Ripley's would be proud

So I've been having a good few days;

carus went well on Sunday night, it felt like a new beginning. 4 new people turned up which is great.

Yesterday I went to do a 6th form assembly at the school we meet in for carus and introduce a new idea we're launching called forty-2. There were 2 amazing things that happened yesterday and I want to write them down.

Firstly, I was trying to design a logo for the idea and was messing around with a picture of Marvin the robot and the forty-2 text. Nothing was happening and I was getting frustrated and so decided I needed a new picture and a new idea. I went to "insert new picture" and clicked on it. The moment I did this the screen flashed and when it reappeared Marvin and the text had moved into this position;



I hadn't tried this, I was about to give up but I instantly loved it!! The first very weird but very true experience of yesterday.

Secondly, when I arrived at the school my contact Andrea took me down to the 6th form common room where she thought the assembly was. As I stood outside 2 guys walked out and began to chat. It was obvious that one of them was very popular and when they said goodbye he walked right back into the common room and immediately was chatting to the whole room and was quite obviously the centre of attention for that moment. Andrea came and told me there'd been a mistake and the assembly was in the main hall and so we walked up there, got set up and the assembly began. In the middle of the hall was this guy and again he was making jokes and people were chatting to him as they came in and I became more convinced of his popularity. I prayed that if forty-2 could attract this guy then we would have real credibility with the rest of the 6th form. And so I did my bit (I was rubbish!!) and the assembly ended. Now the first thing was that the head of 6th form came and spoke to me and was really happy that we are going to do this thing for the school and thought it was a great idea (huge relief) then something else happened.

One of the 6th formers came and spoke to me about Matt Leeder (who's also working on forty-2) and asked which band he was in. I told him it was electralyte and he said "oh so does he know Jon?" I explained that we were all good friends and found out that he gets taught drums by Jon. That was a great thing we already had links with one of the 6th form. Then the really popular guy comes over and says "I know Jon too, I work on summer Christian camp with him" I was completely blown away by this but then to make it even more awesome, it turns out he is related to my friend Ben who goes to Chelmsford Salvos!! God is very very Good!!

What an afternoon!!

Sometimes it blows my mind how much more God is in control than I am.

And so there you have it, believe it or not.

A biographical error??

Well, it's 6.40pm and I'm still at the office waiting to go and visit a youth cafe tonight in Barking. And so with my brain completely incapable of doing anymore work until I get there I wanted to blog some thoughts;

Anyway, halfway through the week I was asked to wrote a short biography of myself to send to an event I will be going to later in the year. So far in my short time in ministry I have got away with notwriting one of these but it has finally caught up with me.

I need to summarise who I am and what I do into a short paragraph or two so that when people read it they'll think - "hey let's go and hear this guy speak about stuff!!"

I'm truly struggling, I started out working on this with my wife Christina who was a great help until it got the bit about writing that I'm married at which point the bio took a whole new direction, mainly all about Christina and while I'd love to write about her rather than me it wasn't what I was asked for.

And so I moved onto asking my good friend and colleague Matt Leeder (read his blog and go to cross rhythms) he took a look at the drafts and came back with a few grammatical changes.

In my school and uni days I was incredibly arrogant and would have jumped at the chance to write about myself and have people read it. Writing about how many styles of drumming I could play and how many groups I'd played with was easy but this is different and I'm not doing too well at writing about myself now.

And so if you happen to be reading this and know me (even just from this blog) write me a bio!!

All suggestions will be taken seriously.......I’m very generous like that……….make sure you include “generous”

Borrowed from Lard's blog

Four jobs I’ve had in my life

• Percussion Teacher
• Waiter
• Returned mail opener
• Bank teller (also pushed millions around in the vaults)

Four movies I can watch over and over

• Karate Kid part 1
• Stewie Griffin Untold Story
• Love actually (I know it's girly but it's great)
• Waynes World

Four places I have lived

• Newtownards (NI)
• Merstham (Surrey)
• Rettendon Common (Essex)
• Colchester (Essex)

Four TV shows I love to watch

• Simpsons
• Desperate Housewives
• Family Guy
• Anything reality (it's an addiction)

Four places I have been on vacation

• Vancouver Island, Canada
• Florida
• France/Poland/Germany (Orchestra tour)
• Blackpool

Four of my favourite dishes

• Chilli
• Cottage Pie
• Swedish Meatballs (IKEA stylee)
• Seafood Chowder (we had this on honeymoon every day - awesome!!)

