Beanfeast

Unpacking stuff from Greenbelt and I decided I'd eat some of the left over food. This included a portion of beanfeast. Now I have only ever eaten this whilst camping before now, and I'm pretty sure it tasted alright. But today it tasted disgusting, i expect when camping the fresh air and being hungrier makes it taste like some kind of ambosia, whereas in reality it is just as bad as pot noodles.

So advice - don't eat beanfeast at home.

Back from Greenbelt

Got back form Greenbelt last night, and had a bit of a lie in this morning. Got my washing done and checked out all my photos. Got some video footage of Estelle, The Proclaimers and the excellent One Nation. Will get a few pics up soon and do some retrospective blogging. Had a great time, so much to see and do and taste. What a fantastic festival.

Been to the community centre this afternoon to continue helping Maggie with her induction and then stayed on for a committee meeting. Meaning that I've harly acheived anything of worth today, just got back for an emergency pizza and now feeling pretty tired.

But look out for lots of greenbelt blogs.

Greenbelt - Monday

Doing a report a day has been a mistake, though I've got loads to say in my head about it all, I'm less enthused to write it down, cos who wants to sift through huge blogs? So I'll keep this short(er)

Worship this morning in the caberet was good. A series of bible passages, meditations on the theme of tree of life interspersed with singing. The use of different speakers to do the readings and meditations was effective as the different vocal styles helped keep your attention. Various iages were projected on screen to help assist too. I found it a useful time.

After lunch we came across some street performers dressed as polar explorers from the 30s. They were fantastic, chatting away, and as you listened to their conversation you realised how amusing it all was. For example they were reminiscing the guys back home from the boys school.
"Do you remember Watkins?"
(pause)"Yes, Watkins, a great fellow"
"And of couse Smithson was a card wasn't he"
"Yes, he was a card!"
(pause)"Funny though, he looked as real as life if you looked at him head on, it was just the battered edges that gave him away"

As it was Andrew's birthday we headed to the organic beer tent for a drink and tried to put a few ideas together for some kind of flyers for crookes valley, ready for the influx of students. Andrew's really good at designing these type of things, so look forward to the finished product.

Enjoyed Giles Peterson in the evening, used to listen to his show quite a bit hen he used to be on after John Peel on a wednesday evening. It was amazing to see the infectious beats catch the watching crowd. Initially there were feww people dancing, with must people nodding their heads in time to the music, then the odd leg would be tapping until suddenly everyone was dancing around having a great time. Top tunes, the final tune he played was great - anyone know what it was called?

Emmanual Jal was also fantastic, his brand of hip hop influenced by a traumatic life in Sudan had real vitality, he got the crowd dancing and enjoying his beats. His vocal technique was great too, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

Headed back home after that performance - had a great time.







Check out some pics from greenbelt by clicking above image!
greenbelt2005

Greenbelt - Sunday

[retrospectively - can't believe it was a whole week ago now!]

Sunday morning we gathered for communion, and the weather was perfect, enjoyed listening to the worship band whilst lazing on my blanket and flicking through my comic. The sky was a beautiful blue colour, and it was amazing to see the crowds gathering on the grass, gave me a sense of what it must've ben like gathering to hear Christ speak. The sharing of communion was special, joing into groups of people, who until that moment had been strangers, and to watch a coat layed on the floor, fill up with food as people brought stuff for an accumulative picnic. Me and andrew were rather ill prepared for this, and our offering of 2 brioche rolls and 5 penguin biscuits looked rather meagre. But in the end there was sufficient sandwiches and snacks to go round. Another special moment of the service for me was the collection of the prayer containing parcel tags, seeing people carrying handfulls of them towards the front to be hung upon the tree of life sculpture.

Went to a number of talks in the afternoon that were of interst - andrew went to the worship event in the Centaur, which he said was very popular and a good time. I bumped into him again whilst watching the Splott Brothers. A couple of street entertainers that had just started performing as I was passing.

The CMS tent staged a harrowing performance describing the fate of women from Bangladesh sold into prostitution, which was followed by Aradhna in concert. Devotional Indian fusion, which was pleasent - the sitar is an amazing instrument, which was deftly used to play hindi worship songs in the traditional Indian style used by the guys on mission out there.

