Food Issues

Awesome is an over used word but this is the quite frankly awesome Jack Monroe and her son. 
She has experienced food poverty and written very movingly about it on her blog - example below.

"Poverty is the sinking feeling when your small boy finishes his one Weetabix and says ‘more mummy, bread and jam please mummy’ as you’re wondering whether to take the TV or the guitar to the pawn shop first, and how to tell him that there is no bread or jam."

She is now a food poverty campaigner and comes up with great ideas about cooking etc but also about GIVING.
I am expecting that I am teaching masses of grandmothers to suck eggs here but this is where the Christians rise up like the mighty army they are and make it happen. We need to be supporting Trussel Trust or whatever the local foodbank is up to. Loving watching what my chum Pat Cass and Urban Outreach are doing up north as well as Lord's Larder etc. where I am. But the very least - the VERY LEAST, LEAST, LEAST, LEAST any of us should be doing is wapping a bit extra in our supermarket trolleys and bunging it in the cages as we go out. And Bob - i'll est votre oncle as they say in France. 

If you need any more nudging - try Matthew

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why:

I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’

Thems the hard cold facts about our faith. It's who we are.

Fractured Thoughts in a Fractured Week

For the most part, I am basically content with my lot as a working family bod. I get through, you know? However, these last few weeks, I have found myself longing for one of those lives where I get to sit down and think and write and muse and the like. I just haven't had time to do it and I miss it. You will find that these thinkings that I jot down will reflect that at the moment. Sorry.

Anyway, this week. HOH had a birthday and was very touched by the amount of wishings of well that he received when I posted the photo above on Facebook. He was amazed how many of the people there remembered him. (TBH, he didn't remember all of THEM, but we are putting that down to age and being busy and the like) FOW2 did the cake which was disgustingly chocolaty and wolfed down by all concerned.

For he sake of sanity, we sallied forth to the cinema as a family. HOH and FOW2 went to see Branagh's Macbeth live from Manchester. They loved it. FOW2 wasn't too sure about the fight scenes. Apparently, people who were quite obviously winning their bit of the fight would keep insisting on pirouetting round in a full circle, thus leaving themselves open to being run through in the backwards area, mid twirl. I explained to her about dramatic effect and all that but she has seen too many episodes of gritty American drama to be impressed by that. 
FOW1 refused Macbeth so we went to see The World's End. I went into this with a totally heroic "Things I Do for my Kids" kind of vibe. However, it was really funny. Very British. Not quite as good as Hot Fuzz but certainly in the ball-park. (Don't go if you have a thing about bad language. It puts the G in gritty in that department)

I read this, this week. Family Secrets - Living with Shame from the Victorians to the Present Day. It is a big , fat book stuffed to the drawstrings with facts - most of which are quite depressing. I learnt more than my small brain can take. The most edifying bit was finding out that the condition Downs Syndrome was named after Doctor Langdon Down, who, in 1866 opened a huge home for children with mental disorders - not to hide them away but to give them the best chance of education and a better life. It was only in the 1920s that the idea of hiding the children away took hold. Dr Down and his wife were part of the Evangelical Movement which sought to translate their faith into actions and also two more names on the long list of Christians who make me feel that I am playing at it.

I have just realised that the font has completely changed but I don't have time to look at it. Am off to make chicken butties before evening service. We are doing Joseph and it's really good. You think you know everything about Joseph just because you have heard it so many times and can sing all the colours in the coat in the right order, but there is so much in the account that is relevant to normal people. Am loving it.
That's it for now. Carry On!

Wadjda

Telegraph.co.uk

Quick Film review....

Wadjda. Made by Haifaa al-Mansour,   first ever female film  maker in Saudi. (Laughs in face of patriarchy!) It's about a girl, who wants a bicycle. Bicycles aren't encouraged because of possible damage to ladyparts. Girl still wants bicycle. Er. Yep that's about it. She charms the living daylights out of anyone who comes within a hundred yards of her as does the whole film. Funny and sad and clever.
Dunno where you will get to see it as cinemas are full of Idris Alba in dinosaur suit knocking ten bells out of everything but if you see a chance - take it. (In the words of the great Steve Winwood)

Waving not drowning

Hello.