Four websites I visit daily

• BBC News
• ALOVE
• Radio 1
• i-tunes store
  

Four places I would rather be right now

• Having breakfast back in Canada
• Apple Store with enough money for my Mac Book Pro
• Sitting around a huge table with mine and Christina's families having a great laugh
• Bed

Four bloggers I am tagging

the list on the right is pretty good, I need to add my borther and Si Graham

Much more than.......

Last night myself, Christina, my brother Simon and his girlfriend Beth went to see Nizlopi (or Jiblobi as Christina thought they were called).

They are a two-piece band who have been around for about 4 years with little recognition until they released their JCB song and had the Christmas number 2 (only beaten by the X-factor guy)

Having heard their album I was really looking forward to the gig and we got their in time to hear the support and chat for a while. Finally they came on and were awesome!!

The crowd was a mixture of fans who had been around from the beginning (one of them even had a sweatshirt on that said "I liked Nizlopi before they were famous") mixed in with a lot of people who only knew the JCB song.

What was most interesting was their encore. They came on to a standing, cheering crowd and began to sing these words;

Oh well faith is my brand new story

It's been a long fight, my heart went right out

Oh won't bore you any more

Love wasn't my feeling, my type or my kind

Now being good to you is all thats on my mind.

Praise be the hands that brought this to work now

Turn it on, switch it on.

Sing a song that's true

Bring it back to you,

Just sing a song it's true

Bring it back to you

Sing a song, it's you, bring it back to you

Let's sing a song that's true.

I'm not always great at figuring out what lyrics are all about but I like these lyrics. And while the songs was a pretty quiet way to end the whole evening I love the idea of the last words of the gig being, Let's sing a song that's true.

The song's called Faith by the way.

Hopefully I'm Dreaming!!

Last night I was helping a youth leader from the area do some video uploading and editing on my computer.

This was due to take 45minutes and I was going to head for an early night's sleep.

It was great to spend time with Andy and share a meal with him and Christina in our home. The editing stuff, however, took over 4 hours. I got to bed around midnight and for some reason it's all left me very tired.

Christina's been getting pensions advice for us today and with that plus the fact that we booked flights for us to go back to NI for my birthday I started to feel very old.

And so this thought hit me;

Am I getting old??

It used to be I could stay up for hours working and chatting and not get that tired by it all. I wasn't interested in pensions or anything like that.

Now the evidence is mounting;

• I get tired after a "late night"
• A "late night" now seems to be anything after 1030pm
• I have a mortgage
• I'm married (I love being married so I'm not complaining)
• I read the guardian
• I've started to hear songs on radio 1 and not recognise them
• I really want a 15" Apple Powerbook but know I should spend the money on something more practical!!
• I've started buying (and wearing) really plain clothes

Is it true??

Am I an old man??

If I am, I'm a very scared old man!!

I've been blogging for 5 months

But who cares??

Today I had a phonecall from an estate agent who is apparently selling our flat for us, however when I say selling I actually mean, putting on the market for a ridiculously high price, having no viewers then asking us to take a quarter off the price!!

However, when he rang it wasn't to apoligise for this or even to assure me that they were doing all they could, instead he rang to tell me how long he'd been an estate agent.

For 8 minutes he let me know that his 16 years of experience were the key to the whole issue of selling the flat. He reminded 9 times that he'd been working for 16 years, 5 times that he'd worked in the area for 7 years and 6 times that he's a director of the company.

I'm sure he's a lovely person and is possibly a good estate agent, but why tell me that??

I have no more belief that he's going to sell my flat because he's sold other peoples for a long time.

In fact if his tactic as a salesman is just to lower prices until he's giving homes away then no wonder he sells so many - I could do that!!

And so I want to start a campaign (of which I will be taking part) no longer will I tell people how long I've been doing anything unless I'm asked.

No more pointless inclusion of timescales please.

Come fly with me........if.........

TAKEN FROM EASYJET.COM
Check-in
Our check-in desks close exactly 30 minutes before the scheduled departure of the flight. We recommend checking in two hours before departure.
We require all passengers to provide a valid form of photographic ID at check-in on all flights, including domestic services
When you check in, you will be issued with a boarding pass. These are numbered in order, so the first passenger to check-in will receive number one, the second number two etc. These indicate the order in which passengers will board the aircraft. These are NOT seat numbers as easyJet operates a free-seating policy. So in general, the earlier you check in, the wider the choice of seats you have when you board.
Boarding
We operate a free seating policy which means that you can choose where you sit on the aircraft. easyJet operates a strict priority boarding system and you will be boarded by the sequence you checked-in at.
The aircraft is boarded in groups, starting with passengers travelling with young children and passengers requiring assistance first, followed by passengers with group ‘A’ boarding cards, then B, C and finally group D.
After prior arrangement with our check-in and gate staff, the following are some examples of passengers who may be allowed to board first:
Parents with babies and young children
Passengers who require assistance

As promised here is my account of my journey home from Denmark. I have had a few days now to cool down and am ready to report the events clearly and reasonably.

