Wednesday 30 August 2017

Very Important and Interesting News



A tad self-indulgent this posting and I hope that is ok. If it's not ok, I'm sorry. Feel free to move on and spend some serious time deciding if you like the new Bake Off. (Personally, I've not seen it. I know it's not Christian to be as annoyed as I am by Sandi Tosvig but I am a work in progress and I haven't made much here. "I don't watch much TV - I'm more of a reader" is not an acceptable answer when someone asks you about your new presenting gig in British TV's bestest baking programme) I'm sure it will be fine though. It's really about the bakers I think. Anyway - I have two Nadia's Food Journeys (or whatever it's called) to catch up on and as I love Nadia she takes precedence. I will get round to Bake Off eventually. 
Is anyone watching Strike? I read the books and have really enjoyed them. I watched the adverts and was a bit concerned that he was going to be a bit too pretty. The Cormoran Strike of the novels is a one legged, chunky, slightly uncouth, drunken detective with very bad hair. Is Tom Burke too pretty? Well yes he is. Now ask me if I am bothered. Nope he's really good (and pretty - don't care) and Holliday Grainger is equally good and equally pretty. I thought it was very watchable. I am (because it's me) a bit concerned about how nasty it is going to get - because the books get a bit nastier as they go on but we shall see. 
Also *makes little excited ooooh noise* - Strictly - Rev'd Richard Coles! Yasss. If you don't follow him on Twitter you should give it serious consideration. I will almost certainly be Team Coles - even if his mother insists he will be well out of it by Michaelmas - whenever that is. I am almost 100% certain that I will not be tempted into Team Jonnie Peacock, despite his winsome charms. (Although I do work for a disability charity and I should possibly be showing some solidarity? No?) 
To move on. There will be some changes on the blog in the next week or so. I had thought it was time to move it to content I owned. Views have been going up a bit and I had thought about blogging a bit more often - ("Thinking is not the same as doing Lesley" Aged Parent's voice in head ) Also, I think something may have got into my stats because I appear to be the third most popular blogger in France which I think is unlikely. However if it is true  - Bienvenue Tout Le Monde! (A level in French failed - coming in handy there) I have tried to sort it but it's not going well, so I think I need to move. I have been assured by the powers that be that all followers etc will be unaffected and there are things that they can do (What things? I ask. Just "things") It's not that I don't have any confidence in science or anything but I wondered if you read this blog reasonably often - you would consider following me elsewhere so that you have a back-up way of contacting me if all else fails. I know that's a bit pushy but not as pushy as those marketing people on Twitter. 
You can find me on Facebook where I have an author page and if you "like" it - you will get a message whenever I post which you can jump with joy at or ignore. You can befriend me on ordinary Facebook if you like but that is just a lot of photos of my dog and me and HOH trying to get the tops off bottles and other elderly things, so maybe a bit boring. Or I am on Twitter and Instagram - just my name Lesley Hargreaves should find me. I usually say hello to most people (unless you are that woman on Twitter who wanted to show me her knickers) The best place to start would probably be searching Lesley Hargreaves Author on Facebook and like that page. Or you can leave it and see what happens. It might be exciting - like those space films where the airlock is opened and you wait to see who suddenly finds themselves floating alone through space. No pressure obviously but it would be nice to take you with me.

Arrrgh! See what happened. I had a really good thing in my head about when Jesus turned water into wine which made me feel very hopeful about things and now I don't have space to tell you. Sorry, I have gone on. Here's to meeting on the other side.