I am not dead, Not quite. I am however, completely, totally, utterly overwhelmed. 

First I was ill. In bed ill. Mysterious virus.
Then daughter gets mysterious virus.
Then Mother moves south. Wagons are rolling. Vans are being unpacked. Virgin is messing up the Internet.
Work is in overdrive.
I have emails from Noah that I haven't replied to.

I am catching up but I am doing it very slowly.....

But I am here. really I am and I am soon to be back so try not to forget me. In the meantime. this is lovely.

After a difficult day.

This will do your bits good. I know you have all probably seen this but I just wanted to show it to you because it makes my heart sing. A deaf child hears for the first time. 

Trying hard not to keep trapping my head in the door...

It hasn't been a bad few days. No one got stuck under anything heavy. No one got lost in the woods. There is actually only niggly things niggling I think. It hasn't been a great time though. I have let worry get the better of me. I have allowed myself to get annoyed by things I cannot change. I have been disappointed in myself for allowing this to happen again. Because I know myself and when I allow worry to over take me, I become less faithful and when I trust God less I become

• A bit toxic. I have less patience with people who need my patience. Then, because I have less patience and am snappish, I feel guilty and then I feel more toxic and so it goes on.
• Shattered is what I become. Easy rhythms become hard and need effort. Plus I don't sleep as well so I am genuinely pooped. 
• Sad and fearful. Where is this Christianity stuff going? Is there a point to all this?
• A nasty piece of work. People who are doing better than me begin to get on my nerves. People who aren't better than me get on my nerves. No-one can win. Least of all God.

So it was good this morning to hear about Leah and Rachel in Genesis 29 and 30 and the problems that they caused for each other and also that things that happened to them seemingly through no fault of their own. It was good to hear that through the mess (and believe me I have no mess at all against what looks like an episode of The Sopranos here) that God was working through everything. He was listening and answering and the original promises had not budged one inch. I think it's all good in the end.

It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.
2 Corinthians 12:8-10  

Read this week. Pure. I found a recommendation for this on the Being Me blog which is jolly good so I hot footed it to the library and had to wait 3 weeks so that was a good sign. Anyway, it's really different. It is about the clearing of an old graveyard in the middle of Paris just before the French Revolution but in some ways, that is incidental. It's haunting and draws you in to a time and place even though you don't understand it.Sometimes, when people say a book is well written, I am not always sure what they mean. I think I understand here. It's not what you would call incident packed but I couldn't leave it alone

Saw this week. Despicable Me 2. Just really funny. what do you want from me?

Technical stuff now. If you follow this on Google reader, it is a dead duck from tomorrow so you cain't do it no more. this may be your opportunity to slip off un-noticed but if you want to stay - you can follow though Bloglovin - there is  a button on the right or via email. Or like me on Facebook. S'up to you really. would certainly appreciate it if you stayed. 

Anyway - wow, that was long this week. Am off to watch Mumfords at Glastonbury  Loved Chic the best so far. Rolling Stones never popular in this house because they apparently stole Stevie Wonder's/Otis Redding's/Bobby Womack's careers. Don't think it  helped me that someone on Twitter said that The Stones reminded them of the Wonga Advert. Ah well.

Bible Characters I Have A Sneaking Regard For (And Probably Shouldn't) - 1

The Prodigal Son's Brother

28-30 “The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said, ‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!’

For those unaware of the story of the Prodigal Son find it here

There are people in the Bible who get it wrong. They misunderstand  things, they hold back people while God tries to use them. They generally miss the point and I like 'em. This probably explains why I am never going to get a nomination as Christian of the Year. 

Don't write in, I know why the brother got it wrong. I know how he missed it. That doesn't mean I don't get him. 

I think I empathise with him a bit. He was a steady Eddie. He kept at it, carried on doing the right thing. Never did anything to give his father a moment's worry and then fancy pants Prodigal Bro' comes waltzing back and it's time to partaaay! I know that all of us depend on mercy and forgiveness including the Sulky Brother but you see what I mean. I think God sees it too

If you are a trier. If you are a keeper at it, who has always tried your best, even if you know that you have messed it up lots of times. If you have watched others come and go and get a lot of fuss - look at this.

