Frank

View from the island

2008-04-01T20:52:00.003Z

as most of you know we are on the move to the Isle of Lewis
we have started a joint blog about our journey!

go to view from the island

Pictures

2007-10-16T20:47:00.000Z

I have been having fun with a new camera recently - and seeing as we seem to have been all over the place recently here are some links to the pictures. Click on to picture to get to our flickr account

firstly a few days with in the in-laws!

then off for a tour of the Highlands and Westerns Isles of Scotland

then off to Treyarnon Bay in Cornwall with 60 people to celebrate our friends 40th - taking over the YHA

you may spot a theme emerging!

travels so far or not so far ....

2007-09-21T17:14:00.000Z

On Wednesday morning we set off bright and early in our van (Evie) for adventures up north. This was the test for Evie as the furthest she has been so far is Hampshire!

We sailed up the M5 - with a quick pit stop In sunny Birmingham to collect bits for a friend and see where Gayle grew up (other highlights included Adam's old stomping ground and the Villa ground!). We made brilliant headway up to Dumfries and stayed in a awesome campsite in the Mabie Forest - where you can stay in a roundhouse, tee-pee, bunkhouse or your own tent or van. the site comes complete with compost loos and wood-fired hot tub and sauna - which was great! Pictures to follow.

Thursday morning we set off and as we stopped in Hamilton there was a strange clunking sound and Evie refused to get into gear... both of us felt slightly nervous but decided best ignore these things!! but by just north of Glasgow there was no getting her into gear and so i surrendered and Gayle called the AA - a "very nice man" arrived (who thought we were travellers!! how many travellers belong to the AA??) who did everything he could but there was nothing else for it - we had to take her to a garage... this the day before the Scottish bank holiday!!
we had visions of being stranded in Glasgow until Tuesday - not quite the plan!
Amazingly though the garage had the van fixed by this afternoon and we will be back on the road tomorrow after sampling some of Glasgow's nightlife tonight.
As i drove Evie through Glasgow i did ask myself why had i not got the gear box seen to earlier as it is now quite easy to drive!!!
Frank is not sure what to make of all the comings and goings!

yoofs

2007-09-13T10:43:00.000Z

On Monday at work I was delivering to a house in an nice town we all know - and encountered a group of young people spitting and shouting racist comments at an elderly Asian woman.
Being the shy retiring type ,i decided to intervene and got into a bit of an argument with the young men. at the time it seemed the right thing to do - i couldn't walk past and let them treat that person like that, but afterwards my heart was racing and i was not quite so convinced as to the sensible-ness of my actions!
the interaction with the young men started with just challenging 4 of them but the group grew rapidly to 10 and all of them were wanting to take me on!! somehow i managed to talk my way of of them all attacking me but given recent media coverage of young people attacking those that challenge their behaviour maybe i was lucky rather than a skilled linguist!

the good part is the woman was extremely grateful for my intervention and the young people left! but i still feel quite shaken by the incident.

What would you do?

2007-08-03T14:56:00.000Z

there is an elderly woman (in her 70's / 80's) in a large supermarket chain and when she gets to the medicine aisle you see her open her handbag take an item of the shelf and hide it under her purse and then walk away.

So what would you do...

a. tell a member of staff

b. approach her and say what you have just seen

c. ignore it - she's old and might not have much money

would your answer be the same if she had stolen an item of food rather than medicine?

Wychwood 2007

2007-06-08T15:03:00.000Z

Last weekend we went off to our festival of the season - a new one to us: Wychwood

It was excellent a good time to chill out - with some decent music and beer and company! and even a good cup of tea and slice of cake were available
more photos can be seen here

Onion

2007-05-31T20:24:00.000Z

Gayle showed me the Onion website with clips from ONN
there is a news article on Gap Kids clothing on her blog but this one caught my eye! Excellent

In The Know: War On Terror

Goodnight Irene ...

2007-05-28T20:17:00.000Z

Saturday saw 40,000 gasheads heading for Wembley stadium - 2 of which were me and my eldest son - and what a day it was!
A game of high-tension, from the first few minutes going down 1-nil to the Shrews to us coming back to getting 3-1 and getting through to League 1.

Next season we will be playing Leeds Utd (my brother-in-Laws team - he is very excited about the prospect of loosing to us!)
Wembley Stadium was a great venue - but expensive and they haven't quite worked out how to get everyone out of the car-parks yet!

Couple of fav photos below - rest on flickr here

Wembley Wembley, we're off to wembley

2007-05-21T18:59:00.001Z

Well we did it -we got tickets and we are off to Wembley on Saturday!

Frustration

2007-05-20T21:09:00.000Z

Brilliant news - Rovers are in the play-offs on Saturday at Wembley (much to Gayle and her family's disbelief) but to my utter dismay i can't get tickets!!

We (me and my friends) have been trying all day on the website and all evening on the phone lines Gayle says - who knew there was 35000 rovers supports out there!

