I have an alibi, I tell you...
From: http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-13536210,00.html
“…Officials said eastern Cuba's north coast and southern Florida should monitor the storm.
Chris disintegrated into a mass of thunderstorms when winds fell to 35 mph, below the 39-mph threshold for a tropical storm.
Experts had predicted Chris would be in the Gulf of Mexico, at the Texas-Mexico border, by Wednesday.
The storm's remnants were expected to drop up to two inches of rain across the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas and eastern Cuba.
Southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands remained under tropical storm warnings.
Residents were told to prepare for bad weather arriving within 24 hours.
Experts have predicted another active Atlantic hurricane season. But nothing like the record 28 storms seen in 2005, when hurricanes Katrina and Rita swept into Louisiana and Texas.
They shut down a quarter of US crude output and sent oil prices to then record highs.”
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Shamefaced blogger...
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
Shame on me. I've just noticed the last time I updated the blog. I'm absolutely ashamed.
So let's do a catch up then...
The main news is from Luke's corner - maybe that's a new part to my blog existence, "Luke's Corner"... - anyway, yes. The little man now has TWO bottom teeth! He's getting very good at using them - especially on Mummy and Daddy when he gets the chance (ie. when they don't move quick enough to get out of the way!), but occasionally, he does use them on food too - he is now a big fan of apriciots, mandarins, breadsticks, gingerbread men, moon biscuits and bananas.
He's eating not just purees now, but puree with lumps, and the finger-food I just mentioned...
He's very nearly walking - just started crawling (we weren't convinced he'd bother with the crawling stage, just get on with it and start walking around...), and has learnt to roll over onto his front (and is more than happy to sleep on his side, and sometimes on his front), and can also now sit himself up again from the crawling or lying position. Which is very impressive for such a young man (let's face it, most of us find that difficult at the best of times!), and is extremely cute to watch! There are two more teeth coming through on the top row too, so we're keeping an eye out for the additional pain when he bites us!
Other than that, I don't think there's much to tell. We're off to Kew Gardens on Saturday to celebrate my dad's birthday, which is great because its one of our favourite places (and somewhere Luke will get very sick of the sight of in the future...). Other than that, I'm planning the worship and some other stuff for the GOGI event (Go On Get Involved, for those not in the know...) which should be good - the only thing I'll give away about this is that its on the theme of Superheroes... But that's not till November, so I'm thinking about it now in the hope that I'll get more stuff out of it than I need and that it might lead me to extra inspiration for something.
I'm also taking a break from church for now. It's not permanent and doesn't mean, by any means, that I have lost faith. I think I said before that I've lost faith in people, but not God. Its just not practical for me to go at the moment - I need the time with Nikki and Luke, and I have to put them first. My faith has always been an intensely private thing for me - and huge group worship has never been something I have been overly impressed by - the only time its been particularly memorable for me is when there's been a personal moment for me in there. But I do need the company of others, and it makes me very sad that I don't feel part of the church in anyway and that I now feel I have to have a break from there, and even worse that my hopes of possibly being a young family connected to that church (even if that connection is just me) is not going to happen. It has made me wonder about the point of church altogether.
Anyway, to break up the confusion at the moment, I've been enjoying the world cup... Well, I say "enjoying" - not the England games - they've been painful at best, but I am optimistic about it all now - after all, we're in the quarter finals, and have a good chance of setting up a semi against either Brazil or France (either of which, on recent form I think we'd fancy our chances against if we hit some form). But there have been some good games, which I've really got into - the Argentina v.Mexico game in particular... I like Mexico, and they were one of my outside bets (not that I bet...I'm not on a footballer's wage...), so I think its a shame they've gone out. I am more interested in past world cups, though, so I've been watching some old highlights and stuff from world cups gone by, especially Mexico '86. Actually, that's something I've always wondered why there's not some kind of historical football computer game - one that allows you to play as, say the England team from 1986 and see if you can get further than the quarter finals, or the 1950 team and avoid losing to the USA... But maybe that's just me...
