Scanning

I have recently bought a scanner and have been obsessively scanning in photos from berofre we had a digital camera. It's so nice to look over so many happy memories. Our wedding, our eldest as a baby, me as a baby and many in between.

I am amazed at how many photographs we have. I thought we had a lot of digital photos - but it seems we have nearly as many normal ones. It's going to take a while to scan them all in...

Me.

My eldest.

200

This is my 200th post! It's a shame I can't think of anything exciting to write about.

Parent's Evening

We had our first parent's evening for our eldest at her new school this evening. It was really nice to chat with the teacher and find out how she is getting on. Our eldest seems to be settling in well and starting to make friends - she even has a birthday party to go to this weekend!

Our eldest before she ever started school

Vroom

I have got my new car - hooray! It is a bit strange after driving our Zafira and the handbrake is in a funny place and the bonnet sticks out at the front. Also it took a while to work out how to tune in the radio to radio 4. But it's done now. Phew.

New car

I'm supposed to be getting my interim new company car tomorrow. It's quite exciting. It's not brand new but it is still shiny. So if anyone wants to buy a slightly less shiny Zafira let me know.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Brrr. It's cold. Today was the first day of the year on which I had to de-ice my car. Also the minibus that takes my daughter to school failed to start and so I had to drive her there. Fortunately with my new job I could get her to school and still be in time for work!

This evening was a prayer and praise night at her school. A number of staff, parents and supporters get together regularly to pray for the work of the school - it was nice to be able to go and participate.

Eleven Years And Still Going Strong

Tomorrow is the 11th anniversary of my wedding. A lot has happened in those years - I have gained a couple of stone in weight, two children and a few gray hairs. We are still very happily married and still good friends. So here is a big thank you to my wife for 11 happy years and to many more to come...

Phew

Where has October gone?
My new job seems to be going well. (Well I am enjoying it - hopefully they are enjoying me!). Also this week, for one week only I am playing an Australian presenter in a childrens' holiday club. This is great fun, if a bit tiring. My wife is also presenting - we are a kind of comedy double act with bad Australian accents and a sparkly dress (Her's not mine.)

New Job

I started my new job today. It was quite a gentle introduction - just where the toilet is and how to get email. I think, in contrast, the next few days are going to have some quite serious learning effort on my part so I can be involved in some of the projects coming up.

Luckily I enjoy doing that!

Shoe shops - a comparative study.

Recently we have been to two different shoe shops to buy new footware for our eldest and youngest. Our eldest needed new school shoes for her new school and we happened upon a small independent shoe shop whilst we were on holiday in Frinton on Sea. There was no queue and we were served by a delightful lady with many years experience of fitting childrens shoes. She found some styles that suited our eldest and checked they fit well and would last a good long time. She even advised us on how best to proceed with helping our eldest get help for her slightly flat feet. The lady also advised us to just use normal shoe polish as we have been doing for years and we left happy. Today we went to a Clarks shop in our local shopping center. After battling through the crowds to reach the store we took a ticket from the dispenser to indicate our position in the queue. The number on the ticket seemed ridiculously high compared to the number on the indicator on the wall. We then waited for an eternity and were eventually served by a lady who measured our youngest's feet. She went to get him some shoes, the first attempt didn't fit but, after returning to what must be near the bowels of the earth judging by the time taken, we got a pair that fit. This was a victory in itself as generally they do not have any of the style we like in stock in the size we need. Then after refusing the obligatory offer of an opportunity to purchase special cremes essential for the care of the shoes (quite why they make shoes out of materials that purport to require such cleaners is beyond me, it's like having dry clean only tea towels) we leave with the newly purchased footware.
I think in future it might be more pleasant to drive the two and a half hours to Frinton on Sea just to buy shoes rather than braving the childrens' footware hell that is our local Clarks.

Two and three quarter years.

Well tomorrow is my last day with my current employer. I start my new job on Monday. It's been an interesting time with the merger with another company and then being sold to some venture capitalists. Parts of the job were interesting and parts boring but, as is often the case, it was the people that made the job enjoyable.
So here is a thank you to my colleagues and customers, and here's wishing you all the best for the future.