Anyone have spare tickets??

Foundation little service - fun with a phone camera!

2007-05-15T15:57:00.000Z

On Sunday there was a larger than normal little service for Foundation - it was designed as a guest service.

there are a few pictures on Flickr of the service taken on my phones camera - makes for some interesting light effects. Click here for more

also if you want some entertainment from YouTube go to Gayle's blog

Farmdation

2007-05-06T09:03:00.000Z

Last week we became the proud caretakers of an allotment in North Bristol, after a false start of digging the incorrect plot for 3 hours, yesterday we got things well underway - planting our first veg - some potatoes!

Yesterday was spent digging more ground over - and i have the blisters to show for it - but there was something very satisfying about the process, the blood, sweat and tears - a bit of hard graft, being at one with the earth, planting to bring new life, camaraderie with fellow allotment owners was evident with everyone being extremely friendly. I could go on with the trite phrases but somehow it was actually like that

So here's to all the fresh veg the Farmdation crew will be enjoying and a few moments of peace in the shed - yes our plot even has its own shed!

PS this picture is not of our actual allotment - pictures of the work in progress will be appearing on various foundation members blogs in the future

Portugal

2007-03-12T18:47:00.000Z

Last week we were visiting Gayle's parents - in between doing jobs around their house we went out to their local towns - Churches seem to be the main attraction for visitors.
In Ovar their nearest town there is Chapels du passo - which are chapels built to represent the stations of the cross - unfortunately not a single one was open though it is their main tourist attraction!
When we did eventually find a church open to have a look inside - we very quickly discovered that the reason for it being open was that there were 2 dead bodies inside (in their open caskets) for people to come and pay their respects - they didn't appreciate 2 English tourists bundling in with camera and flash photography!

here are some photos of their beautifully tiled churches and the manny crosses we discovered on our travels. The last 2 pictures are of grafitti we saw outside the church!

Brunch

2007-02-25T10:56:00.000Z

Yesterday we discovered a fantastic little place for brunch (well it also offers lunch, dinner, coffee etc!) It was a quirky little place in Bradford-on-Avon called the Lock Inn - tiny little cafe with lots of outside eating spaces including a boat and garden sheds. The was a great selection of food as well - great breakfast choices - veggie and non, as well really good looking lunch and dinner menus!
The general message is that everyone and everything is welcome - including dogs, cats, ducks and children!

this little ditty was on the front cover of the menu:
I wish I was a glow worm
A glow worm's never glum
Cos how can you be grumpy
when the sun shines out of your bum!

You can even have a very pleasant walk along the canal to walk off all you have just consumed in the cafe!
Highly recommend a visit!

Cheesy films

2007-02-16T16:39:00.000Z

Last Friday we needed to distract ourselves and decided to go to the cinema, though very interested in going to see Babel we decided we needed something a lot less taxing on the brain and opted for Music and Lyrics with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore.

it was just what we needed: light hearted, funny, good reminiscening of the 80's, cheesy but not overly American entertainment!

Sometimes you just need to escape ...!

Adoption

2007-01-29T20:14:00.000Z

I know this has taken a few days, but I feel quite stunned that Rowan Williams has "sided" with the Catholic church over the issue of exemption from the Equalities bill and gay & lesbian couples rights to adopt children. This does not feel like my church. It has made me feel so angry that Christians are asking to be allowed to treat people differently, who are we to say people should not be allowed to care for a child who is without a family because of their sexuality. In the church i go to - we want people to be who they are and this kind of statement makes me (and i would imagine most gay and lesbian Christians?) feel more alienated from the church.

Having just written all this i see Tony Blair has done the right thing ... click here

travelling

2007-01-26T19:17:00.000Z

create your own visited countries map

inspired from Ellen and Gayle! shows how much more there is to see of the world ... though i would love to go back to Russia one day though

Well I've played

2007-01-15T18:18:00.000Z

I had to buy new squash trainers and trousers and managed to organize my first game I got slaughtered - lost count after losing the 5th but I really enjoyed it !!
The sweat I produced was unbelievable - you could wring my socks out!
I think my opponent was kind to me in the end - though I am not sure advising me to go for an eye test was entirely justified!
roll on match 2 ...

Winter Blues

2007-01-08T19:01:00.000Z

Christmas has been and gone, people's plastic is all spent out and we start to promise ourselves we are going to change our lives around, make resolutions (or not), planning and filling in diaries for 07. So my resolution (even though I don't make them!) is to get a little bit fitter by playing squash!
We'll see how long this one lasts ...!

The Perfect Christmas Stocking?

2006-12-21T19:52:00.000Z

With only a few days left before the'big' day, i am left wondering / worrying about what to put into a Christmas Stocking to amke it perfect?
the usual things like nuts, chocolate money, satsumas, smellies, socks? or do people do more unusual things?