The highlight of the evening was seeing the Proclaimers live. It was a fun gig, and everyone got excited hearing "Letter from America" and "I'm gonna be...." Strange how well know those tunes still are, if I recall rightly they were never that big a hit. It was just as I was getting into pop music, I can remember them playing on top of the pops and me recording it by placing a tape recorder in front of the tv set, which I did every week. Still ahve the tapes somewhere, it's interesting to hear what kind of music I liked then, if i didn't like a tune I'd just press stop on the tape. So there's quite a few tunes that end abruptly, just as they are getting going!







Check out some pics from greenbelt by clicking above image!
greenbelt2005

Greenbelt - Saturday, music

What I like about Greenbelt, is that you can just mill around and never know what you might encounter. I happened upon Harry Webb doing some busking, and thankfully not the Cliff Richard variety.

Harry is usually found on the bandstand bringing his amusing rewordings of popular songs, including a new version of "Guns don't kill people, rappers do" titled "Girls can't play cricket, fellers do" He of course lamented the lack of a bandstand, and had trouble being heard over the background noise from the main stage.

I've been really inspired by the band stand over the years, seeing people like - no more horses, Gojira, that guy who has played guitar at every greenbelt ever and last year the quite superb Occasional Flute


occasional flute, GB04

There was nothing that took my fancy in the early evening, so went to see Riding Lights, before meeting Andrew and returning to the main stage for Estelle. The difference in professionalism in working the crowd and being a presence on stage was quite evident. Although I find her more R+B numbers a little dull, she had everyone swaying along, and her better hip hop tunes were cracking. Wish she'd done that track she did with the guy from Everything But The Girl - that is a tune!

Then off to One Step Beyond, which was fantastic. It was running late cos of some fire alarm or something. Anyway, I caught a set by Gorija, fusing scratching, funky vocals and drum and bass beats. you should see their drummer go! Amazing speed. Dancing away.
GreenJade didn't inspire me, fairly dull school assembly hip hop.

then the highlight - One Nation!

They had me dancing like a loon, to their funky beats, and when the African Drums came out I can't imagine there was a static person in the room. For the finale they jumped into the crowd playing their drums and dancing along with us. Fantastic live act - catch them if you can.







Check out some pics from greenbelt by clicking above image!
greenbelt2005

Greenbelt - Saturday, worship

[Retrospective blogging...]
Wake up around 7:30am and decide to go to worship, last year I really enjoyed the Taize worship, but it appears to be lacking this year in the morning. decide to try the alt.worship venue, the self service by Revive. It was a beautiful space for worship, peaceful and conductive to meditative worship, along side the creative aspect. It seemed to appeal to all ages, with younger children especially enjoying expressing themselves creatively. It reminded me of a 24:7 prayer room in layout, and although I enjoyed the time, there was a distinctive lack of interaction with others, though it felt as though I was part of the worshiping community there, a kind of communicative bond was missing.

2pm and I'd noticed there was a get together of ppl involved in alt.worship in the beer tent. I hadn't tried the beer yet, and am very interested in new ways of engaging with God, so thought I could do both at the same time. Got a beer, the very fine St Peter's organic beer, and reasonably priced for a monopoly bar! But couldn't find any sign of this alt.worship gathering. Aksed a guy if he knew anything about it, and he did. it's right here, take a seat. So I did, expecting to hear stories from all the variety of alt.worship groups. Instead I was pretty much ignored whilst "trendy" people chatted along with each other. I was asked which group I was with, I said I wasn't and was interested in doing al.worship, explaining our situation at cvm. Anyway, it seemed to be a one way conversation with the recipient exclaiming "cool" at the end of each of my sentances, probably wasn't listening to a word I'd said. In hindsight I should've said, "and yes, we've just tried experimenting with animal sacrifices during worship, and it seems to really help us engage with God", "yeah cool man". His favourite adjective is proabably "random". It quickly dawned that this was just a get together for alt.worship buddies and so after chatting with a pleasent couple who had just come along with a friend i decided to depart - somewhat disappointed.







