Gina & Murray UK

Red tape and Injections

2008-06-24T16:02:00.003Z

So today was all about Emma
... hang on... most days are all about little Emma, even though she's not yet ten weeks old (that'll be tomorrow for those of you paying attention to these things - hi mom)
Today I spent a whole 40 minutes at the South African High Commission in London to register Emma with the SA Government (why on earth would we do that I hear you ask?) ... so that we could also apply for her South African passport, since the Brits won't give her one yet!
So hopefully in four to six months we'll have her little passport so we can take her home to meet her grandparentals...

But while I was travelling up to the London, Emma was recovering from her first injection - poor thing had her first round of vaccinations... two needle pricks which were understandably traumatic having only experienced warm baths, warm milk and the odd bit of warm sunshine in her nine and a half short weeks outside of the womb.
Poor thing, but these are the ways of the world - no more floating about for you... here's a short sharp pain instead!

Sunday's sermon

2008-05-31T21:02:00.005Z

I have never tried this before... so have a read if you feel up to it and let me know what you think... just be gentle since its the first time I've uploaded a sermon. I tend to write them out in keyword format so you have to fill in the gaps (both grammatically and theologically... hehe)

The Reckless Sower

A man went out to sow seed in his field. He carefully scattered the seed onto the well prepared good soil, and lovingly made sure there was just the right amount of seed in his furrows. He cared for his crop until the time came for the harvest.

That’s not right is it?
Jesus used stories to teach, as was the culture of his day.
Now where was Jesus when he told this story of the sower?
In a dry, semi-desert climate, where famine and poverty is just a bad season away, you would expect Jesus to talk about being dedicated and careful – working hard to provide for God’s people.
But no… Jesus tells this story instead
Luke 8:4-15

Jesus paints God as a rather reckless farmer, chucking the seed about not seeming to notice or care where it lands.
What a waste of seed.
Or is it?
Jesus says this seed is the word of God, the word that was God and became flesh and lived among us, the word that is all that God is.
God the sower sows this seed, this word of God, everywhere. But its not a reckless act, its an amazingly abundant act. The story first and foremost tells us about the generous, extravagant, overflowing nature of God’s love for His people… ALL His people. We would love to think that God doesn’t like our enemies, that God only loves those who are like us, those who fit into our picture of what God likes… but God’s abundant love is poured out on everyone.
Rather we are the ones who are reckless with God’s love.
The four types of ground represent the different ways that we avoid God’s love.
PATH – God’s love consumed by evil: anger, bitterness, grudges, selfishness
ROCK – God’s love is dried out when we lose patience with God’s timing
THORNS – God’s love is strangled by all the other gods we hold onto: pride, fame, wealth, power,
GOOD SOIL – When God’s love is accepted by “an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patient endurance”
God is not a reckless farmer, chucking seed (His love) about
Rather God pours out this abundant love on everyone!
We are the one’s who through our selfishness, bitterness, impatience and false idols are reckless with this love that God offers…

back to the drawing board...

2008-05-23T12:29:00.003Z

Once more my two favourite cartoons sum up the new wave of violence in South Africa:

Its yet another sad day as the violence has spread to Cape Town...
The ANC Youth League have called for an end to the violence... surprising from a group renowned for their tendency to shout about machine guns... pray for South Africa - for her leaders and all her people, guests and residents alike

YIKES

2008-05-22T23:22:00.003Z

Ok, so blogging has never been my strong point...
I'm going to claim that a new baby takes up a great deal of time and so I simply haven't been able to blog anything
The reality is that everytime I've thought about adding something, I haven't felt like it... yup that's the truth of it, so sorry all my devoted readers (*snigger* as if there were any)

So yes, I am now a dad... that's a flippen weird thing to type!
Little Emma Leigh was born on the 16th April '08
I finally get to challenge someone (*chuckle*) to a quick one-question quiz: what is the mathematical significance of little Emma's birthday?
Here is my favourite photo so far of her highness (although favourite is such a loaded term - as if I could choose from the 300 photos so far accumulated...):

she was just one day old when we took this picture ... and no those aren't our hideous curtains, they are in fact the choice of the very helpful and wonderful midwives at Pembury Hospital!

Sleep is hard to come by, Emma will sleep for abour four hours once in a while, we're lucky if that happens to be at night... which was fine until I had to go back to my deadly 7am starts to get to random assemblies! So we've had quite a few nights that have a bedtime at 1.30am and wake up at 7am with a brief time of holding/rocking/shushing at 4am! anyway enough of that... its time for some attempted sleeping...

waiting...

2008-04-10T12:33:00.003Z

The Empty Cot
So we're still waiting for the baby... its becoming annoying. We're both feeling guilty that we're already telling our first child off and it hasn't even arrived yet! hehe

Gina has spent the morning nattering with another pregnant friend... and we're thinking a long walk followed by a curry and a drive across a field is a good idea for later!
I'll have to keep myself occupied with DVD's and PS2... hohum... such is life

Have no fear, we'll let everyone know soon enough...

Yikes!

2008-04-08T10:24:00.003Z

Well the time that had come has not really come just yet.
We spent so much time waiting for Gina's due date to come around that we didn't quite expect it to come along sans baby. Argh. So today marks DueDay +5... still no sign, and the waiting continues. We've actually gotten over the dilemna of whether or not to make plans day to day. Now we just assume baby isn't coming at all and just do what we feel like doing. Not a good way to spend my paternity leave though... by the time baby comes I'll have to be thinking about work again! Argh.
Frustration
Anyhoo... we're off to wander the countryside looking for cream tea's ... not a bad way to spend a sunny spring day!

Tagged

2008-02-17T15:38:00.002Z

I've been tagged by holyphil (no thats not his real name!... at least as far as I know). Here are the rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five other people.

The first book I saw was Contemplative Youth Ministry, but the second book was The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, which is far more controversial and therefore more up my alley (Sex God by Rob Bell was the third book I saw... weird). Anyway, here is the quote:

"In that respect it is exactly like the gospels. The only difference between The Da Vinci Code and the gospels is that the gospels are ancient fiction while The Da Vinci Code is modern fiction. 'The immense majority of intellectually eminent men disbelieve in Christion religion, but they conceal the fact in public, because they are afraid of losing their incomes' BERTRAND RUSSELL"

Now thats a great random quote to stick on a blog...
I'm tagging Dion (cos he has some time on his hands... sorry D), Gus, Pete, Barry and Neil

Chicken Pox diary.

2008-02-17T15:34:00.001Z

I've got chicken pox
It sucks
We're now on day 10 and I still feel rubbish...
It sucks

Post Shedding

2008-01-25T17:42:00.000Z

I would love to be able to claim that my lack of posts has been a result of Eskoms glorious mismanagement of the electricity supply in SA, but since I am in the UK I don't think it will hold much water. I haven't had any power cuts, reductions in bandwidth or loss of wireless network signal. [Hey, Murray, hows that bag of salt doing?]

