Busy rest of the week

The rest of this week is going to be very busy. Tomorrow I am going to London for a one-day conference at Chatham House - my train leaves at 06.31! The theme is 'State Building in the 21st Century: Where does Responsibility Lie?'. Speakers include people from Chatham House, LSE, Oxford University, DfID and others. I look very much forward to it, and there is a group of at least four of us that are going together from my uni. The topic is very relevant for my PhD focus, so it could not be better. However, the conference finishes around 5pm/17.00. I need to be in Canterbury two hours later because I lead a discussion group at an Alpha Course that my church is running, so I will miss the drink reception after the conference and have to go straight to London Victoria to catch a train home. I will not be home until 10.30pm/22.30 or something...

Thursdays are normally the day when I have no obligations and can get a lot of 'my' work done. This week, however, I have two seminars on Thursday that I've had to reschedule since I will be away on Friday. I have also had to reschedule my office hour to Thursday (because I am in London tomorrow), and as if that weren't enough I am also meeting with a girl I am dicipling on Thursday, and babysitting in the evening. Quite a full day, in other words. But I'll be fine!

On Friday morning I join Alex (student) and Stefan (staff) on a trip to a conference in Birmingham (the uni pays for me/us!). We leave Canterbury by train Friday morning, attend the conference from mid-day Friday until late afternoon Saturday and then return home Saturday night. I have family near Birmingham and could probably have stayed on until Sunday, but I think I will just want to come home and sleep in my bed and go to church Sunday morning.

And like God told us; on Sunday I shall rest. I shall do no work of any kind, just go to church and spend the rest of the day enjoying myself, and possibly the company of others. After a week like this I will appreciate it even more, I think.