Check out some pics from greenbelt by clicking above image, including some from Self Service.
greenbelt2005

Greenbelt - Saturday, talks and stuff

This year there doesn't seem to be any really big speaker, and as such there aren't any talks in the centaur. The actual venues for talks are quite small tents, but as it is hot, the sides are down and you can hear from outside - good job it's not raining. Can't think of anything truely inspiring from the talk this year - though that is not to say I didn't enjoy them.

Naim Ateek was particulalry interesting, and it was good to hear his take on liberation theology as part of an oppressed palestinian society. His focus and interpretation of messiah as suffering servant rather than revolutionary warrior was interesting and certainly in the light of some of the recent fundamentalist charged faith related violance that has been seen the latter would be the kind of headline grabbing saviour you'd perhaps expect. It is interesting to wonder what Simon the Zealot thought of Christ.

Tried my hand at painting in the stables - I was rubbish, can never seem to get down the images in my head onto paper, guess that's why I'm a scientist.

Saw most of the Riding lights production in the evening, before sneeking out to see Estelle. They are a very talented bunch, and the script was really quite challenging.







greenbelt2005

Greenbelt - Friday

[retrospective blog]

Got up and packed ready for Greenbelt, quite a job remembering everything, as well as delivering key for the community centre to the pearsons. In fact i didn't remember everything and had to borrow a plate and cutlery from andrew.

The rive down was fairly pleasant, arriving around 2ish and not much of a queue to get onto the campsite. As we arrived at Cheltenham racecourse i felt quite excited, like a kid going on holiday. Andrew got a couple of programmes and they were eagerly opened. Finding a place to pitch a tent is quite tricky, some of these people must arrive super early to claim their plots. Searched for somewhere that looked like there weren't lots of noisy teenagers to keep you awake at night, or for that matter young kids, who are likely to be up at 6am playing outside the tents! A suitable plot was found, and once the tent was pitched it was time to scour the programme to select which items I wanted to see/partake in. There's so much to see, hear, read, smell, taste and do at Greenbelt.

This evening was spent mainly listening to various artists around the site. First stop main stage for a fairly pleasent folk singer, then over to the performance cafe to see a band who had given us a free sampler cd on our arrival. Pretty average, but they had a neat trick of recording and looping live, eg sing falsetto harmonies, which when recoredd and played back on a loop add to the normal vocals. Later that evening had chance to see One Nation for the first time this year. Came across them last year and they were superb. Playing an eclectic mix of world, jazz and funk music. Wah wah guitars, synth, percussion and horns. They really got the crowd going with their cover of "Pick up the Peices". More about them later.

Back to the mainstage to see Emiliani torrini, who has a wonderful blend of folk and pop with strong vocals. Iceland seems to produce a number of otherworldy sounding vocals eg Bjork, Mum and Sigur Ros, ET is another to add to this list.

Iain Archer then headlined the mainstage, a Greenbelt regular, he has played everything from the bandstand upwards. He won an Ivor Novello for his writing collaboration with Snow Patrol, but like snow patrol he was fairly dull live. Nice tunes, but nothing to really ignite the crowd.

Off then to the Centaur for some late night music. First off a nashville musician, I had a fear of twee country, but was in for a surprise. Bluesy gospel from a guy called John Davis, who could really lick a riff, it sounded strong and passionate.

The best of all, and perhaps the band of GB05, came on around 0030. Ella Guru, a liverpudlian band playing their interpretation of alt.country - fantastic. Steel guitar backed meandering music, very laid back. You should check their web page

Slept well in the tent, after an enjoyable first evening, sampling a range of musical genres.

One huge disappointment though - NO BANDSTAND!!




Check out some pics from greenbelt by clicking above image!
greenbelt2005

Sleeper

I was watching this Brit Pop thing on BBC4 the other night, reminiscing to ten years ago, getting my a-levels and heading to university to the back drop of Brit Pop. And I was a big fan, in fact on my 18th b'day there was released what I still consider to be one of my fave records. Smart by a band called Sleeper. This is the best bit of power pop and all over in under 40 minutes.



