A silly thing to do

Somebody said something very silly this week. That silly thing was "A little bit of rain never did anyone any harm!", she may or may not have been suffering from spent-far-too-much-time-all-together-in-one-house syndrome.

As a result we got up early this morning (far too early when you were still reading at 2 in the morning) and drove up to the Lake District. Arriving at Grizedale forest, a water main had broken (you would have thought this would have been warning enough) and so we couldn't use the toilets, but, heck, it wasn't raining so we went for a walk. At the top of the crag (or thereabouts) it began to mizzle. And then it began to drizzle. And then it began to rain. 'Why stop at rain' thought the clouds, 'when we can get rid of all the water in the world all at once?' and so the heavens opened.

At the drizzle stage we stopped off for coffee and chocolate biscuits in the forest, but we couldn't stay there for ever or we would still be there now, with hypothermia to boot. So we found a quicker route and made our way back down to the visitor centre. Absolutely. Completely. Utterly. Drenched head, coat, very soggy trousers, into the socks and down into the boots.

What a tremendous success of a day! Can't say it made me terribly popular though...

Tagged

Righto, I have been tagged by Mike Peatman. It is a blogging kind of chain letter. As such I have to tell you all 5 facts about me that you don't already know and then pass it on to 5 more bloggers. I shall admit at this end, as I do with all chain letters, that I will not be passing on this tag to anyone else, though purely because the only blogs that I read have already been tagged by Mike. Alas.

So for 5 facts. Hmm, never easy but I shall have a go.

Oh dear, I'm struggling at the first hurdle, I have been thinking intensely for the last 5 minutes and still haven't come up with 1 fact about myself...

1) I have learnt many musical instruments to a basic level and still can play none of them very well at all! I began by learning the recorder at primary school but stopped because I was moved down to the less able group after failing to improve as fast as the rest! I have played the recorder, violin, clarinet, keyboard and guitar.

2) My violin was actually taken off me! I started to learn the violin in year 5 at primary school and didn't enjoy it much, my mum told me I couldn't give up until the end of year 6, but at the Easter my teacher took it off me. It was a school violin and I never practiced it (it's not easy to practice when your brother steals your bow on a regular basis!), my teacher saw no reason in me continuing to have lessons, I think I was holding the group back too!

3) I got 99% at my keyboard exam! The first instrument I actually stuck at was the keyboard when I was in 6th form (it's easier to practice an instrument when you can put headphones in - there is less family complaint) and took my Grade 1 Primary exam in the summer before going to University. I gave up the keyboard when I went to University. At University I took up the guitar but gave that up after I returned in 4th year and was so busy with essays I never got back to the teacher to start up lessons again.

4) An uninstrumental fact - I used to take sugar in my tea until I went to University. My flat mates would never remember when they made me a brew so I learnt to drink it without.

5) When I was at primary school I wanted to be a missionary to China after reading The Small Woman, a biography of Gladys Aylward. I also remember being surprised when I discovered that not all Christians wanted to be missionaries! How cute!

RIP Spice Girl boots...

A very sad thing just happened, I had to throw my old denim platform boots away because they'd gone mouldy in my wardrobe. It was a very sad occasion. They served me well as Baby Spice at the Year 6 disco we put on for prospective year 7s during my last year at school. And they made me a good 6 inches taller.

All Quiet On The Western Front

Another update on my reading list. I have added All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque to it since I realised it had been missed off the first edition. I have now read the book and so can remove it again. An absolutely remarkable book, and refreshing to read about the First World War from the point of view of the Germans after studying so much history from a British perspective.

I remember quite well an assembly that our head teacher gave to us once about the First World War in which he got the whole year to stand up and then class by class got us to sit down again until there were only a few left standing at the front. His point was that the soldiers in the trenches were not decimated as is so often said, decimated means ten percent of. The soldiers in the trenches were killed in much greater percentages than 10 in 100. Reading All Quiet On The Western Front brought that home to me once again.

I have also been reading up about Rwanda today and searching for blogs of other people working out there. I came across an interesting blog at www.ianwk.blogspot.com through www.rwanda-aid.org. I think I will start to brush up on my French before I go to Dundee to start my training with Signpost International too, despite working in France for Spring Harvest Holidays for 2 summers my French language skills are no further on than when I stopped studying it at year 9!

On another book note, I have also read C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed so now my reading list stands thus, all of which I have started:
Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Life Together
Alister McGrath - Theology The Basics
Bill Hybels - Too Busy Not To Pray
Nick Spencer - Asylum and Immigration - A Christian Perspective
Alistair Redfern - Being Anglican

My last

I just ate my last love heart, with a week of no-sweets to go.

Shaping the sofa to fit my behind

Ben was up over the weekend, he is off to Thailand this week with friends for Christmas. We had a mini 'UnChristmas', as Sophie called it, on Sunday when we swapped and opened presents. Ben got me the box set of The Vicar of Dibley, a most superb choice I thought! So I have spent much of the day shaping the sofa to fit my behind and have watched much Vicar of Dibley.

Saturday would have been UnChristmas but it was the choral society's Christmas Concert which had me in rehearsals for 3 hours on Saturday afternoon and then the concert in the evening so it was UnChrismas Eve instead. The concert was fabulous, we were singing Rutter's Gloria and were accompanied by Intrada, a brass band from Preston. The brass really made it, with tingle making crescendos and pounding Timps. When we had finished the Gloria with Rutter's resounding finale I could have sung it again straight away, I was very sad to hand my music in at the end of the evening!