 “His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours

The Brother's inheritance in God is totally unaffected by the actions of anyone else. There is enough of him to go round. His attention is not taken from you because you are quiet and faithful - you are in his sight all the time. There is no need to worry or sulk. God knows who you are.

Apologies

Haven't read many blogs. and certainly haven't been able to produce enough time to think about writing any. Parent's move down south has taken all my time along with other stuff.   (Henceforth she shall be known as Bez - short for her name and Old Bessie - she doesn't read this, you will be surprised to learn.) Four more weeks and she will be upon us.

This week I shall be mostly

• Wrestling Plymouth City Council to the ground to get an answer about housing benefit for the Bez.
• Preparing bedroom for return of FOW1 for the summer.
• Writing strict meal plans for return of FOW1 for the summer.
• Getting ready to explain to FOW1 that just because he is home and eating for free, that does not mean that all bets are off about limits on what can be consumed. E.g. we do not do Tuna and Pasta Bake for lunch for one person, unless it is leftovers. This is not the Middleton's you know.
• Emailing university about travel plans for FOW2's trip to summer school. I will be accompanying her on the train whether I am welcome or not and I am decided in this. (P.S. Re FOW2's summer plans. We have received a two page letter from her history teacher outlining - in great detail -  the revision she will have to do during the holidays. Why are you addressing this to me? First of all you are the teacher are you not? Teach her what you want her to be doing in the summer. Threaten if necessary - I find it helps. Also - she's the one who wants to go to University - not me. She's seventeen not seven.)
• Racing to finish my Library Book ("Pure" since you ask - very good) so that I don't have to pay a fine because some pushy person has put their name down on it and I can't renew it.

And none of that includes work or cooking or cleaning or personal hygiene or dog walking or TV watching (though that has been curtailed because we updated our Virgin Box to a TIVO and with the old box went all the Father Browns I had been recording from the week before. Frustrating!)

Thanks to friends for taking pity and feeding us last night. Slightly pressured because she is a really good cook. She did a roast and tried to make me feel better by telling me that she had got the Yorkshires out of a packet. Effect slightly spoilt by finishing the meal with lovely lemon cheesecake made from scratch)

Now see what I have done. I nearly written a blog and I don't have the time. Off to put chicken in for return from church this evening.

(Runs to kitchen in blind panic - checking clock as she goes)

Bonkers Busy

Hello. Sorry for the absence. All is a hive of activity here and at my time of life it takes its toll you know. We are in the process of moving my mum down south to be nearer to us. So it has been visits to flats and phone calls to helpful ladies as well as filling in forms. All this as well as work and life and things - you know how it is.  So it is all a bit bitty if you get my drift. Not the usual level of high spiritual thinking that comes from this blog. (Do NOT say a word) So, stealing shamelessly from Woody Allen or Ian Drury depending on your generation or your comedy persuasion here's my reasons to be cheerful this week.

Best Piece of House Decoration
Head of House found room for my framed Gary Neville picture. (See above) It had crossed my mind that he had framed it and was then going to hide it until I lost interest. Fat chance! Gary Neville. Red until he dies. Love The Neville.

Best Membership News
We have been accepted as members at church. I am assuming this means that my past gun running in South America has been overlooked.

Best Thing Read

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap. Unashamed feel-good wish fulfillment kind of book. Couple give up rat race to open second-hand bookstore in their front room in small town America. Spent evenings, closing book, lying back and dreaming about what it would be like. Just a little bit. Well quite a lot.



Best Thing Watched
On catch-up. Melvyn Bragg waxing lyrical about Tyndale, the Bible translator. A man who gave his life (and he was aware that this was a probability) so that ordinary people could read the Bible. He was a scholar and an academic. He could have done anything he wanted with his life. He did indeed do a marvelous thing with it.

Best Verse Read 

Psalm 100. The Message reads Enter with the password: “Thank you!” Make yourselves at home, talking praise. 

Love the idea of "thank-you" being a password to God. Not that we need a password I know, but it is a great picture of the best way to approach God with thankfulness rather than unabated whinging.  

Best Dad in Martha Towers
Today is Father's Day in Britain. HOH is quite dismissive about this sort of thing but he is a fantastic dad. All here in Martha Towers are unanimous in this. 