I did run out of gas just after Christmas (only cos I kept forgetting to check the level of our tank outside and then didn't order more in time) and my PC has had another RAM module amputated due to, I can only assume, gangrene of the circuit board variety. It was quite a tense week that - the gas ran out and the PC died. I had been trying for ages to back up My Documents with no success so it was with a distinct sense of doom that I thought I had lost an entire year's worth of work. eep
BUt the emergency amputation seemed to save the vital organs. I have yet to fit a prosthetic RAM, once again just haven't got round to it.

I have recently finished reading Brian D McClaren's book "generous orthodoxy" which has given me a new life's pursuit. Namely to meet, fawn over, and then somehow convince to teach-me-oh-great-master the man himself. I am so blown away by the clarity and senserity of his thesis. It is a glorious, fantastic, quite methodist, modern, inclusive look at faith and being the church. I loved it.
I am now devouring Rob Bells' "Sex God" (yes I did get a kick out of asking my local uber-christian bookshop to order it). It too is quite brilliant - so far a very clear look at the relationship (hehe, excuse the pun - inside joke) between sexuality and spirituality.

So my thoughts go out to those who find themselves in the dark: although all that sun and warmth makes me less thoughtful and more envious. Pity that pesky civil war destroyed all the lines running electricity from that big dam in Mozambique whose name I can never remember. Oh well... life in Africa.
[Gosh that sounds so condescending since I'm sitting in UK... oops)

AngelSpace IV

2007-11-25T23:37:00.000Z

Just back from another very successful AngelSpace! [check out the website for some photos of the event sooon].
I was the one leading worship again, which I normally am most fond of doing but had to manage somehow with a defcon 7 cold. The voice gave out in the first section, so i am horrified to think of those poor guys who had to endure my croaks for the rest. I was so fortunate to have some very talented accompanyment in form of two amazing female vocals, a sublime bassist, and incredible emergency replacement drummer and a brilliant keyboardist who carried us when a I broke a string [haven't done that for a while... and not yet on the new Taylor - thank heavens for the trusty Ibanez there as back up! I do love having two guitars... but now I'm just showing off - stuff it... thats what a blogs for right?]
We had about 310 young people, so we're staying true to our average of about 300-320 for the four events we've done so far, Brenchley even managed a couple this time - woohoo, go Brenchley!
It was an awesome evening. Even with my voice failing and not having had any (literally) time to practise with the drummer who filled in at the last minute, I really felt good about the worship. I had a couple of young guys in the front just going for it, which was so encouraging. The best thing was one of those rare moments of gooseflesh all the way down my back while I was leading a particularly passionate chorus of How great is our God. Simply amazing. As a worship leader its easy to fall into the trap of using the same old formats and lists of songs that you know will work together. Its been ages since I've had that moment of the music, rhythm and passion of the band lifting the music beyond what we understand music to be; beyond the meaning of th words; to a place where our hearts are able to meet God without our heads getting in the way. Awesome. I enjoyed that moment.
Have a look at the website if you want to know more about AngelSpace - it is a fantastic event... I'm so looking forward to more in 2008!

2007-10-22T01:38:00.000Z

As is usual from time to time I find myself wasting time on the internet! here is a fantastic way to waste a few minutes:
http://users.skynet.be/bk258512/idiot_test.swf

Let me know how often you keep going back from the beginning... you might eventually receive the following accolade:

Now off to sleep... well in theory anway - I tried that a few hours ago to no avail - hohum.
At least the Bokke did us proud! BOKKE!! Although I would have loved to see a run from Habana in the final - not be be, the boys did well!

News round up

2007-10-16T09:34:00.000Z

Here is a quick round up of news - thanks to my daily cartoon list:

This Saturday England will have to face the amaBoko Boko in the rugby World Cup final. It is a most exciting time to be living in England, and we are feeling very confident that we'll be singing Shosholoza more than Sing low, sweet chariot! It's also much nicer news than the stories I am not really keep track of in South Africa:

It seems that those in power will always seek to remain there... regardless of what they are expected to do while there! Power corrupts! But this is still better news than the bun-fights on the go in the Anglican church:

A group of Anglican Bishops here in the UK and in Africa are calling for the Lambeth conference to be postponed (it only happens every ten years... its not like they'd miss it!) because of the 'naughty' anglicans in the US (or was it Canada?) who ordained a gay bishop. This affects me somewhat since I am now an Anglican (well ... employed as one) and the Bishop of Rochester (my Diocese) is one of those calling for a boycott of Lambeth conference. most sad indeed. He's doing a question and answer session this Thursday so I might try to get myself fired and ask him why he doesn't like Gene Robinson! oops

Thanks for reading this brief news round up.

Oh and for those who haven't heard my lovely wife is three months pregnant! (Don't you just love British understatement!)

Simplicity

2007-09-26T09:18:00.000Z

I found this picture on the ol' net while killing time before my next assembly sitting in my office trying very hard not to give in to turning the heating on! Winter arrived! Ding dong, hello? Anyone home?
aaarrrgggg

Sign of the times

2007-09-21T10:39:00.000Z

I thought today's Madam & Eve cartoon was a brilliant expose of modern life... no-one is safe from the ravages of YouTube!

CHOKE

2007-09-20T22:12:00.000Z

I can't believe it... words fail me!
The only unbeaten team in the ICC Twenty20 World Cup Cricket tournamnet hosted IN South Africa was ... WAS... South Africa. Not only did we lose to India, we lost by enough runs to put us out on a technicality! We won every single game but this one!
We (and of course I mean 'they') choked it once again! South African cricketers and cricket supporters all round the world must be amazed once again at the tragedy that is South Africa's World Cup cricket record.
eish

Lighted relief

2007-09-19T10:34:00.001Z

Everyday I go through a ritual of reading blogs and emails. Sometimes there is nothing new to read, and sometimes there is news or arbitrary silliness - I have very silly friends, which is why I love them!
Then there's the theological/philosophically profound blogs... they leave me feeling challenged, and mostly inspire a sense of new direction or fuel my idealism.
but today they were all filled with angst. Some called it 'mid-life' crisis, others were relating unfair treatment by the church, others were trying to figure out how to deal with an organisation that is in place to care and love the world but ends up hurting its servants! Its rather a doom and gloom week. So, my way, from across the world, of helping my fellow bloggers to stay happy and sane is to post a very funny video! It might only appeal to ex-pat South Africans, but it is funny nonetheless:

Looks like a good evening...

