I was listening to the first test match between England and New Zealand during my lunch break at work and couldn’t believe my ears when Christopher Martin Jenkins came out with an absolute clanger. Reproduced from the Independent newspaper web site:

‘Test match special’ isn’t what it used to be, claim its critics, so all hail Christopher Martin-Jenkins for reviving the Radio 4 programme’s grand old tradition of corpsing. In the 52nd over of the First Test at Lord’s, CMJ intoned: “Vettori lets it go outside the off stump… good length, inviting him to fish.” So far, so prosaic. But he then continued: “Vettori stays on the bank, and keeps his rod down, so to speak.” Cue audible sounds of mirth from the rest of the ‘TMS’ team, before CMJ dug himself deeper by squeaking: “I don’t know if he is a fisherman, is he?” My, how we laughed. Well done that man; more of the same, please, in the many dull passages of play.

By now it’s probably famous, but if you didn’t hear it, it’s well worth a listen. You can here it here:

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What an awesome weekend! As part of the Psalm Drummers team we were involved in the Pentecost Festival.

On the Saturday a small group of about 12 met in Camden Town at the canal. We walked playing our drums along the high street pavement. It was crowded! I don’t think I’ll ever say that Belfast is crowded ever again.

For me there was a strong sense of joy as we walked and played. Many people stopped to take photos and videos and smiles from many said it all. Many walked by and showed no expression but many were clearly moved by what they saw and heard. The motto for the Pentecost Festival was “Ladies and Gentlemen. The Church has now left the building“. The whole idea of the festival was to make an impact in our communities by being more visible, not locked away in a building, but visible; helping out practically in community work, taking its music to the streets, pubs and other gathering places. I feel this is what we did. God is a god of Joy and delights in music. There was a colour about what we did – bright t-shirts, loud, infectious rhythms and smiling as we did it.

The best bit for me was when our team leader motioned towards the entrance to McDonalds as we approached it, so we walked in and played an impromptu set for about 30 seconds and walked out!!!! I think we stopped just about every conversation!

If you were around that day and saw us please leave a comment here and let us know what you thought.

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Whilst watching the England v France rugby game a couple of weeks ago one of the commentators, Eddie Butler, came out with a classic. I can’t even remember which team he was referring to but he was suggesting that they should be trying new tactics. He said:

“One of the definitions of insanity is doing the same things all the time and expecting a different result”.

Wow! What a pearl of wisdom! Ok, so you won’t find the definition in the dictionary but it really got me thinking about a situation that I am personally stuck with in my life. How many times do we keep going round and round in circles trying what we know doesn’t work and expect something different??

Hope this may help someone else who’s feeling stuck in life.

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A good first half performance in England’s opening game of the 2008 Six Nations Championship was undone by some very sloppy passing and disorganisation in the second half.

But being English in Ireland I can claim a sort of dual nationality. I’ll be honest, I’m more passionate about the Irish rugby team so I’m glad they beat Italy. I get really confused when England play Ireland! Not sure who to support. Oh well! At least I can cheer whatever the result!

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Scary story. Are we moving closer and closer to a full-blown Police State in the UK? It seems that the government is so obsessed with terrorism and crime that it will go to any lengths to get results.

To quote from the article: “..the case of British toddler Madeleine McCann, who went missing in Portugal, has raised questions about modern reliance on DNA evidence after theories multiplied based on the partial results from trace amounts of biological evidence. Alec Jeffreys, the genetics professor who invented DNA fingerprinting in 1984 and went on to help police crack the Pitchfork case, is justifiably proud of his discovery…..Yet he is worried, saying he fears society has failed to grasp the ethical issues of DNA collection, its potential for abuse and the limitations of genetic analysis.

“The legislation is lagging really rather seriously behind the use of the database,” he said. “I take the simple view that my genome is mine. Under some circumstances, I’ll allow the state limited access. But prying into my DNA …? I am wholly opposed to that.”

Yes, I am opposed to terrorism. I’ve lived in Northern Ireland for nearly 12 years so I’ve seen my share of it. But the simple question is this: “Does the end justify the means??”

See more of the story at http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/26/2070838.htm

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I like this. Being English in Ireland I can have a good laugh either way:

Once upon a time in the kingdom of Heaven, God went missing for seven days. Eventually, Michael the Archangel found him. He inquired of God, “where were you?”. God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds; “look son,look what I’m after making”. Archangel Michael looked puzzled and said, “what is it?” God replied, “it’s another planet but I’m after putting LIFE on it. I’ve named it earth and there’s going to be a balance between everything on it.

For example, there’s north America and south America. North America is going to be rich and south America is going to be poor, and the narrow bit joining them – that’s going to be a hot spot. Now look over here. I’ve put a continent of whites in the north and another one of blacks in the south.

And then the archangel said, “and what’s that green dot there?”. And God said “ahhh that’s the Emerald Isle – that’s a very special place. That’s going to be the most glorious spot on earth; Beautiful mountains, lakes, rivers, streams, and an exquisite coast line. These people here are going to be great craic (Irish word meaning ‘fun’) and they’re going to be found traveling the world. They’ll be playwrights and poets and singers and songwriters. And I’m going to give them this black liquid which they’re going to go mad on and for which people will come from the far corners of the earth to imbibe.

Michael the archangel gasped in wonder and admiration but then seeming startled proclaimed: “Hold on a second, what about the BALANCE, you said there was going to be a balance…

God replied wisely: “Wait until you see the neighbours I’m going to give them”

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All together a rather disappointing performance by England and not a particularly exciting game. A couple of careless errors gave South Africa 2 easy penalties but overall England never really looked like winning, except for a try that was disallowed. In my view England’s best performance came from Matthew Tait.

But well done England for showing that they are still a force to be reckoned with and that they can bounce back, as they showed some positive signs, especially after their humiliating 36-0 score against South Africa in the Pool games.

Let’s look ahead to the RBS 6 Nations next year!

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/english/7043779.stm

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