We arrived at Copenhagen airport in good time and said farewell to Christina’s dad. We then checked in and wandered for a bit before settling down near some screens to wait for the gate number to be displayed (not my usual way, I prefer a last minute airport sprint). When the number appeared we realised it was quite a walk away and so we set of there and then.

Halfway through our hike (I hate walking!!) an announcement came over the PA that the gate had been changed and we were now boarding from gate 105. Unfortunately the gate we had been told originally and were now halfway towards was 14 – Yes 14!! And so we turned round and set off in the opposite direction passing the seats we had left 10 minutes earlier.

I remained in good spirits and approached the passport control. This was pretty simple. One short queue leading to one booth, one longer queue that led to two booths. We joined the shorter queue and both were moving nicely along. As we approached the booth the people behind us decided they were sick of waiting and that they were going into the other queue’s booth. They were quickly corrected by the people behind (the newly formed lynch mob). I was now well prepared that they were not going to enter into the easyjet spirit of things willingly.

We got through the control (Christina was checked a few times because her passport photo makes her look like a 14 year old goth!!) And after another walk got to the queue to get onto the plane. Please note - The aircraft is boarded in groups, starting with passengers travelling with young children and passengers requiring assistance first, followed by passengers with group ‘A’ boarding cards, then B, C and finally group D. However what we discovered was a flight of stairs running alongside a downwards escalator with everyone just cramming through one tiny door.

And so we got onto the stairs and began to wait.

At this point, they made the announcement for anyone with small children to board. Now none of us could move anywhere and the door was jammed with people and so as parent arrived people moved to let them through and everyone else just waited.

But the group from the passport queue decided against this and they went down the escalator and began pushing through the queue to get through the door, no kids, no reason for them to do this.

My mood was lowering quickly.

By now the bottom of the escalator was jammed up also and there was no room to get off the thing. This, you’d think, would deter people from going onto the escalator but no! Two people decided that they were going down the thing to get to the front of the queue. Now we all stood and watched, silently hoping that we would begin to witness something hilarious – we weren’t disappointed!!As they approached the bottom of the escalator nobody moved to let them off and so they were left trying to get back up it but just walking as if on a treadmill. And still nobody moved!! By this stage we were halfway down the stairs watching this and all we could do was watch……and try desperately not to laugh. This went on for a full 90 seconds with these 2 people stuck at the bottom of the escalator not sure which way to face or whether or not they should try and get back to the top on it. Eventually the queue moved and they got off AT WHICH POINT they invited their friend to come down – BUT THERE WAS STILL NO ROOM!!!!

And so down comes this (really tall and really big) man who again gets stuck on the escalator!!

And so in that moment I came up with a plan (which was approved by me, Chris and her family……and also the guy behind me who I didn’t know was listening)

THE PLAN

From now on before you can fly on easyjet you must fill out an online test.

If you pass the test you can fly easyjet at anytime for a 6 moth period, if you fail you must use a different airline (one with tickets and allocated seats).

After 6 months you would need to take another test to make sure you’re still capable.

And there is my plan.

Stelios, if you’re reading this I’d be happy to get on board and help write the test just leave me a message.

I'm resolved

Well here is my definitive list of New Year's Resolutions a list of things I'm going to do in 2006;

1. Read 12 books (This is a great idea from Tim Miller, it's one book for every month of the year)
2. Learn Hebrew
3. Take part in one competitive audition process
4. Make Danish pastry from scratch
5. Speak to my grandparents once a month
6. Be a better big brother
7. Decide on a Phd topic
8. Do 100 sit ups a day

That's it!!

I may achieve more this year but whatever happens I'm aiming for these.

Wherever it is....there's no place like it

We're now back on English soil and having had a very eventful journey (I'll blog more later) we're back in our flat in Essex and back to normality.

The last week or so has seen us take 4 flights (easyjet will be blogged on later) and catch up with lots of friends and family.

Christina and I are both now without any family in Essex and holiday times are a really great time to get together and catch up with those closest to us. This was not only our first Christmas as a married couple but also the first Christmas Christina spent without her mum, dad and brother.

For me it was the first time I'd been back home to NI for 12months and the first time my family had been together since the wedding.

And when all is done and the decorations go away and work begins again I take a few minutes to thank God for having so many people in our lives that we love and love us.

GOOD NOODLE!!

Happy New Year (Good Noodle is how's it's pronounced in Danish!!)

This is me enjoying my first cup of tea of 2006 in Denmark.

Happy New Year!!