2007-09-14T11:32:00.000Z

What would be more fun than watching your national rugby team play a historical rival, whilst living in said rival country!
Yup I get watch a seriously in-form Springbok team play England this evening in the Rugby World Cup! Woohoo
Should be good, I'm trying not to expect the win too much... ok thats a lie, I will be most annoyed if England manage to pull a win.
I did a High School Assembly this morning and deigned (how on earth do you spell that work?) to wear my Springbok Shirt! Most excellent. The Head teacher thought I was wearing green to match the school uniform... hee hee

Go Bokke!!!

in some neah

2007-09-12T02:35:00.000Z

Well, it happens every now and then, I just can't sleep. So I figured I'd post something, you know, do a Google search find a funny picture, stick it on and blabber aimlessly about what to do when sleep seems far away. The weird thing is that I found a load of other Blogs all about it too. Seems to be a popular topic!
The big question is: What do you do? The one option is to lie awake in bed listening to the Mozzies circling in and curse yourself for not getting rid of that bowl that someone left outside a few months ago that has been filled by the rain and is happily breeding the little buggers in the back yard. The other option is to come downstairs, risk waking the wife who will sleepily, yet accusingly, ask where on earth it is you're going at three in the morning. But once that obstacle has been manouevred what then? Play some Counter Strike online and kill off a couple of German teenagers for a while (ok more likely be killed by the same German teenager over and over and over again); post something on a blog; do some work since the morning is looking doubtful? So far I've done all of the above...except for the work option! maybe that'll be next... maybe I'll fall asleep at the PC and wake up with a keyboard negative engraved on my face... who knows, at least you'll have shared in some of my night-time wonderings and wanderings... ooh i just remembered there's always Mahjong online... woohoo

news de cartoon

2007-09-10T10:01:00.000Z

I am quite a lazy person really, which is the main reason for there being so few posts on this blog. So I don't really spend too much time reading newspapers or keeping up with current affairs. Shocking, I know. What kind of person is so voluntarily naive about today's world!! Well me.
The one way that I manage to stay up to date is by checking a list of cartoons everyday. Zapiro keeps me almost up to date with South African politics, Madam & Eve keep me up to date with South African culture and Dave Walker's "The Cartoon Blog" keeps me informed about the goings on in the Church of England. It's quite a good way to get the latest info. The other cartoon that keeps me chuckling most mornings is Reverend Fun whose cartoons are a great poke at church culture. This is my most recent favourite:

I love the look on God's face... "hmmm... is it really necessary??"
May you enjoy the news de cartoon as much as me!

the muse-ic in me

2007-09-05T09:15:00.000Z

One of the things I managed to do whilst back in Cape Town, was to dig out my CD collection from storage and fill in all the gaps of the stuff I didn't bring over with me. I am now once again able to enjoy all the weird and wonderful music my friends have gotten me into over the years. Good ol' Flying Circus (SA band), Cranberries, Weezer, Hootie & the Blowfish... aaah. Murray is once more content.

I've also been going through my back log of emails on Hotmail and found this link from a colleague: GodTube.com - Lifehouse Everything Skit
Give it a watch (although you might need broadband... go and make a coffee so long otherwise). It's well worth it, mostly because its a skit done to one of my favourite bands: the somewhat underrated Lifehouse. It is a little corny and predictable, but they have done it just so well that its worth the watch! There's also a download link if you're like me and pillage anything and everything for use in a sermon/assembly!

Mostly, I'm just impressed that I have posted two days in a row! Yeeha!
Its only cos I had a comment after posting last night for the first time in two months...so someone, somewhere, out there is reading my ramblings... note that its someONE... hehe thanks Rock!

pigs, cricket & pubs

2007-09-04T20:53:00.000Z

I am two days into my first week back to work after a 5 week break. Summer holidays are brilliant inventions!!
I'll promise to post something later about our trip to Cape Town, but don't take me too seriously cos I'll probably forget.
We arrived home (yup, Brenchley is home. It's where my guitar and DVD's are) in time for our annual cricket game. All Saints Church vs. The Bull (our neighbouring pub). The Bull failed to get a team together, scared we decided, so we just had a brilliant afternoon of cricket amongst ourselves. The most amazing thing is that I got two wickets! No-one was more surprised than me. It wasn't a normal game, we did a pairs tournament, and my partner and I actually came second! Not too bad at all. We were only beaten by a youngster who came to the crease and happily smacked the ball for about 7 sixes in 6 overs.
For those who don't follow cricket the above will be most boring and meaningless, but fear not, this is a blog so the rest will no doubt be equally uninteresting.
We also attended a fund-raiser that was a combination of an outdoor performance and pig on a spit! Very English and very good fun!
This last sunday we had an Open Air service across the road, rather than in the church. It was great fun, I really do enjoy doing different things for church. It's loads more work, but really worthwhile. I was finding myself being unusually calm whilst others stressed around about me. Can't think why that was? I'm normally the first to pop a blood vessel. Nonetheless it was a great service followed by lunch at the pub! Good ol' English summer. Although depressingly Saturday was not Spring Day as I have always been told, but rather it is now Autumn Day! I was reminded that soon we will turn our clocks back and winter will be upon us... and snow! YAY! and skiing! YAY!

Good ol' English winter...

Hello World

2007-06-24T20:14:00.000Z

Yes I'm still alive!
Hello world, I really was going to try to post something at least once a week, but then I didn't... so now its been a while...
anway
so since my last post we've had a few really interesting events.
AngelSpace II
The second Angel Space was on May 20, which was huge fun! I led worship for this youth event held in the Rochester Cathedral. The idea is to try to get young people to explore creative forms of praying and reflecting about God and their faith. It went much better than the first AngelSpace which was hugely over attended (we had 360 young people and leaders when we pessimisticly expected 100! woohoo). Check out the website (link on the left) for some photos. My buddy Phil who is our illustrious AngelSpace leader has a short video of photos on his blog too.
Dave Matthews
We went to see Dave Matthews Band at the Wembley Arena (not the new stadium but the smaller venue next door). It was AWESOME!! Such an amazing set of musicians. He played almost all my favourite numbers but each song lasted like 18 minutes as each member of the band did a solo or two. The only down side was the crowd. Apparantly Dave appeals to a disproportionately large number of tall people. So we were craning our necks like crazy for the first half. Gina and I also seem to search out the weed smokers at whichever concert we go to ... so we had to tell the bunch of Scandanvians next to us to stop smoking... and then decided to move since they were VERY loud and completely off tune, drowning out the brilliance of Dave! But we moved to the back and found some open space and thouroughly enjoyed the rest! Brilliant brilliant!
Germany
We then left the next morning at about 6am to catch our ferry to Calais in France for another short trip to Europe. We drove through France & Belgium to Cologne in Germany, stopping at Iepe in Belgium to see the Flanders Fields (WWI) Museum and a Commonwealth cemetary. Very moving stuff. The farmers in Belgium are still pulling bits of the war from their fields. They often come across unexploded shells, mustard gas canisters, rolls of rusted barbed wire and rifles rusted into bits of metal.
We spent a few days in Cologne seeing the Chocolate museum there, the Dom (cathedral) and just generally enjoying the German culture (cake and coffee... hmmmmmm). Photos are up on my facebook profile. We then tried to see some WWII museums on the way home, but only found a small rather wierd musuem in Arnheim. Arnheim was occupied for most of WWII so they have huge displays of Nazi crockery and flags and photos of Nazi soldiers looting when they took the city. Its rather disturbing really. I didn't take any photos like an idiot, so you'll have to take my word for it!
Highlight for me in Germany was driving on the Autobahn - such fun! I managed to get our poor little car up to 105mph... just short of 110mph, which isn't that quick (I remember going faster in a rental car once) but was still a thrill for our little Daihatsu. The German Automobiles flying past us was great fun too! They just zip past and we were doing 90mph most of the time! Good ol' Germans!