Their lead singer was the beautiful Louise Wener, who semed to take a lot of stick in the music press about her inability to sing, but I thought her voice really suited the songs. Unfortunately they never matched the standards of Smart, and their third and final album was most disappointing. Personaly I think it is because the first album was mainly co-written with her then boyfriend, guitarist Jon Stewart. She then left him and started going out with the drummer! (I think they're still together), and Jon's input to song writing became diminished.



Yesterday I revisited Smart, and enjoyed it a lot. Can't believe it's ten years ago now.

And as for Louise, she is now a sucessful author. I've already read Goodnight Steve McQueen which is pretty good, and today I've just won her most recent novel, The Big Blind, on ebay.

Skipton

Got up early and drove over to Skipton yesterday to meet up with Jonah. It made a change from racing around setting up church. What a fantastic day, clear blue skies all the way up there. We took the dog out for a long walk, about 12 miles up along the edge of the moors. The views were quite stunning. It's good walking with Jonah, he always spots the odd bit of wildlife that would've completely passed me by otherwise.

Just look how beautiful it was.

We went a bit off track at one point and had to follow a compass bearing over the heather to catch the path we required. The pollen just went everywhere as you walked. Great clouds pluming around your feet. You could feel it on your lips and my glasses were covered in a layer of pollen once we'd gone thru!

Patching up

There's been this odd mouldy smell in the basement of the community centre and I've found out what it is. Outside the centre on the pavement are these weird glass squares, which actually are supposed to give a bit of light into the basement, they are above a void outside the windows of the basement. Now a few of these glass squares were broken, and it seems when it rains it goes into this void, makes the walls damp and gives the mouldy smell. Decided to do a patch up job on them today. Bought some mortar and pva glue for added waterproofing and flexibility. Mixed it up and layered it over the remnants of glass in layers until the void was filled - jobs a good un.

Unbelievable!!

You'll never believe this, but it's all true:

So as you know I've been doing a bit of work at the community centre, well this evening one of the user groups, the Saudi Union, had booked the centre. I had decided to open up for them, and at the same time do a temporary patch job on these holes that let rainwater in and cause damp in the basement. So far everything is running smoothly, let the guys in etc. Then I'm asked to open the kitchen, and I remember that it has been locked to keep the children out during the playscheme. I open the main dead lock door, but there is also another door which leads to the dining room that is padlocked. I go and have a route through the keys and find the one I think should do the trick. But the key is almost bigger than the padlock. That's odd I think, so ring the caretaker who lives over the road to see if she has a key for it. Yes she does - excellent - I dash across the road and pick up her bunch of keys. The thing is, the key she shows me, looks exactly like the one that I know doesn't work. Then it dawns on me, some idiot has put the wrong padlock back on the door, probably a cupboard padlock or something. Aaaaagh! What to do, I've got this group who needs access now, the only option is to find a screwdriver. Where can one be in the building, basement - no, perhaps there's one in the church sound case - no. Right, I'm going to have to go home and get some. Explain the situation to the Saudi leader guy and run home, cos I'd walked up. Get home, put my hands in my pocket - and would you believe it - all this faffing with keys and stuff at the community centre, I'd taken my house keys out and left them in the office!!

Curse my stupidity,check boot of car - nothing, ring dave P - not in vicinity, try neighbours - out. Going to have to race back to community centre, sneek in and get my keys. So off I race in my car up to the center, in a scene that is not too disimilar to the opening scene of Four Weddings and a Funeral. Execute my covert key rescue operation, and race back home. Grab a bunch of screwdrivers and head back again. Taking twice the time I said I'd be. Race to the kitchen, aiming to be door opening hero to discover that the Saudi's had managed to force the padlock open themselves with brute strength.

There I am stood dripping sweat holding four screwdrivers in my hand, blood pounding in my ear. Unbelievable!

Grey day

It's been hot today, but outside it's been quite grey, and I've felt a bit grey today too. Not quite sure why, just not felt myself. Watched the cricket highlights, and even though I knew the outcome I was still willing the wicket to fall in the last over.

Got my hair cut too, but cos I'm not too flush with cash I went to cheap bloke instead. Ended up looking like some play mobil character - oh well!

Popped over to peter R house to help comment on sarah O service on Sunday, she was very good really, so it wasn't too much of a chore to put together.