Bye

Welcoming

Hello

I have had a lovely weekend for my birthday. Never take any notice of me of I say I am too old to celebrate. I have taken tea in several of Plymouth's finest eating places including the photo above and had a whale of a time. Even my son remembered to phone and say happy birthday. In fact I was the first thing he thought of when he woke up on Saturday - AT MID-DAY. Better late than never I suppose.
I watched Field of  Dreams (again) because it was my birthday shout and happily cried like a baby. Am not sure I could ever love anyone who didn't love this film just a little bit. I have heard quite a few preachers preach on it and its famous lines.

"If you build it - he will come."

"People will come Ray. If you build it people will come."

I think the idea is that if we just sort of put church there, then people will be drawn to it by osmosis or something. Now I know plenty of people who have found themselves in church because the Holy Spirit has been prodding them but not everyone I know has stayed in church after that.

I have been part of a team at my church that has looked at the way we welcome people into church. One member of the team found something online about how Disneyworld approaches its customers. It is that Disney always acts as if it is expecting visitors and makes preparation for them. Now that may be obvious for a theme park but I  wondered if church always acts as if we expected and welcomed visitors. Having visitors can be a bit of a  maul sometimes. You have to make an effort and shove newspapers under cushions. You find out what they want to eat or drink and you pay them your full attention. It would be rude to talk about things that they don't understand or have involvement in. I'm not saying that we should change the message. John The Baptist attracted massive crowds despite the fact that he was a bit odd in his life habits and wasn't afraid to tell a few home truths. But John preached for his time. People were used to listening to preaching and John was very good at it. Anyway, I don't think people are afraid of the truth, when they recognise it. As church we need to make sure we are delivering it in a way that people get.

Not that long ago I saw a Christian drama acted out on a shopping precinct. I can still feel my stomach tightening as I think about it. For reasons I can't quite remember, it involved the Devil in a boxing ring. I remember thinking how surprising it was that, as the Devil had been chucked out of heaven for pride, he hadn't bothered to iron his cape that morning. Anyway, it was a foreign language to most of the people listening and most people (me included) left them to it.

I love my God. I love my faith. I am convinced that Christians can be God's force for good - a thriving, loving influential community. I am just not sure that we are showing that enough. Jesus talked with people about sheep and fish and robbers and servants and hunger and pain. People immediately connected. I'm not sure that shepherding and fishing were Jesus's real passions. What certainly was, was finding common ground to connect with those he came to save. 

There's a lot of frankly rubbish talk about the church being on it's last legs. Still it is a challenging time. People are under pressure in lots of ways and although Christians and non Christians are still looking for a place to call home, we have to make sure we are finding the right ways to invite them in using a language the understand. Don't cha think?

Emily Wilding Davison

Telegraph

I am not the fount (font?) of all knowledge as you know but when I spot a glaring omission, I do have to open my ladylike bouche and say something. I have just watched a programme by Claire Balding - the new nation's sweetheart - about Emily Wilding Davison. She was the Suffragette who threw herself in front of the King's Horse in the 1913 Derby. She died of her injuries on June 8th 1913. One hundred years ago on Saturday
It was a fine programme as it goes, although it seemed to be more about how much we all love Claire than anything else really (and I do think that she seems very nice and capable and good at her sporty type job) There was a big gap though, as Claire tried to find out what motivated this highly intelligent person to act the way she did. Whether it was imprisonment or hunger strikes and force feeding. Whether it was civil disobedience or worse. Everyone is struggling to find out what drove her. Of course the cause drove her but there was something else. Emily was a committed Christian. She felt that obedience to God translated into giving everything to fight injustice. The way that translated into her life may be problematic but there it is. 
No-one else seemed to have think that it is worth mentioning so I thought that I would do it. Just so you know.

Oh the news

April Jones

Georgia Williams

Syria

Baghdad

Lee Rigby

Baby 59

and on it goes

Just thought about this

Meeja

I am updating you on my media forays this week - whether you like it or not.

Watched... Star Trek  Into Darkness

Late to this party, I know. Well - it was better than ok - just.