I'm going away now. I will be back regularly though... Watch this space...
Shame on me. I've just noticed the last time I updated the blog. I'm absolutely ashamed.
So let's do a catch up then...
The main news is from Luke's corner - maybe that's a new part to my blog existence, "Luke's Corner"... - anyway, yes. The little man now has TWO bottom teeth! He's getting very good at using them - especially on Mummy and Daddy when he gets the chance (ie. when they don't move quick enough to get out of the way!), but occasionally, he does use them on food too - he is now a big fan of apriciots, mandarins, breadsticks, gingerbread men, moon biscuits and bananas.
He's eating not just purees now, but puree with lumps, and the finger-food I just mentioned...
He's very nearly walking - just started crawling (we weren't convinced he'd bother with the crawling stage, just get on with it and start walking around...), and has learnt to roll over onto his front (and is more than happy to sleep on his side, and sometimes on his front), and can also now sit himself up again from the crawling or lying position. Which is very impressive for such a young man (let's face it, most of us find that difficult at the best of times!), and is extremely cute to watch! There are two more teeth coming through on the top row too, so we're keeping an eye out for the additional pain when he bites us!
Other than that, I don't think there's much to tell. We're off to Kew Gardens on Saturday to celebrate my dad's birthday, which is great because its one of our favourite places (and somewhere Luke will get very sick of the sight of in the future...). Other than that, I'm planning the worship and some other stuff for the GOGI event (Go On Get Involved, for those not in the know...) which should be good - the only thing I'll give away about this is that its on the theme of Superheroes... But that's not till November, so I'm thinking about it now in the hope that I'll get more stuff out of it than I need and that it might lead me to extra inspiration for something.
I'm also taking a break from church for now. It's not permanent and doesn't mean, by any means, that I have lost faith. I think I said before that I've lost faith in people, but not God. Its just not practical for me to go at the moment - I need the time with Nikki and Luke, and I have to put them first. My faith has always been an intensely private thing for me - and huge group worship has never been something I have been overly impressed by - the only time its been particularly memorable for me is when there's been a personal moment for me in there. But I do need the company of others, and it makes me very sad that I don't feel part of the church in anyway and that I now feel I have to have a break from there, and even worse that my hopes of possibly being a young family connected to that church (even if that connection is just me) is not going to happen. It has made me wonder about the point of church altogether.
Anyway, to break up the confusion at the moment, I've been enjoying the world cup... Well, I say "enjoying" - not the England games - they've been painful at best, but I am optimistic about it all now - after all, we're in the quarter finals, and have a good chance of setting up a semi against either Brazil or France (either of which, on recent form I think we'd fancy our chances against if we hit some form). But there have been some good games, which I've really got into - the Argentina v.Mexico game in particular... I like Mexico, and they were one of my outside bets (not that I bet...I'm not on a footballer's wage...), so I think its a shame they've gone out. I am more interested in past world cups, though, so I've been watching some old highlights and stuff from world cups gone by, especially Mexico '86. Actually, that's something I've always wondered why there's not some kind of historical football computer game - one that allows you to play as, say the England team from 1986 and see if you can get further than the quarter finals, or the 1950 team and avoid losing to the USA... But maybe that's just me...
I'm going away now. I will be back regularly though... Watch this space...
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
new poem
Sorted!
Being “sorted” is not compulsory.
It’s not an essential state of mind,
required qualification
or entrance exam mark.
Being troubled, now that’s more like it.
Easier to achieve, easier to maintain
and certainly easier to improve.
Doubts, fears,
the seed germ of confusion,
are essential to life.
They are an in-built special feature,
the human airbag
or DVD easter egg.
But being “sorted” is not for me.
I can’t keep up with the levels
of confidence, performance
and bravado it needs.
I have too many questions
and a few little quibbles
(is it so hard for the church to be united?
Or is that just petty and childish)
and I’d rather stick with these.
