One for the road...

5 things I'm loving...

5 things I am loving at the moment:

1. The tash has gone, long live the tash!  Yes I survived Movember.  Yes I grew a tash.  Yes it did have a ginger tinge.  It was impressive enough to raise £170 for prostate cancer charity (for which I'm very grateful for support).  Yes you can still give if you want to: http://tinyurl.com/623lh2. But no the tash did not stay and my top lip is bare once more.
2. Despite being half American I had never ever celebrated thanksgiving before.  Well that was until last saturday when we hosted a thanksgiving dinner with 3 other couples for an american friend of Deb.  My only association of thanksgiving is sweet potato with marshmellows so I had to make it.  I was shocked that it turned out that something that seeemed sooooo wrong turned out to be soooooooooo deliciously right and that by the way the dish disappeared everyone else agreed.
3. New kid friendly but also great adult food cafe discovery of the week is a chain called Giraffe. Discovered when saying a farewell lunch to australian friends of ours heading back to Oz after spending 7 yrs and 2 kids later in europe (they were only going to stay for 2!).
4. My running has kicked up a gear and I've upped my standard run from 8 to 10 miles at a time.  Averaging about 1hr 30-40.  I've signed up to do the Edinburgh marathon at the end of May and pressing on with training even when it's c-c-c-c-cold outside!  (you can follow my progress on facebk as i've just installed a widget which supports mapmyrun.com the site where i log my training).  I've also dropped to my lowest weight in yrs, just over 12 stone or 176lbs.
5. Finally advent is here the season of weight and preparation for christmas and as well as having my own fantastic handcrafted advent calender full of chocolate (thanks Deb!) I've also written a couple of posts for deep church site:  Let the wait begin and What if God was one of us?

    So what are you loving at the moment?

Time to tash up...

I had the fun on saturday night of attending a fab film party dressed as...

 

Yes that's right, Ron Burgundy from the film Anchor Man you know, this guy...

Anywho I enjoyed stroking my fake tash so much I thought i'd become a mo bro - so during the month of Movember (or November to the non-mobro) I'll be growing my tash for real and seeking sponsorship for a very worthy charity (more of that to come...)

However, if you a a man I'd encourage you to join me, let us tash up together! :)

Fearful...

So got back on Tuesday from a week in mostly sunny Mallorca.  It was a break designed to boost Debs exposure to sun in order to help us face the Autumn/Winter and  help reduce the downsides of SAD that she suffers from.  The transition to Autumn feels like one of impending storm coming (I think of Gandalf watching the dark clouds flowing from Mordor to Minas Tirith in the film) and I find it hard not to be fearful imagining all the bad things that may lie ahead.

As well as benfiting from the sun myself I managed to get attacked by a jellyfish or maybe I attacked it as I swam.  So a week later I have a very itchy burn like rash on my arm.  It was lovely swimming in the clear warm water of the  Med but being stung out in deep water was not a fun experience and it was real fight for self control to stop panicing and keep swimming.  After that it was also a real psychological battle to get back into the water again and I forced myself too (despite the "just when you thought it was safe to get back into the water" Jaws tagline playing through my head).  So I was too afraid to go out as far as I had gone before and could feel myself tense as I swam out and in.

I returned to work on Wednesday, straight into a course with exam at the end on International Financial Reporting Standards.  The passmark for the exam is 70% so I have been fretting away about not passing it.  Not that there is any meaningful  consequence in not passing other than damaged pride and that fear of other people doing better than me.  More fear just bubbling away, which made me study so had a healthy side but not sleep very well either.

I found out on friday that I hadn't been successful in the ballot for a place in the London Marathon.  I'm now just fearful that I'll stop running and get fat, so am looking for another race to run.

I just wondered with all this fear kicking around inside me what that means?  At the moment the world is panicing about credit crunches, house prices, rising cost of living and I feel myself dragged into that panic as well.  Today I got notifiacation of how much our electricity and gas prices will be going up (30% and 20%).

Is there an antidote to all this fear?  Does faith play a part in this? And if so how, other than just good old fashioned denial? Which doesn't seem to resonate with Jesus who took a realist appraoch when he guaranteed troubles and advised not to fret about tomorrow as today has enough worries, stresses and fears of its own? 