Letting the sides down.

Last night was our youngest's first night in his cot-bed as a bed and not a cot. He seemed to enjoy it and only woke us up at half six. So not too early, though a lie in would have been nice as our eldest was staying at some friends' house.

More and Less Sick

Well the virus did get me and so after a couple of days of not eating much, (I even had to miss free lunch day at work!) I feel much better. Unfortunately my youngest recovered quicker than us parents and so was a bit bored today but we have survived.

So now I am looking forward to watching Heroes and going to work tomorrow.

Sick

I am working from home today as there is sickness in the house. First my eldest succumbed and now my wife - who will be next...

Fortunately it seems only to last a few hours so hopefully my wife will be recovered soon as toddlers and work are an interesting combination and I am running out of DVDs. Though having said that my youngest and I are next on the virus's hit list.

Visiting

We have had a great day visiting my eldest's godfather and his wife. We met up for a picnic and church service in the park, went to their house for a cup of tea, went for a walk and a talk on Horsenden Hill, played in the play park and returned for crumpets. All in all a very enjoyable day.

Tutor Master Helps You Write Stories

My eldest's godfather is a private tutor and has also written a couple of great books. So if you are looking for a book that would help any children you know write stories then these are the books for you:

Party!!!

It was my youngest's birthday party today. He turned 3 a couple of weeks ago but his party was today. It had a dinosaur theme and was really good fun.

Here are some photos:

Niece's Hair

Me with my niece's hair:

Frinton on Sea

Frinton on Sea is a strange place. It's as if no one lives there. We went on holiday there for a week this summer and had a lovely time. But when we went for walks in the evening everywhere was quiet- most of the houses were in darkness. (Apart from the flat below us - but that is another story). The shops are all small and sell strange stuff - mostly for tourists. We do not know where the locals shopped.

Holiday in Frinton

Moonlit walk: A crab!:
More crabs!:
A boat:
The beach hut:

New Stuff

Exciting things are happening in the normal household. My eldest starts her new school next week, I am starting a new job next month and we will be getting a new car.

We have also just come back from a lovely holiday at Frinton on Sea. We stayed in a flat near the sea, had our own beach hut and spent time on the sand most days - catching crabs, building sand castles and in the case of my youngest jumping in the sea fully clothed.

Youngest's Birthday

It doesn't seem that long ago that we were a family of three. Now we are four and he is really adding a whole new dynamic to our lives as his personality develops.

Secrets

I quite like secrets, but I hate the fact that they are not much fun unless you can share them with someone else and then the secret is no longer secret. I suppose for maximum effect I need to tell lots of people individually before they find out from other people.

More Mundanity

Not much has happened over the last week. A trip to Glasgow with work was very pleasant - a nice way to get back into work mode from holiday. A fair bit of catching up at the office followed, with a fair bit to do still. And then just normal family stuff: a bit of shopping, a trip to the cinema to see Harry Potter and the Last Orders, Sunday school, but no gardening on account of the inclement weather. And some good news in that my eldest won some cool Simpson's stuff for inventing a humorous super pet.

Wearing pants on your head is fun.

Sorry to be so obsessed with potty training but a it seems quite a big deal at the moment. We are so pleased with our youngest's progress. When we started to try a month or so ago we had high hopes.

It all started with a trip to the shop to by him some pants. We made a big fuss of him and he was really pleased. we bought loads of stickers for his potty and made it look very special. He was still really pleased. He loved wearing his pants and sitting on his potty.

However he didn't do any wees or poos. Until... we went to my wife's mother's for tea. We took the potty and spare pants etc... and he suddenly needed a poo and a wee. We managed to get him to sit on the potty but there was no result. So he wandered off again. A short time later the urge came on him again and he ended up sitting on the potty in the middle of the living room. He did a huge long poo. This scared him a great deal. In retrospect in was a very bad idea to have the potty in such a public place. Once he had stopped shaking we praised him and encouraged him, but he was not going to be won over that easily.

