Matthew school Christmas play

I have been to Matthews Christmas play at school. I must admit, this is the first one I have been to of both my boys school plays. But I was seriously impressed. In this play Matthew had a major part, we new he had a talking part, but we didn't know he had two solos to sing.

Matthew is on the left.

The climax of the play is when the little boy (Matthew) is asked to give his present to the baby Jesus, which turns out to be a kiss. Matthew, at this point, stood behind the manger bolt upright and put his head into the manger as if he was bobbing for apples on Bon Fire Night.

Of course, everyone burst out laughing. (That's my boy)

Sarah and Mary are home

Just been round to see Mary, Peter, Rosie and Sarah at home. Sarah seems quite pleased with the new place to live. In fact, she spent the whole time asleep.

There was a house full of people and both sets of grand parents where in attendance when the four of use turned up. Sarah remained unimpressed.

Despite everybody having a cuddle Sarah remained asleep. Getting ready for a busy night ahead, no doubt.

New pictures of Sarah

Well I have been to the hospital this afternoon to see Mary and Sarah but my cameras battery died when I was there. But I have managed to take two pictures and here they are.

My favourite scene from our Christmas play

For pictures of Pete, Mary and Rosies baby see below:

The wise men enter from the back of the hall chasing the star (Rosie) around the hall. They are wearing curtains and cardboard crowns. They sing a Wise man song (obviously in a minor key). Just before they reach the stable and manger, they catch up with the star (Rosie) and she manages to knock off the first Wisemans crown and poke him in the eye with the star.

They meet the Inn Keeper who invites them to see the baby Jesus (Katie) in song. The Wisemen accept the invitation and move onto the stage or stable, behind the star.

Wisemen 2 (Dave M): I bring you Gold! [delivered like Charlton Heston bringing the ten commandments down from the mountain]

Mary (Rachel): Thank you very much [as if thanking someone for passing the sugar]

Wiseman 2 (Dave S): I bring you Frankinsense! [delivered with awe and reverence]

Mary (Rachel): Thank you very much [delivered yesterday when I was at Asda and I had interrupted the girl at the till with my money when she was having a conversation with her colleague]

Wiseman 3 (Steve): I bring you Myrrh! [delivered with awe and reverence]

Mary (Rachel) Thank you very much [I don't know what I am going to use Myrrh for?]

Great day, hundreds of people there, play was fabulous, everybody did a great job. (By the way I exaggerate above, but Rosie did knock off the wise mans hat and poke him in the eye)

Welcome to our world

Here is my new niece called "Baby", for the time being.

Arrived today at 2:40pm

Christmas house decorations

I plan to take photos of "tastefully" christmas decorated houses and post them on this blog for comment. If anybody sees any local ones that should be published let me know and I will try and get them on.

Christmas plays

Thanks Will for the idea.
We are practising for our Christmas play which is to be performed on Sunday at our Civic Carol Concert. I must point out that we do not have all the following elements in our production, but we have a few.
Christmas plays must have some of the following elements:
1. an orchestra that play too loud (from the singers percpective)
2. singers that don't sing loud enough (from the orchestra percpective)
3. a little boy or girl who will steal the show
4. adults who don't know their words, or will make them up on the "night"
5. custumes made from curtains or table cloths
6. it will end in tears (usually the director)
7. microphones that don't work
8. or actors that don't hold the microphone near enough to their mouth for it to work
9. the performance will have some long pauses while something is supposed to happen
10. like child birth, we will forget all the heartache and pain and in a few months be thinking about the one for next year
11. a small one at the front of the stage staring at the audience
12. all the small girls want to be angels
13. all the small boys want to be shepherds, not Joseph because you need to hold Marys hand
14. one of the children waves to their parents, thus shattering the illusion that they are in a stable in Palestine 2000 years ago. (harsh I know, but true)

Christmas starts here

The start of Christmas carolling. Two bands, (SA Bands) one in Kirkby and one in Ormskirk. Its always a worry that people know where to go and when to be there. But its seems everything worked out OK. Only three more Saturdays and three more Thursdays to go.

We got home and we remembered we had booked Matthew into a party in the Gym at 2 o'clock. So I dashed out with my stuff and went to the Gym.