For a while it sounds so appealing,
so settled and sure,
But being “sorted” is for Jesus,
and I am just human, after all.
Being “sorted” is not compulsory.
It’s not an essential state of mind,
required qualification
or entrance exam mark.
Being troubled, now that’s more like it.
Easier to achieve, easier to maintain
and certainly easier to improve.
Doubts, fears,
the seed germ of confusion,
are essential to life.
They are an in-built special feature,
the human airbag
or DVD easter egg.
But being “sorted” is not for me.
I can’t keep up with the levels
of confidence, performance
and bravado it needs.
I have too many questions
and a few little quibbles
(is it so hard for the church to be united?
Or is that just petty and childish)
and I’d rather stick with these.
For a while it sounds so appealing,
so settled and sure,
But being “sorted” is for Jesus,
and I am just human, after all.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Updating and showing off!
Hello there... Long time no speak. Not a lot has happened recently - I've been over-run at work recently (I'm currently covering another post - the busiest in the unit - and keeping a couple of my old duties going while trying to do my current job as well...), and well, there's not been much fun recently.
I've had a mixed bag of a time in the last month - I've really lost a lot of faith in people recently, and rightly or wrongly, this has a lot to do with both my living situation and the fact that I feel increasingly disconnected from the church. I think I can count the amount of times I have managed to get along to a service or meeting there in the last 7 months on my fingers, but I've not been contacted at all to see if there's anything wrong or if I'm ok. I've really needed the support of people - and this has only grown in the last few months. But its not been coming from there. Very often its not come at all. But if there's a good side to it all, it has pointed to me who my proper friends are, and they have been wonderful to me. I won't mention who they are, because they should know...
On the other hand, we had a lovely time at the wedding of Phil and Nicky (aka Barney) in Hereford. Luke revelled in all the attention, and had a brilliant time, and we really liked being away from home. It was the first time we've been away together and the first time Luke's had to sleep somewhere other than his own bed... He certainly didn't have any problem with that! The first night we stayed with Phil's mum, Wendy, and she was marvellous. We felt very welcome and very at home. The second we spent at the hotel where the wedding was held - the place was lovely (if stiflingly hot).
As I haven't shown him off enough recently, I'll finish with a picture of Luke - this was about half an hour before the wedding, after daddy had managed to persuade him he wanted to wear his suit...
I've had a mixed bag of a time in the last month - I've really lost a lot of faith in people recently, and rightly or wrongly, this has a lot to do with both my living situation and the fact that I feel increasingly disconnected from the church. I think I can count the amount of times I have managed to get along to a service or meeting there in the last 7 months on my fingers, but I've not been contacted at all to see if there's anything wrong or if I'm ok. I've really needed the support of people - and this has only grown in the last few months. But its not been coming from there. Very often its not come at all. But if there's a good side to it all, it has pointed to me who my proper friends are, and they have been wonderful to me. I won't mention who they are, because they should know...
On the other hand, we had a lovely time at the wedding of Phil and Nicky (aka Barney) in Hereford. Luke revelled in all the attention, and had a brilliant time, and we really liked being away from home. It was the first time we've been away together and the first time Luke's had to sleep somewhere other than his own bed... He certainly didn't have any problem with that! The first night we stayed with Phil's mum, Wendy, and she was marvellous. We felt very welcome and very at home. The second we spent at the hotel where the wedding was held - the place was lovely (if stiflingly hot).
As I haven't shown him off enough recently, I'll finish with a picture of Luke - this was about half an hour before the wedding, after daddy had managed to persuade him he wanted to wear his suit...
Monday, March 20, 2006
Biscuit Consumption Analysis v. The Life Remix
I have been thinking about Lent a lot recently – and I’m getting fed up with some of the stuff I’m reading about it. A few of the sites I read regularly have touched on this, but I thought I’d put some of my own thoughts on this down somewhere.
