Those Crazy Kids - all four of us, not just the little ones!: 11/02

Friday, November 29

i have removed killing the buddha.com because it seems to be a bit boring and i have realised that it isn't as inspiring as it was on my first three visits! however, i have added a new site which is funky and very pleasing to the soul! it is called nickbeese.com and it the website for my friend nick who is a graphic designer in london, and is currently enjoying an unexpected longer christmas break.

have a wonderful weekend!

(andy) reading through ants blog, where he was saying that others have mentioned him in their's - kinda cool how everyone links to each others - becoming quite a "scene" this blogging has.

and so without further ado, "big shout outs go out to (!!)" abigails blog with a mention of mark stoneys hopefull radio 1 (couldnt be bothered with that link, check abigails blog for it) airplay, ants webcam, mat parkins blog with all its interesting musings, and theres abigails house mate jen , oh sod it - all this html is getting boring. use the links on the right there and read each others blogs (the bottom 3 being our texan friends), get others involved in it, and we can all write blogs that have more links than substance.

like this one.

and out of a sense of completeness, "its the weekend again. hooray!" in fact bea even noted this fact last night. my, how we're having fun - doesnt time fly when you're bored?!

the amazing viv has got herself and her housemates a website which is very exciting. andy and i are mentioned within the first few lines so obviously we feel very loved. i think i shall put it as a link down on the right as well!

i have started to improve my skills and so i'm trying to learn to touch type for free! this is so good because it then means i will be more employable at work in the higher paid area of electronic note-taking.

yesterday i went home from work just after lunchtime as my student didn't turn up. i managed to sleep from 3-7pm and then from 12.30am until getting up at 7.45 am this morning. i am so tired all the time (maybe now from oversleeping though) but i am hoping that this is just because it has been a very long term and there are still 3 weeks to go!

last night we were round at ant and caroline's with others from our little church and we were recording a small sketch for the advent prayer stations. we spent most of the time in hysterics at steve ward's sheep impression and then we were laughing at our ability to hum 'while shepherds watched...' - ant is compiling it all and it will bring a very jolly and festive feel to the contemplative space in st tom's! (the prayer stations are up and running from 1st december for two weeks).

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all americans. although this is not an engllish celebrations, we do actually happen to be going to a thanksgiving dinner party tonight!

Thursday, November 28

i have just been surfing a little via ant's crazy blog and came accross a really cool little quiz.

i only got 7/10 which i don't think is particularly impressive!

well, the car is fabulous! oh yes - we are clearly on our way to accomplishing the american dream - married, house, car, children (oops - not yet on that one!)(oh, and not american either). so, my blooging friends, how are you all today? did i tell you all that i've joined a gym? i went last night and did a mini workout and then had a sauna which was lovely, although not naked which is a bit strange and not nearly as effective me thinks. i then went round to the amazing viv's house and saw karen and viv - lovely people and surprisingly close friends considering the brevity of our time (virtually) living together! it's karen's birthday on friday (tomorrow) and we are heading round there to celebrate before we go on to cathers' dinner party for which i am meant to be making a pumpkin pie but there are no pumpkins in any shops anymore! apparently you can buy it tinned from safeways though.

well, we got the stuff, a good book, and the time, and so brewing started.

unfortunately, mistakes had been made before anything was even heated up - putting the sugar in at the beginning of the mash. probably not a huge problem, and the specific gravity was pretty much exactly what it should be at the right time.

also killed the yeast by putting it in too hot water. getting some more today - hopefully it wont ruin the mixture making it wait this long.

and general other poor practices abound. one of the reasons i could never be a professional scientist i guess....

a bit more respect for the old brewers and monks is given i think - i was up till 2.30 getting it all finished! not enough time after all.

in the lords hands now - it will certainly require a miracle to rescue this one....

on a slightly more odd note, dan and i were reading the book about how different ales came to be, and the story of porter ale had an amusing story (although probably not for those involved). a long time ago, porter was actually a mixture of cheaper mild ale and more expensive sour ale. someone then worked out a way of artificially aging the ale to make the sour stuff cheaper to produce. this was then brewed in the same barrels as the mild, and lots of porter could be made quite cheaply. at its peak of popularity, huge vessels holding 1/2 million gallons of beer (2 million litres or so) were used to make the stuff, with big parties held in their honour. at one such event, one of the tanks burst open, washing away richard meux's brewery and a row of terraced cottages, killing 8 people in the process!!

all interesting stuff...

