The Gray Monk

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July 14, 2007

The Random 8

I've been tagged by Cindy of Dusting my brain to reveal eight random things about myself, so, never being able to resist a dare .....

1. My childhood ambition was to join the navy and become the captain of a warship. Sadly, I never mastered enough maths to achieve this ambition, so now I write books about it instead. My father was brilliant at maths, but never could understand why I couldn't see how easy it was.

2. Took the tip off my left index finger playing with gun my father was servicing. He refused to do any more work for the person concerned for not checking the gun was safe before delivering it - and gave me a hiding for playing with it. And I spent several hours in A&E having the tip of my finger put back together.

3. The sea, boats, ships and sailing are my passion - no surprise there for readers of this blog - and I started sailing competitively aged around twelve. Won the juniors trophy aged fourteen. Probably the high point of my sailing career.

4. I have always had an urge to help others - I find it is usually fun and very fulfilling - so I joined the St John Ambulance and did voluntary ambulance and home nursing work for several years alongside being a Scoutmaster - all while earning a living in a series of unfulfilling jobs.

5. Having been selected as an Ordination candidate I went to Theological College only to find that my vision of the where's, what's and how' of worship, theology and the work of a priest was no longer the vision of those then running the church and sadly I had to give that up - and went back to unfulfilling jobs .....

6. I joined the Fire Service looking for thrills, adventure and the opportunity to help people while enjoying the work. It nearly didn't work out, but, thankfully, marriage, three terrific kids, some damned good colleagues and a lot of really interesting work I stuck it out for thirty six years ....

7. I became a Reader in the Church of the Province of South Africa, Licensed to the Cathedral of St Andrew and St Michael, Bloemfontein in 1982 - a Licence I still hold, although I am now licenced to the Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire and in the Diocese of Gloucester. (See - God gets you in the end no matter how far you run .... ) and to think I was told when I was asked to accept the training and the Licence that it wouldn't make many demands on my time .... It could be full time if I let it.

8. My academic high point was being awarded a Master of Arts by Coventry University in 2003. It would have surprised most of my School Masters ....

OK, those are my Random 8 - now who can I tag ....

I know, VW Bug at One Happy Dog Speaks; Skipjack at SkipjckDOTinfo and The Gorse Fox. There you go folks, let's see what that produces!

Posted by The Gray Monk at July 14, 2007 10:18 AM

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Comments

Posted by: vw bug at July 14, 2007 11:45 PM

Posted by: The Gray Monk at July 15, 2007 11:35 AM

Posted by: skipjack at July 18, 2007 08:38 PM

Posted by: Ozguru at July 25, 2007 05:49 AM

Posted by: skipjack at August 4, 2007 10:03 PM