Sunday morning saw music group lead the all age service at church. I had been making puppets all week of many many varieties of birds and an angel (I regretted agreeing to make the puppets when I discovered that all of the characters were birds... not easy to draw!).

In the evening I went up to Lancaster for my final visit before Christmas and went with Sarah and Kieron to the 'Guest Service' at church. It was wonderful to see the all age orchestra, and to hear them and I came away feeling very Christmassy. I also saw our angel from Monday in situ complete with lights shining on his wings to create a colourful effect, fabulous!

Angles, Angles all around

No, not my spelling error... I have been teaching the Christmas story and this is a common misspelling in the books I have marked. One child pointed out to me that her neighbour had written angles instead of angels because they'd been learning all about angles in numeracy recently and had been learning the spelling!

On another angel note, Sarah and I have returned to church to make another angel (back by popular demand!!) this time to go up in church for the Christmas services. We had to go out again to buy the resources so we had different materials to make him out of. As a result he looks much different. I can't quite decide which one I prefer.

The board, expertly put together by Dave and then backed in black.

"Look! It's as big as me!"

The finished angel.

Rwanda update

I have finally received some details about my adventure to Rwanda!

The main project for the team will be to create a community centre. Signpost international already own the building, Hope House, and this is also where the team will be based and where the office is. Our job will be to make the centre function for the community. We will be creating a community cafe with space for other micro enterprises - an internet cafe, a jam making business and a craft shop.

Another project is a water project providing a water tank to collect rain water so that the villagers won't have to walk several miles each day to collect water.

It transpires that I will be doing a fair amount of teaching in the local school as well. They intend on using the skills I have developed at St. Martin's! Curiously this is the part I am least sure about, though purely because I worry that I will not know whether the children are learning any English which will be of any use! I am going to have to read up on TEFL, learning a second language is far different from learning to read and write in a first language. I am sure that all that I learnt on placement in Germany from teaching English and observing English lessons will come in useful!

My last 4 love hearts

My sweet supply in my top draw has dwindled to the last 4 love hearts. This is very sad. When they have all gone (I shall try to eek them out for a day or two longer) I shall be sweetiless until Christmas. I don't buy my own sweets, I rely on presents to replenish my supply! The sweets I got as presents from my class in July lasted until October probably. These love hearts were in a goody bag I got at the youth conference at the beginning of September.

Oh no! Now I'm down to 3!

I think this post was going to include more than an audit of my sweet collection when I started but Jo distracted me on the phone and now I can't remember... heigh ho.

Maranatha!

I seem to be missing many post-creating elements on this page today... can I only do things if I know HTML now? Most confusing.

Father Peter once told me how we should say 'Maranatha!' or 'Come Lord!' in the run up to Christmas and that he had got the children at the school attached to his church saying it. I will always remember that. I love advent, having the time to think about Christmas and to prepare for Jesus' arrival. A couple of years ago I read 'The Art of Waiting' by Wendy Bray as my advent book and it was excellent preparation for Christmas. This year I am not committing myself to an advent book as well as my normal time of Bible reading because as a house group we are using a study from America called 'Breaking Free' which involves a lot of time inbetween group meetings. I have high hopes for God to use the study to teach me many things about myself and allow him to free me from things which keep me captive. I am also re-reading 'Strong Women, Soft Hearts' on a similar theme. Each time I read that book I learn something new about myself and about God, I recommend it.

20:11 - now it is working

An even cuter picture of me...

I look like a boy, but my hair is there - honest! It is tied back!

Tidying and reminiscing

I have sorted out my book shelves today and taken many books to the charity shop. They have been annoying me for a while, well since I returned from Lancaster actually, so about 18 months! I had too many books for my shelves since combining many belongings from 4 years cumulation in Lancaster to what I had left behind (a room full) in St Annes. Books were piled on top of books on the shelves, which looks scrufy I think. So now my shelves look ordered, hooray! In the process I also came across a handful of photographs which hadn't been filed so I have been scanning them into my computer.

This is a classic. From sports day when I was in year 7 at the High School, it was taken by a photographer from the local paper and I featured on the back page along with a report about the day. Good picture (apart from the tongue hanging out of my mouth - not good to be displayed for all to see when you are only 11) but I did attrociously at the long jump and came 9th out of 10 in my year!

Another professional job. This is my sister, cousin and I. I am wearing the dress I wore for my baptism, I loved it!

I am considering a hair chop as well. Looking back at pictures of me when my hair looked neat make me think of chin level hair again. I shall contemplate.

Cornered... no escape...

Tomorrow I am all set to meet the new Bishop of Lancaster. The vicar collared me ouside church this morning and suggested I go to the 'Welcome to Lancashire' service or 'Hello this is the Kirkham deanery' or whatever it is in Lund tomorrow evening. He said a lady from church was going and I could speak to her... I thought, mmm... then he turned away and she was there offering to pick me up at ten to seven! So no music group for me tomorrow night... and I have been instructed to make myself known. There is no escape!

Have a heavenly Christmas!

Please excuse a little pride on my behalf in this post today. Yesterday Sarah and I went to St Tees to create a giant Christmas card. The idea being that members of the congregation make a donation to Operation Christmas Child (the chosen charity) and then add to the giant card instead of sending many cards to lots of church members. The money spent goes to a good cause and there are far fewer cards being sent which pleases the environment.