Stayed on after to sit with Peter and Brian and do a bit of bible study of romans 15. They are both really knowledgable and it was interesting chatting and asking them questions. What kind of knowledge did Paul have of greek philosphy and thinking, and then I lamented the lack of the thinking of those days in todays society where knowledge and thinking comes from ill informed sound bites from tv and newspapers. Is there a real need for free thinking and engaging of problems in todays society or is it just something that I enjoy cos i'm pretty academic minded and enjoy learning stuff. Are people just happy to accept the generalised views on everything from genetic screening of embryos thru to understaning of faiths?

Going to the Ashes

So having watched the cricket yesterday and hear them announce that tickets will be £10 today I decided that as I had no work planned there couldn't be many better ways of spending the day. Got up around 5am and set off just before 6am arriving in time to join the queue about 7am. The journey was beautiful, with the rising sun behind me lighting up a spectacular purple view of heather topped hills, with clouds hanging over the top and drifting through valleys - stunning. Thanks to the internet and a fan site directing useful places to park for the old trafford football ground I was able to park in a side road 5 min walk away for free! The queue was already quite large when I arrived and throngs of people were joining. The event security decided to open the gates early and have us queue within a car park, and then started letting us in as I guess the queues were causing problems outside the ground. Once inside I had the choice of places to sit, and opted for an area just behind the stumps. It was in a no smoking and no alcohol area, but as I was driving I didn't mind, and less chance to be sitting next to some annoying person. Read a bit and started some sudoku whilst waiting, but there was plenty to observe before the match started. The teams warming up, the tv pundits out doing a spot about the wicket. Saw Ian Botham, Michael Atherton and Geoffrey Boycott who you can see below. The match was completely engrossing, every over was interesting. I found it quite difficult to follow where the ball was going once hit though, they really moved quickly and it was easy to loose the ball amongst the crowd. The tension gradually built up during the day as the wickets slowly fell away. It was just when Warne and Ponting were in with the new ball, it didn't look like we were getting any joy at all. But then there was a change and a few wickets fell, leaving the nervey last few overs where every ball that carried to the wicket keeper was cheered as if it had taken an inside edge!

Shame that we couldn't win the match, but a great experience none the less for my first test match. And all for just £10, great value.



The pitch being prepared


Ian Botham

Michael Atherton

Geoffrey Boycott, from a distance

Taps

Dave P came round today and helped by putting new taps on bath and sink and changing washer on leaky tap in the kithen. Everything seems to be in working order now. Spent rest of afternoon watching cricket and as I don't have any work on monday a £10 ticket for the day is pretty tempting. So I may just go.

NBA live

Met up with Janet for lunch and then we went to the gig. A strange venue, the royal society for the blind, and a strange time. It was as if we'd turned up at some youth club gig, loads of teenagers. However the gig was great, the Nine Black Alps were full of energy which transposed itself onto their brash grungy rocky indie noises. And quite a noise it was too, topped with a rough edged vocal that belied the young singers age. Comparisons with Nirvana are obvious, but NBA are sufficiently unique to have carved out their own distinct style within that metal. There was no set list and no practice, they had decided that the gig was so strange that it required an equally bizarre aproach to playing the venue. They asked for people in the crowd to request songs, and then they duly played them.

These guys are good, and if they can keep up this passion in their tunes they are destined to go far.

Ironic that I leave the society for the blind deaf!

Got drenched walking home cos it was chucking it down with rain - the same rain that has delayed the cricket.

some pics:






Hope this captures some of the passion behid their playing

Smoke alarms

Got a note through the post from the local fire brigade saying that they were fitting smoke alarms in the area for free. Well that sounded like a good idea to me so I gave them a ring. They called back this evening and said they could pop round about 8pm providing they weren't called out.

I was expecting just a fire officer to turn up, so it was quite a surprise when I heard a fire engine pulling up outside my house! Who knows what the neighbours thought! Still now I have a couple of smoke alarms and fitted too.