From that point on he refused to sit on the potty at all. So my wife decided that the best thing to do was to leave it a few weeks. So we did.

We then decided to try again. We stocked up on pants and stopped buying so many nappies and commenced battle. For the first few days even wearing pants was not a popular move. We could put then on him but then we would suddenly find him without any and find the offending garments shoved in the washing machine. Gradually we won him over by making pants fun. Our eldest and I formed the "wearing pants on your head is fun club". He started wearing pants but wouldn't go in the potty. He would either not go all day until he went to bed for his afternoon nap in his nappy and let it all out at once or go on the floor or sofa or anywhere not waterproof.

Then we went on holiday and started the "if you do a wee on the potty you will get a sweet incentive scheme". He quickly got the hang of the whole thing after that, often pretending to do wees in an attempt to get extra sweets (to no avail). Poos came a few days later. He is still a bit confused about the difference between poos and wees - often trying many times to go on the potty with no result before the poo arrives. Hopefully now we are back from holiday and doing more things he will not lose the skill but we are fairly confident that he has got the idea.

Now the only problem is how to wean him off the sweets before he gets obese and his teeth fall out.

Proud member of the "wearing pants on your head is fun club":

If you would like to join please send a picture of yourself wearing pants on your head and having fun.

Another day in Bath

As Bath is one of our favorite places and as our youngest loves trains we took a trip on a train to Bath. The train was very full but the weather was lovely and we took a picnic and wandered about.

Eldest and youngest in a bandstand:
Costa coffee babycino poster boy: Me 'n' my boy:

A day in bath

Sign:
Southgate shopping centre:
Picnic in the park with my beautiful family:
Taking a dinosaur shopping:

A poo!

A poo in the potty. We are so proud! (I'll not post a photo).

A wee!

Today is an auspicious day. Our youngest has done a wee on his potty. Actually he has done three wees. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of nappies.

Potty potty.

We are currently trying to potty train our youngest. As he is nearly three we think it is about time that he stopped using nappies - and besides they cost lots of money (even the cheap nasty one we use). The first hurdle was getting him to wear pants. He was not very keen on this at all. He would take them off, hide them and then demand to have a nappy put on. But now, after much encouragement from his mother (my beautiful wife), he will now wear pants. The next step is actually getting him to wee. He will not do it. He doesn't perform any bodily functions at all all day until it is nap time and we put a nappy on. He then lets it all out - pushing the capacity of the nappy to it's limit. Or again at bath time. Our eldest has, not surprisingly, started to demand to have the bath water first because of this.

Here's hoping that more encouragement will help him with this next step to adulthood.

Holiday Photos

Holiday Mk 1

Well we are back from our first holiday of the summer. A dual purpose trip to go camping for our eldest's eighth birthday and to attend my parent's joint 60th party. The party was good. The camping was good. The sleeping was not so good. Our youngest did not seem to think that he should go to bed in the tent. We suspect that is was something to do with a combination of it not being very dark in the tent, a lot of noise on the campsite and a lack of normal routine. On the plus side the weather was good. Sunny for a lot of the time and only raining whilst we were asleep.
We have two holidays left this summer so lots to look forward to.

New School Uniform

We have bought our eldest's new school uniform. It is lovely, if slightly big due to growing room. It cost loads but it seems good quality and looks very smart.

It feels like a new start in many ways and so it seems appropriate to have new clothes. Though I suspect that we may well get secondhand ones from benevolent friends in the future. Just new shoes to get now...

End of Term

Tomorrow is my eldest's last day at her current school. She is sad to leave her friends but I think she is looking forward to her new school. It does help that her current teacher is leaving the school and the supply teacher she has had for much of this term is going to be teaching at her new school. I suppose I'll have to decide whether to stay on as a parent governor or not. I want to but I'm not sure if I will have enough time and also I wouldn't want to take a place that a genuine parent might want. I suppose I've got the summer to think about that.