Lee Abbey

2006-11-28T17:57:00.000Z

Couple of weekends ago some people from Foundation went to Lee Abbey in Devon for the weekend there are some photos on my flickr site. click here to see

Peace

2006-11-12T13:32:00.000Z

Tonight i did the little service at Foundation - it being Remembrance Sunday i decided to do something on peace. below is some of the liturgy we used:

We opened the service with:

Lord,
lead me from Death to Life,
from Falsehood to Truth;
lead me from Despair to Hope,
from Fear to Trust;
lead me from Hate to Love,
from War to Peace.
Let peace fill our heart, our world, our universe.
Peace Peace Peace
[by John Johansen-Berg]

I then asked the group to draw their reposonses to peace, pin them to a cross and light a candle for peace

we closed the service with the responsive prayer and the Peace:

Leader: Jesus, you are our peace.
R: In you we become new, one single humanity.

L: Come among us with your gift of peace:
R: Not as the world gives, in fear and suspicion, but as you give, in love and truth.

L: Come among us and banish the weapons of war
R: Speak peaceably to every nation, that your rule may extend from sea to sea, to the ends of the earth.

L: Come among us with the new covenant of love.
R: Sweep off the earth the instruments of destruction that all living creatures may lie down without fear.

L: Come among us with good news for the poor,
R: With release for prisoners and captives, with sight for the blind. with deliverance for the oppressed, with the fair distribution of the resources of your world.

L: Come among us that we may hunger and thirst to see right prevail;
R: That we may show mercy, that we may be peacemakers.

All: You are our peace. You are the way, you are the truth, you are the life. Fill our lives with your spirit of love, joy and peace. Amen.
[by John Ferguson]

I used music from Taize and Late Late Service through-out the service

Lindsey and Jenny's Civil Partnership

2006-11-05T12:55:00.000Z

At the end of October, Foundation had its first civil partnership celebration, this was actullay my first time at a civil partnership as well. There are some photos on flickr of the covenent cermony and party!
i thoroughly enjoyed the day and had the priveledge of being Jenny & Lindsey's chauffer for the day!

80's revival

2006-10-15T12:01:00.000Z

Last night Gayle and I went with some friends to an 80's disco, to raise money for one of Gayle's godchildren school in Horton (nr Chipping Sodbury)
We seem to have spent the last few weekends tracking down our costumes, which was quite fun really. Girls seem to have it a bit easier at the moment as 80's are in for them but for men it was a bit harder! I managed to track down a very cool (!) new romantics frilly shirt from a shop on the Gloucester Rd, so it was down the New Romantics road I went, getting a dodgy wig and scarves to tie around wrists and waist.
For this was a bit of trip down memory lane, I've not dressed up like this for a good 20 years, when the make up was applied I was back there reliving my mis-spent youth!
Gayle got herself a rara skirt and legless tights with legwarmers and her hair was great - all backcombed and then tied up with lace (very Madonna-esque!) - apparently this is how she did it every weekend while she was mis-spending her youth in Nailsea Scotch Horn Disco's! Gayle also dug out her original Duran Duran sweatbands and scarf - she was a real Duranie when she was young!!
The four us applied plenty of spray on glitter - now everything we touch seems to be glittery - will we ever manage to get rid of it!
The disco was entertaining, Gayle and her friend seemed to know all the words to all the songs, whilst I claimed I didn't remember many - being more of the Goth type then and lost in some university haze!

Is it really a year...

2006-10-11T19:42:00.000Z

Last weekend was our wedding anniversary so we (including Frank the dog) went to Stow-on-the-wold in the Cotswolds and stayed in a nice B&B.
Great pubs, great food, peaceful walks with plenty of wildlife - with rabbits and pheasants that Frank enjoyed chasing! The only thing that spoilt one walk was that one farmer had insisted on locking the gates on a right of way - but we still managed to get through - well over actually!
A couple of highlights for me was Hailes Abbey which was very peaceful (see small island), Toddington station with the steam engines running and the Cotswolds falconry centre. Various slide shows on flickr.

On Sunday evening we went to Loch Fyne in Bristol for a meal - it was absolutely fantastic, delicious, i had kiln roasted salmon with a mushroom and whiskey sauce - yum!

Who do you think you are?