To quote another movie strapline if are natural condition is: 'be afraid...be very afraid' what helps you and gives you hope, strength, courage, will to go forward inspite of the fear we feel? 

Run with it...

Ah I am on holiday this week!  I love the UK weather - grey!  I love my list of jobs to do - none!  I love that i've set the kids clock back by an hr each night so they get up at 8 thinking it is 7! 

Running...

I am starting to gear up for running the marathon - I am meant to be doing a half marathon in sept but it looks like I will be on holiday for that!  Nevermind, as part of my training I have started using Map My Run which not only maps where I run (using google maps), works out the distance, calories burnt off, average pace etc but acts as a training diary as well.

Reflecting...

I wrote a guest piece for Jason Clark's site last week, asking the Q: "are we fundamentalist enough?" It was prompted by a documentary I watched which was occassionaly scary and often quite hyped!  The question is whilst it is easy to be offensive and the label fundamentalist carries such -ive connatations, what does a healthy christian fundamentalist look like/sound like/be like?  If someone was following me around with a camara what would I say/do?  It prompted 4 questions in my mind:

1. what does our views of sexuality sound/look like?
2. what do we think of science/arts/culture - how are we shaped and shape?
3. how do we treat/interact with other religions/beliefs
4. what do we campaign for/protest about/involve ourselves in?

Engaging...

Interestingly there is a a great week of thought over at Jason's this week: a faith to live for... a faith to die for?  We have a guest author Craig Hovey, who is exploring where martyrdom fits into our western christianity?  Worth stopping by and engaging with!

What's your moral code..?

I recently did a quizz on facebook to find out how religious i was.  It asked some great Qs but sadly the diagnostic did not match my answers as i was diagnosed as an agnostic, and i'm not one of those, well not usually :).

Anywho, this question on my moral code made me stop and think, so I'll share it with you.  What would you respond...

My moral code boils down to this...
(a) How I treat the neighbor is how I treat God.
(b) Do good to others. (Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.)
(c) Don't be bad to others. (Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you.)
(d) Don't get caught
(e) I don't have to be religious to have morals, I already have morals.

I think a lot of time i operate down at (d) or possibly raise my game to (c) - both of which are ways for me to live how i want to live with minimum interference/cost.  I guess i could amalgamate them to (f) what can i get away with...

It made me think cos i often comfort myself by thinking well i don't really do anything that bad to anyone which is not the same as actively trying to do good to others. 

My funeral...

I keep revising my choice of song to play at my funeral (buried not cremated :)... here's my current one, a song that means a lot to me at the mo:

"Weight of the world" by The Editors...

Have you got any funeral choices?

A day of meme's... then the books...

Having been tagged by Brad, here are books...

One book that changed my life: A book called Clearing away the rubbish, by Adrian Plass.  I read it after hearing one of the poems read at school assembly - it was the first time that i experienced profound truth, humour, drama and creativity in one book - i think up until that point i was a serious conservative self-righteous ass of a christian and that book began a journey of teaching me to laugh at myself and to stop taking me so seriously!

One book that i've read more than once:  Most books are so easy to read and move on but one book that i come back to reading every couple of years is the Lord of the Rings by Tolkien - the depth of my imagination is always delighted in new ways.

One book I'd want on a desert island: hmmm probably something like Ray Mears "Outdoor survival handbook!"

Two books that made you laugh: "1066 and all: a memorable history of england, comprising all the parts you can remember, including 103 good things, 5 bad kings and 2 genuine dates" is book that appeals to my sense of greatness as an Englishmen and my love of history (albeit tongue in cheek). 

The other would be the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, the ultimate lonely planet guide, surreal, funny and so very improbably good :) - indeed the whole series is awesome!

One book that made me cry: hmmm probably fly fishing by J R Hartley...

One book that I wish I had written: The Dark Tower series by Stephen King, ok it's 7 books but they are brilliant!

One book that I am currently reading: The new conspirators by Tom Sine

One book that I have been meaning to read: Lots,  i have a back catalogue. 

A day of meme's... first the quirks

I've been nominated for a couple of meme's  on books and quirks... so here's my quirks one:

Six quirks...

1. Blowing my own trumpet: As I open the porch door to come in from work i make a little bugle call to myself to pysch me up to be like the calvary coming over the hill to relieve Debs - sometimes it feels more like Custer's last stand!