The design

I borrowed inspiration for the design from the illustrations by Tim Jonke in Bob Hartman's book "A Night The Stars Danced For Joy" (which is also an amazing retelling of the Christmas story). The idea was for us to make a large angel, the angel Gabriel, to go in the centre of the display and then have many smaller angels for people to write their greetings on and then add to the display to create a 'heavenly host'.

The display board in the church is only quite small so we extended the display with the backing paper and then with the border. It took us an hour and a half just to put up the backing paper!! Having bought many different types of sparkly gold and silver paper and material we went to church yesterday to put it all together. We used an overhead of the initial angel design to project onto the board and then used that to draw around the various parts of the angel.
We then assembled all the parts of the angel on the floor so that we could work out where all of the different sections were going to fit together and in which order we would need to staple them to the board.Finally we attached the angel to the display. We added some schiffon type transparent gold material for the body tied together with ribbon to give it a 3D effect and added the greeting 'Have a heavenly Christmas' to complete the card. I think it is fabulous!!

CUs and SUs and all that

I enjoyed this cartoon today. I also enjoyed reading Yellow's Blog and his take on the matter.

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Christmas shopping

Today was a day of much wandering around town. I'm not a big fan of shopping (understatement), but decided that as I am regularly unoccupied at present I might as well use my time productively and begin my Christmas shopping, normally a task reserved for the few days of panic before Christmas day. Buying earlier does have its drawbacks though - without the fear element I am more inclined to wander aimlessly without a notion of what to buy. I did make significant inroads however so came home satisfied.

I don't like the aspect of Christmas shopping whereby you have to buy something for everyone on your list... by that I mean that I don't always find something that I think someone will really love and so inevitably buy something, anything, just so that I have given them something on Christmas day. This kind of gift giving seems so wasteful. I am a big fan of alternative gifts from charities, such as a set of school books for a school child in Uganda etc. My sister bought me something similar for my birthday this year. Still, it's all very well to be bought these things, and I am sure there are people I could buy them for myself, but for most people on my gift list an alternative gift would be inappropriate. I think the whole point of giving is to find something that that person would appreciate, something personal. Buying an alternative gift for someone who would not appreciate it would be like buying a dvd that I wanted to watch and giving it to my dad... we have very different tastes in film!

Fantastic fairs...

Yes, it was the annual autumn/Christmas fair at church today, always a treat. A particular highlight this year was the tombola from which I won this amazing prize:

Half a set of plastic coasters! In fact, I know it was half a set because another lady won the other three coasters to complete the set! I do believe they truely surpassed themselves this year.

Learning about Rwanda

I have been learning about Rwanda this evening. There is so much to take in about the history and the reasons leading up to the genocide of 1994. I have found the government's website particularly useful in its information, though endeavour to read around a bit more to get a fuller picture.

Other useful websites include:
BBC - an overview of the country
CBC - canadian news site

Not the best Taize service ever

Taize service left a little to be desired last night. Actually, that is a little unfair, it was mostly good and fairly well polished (a few slow starts but we sped up once the singers came in) but one chant in particular let us down. Near the end we sang 'veni sancte spiritus', Rachel plucked the notes on her guitar and we started, I couldn't get my note and felt myself flush very red as I shook my head in horror. We stopped and she gave us our notes again. I was singing the same notes and felt ridiculous, it didn't sound right at all but we soldiered on regardless. Fortunately for me (but not for Martin) I was not singing the first cantor part, Martin was, and he couldn't get his note either so warbled around making something up that didn't seem right at all. Then it was my turn to sing cantor (I was wildly praying someone would have stopped the whole farce before I had to embarrass myself) and a bar or two in Jane stopped us again. It turns out Rachel had given us an A minor instead of an A by accident... after getting the correct notes we started for a third time and all was well, though confidence shaken my cantor still left a little to be desired!!

Aside from that disasterous moment the service ran smoothly and I hope we were able to provide a quiet contemplative space for prayer. As a part of a group leading you never can quite judge how things have gone, I feel. No one seemed to notice that my prayers were blatantly thieved by typing 'intercessions remembrance sunday' into google, though I think I'll write my own next time then I won't feel quite so fraudulent. It's not so easy to pray when you feel like a fraud!

Prayer thievery

Is it OK to search for intercessions on the internet, snip good sentences out of them and create your own prayers entirely made up of ones you have taken from the internet, especially if these are much more articulate and eloquent than if you had written them yourself?

I suspect not because now I feel naughty.

Hooray!

I am only going to sing Dona Nobis Pacem through one more time! Hooray hooray! We have been rehearsing for 3 hours this afternoon and I am tired. I am always glad to get to the performance... the conductor can't stop us and make us go over and over and over and over a few bars...

Christian celebrations

My mum went to Preston yesterday to re-register at the university (she's in the middle of doing a masters) and was given a free academic diary. I have had a flick through it and noticed a strange thing... for each pagan festival there is a note like:
Winter solstice - Pagan Society celebrates Yule or
Pagan Society celebrates Eostre
equally there are notes like:
Baha'i Society celebrates Naw-Ruz or
Islamic Society celebrates Festival of Id al Adha
Yet for Christian festivals (and now I've had a look, Hindu and Jewish festivals) it seems that no-one is celebrating, or at least the university doesn't seem to know about it. Christmas gets:
Christmas Day - Public Holiday (though fair enough, the Christian Union or even Chaplaincy aren't likely to be holding a Christmas Day celebration, being that the students will be at home with their families) and Easter:
Easter Sunday, End of Lent.
Is there some kind of heirarchy here between who celebrates and who doesn't? Is there a member of the Pagan Society on the team for producing the diaries?
Well, at least the Christian festivals are listed I suppose.