Benedict Cumberbatch steals every scene he is in by choosing to act rather than just be a movie star like everyone else does.
Simon Pegg's Scottish accent aside - he is the next best thing in it.
There is a frankly annoying scene where Alice Eve who is playing a frankly annoying character appears in her bra and grundys for no particular reason as far as I could see.
There is also a preposterous bit where the baddie has been set up to be superhuman and faster, higher stronger etc etc, yet is then pursued by what seemed to me to be a borderline podgy Spock. Spock not only catches him but then proceeds to knock seven bells out of him!
I know what I sound like but I did like it - honest I did. I especially liked the bit where the baddie said "My Name is........." and someone behind me gasped. Must have been a Trekkie. 
Have certainly spent worse times in the cinema so happy to recommend. PS Don't do what we did and waste your money on 3D.

Re Read - A Place of Greater Safety

Everyone quite rightly makes a big fuss about Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies. This though is my favourite Hilary Mantel. It's about the French Revolution. I don't know if you need to know a bit of history to enjoy it - I did this period at A level and then did some further study. I love it though. A warning - it is massive and might look a bit off-putting. For me, it rattles along like a train.


Nearly finally

I don't know if you have seen this furore (is that a word?) but Disney is in a bit of trouble. Merida, who is the heroine of their children's movie Brave has now joined the happy band of Disney princesses. To do this she had to have a makeover - apparently. This is the transformation.

Spot the difference? Of course you do. Disney has decided to bring sexy back. To a children's heroine! Stop it Disney! I haven't seen the film but I am told by young girls of my acquaintance that it was about being yourself and not being forced to be something that you are not. AS LONG AS BEING YOURSELF IS BEING A FOXY MINX. If you are interested, there is a campaign here to get Disney to change it's mind.

Certainly finally

Sorry to be so photo heavy but this is doing the rounds of Twitter and making all the girlies in my daughter's class laugh a lot. It's a photo of Benedict Cumberbatch as a baby and he looks EXACTLY THE SAME. Bye Bye

Hard Reality

I wanted to share a strange thing with you. It is that I have been very impressed by the honesty of someone's grief. When I say impressed, I obviously mean that I understand that, given a choice, this person would rather not go through it at all  but still, his behaviour has done him credit. Rick Warren is the author of The Purpose Driven Life, the best selling Christian book. He is a pastor, a teacher, a giver and an all round good egg. At the beginning of April, his son Matthew took his own life. Matthew, a Christian, had suffered with bi-polar disorder for most of his life. Pastor Warren is a prolific tweeter. Like most Christian leaders, his tweets are usually positive and upbeat. They changed significantly after Matthew's death. You my think that this would be obvious. However, there is sometimes a school of Christian thought that faith translates into "positivity in all circumstances." When I was ill, I remember someone literally yelling "All things work together for good for those that love God" under the toilet door at me, when I had fled there to escape. She was only trying to help. She didn't. I sometimes think I sense Christians being encouraged to sort of ignore the grief by repeating how great God is - if only through gritted teeth. Warren has not done this. His Tweets are shot through with grief, yet he finds comfort in Jesus.

Every time my heart shatters I take the pieces to Jesus for repair.

We can't grow without change. We can't change without letting go. We can't let go without some loss, and that brings grief.

Grief comes in waves.When a big wave hits, you cant ignore it.You surf it and ride it out. My surfboard is talking to Jesus.

Kay and I are overwhelmed by your love, prayers, and kind words. You are all encouraging our #brokenhearts.

Many people have been really helped by The Warrens' honesty. God has depth. He has the deepest depth. When we try and pretend that bad things don't happen or that when they happen we don't really get hurt, then I think that we make God seem shallow. When people grieve  God enters into that grief with them. He doesn't leave them alone and he asks that we do the same.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

My Curious God

Please find pictured above a VERY small snippet of HOH's music collection. All vinyl and Northern Soul Collections are kept where I can't reach them after a rather nasty accusation of using a record as a Frisbee.  Please note that there are NO witnesses to this and no jury in the land would convict me.
Anyway, I am idly rooting through his CDs to put stuff on my MP3 without going through the bother of downloading which, I am sure,  is only slightly less complicated that splitting an atom. I came across the lovely Charlie Peacock.