Product Review - Mamas and Papas Pulse Buggy

We have had a Mamas & Papas umbrella fold "Pulse" buggy since last summer. I have to say that I have not been very impressed with it. Though having said that it is definitely one of the lightest and easiest buggies to push we have ever used.
At first it was nice and looked very comfortable but after a few months the raincover split and the seat began to fray and now, after less than a year, it is practically unusable.
As you can see from the picture below it is an attractive looking buggy, but unfortunately not very robust.

Here you can see the aluminium supports which have worn through the stitching on the seat.

Even the wheels have not lasted long - here you can see that the tyre is half worn through.

So in summary I would say that this is a nice looking buggy. If you value lightness and ease of pushing over robustness a good choice. Ok for light use but if you want it to last, get a different one.
Fortunately my brother and sister in law have kindly given us their Maclaren buggy that their child has grown out of so we can still get around with out causing harm to our youngest.

Actually...

Actually a few things did happen.

• My wife did the talk at Alpha, she was very good. It was on God's Guidance. And there was pizza.
• I made a pirate costume for my eldest for her "dress up like a pirate sports day".
• My youngest fell over at nursery and gave himself a huge fat lip.
• There was a really weird rain storm where is was very very sunny and absolutely pouring it down - our youngest still keeps going to the window to see if he can see another rainbow.
• I bought my eldest two new raincoats so she could choose which one to keep.
• I went to work.
• My wife worked an extra day at the nursery.

We are off now to spend the money she earned.

Nothing much happened

This week nothing much has happened.

Cake Sale Extortion

We went to a fete at the school our eldest will be starting at in September. It was really nice to see the large number of people supporting the school by attending as well as to see how many people we knew. Our youngest had a nice time and sampled some of the wares on the cakes stall, leaving sticky finger marks all over the top of a rather nice chocolate cake. We were forced to then purchase this chocolate cake at an exorbitant rate by the proprietor of the stall. At least it goes to a good cause and we got the tin thrown in.

Our eldest's new school with the cake stall in the foreground. (You can see the proprietor arranging his cakes to snare another unwary family.)

Another view of the school with a tug-of-war in preparation.

Defecting

We have defected from Tesco.com to ASDA home shopping. In order to save money and also to try out the new ASDA delivery service which has recently started in our area. On the face of it the two services seem similar. However there seem to be better safeguards in the ASDA version. When you get a different product substitute for the one you ordered you only pay up to the value of the thing you ordered, with tesco you can get charged more if your chosen product is unavailable. We'll let you know how we get on.

Duggie dug dug

We went to a church service led by Doug Horley. It was very good. Our two children loved it, as did we. It was a really good mix of action songs, puppets, teaching and fun. It was especially nice as we got to see some people who we don't get to see that often who were also attending the event. So if you are a church looking for something special to do for a Sunday morning (or any other time) I would recommend booking Doug Horley and his team.

Playing nicely

Our youngest playing with our eldest's doll's house.
She was a skater girl...

Result

Well. I have finally heard the outcome of my recent interview. The outcome was that I didn't get the job. Whether this outcome will be negative - well only time will tell, but as all things work together for the good... I can hope for the best. As least the management structure at work is becoming clear and this should allow everyone to settle down and work well.

Lego and Swimming

We went for Sunday lunch at some old friends. My wife used to look after their children when they were young. We hadn't seen them for a couple of years and so it was amazing to see how the boys had grown. In addition, as they had grown so much our children were bequeathed an array of plastic dinosaurs and an amazing assortment of Lego.

Our children were also thrilled as they have a small swimming pool in their garden and we had a go in it after lunch. (I had to get in to stop our youngest drowning). And much fun was had by all.

Child Prodigy

As a parent I feel it is my duty to boast about my children. So here is my youngest's first recognizable picture.

It is of our car - which is a green Zafira. I was quite impressed. But then, as I said, I'm a dad - that's my job.

