Classic quote from Tom Yacomeni tonight… “I felt more blessed than he did knowing that he was blessed because I’d blessed him.”

Heehee!! Anyway… Off to party… Happy New Year to all!

Today I baked JT a cake It had dark chocolate on top (his favourite!) with pink elephants, pink sprinkles, pink balls and pink writing. Unfortunately these were the only decorations that I had

As I have just mentioned before (although it will appear in the next article down!!) JT and I watched “City of God” last night. I don’t usually like violent films much - I usually have to hide in JT’s lap in the scary bits, but this film made quite an impression. Maybe this is because I have been to Brazil, or maybe it was because it was in Portuguese with subtitles. There is soemthing about having to read along to a film that keeps you engaged and makes it pretty powerful.

This film iss set in Rio De Janeiro and tells of gang wars and slum life. The slums (’favelas’) were actually quite posh in the film, but I attach a photo of a favela on the outskirts of Sao Paulo that we visited on our mission trip in 2004. This is actually someone’s house, literally constructed from rubbish. It has no roof, no rooms, no contents - just walls…Of sorts…

When we visited, the police told us that we could not go in as there was gun fighting occurring. We had to stand on nearby railway bridge and photograph it with a good zoom on the camera. Children ran around in nappies or naked, playing football with rubbish. This was the only sign of human life that we saw. I will also attach a view of the entire favela which sat by a railway line.

Seeing films like ‘City of God’and visiting a region like that makes you do a lot of thinking. The film was strange, people would pray one minute and kill people the next. I didn’t really understand this, except that when you remove all the stuff and empty pretensions that exist in Western life, you are left with yourself, God and an almighty battle (spiritually). It was like watching a physical representation of this (except that obviously it was twisted with the good guys being killed!!) People are damaging. More and more words that I hear are empty and yet heavily laden. Like the person who talks to me online sometimes, belittling everything that I say. To look at it objectively, you see hollow words, but you know the sentiment behind them, and it is like water behind a dam.

The thing about water behind a dam is that you don’t really realise the pressure that it is harbouring underneath until it blows and torrents of water drown all that is in its wake. All that you have seen until now is a load of still water behind a wall, becoming a little stagnant and despondent perhaps. I talk about what is happening using the example of one human being, but isn’t it a picture of the modern day world? We are pussy footing around trying not to offend anyone, avoiding conflict at all costs but causing all kinds of problems because people are afraid to be honest. I worry that we are building a dam.

I guess this is why I was so shocked to see a film where people took away all of that and just killed, it was horrible. I am not suggesting for one minute that we do the same, never ever ever!! But doesn’t it make you a little concerned about what might happen if we don’t stand up for truth and justice in our nation? I’m no political activist, but I do believe in lovingly speaking the truth. This is a work in progress, thinking out loud as usual… I have no conclusion.

I am weary because we stayed up late two nights in a row… One night to watch “Pretty Woman” and last night to watch “City of God”. I recommend both, they were great films. I am heavy laden because I have eaten far too much food over the last week or so!!

Actually, I am also feeling a little snowed under with work in this so called ‘holiday’ that everyone seems so envious of!! I have three design jobs on the go and a whole tonne of Uni work. This would be fine in principal, except that for each job I know exactly in my head what I want, but the software and my limited skill base will not respond. JT is building another web site so cannot really help with the technicalities and actually it really boils down to the fact that designing stuff is very hard. I am so frustrated that my brain has painted a perfect image, but my hands cannot respond to it. This has always been my problem and I am at Uni to try to rectify this (amongst other reasons!)

On any normal occasion I would turn to the piano beside me and wrestle with a little Chopin, or calm myself down with some light jazz (re-teaching my hands to engage with my brain at speed), but at the moment the Christmas tree has forced the piano into hiding for the Christmas season. There is not a lot of space to play the violin or the guitar either and certainly not the drums!! I will have to content myself with “Sing that iTune” (Mac widget!!)

