Little Dears

They are coming this afternoon for a few days. Their other Grandma died on Sunday, and the funeral is in Lancashire tomorrow. Spouse and I are probably going to be asked lots of questions. We both realise that what we say about, and the way we behave around the death could affect the boys for the rest of their lives. They are very bright , 2 and 4 year olds. The eldest has already cottoned on to the fact the Grace is said before meals in this house, and is learning it. Other grandparents were totally against religion. Other grandfather binned any card with a text before he read it , and all expressions of a positive future were shot down in flames before the utterence had time to settle on the air. I like it when people are really honest, they are not sitting on a maybe fence, but firmly on the side that would have said Hell in Victorian times.
So , what are we going to say to the boys.
We will wait and see and hope to remember to pray at the time. I know God acts without dimension in time, how else could he have sent the sun to go back . I am asking him ahead of time to give us right words, and back in time that wrong words will be forgotten.

Malton

Love it!

Kiaora-just realised what our house name means

Traditional Maori Blessing

Kia hora te manno
Kia whakapapa paumamu te moana
Kia tere te Karohirohi

*

May the calm be widespread
May the sea glisten like the greenstone
And may the glimmer of summer dance across your pathways…

To Twitter or not to Twitter

Now that I have managed to download my Tweetdeck I can see why this Twitter business is so interesting. By asking the Tweetdeck to siphon off Tweets from Twitterers who have never been my friend, I have an unlimited resource for my Lent Blogging (Filey Parish :Blogging for Lent). All I have to do is ask the app to sort those mentioning a key word, in this case Lent. They come streaming in .I can look at the profiles of the Twitterers and decide to follow them or not. In this way I have been amazed at the hundreds of strangers twittering on about What they are giving up for Lent, Why Lent is a great Idea, Why lent is a C...p idea, and on and on and on..
Now I can understand all the newspaper articles, online blogs, TV conversations and radio quips.
No I am not going to follow Steven Fry or Barack Obama. I am sifting and sorting . I like the updates everyday from Kew Gardens , from Garden Adventure, from my twittering Facebook friends, from Ruth (Ruthie she calls herself-who would have thought it)Gledhill the Times Religious Affairs Correspondent, and from unknown scribes who inspire me with their joie de vivre over the twittersphere. I am not trying like Bishop Alan to see if I can make 500 followers (he has 821 now ).My son has 526 friends on Facebook, I dare not think what will happen when he discovers Twitter. He sure couldn't manage without a Tweetdeck.

Giving up Facebook for Lent

Some people are so addicted to Facebook and Twitter they have given them up for Lent.

Scheduled

I wish I had tried this earlier.

What I will be giving up for Lent

It wont be Facebook or Twitter.

Please do not die..............

Please just keep going, the sun came out strongly yesterday, you loved it, felt it on your tender heart. Please do not get mould, please sit tight.We know you are trying, dont let those foreign cousins of yours from Madeira be too proud, you are our little Russian. We are waiting for you..please do not die..........

Shepherds Warning

'Red sky at night' etc is true most of the time. This new dawn does not bode well. Seen at seven thirty this morning, getting lighter every day the gorgeous red sky promised cold and wet, snow even. Yes! the cold is here, yes! the snow is on its way but as to the Shepherds warning, I agree the signs are there.
Several papers this morning are foretelling that the current economic scene will get worse, although Richard Branson puts it this way 'Shares have gone rock bottom and will go even lower'. He must know something about the structure of the earth that I dont. 'Below rock bottom' would take cataclysmic seismic activity of the earthquake kind, or volcano kind or techtonic plates colliding kind.
So , I am waiting for snow, and yes I am waiting for the media to cash in on the expected frugality drive. The Telegraph has already begun with a booklet on how to kill and draw your own Turkey, and what to make out of the entrails. Others will follow. Marguerite Pattern will have another late flowering in her career telling us how to boil up chicken bones and make soup, or horror of horrors lead us back to Spam.
I have decided be very positive about the economic downturn-how even the words have potential. Down turns bring a reassessment of values and priorities, of government spending on essential services, on a care and share approach . There will always be those ready to make money in 'new ways quickly' in a spiv sort of a way. There will also be a look to the beauty in free things like red dawns.

Pick yourself up

Pick yourself up,dust yourself down,and start all over again.........
Well I think those were the defining words. I'll wait and see what the forth estate says tomorrow. Why on earth did only the Queen of Soul have the sense to wear a hat. She at least gave the whole proceedings some sparkly class. Mrs Obama nearly made it with her glitter .I did enjoy it though. I believed the prayers, and the speech. The poem by Elizabeth Alexander was the highlight of the whole show for me. I am waiting for a transcript of it. Meanwhile here is a picture from the telly....