BK

Today went well; I managed to run an errand to a branch of my bank and had lunch in Burger King. The bank I use does not have many branches - there is one in the town where I live but as I do not work there I can never get to it. For most things this is fine as the Internet makes many things possible. However I needed to open an account for my eldest and found that they needed a copy of her birth certificate. could I get to a branch? No. But today I found one in London. The queue was very long but the task was accomplished. To celebrate this achievement I went to Burger King for lunch. When out on business my preferred repast is a Double Whopper meal and Fanta. Hmmm. This is just the right combination of fat, salt and sugar to keep one alert and satisfied until one gets home.

City trip

Oh. I've thought of something to blog. I am off into London tomorrow to train some customers; always a treat. I love going into the city on the train - even though it is often crowded and lunch is usually much nicer than sandwiches. (Even though my wife makes me nice sandwiches most days (Makes sandwiches most days that is, it's not that she makes horrible sandwiches on some days)).

Lacking inspriation

Currently I am lacking inspiration in the blogging department. Fiddling on facebook has used some of my blogging time and in addition nothing much has happened. Oh well - I'm sure it'll come...

Hot Fuzz

We had a later than usual night last night and are really tired today. We were watching Hot Fuzz for the second time on the DVD I got for Father's Day. It is very funny, if slightly gruesome in a couple of spots. This evening we have had a friend round to celebrate my mother in law's birthday. We had cod with green mashed potato which was nicer than it sounds.

Making a fuss.

I had a great time at the monthly fun club that I help to run. I had devised a complicated game but the other leaders and children managed to pull it off and seemed to have a good time. Then as usual we split into different room for games, craft or sports. I was in the sports zone (despite being the least sporty person in the world).

What amazes me every time is that everyone just arrives, gets on with their setting up and by 10am we a ready for the children, and then just as magically when the children have left everything gets tidied away. What a team!

Basil

I love fresh herbs. We grow some in the garden but some do best when grown on the kitchen window sill. I particularly like having a fresh pot of basil available for inclusion in my culinary activities. I am now going to share my secret for getting the best crop of basil from a shop bought plant.

1. Get one from Lidl. For some reason the basil from lidl seems to last a really long time. I have tried different ones from different supermarkets but Lidl's seems to have the best. Perhaps they use top quality basil or perhaps the soil is laced with fertilizer. I know not, but it lasts a long time. And from Thursday they are selling a camping toilet for under £30! (Though that fact is unrelated to the basil).
2. Keep it on a window sill that is light but not in direct sunlight.
3. Place the pot in a bowl to catch the water you water it with.
4. Water it each morning with the cool water left in the kettle from last night. This will be at room temperature and will not give the basil a nasty shock.
5. If there is water that is not soaked up into the pot after a few minutes poor it down the sink.
6. Enjoy trouble free basil. Of course if you harvest too much it will die but on the whole we find it lasts ages.

Bindweed

We have been trying to tidy our garden. It is a rather sisyphean task as whatever we cut down grows back. Also we are quite good at getting it to looks nice at one point in time but then the effect tends to diffuse as different bits stop flowering, die or grow madly.

Currently I am embarking on a mini war with bindweed. I am tricking it by luring it up a nice pole and then I am going to poison it. hopefully this will work. But, as is often the case with gardening, you have to wait and see. No instant gratification.

How did it go?

The interview - for another position at where I work - seemed to go ok. I can never judge these things. I had answers for the questions asked - whether they were the answers of the person they want to fill the post only time will tell. The post appeals to me as it will use skills that I don't currently use as much in my current post as I would like and it should be a career improving move. Lets see how it goes...

Interview

I've got a job interview tomorrow. I hate interviews. I know I am good at my job and I know that I can do but persuading someone else of this is something I find very hard.

Perhaps I am just too humble. Or deluded?

Alpha

Went to an Alpha course this evening. My wife normally goes to help her Mum out and to get experience of it as she is going to be running one for her mums and tots group but she was too tired after work today and so I went instead. It was good - there was nice food to start with and conversation and then afterwards a guy called Rob talked about Faith and how he knows his faith in God is real. There was then a wide ranging discussion about how, even in the face of bad things happening to us or people we know, faith in God helps us to cope.

Another day in paradise...