Since then its been back to work for both of us. We're counting down the weeks 'til we can be on holiday and make our way back to SA for a few weeks - YAY!
The next excitement is that our road will be closed on the 8th July for teh Tour de France to come flying past. Not bad - we get to watch the worlds biggest cycling race from our bedroom window (or front lawn)! Can't say that everyday... I'll try to take some blurry photos of bicycles as they whizz by...

MCSA and the same-sex debate

2007-05-17T12:53:00.000Z

I have been absorbed lately in the goings-on in my the church that I consider to be home - the MCSA (Methodist Church of Southern Africa), even though I am treading the waters of Rural English Anglicanism in Kent as an voluntary economic exile. Here are some blogs that tell the story - both these guys are my buddies, and their experiences impact on my life and thoughts about faith and God and 'being Christ' to all!
Gus' essay
the Cape of Good Hope SYNOD story
Dion's thoughts

its gone... sniff sniff

2007-05-16T10:14:00.000Z

My guitar has left me for a short vacation...
at least I know where it is and I have a piece of paper that will allow me to get it back unlike the last time I had a nice guitar (well last two times) when someone took them without giving me the proper receipt - I digress.
I had been playing my new swish guit, but I was worried that it was too bright (thats a measure of tonality not whether you can use it to read in the dark...) I had also noticed a rather annoying buzzy hum when I plugged it into the rig we normally use for church stuff, so I decided that I wasn't happy. In the midst of all this I discovered that the pickup in the guitar works very differently from normal, so once I had relearnt how to use a guitar (!!) there was still that annoying buzz. So back to London I went... and as anyone who knows me and my luck would guess, we plugged it in to the shop's little demo system and of course there was NO buzz. AAARRGGG
The guy was a little short at this point and said, "well all I can do is book it in and take it apart" eeeep! So I'm waiting for him to phone me and say, "I couldn't find anything wrong... sorry." Then I will have to go back to London (£12 again) at which point I will hold them all ransom until they agree to replace it with another... which they won't... then I'll be arrested for threatening a guitar salesman with a guitar stand... and they'll get to keep the guitar and I'll be £1550 out of pocket... aaaarrrrggggg
So I am not happy...

Some guitar porn - sorry no nakedness :-)

2007-04-26T14:21:00.000Z

So the time finally rolled round for me to increase my guitar collection! That is if you can call my battered Ibanes acoustic and my rusty Ibanez electric (in storage) a collection!

Well they are now joined by a true marvel. Its not the most expensive guitar I tried, it came in £500 below budget, which is either a fantastic saving, or a cheaper guitar (depending on your approach to the price vs. quality debate).

It is a Taylor 414CE, so here it is:

She is very lovely and sounds like a pure guitar should. Lovely and bright, just how I like it! I was hoping for a few technical gadgets to come built in, but the Taylor expression system that comes as standard pre-amp reproduces an exact natural sound, so no cool-tube, effects, mic, body sensors are necesary! Lovely!
If I ever get round to recording anything I'll put some decent quality clips on the site for all to be amazed at my new toy!

Dykes and bicycles

2007-04-20T11:10:00.000Z

We've just (well recently) gotten back from a wee trip to Holland... or The Netherlands, although I'm still not sure what we're supposed to say, cos as far as I can figure, The Netherlands included Belgium at one point... kind of like calling Zimbabwe Rodesia, "cos thats what it was called when I was there" not that I've ever been to either...
anyway, yes we spent three days last week driving from our little cottage in Kent to Holland. It was so much fun. The Brits seem to think that driving more than 2 hours is frightfully tiresome, although spending longer than that going in to London each day is normal! So most are surprised that we enjoyed our 3 hours from Dunkerque in France through Belgium to Dortrecht in Holland. We went up to Delft where they make that gastly blue and white china, and we even managed to NOT buy any of it! Yay! Although we nearly bought some for our moms... sorry moms... we decided not to get you something more to dust!
We also hired some bikes in a place called Kinderdijk that is famous for its 19 windmills. So we cycled down the little walkway along the middle of the canal that the windmills pump their water into. It was so cool to see the fields on either side of the canal at a lower level than the canal. And we also stopped for a while to laugh at a field of lambs too! I know such sissies!
All in all it was a fantastic trip, not least because we got to drive across Belgium and got to see so much more countryside than sitting in a plance would have allowed!
I have also found the most fantastic holiday destination: a place called Knokke (I don't know if you pronounce the first 'k' or not) on the Belgian coast. It is like a super trendy, up-market, yuppy version of the Durban beachfront... just bigger! The beach is that lovely smooth sand and there is a very long promenade type thing all along the sea-front. Simply lovely. If only we had enough ££'s to afford to go there it would be perfect! Its not often you walk a few short meters from teh beach-front and find a Chanel, Armani and Dior shop laden high street... hohum
Now we are looking forward to our holiday at home in August! YAY! although everyone keeps telling me we're very silly for going back for yet another winter... 3 in a row this year... oops

Why is blogging so hard?

2007-03-14T10:15:00.000Z

I feel like there is so much pressure to leave something on this blog everyday like some of the blogs I visit everyday.

The problem is that I am loath to leave silly comments (like this one) that have no point...

I also realise that I haven't been keeping my loyal readers (is there anybody out there...) up to date with the goings on in our little household here in Kent.

So lets see whats been happening...

Gina's career

My very clever wife has been promoted! She is now joint head of sixth form at her school. The sixth form is like matric, but its done over two years. Some of you South Africans will know it as A-levels. Gina is charge of personal development for all 120 students (I think) in the sixth form, which means that she is the one chasing them up if they don't go to lessons or miss work, and I think she's the go-to lady for discipline issues and personal crises etc. All very serious and grown-up stuff. The best part is that it comes with a nice little pay-rise... not too shabby since she has to support my DVD addiction. It's not my fault that they are so cheap here, honest! Not to mention my skiing obsession...

Skiing

I think I mentioned that we were skiing in Feb, which was awesome, except for the very sore muscles (skiing is hard work you know) and the injuries. Here are some pics from our week: This is my snowman... he looks like a civil war refugee complete with amputated arms... but thats cos it was hard enough to get his arms to stay on - I didn't try to make hands.

