All in a dream?

Since the passing of Eleanor (Jules's mom) I have had time to think about where I am and how far I have come. When someone close to you, or to a close one, dies, life seems to slow down and almost stop. You have the time to dwell on things that you wouldn't normally. And for me that would be the last 18 months. They have whizzed along at a tremendous pace, a bit like being in a dream. In November 2005 I had plans to go to Australia. These I cancelled (after, I must say, talking and taking advice from valued friends) because it appeared that God wasn't in it, and really I didn't want to do something that God didn't want me to do. Since that time, life has taken hold of me! I met a wonderful young woman, Julia, who is now my wife, we have a home, I have a new job, and car to get me there and back! It's all been wonderful, and I give God the glory for it.
But, and its a big but, because it hasn't been plain sailing at it were.We have had problems along the way. All quite minor ones compared with what happened last week when Eleanor passed away. That really was a shock and something that Jules and I are still coming to terms with, one day at a time. But we know she is with the Lord, which is a far better place to be. And we will miss her. As Job said "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away" and although I was only just getting to know Eleanor, I valued the time I had with her, and I think, saw some of the special qualities God had given her. She was truly a special lady.
Some days I feel as though someone is going to pinch me and I'm going to wake up! Even though I've had some absolutely wonderful times, and some truly testing times, I am so glad it isn't a dream and I have lived it. I have had some experiences that I would have preferred not to have experienced, but the last 18 months isn't one of them. Why? I hear you ask when Eleanor had died last week? Well, it is because I can see (may be with 20/20 hindsight) that God has been involved in my life and that of my dear wife and I certainly would not want to change that. What ever God has for me is for my own good because He will not test me beyond that which I can endure. He will give me the strength to carry on and get through to the other side.
I am so looking forward to the rest of my life with Jules because we don't know what's ahead and I like surprises especially when God is involved! We can make plans, but without God, its like building a house on sand, but with God its like building a house on rock.

All in a dream?

Since the passing of Eleanor (Jules's mom) I have had time to think about where I am and how far I have come. When someone close to you, or to a close one, dies, life seems to slow down and almost stop. You have the time to dwell on things that you wouldn't normally. And for me that would be the last 18 months. They have whizzed along at a tremendous pace, a bit like being in a dream. In November 2005 I had plans to go to Australia. These I cancelled (after, I must say, talking and taking advice from valued friends) because it appeared that God wasn't in it, and really I didn't want to do something that God didn't want me to do. Since that time, life has taken hold of me! I met a wonderful young woman, Julia, who is now my wife, we have a home, I have a new job, and car to get me there and back! It's all been wonderful, and I give God the glory for it.
But, and its a big but, because it hasn't been plain sailing at it were.We have had problems along the way. All quite minor ones compared with what happened last week when Eleanor passed away. That really was a shock and something that Jules and I are still coming to terms with, one day at a time. But we know she is with the Lord, which is a far better place to be. And we will miss her. As Job said "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away" and although I was only just getting to know Eleanor, I valued the time I had with her, and I think, saw some of the special qualities God had given her. She was truly a special lady.
Some days I feel as though someone is going to pinch me and I'm going to wake up! Even though I've had some absolutely wonderful times, and some truly testing times, I am so glad it isn't a dream and I have lived it. I have had some experiences that I would have preferred not to have experienced, but the last 18 months isn't one of them. Why? I hear you ask when Eleanor had died last week? Well, it is because I can see (may be with 20/20 hindsight) that God has been involved in my life and that of my dear wife and I certainly would not want to change that. What ever God has for me is for my own good because He will not test me beyond that which I can endure. He will give me the strength to carry on and get through to the other side.
I am so looking forward to the rest of my life with Jules because we don't know what's ahead and I like surprises especially when God is involved! We can make plans, but without God, its like building a house on sand, but with God its like building a house on rock.

Delay

I am taking a break from this blog due to a family bereavement. Will be back soon with some new stuff on a regular basis hopefully to get you thinking about life in the restaurant at the edge of the universe.