Lent is thought about as a time to give something up, be it chocolate, sweets, beer, whatever. But that’s not what Lent is for. If you read the Bible, there’s no mention of any of that – why should we make it fit with our over-complicated existences?
I’m staggeringly lucky!
Many of the problems I face are through my own mistakes or lack of thought, not through the simple impossibility of what I want to do. I take for granted the fact that I can turn on a tap and fill a sink with water without the several-mile-round-trip to fetch the water first.
So this is where the word remix comes in. I’m re-focusing my life in places. Retuning my spiritual aerial, if you like, and trying to improve the reception. It’s not a terrible arduous task – just a case of having a think about what I want to improve, and then doing it.
I can’t claim to be giving up all my comforts to live in a desert wilderness for Lent, but I can be happy that I am doing something positive, instead of something rather inane and pointless like not eating any digestives until Easter…
A few places for you to have a look at if you’re interested:
Desert (flash animation)
Grace’s Lent Blog
Maggi Dawn’s Blog
Jonny Baker’s Blog
Lent is thought about as a time to give something up, be it chocolate, sweets, beer, whatever. But that’s not what Lent is for. If you read the Bible, there’s no mention of any of that – why should we make it fit with our over-complicated existences?
Lent is supposed to be a time when we review our spiritual life, think again about what it means to be a follower of Christ, reset the compass of our discipleship and prepare ourselves to celebrate the Easter festival. But often we just give up biscuits. [Stephen Cottrell, I Thirst]I don’t want to use Lent to not drink tea for 40 days, or make sure I am in bed by 11, or anything like that. I have a bed. I can drink tea freely whenever I want. I can look at my happy little son and know that we can feed and clothe him.
I’m staggeringly lucky!
Many of the problems I face are through my own mistakes or lack of thought, not through the simple impossibility of what I want to do. I take for granted the fact that I can turn on a tap and fill a sink with water without the several-mile-round-trip to fetch the water first.
So this is where the word remix comes in. I’m re-focusing my life in places. Retuning my spiritual aerial, if you like, and trying to improve the reception. It’s not a terrible arduous task – just a case of having a think about what I want to improve, and then doing it.
I can’t claim to be giving up all my comforts to live in a desert wilderness for Lent, but I can be happy that I am doing something positive, instead of something rather inane and pointless like not eating any digestives until Easter…
A few places for you to have a look at if you’re interested:
Desert (flash animation)
Grace’s Lent Blog
Maggi Dawn’s Blog
Jonny Baker’s Blog
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
A day to be sad
I heard on the news this morning that Linda Smith has died.
She'd been suffering with Ovarian Cancer for the last three years, although continued performing and broadcasting through her illness. I'm glad she did, as she was one of the funniest and warmest people to listen to. She was one of the best reasons to listen to the News Quiz on Radio 4, and her own series (A Brief History Of Timewasting) was a joy to listen to.
One of the best things about her work was that she was always funny, always cutting, and always managed this without being particularly offensive - witty and extremely erudite, with the skill to embark on wild flights of fancy and surrealism without losing the listener, she was one of the country's foremost satirists. And one of the most surprising things of all - she came from near me - she was born in Erith, Kent, and went to school in Bexleyheath...
I, for one (and I am sure I am not alone), will sorely miss hearing her voice. Early Friday evenings will not be the same.
There's a nice article on the Independant website today (here), and there are fond obituaries in both the Guardian and the Independant by Jeremy Hardy and Mark Steel respectively - two other comedy heroes of mine, and worth a read.
These are quoted in the article linked above, and sums up her brilliant wit:
On Jesus: "We know he wasn't English, because he wore sandals - but never with socks."
On her hometown, Erith: "They had a competition to find a new name for the Erith Leisure Centre. The winning name was 'The Erith Leisure Centre'."
She'd been suffering with Ovarian Cancer for the last three years, although continued performing and broadcasting through her illness. I'm glad she did, as she was one of the funniest and warmest people to listen to. She was one of the best reasons to listen to the News Quiz on Radio 4, and her own series (A Brief History Of Timewasting) was a joy to listen to.