I got home between 4 and 5 and fell straight to sleep.

Gym Music 2

A summary of the rules so far:
Rule 1. Gym music must be loud enough to drown the music piped into the gym.
Rule 2. Gym music mustn't make me want to engage too much, singing along or anything else is not advised.
Rule 3. Gym music must motivate me to run.
Rule 4. Gym music needs to keep me interested for at least 45 mins.
Rule 5. Gym music must be interesting enough to stop me watching: The Price is Right with Joe Pescuali (Fortunately there is no sound so I don't have to listen); The New Paul O'Grady Show (He is from Birkenhead); I'm A Celebrity I'm So Desperate To Be Here Show.

New music
Breakout (Electrolyte)
Excellent in every way. Good loud tracks (when I worked out how to turn off the setting to protect my eardrums on my iPod). Picked me up at the half hour mark whe I started to flag. Change in styles all the way through kept me interested right to the end. And kept me smiling when I was running.

OK computer (Radiohead)
Not bad. As each track started to play it kept me interested in what was going on but eventually I forgot I was listening as each track was a bit monotonous and a bit the same. Also a bit sad, reminded me a bit of being a teenager, I think.

Blue Light Red Light (Harry Connick Jnr)
I like this album anyway and have had it for a while. Obviously the first track woke me up. But I think I am too familiar with this music to keep me interested for the duration. But I haven't heard the last tracks for a while and I had forgotten that they where really sad so probably not good for the gym.

Next Faures Requiem and any other suggestions (Might try Dans suggestions, nothing in 3/4, thanks John)

Gym music 1

I haven't posted for a while and I started this post a couple of weeks ago. So sorry its late.

I have been trialing some music for while I am at the Gym. I need to create some rules for gym music. So I'll start here and give some feedback on music used so far.
Rule 1. Gym music must be loud enough to drawn the music piped into the gym.
Rule 2. Gym music mustn't make me want to engage too much, singing along or anything else is not advised.
Rule 3. Gym music must motivate me to run.
Rule 4. Gym music needs to keep me interested for at least 45 mins.
The Best of Divine Comedy
Meets all the criteria above. Although I occasionally find myself singing along (Rule 2). Gets off to a good start with National Express, it has a good tempo for the cycle warm up. It has enough different styles to keep interest going. I recommend this track on your iPod.
Mozart Requiem
Surprisingly, meets all the above criteria, this is probably the best music to use. It has a slow, quiet start, that is OK, but quickly moves onto good loud stuff. Keeps me interested all the way through. In all a good use of time to make yourself fit and listen to some staggeringly good music. I can't sing along.

I have some more to follow. I may revise my rules. Any suggestions for trials would be gratefully recieved.

Busy few days

Saturday.
Went out in the morning to buy the firworks for the firework party at the Army on Sunday night. In Liverpool there are a few shops that have opened to sell just fireworks and there are signs for fireworks being sold from pub car parks. I decided to follow the safe option and went to Asda.
I bought two big fireworks and 24 rockets. I discussed an idea with guys at the hall to raise money, somebody wanted to do a baloon race, but we decided against it on gambling and environmental grounds. Our idea was in a similiar vein, the rockets we bought where quite big and we thought we could tie a Junior Solder to a series of rockets and set them off. The one who went furthest would win.
Went to the gym and did some running etc.
Went to Rays house to watch the second half of Fulham verses Everton. We lost 1-0. Enough said.
Heather spent the rest of the day planning morning meeting at Army.
Alistair went to see Divine Comedy in Liverpool. I did fancy going, but I suspect I would have been the oldest bloke there so Alistair went with his friend.
Sunday.
Good Sunday services, Heather did the morning meeting, really good, full hall. Went down to the hall for the evening meeting, it was a firework party. A short worship session followed by food in the community hall then fireworks in the car park. We didn't know how many people would turn up but loads a new people came. There must have been 20 or 30 people who had not been in the church before so we had a great time. Neil, Dave, Will, Simon and myself did the firework display, nobody got hurt or blown up so it was a great success.
Monday
Really long day at work, I was teaching all day, quite dry subjects so it was a challenge to keep everybody interested. I finished off the teaching day giving two lads verbal warnings. I went home really tired.
I had just enough time to make Alistair and Matthew their tea and then go back to the Army for the Corps and CAP prayer meeting. Not too many people there, but it was really good. I forgot that Heather had asked me to finish the night, but it worked out really well.
Got out to the car and some rough lads had put in our drivers side window, Lyns and Will helped clear up the mess but the drive home was really cold.
Tuesday
Heather off early to London. I got Matthew ready for school and dropped him off on the way to work . Cold journey with the window missing. Another day teaching all day, health and safety at work. Another long day, missed my dinner (my own fault). Torwards the end of the day at work I started to feel unwell, left for home and felt cold and sick.
It is band practise tonight but I fell asleep in bed and didn't go. Pete did band practise hope it went well.
Wednesday
Morning phoned in sick stayed in bed and wrote this.