Unbeknownst to me, one of fellow travellers was making this one:

It started as a beautiful woman, but then the head fell off, and we decided to turn her into one of Henry's wives... the king not the car maker.

This is the view from one of the ski slopes, the clouds came in while we were going up the chair-lift. The village where we stayed is under those clouds somewhere... simply awesome! We didn't get enough pics of us actually skiing. I think we kept thinking we'd do it on the last day and then both got injured... typical!!

New toys
This is completely silly but I thought it worth mentioning some new toys... I am a gadget freak so it does all make sense in the long run:
First off is our new (*snigger*) car. Well its very old but new to us... a friend of ours was going scrap their old car, and suggested that we see how much it would cost to get it roadworthied (called MOT) and licensed etc. We took it along to our friendly garage who managed to get it through all the paperwork for about £250, which is a brilliant price for a new (*snigger*) car. So I am now a BMW driver!! Woohoo. Don't get too excited its an Automatic 1991 BMW 316i that looks and feels its' age. But I still get to be a BMW driver... well almost...
The other new toy is my new phone... I know I know... sillyness continues

Its a Sony Ericsson w850i... Gina calls it a 'slidy-uppy' phone. I call it a mp3playing-photo-taking-game-playing-radio-bluetooth-alarm-PowerPointRemote-device that also makes phone calls and does the sms thing. Like I said: gadget freak.

My other new gadget is a Palm Zire31 that is my other mp3 player, with diary, contacts and most fun SatNav as well. Do I need to say it again: gadget freak!

Now I feel bad cos I've rambled on at length about nonsense, when I should have been writing some profound thoughts like most of the links on your right... so maybe I'll leave the profoundness up to them wiseguys...

Skiing, Lent and AngelSpace

2007-02-21T10:19:00.000Z

So we've been back from our week of skiing for a few days now, but we're both still quite sore. Yup, its only our second skiing outing and we're both sporting injuries... although neither were technically whilst skiing. I slipped on some black ice on the way up the village to collect our skis on Friday and pulled a ligament in my knee - ow. I still SO disappointed because my goal for the week was to get onto a red run (green, blue, red then black) and Gina did a red with our class on the day I was resting my poor knee!! Aarrggg. I was also very excited about skiing down the mountain in the dark after a surprise birthday party for our host at a restuaruant on one of the pistes, which I didn't get to do since I had stuffed my knee. I ended up walking down the mountain... in the dark... along the piste... with a damaged ligament...

Which brings us to Gina's injury. She was walking down with me and she (not me with the injury.. which is probably a good thing) slipped on an icy bit and has damaged her coccyx (thats the little end bit of our backbone - think ex-tail ... see below). I reckon she's broken it, but its like breaking a little toe... super painful, but there's not a lot you can do... just take it easy and wait for it to heal.

So we are both a little sore, and I am very disappointed to have missed out on two whole days of skiing!!! aaarrrggg

I have added a link to the Ship of Fool's Website on the right. They always put up a list of what you can do for Lent, if like me, you think that giving up chocolate is not really going to change the world. They have an idea for everyday of Lent, so have a look. you still might not change the world, but you might just change your own attitudes or perspective!

Lastly, this weekend is the first AngelSpace.

The Crypt of the Rochester Cathedral is going to be transformed into a cafe church. We're planning an evening of creative and dynamic worship in a relaxed and informal setting. The idea is that you sit at a table, sing, chat, discuss, reflect, create, pray, drink coffee, and engage with the myriad of prayer and reflection installations thoughout the crypt. its going to be awesome!!

Well there we are... another term, another injury another post

SA Politics

2007-02-09T10:07:00.000Z

I realised this morning that the only way I keep up to date with SA politics is through the cartoon media. If it wasn't for Madam & Eve and Zapiro I wouldn't know what was going on. So here is todays installment. I thought I would share them so you don't have to go to each site yourselves... cos I did.

I agree with Edith... now that would be good politics!!

The downside of this method of keeping in touch is that I actually have no idea what was or wasn't said by Mr. Mbeki... oh well...

Bible Quiz: Keeping up with the Jones'

2007-02-05T12:17:00.000Z

Holy Phil posted his results so I thought I couldn't be outdone... but as Phil says... its really not hard!

You know the Bible 100%!

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

Bloggin' 'n Stuff

2007-02-01T11:30:00.000Z

I think the reason I don't blog so much is because I very rarely feel I have anything profound to say. That and the fact that I've always had a "I'm fine" approach to life. Its difficult to say more than "I'm fine".
But I'll try for all my dedicated readers. *cough cough*

NEWS:
Gina has been promoted cos she is a clever bunny. She is now the joint head of Sixth Form at Maidstone Grammar School for Girls. All very posh, don't you know.
I am stupendously proud of her, cos like I said, she is such a clever bunny! The down side is that means a little more work come next term. Shame
On the up side we now have a second car ... yay! Which means that I don't need to get up so early to drop Gina at the station (I was dropping her at 7am every morning - sheesh), but that means that my little workaholic wifie is going to be tempted to stay later at school to finish marking,lessonplans,reports,examsetting etc. So I'll be cracking th ol' whip to keep her at home as much as possible.
The new car is in fact a very old car. Some friends of ours were about throw their third car away (literally) and offered it to us assuming it would pass the MOT (roadworthy for the South Africans out there - which every UK car has to pass once a year to stay on the road), which it did, well just. So I am now driving a 1991 BMW 316i. Not too shabby, I mean its still a Beamer right? Its growing on me, the first couple of days I was sulking cos I prefer the far more zippy Daihatsu Charade saloon.
Anyhow there we are.
Our next travels are back to Vaujany in the French Alps for another week of skiing. YAY! I am super stoked to be going back to the slopes, it really is the most fun you can have, even if it does make the Credit Card cry.
And then at the end of Feb I will find out what (or rather how long) my future is at Brenchley. It seems that I will be offered another two years, but I'm cynical enough to reserve all judgement until I hear from my boss on about the 21st Feb. So its all good!

To end: I know most of you out there (is there anybody out there?) have been very worried about my PC. It took four weeks to sort out, including three hours (in one hour sessions) with Dell's support call center in India (apparantly its cheaper to route all calls from here to India and back than running a call centre in the UK - go figure), a replacement memory chip-set thing, and about seven or eight attempts on my part of reinstalling Windows, but my PC is finally back up and running. Its actually much better than it was, cos I don't have all the crap that they send out automatically installed. But I'm still not quite finished transferring all my stuff back onto the PC. On the up side, my tedious copying of files one-by-one (yes thats right) using my limited DOS cammand knowledge paid off, cos all my important files were still hidden safely on the harddrive.
So there you have it: Murray's extended version of "I'm fine"

i honestly hate computers...