One of the best things about her work was that she was always funny, always cutting, and always managed this without being particularly offensive - witty and extremely erudite, with the skill to embark on wild flights of fancy and surrealism without losing the listener, she was one of the country's foremost satirists. And one of the most surprising things of all - she came from near me - she was born in Erith, Kent, and went to school in Bexleyheath...
I, for one (and I am sure I am not alone), will sorely miss hearing her voice. Early Friday evenings will not be the same.
There's a nice article on the Independant website today (here), and there are fond obituaries in both the Guardian and the Independant by Jeremy Hardy and Mark Steel respectively - two other comedy heroes of mine, and worth a read.
These are quoted in the article linked above, and sums up her brilliant wit:
On Jesus: "We know he wasn't English, because he wore sandals - but never with socks."
On her hometown, Erith: "They had a competition to find a new name for the Erith Leisure Centre. The winning name was 'The Erith Leisure Centre'."
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Early starts and new writing...
I'm having an OK time of it at the moment... Getting up very early (5am) and being in work early (7am) seems to be doing me good! I'm eating healthily (sort of) and walking everywhere I can without it taking too long to be worthwhile... It's helped me discover that buses do run on time (at 6am).
And... I am writing again. Ok, so it's sketches and short stories at the moment, and just in small, spare moments, but I am writing, and enjoying it. Hence the gap in posts…
I doubt anything will be an appropriate size to fit on here, but I’m looking at setting up a website for stuff like this, and maybe making use of some good links to publish something…
I’ll leave a taster of where I am going though:
Lacking…
I lack courage and sureness of step
(I always check the ground I tread).
I lack the fibre and the guts to go on.
Luckily, I also lack the intelligence
To know I should stop.
The ground may rush towards my face,
The sky may drop towards my head.
My taste for culture may “dumb down”,
My love may not always be selfless and pure,
My thoughts may not always be perfect or true.
I may not always be consistent or punctual
And my hair not nicely preened.
I make no promise to make no sense,
Or to always nail facts to walls,
And I certainly won’t always pick up the phone…
But why should it matter what I lack?
Why should it push me away, derail me, detract?
Variety is joy – and I don’t claim to be
A saviour, messiah or saint.
And I shouldn’t, I couldn’t and wouldn’t lack
The one thing you should never lose –
The childlike awe, the wonder, respect.
Maturity and all that comes
(reading newspapers, forming considered opinion and shaving)
Can wait while the night sky entertains.
And... I am writing again. Ok, so it's sketches and short stories at the moment, and just in small, spare moments, but I am writing, and enjoying it. Hence the gap in posts…
I doubt anything will be an appropriate size to fit on here, but I’m looking at setting up a website for stuff like this, and maybe making use of some good links to publish something…
I’ll leave a taster of where I am going though:
Lacking…
I lack courage and sureness of step
(I always check the ground I tread).
I lack the fibre and the guts to go on.
Luckily, I also lack the intelligence
To know I should stop.
The ground may rush towards my face,
The sky may drop towards my head.
My taste for culture may “dumb down”,
My love may not always be selfless and pure,
My thoughts may not always be perfect or true.
I may not always be consistent or punctual
And my hair not nicely preened.
I make no promise to make no sense,
Or to always nail facts to walls,
And I certainly won’t always pick up the phone…
But why should it matter what I lack?
Why should it push me away, derail me, detract?
Variety is joy – and I don’t claim to be
A saviour, messiah or saint.
And I shouldn’t, I couldn’t and wouldn’t lack
The one thing you should never lose –
The childlike awe, the wonder, respect.
Maturity and all that comes
(reading newspapers, forming considered opinion and shaving)
Can wait while the night sky entertains.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
The ghostly images from the past...
Now, deep breath. This may come as a bit of a shock...
Ignore the... interesting stripey clothes, it's spooky, even I admit that!