In the 90s he was my Christian performer of choice with intelligent lyrics and lovely thoughts. One of my favourite songs is "What's it like in your world?"
I tried really hard to find it on You Tube - but it has perhaps every song he has written apart from this one so I have reprinted the lyrics. If you are interested, you can download it. You could do a lot worse - it's very 90s but vair good. Anyway, in the absence of the music, here are the lyrics

What's it like in your world?
What makes you laugh?
What makes you cry?
Let me look into your soul, so I can see what the world looks like through your eyes.

You don't have to ever pretend when you're in my company,
You've got to know I will not turn and run from you if you practice honesty.

What's it like in your...(what's it like in your world?)
What's it like in your world?
What's it like in your...(what's it like in your world?)
I want to know what's going on,
I want to know what's going on.

Do you have any expectations of yourself and the world in which you live?
If you had a chance to make some kind of difference, tell me now, what would you, what could you give?
Is there any hope you've set aside?
Any dreams yet to come true?
Well, tell me, tell me, tell me true,
Are there any longings, any passions that you've kept hidden from my view?

It is a mystery that the God who knows my thoughts and hopes and dreams is still genuinely curious about me. Remember in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve had done the deed with the apple. They then went on to show a spectacular lack of understanding about just how big God is by thinking that the most effective response would be to hide behind the nearest bush. (All the best with that one guys) God, being God and therefore knowing exactly where Adam is, still says

"Where are you?"

To me, I think that this is not about a physical absence, it's about a relational one. When Adam takes himself out of the relationship by behaving like a numpty - God misses him.

I have said before that it is beyond my understanding that God is interested in a one to one relationship, where I am a proper person with him, not a lab experiment. Knowing myself as I know myself, that is both terrifying and a comfort.   As best I can, I am choosing to be comforted by it and be grateful about God's curiosity about me.

Don't say that dear - it's not nice

James Gordon

It appears to be turning into American Pastors' Week here at Martha Towers, which is nice. I like Americans (not all of them obviously)  and I like pastors (not all of them obviously)
Today I am turning my attention to the shy, retiring and not at all publicity seeking Mark Driscoll. Now I have to admit that I have a sneaking regard for a Christian who likes to speak his mind. Sometimes we are too quiet when we need to speak. Sometimes though, Pastor Driscoll's outpourings seems to cross over the line of loveliness. He is in charge of a mahoosive church in America and I am sure he is very popular among this huge population. He is not, however, as popular with some women (see his mind-blowing remarks on women in leadership here) or with British church leaders (see his encouraging and Christian solidarity promoting remarks here. Although he did try and wriggle out of this a bit later by saying that the interviewer had upset him)
There is probably not enough space in the cyber world for me to share my feelings on this and you are all too young anyway. So I will move on in a Christian and forgiving way to his latest controversial remarks which have added the Greens to the list of groups who have crossed him off their Christmas list. 

"I know who made the environment. He's coming back and he's going to burn it all up. So yes, I drive an SUV"



I have to confess that I had to look up "SUV". I think what he is talking about here is the equivalent of a zillionaire in London who drives a huge four-wheel drive - just because they can and are therefore - officially - donks. 
However, that aside, it's the sheer carelessness of the remark that does my head in. I don't know where you are on the Creation/Evolution debate. I know Christians who believe that the world evolved and God loves it and I know Christians who believe that God fashioned every single petal of every flower individually and loves it. And I know Christians of every hue in between. 
Just because something isn't going to last forever, does that give us the right to trash it? The earth has a job to do. In Psalm 19 it says. 

The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands

I would think that you would trash that at you peril. When our daughter was little we bought her a doll's house. It was from Ikea, about a foot taller than her and made from cardboard. How she loved that house. She decorated it and furnished it, then she re-decorated it. It was used as a house and a space station and, because she is who she is, a place to train lady pilots and doctors - often in the same classroom. It gave us so much joy to have given her something that she loved so much. There really is nothing like the feeling of seeing someone you love really appreciate something you have given to them. Of course, because it was only made of cardboard, eventually it went through one makeover too many and we had to kiss it goodbye. 

However you believe the world got here, it is, I think anyway, part of God's love letter to us. I have neither the desire nor the will to throw something so beautiful back in his face. It is my role, I think  to tread as lightly as possible and enjoy it while it lasts. 