Television star!

On Monday my granny was on the television! It was terribly exciting! She won a Christmas card competition and as one of 5 winners in different categories went down to London all expenses paid to be presented with her prize on the Paul O'Grady show! Her picture was by far the best, though I may suffer from a little bias. And if you want to buy the card they are on sale in Co-ops and the profits from their sale go to three homeless charities.

Exciting adventure here I come!

I received the details in the post yesterday about my adventure with Signpost International. I now have dates for starting training in Dundee as well as dates for going to Rwanda itself on their Going Global team. It's all starting to happen and I am most excited! I also have yet another CRB form to fill in, I think I will be able to do them with my eyes shut before long. Well, it can add to my growing collection including clearance for the Guide Association, Spring Harvest Holidays, Blackpool Borough Council and Lancashire County Council. If only these things were transferable...

Taize

Music group are leading a service on Sunday evening for Remembrance Sunday, Taize chants and war poetry. It promises to be very thoughtful and contemplative. I went to music group last night and found myself with the job of writing and leading intercessions... I'm also singing a few of the cantor parts which I have been practicing diligently this morning. I always think our music group's strength is its ability to do Taize well with the harmonies, cantor parts and a variety of instruments played by the talented musicians we have. I shall enjoy it.

Fireworks etc.

I had a very lovely day on Saturday. I had planned a while back with Jenn, my old house mate, that we would come up for the fireworks in Lancaster and Jenn, being the organised person that she is, arranged for a few others to come up too for a mini reunion. I awaited her phone call on Saturday morning to find out when we would be meeting in Lancaster. I got bored waiting and decided to go up anyway and to drop in on some folk whilst I was waiting. I parked outside Sarah's thinking she would be in, but she wasn't so I went round to the Boyd's. It was very lovely to see them and chat and have lunch and then went back to the Evans' for a little while (driving Sarah to babysitting before returning to chat to Kieron!). Eventually I got the phone call and met the others in town. We had a lovely time! We went out for tea to the Water Witch which was particularly disappointing in its level of service (but my sandwich was rather gorgeous) before going up to the castle to see the fireworks.

The rubbish service at the pub meant that we were running rather late to see the display and were sent a ridiculous way down and back up the hill in the dark along with hundred's of others and only just got to the bottom of the hill by the Priory when they started. Amazing display though, even if we were too far away from the speakers to hear the patriotic music. Despite clambering over walls and up hills we got a good spot to see the fireworks without too many heads in the way. I embarrassed myself by loudly exclaiming, 'oh don't stand there!' when someone moved right into my line of view...who then turned around, apologised and knelt down for the rest of the display! It was definately one of those did I really say that out loud? moments!!

I am always very impressed that Lancaster can provide such a fantastic display of fireworks and not charge for entry at all. There must have been thousands there on Saturday night. Still, town is absolutely chocka block afterwards so they must get some decent tourist revenue from it. I suspect it may have something to do with there not being all that many gardens in Lancaster with the rows and rows of Victorian terraced housing. Discouraging home done firework displays when everyone lives in such close quarters is always going to be a good plan. Well done Lancaster.

I think I am sometimes spoilt by dividing my time between 2 places (not often, just sometimes) and on Sunday went with mum and Sophie to see the Rotary Firework Display in Lytham St Anne's as well. These ones were particularly rubbish after the far superior display the day before. It seemed that they had bought a job lot of one type of rocket which we got again and again and again! We're hoping for better next year.

Jogging - what's that all about then?

I went for a jog yesterday. Please try not to look too surprised. My friend Jo invited me to join her as she goes for a jog fairly regularly. I was not entirely looking forward to it, I can't remember the last time I did exercise, though I think it was probably some point around about 4 years ago when I was a member of the gym at college. Actually I used to be quite good at running and ran cross country representing our school when I was in about year 10. I may have represented the school, but I did come second to last...!! I blame the bogginess of the field at Preesall, my feet were more accustomed to sandy St. Anne's soil. Still, I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I did not die on our jog, nor even stop. I may make a long distance runner yet. London Marathon 2020 here I come.

Daylight saving?

This article has made me angry today. Mike Rutherford has said that the clocks shouldn't go back because it would be safer for children coming home from school. Sounds good enough at first, almost plausible, then he makes ridiculous statements like:

"Better still, so that they can commute more safely during light mornings AND light afternoons, why not shorten the school day in winter and make up for lost time in the balmy summer months? For heaven's sake, Scotland - with its proud, independent heritage and its very own Parliament - could even have its own time zone if that’s what the majority of its residents want."

Now I don't live in Scotland but that comment really makes me irate. How ridiculously ludicrous to suggest that the school day should alter in length according to the time of year, have an hour or two less in winter and then extend them in summer by the same amount. How is that even vaguely workable? And as for his comments about Scotland, they seem like closeted racism to me, he's saying 'who gives a monkeys about Scotland? If they don't like the dark let them live in the sun-blessed south'. The truth is, changing the day to make it sunnier in the afternoon instead of the morning doesn't mean the sun shines any longer. There are going to be accidents on the roads when there are children about, whether that is in the morning or the afternoon. Besides which, as schools finish at around 3 o'clock now anyway, most children should be home or nearly so before darkness falls. Change that time to the morning and it will certainly be dark when the children are arriving, come December it will only just be light by the beginning of the school day as it is.

