Literatea

I think my keyboard is really just fallout from a space shuttle. I’d need a degree in Astrophysics to understand half the buttons. Are they really all that necessary?

It seems that people haven’t changed much over the centuries. “Governments change; the lies stay the same” says M in Goldeneye. My version goes “Civilisations change; Mars and Venus stay the same”.

The other day my friend Liz and I were talking about face cream- and what it smells like. Apparantly one particular brand which Liz liked was slapped on liberally before bed of an evening a short time ago when Liz’s Hubby exclaimed, “Phwoar, that stinks!”.

I read today in the papers about a cosmetic cream which dates back to Roman times on London’s South Bank. Roman ladies were worth it too, you know. Unfortunately for them, satirists of the day (such as Juvenal of the first century) would write, “Men may want to complain about women who wear such creams all night”.

Apparantly the pong of “depilatory creams of unsavoury herbal mixes and toners made of ground poppy moistened with water” was just a bit much for the civlised Roman male.

Pants. All the exciting bits from our NTL package have been cancelled. Like the film channels.

No more returning late from youth club on a Friday night and crashing on the couch with a cup of tea and a film to chill out to.

Pants.

“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” Jeremiah 29:11

Today is a turning point in my life and to celebrate I am writing my first wiblog unencumbered by one of the situations that comprised my aforementioned Trials Happening At The Mo.

For the last couple of years my home situation has been, let’s say, less than happy. Some people are blessed with wonderful housemates. I was blessed with one who’s difficult nature I hope has helped to make me a more patient, a more loving and a more gracious person. There have been many tearful times of prayer when I’ve thought things were a mess but the reality is that God has been at the steering wheel the whole time.

Friends, today I urge you to pray and stick close to the Lord through the tough and the good times. That’s not to say that you have to be “happy-happy-joy-joy” all of the time (I certainly am not), but it is to say that God is faithful and does not forget us- nor does he ignore us. So I encourage you today- pray and don’t give in. Stick to the one who holds your crown because he knows the plans he has – to prosper and not to harm you.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Nelly’s Book Review Of The Week

When I saw the book “The Heavenly Man” for the first time I thought it a little presumptuous for the Christian Booksellers Convention to call it “Book of the Year” when it is, after all, only July.

Then I started reading it.

Friends, whatever you do this weekend, take a trip to your local bookstore/Amazon website and buy a copy. It is the story of Brother Yun, a Chinese christian in the underground church and it is simply wonderful. As you read his words you sense in your spirit that here is a brother with more joy than any you know.

Use it as a tool to encourage, to edify and to allow God to speak to your heart and mind.

I am very happy with the way the album chart is headed this week.

Highlights include:

No. 10 Morcheeba

No. 8 Evanescence

No. 7 George Benson

No. 5 The Thrills

No. 3 Kings of Leon

No. 2 The Darkness (two thumbs way, way up)

I can go to bed knowing that the world is a rockier place. Praise be.

I hate spam. I dislike banner ads that flash on my screen. I detest pop-up’s of any description and I seem to have acquired a pop-up plague.

D’you think that if the great plagues of Egypt had happened in latter times that every Egyptian household would have been infested by a particularly virulent strain of pop-up’s, virus attachments and frames?

Rain Stops Play

Disaster struck today when a group of friends from South East London gathered after a beautiful day in Shoreham on Sea.

One onlooker told this publication that “the young people arrived around 5:30 pm. They gathered on the beach and had only just set up their blankets and towels when the heavens opened.”

Sadly, we travelled further up the coast to Brighton to where the rain followed us.

Honestly.

Day Two, Brighton Leaders Conference, Brighton, England

After a restless night’s sleep I wake up at the unearthly hour of seven fifteen. I throw open the curtains and there is the sparkling mass that is Prime Brighton Seafront. Today I incline my head to my left and what a sight!

It’s The Other Pier. The exciting one where you can spend a whole day leaning over the edge, eat loads, puke it all up on the rides, get a tattoo and go on those exciting dance machine thingy’s which the Japanese are so masterful at.

After a lungful of not-so-fresh air (plenty of roadworks on the marina this summer) I decide that it’s time for breakfast.

It is true that not many youthworkers- full-timers in fact- get to stay in posh hotels at conferences. For this I am very thankful that our elders love to bless the workers. It’s the best.

Day One…Brighton Leader’s Conference…Brighton, England

I check into the four star Belgrave and make my way up to the third floor. That’s where my room is.

I struggle a bit with the keycard thingy and eventually get into my room, relieved that I don’t need to ask a chuckling member of staff how to open the door.

I dump my bag on the floor, look out of the large bay window and lo and behold! Just a touch to my right stands the crumbling remains of the once-glorious West Pier. I could eulogise about how it’s a metaphor for life, or the state of the nation, or how Things Used To Be. I won’t, though, as it’s far too mesmeric a sight to ruin with pedestrian analogies. Instead, I enjoy the feast to my eyes that is the sparkling blue sea, hot sunshine, happy people and crumbling leviathan silhouetted against it all.