Eastham Woods

Today I have been on a walk in Eastham woods, this is just behind our college. In the 19th Century Eastham woods was called the Richmond of the Mersey and a Pleasure Gardens was built. The site is now almost completely overgrown and there is little left of the gardens. You can still see some of the more permanent features in the undergrowth, there is a large fountain and a bear pit where they used to have animal fights. There was also a zoo in their somewhere, I'll look out for it next time I go for a walk. I'll post a picture of the bear pit, I'll try and take my camera to work tomorrow.

Guilty pleasures?!

I have been reflecting on Sunday nights meeting/service. It was imaginative and thought provoking. (For those not Sallys its probably worth stopping here, as it gets a bit irrelevent). At our corps the Sunday meetings are being "done" by different people at the moment. So Geoff did Sunday night.

We meeting was based around a journey over Morecambe Bay Geoff did a couple of weeks ago. We got a good idea of what happened as Geoff had taken some great pictures.

I have been thinking about the music and songs that we used. They all followed the theme of a journey. We have not sung some of them for an long time. We had "We'll Sing in the Morning the Songs of Salvation". Some very old song called "Over the Sea", even some of the more mature Salvationists did not know this one. Fortunately my 100 year old Grandma did, so we where treated to a solo (She needs no encouragement).

We used the band arrangement for "We'll Sing in the Morning" and it certainly rattles along(good old N.B. for good arrangement). I was left wandering what we where singing about,

We'll sing in the morning the songs of Salvation
We'll sing in the noon time the songs of his love
And when we arrive at the end of our journey
We'll sing the songs of Zion in the courts above

We will be doing a lot of singing if the song is correct. Its an awful lot about what we will be doing not lot about what God is, or what he can do. Will we sing in the courts above, because we sing in the morning and at mid day? (Sophistry). I suppose it's OK once in a while though

The other one was "Travel Along In The Sunshine", which I don't understand at all.

Travel along in the sunshine
On the Kings highway
Travel along, singing a song
Follow Jesus day by day,
Never mind what lies before you
Never mind what others do
Just travel along in the sunshine
On the Kings highway

It has synchopation which makes it more modern than the other one, I suppose. Imust have sung this countless times and not really thought about what I was singing.

If we filled our services with this kind of worship every week, I'm not sure too many new people would understand what it being sung, or how it relates to them.

Are they best locked up in the song book cupboard or is it good to bring them out onto the digital projector and display them to the world/congregation once in a while? I am not sure.

Comments?