Giving blood

Not been much work today, just over an hour at a site in Barlborough, hardly worth turning up for to be honest. Then a bit at the community centre after which I popped into town to fill some forms at the agency. Where do they find these patronising sycophantic people from to work in these agencies, where they pretend to be your best friend when actually they're just parastic paying crappy wages and charging Bluestone a fortune for the privelege of my skills. Anyway this is all beside the point, after leaving the agency I was just heading home when I noticed that the blood service had commenced a walk in blood donation service that afternoon. I've often pondered giving blood, but been a bit afraid, as 470ml seems like an awful lot to me and I feared an adverse reaction, particulaly feeling faint and the last time I filled in a form I'd not long since recovered from Glandular Fever and they didn;t want my polluted blood. However, seeing as I had nothing else better to do I decided I would donate some blood.

Filled in the questionaire, need to have my blood tested for Malaria cos I've been to Kenya but other than that it was just a case of lying down with a needle in my arm. Took 7 mins and 50 seconds to fill the bag. After continuing to lie down for a bit I was then advised to go to the refreshment area and take on lots of fluids. There I was offered a glass of orange squash which was minicule - I was expecting loads after all this talk of replenish your fluids.

My arm felt like it had gone to sleep, like I'd been asleep on it all night, it's just coming back into action. Best go and get another drink cos I'm getting thirsty with all this fluuid talk.

Cloud Atlas

Just finished reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell today. It was a good read despite winning the embarrassing title of "Richard and Judy best read of the year", in it's favour it was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize and the plot sounded interesting.

Basically it's 6 stories written in completely different styles and set in various times from the 18th Century to a post apocolyptic future. It's quite strange reading, cos just as you are getting into one story and style it abruptly ends and the next follows. The reason is that the story is finished later in the book, with the six stories arranged in a 1,2,3,4,5,6,5,4,3,2,1 order - if you get my drift. In fact the writing styles can be a bit frustrating at times until you've got the hang of it, especially the final story told in a futuristic dialogue which I can only liken to a fusion between the way the BFG talks and the characters of A Clockwork Orange. Each story has some kind of link to the previous, eg character in story 2 reads the journal of a character from story 1.

The common thread through the stories I think is a look at what drives civilisation, what is civil behaviour. What kind of society is it that prevails and becomes the stronger, is it the tribe which is the most brutal and oppressive that comes out on top. Whether that arrogance of superiority is found in completing a belief in a divine calling to make your race superior, or be it just through ruthlessness.

I found it avery interesting and enjoyable read, and interesting to see how all the threads end from the stories that are started in the first half of the book.

It's well researched and well informed too.

That doesn't look exciting

Just got home and seen the mail, just one envelope addressed to me and it looked suspiciously like a circular. That doesn't look very exciting, I thought. But it was! It was two free tickets to see the Nine Black Alps that I'd won on t'internet. Woo hoo! Thing is I've only heard of the NBA, but never heard them. Best get listening to media on their site.



well at least I know what they look like.

Bit of a cold

Over the weekend I've come down with a bit of a cold. I think I know the source too, sat in front of me at the wedding was a family including a toddler with a snotty nose. Couldn't understand why the parents hadn't cleaned it properly, it was all caked in dry snot - euugh. So i think he was the culprit in supplying the cold causing germs. Got over the worst of the runny nose now though.

Busy day with work, at a different site today, where the chaps are less chatty, so it was a bit more isolated. Then off to Andrew's for tea and band practice followed by community centre for about half an hour cos I decided I'd sort out the filing and stuff tomorrow.

Finished the suduko puzzle in the sheffield star whilst listening to Amnesiac by Radiohead. Not listened to that album in ages, it was the soundtrack to writing my thesis. It really is good, and IMO far better than Kid A which was also released that year. Phoned my sis and she moaned that I'd got a blog, said only people who thought their life was worth all people in the world hearing about had blogs. i corrected her saying, only about 4 people have ever read my blog and the main reason for having one is it's something to do when you're bored.

Cricket

Well I'd enjoyed watching the cricket so much yesterday that I didn't really relish going to church this morning, as I'd have rather stayed in and watched the end of the match. Over a hundred runs needed and only 2 wickets left, I was sure England would soon have the match wrapped up. Well after church I checked the score by my mobile and was amazed to see that the Aussies were still in and required only another 20 runs to win! So I raced home to watch the dramatic finale. What an end to a match, it really was nail biting, 3 runs needed for the win and at last a nick that flew behind and Jones scrambled to take a superb catch. It was as if God had written the end so that I'd get to watch it!