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Sunday 20 August 2017

East West Street

One of the joys of being on holiday is that I have the time to tackle a book that takes a bit more out of me than my usual fare. Not that there is anything wrong with the stuff I like to read in my usual life but, if I have a bit more time, I like to use some of it on a book that needs a bit of effort. This makes me a) a cheap date and b) anti-social and boring. 
I bought East West Street because I don't think I have ever seen a book so highly recommended. The book is dripping with people and book reviews making a fuss of it. They are not wrong. 
The author, Phillipe Sands, is a barrister and Professor of Law. His family's roots are in the Ukrainian city of Lviv and he begins to dig into their history. He weaves the things he discovers into the story of two Nuremberg prosecutors who develop the ideas of both "Crimes against Humanity" and "Genocide". I found it - as they say - unputdownable. However, I did have to stop reading it late at night because - well it's about Jews, in Europe in the thirties and forties - it is very sad and bleak sometimes and it was keeping me awake. 
I would not claim to be the font of all historical wisdom but I had no idea that, before the Nuremberg trials, there was no personal culpability for crimes you committed as part of your state. I always thought that the defence that "We were just following orders" was so weak as to not be bothered with but it wasn't a weak defence. Before Nuremberg changed the game, there was every possibility that the people in the dock would be found innocent. It was the policy of the state, whether they agreed with it or not was irrelevant; they could not be held accountable. The book looks at how lawmakers and the testimonies of survivors changed this. It also contains less visible acts of bravery and defiance - such as Christian missionary Miss Tilney, who risked her life to hide people and to take children out of the country. 
I've also thought about the book this week as I have watched people march with Nazi symbols on flags. These people march in a country where protest is protected and legal. Having read stories of parents singing to their little children to try and distract them before they were executed, I look at these people and think - You have no idea what you are wishing for. You live in your protected little bubble and you have no idea of the evil that was unleashed. What happened would have eaten you alive. 
I don't think there are two side to this story. Once you raise a flag with a Nazi symbol on it you prove yourself ignorant of real history and disrespectful of the sacrifices made by those who went before us. 
I have no idea why leading evangelicals have kept quiet in the face of this. Some misguided idea about protecting Christian values possibly? More likely a protection of self interest. I'm always a bit suspicious of Christians in positions of power. I'm not saying that about every Christian but it seems to take a special kind of person who can take his humility and good judgement with him as he moves up the greasy pole. Jesus always seemed to go out of his way to align himself with the unpopular, the outcast, the poor, the disenfranchised. And when he needed to say something was wrong he said so. And we need to say so too. 
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Wednesday 16 August 2017

August


We are just back from our holidays. Well we are still on holiday in that we are not required to return to work yet but all the planned trips are over which is just as well because I am needing a good lie down. I am not sure how people jet off here there and everywhere. I admire their stamina. 
We returned to St Ives for a day. St Ives is really lovely and we are really blessed to live somewhere that means a trip to St Ives is a day trip. We basically just hung around in the sunshine and then ate. Then we went to the Tate. That was a bit disappointing though. I may not entirely understand "Modern Art" but I think I am quite open to the idea and I do have on my art appreciation CV, standing in front of a Rothko and filling up because of the sheer beauty of the thing. (My family will confirm this as they were all standing and pointing and laughing at me) However, I am not at all taken with the latest exhibition. Part of it reminded me of dust sheets that you take up when you have been painting.
I think you were supposed to be overwhelmed by the size of the thing but dust sheets are usually pretty large in my experience.
Then there was another room with lots of things made from clay. There didn't seem to be anything you could put a bunch of bananas in. I'm sure it's just me.
Then we went to Bath for a couple of days. I've never been before. I thought is was excellent. For me, being shown round an area of historical interest by an expert pretty much represents peak happiness so I loved the Roman Baths and the Georgian House/Museum. HOH was mind-blown by the fact that despite the Romans being all into washing and being clean etc (albeit in a lead lined swimming pool) the Georgians were untroubled by running water and bathing. This seemed to him like an unfathomably retrograde step and he proceeded to question each guide in each room about this abomination. However, it seems it was true and your basic Georgian was no stranger to the nit scratcher. 
Then we went to London for a day. We worked out that we probably paid an exorbitant train fare to have lunch on the South Bank and go in Zara. Not very environment friendly. We mentioned to Aged Parent that we were going. After a heavy silence...

AP    Be Careful in London
US    We will.
AP    Don't go getting in any fires or anything.

Also came across the chapel above - not I think a place of worship anymore unless it is highly unusual and doesn't bother opening on a Sunday. Am loving the full on evangelism though. 


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