Mmmmm, pie....

Gabi from work came over for dinner last night. It was great to see her socially and try to forget about work for a bit. I cooked lamb curry (which was perhaps a little too hot, in hindsight) with turmeric rice and cucumber and mint raita. This was followed by a totally yummy plum and boysenberry pie with icecream or custard. Or both. We have leftovers for dinner tonight and I'm really quite excited by the prospect. Mmmmm, boysenberries....

The first night of the Exploring Discipleship course Joanne and I are helping lead went well on Wednesday. We had a great turn out with almost everyone who signed up making it along, which was a real answer to prayer. We spent some time looking at assurance and how we can be sure of our salvation from Romans 5:8-9 before studying Philippians 1:1-11 together looking at how God is transforming his people to the likeness of Jesus more and more and that we can be assured "that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus". A great topic to look at at the start of the course. This week is 'Trusting in God' (Ephesians 2:8-9) and 'Living in Christ' (Philippians 1:12-26).

On Friday we went out with a few people to a comedy night at a theatre in town. It was a really good evening, a couple of the comics we very funny. But it does baffle me why some comedians feel the need to just be extremely crude and cross the line so completely that if there was a line its now in a different postcode and they were going so fast when they crossed it that they didn't even know it was there. The first guy on stage, the only Kiwi comic on the bill incidentally, was hilarious. He had everyone in stitches and stayed the right side of the line. For me that's real comedy. Comedy that says "I can be funny without being crude and getting cheap laughs". Maybe that's it. Cheap, low-grade humour is easier. It was a strange evening though, in that we were out with people we didn't know. A colleague of mine had organised the tickets. She'd invited her mates but then asked people at work in our team if anyone fancied it. Joanne and I did so went along. Only the colleague who organised it left earlier this week on a business trip to Germany at late notice. So we still went along, but with her husband and her friends, and without her. They made us feel welcome though, which was nice.

And today after church we got invited out to lunch over at Sarah's with a couple called Matt & Tina and a girl called Pam. Sarah's so great for that, having people over, and getting people to meet each other who might not know each other from church. Plus the food was tasty too.

Oh and I can't go without mentioning yesterday's football match. Given the team we were playing contained five guys who work in the same office as me, whether I could walk into work tomorrow with my head held high depended on the result. All in all, it went better than expected. We won 6-2, which was a great start, but the fact I scored three and set up another two really added to a grand afternoon all round. Now I can go into work tomorrow, head held high, a slight smile on my face and don't need to say a word.

Joanne's netball didn't go quite so well. They lost 30-44. Joanne said that last week the girl she was marking was a bit shorter than her so her height advantage made up to some degree for her lack of experience. This week the girl she was marking was the same height as her, negating last week's advantage. She's still enjoying playing though, and that's what it's all about, eh?