2006-09-24T10:41:00.000Z

i've put some photos on flickr of Foundations September Service Who do you think you are?
click on photo or link above to see them all

Banksy again

2006-09-18T08:09:00.000Z

Meant to blog this a few days ago but not got round to it. Banksy has an art show in a warehouse in LA, amongst the other pieces which includes a great graffiti piece of 2 older women knitting jumpers with slogans and a piece which continues Banksy's assault on Paris Hilton's 'musical' career, is an amazing piece which is an elephant situated in a lounge environment! The elephant is painted the same pattern as the flock wallpaper (aside from the ethics of painting an elephant...) I thought this piece was brilliant. Gayle informed me that on Radio 4 that morning the presenters were discussing why on earth Banksy would put a pink elephant in a lounge and they didn't seem to get it (or maybe this was fained ignorance?) - but strangely it is a metaphor Gayle and her colleagues use all the time at work - in the context that racism is the elephant in the corner that no one ever talks about and pretends is not there.
Apparently a spokesperson for Banksy said the elephant represents poverty - the elephant in the corner some people choose to ignore. There are pictures of the show at the BBC news website

Another Banksy piece that hit the news last week was he had managed to get a life size replica of a Guantanamo bay detainee in the enclosure of Big Thunder ride at Disneyland

Freshly Squeezed Water

2006-09-10T17:33:00.000Z

Last weekend Gayle and I (and Gayle's parents) ventured down to the Organic food festival at the Harbourside. after getting over the shock of having to pay £3.50 each entry fee (compared to last years free entry!) we had a great time. Making the most of our fee we grazed our way round the stalls with hordes of Bristolians enjoying the organic fayre that was on offer.
I particuarly enjoyed the organic beer (no surprise there) and the cheese and breads they had on offer. The most hilarious stand was a "Freshly Squeezed Water' seller, I am sure they were just selling filtered water but the name made us laugh so much we never got to find out what it really was!
We also enjoyed a demonstration by Sophie Grigson (famous chef type) and the owner of Quartier Vert and the newly opened Bordeaux Quay on how to use stale bread - yes really!

One thing that did occur to me whilst we were browsing was how exclusive this Organic food club is. we could have spent a fortune on food (20p a plum in some cases) and with the £3.50 entry charge, it means this type of event is only open to people with a certain amount of money, if the Soil Association are wanting to encourage us all to eat more healthly and more organically they need to to review how accessible these kind of events are, so it at least it would be open to the masses! Interestingly the cooking demos were sponsored by Sainsbury's, which was quite a surprise to us, but unless we use our consumer power to influence the supermarkets i guess they will never change. I personally think it was a clever piece of marketing by them!

Women's place

2006-09-03T16:33:00.000Z

Of late there seems to be many conversations happening around me that are about gender issues and inequalities. We seem to manage avoid discussing this subject frequently.

How do we start these conversations in a constructive way?
How to we enable people to be able to voice their experiences without it becoming a blame game?

Discussing this with my wife it felt like as men we often assume that because women within our groups are not being vocal about their feelings that everything is alright (appreciate this is gross generalisation) and so carry on regardless, thus making it harder for women to voice their experiences, thus making us men assume everything is ok for them and so the circle goes on.

This conversation has been going on for years within the church. Alternative worship groups and Emerging churches don't seem to have broken this male dominated culture. Though in the established church there is a higher representation of women than men within the congregations the men are still the ones that hold the power primarily, what are our alternative worship groups doing to challenge this inequality?

Greenbelt 06 - pictures

2006-08-30T20:25:00.000Z

I have posted my Greenbelt pictures on flicker, there are some nice ones of the Foundation Poetry shed!

Greenbelt 06

2006-08-29T17:08:00.000Z

Just back from Greenbelt 06 - good to catch up with friends, and spend time with people from foundation. I even got to spend sometime with my wife this year, who had managed to delegated some of her normal responsibilities to Ben and Ian who did a fantastic job with the New Forms cafe. The farm seemed to be the highlight of Gayle's weekend, who now wants a pig as a friend for Frank! I also had a great birthday - thank you foundation for the amazing chocolate cake. I have some pictures and reflections to come but my initial thought is GB needs to bring back the edginess and risk into areas of the programme. I am sure also that conversations within foundation started at Greenbelt will rumble on for sometime!

The masked ball

2006-08-22T19:38:00.000Z

last weekend Gayle and I made what is becoming an annual pilgrimage to the Beautiful Days festival nr Honiton Devon, with some friends. We had a great time despite the somewhat dodgy weather and it is good to get Gayle away from the computer the weekend before Greenbelt! Beautiful Days is a festival set up by the Levellers and the festival is a mixture of music: ska, punk, folk and reggae and a few other genres thrown in for luck and art including sculptures made out of exhaust pipes and good ale!
I have uploaded some pictures on flicker

Last weekend i revisited my youth

2006-08-17T19:37:00.000Z

Last weekend I revisited my youth, not as you might expect by drinking and clubbing but going on demos!! Friday, Gayle dragged me along to a demo in the city centre organised by the Unions to protest against the attack that had happened on Christopher Kasozi was severely injured in an unprovoked racially motivated attack in the city centre. With about 80 people there at short notice, it was good to make a stand and say Bristol will not tolerate racism. It was also good to meet up with old friends who I use to go to many a demo with and was then persuaded to go on a march the following day against the war in Lebanon and our governments lack of intervention. I know it is easy to have a simplistic view of these situations but I think many of us feel there is a real injustice at work and that the west seems to be happy to let Israel carry on killing innocent people. The demo on Saturday started with about 100 or so people leaving castle park and as we marched through town and up to the top of the Park St we were joined as we went along by people out for Saturday shopping, by the time we reached the top we had several hundred people following us. We had an interesting interaction with the police on the way past college green as there was another protest going on in support of Israel. The police were quite concerned that there was going to be a clash. I guess it was people exercising their right to freedom of speech. The change for me was that in earlier days myself and friends would have got involved in a fight -maybe we are too old for that now or perhaps just a bit wiser.
Have a look on flicker for some pictures

