This morning I got homesick listening to the Lost Prophets on my shower radio, which is kind of ironic because back in Cardiff no one over the age of 17 with any sense of pride would admit to liking the Prophets. I'm going to have to hear their latest album before I pass any judgement.

Last night at UWE went well, I met some great people who I'm sure I'll be seeing more of in the next year.

Although I've been back in work since Monday, I'm still battling with this illness. I'm really hoping it doesn't become a chest infection.

Last night was Alpha: "who was Jesus?" which was good fun. The best part about Alpha is meeting new people and dialoguing on these things. The more outrageous the beliefs of the people in your group the more fun!

Tonight I'm off to the UWE CU to meet some freshers and tell them about Bristol Vineyard. Sunday is the Bristol CU equivalent, but they don't let non-students talk at it, so I'm on the lookout for a willing student at BV.

The other night Claire had a dream that she was smuggling cocain and that I was trying to stop her so she shot me in the leg.

Yesterday I awoke to find, in the pile of letters on my bedside cabinet, a letter written in some foreign script. My first thought was that I’d somehow, overnight, forgotten how to read. I went downstairs and asked Steve if he could read this alien handwriting. He couldn’t, so all was forgotten until later in the day when he asked Claire if she knew anything about it.

It turns out that Claire had been cleaning in the bathroom during the week and had found the letter behind the toilet. Not recognising the writing she assumed (and this is absolutely true) that someone had been writing in tongues. Her next question was: ‘who in this household would try writing in tongues?’ And came to the conclusion that it must have been me.

Now she assumed that I would be embarrassed if she let on that she had found my ‘experiment’ and decided to sneak the letter into my bedroom so as not to raise any suspicion.

This year is going to be fun…

On Monday I went to Hull with Andrew to meet with Jeremy, who leads Hull Vineyard. Last time I visited Hull it took 8 hours on the National Express, so I was glad we were driving this time and arrived in half the time. Hull was nicer than I remember it being - although it was very cold.

27th September (Monday) is the start of term at Bristol Uni and UWE, so I'm trying to get ready for the arrival of students at BV. There's an evening service starting called 'Vineyard Late' which I'm hoping to use as a base for planting Fusion cells.

My throat is sore today, which is frustrating because I had a cold just over a week ago and I want my voice to be fixed so I can start doing music stuff.

I think that's all the news for now.

The recipe below is one that Steve has introduced me to since I've been living with them. It's very tasty.

Time is flying, although this weekend wasn't quite as fast as last. Friday evening I went to a Leaders' training session, which was fun - met some new people. On Saturday I mooched and did housework.

Today is grey and miserable outside. Let's hope it's not pathetic fallacy.

Couscous, Halloumi and Chargrilled Vegetables

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 Courgette
2 Peppers (1 red, 1 green)
4 Button mushrooms
2 Tomatoes (quartered)
1 pack of Halloumi (cubed)
1/2 Large onion
1/2-1 tsp. Harissa Sauce + garlic (to taste)
Salt and Pepper (to season)

Couscous:
300g Couscous
1 pint Vegetable stock

Garnish:
142ml Greek Yoghurt
1/4 cucumber
A few sprigs of fresh mint

Directions:
1. Heat olive oil in a griddle pan and fry garlic for 1 minute.
2. Add onions, peppers, and Harissa sauce and fry until crispy.
3. Add Halloumi and fry until golden.

For Couscous:
Place couscous in a large bowl and add the vegetable stock in stages: initially enough to cover, then fluff with a fork, adding more as required. Keep covered when not fluffing to retain heat.

For accompanying garnish:
Add finely chopped mint leaves, cucumber (diced small), salt and pepper to the greek yoghurt.

I haven't blogged for a few days as I've been out of the office. Cardiff at the weekend was great, saying Happy Birthday to Rob, seeing family and friends, and (not so great) saying goodbye to Sharon (she's moved back to Nottingham to finish her course).

Then on Monday Sarah-Lou and I went to the Fusion Training conference in Northampton, which was very interesting and allowed us to find out about running Fusion cells in our local communities.

Congratulations are in order. Llewellyn Parfitt was born yesterday afternoon, weighing in at 9 pounds 1 ounce. Congratulations Lewis and Maria!

Emotionally, life in Bristol is beginning to feel more normal. I no longer have that panicked "what am I doing here?" feeling, which really helps.

I'm also beginning to find my way around - last night I rode to the watershed cinema without the use of a map and in pretty good time - 15 minutes there and 17 minutes back (because of the hills). I was meeting Julian, a friend who was in my Politics class for A-Levels, and he showed me around a little as we caught up on the last 3 years.

Chris is coming down today and I'm hopefully having lunch with him tomorrow, which will be fun.

We're driving to London in an hour to pick up Andrew.

On Sunday we went to a Greek place called Yia Mas, which is on Park Street. It was a kind of restaraunt-come-bar-come-club and there was standing room only as the DJ played the best of cheesy european house. Very fun/ny.