Wednesday, November 27

oh dear - once again, a glitch in the html code has caused an eneditable problem, and the pic doesnt work either. not sure it would have anyway, but cant even fix it now. grrr..

hmmm... not much else happening now (apart from getting our car and cruising round town for a bit).

should be doing another batch of homebrew tonight - need to get the ingredients and recipe this afternoon - am thinking about a wheat beer like hoegaarden perhaps.

and blogging is indeed great.

(andy) something amusing our far east correspondant, adrian hudd, sent some of us:

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hi everyone

today i have collected the bankers draft so andy and i can buy a car!!!!!!!!! this is more exciting than you can possibly imagine and the lessons in patience i have learned from all the money fiasco is wonderful - let's just see if i can put them into practise in four weeks time! By the way, you did realise that today is exactly four weeks until Christmas, didn't you?!

I have been playing around on our home computer and i've been designing some rather smashing cards. due to the inability for Christian cards to ever be cool and sendable i have decided to try and develop a range - i'llbe posting some of these up from time to time and your feedback would be great. that goes for non-Christians too!

did i tell you all that i have joined a gym? i went to a rowing class on sunday called 'crew' which was great and i'm heading down there tonight as well - need some personal space kind of thing!

blogging is great!

Tuesday, November 26

(bea)i forgot to use my new username. sorry. well, my lovely friend viv the amazing has sent me something very funny on email and it had me in tears with laughter. i thought i would share it with you all. i have edited it slightly in case those of a sensitive disposition are reading.

Some classic answers from Larry's Just-a-minute quiz.

Actual answers given to the bold Larry Gogan (Irish Radio Presenter).

1) Something a blind man might use?

A Sword

2) A Song with the word Moon in the title?
Blue Suede Moon

3) Name the Capital of France?
F

4) Name a bird with a long Neck?

Naomi Campbell

5) Name an occupation where you might need a torch?
A burglar

6) Where is the Taj Mahal?
Opposite the Dental Hospital

7) What is Hitlers first name?
Heil

9) Some famous brothers?
Bonnie and Clyde.

10) A dangerous race?
The Arabs

11) Something that floats in a bath?
Water

12) An item of clothing worn by the Three Musketeers?
A horse

13) Something you wear on a beach?
A deckchair

14) A famous Royal?
Mail

15) Something that flies that doesn't have an engine?
A bicycle with wings

16) A famous bridge?
The Bridge Over Troubled Waters

17) Something a cat does?
Goes to the Toilet

18) Something you do in the bathroom?
Decorate

19) A method of securing your home?
Put the kettle on

20) Something associated with pigs?
The Police

22) Something people might be allergic to?
Skiing

23) Something you do before you go to bed?
Sleep

24) Something you put on walls?
A roof

25) Something Slippery?
A conman

26) A kind of ache?
A fillet of fish

27) A Jacket Potato topping?
Jam

28) A food that can be brown or white?
A potato

29) A famous Scotsman?
Jock

31) Something you open other than a door?
Your bowels

just trying something out... excellent - managed to get separate users for bea and i, so we can log in on our own accounts, and it'll say who did each post for us.

anyway. just before the weekend, bea and i were listening to the ben folds live cd (very good indeed i might add) and before the song brick he explains whats its about and its completely changed the way we see it now. what we thought was a song about how he and his girlfriend were breaking up and trying to cope with the situation, he actually explains its about "when he and his girlfriend had to get an abortion whilst they were at high school." that its not a political statement about abortion or anything just the stuff they went through at the time.

it just makes the song so much sadder. and even better to listen to him singing it live.