2007-01-02T18:58:00.000Z

I was so happy to get a nice new shiny PC for my office mid November. I thought I had a good deal from good old Dell, I thought that I could just start it up and load on all my documents, music, photos and keep going as I had been on our laptop...

I was wrong.

It crashed, I had a blue-screen-of-death and so I tried to dump all my docs onto a DVD only for it to crash again, and this time corrupt the config.sys file. If you don't know what that is its basically the file that tells your computer how to start. At least I think it is...

So now I'm back to the overloaded, slow but REALLY reliable HP laptop while I wait for the PC to format so I can reload Windows. I've spent the last two hours copying files one by one in good ol' DOS into a partition on the hard drive with the hope that it will still be there following the format.
Here's hoping... if not I will cry

Some things are worth waiting for...

2006-12-28T13:54:00.000Z

So the one thing I had hoped would be possible from the UK has come to me.
Gina and I are still planning on seeing the States before we head home to SA and the Rand, and one of the things I was going to arrange was that we go to see Dave Matthews Band live wherever we were in the US. I was quite happy to change our dates, schedule, timings anything in order to catch a concert.
I could not begin to tell you my delight therefore when I found that the man and his awesome band is going to be performing in London! The weirdest thing is that I have found only ONE, yes ONE, person in the UK who has even heard of Dave Matthews, let alone likes the music. I had given up on any dream that he would tour the UK.
So here are the little pieces of gold:

I am a happy man.

Its Christma-a-a-s

2006-12-24T22:18:00.000Z

Merriest Christmas everybody!
I really don't feel very Christmassy this year, I dunno why. we've got the whole tree thing going, loads of prezzies under the tree, we'll be visiting two families on the day (neither ours cos we live too far away), but I still quite feel there.
Gina says that 'there' is what Hollywood tells us it should be, and if I keep worrying about not feeling like Christmas... i won't. Wise woman that!
We're off to church soon for our midnight mass... good ol' Anglicans! Should be fun
Here's a bit of our tree for you all to share!
merriest merriest to you and yours

Madam & Eve do same-sex marriage

2006-12-04T23:42:00.000Z

Hee hee, I just love these guys

Die Krokodil is dood

2006-11-05T20:16:00.000Z

So the 'Groot Krokodil' has moved on.
I had the strangest conversation after a church service on Thursday, I was asked what people back home thought about the passing of one of our Statesmen. I had to admit that I didn't think there were too many tears this week. Sad that.
My biggest question is if ol' Steve Irwin is trying to get a day pass to head 'downstairs' (if you like) to do a little croc huntin'...
Anyway, on thursday these were the two cartoons I read:

AND then this one...

The difference between the two is SO marked... it speaks volumes about where we (says the economic exile) have come from and how far we've come:
Go Thandi!!

The loss of power...

2006-09-25T11:19:00.000Z

I was reading a blog entry by my friend Dion about the way that the systems we live in are really about preserving their power.
I was struck by the power (hehe) of the Christian message (allow me to use the brand of Christian to include my own branch which is more about God's love).
True freedom/power/integrity/truth is only achieved in giving up power... yet wherever we find ourselves we try to collect as much as we can. All of my relationships go pear shaped when I try to control. It surprised me because I have become more and more worried about the abuse of power by the USA, but the same is true of every system we exist in. Churches are the worst. There are little pockets trying to preserve their 'power' be it in the community, the church, the choir or the Church Council.
How did we get it so wrong? It is only in giving up our lives that we get life! It is only in giving up power/control that we get freedom!
Doesn't that sound like some guy who wandered around the Middle East a couple thousand years ago... sheesh.

Airtap! Guitar Skills!!

2006-09-14T14:34:00.000Z

The most unbelievable clip:

Guitar Skills

Can you say... gaaah!?!
(sorry - it seems to open in a new window... i'll try for YouTube)

2006-09-13T09:50:00.000Z

Well since no-one even had a guess:
It is Saint Mark's Basilica in Venice. Pic taken across Saint Mark's Square with the Grand Canal behind somewhere and the lagoon on the right.

And no... no human bones.
Although apparantly it was called St. Mark's because the bones of Mark (as in Matthew Mark Luke John) are inside somewhere. They were stolen from Constantinople after it was conquered by the Turks (or whoever it was ...) according to legend.

OK, so lets try another one:

The roof was destroyed by an Allied (I think) bomb in WWII, but was restored with the same pattern and similar tiles. It is a very pretty roof, but we were a little too close to get a good pic, and the tour group was moving on!!

The most interesting church in Europe...

2006-09-05T19:28:00.000Z

Of all the churches we saw in Europe this one is the most interesting:

Apparently the architecture is a mix of Islamic and Christian because the Patrician of the day wanted the most skilled artisans, and so he hired them from Constantinople. Europe was in decline and the Middle East was on the up.
The guys who were commissioned to build this church normally designed mosques and so they brought that influence into Venice.
Now 10 points if anyone can guess which church it is:

We're back

2006-08-29T00:18:00.000Z

Gina and I have been spending the last two weeks in a coach travelling around Europe. 6 Countries in 15 days. Not too bad. I dragged Gina into every cathedral we passed, and even a few churches.
It was sipmly amazing. We saw so much, spent so much, drank so much, ate so much and laughed so much. The only thing we didn't get much of was sleep, which is why we've spent two days recovering. It didn't help that I had organised a braai (bbq) for my youth kids the day after we got back, but we survived, and I am back to work (Gina still has another week, so I'm sulking)
I'll will stick on a series of photos as soon as I've gotten them off the camera!
M

The religio-science debate

2006-07-11T11:15:00.000Z

Every now and then I see something on this great beastie that is the World Wide Web that makes me laugh out loud. Generally its a comic of some sort:

I love it. The best bit is that the 'Darwin' fish doesn't seem to mind that his/her intended is a out-and-out Christian fish, but dad/mom does! So much to say with just a little picture.

If you enjoy this cartoon check out ReverndFun.com.
I reckon that cartoons make the world go round!!

Surprises in Kent...

2006-07-04T13:47:00.000Z

I was awefully surprised last year in June, when whilst living in London we had the most humid and horribly warm summer. I couldn't believe that this soggy little island could produce weather that Gautengers would run away from.
So this afternoon I am sitting listening to a typical Transvaal afternoon summer thunderstorm. Would you believe it?! Its been too hot to do anything much lately and I am enjoying the coolness of my office at home, which was freezing in winter mind.
So there you are... more surprises from this soggy little island. From snow in April to thunderstorms in July... it's all a grand adventure!!