Celebrity lookalike I don't know any of my celebrities

Gym etiquette

1. When in the gym always walk around purposefully. Look like you know what you are doing even if you don't. Anyone who looks lost in a gym is a "newby".
2. Never use the free weights. They are for serious very advanced users or stupid people.
3. Never use the weights on the first few days, always make sure you know how they work.
4. If you feel like an advanced user and you are using the weight equipment, always check the weights before getting onto the machine. At my first gym I was shown a particularly complicated machine at my induction. You had to stand inside the machine, unlock the bar and squat with the weights on your shoulders. I of course didn't check the weights on the machine, unlock the bar, went into a quick squat and found I couldn't stand up. I had to ask for help, quietly at first because I didn't want anybody to hear but more loudly as I bacome more desparate. I left the gym that day with the laughter of two muscle bound men still in my ears (I didn't both with the sauna, I was hot enough).
5. Never put your head in front of the water fountain before turning it on. It will always end up in your eye.
6. If you go for a swim make sure you have your swimming hat on the right way. In our gym the swimming caps (yes, you have to wear one) have a band going from the back to the front. "Newby's" always wear them with the band going from ear to ear. It looks more stupid and they seem to be swimming slower.
7. Don't play "He's fatter than me" in the Hydrotherapy pool.
8. If you brush against another bloke in the pool, always reply "excuse me" in a very manly voice.
9. Don't stare and point (or laugh).
10. Check your shorts before getting out of the hydrotherapy pool. Those water jets are very powerful and the water is very warm, you might not notice....
11. When you are in the Sauna, try not to enter into conversation with somebody. (See me for bad example, I can't publish it here.)
12. When you are getting changed, make sure your underwear is ready. It's not good to walk around the changing room "in the snip" (as Windy Millers uncle Guber).

For those that do trut round the changing room ... it's not clever.

Treadmills

In going to the gym I have been giving thought to the treadmill.

Medievel times saw the treadmill operative as work, powering pumps, grinding corn etc.

In the Victorian age the treadmill was used as punishment, men where put on the treadmill to do work with no outcome at all, I don't think they even produced anything.

Now, we pay to use a treadmill, we even pay for someone to show us how to use them. The treadmill today does not produce energy, it uses energy as it needs to be plugged into something, so someone, somewhere is creating energy to make this one work.

My treadmill will tell me how many calories I am expending per hour, how many calories I have spent so far, how far I haven't run so far. I wish it would tell me something useful, like calories measured in terms of fractions of a Mars bars (or other popular confection).

Whilst using my treadmill I have tried to use the time even more productivily (other than losing weight) by listening to Rob Bell sermons (downloaded by my lovely wife, and uploaded to my iPod). But I find myself losing concentration and reading the sub titles to Neighbours on the telly screens in front of the treadmills (I must be really shallow).

I bet they didn't have tellys on the Medievel or Victorian treadmills.(or Neighbours)

Getting slimmer already

We have just joined a Gym. I have been for my induction yesterday and I am keen enough now to go again tonight. Some of my friends have said that I look slimmer already, but I think they are pulling my leg. But I am prepared to ignore the sarcasm.

More of an investment than gambling

I got back to work on Monday to find I had won a raffle, I hadn't entered. My friend put my name into the draw, it was free. So I won a new red football (second prize, first prize was a Coca Cola mountain bike). My friends at work obviously know the Sally Army stance on this, but it was ok because "we didn't pay for the ticket".
Earlier today our learners (I work in a college) did some fund raising for McMillan Cancer. So of course the course tutor has to buy a ticket. I did my best to avoid buying a ticket, because I feel really awkward in these situations.
Well my friend bought one for me, and again I won. This time I won some "tasteful" men smelly stuff.
I'm off to do the National Lottery, if I can get someone else to pay!

Its Grim up t'North

Apparently, on average, people living in the South of England live two years longer than in the North.

Sadly people in the South spend these two years on the M25.

Car crash telly

I am on holiday this week. I got up in time to take Matthew to school and I was getting ready to go into Liverpool to do see my brother-in-law at work. I rarely see day time telly, but I turned it on as a accompaniment to doing the dishwasher. I was watching a programme called "The Jeremy Kyle Show" - with my mouth open. It was all very confusing, but they were not actors and they needed bodyguards on set to keep them apart, and they spoke in "beeps".

This is obviously not intellectual telly, the adverts came on and most of the adverts where for finance companies. The one that attracted my attention was an advert which interviewed suspiciously coherent people about how they couldn't get any sort of loans. They all stood in the rain whilst talking to the camera, but the public behind them did not seem to be bothered by the same rain (funny that).

There was a lot of talk about consolidating loans and securing your loan (which seems to be a good thing, but actually means they can take your house if you can't pay)

At our Army (Salvation Army/Church) we have just started a CAP programme. (see link for more details). The wonderful Gemma is our representative and she visits many people in debt. From my point of view it seems that the banks and financial institutions need to take a more responsible attitude to what they are doing to people lives.