(bea)good morning - today is my sister's 18th birthday! i spoke to her this morning which was cool and she thanked me for the earrings and then proceeded to tell me how she got her boyfriend to re-pierce her ears at the weekend because she thought she'd get some earrings for her birthday!!

i'm at collegiate campus which won't mean anything to most of you, but this is scary new territory for me! i have managed to find the room and stuff already so i thought i would just catch up on the blog while i wait for the lecturet to start. last night we went to the fat cat ( a very cool pub, seeling real beer) and ended up taking part in the pub quiz. did you know that during the 100years war, there were 3 kings on the english throne who were called henry?

Monday, November 25

(bea)just been checking in with the blogging community and have discovered that kristen and joshua have a blog which is cool. i never got to meet them when i was in the states but andy fell in love with them, much in the same way as we both fell in love with trish and danny.

the weekend has been a weird on! saturday was one of the best days i've had for ages and ages - andy and i went to meadowhall to do a mystery shopper visit and also to soak up the atmosphere of pre-christmas stress, babies getting fed up, women dragging men around and the like - fortunately we were unsuccessful and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! on our way home we got kidnapped by James Bond and spent two and a half hours with him at the cinema - not the most difficult of kidnappings! then we went to ant and carolines's which was ace.

sunday started off great with me joining a gym and then going to a rowing class with rach - hard work and i can feel it in my back today! we then had a LUSH lunch back at ours and then things went a bit wrong - marriage is so much harder than people let you in on. BUT... people love us so much and that is amazing - the support that i discovered last night when i went to our celebration was wonderful - i felt really encouraged. andy and i managed to let the sun go down on our anger and hurt but it was all sorted by the time we went to bed (the issues are still there but we were in places of forgiveness and comforting each other).

i got the tram to work today - still very exciting!

only four more weeks of term left including this one - then the party really begins. for those who read about my worries of war breaking out and my cousing being sent away - abigail has told me that the weather isn't good at the moment so war is unlikely - apparently they will wait till spring (!?!)

Friday, November 22

(andy) and on a slightly less altruistic note, new pictures for the new matrix films. mmmmm.....

the end of the week is here once again. it always seems like yesterday when i write that each week...

(bea)ha ha! i am really getting the hang of this html business and creating templates for our blog. soon i will be able to charge millions!! world domination will be MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyway, i have put some links on the site over to your right and down a bit which means you can support breast cancer, hungry animals etc. i will also get the hunger site on this blog as well. hope you are all well.

Thursday, November 21

(andy) hi all - been forgetting to write my name at the beginning of blogs recently, so some of my ramblings could've been mistaken for beas fair words.

anyway, just been doing a round of blog catching up and found some really cool stuff matt parkins has been blogging , especially with what he called "counterfiet God" and the theology of law - revelation not theory. good stuff.

also something amusing at the bottom of the page about how to deal with marketing crap that comes at us all day everyday. definietly worth a read

this is ant clifford at work. he and his family are going through it judging by today's post on their blog so i think those who believe in the power of God should get praying. i feel poorly today and don't get why this healing thing isn't as easy as getting a can of diet coke out the machine. BUT... i have had a partial healing for my asthma and i don't need to go and see the chest specialist any more, and i'm cutting down on my inhalers and i'm still well - yee ha! God is good! also not taking any antihistamines and i'm not allergic to my house - hooray!

this made me think lots. mostly think about my sister's boyfriend who is wonderful - a black guy - incredibly sensitive, funny, gentle, immense integrity, honest, generous, fun, handsome, loyal, committed.

it's good to be reminded of someone - that way you instantly enter the realm of prayer which cannot do anything other than bless the person who came to mind. hope J is blessed today!

well dan and i are now planning our next brew as we speak - bought a book but it was too complicated for us novices, so miht swap it for a more basic one. anway, the previous brew is slowly getting there. to be honest it looks just like coke, and almost tastes like it to. quite thin, but miraculously drinkable!

may not be going to london this weekend after all as money problems have stopped us getting the car in time. not good.