Unwanted guests

Daughter near Brighton has just spent the weekend using this wonderful tool. I have asked her to buy me one as come the first day of the Summer Holidays now only 6months away, I can be sure that I will probably need one, when daughter in Scarborough rings up in tears asking for help of the combing kind, and we will have daily visits, and many happy(!) hours sitting outside the back door with kitchen roll and bowls of water.

Twittering

I have finally got the measure of Twittering. I have been sorting it out,investigating , appraising and evaluating. Put another way, I have read, marked, learned and inwardly digested. Twittering is a phantom message service. Firstly it is an addictive time waster. Perfectly reasonable and educated people are sending tweets about their most banal and everyday thoughts and all their friends are reading them and thinking they must do the same. Secondly a huge market of Twitterific and the like products are now subtly available after the first sprat has reeled them in. I too am part of the crowd, and just incase I miss out on any hidden bonuses I too am capable of sending banal and boring thoughts to the great ISP in the sky. Thirdly this is not a new phenomenom. It all started or was documented for the first time in 1837.

Only difference is that in 1837 ,in the Emperors New Clothes ,the tweets were word of mouth only, because the microchip had not been invented.

Sitemeter

I just love stats.The sitemeter on the www.fileyparish.org.uk gives me as much pleasure as the actual blogging. I have slowly turned into a nerd, maybe even an anorak. I wonder if on Mastermind you may answer questions on 'Blogsite stats' or ' URLs I know and love', or 'Locations ' or 'Out clicks'. I like them all. It is no good looking at the blog oneself, 50 times in one day, as Pete and Brian and Simon will suss that it no time. If I let 50 friends know the URL and hope they look at the site, I might get 10 of them looking at it. If I encourage all my 78 Facebook friends to look at the site,this might happen;

• all my children will look at the site,
  
• former colleagues who are winding down at the end of a tiring school day might look at the site
• old friends from Dorking are leagues ahead in the cyber stakes and won't look as they are all twittering but not following me
• my sister has already looked but will have lost the URL and the inclination
• my nephews and nieces are all partying or on holiday in cold places so have no time
  
• vicars and bishops and youth workers are all doing their own superb blogs so might look to see if I am following their blogs
• Richard Dawkins will look at the site to see if I have mentioned him even though he is not my friend
  
• Archbishop Sentamu will not look at the site, he knows I am one of his Facebook groupies but although he really appreciates all I do for him and God, he lets me get on with it as he loves Body Ministry.
• My Facebook friends from the 1980's will not look at the site, they dont remember who I am.

Victoria and Albert

We are working side by side in the Study. Spouse is writing his report for Work on my Mac Mini. It is good to have him in the real world again. That world of tab keys and spacing, keyboard shortcuts and autosaves. I am twittering a little on the Toshiba. Not much to do really when you have only 2 followers and no internet connection from your mobile phone. Still it keeps me in the real world again,that world of Victoria and Albert with their console or is it consort desks.

Erasmic soap. Thank God for Dixons

Aged parent and I are never at a loss for conversation. It is much easier now that she has followed eldest daughter to the audiologist and got a Digital Hearing Aid on the NHS. I have to fit it for her of course every time . She cannot manage its intricacies. I am now privy to the most interesting revelations, a pleasure to listen to as no shouting is involved. Apparantly
My Grandfather Frederick Richard Holding (died 1950),AKA the Pioneer motorist and first person to drive across the Runcorn Transporter Bridge has a history involving Erasmic Soap.
Aged Parent tells that when Grandfather was a boy in the 1880s he couldnt be found at the school he was supposed to be attending. When questioned it emerged that he had been truanting by working at the Erasmic Soap Factory, and was working to earn the money for a suit. I have researched this , and found that the Erasmic Soap factory was indeed in Warrington where Grandfather lived with his Aunt and her husband. Aged parent was delighted when I came across the Shave Stick in our local Emporium Dixons of Filey. Now Erasmic is owned by Keyline Brands of Mumbai. The smell of it has immediately brought back a flood of new found memories. What treats in store!

Team building

I see from the status updates(Facebook) of former colleagues at HJS that today has been set aside as an Inset day on Teambuilding. What a relief that I don't have to be there. Whilst I dont think they will be paint balling in the grounds , or using newspapers and cardboard boxes to cross the Assembly Hall, I do know that they will alll be wanting to sit quietly in their classrooms preparing Smart Programmes on their laptops, or having a tidy in the Stock cupboard. Some things you just cannot leave to a NTA or LSA. Ownership of ones own room is part of the anthithesis of Team Building.
I am in a Team now, only I am the Lead teacher, the Head teacher, the Curriculum Adviser, the Payroll Clerk ,the Cook and the Caretaker. It is wonderful.