So if anyone knows how to make a cat walk across a screen in Flash and jump onto a load of letters, or create a 3D wireframe diver, or even just how to draw, then I’d love to hear from you.

“Come to me all ye who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest”. This is the Lord’s response - I need to get back into a good routine with my Bible and praying instead of reading random books from the Bible and sending up a few desperate pleas. It is time to figure this out properly.

In the meantime, anyone got any good exercise plans for the new year? I’m back on the bike and jogging I reckon…

…I know which option I’d go for!! Good old “The Range”!!

Shortly before Christmasd, George (modelling beside the large inflatable snowman!!) and I paid a visit to the town centre to try and capture photographically how Cheltenham was catching the atmospheric vibe of Christmas. There were a few reasons for this… The primary reason was because when you are rushing around like a headless chicken trying to get everything done you don’t get time to be still for a moment and appreciate the real joy of what is actually going on. (Please note at this point, I have never seen a headless chicken running around, they are usually on the supermarket shelf looking rather static and…headless? Just a turn of phrase.)

The other reason was that we were bored, had nothing to do and wanted a gingerbread latte (G) and a Chocolate Mint Bliss (me).

Our findings were interesting and I include some highlights. The man with the cowboy hat is a man called John, who goes to King’s Table at church. He works on the flower stand and occasionally at the fayre. This said, he has no idea whatsoever who I am, but decided to pose for the camera. He was selling wreaths on this particular day.

I also include various pictures of lights, a small reindeer on a lead (window display), a scary art deco lady (window display) and some rather tipsy looking wise men which I was really chuffed to see in a nativity scene in the window of the “Entertainer” toy shop. Hooray for them - I now feel inclined to purchase toys. They also had a note in their window saying that they wouldn’t be open Christmas Eve becuse they were part of the “Keep sxunday Special” campaign. Hooray again. Enjoy the pics…

My parents have just come back from a couple of days in Geneva and sent me this quality text…

Plane delayed because of dog we are eating in Bristol back eventually x

Don’t you just love predictive text?? I wonder how that dog got ON the plane…?!!?

I was just musing on one of Tim’s favourite little Christmas odes… ‘Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat, please put a penny in the old man’s hat. If you have no penny, a ha’penny will do, and if you have no ha’penny then God bless you.’

I got a bit cross when thinkng about this, because I thought, what about the person singing this? What is he dropping in the old man’s hat? He’s just standing there blessing (well not even blessing, asking God to bless) the poor person who hasn’t even got a ha’penny. Why isn’t he sharing his fat goose with that poor person??

Then I thought a little more. Who is singing the song? “You” the Lord replied. “But I’m not some stuffy Victorian pious person” I immediately responded. The Lord went quiet. This usually means I have to think about what I have just said, (often with my tail between my legs!)

How often do we drop a token ‘penny’ into the hands of real need? What good will it do and what sacrifice have we really made? Does it liberate us from some sort of sense of guilt? Does it give us a ‘feel good’ factor with a high percentage?

Who around us this Christmas needs something that we have. As I look at the accumulating pile of presents on the bedroom floor of our cluttered flat, I begin to feel like I am harbouring fat geese. It is actually quite sickening. I don’t think that the solution is to go out in to town, find a homeless person and dump loads of stuff on them, because this is like dropping a penny in the old man’s hat.

What are the real needs? The materially poor are not the only poor that I know and most of the time I don’t even take the time to get to know them. There are friends, who are poor in health, poor in spirit, poor financially, poor in love, poor in company, poor in encouragement, etc - what can I give, with a little sacrifice?

Last night we had our cluster Christmas social which involved a trip to the BALTI (walla?!) on Bath Road. A great time was had by all and if you look closely, you may even see Dave Wheatley sporting a very attractive cracker hat!! I think that Manny (my coat - aka the woolly mammoth from Ice Age) is breeding party popper streamers and I am feeling a little sleepy this morning, but it was certainly worth it!