Cell tonight was one of the very best – and I led!!!
Not being a teacher (as seven of our ten regular members are!) I always get nervous about leading one of the sessions,and I never prepare anything.
I'm not very confident soemtimes at praying aloud, even less so and introducing and summing up prayers
But I let people talk. We wander around a general theme (tonight, the disciples experience of the ascension of Christ as described in Acts 1) and tonight it seems everyone had insightful anecdotes or personal experiences and situations they wanted to share with us.
We have the difficult juxtaposition of a death in the family, and a pregnancy in the same week; someone considering leaving work, someone out of work looking fo r a job and someone just two weeks into a new job. Rows with siblings, disappointing children etc etc.
A very colourful mixed bag of emotions which we rambled on with for far too long.
Though I say it myself, my concluding prayer pulled everything together in a couple of sentences, offering up to God all our quirks and foibles.

We are a ragged bunch in the cell, and so very typical of the congregation here at St Denys as a whole. Which explains why Trx and I fit in so perfectly!
It seems the whole neighbourhood is full of intelligent, bohemian characters. People with backgrounds and experiences, travel and education. Nonconformists.
Lots of musical people and a huge percentage of teachers, nurses and social workers. People with more spiritual values.
It would I feel be a good environment for a couple I've met in the playground over recent weeks, celebrating the recent birth of a new baby daughter. Their third. His fourth child. he plays in a band but is otherwise unemployed - she's a qualified nanny and pre-school 'teacher'.
She also happens to be the most attractive woman I have met for ages, but that's beside the point

Must found out names at some point...

He is a German with a love of cricket and an ear for music (especially Krautrock! hurrah) and we meet occasionally by the riverside and have got talking. They belong to a Christian fellowship who meet only once a fortnight and don't seem to be going anywhere, and so they have thought about looking for a new place to worship.
Sometime last summer I remember chatting to her for the first time when someone reversed into her car in the church carpark opposite the school. I was caretaking the church at the time, and took her into the lounge to relax and have the vital cup of tea. As you do.
And not without reason it seems. It will be fun if they do turn up on Sunday - I have never actively 'evangelised' before. We're in the old church again and will be holding the All Age Service there every month from now on.

Cell tonight was one of the very best – and I led!!!
Not being a teacher (as seven of our ten regular members are!) I always get nervous about leading one of the sessions,and I never prepare anything.
I'm not very confident soemtimes at praying aloud, even less so and introducing and summing up prayers
But I let people talk. We wander around a general theme (tonight, the disciples experience of the ascension of Christ as described in Acts 1) and tonight it seems everyone had insightful anecdotes or personal experiences and situations they wanted to share with us.
We have the difficult juxtaposition of a death in the family, and a pregnancy in the same week; someone considering leaving work, someone out of work looking fo r a job and someone just two weeks into a new job. Rows with siblings, disappointing children etc etc.
A very colourful mixed bag of emotions which we rambled on with for far too long.
Though I say it myself, my concluding prayer pulled everything together in a couple of sentences, offering up to God all our quirks and foibles.

We are a ragged bunch in the cell, and so very typical of the congregation here at St Denys as a whole. Which explains why Trx and I fit in so perfectly!
It seems the whole neighbourhood is full of intelligent, bohemian characters. People with backgrounds and experiences, travel and education. Nonconformists.
Lots of musical people and a huge percentage of teachers, nurses and social workers. People with more spiritual values.
It would I feel be a good environment for a couple I've met in the playground over recent weeks, celebrating the recent birth of a new baby daughter. Their third. His fourth child. he plays in a band but is otherwise unemployed - she's a qualified nanny and pre-school 'teacher'.
She also happens to be the most attractive woman I have met for ages, but that's beside the point

Must found out names at some point...

He is a German with a love of cricket and an ear for music (especially Krautrock! hurrah) and we meet occasionally by the riverside and have got talking. They belong to a Christian fellowship who meet only once a fortnight and don't seem to be going anywhere, and so they have thought about looking for a new place to worship.
Sometime last summer I remember chatting to her for the first time when someone reversed into her car in the church carpark opposite the school. I was caretaking the church at the time, and took her into the lounge to relax and have the vital cup of tea. As you do.
And not without reason it seems. It will be fun if they do turn up on Sunday - I have never actively 'evangelised' before. We're in the old church again and will be holding the All Age Service there every month from now on.