Dum, Dum, Dum, Dum De Dum

That, you will have recognised immediately is the theme to Film Night because I have been to the pictures twice this week - oh the life I lead - and wanted to tell you about both of the movies because they are a bit off the beaten track.

The Spirit of 45

This is a Ken Loach documentary about the creation of the Welfare State after the war. No, come back, it's really interesting. When people came back from the war in 1945, they were unwilling to return to the crippling poverty and systems that they had lived under before. So they ousted Churchill (fascinating footage of him being heckled at a rally) and voted in a Labour Government and began to change things. It isn't the most balanced thing I have ever seen. It completely ignores the way that the country was when Margaret Thatcher took over. Even I remember that you couldn't bury your dead or get your rubbish collected. Also how genuinely afraid people were of the power of the unions. This sometimes seems to suggest that she broke up a happy Socialist utopia just for the benefit of eight rich people in Mayfair and I don't think it was quite like that was it? However, there is a warning about the National Health Service and the the benefits we all enjoy. Should, I think be required viewing in all classrooms.

A Late Quartet

You know, sometimes a film comes along and there are no lasers or time travel. No one gets their head sawn off or buries anyone alive. People just act. Really well. And they use that acting to tell you a story about people that is moving and makes you think and is uplifting. This is one of those films. One member of a quartet who have played together for twenty five years is diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. The film revolves around the way these people react to that. New York never looked more beautiful. Everyone is as cool as a cool thing on a very cool day and that's it really. It's enough. Highly recommended. 

Go away. Eat cake. Be reassured that the film industry is not ready to jump into the handcart to hell quite yet. 

Legacies

Was sad to hear this week of the death of Dallas Willard. Aside from being blessed with a super-dude  name. "My name is Dallas. How Do You Do? Yes indeed it is a cool name isn't it? "  He also has the rare distinction of being one of the few people who, when I have listened to them on my MP3, I actually leave on to listen to again.
One piece is a sermon about Grace which he defined as "God acting in my life" I found this very challenging because it is not passive and means that God is part of my ongoing life and it demands a response from me. The second piece is just an opening prayer before he preached in which he used the line from God "You are perfectly safe with me." Sometimes when I walk to work felling a bit low or afraid, I play the prayer and remind myself of this. It does a girl good I can tell you. The bloke left a legacy.

We had a visit from a couple from church this week as part of the membership process. They seemed very nice, if a little delicate for our house, and my first question, as usual was "Are you ok with dogs?" "Oh yes, of course we are." Cue Morecambe greeting visitors with bountiful love and joy.  

Shultz

Nice people ."Is he a puppy?" 
"Er no - he is seven"
"He has a lot  energy - quite bouncy." (Said with slightly panicky smile)
"We'll put him in the kitchen"
Return to find nice man looking quite relieved and nice lady drawing heavily on her inhaler. It all went quite well after that. 

Watched this week
Murder on the Home Front
Set in the Second World War. Based on real diaries of a real pathologist's real assistant. Lots of attention to detail. What could possibly go wrong? Well, for me, everything really. Firstly, why do all the lady bodies in the morgue have to be stripped to the waist with their ning-nangs on show? Secondly, the pathologist is so far ahead of his time, he is practically from another dimension. Thirdly, more cliches in it than Shredded Wheat has roughage. Fully expect to see our plucky heroine (who, last week, got herself a job as a pathologist's typist and now finds herself at the centre of every crime scene in London) running through London in the middle of the night pursued by the bad guy.

Reading this week
Miss Read - Village School

Am not entirely sure if this is one of the loveliest books I have ever read or the most boring. Nothing has happened yet - at all - nothing. But the sense of time and place is captivating. Bits even remind me of my own ancient primary school in Salford but I would just like a little thing to happen I think. Just once. Doesn't have to be much.

This weekend I shall be mostly..