Buy nothing Christmas

I see from my Advent Calendar that the Canadian Mennonites are credited with the initiative that put an alternative slant on the retail experience, and have started a Buy Nothing for Christmas experience. I am glad that this is now looking mainstream. It must be, as I heard a talk on Radio 4 this week about how the once wacky and goody goody Buy a Goat campaign has been seen for what it really is, a great idea.
In fact I see from the Oxfam Unwrapped catalogue you can now pay to train a teacher.That does appeal,thought it wont be half as good as my years in the Nunnery of the North, The College , Ripon, whose worthy motto was
Nisi Dominus frustra (O God are we frustrated), or Psalm 127,'Unless the Lord builds the City the labourers labour in vain".
The whole of our family has pledged not to give any gifts ,except to the under 5's. This is our 3rd year. We have all found that the relief is tangible. Spouse and I do not send cards to anyone we see around in our town. Spouse has refused to allow me to concoct a Round Robin. I am enjoying putting handwritten letters with cards to friends we rarely see, and have rediscovered the joy of it. I have time of course, since I have decided to withdraw from TV more often, especially as S has discovered ITV3 and has been known to watch the same episode of Poirot 3 times in as many weeks.
I have one small niggle . What will we do when the 5 small children in the family are no longer under 5?

Survivors

I loved the last series, in the 80's and have kept a stock of candles, dried peas, water purification tablets and matches ever since.
I have been following the excellent blog of Bishop Alan and love all the images and inserts, video clips and out of the box thinking . I have wondered how he manages to overcome all the copyright issues. So I have had (helped by our new Youth Leader)a go at downloading an image from a dedicated source, in this case the BBC website .This image is not mine, I have never seen Max Beesley in the flesh,so I thank you BBC and give you all the credit for allowing me to 'copy from location' as the dialogue box on my Mac says. You have however got it wrong. He is not handsome , he has funny eyes and no one on the BBC will ever be as gorgeous as Paul Daneman. I also well remember series from the BBC in the 1960s. Mr Darcy and Captain Wentworth, were played by PD I am sure. Or was it Alan Badel...

The irony in this whole learning curve is the way our new youth leader is having to lead someone from the wrong client group.

My Dreamweaver Evening course at the Yorkshire Coast College in the summer was done at great cost. The Carpark was a nightmare . I managed to get a perfect space every week by arriving so early the other students were probably watching Neighbours. The computers were a foreign country. All the very latest Macs. Did they not even realise that when most were learning div tags this student had still not even found her personal file . I struggled, and did ask for help after that, all the time. And then there was the written work I had to do. This was an evening class for goodness sake, not the Open University. What do I want with all the university credits I now have to my name? Why cant evening classes be the way they used to be ? So I can now do Dreamweaver. I have now my very own Mini Mac, sitting next to my laptop with Vista. I suppose you would say I was bilingual . I now prefer 'move to trash' to 'delete', the Mac is so logical, and friendly.Get to the point-all this effort , and the course was not technically needed at all . The blogsite , yes you heard that correctly of our parish is now up and running . It was not done with Frontpage or Dreamweaver but simply and easily on Blogger just as I have been doing in a simple way for several years.
A happy band , lead by the Topman in the whole of the ICT world aka the H... S....t has today handed over www.fileyparish.org.uk on an unsuspecting world. And the Youth Leader and a Maths teacher in the team have been helping me to update my blog skills. No carparking, no written work , not a young person but a grateful and happy one. I am not stockpiling night lights any more. I have things to do , places to go, hyperlinks to arrange, photos to take ,following to perfect, gadgets and widgets to use.......

Sam Foster

The web advent calendar on links below is worth a look.
Picture of Sam Foster for you.Just as I was thinking no one had heard of Fresh Expressions along comes Sam Foster. My friend Alison in Harrogate has lost her church building to Redundancy, and what a blessing that has become. We are watching as a Fresh Expression movement hits Scarborough Deanery, and wait expectantly for out of the box happenings here. I wonder which churches have such small congregations they are thinking its time to regroup some where else, and not bear the cost of upkeeping unattractive and expensive buildings. Or those tiny congregations lovingly a remnant in villages , just open and expectant for the Lord to take them to a new sort of Meeting where HE is in charge.

http://www.whywearewaiting.com/

Filey Pa..... Blog

I am about to be a three blog person . I have joined a happy team preparing to launch our parish into the blogsphere. My 2000 ed Oxford English Dictionary does not even contain the word blog, and although I am no Adriana Huffington , I am setting myself up as an ecclesiastical commentator. I am going to enjoy discussing really important things. Not the colour of the carpet at St O's or who has not told who what, but really important things, the answers to Life, the Universe and Everything. I will have to have my own blog link to be a proper follower, the world does not want to read about cats and teachers, they will have to be left to amuse the Facebooking family of Bridteacher. What shall I call my new blog?I shall give it some thought. Meanwhile to keep you going, here is a picture of a happy band.( of pensioners using their free passes to take a pleasant ride to Whitby)