Well perhaps not but work wasn't that bad today. In fact I quite enjoyed it. This is a good sign as my holidays normally wear off by eleven on the first day back. Also the fact that someone brought cakes in for their birthday helped a great deal. In addition the prospect of learning new stuff for the next few weeks as I am going to be shadowing a colleague who is an expert in something I am not so that should be good. I enjoy learning new things.

Back from holiday.

We have been away for a wonderful week staying in a friend's cottage in a place called the Lower Mill Estate. It was very nice. The cottage had lots of room, a wood burning fire, all the kitchen appliances you could want as well as fantastic scenery and grounds. Our eldest swam in the outdoor swimming pool most days - despite on one day it being drier in the pool than out on account of the torrential rain. It was a lovely week. We had a great time as a family and by the end of it felt relaxed enough to start having a holiday but, unfortunately, it is back to school and work tomorrow.

Photo's from our holiday at Cornerstone.

Cornerstone.

Where we stayed.

Duck painting.

Our eldest in the pool.

Our youngest in "armour".

Carrrrggggghhhs

I am not a fan of cars. I love the convenience and freedom they endue. But I hate the relentless maintenance and cost they require. Our car has had to have it's annual MOT test. It initially failed and needed a new exhaust and tyre before it would pass. That combined with an annual service has cost us a small fortune. Unfortunately I need to have a car to get to work and back and it also makes the rest of our lives possible. Public transport would be impractical for the range of places we need to get to each day.
I have often wondered if it would be cheaper in the long run to buy cheap old cars regularly and get a replacement one when it needs lots of things doing on it.
In an ideal world I would have a car provided for a fixed affordable cost that would be replaced if it ever broke down but the leasing schemes that purport to provide this always seem to be for new cars and because of that, more expensive than running an older car. Or be so rich that I didn't car how much a car cost to run.

Thanks

When we went to the Kids' Workers' day my parents kindly came up from Dorset to child sit. It was nice to see them. Our children were very excited to see them and by all accounts had a fantastic day without us. And as an added bonus our eldest and my mum created a fantastic sunflower project for her school homework.

Kids' Workers' Day

We went to the New Wine Kids' Workers' Day on Saturday. It was fantastic, very encouraging, informative and a great time. There were different seminars, times of worship and nice food. I have wriiten a bit about it here. There is only one thing that troubled me and that is where to put the apostrophes in the title of this post.

New school

We have been looking at sending our eldest to a different school. The reasons are complex and numerous but essentially revolve around our concern for her to have the opportunity to make good positive friendships. We have just found out today that she has been accepted and starts in September. It has been a difficult decision to make in some ways in that we have to pay fees for the school and we didn't want to commit to something that would cripple us financially and cause us to live on tesco value white bread and margarine for the next few years but and easy decision in many other ways in the the schools ethos matches our own and the atmosphere at the school is lovely. And so in many ways this has been a step of faith.

New fun internet thing

I've just joined another internet networking website thing. I've had a go at most of the main ones but I quite like this one. I tried My Space but it just annoyed me and I couldn't work out what the point was but now I have joined Facebook. The good thing about it is that you can be a lot more controlled on who can see what. The bad thing is that most of my friends are not on it as it is mostly inhabited by people under the age of 25 as it started as a college/university student thing. But gradually it is becoming more popular with those born earlier such as I. See if you can find me and add me as a friend.

Haircut

I've been to the barbers and had my hair cut. This is always a bit traumatic for me. Especially so this time as I had not been to this particular barbers before. I normally go to an Italian mother and son outfit near where I live but as all our weekends are busy for the next few weeks I have had to find one near my work. Though as it turned out it wasn't as bas as it could have been. He wasn't one of those barbers who feels the need to talk all the time - I find this difficult as when I am not wearing my glasses I can't see any visual cues from their body language - are they joking or serious? Talking to me or someone else?. And he also seemed to know how to cut my hair without me answering lots of questions about what sort of something or other I wanted or whether I wanted some hairdressing term or other doing. The only thing I need now is to know if it looks ok. I'll have to wait until I'm home to find that out...

Abduct a child fund?