..pottering. Head of House will be working all through the Bank Holiday weekend - doing his bit to keep the NHS on the straight and narrow. FOW2 is revising and recovering from a heavy cold so she is quite useless when it comes to entertaining me so I will be sorting myself out.
I did resolve to use the time wisely and I have ironed all my Spring and Summer stuff so I am ready for the heatwave when it comes. I did get a little sidetracked by Doctor Who and my DVD of the Mentalist but that's to be expected at my time of life. Has anyone else been a bit disappointed by Doctor Who this season? I don't know if it's because there is yet another impossibly beautiful, swishy-haired assistant or the relentless "right-on-ness" (not a real word but you know what I mean) but I am finding the whole thing a bit annoying this series. 
It is probably my age but I am watching less and less telly. Saturday night is a wasteland. Britain's Got Talent is particularly disturbing. As I think I have probably droned on before about this before, just a couple of questions.

1. When did we decide that letting people with mental illnesses (which some of these people clearly have) and children, come onto a stage to be gawped at by an audience, while a "panel" make fun of them was an acceptable way to behave?
2. Exactly who decided that Alicia Dixon (whose name I only know because she blighted Strictly for  couple of seasons) and a blond with artificial lips, would be the arbiters of TALENT ?
3. Do I feel like this because I am now very old?
4. Why am I asking you this? Why would you know?

I was reminded of my creeping old age this week when I had a lovely pot of tea out with a friend who left our church because they moved away. I was trying desperately to remember the name of the man from church who saw us about us becoming members. Try as I might, I just couldn't think of it.

Me   He's been there a long time.
Pal   Doesn't narrow it down.
Me   Grey Hair?
Pal   Still not narrowing it down really
Me   Seemed very nice
Pal   Nope
Me   Wife wears glasses
Pal   Oh right - now I know.
Me   No-one likes a smart alec.

Anyway, his name came to me about 10pm that night and I texted it to her in Poole. Am only hoping that she remembered the conversation as otherwise she may be  a bit frightened by the way she received a text  just saying

"Don Nuttall!"

Living Life in the Wrong Order

(Apologies to Joyce Meyer for the mis-spelling of her name. Actually, apologies also to John Newton who had already said this years earlier but he said it before the Internet and therefore it didn't really count)

I couldn't remember if HOH and Yours Truly had made a deal about whether I was going to watch Endeavour on my own because he had such a rubbish shift on Sunday and wouldn't be back until after 11. We may have discussed it but I may not have been paying attention. So I decided not to bother. I found an old Danny Baker programme discussing the best ever pop albums. After a long discussion, Baker nominated Michael Jackson's Off the Wall as his best pop album. This vindicated everything I had ever said on the subject. In my humble opinion, Jackson's first solo album had been his best with Thriller and Bad being very nice thank you, but following the law of diminishing returns.
I had seen the same argument about Orson Welles. Welles first film was Citizen Kane. Many people have often nominated this as the best film ever made. There are not a lot of laughs in it to be honest but you can see what all the fuss was about. There then followed The Magnificent Ambersons which was not quite as good. Over the rest of his career, there were many highlights including The Thin Man and (my personal favourite) - The Stranger, but at the end of his life because his last jobs included providing the voice of Findus peas and the Carlsberg voice-over, the theory was put forward that he had lived his life backwards.
The theory is that, in life, we start with little expertise and experience and over the years , we combine both so that our lives are on a steady upward curve where we grow as people and we get gradually better at living, until, when we die, we are actually experts at life.
It isn't really happening like that for me. If my learning curve is going up at all, it is in a very wobbly sort of way. It falls back sometimes and often it sort of doubles back on itself. Sometimes, these things have been my fault. Sometimes they are things that have happened to me that have knocked me back. However, taken as a whole, I would hope that as I get older, I may get wiser, maybe a bit stronger and a bit less lily-livered. I like to hope that my faith will be stronger. I agree with Paul McCartney and it is a Long and Winding Road but I am hoping and praying  that when the video of my life is played back on that great VHS player in the sky, it will look to be moving forwards ultimately and finishing further on than where I started from.

Cultured

I will always be a northerner both by place of birth and by inclination. I am proud of where I come from and anyone who knows me knows that my accent will always betray me and go a bit Manchester when I am stressed or not concentrating. (Normally it is nothing but the Queen's English for me)
However, I do like where I live. The South West of England is often a neglected corner and Plymouth particularly seems to be somewhere people pass through on their way to Cornwall. So I just wanted to share this with you. Plymouth is having a punt at becoming City of Culture. They have put this together to give people an idea about the city. And you know what? Plymouth - she rocks!