Fiction often tells a true story

2006-06-22T11:50:00.000Z

I have always been a great fan of Indiana Jones. I think I only saw the first two on video, having been born just too late to see them 'live' at the cinema (so too with the original Star Wars), but I managed to see the Last Crusade live and loud. I enojoyed the thrill of following Indy in his search for The Holy Grail. The good guys want if for its historic and spiritual significance. The bad guys want it because it offers eternal life.
Jesus used parables to make a point, so let’s use our modern fiction to tell a true story.
John 6: 53-59 quotes Jesus as saying that if we partake in communion, if we eat his flesh and drink his blood then we will remain in Him as He remains in us, so that we will have eternal life.
I say this to myself during communion. It is the one verse or passage of all the references to Holy Communion that makes the most sense to me. It is a promise from Jesus.
Jesus makes this promise, and I hold onto that promise even when I am feeling far away from God. It doesn’t say that we need to be particularly faithful or even obedient. All it says is that we need to believe that communion is a link to Christ. His body and blood for us. If we do that then He is with us. We get eternal life.
The infamous Da Vinci Code poses the idea that the Holy Grail (or sangreal) is rather the Sang Real or Blood Royal. This fiction poses the idea that the Holy Grail is a descendent of Christ.
There is a certain amount of intrigue and drama in the idea that somewhere out there, a descendent of Jesus might be walking around. What would they look like? What would they be like? What does it feel like to know that you are a descendent of the Son of God? Its an amazing thought, we get all tingly at the idea. Ooh… what if… what if… This excitement has in no small way has earned Mr. Brown an enormous sum of money and a global following, regardless of whether it has any truth, or whether he nicked the idea off someone else or not.
In Romans 8: 12-17, Paul says that the work of the Spirit is to adopt us as children, sons and daughters, of God, brothers and sisters of Christ.
I had a look on the UK government's websites to find out about the legalities of adoption. I initially tried to find out if the Queen could adopt someone. Unfortunately no-one seems to have thought of that little predicament, but I did find a statement on one of the websites devoted to the ins and outs of adoption. “Your child becomes a full member of your family; he takes your surname and assumes the same rights and privileges as if he had been born to you, including the right of inheritance.” Department for Education and Skills
According to British law, if you are adopted by someone, you become their child. It is legally as if you were born to them. Paul uses this concept in Romans 8. We are heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ. I don't think that God is beholden to British law, but we can use this concept as Paul did. We are heirs to God, we are His children.
Since God doesn’t have physical blood, the stuff that gives God life is Spirit. If we are adopted by the Spirit and if Christ remains in us, then we too have life by the Spirit. We therefore have the same ‘blood’ running through our veins.
We are descendents of God, we have ‘Royal Blood’ that gives us life. This 'Royal Blood' is the Spirit that adopts us, that speaks to God for us, that leads us gently into God's presence and guides us towards finding the truth that God, through Christ, offers us.
We are all examples of this Holy Grail.
We have eternal life, and we are God’s children. Whether you prefer Spielberg's Indiana Jones or Dan Brown's Robert Langdon, we as Christians fulfill the criteria for the Holy Grail.
The idea of the Holy Grail stirs that part of us that longs to go on a treasure hunt. We all have a little bit inside that wants to run off and find adventure. That is why adventure stories are so popular. We get to be treasure hunters with Indiana, sail the seas and fight pirates with Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow, we get to hunt through the city of Paris looking for conspiracies and intrigue with Robert Langdon.
So lets use the adventure, the sense of excitement to remind ourselves about who we are in Christ. We have this opportunity to tell others about the great life that is available for everyone who sees God as Father. We have in essence completed the quest, the Holy Grail has been found and is across the world in Christians everywhere.
Jesus tells us in Matthew how to be children of God.
Matthew 5: 43-45a "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may children of your Father in heaven."
If we want to act like the descendents of Christ then this is our task. Love those who we have hurt us. Repay anger and violence with understanding and peace. If someone is mean to us, hurts us, betrays us or ruins our dreams, our immediate response is to lash out; this is our human response. Children of God are children of love. Desmond Tutu talks about peace as being a long hard struggle. The road to peace is paved with tiny gestures that build trust. A collection of moments when we decide not to act in anger, but to turn the other cheek. Children of God love their enemies, they listen to the unspoken cry, they see the same reaction in others that they are choosing against within themselves. All people need to be understood in their moments of hurt. If we want to be a child of God we will seek out those hurts in others and see beyond the anger, the betrayal, even the violence. This is love.

The Spirit adopts us as children of God, brothers and sisters of Christ. Even though we may dismiss the possibility of there being a descendent of Jesus, the idea that the Holy Grail is a person is quite helpful. What is more powerful than a person living as God's child. The Spirit comes and empowers us to be God's children. We are all Holy Grails, filled with Christ's 'blood', giving eternal life to our world through God's love in our lives.

More Aus amazement

2006-06-13T22:16:00.000Z

At the risk of sounding like an Aussie supporter (heaven forbid) I need to comment again on Australia's World Cup journey. Since Croatia amazingly held Brazil to only a 1-0 defeat (most sane people were predicting 4-0, 5-0 hell even just 3-0) and since Australia managed to beat Japan by two goals, it means that after one game each, Brazil is not on top of their group.
I know this sounds rather trifling and it is, because I don't think Aus are going to repeat their success, but they are currently on top of their group. Now so is Germany only because they don't have any goals against them, but still... in the group with Brazil (current champions and most successful country in the history of the World Cup) and Australia (never before scored in the World Cup) it is the latter who is on top. I can't overstate how amazing this is. Well I have, but still it is insane.
This is why I love Football. The beautiful game.

Get in!

Aus shock

2006-06-13T10:31:00.000Z

I'm not used to supporting any Aussie team when it comes to sport, but it was a great day yesterday. I've always scoffed at Aussie's attempts at Soccer (sorry... Football).

For those who don't know they pulled off the most amazing comeback in their World Cup game against Japan. Well not as good as Liverpool's comeback against AC Milan in '05 ... but I digress.

Anyway... the Aussies had been in a World Cup Finals before but didn't score a single goal that time round. With their goalless history they were the decided underdogs against a fairly experienced Japanese team. Having everything against them, they managed to coame back from being 1-0 down to score 3, count them, three goals in the last 7 minutes of the match. Amazing! Outstanding!

So big up to Aussie Football, but don't think we'll be nearly as nice to the cricket or rugby team!

The World Cup action continues...

Bafana bafana... who are they?

The world at your feet.

2006-06-09T10:44:00.000Z

So it all starts today.

I'm glad to see according to Madam & Eve that there is a fair amount of World Cup fever in SA. England is quite simply over-run with World cup ... well everything.

The coolest thing though is that summer has arrived, and seemingly wants to make up for lost time.The weather is superb. Warm, sunny, and light until after 9pm, which means that supper is outside, braais (sorry barbeques) are on the go, all just in time for the World Cup. So there will be lots of beer, lots of smoky meat (SA style... none of this burgers on the braai nonsense), footie on telly, and sitting outside enjoying the ample sunshine... aaah. Not too bad for a soggy Island!!

OK, so I'm in England!