Tuesday, November 19

(bea)hee hee!! i have never chuckled so much as when my intelligent american friend (who shall remain nameless because she is so wonderful that i wouldn't want anyone judging her) admitted that she didn't realise ireland and northern ireland were two different countries!!

YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND I THINK YOU ARE AMAZING - YOU ARE PARTICULARLY SEXY IN CERTAIN ITEMS OF 80s CLOTHING TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, November 18

(andy)apologies now for the lengths of todays blog!!

this is all bits cut out of an email i wrote taht it thight might be worth putting up here

anyway, stuff with church has been getting a little interesting recently in relation to structures or their attempted lack of. not sure how much you know, although jen might have mentioned it, but bea, simon, and especially me are trying to do this whole church thing as something that is not a clearly defined structure, with the admin etc that st tms and church in general likes to put into things, but is more about making people responsible for what they eat. this book bea has called on eating by susie orbach which talks about eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're full, and also when you are hungry, stop and think to yourself, "what am i hungry for?", as a way of building healthy eating patterns.

anyway, this book has been a significant help in bea (and the many other women bea has converted to it!) and being able to eat healthily. i was thinking about this, and aplied it to how we do church and realised that so often, we are just fed a massive meal every sunday with a few snacks in between, during the week, and that all of this stuff we were expected to turn up to, to "be good and finish your plate" as all children get told (in england at least - a little less practical in america although a lot do!). i also noticed some friends of ours who have a 6 month old baby, which they had to feed each day, several times a day, he needed discipline, he needed telling when he needs to eat, he needed baby food, not meat.

and it all suddenly dawned on me. if we are mature enough, we should be able to be responible for our diets, that we know when to eat, when to stop, what we want, what is balanced, what is unhealthy, what makes us fat, what we enjoy. in 1 Corinthians 3:2 it talks about poeple not being able to eat meat yet. and there we see people, new christians who are hungry all the time, people that need others to tell them when to eat, when not to eat, to give them structured meal times, to check they have a balanced diet because they arent mature enough to do it themselves.

the problem being that a lot of people never got out of the mind set they were brought up on which was, be fed, eat what you're given, dont think about what it is, just eat it. people never took responsibilty for what they eat and ended up eating too much inappropriate food with very little exercise to burn it off.

and what simon, bea and i are wanting to see happen is get poeple to a place where they can ask themselves, "how do i feed on God? what do i want to eat today? am i getting a complete, balanced and healthy diet?" we are all different poeple with different tastes and requirements. whilst there some spiritual chicks that need someone else to go out, find food and be fed lots so they can grow up quickly and healthily, there are loads who have eaten to much to be able to fly!

the difficulty being, how do we model this? all people have ever known is the standard church structures that provide the big meals and take away a lot of choice and so personal responability. i'm not saying structures are bad at all, but they are there to provide a specific purpose - to build a framework for healthy eating when we grom up and become responsible for our own eating. no baby would ever work out how to feed itself, cloth itself, learn to walk etc, but need adults to teach it these things so it can do them for itself and then pass it on to its children. dan cooper had a good picture of a hermit crab. the shell it uses for protection works well for it, but there comes a time when it needs to lose its shell and find a structure that does not limit its growth.

so how do you break out of these structures when people have them so ingrained in their minds? how do you make people responible for what they eat? the difficulty i have is, that a lot of this stuff really is a teaching that needs modelling, a pattern as you described the, a blueprint for what He wants His church to look like. by its very nature, it can't be something a small group or clusters focus' on to look at, but needs to be something that breaks small group boundaries down and says, its "i'm not about structures - you know how to eat properly, take responsibilty for what you eat. if you dont like eating sausages, dont eat them. but find a source of protein you do like".

