'Floozie in the Jacuzzi'.

We went to Birmingham (well somebody has to) to attend the graduation of a friend's daughter. After the ceremony we adjourned to San Carlo for lunch, highly recommended. We the had a wander round the city center with our sone Lawrie and his partner Emma. We came across the statue by Dhruva Mistry known as the 'Floozie in the Jacuzzi'. This with its attendant guardians are a striking example of town centre sculpture.

Friends Reunited

Last week we met up with friends from Australia; Pat and Angie. Pat was with us at RCET all those years ago and John, Maria, Martin and Julia joined us. We met at the Ock Mill, a Beefeater pub just outside Abingdon. What made it special was that they put us in a room of our own so we could chat and joke without disturbing others. A great reunion. We then went to John and Maria's for tea and cake. A great way to spend a day.

Julia (M). John, Maria, Pat, Julia (W), Martin & Angie

Interesting Stats

These are the current pageview stats - so IE and Firefox are just about neck and neck. In the operating system stakes Windows is the clear leader with the wondrous Mac some way behind; the rest knowhere   Pageviews by Browsers

Internet Explorer 2,397 (41%) Firefox 2,295 (39%) Chrome 540 (9%) Safari 468 (8%) Opera 73 (1%) Mobile 9 (<1%) Jakarta Commons-HttpClient 8 (<1%) Java 7 (<1%) Mobile Safari 3 (<1%) Navigator 3 (<1%)

Pageviews by Operating Systems

Windows 4,877 (83%) Macintosh 699 (12%) Other Unix 68 (1%) iPad 61 (1%) Linux 42 (<1%) iPhone 39 (<1%) BlackBerry 13 (<1%) Android 9 (<1%) iPod 6 (<1%) Samsung 3 (<1%)

Fog in Channel - Europe Cut-off

Well it was not quite as dramatic as that. Last Thursday I had to go with a colleague to the Channel Islands. We arrived at Guernsey OK and saw the customer. It was drizzling and murky when we arrived, by the time the meeting finished the fog closed in. The lunch-time Red arrows display which was due around lunchtime was cancelled.

We went to the airport to get our flight to Jersey. All flights were delayed with some cancelled. Rather than tell everybody the airport was closing they kept us hanging around. Eventually we decided to call it quits and just made it to the last ferry of the day at 17:30. A two hour plus crossing saw us in Jersey for a rather late customer dinner!
We were rather concerned that we would not be able to make it back home on the Friday, fortunately the weather lifted and there were flights back to the "large island". Just as well really as Saturday was a Diaconal Study Day at Wonersh.

 From this above to this below

So all was well that ended well!

Wise words from a wise man

The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered: "Man. Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present;the result being that he does not live in the present or the future;he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."

 

 

And the sky did not fall in

At Mass yesterday we used, for the first time, the new Missal. I must confess that I was strongly against it; being a post Vatican II convert I did not want the service and liturgy that I cherish changed in any way. However as the Mass progressed I found that I was paying more attention than usual; the fear of saying something wrong made me pay attention the liturgy and what it really meant. I came away with a deeper sense of the wonder that is the Mass and the sacrifice of the Eucharist. No doubt in a few years we will come to think it strange that there was all this fuss and bother. 
Perhaps the revolutionary idea would be to change the liturgy every ten years or so in order that we never say things by rote but always have to search out the full meaning and mystery of what we are about.

Thought for the Day

Picked this up from a friend:

Kids with special needs aren't weird or odd, they only want what everyone wants....to be accepted!