Inertia rules

I ought to be writing articles for the parish mags, but at the moment all I seem capable of is playing with the puppy and counting the days till Hugger Steward gets home (at the mo he is climbing Kilmanjaro - please pray! - but he will be HOME in just 9 days time)....so what better excuse for a Friday Five on Saturday?This week's is really fun....and comes from my friend RevHDRod, whose own You don't have to listen, I just like to talk is one of my all time favourite blog names, - summing up in a phrase the attitude of so many of us to blogging!

Friday Five: What's in a Name?

So how did you come up with your blogging name? And/or the name of your blog? Being hopeless at dissimulation of any kind, I realised that there was Absolutely. No. Point. in even trying to adopt an alternative blogging identity - and in any case, I assumed that only those people who already knew me would ever read my blog. I began posting just a few weeks after I began my life as a curate - and in the UK at least the first word association of "curate" is likely to be "egg" - which comes with the tag "Good in Parts". I've blogged the story some while ago, but the short version is that a Punch cartoon once depicted a hapless curate, a guest at his Bishop's breakfast table, being asked if his egg was OK. It wasn't, so his diplomatic response was "Good in parts..." Thus "the curate's egg" has passed into the language

Are there any code names or secret identities in your blog? Any stories there? When I began blogging I was entirely unimaginative, as I assumed that only the handful of bloggers I knew already would ever read me, and they were clearly well-aware of who was who in our household. Later, though, the children named themselves. Hattie Gandhi is so-called a)because of her predilection for attractive head-gear, in which she looks predictably stunning and b)because in her toddler years she used to wander around aftgr her bath swathed in one of those baby towels with a hood, and looking for all the world like the late great Mahatma, as her fond parents pointed out. A two-year old's pronounciation of this became "Hattie" and the rest is history.Hugger Steward not only works at the wonder that is the Greenbelt Festival, where yes, he is indeed a steward and receives the embrace of dozens on the annual "Hug A Steward" day, but is also renowned for his own talent as a hugger....another reason why his mother is busy looking forward to 28th July. The Dufflepud was named in full daylight on this blog, after he'd had a happy morning experimenting with the coracle that belongs to Best Spir Dir Ever...He looked so very much like the illustrations of the Dufflepuds in Voyage of the Dawn Treader - quite irresistable. Otherwise, I pretty much stick to initials, though FabBishop, Wonderful Vicar and Best Spir Dir Ever are indeed just that! I'm very blessed....

What are some blog titles that you just love? For their cleverness, drama, or sheer, crazy fun? So very many....Pink Shoes in the Pulpit seemed to be a sign of hope when I found myself in a very male deanery, in a church which is still struggling with the idea that women can minster without becoming pseudo men in the process....A Blog Less Ordinary might be better named "A Blog lessPosted On"but nonetheless, tis a good title and a good reflection of the man behind the writing. Then there is Moreena's wonderful "Falling Down in Also a Gift", which seems to sum up in one phrase the way that she and her whole family live life to the full despite the shadow of her daughter's life-threatening condition. Really, though, all the blogs I read have names that draw you in to the world behind the title.

What three blogs are you devoted to? Other than the RevGalBlogPals blog of course! Three?? Only THREE?!? How can I possibly say...I do, though, value those blogs that help me to keep a sensible perspective on the dramas of the Anglican Communion - Bishop Alan's, for example...And Jonny Baker the Eminence Grise of UK Christian blogging, is a wonderful read and source of inspiration, as is Fr Simon at Parish Life. Goodness. Three men!!!! But those are almost the only male blogs I read regularly at all...Strange. Nearly all the rest of my blogroll consists of revgalblogpals - or blogs that are a more specific "catch up" with the life and times of my friends, though looking now I see that the roll as it appears here is woefully out of date. Blog-keeping as hopeless as general domestic maintenance. Oh dear.

Who introduced you to the world of blogging and why? Two or three Greenbelt friends -including One Pedestrian and Reach out and Touch the Screen started blogging in 2004 and invited me to view their blogs...Inevitably I wanted to comment, and it seemed impolite somehow to do so when I had nowhere of my own for them to retaliate. I was ordained Deacon that Petertide and began Good in Parts a few weeks later, as a way of reflecting on the early experiences of ministry. Bloggy birthday coming up very soon, actually...though I suspect I will be away at the time.

Bonus question: Have you ever met any of your blogging friends? Where are some of the places you've met these fun folks?
Blogging has been a really good way to get to know people I might have admired from afar,to approach people I would otherwise have been too awestruck to engage with. I still find it really hard to accept that people I have not met, and probably never will, engage with me through this blog too..That they should even get onto a train to visit me as one of their 3 destinations on a family trip to the UK is beyond wonderful...but maybe that's what sisters do, Songbird? Jo(e)??
Greenbelt is a great place for UK Christian bloggers to meet irl, but nothing will ever beat the excitement of finding myself All The Way across the Atlantic, heading out of New Orleans on a boat with some of the finest bloggers on the planet. It's just kind of hard to realise you have family so very far away, whom you are longing to spend more time with soooon.