Back to work

Jules and I have now been back from honeymoon for a couple of weeks now and it feels as though we just haven't stopped. Jules's car was classed as a "right-off" due to an accident. We were offered a car but had to turn it down as the insurance company thought Jules to be too young and wouldn't insure her! So we've gone out and bought a Nissan Micra. Collection is on Thursday.
We've also had the joy of sorting all my stuff out and making a house a home, which Jules as been doing most of the work and doing a great job too.

The Honeymoon- Me and the wife

Jules and I are now in France. Have been since the 11th of March. We started in Paris and moved on to the Loire Valley for a few days. From there we have travelled to the coast and north a bit and now are in a place called Quimperle. The hotel is quite good but haven't seen the town yet.
So far we have had a wonderful time. The weather has been good. Bright and sunny days, and cool nights, which didn't bother us as we were tucked up in bed!!
The people of France have been very kind considering that neither Jules or I can speak very much french. We have got by and achieved various degrees of communication. It has been fun, even for the French who do have a sense of humour!
The mini is going great guns. Jules has been doing a good job of navigating along roads that don't exist, at least not on the map, and helping to overtake the slower cars and lorries. The mini has however sustained an injury, a cracked windscreen, which we are hoping will last the trip before being replaced, the windscreen that is, not the mini, might just be a bit excessive to replace the car because of a cracked windscreen....
Only a few days left so its off to bed.... yippy


For more photos see James and Jules web site...

The final week

It's now Tuesday morning and the rain is lashing down. The countdown to my wedding has started properly now. Four days to go and still so much to do... Tonight we are having dinner with some friends, who happen to be my "adopted parents" in that I've adopted them and thankfully them me! It should make a welcome break in the hectic lead-up to 'The Day". I'm glad this is the only one I'll do, weddings, that is.
It's now Thursday and I've just finished work for the week and the next two. The dinner on Tuesday was good.
Yesterday we had a rehearsal at the church which went well until Jules couldn't find her purse. We searched everywhere but it was gone... something we didn't really need just now, but life goes on.
Today and tomorrow we are doing all the little things before the BIG DAY.

Plans...

Graham and Eleanor are here for a wedding. Not just any wedding, but the wedding of their eldest daughter to me. The plans are going well, and if everything goes to plan, we should be wed by midday next Saturday.

Visitors From South Africa

Jules and I, and Jules sister Lisa went off to Heathrow early this morning to collect the "In-Laws-to-be", Graham and Eleanor. They touched down at 6:25 am and come through at about 7 am. A quiet drive back to Cheshunt along the M25 with no hiccups saw an hour pass by. Lisa got some O2 sim cards for their phones and got them going.
Its good to see them again. I last saw them when I visited South Africa a few months ago, and to hear thier quaint accents made me smile...

Just a Quickie

I now have a "Blogger Client" software, which means I can now write up some posts, save them on my computer and then upload them when the mood takes my fancy, and I'm on line of course.
So there you have it. The bit of software I'm using is Ecto, for the mac. As I've only just got it working, I don't really know what it can do...
Time will tell
Have a good week and weekend

A spot of Colour at the south pole

Pic: Jean de Pomereu/Lita Albuquerque Stusio
Blue fiberglass spheres, 99 of them, bring some colour to the normally mono-chrome South Pole region. The pattern they display is the morror of the paths of stars above. This is the work of artist Lita Albuquerque, an earth artist from the USA. Umm, Nice....

Fog at Heathrow

Tim Ockenden

Fog at Heathrow causes chaos and missery to holiday maker hoping to get away for Christmas. British Airways website crashed yesterday causing more problems for would-be travellers. The British weather strikes again. I remember back at school when our geography teacher gave us a title to write an essay on. It was "The British Isles doesn't have a climate, it has weather - discuss".

Anger

Tope Koleoso gave a wonderful sermon today at Jubilee Church on the subject of anger. Get it here for download.

A new blog

I've started a new blog at The Piglet Files where I will be posting my thoughts and ideas about what is happening in the world

Education, education, education...

