. One thing I've noticed about myself is that as soon as I get out of the habit of something, it stops completely.
I also discovered that my wife has been reading my posts, and while it's not a problem in some respects, it kind of alters the dynamics of lj. What I like about lj is you can write what you want without someone from the 'real world' being involved in any way. It's like a personal journal that only a few chosen people have access to.
On Dreamwidth I don't have as many regular friends but my wife doesn't know it exists and so it's a place where I can journal without thinking about she might be thinking at the back of my mind. It kind of feels weird knowing that you're keeping a journal that someone else from your life is reading.
Does that make sense?
Anyway, I'll see how it goes on here. : )
X

I sent another photo to lj but sometimes they don't arrive?!|]<¥, so if a random picture gets posted by me, it goes with this post.

On Tuesday me and Zac (my 8 year old) drove up to Soul Survivor - the Christian festival that my wife was at with our other 3 kids, 7 other teenagers from our church, and 3 other youth leaders. It was a great way to spend a few days of the summer. I love camping and with the food stalls and the lights everywhere and a bonfire and all that kind of stuff it was just what I needed before I have to go back to work and spend my days between four walls of a classroom.
It was also quite emotional seeing all these teenagers (there were 6,000) jumping up and down in unison worshipping God. The band was very lively.
I don't tend to like big crowds being stirred up but if it's to celebrate the love of God, and it's going to have a positive impact on their lives, then it's a great thing in my book.
Zac was in his element and loved joining in with things like water fights. It was an awesome couple of days for my family and the others too. You tend to bond well with people in that kind of experience.

I'm going to another Christian festival on Saturday called Greenbelt which is aimed more at adults. Greenbelt has always prided itself on getting cutting edge acts and speakers and this year Pussy Riot are playing. I don't know how they're portrayed in Russia (if my Russian friends are still active)? Over here they're seen as a protest band who are highlighting negative aspects of the government and also negative aspects of the Russian Orthodox Church. There's also an American band called Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires who are from Birmingham, Alabama but protest about negative aspects of Trump. Should be an interesting day.

Today in England at 3:00 every town will become a ghost town; there will be no traffic on the roads and all you will be able to hear every now and again is a cheer followed by a song which has the words - "it's coming home, it's coming home, it's coming, football's coming home!"

Big match - we lose - we're out. We win - it will be the furthest we've got in the World Cup since ...1990 I believe. And this is the first time the big 3 (Argentina, Brazil and Germany) haven't got to the semis.

I'll leave you with this, which probably won't work for many of you but if you understand British culture it might make you laugh.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BbzqhhGB6yg

edit: unlucky
:(

Apologies for another f....soccer post but that was some game.
Congratulations Korea!

Well my meeting with senior management went better than I expected. The last one I had to deal with was...bossy. My colleague described her as frantic.
Yeah, bossy and frantic.
Doesn't get the best out of me.
This one was... calm and ...understanding.
And much more positive.
So hopefully I'll have more to do with her in the future and less, or none of the other one.

Staff soccer after school was 6-a-side! Normally we're struggling to get enough for 4-a-side.
I didn't play particularly well but as always, it was a great workout.

The youth from church are round our house tonight. It's going to be a lively evening. At least the weather's good so we can be outside. Hopefully one of two might be up for watching the football too.

What
A
Game!
:)