Addition -
GreenwichMeanTime.co.uk say this about an experiment in the 60s to do away with daylight saving:

"In 1968 to 1971 Britain tried the experiment of keeping BST - to be called British Standard Time - throughout the year, largely for commercial reasons because Britain would then conform to the time kept by other European Countries. This was not good for the school children of Scotland as it meant they had to always go to School in the dark. The experiment was eventually abandoned in 1972, Britain has kept GMT in winter and BST in summer."

Join Me

I have now finished Join Me - a very enjoyable read. Considered buying his next book, Yes Man, when shopping in Windermere last week but managed to resist.
My reading list now stands as before and I'm wondering where to go from here? I might be feeling pro-active this week in which case I think I'll go for Bonhoeffer. I might not though.

Hallowe'en

For the first time in my life I have been involved in an alternative Hallowe'en party. Growing up, hallowe'en was always nicely avoided at home by watching the television in the backroom with the rest of the lights off in the hall and landing so that it looked as if no one was in, and then ignoring the doorbell if it rang. Any unlikely trick or treater should ring the house phone before coming round or they would be ignored on the doorstep!

So I am forced to think about what I think of Hallowe'en. I think that before I was rather sceptical of alternative hallowe'en parties, that there was really no need in encouraging hallowe'en and that if we just ignored the silliness then it would go away (the ostrich approach). One boy at the party today asked, 'but isn't this a hallowe'en party?' and it made me wonder whether we are giving off mixed messages. I haven't come to a conclusion yet and will spare you my trying-to-work-out-what-I-think-while-typing splurge. Any views will be greatly received.

On the other hand, the party was very enjoyable. It had befallen me to lead team games, though how on earth I managed to land myself such responsibility when I no longer even go to the church, I'm not quite sure. Made me feel wanted though :) . The games went fairly well, though after 2 attempts at one running game (run round a chair and back to the beginning, take the next person by the hand and run again until the whole team are running around the chair in a huge chain) I scrapped it for the third because it wasn't working very well - it was a little on the dangerous side of things. We had played it in France at LPO and it worked well there, but I think because of the open space and grass; it was rather more confined in the church. The children were somewhat hyperactive and very noisy, the lack of a decent sound system made calling for order very difficult indeed. I think a system of shutting up and sitting down was necessary to avoid total chaos, but maybe that's the twitchy teacher in me.

On a totally different topic, we have only one more week of Dona Nobis Pacem now before the performance. I think I know most of it now comfortably enough, there's only a few really quite sketchy pages at the end I need to brush up on before next week's rehearsal. I'm rather more concerned that we haven't rehearsed Parry's Blest Pair of Sirens for weeks and weeks, well over a month I'm sure - and that's in 8 parts! Eek!

Visiting

Much visiting has been done this week. I have been to stay with Joy which was much fun, we even went to fellowship at her church together which was lovely. We also went for a walk down the canal and smelt some lovely curry sauce/other brewing at the Robertson's factory. We then went for a walk around the Moravian settlement in Manchester which was very interesting and beautiful too, it has been well maintained and the Georgian architecture is stunning. We read a little about the Moravians in the window of the church hall building which was interesting, I hadn't even heard of them until recently, I read a little about them in the story of 24-7 prayer and then a friend of a friend is a Moravian too. So it was quite interesting all in all.

After staying at Joy's we came up to Lancaster together to see Martyn Joseph and Show of Hands in concert. We are fans of MJ and so knew what to expect and were not disappointed. I am always overawed by the full sound that he can produce from just one guitar and his voice. After the interval was Show of Hands (it was their concert to be fair, but I know of many people who came just to see MJ and Show of Hands was a bonus), and they were fantastic. I had bought one of their CDs off the internet before the concert having listened to a bit of their stuff on their website. They are a very clever musical group with many different stringed instruments with beautiful harmonies. I was most impressed by the lady, Miranda, who clearly had a very strong voice and yet held it back most of the time to allow it to blend with the other voices.

After the concert I drove up to Silverdale to stay in the caravan with my mum, dad and sister for a couple of nights. I didn't take my sleeping bag, having expected my mum to have packed it seeing as she knew I was staying, but she hadn't. So I spent two nights sleeping under my mum and dad's duvet cover (they had the duvet), my sister's camp blanket and a couple of towels... yes, interesting indeed!

I then drove back down to Lancaster to stay with Sarah and Kieron which is where I am now. Having much fun and playing on Matthew's new laptop right now - hehe!

Dona Nobis Pacem

I feel the need to blog about Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem that we are learning to sing in choir at the moment... it is dire not to put too finer point on it. It is written in mind of the terrible terrible pain and crude carnage of the first world war, and that is very, very clear from the music. I find, however, that spending 2 hours singing...

For the son is brought with the father,
In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,
Two veterans, son and father, dropped together,
And the double grave awaits them.

...to be quite wearing and tiring actually. I cannot imagine that anyone should choose to pay to hear us singing this discordant cacophany.