2. Making up little songs: I like making up little songs to sing about what is happening in life,  usually stealing an existing tune and putting in my own words.  I think i inhererited this ability from my Dad, who's toothbrushing song that he used to sing to us as kids is now sung to my own:

There are big ones and little ones                                                                                  And top ones and bottom ones                                                                                                                           And they've all got to be brush brushed                                                                                                         When you're brushing your teeth

There are front ones and back ones                                                                                                                 Cos we don't want no black ones                                                                                                                       So they've all got to be brush brushed                                                                                                    When you're brushing your teeth

Yes they've all got to be brush brushed                                                                                                          They've all got to be brush brushed                                                                                                                  They've all got to be brush brushed                                                                                                           When you're brushing your teeth

3. Lotta bottle: one of the joys of havin a milkman deliver our milk in bottles direct to the door is that there is always a lovely handy bottle of cold white stuff in the fridge - rather than getting a glass out i confess i often swig straight from the bottle :)

4. Word play: i confess to being addicted to punning, another trait inherited from my dad, i simply  can't resist...

5. Walking socks: Having owned one pair of walking socks for 14 yrs which of late were getting very holy i am now the proud owner of a newly knitted pair courtesy of debs.  The only slight downside of havin a home made knitted pair is that Debs insists that they go in the wash leaving me with cold feet! Having no picture of them, i thought i'd let you see this youtube clip of somone who has a serious sock quirk!

6. killing aliens: nothing is more destressing then shooting aliens! As a friend asked me at work the other day: "do you find that shooting aliens lessons your desire to shoot people or increases it?" - hmmm maybe i was twitching just a lil too much at my desk!

How about you, any quirks of your own???

Friends like us...

Back in my uni days I wrote some lyrics and my good friend Andrew Marwick turned these stumbling words into some quite funky tunes.  Being a very talented chap, Andrew, played all the instruments and did all the singing too.

Seeing Molls blast from the past post I thought i'd post the one set of lyrics of mine, turned into song, that survives from that era, it's a lil tune called 'Friends like us': Download 01_friends_like_us.m4a

For those of you who might have problems with an mp4 file here is an mp3 version: Download 01_friends_like_us.mp3

So we went to the Hindu wedding...

 

I asked your advice, awhile back, about whether we should go to the Hindu wedding that was taking place in our family.  Lots of you kindly responded with wise advice and encouragement and I really appreaciated your advice!

We decided that we would go to both the christian and hindu parts of the wedding, mostly because we've always resolved in our marriage not to continue on the conflicts of our respective families.  On both sides there have been fallings out but we have always felt that we have a choice as a new family unit to do something different starting at our own wedding where we invited our families regardless of which side of the various feuds they were on. 

It really was a great day - fascinating to sit in a small church in Windsor which dated back almost 1,000 yrs for the traditional christian wedding, to feel the depth of history and to see so many of the indian family enthusiastically joining in the Lords prayer - the brides family definately outnumbered the grooms which was another reason we were glad we were there.

The boys were pretty well behaved altho Dan was a bit upset that he couldn't walk down the aisle but that's where copious snacks come in to play ;).  It was great for both Nathan and Daniel to meet some of their wider family and they both really bonded with Deb's uncle who Dan had never seen and Nathan had last met when he was 1 at another wedding!

It was really interesting experience to take part in the Hindu family - to see the greeting of the families, each member of the family embracing their opposite number and exchanging flower garlands. 

We may exchange rings but there were far more beautiful symbolic acts in the Hindu ceremony:

• the bride and groom feeding each other yoghurt mixed with honey to reflect being sweet to each other in the midst of life;
• the couple being tied together to show that there lives were now bound up together;
• cooking a meal together; and
• making 7 vows to each other whilst walking around a fire.

The religious bit (which was translated into English as well) was also pretty neutral, the vows seemed to be in the presence of our Lord (so I thought Jesus) and the gathering and any fears of oppresive spiritual forces at work seemed to have been greatly exagerated.

So I am very glad i went and was part of the couple's very special day! The only downside was at the meal being told to go and queue up for some very nice roast lamb only to find that all the Indians were being directed elsewhere to a table with loads of gorgeous curries!!!  Now that's just cruel!