My reflections on Bristol Blah

2006-07-30T13:48:00.000Z

It seems some time ago already that Blah came to Bristol but the thought provoking stuff is still rumbling around...
the topic that is still going round in my head is that of "flat leadership"
this came up as a question at the end of the sessions, about whether this can really be achieved.
When thinking about Foundation - I think we need to be honest about the leadership structure we have at the moment. My personal reflection is that, even if our aim is to have a 'flat leadership', currently we don't, I personally don't feel we have flat or representative leadership and that rather than pretend we do, we need to be open about who is leading/steering the group.

My next question is whether there is such a thing as flat leadership? In all the alt worship groups and emerging church groups it seems there is always a figure-head, someone who represents the group (ie at the Blah: Karen Ward for COTA, Ben Edson for Sanctus1, Paul Roberts for Foundation) rather than fighting this maybe we should be thinking about how that person(s) can reflect the nature of the group instead of a personal opinion?

Maybe the conversations should be more about how and by whom the decisions are made that this 'figure-head' will represent, rather than how we are achieving what might never be achievable?
Are the people who are steering the group representative of the wider group i.e. men/women, married/single, gay/straight, with children/without children, professionals/non-professionals, employed/unemployed, evangelicals/liberals, intellectuals/real-world doers. Where are the decisions made - in what context? Is everyone who wants a say getting a say? and what is the process by deciding the view we are going with - those who talk the loudest and the most?
And where does God fit into all this?

Foundation go to the beach

2006-07-29T09:23:00.000Z

These are up a bit late but here are some pics of Foundations' trip to the Gower mid July.

click on flickr or the picture to see more

The Beat goes on ...

2006-07-28T17:20:00.000Z

after going to Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh last year, we felt it was only right we supported the local action to remind Mr Blair of what still needs to be achieved! it was a bit of a reunion of those who went last year from Cotham, with the sad exception of Kathy Allen.

speeding fowl

2006-07-28T17:17:00.000Z

seen on a recent walk

Irish Embassy

2006-07-12T16:01:00.000Z

Yesterday, as the chair of Bristol Playbus, I was asked to go to the Irish Embassy in London to pick up a cheque for the work Playbus does with Irish travellers in Bristol. I met with the Irish Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and the Irish Ambassador. It was a good day out with Guinness flowing freely from about 11am and very little sandwiches to soak it up with! All in all the guests had a very merry day!

Banksy back in town

2006-06-20T17:11:00.000Z

this can be seen from Park St!

Juggling

2006-06-11T15:50:00.000Z

This is brill! (thanks to Andy Wray for the link) Make sure you watch with sound up
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4776181634656145640

Cultural experiences

2006-05-30T19:51:00.000Z

this last week has seen us taken in quite a range of gigs!
last Tuesday we headed to a quaint little venue in Frome called the cheese and grain, to see New Model Army, 25yrs since they were last in Frome gigging, and they sounded just as good as when they started! For once I didn't feel like I was the oldest person in the audience! Not only was their music great but their politic message as ever outstanding!
Saturday took us to Portland Sq - not a place I would normally suggest spending a Saturday night, but we went to see Circomedia's contribution to Bristol Old Vic's Mayfest programme. The artists spuspended themselves over the audience in the refurbished church. One company was a single artist working on the ropes, the other company was 2-4 artists working on a bar and ropes. AMAZING is the only way to describe what they do! It was like watching ballet in the air. Their sense of balance and lack of fear of dropping to the floor had the audience gasping. If you get a chance to visit this venue to see circus skills in action I would highly recommend it!
Bank Holiday Monday then took us to St George's Hall to see Martha Wainwright, singer song writer, daughter of Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III, and sister to Rufus Wainwright. Having only recently been introduced to her music by Gayle I was not sure what to expect, but we had a very entertaining night, with beautiful music including guest star Kate McGarrigle! and highly entertaining and witty chatter from Martha. She is extremely talented but is not at all pretentious and came across as extremely normal, she laughed her way through her guitar going hideously out of tune mid-song and the string then breaking and then having to ask an audience member to fix it for her as she continued the show. If you get a chance to see her - do! She is brilliant (next local gig is next weekend at the Wychwood Festival in Cheltenham! Unfortunately we can not go)
A weeks feast of the arts!