Top of the table!

Check this out:



Chesterfield are top of the table after the first game of the season. If only the same can be true come May next year!

We're top because we scored more goals than anyone else in the division today, despite having the same goal difference as a number of teams.

And the cricket's not been bad either. Flintoff was an inspiration with the bat.

Wedding

A friend of mine was getting married today. I don't see her that often, mainly just at district synod, though I did bump into her at that MAYC event a couple of weeks ago. She's a really great person, and was integral to the methodist youth conference 2001 being a success. She was the chair of the planning comittee, and I remember a couple of late nights round her house as we put the final bits of the event together.

Anyway, she invited me along to the service and said she would email me the directions. I hadn't received them by yesterday, but I knew Chris Clark's parents were going, so gave them a ring cos I thought Janet would probably be a bit busy! Chris' mum answered and before I could ask she had dashed to catch Chris as he was just leaving the house. So Chris came on the phone and I started laughing, cos it was actually his mum I wanted t chat to and not him.

Got changed and stuff this morning, including a rare outing for the iron, cleaned my shoes and thought I best remind myself the way to the Clark's house on multimap. Also checked my email, and there was a list of directions from Janet that she's sent at 9:50 last night!

The service was nice, the whole marriage vow ceremony is so short and seems a bit like - is that it? Say a few words and now you're married. Sang some nice songs and Janet really looked stunning. When I saw her last I'd asked about what she was going to do with her hair. She told me that the hairdresser had already done a test run that week, and that it was just going to be something simple. Well it looked magnificent, and the dress looked good on her too. Didn't get any decent pics, but here's a few:

Booooooooooooorrrrrreeeeeeeed

At work.

this week I'm king of the photocopier

Don't mind it when I'm busy, but milling around is so dull. At least I'm paid to be bored. It's annoying though, cos there are loads of things I'd ratehr be doing, which - unfortunately - I don't get paid for.

Prob top of my list would be to read, I'm enjoying Cloud Atlas at the moment.


Well there's another 5 min occupied!

The F Word

So my faith is a psychological crutch, and it is, but not in the usual sense of the understanding: The fact that a person can only get through life in the knowledge that there is a better life to come. Something that I find easily used for oppressive purposes. Rather I think the gospels give hope for the life now, and a vision to effect and change the world now, and the hope that your life acts positively on that of others, making the world a better place to live, all this inspite of whatever heaven is or has in store. So my crutch is a sense of belonging and purpose and the chance to change the world. Though I understand it as being empowered by God to do his will and show the compassionate unconditional love of Christ which should impact my neighbours.
So where am I going, the fact that this crutch is not easy to hold, it digs into the skin and causes wounds, it's not easy to follow the vision of Christ, and he said it himself, and today I read a most extreme example of how hard following Christ can be.

You may have heard in the news about the awful killing of a young man in Liverpool that was racially motivated. How can a family come to terms with the fact that their son/brother died after being bludgeoned with an axe?

Well I read this today on the bbc news website:

The three walked away but were followed into a park where Anthony was attacked and an axe was left embedded in his skull.

He was taken to hospital but died later.

Mr Walker's sister, quoting from the bible, said: "Seventy times seven we have to forgive", that's what Jesus said. So we have to, we have to forgive.




Forgiven - The F word

now that's not easy

Something to think about

Peter R was leading the service on sunday and lead us in a bible study discussion of mat 14. Towards the end there was a verse where the disciples exclaimed, after seeing christ walking on water, surely this is the Son of God. Peter asked what do you think they meant by that. Which is really interesting, cos I'm sure it would be something completely different to what we understand from the phrase. What would a jew and disciple of Jesus mean by that phrase, as they don't fully understand who Jesus is at that moment. Would that have been a blasphamous phrase, or a common phrase to heap praise on a good man. Peter pointed out to me after the service that Christ always referred to himself as the Son of Man, which relates to a prophecy in Daniel.