2006-05-30T11:12:00.000Z

Yesterday I felt like Postman Pat. Well, I didn't have a little red van, although I passed two or three on the way, and no little black and white cat, although there is a black cat next door who keeps digging up our grass.
It was a normal day, I got up, went out to buy some eggs and milk as you do, had a coffee at Starbucks and was driving home only to be stopped by a herd ...er flock ... er school .... er canteen? ... by a bunch of sheep. They were being herded (canteened?) up the road and into another field. It was so cool, ok smelly, but still cool . Man can those things make a noise.
Gina and I used to stop at exactly this point on this road to watch the new born lambs about a month ago (one of the now older lambs in just to the right of its mom in the pic). Poor little sheep dog looked terrified by something... I hope it was the cars and not the sheep. They are trully stupid animals. As they are being herded past all these cars they keep vearing off to grab a mouthful of roadside shrub... bleating all the way. Someone needs to tell them that its easier to eat if you keep your mouth closed.

WEll that was my excitement yesterday.
Today, my wife is home after a week long school trip to France. YAY! The house isn't quiet and lonely anymore... and someone's going to do some dishes! YAY!
hehe

Jesus and helium

2006-05-24T23:55:00.000Z

So my wife left today for a 5 day trip to France without me. Her school is paying so we're not complaining, although she has to sleep on a coach on a ferry tonight, so maybe I got the better deal since I now get the big bed to myself... bit empty though...

I'm doing an assembly tomorrow on the Ascension. How do you tell kiddies about the ascension without being overly Christian? Its a toughie... well I figure I'll take a helium balloon, maybe make a few balloon doggies and a swan or two and hopefully they'll get the point about not holding onto the balloon cos it was designed to float away. The only problem is the next time mommy buys the little munchkins a helium balloon they'll let it go and tell mommy (oh by the way... its mummy, not mOmmy. The Brits have never heard of mom. Seriously. Its mum around here) that Murray told them to let it go. How did I end up doing Primary school assemblies!?!
To answer your question, no I don't think Jesus and helium ever crossed paths. Its a shame really, I reckon He would have had a top laugh doing the helium giggle. Its amazing the things we take for granted in our modern age. The poor disciples never got to sit around the lounge sucking helium out of floaty balloons laughing at each other's silly voices.
Now someone will probably come and protest outside my house for suggesting that Jesus ever giggled. Nice thought though...

2006-05-18T10:04:00.000Z

I have been reading some fellow Methodist's blogs and generally feeling their frustrations about the system of Church that they find themselves a part of. I am now exiled from that system while I follow the call of my wallet, it seems to prefer Pounds to Rands. What can you do?

But I long to be a part of that system again, however evil it may be. I feel left out and unbelievably more frustrated with the English Church of England than I ever was with the MCSA.
Surely there is someone who will listen to God instead of political factions and 'interest groups'?
Why do we have leaders who are either not willing or simply not empowered to make the changes that seem so obvious?
Where are the prophets for this generation? Did they all get sucked into the mega-churches and then lost in the crowd? Is God silent?
I won't believe that. I'll hang on and suffer the evils of the system all the while hoping and praying for enough people to cry out with God's heartache at the injustice of it all. God is bigger than our silliness.

The end is near...

2006-03-27T11:44:00.000Z

So we got Sky TV today.
Which is really good news cos now we can actually make out the stuff on the telly, as opposed to trying to read subtitles through the fuzzy static'ed signal.
The bad news is that now there is NO hope of me ever doing any work again.
Well, not that bad then... all round

Gina and I are off to Brussels on Sunday, then when we get back next Wed, Gina's dad arrives for two weeks. Yay!
Well, he should enjoy the TV then. The only problem is we can't afford the Sports add-on, so all I can see of the SA v Aus game is the channel name... oh well... maybe next year.

So it never did snow again. I'm detemined to go up to the artic circle. I WILL have a snowball fight again even if it kills me. The other thing is that the Skiing bug has completely taken hold of me. I can't wait to get on the slopes again. Its quite sad really

Right, so if I ever get round to it, I'll put up some skiing pics, some Brussels pics, some Paris pics... you know all the cool stuff we get to do living in England.

Damn, am I a smug bastard or what.

Hehe

God bless

I'm looking up 'how to do a snowdance'

2006-02-27T10:24:00.000Z

So its been a week since we got back from good old skiing.
The withdrawal symptoms have finally worn off, and I am no longer dreaming of the intricate twists and turns of the probably pedestrian runs we were testing our mettle on. I have no idea what that means, so don't ask.

My wife is planning on leaving me... for three days next week, as she heads off to a Teachers conference in York next week. Fair's fair I suppose since I was away for a couple of days a couple of weeks ago too. No worries. The only unfair bit is that as we wait anxiously for snow in South East England, she's heading up to the Yorkshire region where snow is a menace not a novelty... NO FAIR! I'm sulking.
I'm obsessed with this snow story. I can't wait for it to snow. But not just that slushy wet stuff that melts in an hour... I want the whole covering with blizzards and no school for the week. Bring it on.
Oh well, I'll have to get a post in the Scottish Highlands next time.
But seriously, there is little as much fun as a snowball fight. Except for those errant snowballs that sneak down the neck or land square in the ear... ouch.

But until snow stops play, we have to carry on working... yuck.

I await the arrival of the guy to fix the shower. Not bad, he promised to come today... only 10months after the shower was asked to be sorted. and only 6months after we moved in... sheesh.
Flippen churches.

Tjeers

2006-02-20T10:06:00.000Z

I just realised that I have no idea who to address these blogs to...
Who exactly is it that blogs are written for? Is it for me to vent the thoughts in my head, cos then the Web is in trouble... or is it for my friends and family to read whats up in our lives?
If the latter, then I had should probably tell everyone that I have a blog in the first place!

So,
Gina and I spent a week skiing last week. Yup thats right. The teacher and Youth worker managed to spend a week skiing in the French Alps (just across the border from the Winter Olympics no less)
This is the view we had from our room:

Not too bad a view as views go.

We had good fun on the slopes, although the bruises and muscle stiffness are still with us.
Back to work now, I suppose.

2006-01-12T22:03:00.000Z

I figured the best place to start would be to give you a picture of our little house. This is a summer shot, pre-garden-service. It now looks quite bare, well tidy. It has been covered in frost, snow and leaves. Not bad for four months worth.

2006-01-12T12:28:00.000Z

Hello the world
I have just realised how easy it is to create a blog, so here we are.

So the idea will be to let you all know what Gina and I are up to here in the good ol' U of ... hang on that doesn't work... ok .... here in the good ol' UK (US of A has so much more pizazz!)

Expect pics, nonsense, boring stuff about Kent, Paris, Music, Theology and life in general.
Please feel free to leave comments or email us at any point. We LOVE to hear from our friends and family in SA.

God bless
M