On the other hand, I find the journey through the whole piece from the Agnus Dei through into the war poetry and then back to the quiet, peaceful ending; dona nobis pacem - have mercy on us, to be quite moving. I would rather be singing something rather more harmonious, though. We are also singing Schubert's Mass in G, necessary for a little light relief I think.

Bubbles!

Sarah is staying at my house today. We have had much fun playing with my bubble sword! We have also been for a walk along the beach and have had a hot chocolate in a cafe, but it is now raining so we haven't been on the swings!!

Evolution of a worshipper

I'm very glad Dave Walker has made this cartoon available for putting on my blog, it is definately my favourite!! So where are you on the scale? I am 4th from the left I think, not quite got to crucifer stage yet and hope I don't get to the grumpy hands in the pockets stage.

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Doing what's right

OK so I relented and chose to start Danny Wallace first. Well, I know my weaknesses and limitations I suppose...

Joy sent me a link to a very enjoyable game today too, so I've been wasting a little time on that this morning! It is very difficult, but I'm enjoying the mouse choir... If you want to join me in the internet game madness try it out here:

http://jayisgames.com/archives/2006/10/sound_factory.php

If I was clever and all that I would be able to include a link without the long address, but I'm not and can't be bothered to work out how right now.

Other plans for today include watching the creation debate and then perhaps I will come back to you as promised with my thoughts... that's if I don't get too distracted by singing mice and Danny Wallace... anything is possible!

One Day In History 17/10/06

I got up after my alarm went off at 9 o'clock and having snoozed it for about half an hour. I had a shower and got dry and dressed in fairly smart clothes because I would be going to work later. I went downstairs for my breakfast where I met my mother and we had a coffee and a chat. I live with my parents and my younger sister, my sister was at school and my dad was at work but my mum was off work for a week's holiday.

After breakfast I went back upstairs for a bit of quiet time to read the Bible and to pray as I like to do whenever I am not working in the morning. During this time of quiet my phone rang and I spoke to a friend about meeting up to see the Blackpool Illuminations later in the week. We arranged a time and place to park and a route to walk through the Illuminations, find a fish and chip shop for supper and take a tram back to the cars.

Once I had finished on the phone I continued praying for a short while. It was then time to go downstairs and make myself some lunch. I ate cheese on biscuits and my dad (who had returned home for his lunch) made me a cup of tea. I then went to work at a nearby Primary School as a supply teacher.

When I arrived at work I had to ring the doorbell to be let in to the school and then I went to the year 2 classroom that I would be working in to find out what work had been left for me to teach. When the children came in I registered them and then began to teach. We watched a video to learn about Neil Armstrong and why he is famous. We then talked about what we had learnt from the video before the children went to their desks to write about Neil Armstrong. After an hour the children went outside for a playtime whilst I checked their books. When they came back in they continued with their work. I was unsure of the time school ended, and thinking that it should finish at 3.15 the children were still sat at their desks writing when the bell went for the end of the day at 3.10. It was a mad panic to get them lined up with letters to take home and then out of the door to their parents.

After returning home I went up to my room to check my emails. I then read until it was time for tea that my mum had cooked - pasta with chicken and leek.

At 20 past 7 I left the house to go in my car to Lytham St Annes Choral Society to rehearse for a concert we are holding in a few weeks' time. On returning from choir 2 hours later I continued to read until I had finished the book at half past 11. I went back on my computer to post on my blog and then I went to bed.

*grammatically edited 19/10/06

Book addiction, lacking reading addiction.

Hooray! I have finally finished reading Jodi Picoult's Vanishing Acts. I have been meaning to read it for absolutely ages, seeing as I bought it in about June, lent it to Sarah who spilt juice on it and knowing that I am picky about the state of my books (I like my shelf to look like a bookshop not a library, books are so much neater when they look unread even if they have been) bought me another copy whilst we were at New Wine. So I have been in possesion of it since the end of July. I feel so much happier now that it is read!
Still which of the partly started books to I tackle next?

Here is the list:
Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Life Together
Alister McGrath - Theology The Basics
Bill Hybels - Too Busy Not To Pray
Nick Spencer - Asylum and Immigration - A Christian Perspective
Alistair Redfern - Being Anglican (lets face it, it's not going to be this one)

Or ones that I have not started yet:
C S Lewis - A Grief Observed
Danny Wallace - Join Me

Notice how the majority of my unfinished books are thoroughly edifying ... and like wading through soup. I suspect I will attack the new books first - A Grief Observed is so short I can probably manage to finish it at some point in the near future, and let's face it, Danny Wallace is far more appealing. I just know I'll have gone out to buy another Jodi Picoult before I know what's hit me.

Long time no type

It's been a while since my last post - just goes to show what a few days work can do for you!

I went to the Blackpool Illuminations with a group from Lancaster Baptist Church this weekend, it was much fun! I am, incidentally, going again this Wednesday with other Lancaster people but when I was asked if I wanted to go on Saturday I couldn't pass up the opportunity to be sociable! We went for a walk down central pier and I can honestly say that it is the first time I have ever been on the pier! Ridiculous considering I have lived here all my life. And it is a beautiful vantage point of the tower and the prom and all things illuminating.

On Sunday I gave the talk/sermon at the family service. I did not think I was well prepared or interactive but it seemed to go down well, and raised a few thoughtful points I hope. It is amazing how much being a teacher prepares you for such things I think. I would be a heck of a lot more scared and less confident at the front if I didn't spend so much time yabbering away infront of a classful of children. And a churchful of congregation is a lot more quietly attentive than a classful of pupils!

