I found some...

...happy thoughts. A bit like Peter Pan. But without the flying, or the tights. Last night, a huge debt of gratitude is owed to Joy, Dave and Tash, who were all lovely in their individual way, and were so appreciated.

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The first, I owe thanks to my brother for living in a ridiculous country. I apologise for the quality of the photo - I can only blame trans-Atlantic mangling. But in case you weren't aware of how long it was until you were supposed to overspend on your credit card and get yourself into a stupid amount of debt, World, here it is:

Edit: After posting this the first time, I took a look at my blog. I noticed the flamingo.

A flamingo?!

Why, capitalism... why?
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The second comes from my lunchtime perusal of The Week, the, er, weekly magazine pertaining to the news. I was reading the global news, and this little nugget caught my eye. The editors must have known what they were doing, right? Right?!

Busy

This is just a brief note to the diehard among you - I apologise profusely for the lack of blogs this past week. I've been crazy busy, quite tired, fairly tearful, and rather unfunny. I didn't want impose this upon you.

If you have a belief system that engenders communication with your deity, I'd appreciate any brief conversations that have me in mind. I'm struggling with me, and that's not a pretty place to be.

Thank you.

Nothing Special

I briefly met up with Dave while in London, and struggled a great deal not to tell him these things. Sometimes I wonder if I should just forget the theology or Christian element of this blog and go for 'some things that amused me'.

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I was on the Tube earlier, going into London, and there were two ladies standing in front of me. One of them was reading a novel, a fairly large tome, in Spanish. Perhaps a native or Spain, or even a Latino. Irrespective, she was reading a large book. In Spanish. On the Tube.

The second lady took her book out of her bag with a bit of a flourish, and a proceeded to read it with a great sense of importance and occasion. The title?

'Five Get Into Trouble'.

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Yesterday, after morning prayers, I was singing the chorus to Facedown, by Matt Redman. For those of you unaware of the song, the words are 'And I'll fall face down, as your glory shines around.'

I then tripped up.

You couldn't write this stuff.

Silly Me

I preached the for the first time this morning. It went well. I'm not sure the vicar was expecting it to go so well, in fact. Which was a real pleasure to be able to stand up there and surprise the congregation by being able to speak. Almost immediately after my sermon was the Peace, at which the vicar said well done, and that I could preach again. I then, in a moment of idiocy, decided it would be a good idea to say:

'I told you I could preach.'

Urgh. Why do I do these things to myself?! The vicar wasn't offended, and I apologised later. But still: what bizarre sceptre of humour caught me and convinced me of that being a good idea?!

Oh well. I'm glad it went well, and that glory was given to God. That's all I can ask, really.

So, funny things...

Last night, I was walking home past the park, and overheard a snippet of a clearly stoned conversation that tickled me:

'Hitler, man, like, he was the biggest killer of white people, like, in history. People chat about his white supremacist thing, but he was actually the biggest killer of white people, like, ever. It's just, like, hypocritical'.

In retrospect, knowing what we know about Hitler, I'm not sure that hypocrisy was his biggest fault.

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I managed to get two Spinal Tap references into conversation last night around the dinner table. I'm pretty happy with that. I was hoping to crowbar one into my thank you speech, but it was unnecessary.

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The Bishop of London's opening address was fun. He used words that I don't know, which was wonderfully unnecessary, and verbose. (That's to you). However, in his opening prayer, he thanked God for the opportunity for food, friendship, and conviviality of the evening. That scored highly in my book.

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And finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous: I have to spend my day today, cutting out bits of paper, sticking them to a larger bit of paper. I also have to fold lots of bits of paper.

I think it would be true to say God knows how to keep me humble. Not that I was feeling particularly proud of myself, but keeping me in check probably isn't a bad thing.

The Christian Blog Awards

Now, I'm painfully aware of how careful I have to be in writing this, as all sorts of people could now read this. This dulls the sense of being able to write what the heck I want.

However, the night went thus: upon arrival, we realised we were incredibly underdressed. That is, we weren't dressed up enough, not that Dave and I turned up in slinky little revealing numbers. Although, that may have enlivened proceedings. Anyway, sat down next to Mr. & Mrs. Church Mouse - who, by the way, are absolutely lovely people - and Mr. Adrian Warnock - a passionate and interesting character.

We were served food, which was lovely, if a little weird. I was impressed that the Christians managed to avoid quiche, and all other stereotypes. Also we had free alcohol, which never hurts.

And to the awards. Various people, none of whom were on our table - with the honourable exception of The Church Mouse - won an award. I lost out to the guy who won last year, the guy who hasn't written much on his blog, and the 14 year old Catholic girl. Out of the four nominations, I was not mentioned. Which, urgh, I don't know... it was just plain gutting, really. I like to think I'm a good loser, but tonight has made me think to the contrary. The moment I didn't win anything, I wanted to go home. As my darling friend Miriam put it: 'it's like someone comes along and get your hopes up with out you asking for it, and then lets you down' And this award ceremony, with the very purpose of encouraging people to blog, let me down because it did exactly the opposite.

Which, I must hasten to add, is stupid. I blog for my own enjoyment. I blog because I enjoy writing. I love prose. I can do things with words. I can convey thoughts and feelings. I enjoy the turn of phrase, the language that I can play with. I didn't even start out to write for anyone else, aside from to keep people updated on my dissertation. So, in slightly unorthodox style, screw you, Christian Blog Awards. Not because what you do is a bad thing, nor because I lost, but because you made me question why I blog.

And I blog for myself, and hopefully to give glory to God. And if I entertain other people in the process, and perhaps encourage them, great.

I perhaps feel I have typed too much, without saying enough. Sorry if I've been incoherent. But then again, I don't really care about you. Because I enjoyed writing that.

Christian Blog Awards

Tonight I waltz into the world of the Christian Blog Awards, up for the Best Under-25s blog. I shouldn't be nervous, because I don't have high hopes. Well, I say that. I swing between confidence in the writing ability God has given me, and, well... the opposite of that.

However it turns out, I hope people are greatly encouraged, and a good night is had by all.

I wonder if there'll be alcohol....