This is my week - Monday

The day dawned some time after me. Along with a group of about 8 others I've taken up running. Apparently we're aiming to do a 10K run at Easter, which means being at college at 6.30am 3 mornings a week, so that's a 5.40am alarm call, get dressed, get on the bike, cycle 2.5miles to Ridley, and then do the running bit for about 25 minutes. It's actually more speed walking than running now, but I'm sure we'll up the walk:run ratio soon. A swift shower and breakfast at college follows, and all too soon it's time for the working day to begin

On a Monday our Morning Prayer is based in our staircase group, and is 30 minutes of prayer and worship, followed by "Fellowship Hour". Today Jane and Ian shared their testimonies (with some surprising similarities - don't they know about the recent plagarism in Cambridge story?), following which our leader Fred asked us all to submit searching questions which would be asked of each other. Most understood the request and submitted questions such as "what was your most memorable holiday?" or "who do you want to win the American election?". Unfortunately the aforementioned Ian thought it was Question of Sport and submitted classics such as "who scored the winning goal in the 1978 FA Cup Final?". Unfortunately no Lewis Hamilton questions were permitted.

By 10am we were a mile down the road at our Greek class, being amused by our unconventional care worker/performance artist/linguistics teacher Mark, and being led through indefinite articles, prepositions and vocabulary.

In a slight break with tradition our regular double lecture on 'Reading the New Testament' was replaced with an essay workshop. This was the bit many of us haven't been looking forward to - I haven't written an essay since 1985 in my English Literature exam - a grown-up academic essay is quite another beast from anything we did for GCEs. Anyway, just so you know, I've got the next 7 weeks to write 3000 words on 'The Christology of one of the canonical gospels'. After being reassured that as long as we do four basics it's pretty difficult to fail (hand it in, answer the question, don't copy, include a bibliography) I emerged a little less worried about the task.

Back to Ridley at 1pm for a lunch of spaghetti bolognese (some of which I have brought home on my shirt) and a banoffee pie that doesn't go too well with the running regime.

Breath in, breath out. Count to 10, and then onto the next thing, one of an occasional series of book sales - I picked up a few bargains, before moving onto the Lecture Hall at 2pm for double Church History.

I have to confess at this point that although I find Church History quite interesting, and I wanted to learn about the development of Monasticism, Asceticism and the Council of Chalcedon, my eyelids had other intentions at this point. My notes are, ahem, sketchy, at certain points in the lecture.

That takes us up to 4pm, and the end of formalities. After dithering in my study for a while, I find myself being fairly ineffective after such a busy day, so I go home, cycling through the drizzle. A few minutes for a cup of tea and a jam sandwich, and it's time to take Isaac to Cubs.

Later this evening I am honoured to be invited to a meal out with the spouses group - it's one of those rare occasions when the ordinands are welcome on a Monday evening, so there's a small group meeting at an Italian restaurant, proffering Cambridge University cards to attempt to get a mild discount.

After that I intend to collapse into bed, and look forward to Tuesday, a slightly less intense day.