Our new home

We've been living in Diss for 2 weeks now - not quite settled yet as we're still house sharing but that shouldn't be for much longer.

The second week of our honeymoon was spent exploring Diss town. It's so peaceful after living in the centre of Norwich and I love being truly away from work. Even the commute is nice - 20 minutes in which to read a book while travelling through pretty Norfolk countryside.

Yesterday we visited Fair Green which is an old field in Diss - the site of fairgrounds for over 800 years. It's written into the deeds of the land that a fair is allowed to be there at least twice a year. We've yet to step across the border to Suffolk but I hear it isn't far away...

I've been to Diss Christian Community Church (DC3) twice now, Ben joined me this week after working last week. We're both really looking forward to getting involved in this church - although the overall style of the church isn't what we'd normally look for the people are really friendly. Part of our relaxing part of our honeymoon was spent evaluating what we really need from a church so we could look more effectively. We're making a conscience effort to ignore any niggles! We decided that anything apart from fellowship can be easily met outside of church, so fellowship is what we're looking for and seem to have found very early on. So far we've enjoyed an evening with a couple involved in leadership/music and been invited to join the current Alpha group running until the house groups can accommodate us. Also this week we met someone there who works for Norfolk Constabulary in the department dealing with applications forPCSOs/police, which considering Ben's future career plans seems providential!

All in all I'm quickly forming a love for Diss and I'm looking forward to making this our home for the next few years.

In case anyone's missed it my new email is lauraejfoster at hotmail.co.uk

Last night of freedom

My 'last night of freedom' was an awesome night of salsa dancing and tapas, organised by the bestest bridesmaid ever. Lauren arranged the whole thing including fun masks to wear for the night!

One of the highlights was meeting up with Ben and the lads on his stag night, it was a little bit lonely going out without him!

Wedding pics

*Yawn*

I just thought about the days when summer meant an enormous stretch of time with only one or two things to fill it.

I think this is the busiest summer I've ever had. There seems to be endless bits and bobs to sort out for the wedding, a million pounds to find to pay for it all, and if all goes well a house move to get through. I could quite easily not go to work and still need more hours in the day.

We should be moving to Diss in the second week of September - still working in Norwich but as it's only 15 minutes on the train it won't be a big commute and the peace of the countryside will be amazing, especially after living next to a 24 hour business for the last two years!

Overtime has just become available at work again after a year of being quiet so I've worked most of the weekend and now I'm tired.

Roll on September when wedding madness is over and all the boxes are unpacked...

It's 4 weeks to go til our wedding and in a strange (and exciting) turn of events, we don't know where we'll be living at the time. Overtime has just become available at work after nearly a year of work being very quiet, so while trying to work as many hours as possible and finish planning the wedding, we're also starting to pack so we can move at some unknown time. There just aren't enough hours in the day!

Prayer of simple regard

This isn't exactly what I was talking about in my post about silent faith, but I read this on sacredspace today:

Religious art often shows Mary carrying a rosary in her hands. But it would not make sense for Mary to be saying Hail Mary…Our Lady never said the rosary; but it does make sense as her gift, something that prayerful people have developed over the centuries as a simple way of praying. The fingers can find comfort in passing the blessed beads through them. The rhythm of repetitive prayers releases the mind, and it can go in all sorts of directions: to designing clothes, to focussing on the needs of children, or of sick friends, or of some overwhelming concern, and asking God to hear our prayer; to reflecting on the mysteries of Jesus’ life, as linked with the different decades; or to reflecting on joyful or sorrowful times in our own lives, trying to see how God was there, when at the time he may have seemed far away.

Even when our prayer becomes more silent and wordless, as we grow older, the rosary can still help. It still releases our mind, because the telling of the beads becomes quite automatic. There are people who move from the reciting of the beads into a sort of prayer that no longer needs any thought or language. It has been called the prayer of simple regard, or the prayer of stupidity, or mystical prayer. Names do not matter. Prayer is, as the catechism used define it, a lifting of the mind and heart to God, and for that the rosary is only a springboard. It is Mary’s gift, to be used as it helps us.

The Mary bits don't really interest me at the moment but the prayer of simple regard jumped out at me because of its lack of thought or language.

So I read a bit more on Wikipedia and it doesn't seem too disimilar to a form of meditation. The article ends with this:

Basil Pennington, one of the best known proponents of the centering prayer technique, has delineated the guidelines for centering prayer:

1. Sit comfortably with your eyes closed, relax, and quiet yourself. Be in love and faith to God.
2. Choose a sacred word that best supports your sincere intention to be in the Lord's presence and open to His divine action within you (i.e. "Jesus," "Lord," "God," "Savior," "Abba," "Divine," "Shalom," "Spirit," "Love," etc.).
3. Let that word be gently present as your symbol of your sincere intention to be in the Lord's presence and open to His divine action within you.
4. Whenever you become aware of anything (thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, associations, etc.), simply return to your sacred word, your anchor.

Ideally, the prayer will reach the point where the person is not engaged in their thoughts as they arrive on their stream of consciousness. This is the "unknowing" referenced in the 14th century book.

I think this is the kind of direction my prayer life is taking - "being in love and faith to God" - and I'd really like to build on this. I'm interested in prayer again and it's nice to be reminded that out loud Sunday morning type prayers aren't the only way to be with God.

A Girl's Guide on How to Deal With Boys

The main difference between boys and girls is that boys like doing things - driving cars, playing football, throwing stuff, eating, farting - and girls like feeling things, such as love, friendship, happiness and excitement.
Boys are very physical; girls are very emotional. This is a gross generalisation, but it helps to remember that when you ask a boy "How are you feeling?" he will probably answer "Hungry" or "Cold" and not "Deliriously happy because I am with you". To begin with, this can be disappointing, but it can't be helped, since expressing emotion comes as naturally to a boy as ballet does to an elephant.
If you are friends with a boy, bear in mind the following: boys worry a great deal about what other boys think of them. Therefore, even if a boy really likes you, he will be weird about showing this in front of other boys.
If he's very immature, he may ignore you completely when he's with his friends. This means he's probably too much of a baby to bother with, although you may wish to give him a second chance if he apologises and promises never to do it again. If he's actively rude to you in front of his mates, forget about him. He is not just immature, he is an idiot.
Boys are often spoilt by their mothers, so they have a tendency to think girls should do all the boring things in life, such as cleaning, cooking and ironing their T-shirts, while they do all the exciting things: jet-skiing, playing in rock bands, being spies. Don't indulge this belief; the sooner they get re-educated the better.
Boys don't always say what they mean and often don't mean what they say. Communication is not their strong point. They're not terribly sensitive to other people's moods either, so if you are upset about something, you will have to spell it out to a boy. It's unlikely he'll work it out for himself, no matter how much sulking or moody hints you drop. Just tell him what's bothering you and he'll probably be genuinely surprised and sorry he's upset you.


Although boys go to great pains to show the world a confident front, underneath they are just as insecure as the rest of us. Sometimes, when it's obvious they are feeling sad (you will know this through your superior powers of intuition), a bit of encouragement or a compliment can help them feel better.
One of the nicest things you can say to a boy is that he's good at something, eg skateboarding, running, building a tree house or solving quadratic equations. Remember these few basic rules and boys can be among the best friends you'll ever have. They'll carry your books for you, too.

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