like the hermit crab, this is not to say we live an undisciplined and unstructured life, but one where we actively take responsibilty for what we do and dont do.

and i think this is where a lot of the stuff i wrote a while ago in the "nu church essay" comes in, about saying to people, be creative in what you do, be yourself. break down the church structures that confine you so much. meet with God in the ways YOU meet God, not in the few ways possible so far. and in all this we'll see the freedom that allows others that won't go near a church structure (whether thats a small group or a literal building) to be a part of the body at large. it also allows people to be creative and be themselves in how they meet with God. and it will create so many expressions of peoples lives with God, such a rich diversity of relationships that people cant help but see God and His people living in freedom, creativity, honesty and integrity, and that is attractive.

i hate the idea of preaching if i think of it as standing in front of a church and talking. but if i think of it as writing things on a blog that others can read and comment back to me on, then cool. its makes me read the bible, look things up, think about what it says, "meditating upon scriptures" if you will. and all this in a way thats me, that allows me to worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth.

(bea)well, it's monday again! unfortunately i feel really tired but nevermind - we had an AMAZING weekend to blame! the weather hasn't been anything to rave about but it has been dry - we watched the extended version of Lord of the Rings on Saturday afternoon and then in the evening we watched Harry Pottoer 2 at the cinema - turned up at 7.50pm but couldn't get into a showing before 10pm! Both films were great - LOTR a bit better that HP2 but then I suppose that would be expected. LOTR seems very timely at the moment - the one we watched at the weekend has an interesting line that goes something like, "many that deserve life are given death and there are some that are dead that deserve life". It really made me think about the death of Myra Hindley and the reactions of people in our country towards her and her imprisonment. I went into the guardian archives and read some things about her and the murders and even some writings that she did herself. i don't feel angry or bitter - i feel incredibly sad and sorry that she never was able to know freedom. Apparently she had planned to go and stay in a Roman Catholic Convent on her release but it seems thta cigarettes and bad health got the better of her.

LOTR 2 is out next month - the trailer looks incredible, and again is very timely - almost eerily so! In the trailer we see Strider talking to a king of the people who is saying how he refuses to risk open war, and Strider responds by saying, "war is upon you, whether you risk it or not". Andy has a lot to say about this and I'm sure he will tempt you with his tit-bits of thought in this blog, but for me, I just see so much war everywhere - in relationships, families, countries, cultures, terrorism, religion etc and it is foolish in my eyes to even assume that we are not likely to go to war. i hope that we don't - my cousin Tim is training at Sandhurst and it really worries me about where he might get sent to in the event of war breaking out. I also think that there must be other otions, which have not yet been exhausted, for peacekeeping. While we were in texas there was a press conference we heard about which said that 18th November was a proposed date for war on iraq. Well, that's today and it would seem that we are not going to war... yet.

My Dad called us on friday to see how we are doing - he is a wonderful Dad and i'm really looking forward to spending time with him at Christmas (probably doing a jigsaw!)

I don't have a lot else to say! Those of you from texas who are reading this will be excited to hear that we made mexican breakfast yeaterday and it was amazing! We had some friends round to share it with and thay totally agreed with how lush it was!!!! Lots of love to Pinks if he has joined you - I hope you're not takng him skinny dipping!!

Friday, November 15

(bea)just been in a lecture where a lad leaves early so he can go and pray (to Allah) and this reminded me that it is ramadan at the mo'. well, i've just been perusing some other blogs via andrew jones' blog and found an advert about ramadan in other countries. also, marjorie allen told me the other night that the muslims in her work are allowed to take extra time at lunch to pray, and they have even set up a prayer room specifically for ramadan. have any Christians out there ever been allowed any extra time off to pray?