Apart from anything else... My dad is dressed rather well! Obviously where I get my fashion sense from (the very late 70s...)
Monday, January 09, 2006
A Starring Role for Luke
I feel the need to prove that Luke still exists, for some reason... Having only made fleeting appearances on here recently, I thought he should probably get his own starring role in a blog entry. And here it is:Luke's tiny little life is getting bigger. His hands are already at least double the size of when he was born, and at the rate he's growing, he'll be taller than both Nik and me before he hits the six-month mark...
Not that that is a difficult feat to achieve... But he's not unusually large in anyway - everything is perfectly in proportion, and indeed, he's just outgrowing all his 0-3 month clothing range and starting to get into his 3-6 month range - seeing as he's 3 months old on Saturday, that's pretty accurate as far as size goes.
He's more of a delight to us every day - having truly mastered the smile (and no, it's definitely NOT wind before you think it...), he's now moving on to laughing - and the same goes for having got the hang of standing (albeit still needing someone to steady his balance a bit), he's now trying to take a step when you help his stand - which for 3 months is amazing!
He seems to love lights and shiny things - and therefore the television seems to be a wonderful thing to him (he won't take his eyes off it - all those colourful things on a bright, shiny screen...), and at the moment, most of his huge collection of toys is being ignored in favour of a small, noisy giraffe (but then, even mummy and daddy like the giraffe...)
On top of this, I discovered some shocking photos at the end of last week which show just how similar he looks to me at the same age... I'll put a couple on here soon to show you... It's worrying... I was cute! Where did it all go wrong?!
Friday, January 06, 2006
New Year - New Blog (sort of...)
Happy New Year everyone!
It being a brand new year, I used the quieter time over the holiday period to have a think about my blog, and what's happening with it. And the first thing I decided to do was change the design - it was starting to depress me a bit, to be honest - very dark and very simple. So I have it a tweak, and I still have to tinker with some colours, but I'll get round to that soon.
How are we all? I've had a month away from posting here (nearly), and enjoyed the time I had off work to spend with Nikki and Luke over Christmas. It was a lovely time - nice and quiet, no real disasters to speak of, and Luke's present haul this year was extremely impressive. I'll put a picture up here when I can get round to it. New Year wasn't a particularly special day for us (well, at least, we didn't seem to treat it as special - further than remembering that it was the end of the year of Luke's birth, which is reason enough to celebrate)... I don't want to do a review of the year or anything, as that's kind of why I started the blog - to keep track of what was happening. That's evolved and moved on a bit since, but it's still the essence - I just think it would be a waste of time repeating all that has happened in the last year! Most of it traumatic in its own ways - some for the good, and some bad! But all I'll say about it is that it has been a good year.
I'm getting back in the habit of looking on here, so posting should be back to the regular occurence that it used to be!
It being a brand new year, I used the quieter time over the holiday period to have a think about my blog, and what's happening with it. And the first thing I decided to do was change the design - it was starting to depress me a bit, to be honest - very dark and very simple. So I have it a tweak, and I still have to tinker with some colours, but I'll get round to that soon.
How are we all? I've had a month away from posting here (nearly), and enjoyed the time I had off work to spend with Nikki and Luke over Christmas. It was a lovely time - nice and quiet, no real disasters to speak of, and Luke's present haul this year was extremely impressive. I'll put a picture up here when I can get round to it. New Year wasn't a particularly special day for us (well, at least, we didn't seem to treat it as special - further than remembering that it was the end of the year of Luke's birth, which is reason enough to celebrate)... I don't want to do a review of the year or anything, as that's kind of why I started the blog - to keep track of what was happening. That's evolved and moved on a bit since, but it's still the essence - I just think it would be a waste of time repeating all that has happened in the last year! Most of it traumatic in its own ways - some for the good, and some bad! But all I'll say about it is that it has been a good year.
I'm getting back in the habit of looking on here, so posting should be back to the regular occurence that it used to be!
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