I've just been reading about and listening to (on the radio and TV) information on the legislation on booster seats for children. Now I'm in favour of safety, but it looks as if this has been brought in on the thoughts that more and more children are die-ing in road traffic accidents and therefore the children must be strapped in safely so that if the vehicle they are in does happen to have an accident, the child would be safe. A fair assumption. But, when there is a traffic accident, surely there is more to protect than the child. What about the adult sitting next to child, the pedestrian walking beside the speeding traffic, the white van driver making deliveries and therefore not required to ware a seat belt, and driver of said vehicle... I could go on. Will those in charge of making legislation be looking in to these areas as well and coming up with more 'restrictive' measures. Wouldn't it be better if we were all strapped in with 5 point harnesses and a roll cage to boot, at least then we'd be as safe as the Formula 1 boys.

A few weeks ago there were articles in various newspapers and on the television and radio about the quality of the exams and whether they were hard enough or not because it seemed that too many students were getting higher and higher grades. I don't blame the students for being up in arms about this as they aren't the ones who decided on the characture of the exams or the content of their courses. The examing boards where saying that the exams weren't becoming easier, but the students were working harder and passing well. The results speak for themselves.

And just now at the Labour Party Conference it was announced that course work would now be done in school under supervision to stop cheating, (as if any student would dare to!) and that it was found that internet web sites where 'geared-up' to help students. You can look at this in two ways, one, well done to the student for their initiative and finding out how to get a task done well and for the minimum work, or, you could tear them off a strip for not entering into the course work in a manner that would benefit them in the long term, eg, do it right now and then take the short cuts later if it works. By using their initiative the student have undermined there own education because there will come a point where short cuts will not do and the long way is the only way and then the student would not know what to do.

This has made me think that maybe, just maybe, we've been heading down the wrong road. I always thought that tests, like the road test and exams like the ones we've all take at school, were there to check what we have learnt and whether we can use it effectively. I get the impression that now that everything seems to be heading for league tables and 'a competitive market' (whatever that means?) that students are being taught how to pass the exam rather than letting the exam be a check on what they have been learnt and to a lesser degree how well the teachers taught. I do believe that this is a dangerous path to tread. Without the necessary skills to use the knowledge gained in education we will have a generation who can excel at passing exams but nothing else. Taking this to the road, wouldn't it be better to teach and educate drivers-to-be how to drive and use a half ton metallic projectile rather than pass an exam. A recent survey has suggested that fewer and fewer drivers know the meaning of various road signs shown them, and various rules in the HIghway Code. Is it any wonder then that there are more accedents on our roads?

My point is that I don't think exams are doing now what their intention was a decade or 2 ago. I consider myself to be fortunate in that when I was at school I was taught how to learn, which then made teaching easier for the teachers and the exams checked how we could use this new information. There always seems to be something useful from the pass. There is the old adage of 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'. Beware of the improvement for the sake of improvement.

Be careful what you say

Adrian Warnock preached on the need for us to control our tongues. Jubilee Church has made the audio available to download.

A new way

Just a quick test to see if this works. I'm using an application called MacJournal which allows me to write up posts for my blog and save them on my computer to up-load at a later date. This is to see if it works...

Free Because Of Jesus

Adrain Warnock's lastest sermon is now available at Jubilee Church Semons entitled Free because of Jesus. Adrian sets out that for those in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. There are too many christians who beat themselves over and over again for thngs they've done which they feel they shouldn't of done. But because of Christ Jesus, There should be no guilty feeling for Jesus took the punishment for you and me and the world, that we may be set free. Romans 8:1 'Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.' 'nuff said
Part 2 Next week

Up-date

Previously I asked if my good friend Adrian had softened his views on the different translations of the Bible because he had read from the NIV... well, he has informed me that he hasn't and the only reason he had read from the NIV was that he had mis-layed his ESV that morning. Normal service will resume with the next sermon...

A day out in London

On May 5th my friend Jules (now girlfriend and fiance) and I went into London and went on the London Eye and then had a look at some fish and things at the London Aquarium...

Stop Press

Adrian Warnock reads from the NIV bible
Adrian normally reads from the ESV Bible but on sunday he read from the NIV Bible, is he softening his views?? ;-)
Adrian's sermon Needy people need God is now available to listen to or download or via thepodcast, enjoy