(bea)my husband is a crazy man - what is he doing with all these quiz's and tests? anyone would think he was insecure in his identity!!

so... i also have been browsing the web and i have come accross a site called killing the buddha which is a non-religious but exploratory on-line magazine about religion, God, blah blah. i think it is well worth a look for believers or not - it may screw with your head and fill your conversations with provocative statements, but then we all want to be like barnaby anyway, don't we?!

anton may be staying the weekend - hooray!

something far more construcative than reading the newspaper - reading other peoples blogs - i've found ant's one is a hive of wierd and wonderful things he finds on the web each day - for examle, preschoolcops is worth a quick look.

and here i am perpetuating the idea that the web is just a page of links to other pages full of links....

man, if anyone reads this blog ever again... sorry bea...

ps - i'll be ther ant, although i prefer the marshall jackhammer to a rat.

(andy) yes!!!

You are Hobbes!
You're a bit too mellow to be an incarnation of Calvin, but you're still his best pal. You don't mind having fun, though, and enjoy playing tricks on your friends when they least expect it.
Take the What Calvin are You? Quiz by contessina_2000@yahoo.com!

i am hobbes. i new it!

as long as i dont read the headlines too much in which case i guess i become one of calvins more psychotic incarnations.

i also came out as a CO2 bomb... kinda middling...

(andy) a brief but needed apology - to say mat p's jumping on a bandwagon is of course highly inaccurate - i vaguely remember mat p blogging looonngg ago, when i barely new what the internet was... so he's not so much jumping on a bandwagon as blazing the trail it will follow.

well anyway, friday is upon us and the weekend is nigh.

actually, some odd things've happened to me in the past few days. if you remember a while ago on this very blog i demonstarated my complete lack of knwoledge of current affairs with the firestrike in particular. this did shock me a little, and although i didnt do anything about it at the time, reading the blog bea made recently mentioning the guardian website, i thought, maybe i could spend a few minutes a day going there and reading the headlines. and given that the whole country is going on about the war in iraq, i thought it might be a good idea to find out what all the fuss is about.

so i went to the website, and read a few headlines about the al-queada (sp?), bin ladens message from the grave, the bali bomber being as pleased as punch, a pentagon hawks slating of europe for being too liberal, scary-ass warnings sent to any country that sides with the "butchers in the whitehouse" or whatever they said, blair saying about all the bomb threats we get everyday. once i got over the fact not a lot of them were as antiwar as i'd expect from the guardian, i found myself thinking things that i maybe shouldnt and getting really opinionated.

fortunately i wont be airing them here... other than that, now i've read the papers once or twice i've found i'd rather be ignorant than opinionated and judgemental.

Thursday, November 14

(andy) well it seems to have worked with a link at the bottom of the pic. as a sulute to mat p, the general page for all the quizs is:

which muppet are you?

and here is the star wars personality one...:

which star wars character are you?

anyway, it is pretty miserable in sheffield at the mo as my wife has pointed out. not sure whether its wet enough to get a bus home or not... hopefully.

(andy) well it seems mat(t?) parkins has joined what ant described as the latest "moving to norfolk park", that is writing blogs. soon there'll be so many of them, blogger will start charging us for using them and mike'll start preaching about them. in fact i'm surprised he hasnt already. i guess theres limited airtime these days...

anyway, blogs... mat p... he had this link to one of those websites that have those pointlessly amusing quiz things that ask you a few qustions (not disimilar to myers-brigs or belbin in a sense) and then tells you which muppet you are. it also offers you the html to put in your blog, so here goes (with a certain sense of apprehension)...

	You are Kermit! Though you're technically the star, you're pretty mellow and don't mind letting others share the spotlight. You are also something of a dreamer.
*Take the What Muppet Are You?* Quiz!**

well if that didnt work, i was kermit.
theres also one about which star wars character, and just to dispel any comments that you may be thinking, i wasnt chewbakka, but actually han solo. i just noticed, chewbakka, as in chewing baccy, the bizarre practice of chewing huge wads of tobacco in your mouth. i guess not a coincidence...
anyway, lets see if the html thing worked...

(bea)hooray for me!! i have successfully made our template more aesthetically pleasing!