Is it just me or is anyone else a bit concerned about the large rewards for information leading to the recovery of the abducted child Madeleine McCann. Now don't get me wrong; I am as desperate that she be found as the next person. It's just that surely the amount of money offered is going to be attractive to the sort of evil people who steal children and it might encourage other mad people to take children in the hope of getting some of it. The fund to assist in the search seems a much better use of money and no doubt will help both in Madeleine's recovery and help either directly or indirectly in other abduction cases.

Our family's prayers are with Madeleine and her family.

Scythe sharpening

At work it seems that the new management team is looking to make the company more efficient. A number of people in the offices in America have been made redundant and it looks like the scythe of efficiency is swinging our way. I hate all this uncertainty - it makes it hard for me to concentrate and relating to colleagues who may or may not be at risk of losing their jobs. So here's to stability and to still having a job when it's all over.

Training Day

Yesterday was a leadership training day at my church. It was really good and a great time to look at the vision of the Church as see how it needs to be and can be communicated to all those involved in the stuff the church does.

One of the first things we did was try to remember the mission statement of the church but only one group could do this. (I think I had an excuse as I am quite new to the church and don't think I had ever known the mission statement.) The mission statement is (for those who are interested):

Growing individuals to become God's people and releasing them to transform their world.

This is good and I think I am starting to remember it. Though, as was acknowledged, it is quite a long and complicated sentence to remember. Once we has review these we looked at how we should be putting this into practice. This is through 5 C's:

Children and Youth

Corporate

Cross Culture

Compassion

Church planting

The first 3 things being things we are doing really well and the second 2 things things that are going quite well but could be going better. We then looked at how important it was that everyone was working towards the same vision if we want to get any of this done.

Pizza

We had another planning meeting for the October holiday club last night. It seemed to go well though there were slightly less people there than last time. There was also someone from one of the other churches we are partnering with to put on more than the one event at the same time. He was really enthusiastic and excited about all the possibilities (as were we all).

The metaphorical jungle denizens went down well as publicity material for the event and we thought about some of the characters from the Bible we wanted to include. As a result of the ideas resulting from the philosophy behind the publicity we are looking for people in the Bible who God saved from something, but also had some sort of character flaw that they needed help with as well. As most people have flaws of one sort or another this shouldn't limit the field too much but it has made it hard to find female characters. They are either very well behaved, prostitutes or both.

On the food front we had pizza and as we had catered for the maximum number of attendees and only had about half that number attending there was plenty to go round.

Politics

Now we’ve done religion it’s time for politics. Gosh bogging is so liberating!! I will be sorry to see Tony Blair go. I actually think he has been a great Prime minister. Putting the Iraqi war to one side, I think he has brought the country on in leaps and bounds since the Tories were in power. There have been immense improvement to the health service and education. Unemployment is down and we have a very strong economy. To have won 3 general elections and to then stand down and not be booted out can’t be bad. Last night my other half said would he like to have Tony round for dinner. I think I might prefer to go to his house for a meal. Yes I would love to if you could arrange that for me. Apologies to my brother in law who might be reading this. I know he will be hissing and spitting and be quite glad to see the back of Tony. Come on Castle Langley let's see some more blogging.

Google is quick

I have just found that I am listed in the result of a Google search for metaphorical jungle denizens after only writing about it mere minutes a go. That's fast.

Jesus

Last night we helped out with our Churches Alpha group. It was a really great night. My other half gave the talk about who Jesus was. It was a really interesting evening which led to quite a bit of discussion about Jesus’ existence. It amazed me that despite all the evidence, not just in the bible but other none biased historical documents etc... people had really strange ideas about who Jesus is. And what actually happened to him. One person suggested that after his crucifixion he survived and went off to INDIA!! So he never rose from the dead. I almost think they have no real understanding of how brutal the Romans were. In that day when they crucified someone it was to execute them in a very slow and inhumane way.