Playing

2006-05-18T18:42:00.000Z

On Monday we had planned to go out to the countryside for a walk but as the weather was so awful we decided to go to @Bristol and went to Explore and the IMAX. Having never been before I hadn't really appreciated how much fun you can have at a science museum!
We spent a very happy day playing on all the experiments, testing and comparing our sense of smell, speed of reactions, word recognition and playing virtual volleyball! We also saw the 3D film 'Sharks', which was an excellent nature film, though the glasses you had to wear were rather silly! Despite the cost (it is not cheap) I would highly recommend it as a day out (not in the school holidays) for adults who want to play again!

Being frank about Frank

2006-05-18T18:21:00.000Z

About 3 weeks ago I let our dog (Frank) out into the garden, when I returned to let him in, he and the garden (and very quickly me) were covered in blood. Not really knowing what was wrong with him - I charged up to the vets where he was put under anesthetic and they found he had torn his ear in several places. It transpired that our neighbours had attached a piece of sheet metal to the top of a post on our adjoining fence and it had acted like barbed wire on Frank's ear.

There then followed 3 weeks of vet visits and a very very sad dog! Unfortunately for Frank his ear would not heal and everytime they looked under the bandage it would start bleeding again.
After 3 anesthetics in a week , about 8 vet trips and a huge vet bill, he finally was allowed to have the bandage removed on Saturday but still has to have his collar/cone on to prevent scratching out the stitches. Instantly he was transformed from a very sad dog that seemed to have lost the will to live, eat or drink to the naughty, hyper-active dog we have all grown to love!!
Think the moral of the story for me is GET DOG INSURANCE - having grown up on farm we took care of a lot of the ailments animals would have, ourselves, only getting a vet in, when absolutely necessary, I guess I had not really appreciated the need to insure my pet nowadays! Gayle thinks her biggest lesson is: do not pander to the animal during illness, as you pay the price afterwards with a distinct lack of discipline and obedience!

The heart and soul of Cambodia

2006-04-30T17:13:00.000Z

The first weekend we were in Cambodia we headed north to Siem Reap with the main purpose to visit the Temples of Angkor. There are about 19 temples (or wats) in the area - spread out over some considerable distance. The temples are a source of inspiration and national pride and they are a point of pilgrimage for all Khmers, and a huge tourist magnet - who come in their thousands to see this Wonder of the World!
The temples are in various states of disrepair, some being allowed to be consumed by the jungle around them, others are being restored through international agreements with other countries ie America, Germany and Japan.
We started our sight seeing at 4.30am to climb to the top of the highest temple (Phnom Bakheng) for sunrise, scrabbling up a large rock face in the dark hanging on to roots and trees was not an experience we will forget! but nothing prepared us for the magnificence of these structures. Built between 9th and 14th Century, they are feats of construction and reflections of mans commitment to their gods.
I could bore you with details of each temple we saw but I think some of the photos would be of more interest ....
Phnom Bakheng Temple

Breakfast of mangos at a sacrificial table!
Bayon- this temple has over 50 towers with 216 huge (approx 12ft high)smiling carved faces

Spring cleaning at Bayon!
Angkor Wat - the most famous of the temples at Angkor and the largest

We are not sure why these beautifully carved women have particularly shiny body parts - one can only guess!

Monks are a very common sight at the temples. The different shades of orange robes denote how long you have been a monk.

Traffic Management

2006-04-24T19:18:00.000Z

As alluded to in the previous post the roads are quite simply chaos theory at work!! Despite this I think we can learn from them.
The roads are so hard to describe as you have to experience it to know what it feels like! (Italy and France have nothing on Cambodia). Most people get around on little motorbikes (called motordops) and bicycles or 4 wheel drives!
No one is quite sure what the traffic laws are in Cambodia - but this does not seem to matter - the main rule seems to be - worry only about what is in front of you, the things behind you will worry about themselves! Cross roads are the most fun (read scary), though there are traffic lights and even a seconds counter telling you the remaining time left on red or green, most people ignore them or at least the last 10 seconds before they change so you are hurtled out in to the junction with traffic coming at you from all sides, the feeling that over a hundred motorbikes are heading straight for you is something I reckon everyone should experience at least once in their lives! and somehow everyone misses each other...

1. Traffic Jams
We rarely encountered a traffic jam but when we did, even then we managed to squeeze our way through, even if it meant taking over the pavement, driving through the forecourt of a petrol station or through someones front lawn - we got through. Bearing in mind about 100 people were doing the same thing in the opposite direction!