More Dutch Blitz

I have been spreading the Dutch Blitz fever further afield... Went to my friend's house in Preston on Friday and taught 3 more people DB, I think they're now planning on getting a pack of the cards themselves. I'm rather enjoying getting people addicted to the game!

I went to Abbeystead yesterday to meet up with Housegroup, who were staying there for the weekend, and had a fabulous time. It is so nice to relax with a group of people who you know so well and who know you. We spent some time sharing our stories and how we think we have fit into God's Big Story so far, inspired by last week's all age at St Tees. It was a real blessing to hear how God had been present in so many situations and though sometimes we can wonder where God is, he is there and our lives are so very often testament to that fact. We went for a walk down by the river, ate a lot of cakes (our housegroup is infamous for its cakes!) and made a chicken roast dinner for 14... With the roaring fire and games of Taboo I think I felt a touch of paradise.

And we played Dutch Blitz there too...

Called?

There is an interesting discussion about calling and vocation going on at the Cartoonblog today. When I have more time and am not in the middle of making tea I will comment myself.

http://www.cartoonchurch.com/blog/2006/10/04/are-you-called/

Rah rah rah

I don't like Microsoft any more. It's official. I'll get a Mac...

A work in progress

Last week I posted about the lyrics to 'O Church Arise' and how dissatisfied I was with their military imagery. I have written 2 new verses to the tune now, though I'm not entirely satisfied with them. I have taken my text from Romans 12, deciding to write a hymn about the body of the church rather than how, as a church, we can take up arms and fight. Each member of the church, the body of Christ, should be valued for what they can bring. I know that there are many people who do not value their gifts because they cannot preach or they find it difficult to talk to new people or they stumble over their words when they read out loud... but the church is much more than this and that is why I wanted to write about these varied gifts in my hymn. Here goes -

O Holy God, we bring ourselves to you
As a living sacrifice here.
We worship you each day of every year
In a world so sore and broken.
Transform our lives, renew our minds,
We'll follow your holy will.
Then we will see, and know that you are good,
Holy Lord, we seek your mercy.

In this your Church of different people
Bringing gifts so wide and varied,
Your grace allows each person here to serve
With the gifts you have provided.
Some prophesy and others serve,
Encouraging and kind giving,
In leadership and showing mercy
With the grace that comes from Jesus.

Waiting for something to blog

A wonderful weekend. Thank you to Sarah for having a birthday! I muchly muchly enjoyed Saturday, particularly obsessive Dutch Blitz playing with various new Dutch Blitz addicts. What a game.

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Creationism

Not really a proper post here yet I'm afraid, merely a reminder to me that I'm going to post some views on this shortly, when I've worked out what they may be, though I'm most open to those very same views evolving over time...

In house group tonight we watched a creation v evolution debate in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. I'd like to see it again and be able to listen to both sides of the argument without the deriding sneers, but until I do, if I may, I'm going to link to Mike's very own blog and the discussion there a few months ago. http://mikepeat.blogspot.com/2006/05/creation.html
More to come.

Hooray for good days

I'm sorry about the excess of job posts over the last few days, more interesting stuff to come soon I hope!

I had a full day in year 2 today. Have never taught that age group before but said that would be the lowest I would go ... so I did. Was a really good day actually, which was necessary after the farce that was year 5 yesterday afternoon! Bizarre really seeing as I was more worried about the year 2 than the year 5. There might even be an infant teacher in me somewhere that I didn't know about...!!

Conundrum solved

Thank you all for your contributions to problem solving. I managed to extract the rock from the bottom of the jar using a sundae spoon. Thank you to Sarah for suggesting a spoon. A teaspoon would have had insufficient leverage due to its length but the extra length of the sundae spoon solved that problem. Thank you to Mike for suggesting sugar tongs. I'm sure they would have done the trick had I had any to try... Dissolving the rock may still be an option for cleaning out the little bits, thanks to Chris for this idea.

Hard earned cash

More update on the supply way of things. Today was one of the hardest earned £40s ever... perhaps... What a rude and obnoxious class! Talking over me most of the afternoon despite all the best behaviour techniques. Kept me occupied for an afternoon though, and I suppose £40 for 2 hours work isn't so bad really.

No more dossing about for me

I have been given no more time to think about whether or not I can teach or want to do supply and am biting the bullet and doing it! There will be no early morning call to dread tomorrow or Thursday so I can sleep easy! Mum's friend is a teacher and rang me up this afternoon to offer me a day's supply on Thursday at her school. It is year 2 which is a little nerve wracking as I have never actually taught that age group for more than an hour before and I will have them for a whole day... but I am going in after school tomorrow to find out what I will be teaching so at least I will have time to think the day through fully before arriving. Then the LTA rang me up to book me in for tomorrow afternoon. A more reasonable and well known age group - year 5. I can cope with that.

I was right!

It was indeed much more tricky to ring up the LTA today than it was thinking of it yesterday! I did it though and am now on the board for supply this week! Eek! What if they ring me up tomorrow? Scary!

Time to get paid

I have finally given up on the rock, succumbed to the truth that my fingers are never going to reach the sweets at the bottom of the jar, and have opened another packet instead.