(as confusing as this is, this post follows the one immediately below so read that one first!)

ant, caroline and ben clifford's blog - a fine specimen of an expertly designed and beautifully presented template! there is even a webcam of the lovely ant. do not be deceived - although he looks miserable a lot on his webcam he assures me he is smiling on the inside. i did notice yesterday that he received a phonecall which made his eys light up and he was smiling and smiling and smiling and...

it is happening: WE'RE LIVING CHURCH!! - YIPPEE!!

(bea)I am intrigued as to why i can't fathom this template business! i really want the right hand side of this blog to be uniform i.e. all white and blue/purple. also i'd like the fonts the same but i really am not succeeding. if anyone reads this rambling and could offer a solution or would like to talk me through it that would be greatly appreciated.

sheffield is dreary and damp at the moment - i would even go as far as to say that the air is moist but i know so many people who hate the word 'moist'! andy and i got the tram to work this morning - i still get excited when i use the trams! the trams are good as well because there are always enough free newspapers to go round unlike on the buses where they only provide about 5 and these tend to get trampled under foot somehow (but only when it is raining!)

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Tuesday, November 12

(bea) i saw this on the guardian site in the archives. i thought it was really beautiful, and elegant as well - not what you would normally expect from Tracey Emin! Swimming pools Not just for the swimming, but architecturally, too. If I could design a giant work of art, I would like to design four pools along the Thames. I'd call them the London Ovals - you'd be able to see them from the air, from planes flying over the city. Each pool would have a roof that came over in winter and down in summer. You'd use both Thames water and fresh water. I think about it a lot; I've even come up with some plans. I'm interested in architecture using water. Pools can be a work of art, not just a pool. If I had my way, there'd be a swimming pool in every estate, every few streets. I used to swim 1km a day five days a week - it's really good for the soul, because whatever you jump into the pool with, you come out not with it any more. You leave the baggage in the water.

(bea)i found a really cool thing on the internet today as part of embody.co.uk which is all about safe and experimental prayer - hope this works!

(andy) well, the beer is now bottled:

all that remains is to let it sit for a week or two and then crack one open and see if its even vagually drinkable. to be honest, dan and i arent holding out a lot of hope for it. we thought about calling it "devil's piss" for obvious reasons, but maybe it'll be alright in the end. we'll try a new one tomorrow and hopefully do it right this time.

other than that, not a lot happening, still waiting for our new car - we've seen a couple out on the roads which has been quite exciting.

Monday, November 11

(bea)it's been pointed out to me that there is no way for all you eager fans to conatct andy or myself via our blog. i realise the distress this must be causing and i'm trying to rectify it!

last week we bought a car and not just any old banger! we decided to splash out and after my spectacular haggling skills we have purchased a wonderful rover! we pick it up next week.

other news is that today i have been enjoying a day at home being a house-wife/lady of leisure. i looked after the lovely ben clifford as well so now i smell of sick!! he is growing at a very fast pace and caroline is developing arms like those arnie scwartzneger (joking!!).

i think having a day off has sent me a bit loopy! i made a granary loaf today which i am looking forward to trying - the first time i've made granary as normally i would just make a white loaf.

Friday, November 8

(bea)it seems that the weekend is here at last and i am sooooo tired! i always seem to be tired. i really can't work out how much sleep i need and i'm not very good at building in rest periods!! andy is trying to encourage me to say 'no' to things but i'm not very good at it!! we had a great night last night though with cathers and jen and a bottle of wine!

andy is on the hunt for empty beer bottles - his brew needs to be bottled soon, maybe even this weekend! i think it smells disgusting!

one last thing before i go and grab a diet coke to keep me functioning! the picture that andy has put below is great but i would just like to make you aware that i don't have giant red marks filling my legs!! the film got wet in the camera and i think this is the result!

penny (my mum-in-law) called yesterday and has been looking at our blog - SHE IS A SUPERSTAR!!!!!!