2. Car sharing
well that should be bike sharing really - Cambodians have the most amazing sense of balance and it was a common sight to see a family of 6 all seated on a motordop and with their shopping (bags of vegetables, live chickens and sacks of rice), or see someone on their way to market with 10 live pigs strapped to the back, or 25 live ducks hanging from their feet strapped to a plank of wood or people delivering TV's - we saw one bike with 3 men on and 6 TV's stacked up! or people on their way home from hospital holding up their IV drip as they were whizzed through the streets. Women generally sat side saddled with their legs crossed as if they were watching daytime TV, children from the age of 1 were perched in front of the driver. Anything that could be lifted on to a bike was transported by bike! Essential motordop gear is high heels (for the girls!) sun hats, gloves to keep the sun off you and a towel and sunglasses to keep the dust out of your face, no helmets, no leathers, no boots!
To get goods in and out of the city for people the common way is to load up a mini bus with people and goods, they would not leave the market until they were full and by full I mean people on the roof and ladders were used as extension seating out the back of the van - how any of the vans had suspension or could move is actually a mystery to me!
A slightly more dangerous mode of transport was lorries that were transporting a large amount of goods - these were stacked up as high as humanly possible and then people climbed on top for the journey home. On a serious note this is dangerous - as when lorries swerved or braked suddenly their passengers were thrown to the ground and often died.
Cambodia certainly could teach us a thing or two about sharing transport - imagine if we all did this here - how empty our streets would be !

3. Transport for religious leaders
A common (but continually endearing sight) was the monks on the back of motordops. Monks are able to stop any motordop, van, car or bus and ask to be taken to their destination without charge, in exchange for a blessing! Maybe the C of E should consider this for their clergy to cut costs!

Travelling in Cambodia was exciting, life threatening, entertaining, frightening and fun! Having said all this there are real problems with road traffic accidents outside the city where roads are wide enough for one way traffic but often are accommodating traffic travelling 3 abreast on each side! This aside it did make me seriously wonder about the lengths we go to with traffic management and control - maybe we should adopt a bit more chaos theory ...
I have just recieved an email from my father-in-law (Jack) suggesting another Cambodian traffic management idea for the M5 in the avon area - "on Bank Hols and other busy days they allow traffic to travel on the M5 in any direction if there is a space but it would be wise you also mentioned the speed would be reduced to say 25mph while travelling in that Somerset area - but at least the traffic would be moving and it would add a certain interest to the journey"
this really happens in Cambodia!

Cambodia

2006-04-17T15:41:00.000Z

Obviously I have not blogged for a few weeks - Gayle and I have been in Cambodia visiting Gayle's parents who work for OMF. There is so much to say about our experiences (sorts out blog material for a few days!). The in-laws live in Cambodia's capital - Phnom Penh, but we also managed to go up to Siem Reap (where the Angkor Wat Temples are) and down to the coast to Kep (near Vietnam) as well.
There is plenty to see in Phnom Penh - standing on a street corner is an experience especially when your father-in-law is shouting from the other side telling you to cross the road despite there been thousands of motorcycles coming straight at you! But this trauma aside... Phnom Penh is where the Mekong river converges with 3 other rivers in the capital to form the Toule Sap lake, this is also home to the refugee Vietnamese boat people (probably one of the poorest group of people in Cambodia). We got around on Motodops (low cc motorbikes) or Tuk Tuk's (a carriage pulled by a motorbike) - traveling around Cambodia, especially in the city, is a real experience. The markets sell you anything and are packed full of live chickens, dried fish and live fish, glazed pigs, congealed blood (yes for sale!), more fruits than you could ever imagine, vegetables, GAP t-shirts, souvenirs, postcard sellers (usually landmine victims), watches, gems, offerings for Buddha, the list goes on.

Typical market scene

Chickens head for tea anyone?!

Congealed blood with your chicken head?

Wat's (or temples) are everywhere as are monks, rich and poor live side by side, often poor families building a shack on top of quite a rich block of flats. Your senses are overloaded, there is always some strange sight to see - a motordop carrying a family of 7 or someone with their IV drip being taken home from the hospital, or live ducks bound by their feet tied to the back. The smell of frangipani trees lining the wide streets, cooking meat, drains, dried fish, noodle soup and rice cooking on wood fires, it is quite overwhelming at times. And it was hot and humid (up to 40c a lot of the time)