I have come to the decision that I will ring the LTA and ask for some supply work tomorrow. I am feeling particularly bolstered by knowing that I have come to a decision that I cannot yet carry through, it being Sunday, and am equally sure that I will be very unsure of the decision when it comes time to ring tomorrow. Voluntary work seems so alluring I think because there isn't the same level of responsibility when you aren't being paid, your best is your best and it will just have to do. Being paid means that there really is no excuse for providing a substandard service. Having come to this realisation I also know that I cannot hide behind it, there's even less excuse for being a wuss. If there's still no work for me, I can still volunteer, and I can always try Steads again and see if they are in need of an efficient sales assistant!

Bits and bobs

I left the house today! It was rather nice to get some fresh air when you realise you've not left the house since Wednesday evening and it is now Saturday...

I've been re-reading Harry Potter 6 today. I couldn't sleep last night, I don't think finishing off a stick of rock before going to bed really did me any favours! I didn't really want to start anything new that I wouldn't be able to put down when I did feel tired so I left Jodi Picoult for another day and went back to Harry - always good for a read.

I have finally found a passport photograph worthy of being seen and have put my Signpost International application in an envelope to be sent on Monday when I can get to a post office. Very exciting!

It's the Harvest Social at church tonight, a Jacobs Join affair with a few acts and 'Dancing with Winston' our resident ballroom dancing teacher... I won't be joining in myself! They have dancing in the church hall every Thursday, my mum and sister go but I don't, I can't say I've ever been interested in ballroom dancing! Still, should be a fun evening I hope!

More productive today!

I am pleased to announce that I have indeed been more productive today and have done something about that dust on the conti-blob! I had a bit of an Anthea-spurred cleaning frenzy, cleaned the bathroom, hoovered the whole house and dusted and polished the hall, landing, stairs and living room. Well done me!

I have also discovered a self motivating way to do things - write a post-it note and stick it over the power button on my computer! I am self controlled enough to complete the tasks on the post-it before removing it and turning on the computer :)

Battle cry of love?

I have been looking through my songbooks over the last few days looking for songs to introduce to music group and to church here in St Annes. So far nearly all of the songs that I have introduced have been Stuart Townend ones, he seems to be a particular favourite of mine. In my Spring Harvest 06 book I came across another of his called 'O church arise'. I love the tune and thought this could be another that I could introduce but I was, for a change, quite disappointed with his lyrics. Although the hymn is quite biblical, being taken from Ephesians armour of God, the imagery seems to be to be particularly and unnecessarily focused on battles and war. The tune is very triumphant and the words about marching into battle. In recent years there has been a trend to avoid war-like imagery, in our hymnbook even Onward Christian Soldiers has been changed to Onward Christian Pilgrims. In such a climate of terror and religious fervour I don't think it is helpful to be singing about 'an army bold' or 'this victory march'. I have begun to write fresh words to the hymn, ones about love and service, reconcilliation and renewal. When I'm happy with it I might even post it on here.

The fruits of my labour...

The offending jigsaw, note the same coloured, lots of dark blue background - FOREVER it took!

Productivity - less than zero

OK, maybe that's being a little harsh with myself, I have been mildly productive today. I rang the DDO, well done me, only needed a little quiet persuasion and coercion from a few friends culminating in a helpful text that said only 'nag'.

As I walked back downstairs I saw dust, caused by the recent creation of an understairs toilet, on the conti-blob (a bookcase built out of conti-board by my father and encouragingly named, as is custom in our family...!!!) and I thought to myself, 'I shall be helpful and productive today and do some cleaning'. First I decided to have my lunch and complete the jigsaw my mother and I have been working on this week. 4 hours and 7 episodes of The Vicar Of Dibley later the house is as dusty as it was before, but the jigsaw is complete!

Tragically, I had only the background to finish, probably between 50 and 100 pieces of the 1000 in the jigsaw and it was incredibly difficult! I kept having to take them out and start again. I took a photo of the finished article but blogger isn't being kind to me this evening. And I'm missing Anthea Turner on the telly... maybe I'll learn how to avoid procrastination of cleaning by jigsaw tonight?

Team player?

Guides. I love it. Tonight we had the guides working towards their 'team player' badge... how modern is that?! They were actively listening to one another and finding out what it is like to talk when no-one is listening to what you are saying. Something I'm sure they all know already, there can't be that many whose friends are so raptured by what they have to say that they listen intently all the time.. but still I think it is good for the girls to be given the opportunity to think about it. This lot need to learn it, actually - they are so chatty you can't organise a game for the incessant talking!

Then I came home and watched Princess Nikki and I thought, now this is a girl who needs to learn how to listen. She is so rude! Apart from the tantrum throwing and screaming and laughing inappropriately, when anyone talks to her she is looking at the ground and at her fingers and turning away. She shows no respect whatsoever for what anyone but herself has to say. But see anyone ignoring her when she talks... tantrum! Nikki is certainly one who could benefit from doing her 'team player' badge. She was clearly never a Guide.

Finger length conundrum

Hello and welcome ye all to this the very beginning of blogging for me, Emma Swarbrick. Named Emma's Spraff because that is what it will be. And starting at the very beginning with the 'finger length conundrum'.

This is a jar of rock...



Given to me as a end of term and leaving present from school in the summer. I am having a few issues. As my fingers do not reach to the sweets, how, yes, how am I meant to get the rock out of the bottom? Answers on a postcard (or failing that, via a comment) please.