(andy) another week seems to have flown by. kinda wierd really. been a bit stressfull, but alright. and the weekend is here.

good to here of lots of stuff happening in terms of people just organising there own things, and others going along to them... bottling the beer tomorrow hopefully although its still bubbling away so maybe its not quite finished yet. i guess that'll give us time to get enough bottles to put it all in!
just to say, the online gallery has been further updated with lots of scanned pics of (amongst others) our time tubing down rivers drinking beer and eating beef jerky! as usual a pic to whet your appetite...

which should now open it in a new window if i got the html right!

Thursday, November 7

A man accidentally killed his 14-year-old son with a crossbow when he mistook the boy for a deer (Adamsville, Ohio, October).

A man accidentally shot his adult son with his Father's Day handgun (which the son had loaded before gift-wrapping) (Coraopolis, Pa., June).

Mothers in Jackson, Wis., and Port Richey, Fla., shot their sons (ages 9 and 10, respectively) with BB rifles in object lessons taken too far (August; September).

A man accidentally fired his hunting bow, driving an arrow into the skull of his 11-year-old daughter, but she survived (Muncie, Ind., September).

An 8-year-old boy was taken away by child welfare officials in September after his stepfather shamelessly admitted that he had used a stun gun on the boy for being late for school (Sweeny, Texas).

[ChannelCincinnati.com-AP, 10-8-02] [Beaver County Times, 6-18-02] [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7-6-02] [St. Petersburg Times, 9-27-02] [Louisville Courier-Journal, 9-26-02] [Houston Chronicle, 9-26-02]

(bea)i've mentioned this site before, but couldn't make it a link. here's another try at linking it but you can always copy and paste it into your internet address bar!

(bea)woo hoo!! andy is a genius! i'm so pleased that he's got the pictures up and running. now you can see our time in america and work out for yourself what we got up to! it seems like we were there for so long that most of it has become a blur - apart from the people who were and are still amazing and wonderful and unforgettable!

I went on to a freebie site today to see if i could get anything cool but it was all a bit naff, or if it was cool there was a catch! I spend so much of my day on the internet due to students failing to turn up! At least i still get paid!!

Wednesday, November 6

(andy) well, the basics of an online photo album is now up and running, kicked off with a large selection of photos from texas plus some from nick and marjeries (sp?!) wedding amongst others.
there are still a few holes where i've not got the photo sorted out quite yet, and none of the photo captions/ descriptions are done yet either, but as a small taster of a photo, here is one of a very rainy day in houston, tx where there are people actually tubing down the street!!

you can even click on the picture to take you there...(!) the wonders (and complexities) of html.

Tuesday, November 5

(Barnaby) I've just looked at Andy and Bea's World of Roman Umbrellas, and I think that the name of their blog would be ideal for a rather posh cafe bar type thing.

Posted by Barnaby - someone who uses capital letters and punctuation.

and so the home brew has begun.

here are some pics of dan austin and i, the proud brew masters of 40 pints of stout (to be). all rejoice!

more of a test run than anything but hopefully drinkable.

Monday, November 4

bea meanwhile is sorting out the colours of our blog.

hopefully not too much pink.

it seems we can now put pix up on our blog. which is very good news indeed. just need to get that picture of our homebrew...

just trying something out...

if that works...

(bea)good morning!

we have had a good weekend but as ever it is monday and i feel really tired. i remember my mum always saying that when the school holidays ended and she had to go back to work she would feel more tired than when they started because her body had got used to resting. i think this is so true because as soon as i slow down it's hard to get the cogs turning more quickly again.

for those who are still interested (!) our house seems to be de-catting. it feels much like home now although weird that we actually own it. i'm suddenly paranoid about people moving furniture up and down stairs because of paint-work getting chipped. this was something my parents used to do so it is confirmed that i am turning into them!!

i am also starting to rectify the template that i trashed! our blog links are back on including some new ones so enjoy looking at those. i need to go now to take notes for one of the coolest students i work with. i am trying to think of note-taking as a craft (following something bryan said when he wasn't quoting the bible at me!!)