When it comes to God I think some people would rather believe the impossible than to believe in God. I actually think it takes more faith to believe there is no God. Maybe that’s because I know God to be true. We’ve had so many amazing things happen in our lives that is more then just coincidence, it’s not just about getting what you want in life it’s experiencing deep love and fulfilment, hope and intimacy like you’ve never know it.. I know a number of angry people who refuse to believe and their anger never goes away. What hope without God is there? Why do people refuse to even step out in faith to see if he is there? Maybe they think the cost is too high. How deceived they really are.

Denizens of a Metaphorical Jungle

The who is Jesus talk seemed to go ok. Though it seems that some of the people at the meeting might have preferred I use The Davinci Code rather than the Bible as my main source of information about him. The food was very nice also lasagne followed by raspberry tart. Whilst I was there I also had a chance to discuss some of the ideas from the team looking at the publicity for the holiday club that we are involved in planning for October. They involve what can be described as denizens of a metaphorical jungle. More of this later...

Who is Jesus

Writing this blog entry is a bit of a displacement activity as I am supposed to be preparing a talk for an Alpha course my mother-in-law is running tomorrow evening on who Jesus is. It is a bit short notice but her first choice found they had prior commitments at the last minute. I quite enjoy doing this sort of thing but always feel unprepared. Probably because I spend most of the time that I should be preparing doing things like writing blog entries...

No fear

My youngest seems to know no fear. Well that's not quite true he did seem a bit scared of the bit of Doctor Who he saw the other day and he was truly petrified by his first potty training experience - but he has no fear of physical harm. Yesterday he was at a friend's birthday party where there was an inflatable slide - it must have been 5 feet high and he was just throwing him self down it. I couldn't watch as it was too scary - but he seemed to be having fun and also to come to no harm, In fact the only time he hurt himself was when he banged heads with another child in the race to get up the slide for another go.

Jonah

Today I was Jonah in the monthly family service. I was good fun, though I am always nervous of being an embarrassment to my family and myself. My eldest was very helpful with designing my costume and learning my lines. (Though we did have some stylistic differences in how the costume should look- but those were eventually settled.) She also helped with making seaweed out of crepe paper and fish bones out of plastic milk bottles.

Hopefully the people in the service learnt a bit about Jonah and that it helped reinforce the message being given by the people leading the service.

Secret garden gets bench

My wife has bought a little bench for the secret garden for the children to play on. It looks very sweet.

New Job

I started my new job yesterday. I'm working as a Nursery Nurse in a Nursery school. I was asked by a friend from church who is a family worker at this school if I would consider working one day a week up until the end of the summer term. It’s fantastic as it fits in brilliantly with the family and the school is happy for me to bring my son in with me. The timing of this is also amazing, which I will share more about in a later blog. It’s funny not long after I qualified as a Nursery Nurse I regretted my qualification and have not really been sure of what to do, but it’s actually been a wonderful career that has opened many interesting doors for me. It’s also a good career that fits in with family life. I am feeling really blessed at the moment. My son loved his first day at Nursery school, I barely saw him all day. He got a little clingy when I was doing some singing with the children. When it time to go home he did his normal: a tantrum! Never mind. We will be back again next week. I'm also excited by the possibilities that this could open up for me. They've already asked me if I'm interested in more days.

Best Seat

When ever I fly to go and work with a customer I always try and get the seat I consider to be the best. I'm not excessively competitive about it. That is to say I am not one of the militant queuers that seem bent on being first in the queue no matter what. But by a process of being in the right place at the right time I aim to sit in the seat by the front door in the plane. This seat has the advantage of lots of legroom, nothing in front of you,the chance of getting of the plane first and sitting by a window. You also get to see the cabin staff and what they are up to, and as I am one of those nosey people who likes to know what is going on this suits me very well. I suppose some of the disadvantages are that you are the first to be sucked out of the plane if the door falls off, you cant put any bags under your chair and the little table that comes up from between the seats is a little wobbly. But as I only fly to places that are quite close and so don't take long this isn't a problem. On my trip to Glasgow this week I managed to get this seat on the way their but not on the way back - I had to sit one row back, but at least I still had a window. Tough on the way back being first off the plane only meant that you got a seat on the coach to the terminal as the plane parked in a funny place.