on the surface Cambodia has everything for sale as a saying goes "Cambodians can sell you nearly everything and everything nearly works". this is so true - as a country it lacks any infra-structure and corruption is rife, though it is hard to judge the policeman and the teacher and doctor who don't get paid from month to month but keep working, who then demand some bribe to pass a child's exam, to give medical care or to let to a driver pass-by for a minor traffic offence (that nobody evens knows if it is law or not!). we held many discussions with each other about how on earth this kind of situation is ever solved. It would certainly take a real crusader to sort it out. Despite all this and Cambodia's horrific past the Khmer people are very friendly, welcoming and helpful. They certainly know how to smile!
There are many many NGO (Non governmental organizations) working in Cambodia trying to change things for the people there, in fact it seems that ex-pats support the economy - if you pulled them all out there would be so little money coming in to Cambodia you have to wonder what would happen, though it might sort out some of the corruption!
traveling outside the capital also was fascinating - trucks, buses, cars, motordops and bicycles and cows with carts hurtling towards each other on roads that were not built for 2 way traffic! In fact some of the roads were not built!! trucks and buses were jammed with people and their purchases or goods for sale- infact some mini-buses had seat extentions out the back to accommodate all the travelers and their baggage!
we whizzed past wooden huts on stilts, rice paddies, children playing in the puddles (Cambodians seems to love swimming), water buffalo ploughing the fields. I think what amazed me was that many places we passed on our travels did not have electric but many had a large TV aerials poking out of their homes despite their home being nothing more than four walls of cardboard and a tarpaulins roof!
Perhaps one of the more depressing days Gayle and I spent was visiting Toul Sleng and the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. Though it is obviously set up for tourists it is something that every visitor to Cambodia needs to do. Toul Sleng High School was taken over by Pol Pot's forces in the mid 1970's and soon became the largest detention and torture centre in the country. In the space of 3years over 17000 prisoners were taken to the Killing Fields for execution. The Khmer Rouge very carefully recorded the details and photographed all their prisoners. The photos of the prisoners and of torture fill many of the rooms at Toul Sleng. There is an excellent video following the story of one prisoner which gives a real insight in to the times. When the Vietnamese liberated Phnom Penh they found 7 survivors. 14 others were being tortured as the Vietnamese entered the city - these 14 rooms were photographed and have been preserved as they were found on that day. Visiting here is profoundly depressing and there was not a lot we could say to each other afterwards. We then took the same journey out to the Killing Fields as the prisoners (bound in a truck) would have taken. Though there is not a lot to see at the Killing Fields it was not a nice place to be. Clothes and bones are still emerging from the mass graves, as you walked round bits of clothes were under your feet, a tree was marked as to where they beat babies to death (whole families were killed at once so there would be no revenge attacks), another tree held a microphone that played loud music during the killings to cover the sounds of screams. Prisoners were killed with hoes and spades to conserve bullets. There is a Memorial Stupa which houses skulls, bones and clothing form one of the exhumed graves - most of the graves are left untouched. The majority of the security forces involved in Toul Sleng and the Killing Fields were young men and women (average age 17).

Toul Sleng School

Killing Fields Stupa -found skulls

Killing Fields Stupa - found clothes

How a country's people recovers from this we do not know... There are a whole generation of people missing - a whole generation of lost skills, knowledge and wisdom.
Despite ending on such a depressing note - we loved Cambodia, its people and the way life was pushed right in to your face, as Gayle said after she had sped along on a motordop "you could not help notice you were alive!"

Blah - comes to Bristol

2006-03-22T18:12:00.000Z

Readers of Paul Roberts will have seen the announcement of the forthcoming Blah tour coming to Bristol, Blah's were first set up by Jonny Baker and friends to give a space for people to discuss issues that were arising out of emerging church, sometimes they base them around a book that is being published, or someone who is visiting the UK etc
This Blah is with Ryan Bolger (author of Emerging Churches) and Karen Ward (Abbess of Church of the Apostles, Seattle). Venue and date. 14th July 2006, 10am to 4pm, at Elim@Bristol, in Jamaica Street, central Bristol. This is an event not to be missed - a must for anyone interested in the Emerging Church. You can get more details and book online at the Blah tour website

Not by bread alone - photos

2006-03-21T20:06:00.000Z

Not by bread alone

2006-03-20T18:56:00.000Z

Last night was one of Foundation’s (Bristol based alt worship type group) quarterly large multi-media services.
Theme: lent
After an introduction of using Si Smith’s 40 film we then went on to look at three different areas - temptation/ physical sustenance/ spiritual sustenance and took time on our own to reflect on the roles of these three things in our own lives using coloured pebbles.
After placing the pebbles at the bottom of the cross, we shared communion together.I think it went very well, for me the only thing we could improve on upon maybe was the use of traditional Anglican liturgy during communion – which did not quite fit with the rest of the service, but we will know for the next time!
photos to follow...

Bishop Mike

2006-03-20T18:44:00.000Z

Tuesday 14th March saw the inauguration of our friend Simon as the priest-in-charge of St Mary Redcliffe Church. As well as all the pomp and ceremony that the Church of England does so well, this was the first time I had heard (or indeed met!) Bishop Mike give a sermon and I was actually very impressed with him, I felt he left the church with a challenge, leaving a path open for Simon with the Church to take up the challenge of ensuring their church is open to the different communities they have in their parish. I think Simon has his work cut out crossing the divide between Bristol’s elite and the working class who are traditionally their subjects!

2006-03-20T18:03:00.000Z

I've decided to try my hand in the blog world, it has taken us a while to even set it up...!
We will see how it all works out but plan to be talking about the emerging church/ Atl worship world in Bristol including the rise of a new group called Foundation, trips out with the wife and of course Frank the dog - who we dedicate this blog to!! let's see how it goes ...