Tired today - perhaps that's not surprising.
Been sleeping better lately too which never helps with staying awake.

The Wales Holiday is beginning to loom large, and Trx is getting quite stressed about it.
My only reservation of any substance is the journey up there. It's 275 miles from here, which is a Very Long Way.
We've planned how to break the journey up into three parts of c2 hours each, but with two stops of an hour that still means it wll take us something mad like 8 hours to get there!!!
And the return journey will be costing us about £60 in fuel.
Crazy.
There's a lot of issues about how we are going to get on withthe others in the house over a week with everyone's different habits and routines etc. The whole Boys Day Out, Girls Day Out, Someone will have the kids thing is a bit of a nonsense so I don't think we will get too involved with that - but how to do so without being considered Miserable Humbugs??
Trx is no sooner going to want a day shopping in Caernavon than I am going to want to do a three-peak mountain walk.
We tend to be the sort of family that likes to do things together - or at least one or the other of us with the kids.
I can see us all doing some walks and Trx doing as much resting as she can.

Why is it, when people work all week (and in many cases BOTH parents work among the couples we are going with) and pay for childminders or nursery care, they go on holiday and put the kids in a club or a creche while they 'relax'??
Being with the kids IS relaxing.
I want to spend as much time with them all during that week as I can to make up for being out at work when their at home. Their little for such a short time. Stan and LC have not yet even seen a beach, which is very sad.
It's the perfect beach for us too as we are not a 'beach' family.
Windswept mud, rockpools, seaweed and no people.
Give the kids a bucket and a stick.

Told you I was tired. It makes me grumble...

Not a review as such, just a few thoughts fresh in my head after Numan's gig at the Pyramids in Portsmouth. Crap venue. Not packed…?
I should have anticipated a major proportion of the audience would be serious goths - beautiful people. I have always loved that image. The women especially look fantastic.
Aggressive, but none the worse for that.

Numan's new album "Jagged" which this tour focuses on, celebrates the darker side of his music too, and as I haven't yet heard it all the way through, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. "Pure" and "Sacrifice" are superb albums (he played Pure tonight), the former especially, and Jagged seems to follow on from there. I picked up a lot of vibes from "Telekon" in the set too, which was weird. Not samples, just hints at tracks like I Dream of Wires and particularly This Wreckage.
The Numan sound is big and loud, typically headbanging synths and long, much quieter into's. Sudden waves of noise that blast your ears off. It was more than a little embarassing that he kept waving his mic stand around and leaping around completely out of time.
He rather fancies himself too much as a showman I think, and struts around in a way that very definitely isn't cool. I was put off him too a bit by the sneering, pouting and constantly prowling around the stand like a caged tiger.

Didn't distract from the simple fact that the guy has been making awesome music for over 20 years. I kept standing there watching in admiration thinking all the time to myself "that's Gary Numan. Gary f**king NUMAN." I've never seen him live before, which in itself is almost impossibe to believe when I consider myself to be a fan of electronic music.
What's clever and individual about Numan is the balance between keyboards and a two-guitars-and-a-drummer sound. Its much bigger, loud and darker than anythng I was expecting. A ignature if you like . very distinctive.
The openiing song "My Small Black Box" (??) off JAgged was a great way to start - typical, instantly recognisable Numan lyrics and he still has a GREAT voice. Shame he chooses to drown it out in the more recent material (both in the production studio and on stage) or disguise it with too many effects. The earlier songs dotted throughout the set were the highlights for me tho, especially a brilliant rendition of "Down in the Park" which went down a storm. He lets himself sing these with a bit more confidence and his voice is very strong. Credit to Murphy for not telling me which songs to expect from the Tubeway days. "My Shadow In Vain", "Me I Disconnect from You" and, at the end, the most inspired version of "Friends" that he has done for years. First couple of verses stripped down to just a piano and hardly recognisable, then the huge power-chord surge for the chorus.
Absolutely inspired. These are some of my favourite songs from EVER and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
The title song "Jagged" was another standout, and the encore - an all too short version of the very wonderful "Metal" from "The Pleasure Principle".
He seemed to get a great buzz from the crowd and they loved him.
He has incredible eyes and awful hair.
An experience I really can't justify not having before, but better late than never.
Numan stands for everything that can be achieved by perspiration, perseverance and sheer bloody minded talent.
Much respect - sorry I haven't been more attentive.
It really does seem to mean everything to him.