End of semester, manchester, Limmud.

I was thinking about where to post this entry. Here or in my other blog. However, I think that the other blog is no more or less defunct so I shall post it to this particular one. Thinking about it I feel that the semester ended with something of whimper rather than with a roar. And I still have assessments to do for it. But my seventh semester at rabbinical school is over. Currently I am in Stoke although only for a single evening.

This morning I went for an NF check up in Manchester, good news I am in excellent health. Better in fact than when I was last seen. Way back when in 2007. But what struck me was how much the hospital has alter. It is almost unrecognisable from what it was last time I was. Very bright very modern.

What I found more alarming was how much the whole area around the university has changed. I wont say that I hardly recognised it, because it was still very clearly my old stomping ground. But considering how much time I spent there over such a long period of time it was really really different and it felt really disconcerting. To be somewhere which was simaltainously utterly familiar and yet very changed. And in the end I no longer felt at home there. Which given how long its been since I went back is hardly surprising.

After this very short visit home I go back to KLS tomorrow to lead a Friday night service then I have one last day to get ready for limmud.

Then on Sunday though Thursday there is Limmud and then I come home for a bit. Probably about a week. Then some concentrated work on assessments and my eighth semester starts.  

Getting ready for Rosh Hashanah

As I type I am sitting in my hotel room in Eastbourne, I can actually hear the seagulls on the sea, and for that matter the sound of holiday makers enjoying the last of summer. Its actually very summer like. Shortly I will head off to lead the evening services for Rosh Hashanah.  I am feeling pretty up-beat about it. My sermon is good and I am happy with my study session for tomorrow and with my Torah reading (we will have to see how things actually go.)
  But I certainly feel much happier this year than I did last, and so much more so than my first time leading in Coventry.
It has made me think about the past, last year in Manchester, two years ago in Coventry and amazing three years ago in Jerusalem. Before that things blur into the many, many High Holy Day seasons I spent at Menorah.
( I am also getting to grips with Yom Kippur, sermons, readings, and study sessions) but I still have a bunch of stuff to do.
On the new flat front, there is still some stuff to do, admin stuff mostly.  Last week Emily's mum was over from Canada. To help with the move, and it was really really useful to have her around to help. It was also fun, especially I think for Emily.
Mainly work, but some fun things also, a window shopping trip to London proper.
Any this is really no time to be blogging. I am going for a short walk before services.

Shannah Tovah to one and all.

May 5774 be year of blessings and joys for all who read this.