A sobering thought

Apparently, the trillions of pounds the U.K. now owes is equivalent to borrowing £1.1million pounds, EVERY DAY, since the birth of Christ! Lovely -.-

What's wrong with teenagers today?

Absolutely nothing's wrong with teenagers today; that's what I think :] The vast majority of youngsters are well-mannered, open-minded, enthusiatic, generous-spirited etc, etc. In fact, they're no different from what my generation were like when we were teens. Trouble in communities is generally caused by a tiny group of troublemakers - often from just one or two families - and it's never been any different.

Liar, Liar . . pants on fire!

Political pants will soon be burnt to a crisp, in the U.K.

Progress ?

My wife claims that my mental age is 13. I was quite pleased with that estimate.

Why read the Bible?

In-common with all other books, the Bible is a subtly different book - and holds subtly differing messages - for each person that reads it. It contains the condensed Wisdom of the Ages, with great advice on how to live on this crazy planet of ours. It is, if you will, the original " Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" Hence its appeal =]

Gin-clear & cornflower-blue

Well . . . the unexpected side-effect of the U.K. flight ban was the most beautiful gin-clear, cornflower-blue skies that I can ever remember seeing !

Of course, that's how I imagine Australian skies to be, all the time . . . . together with those crystal streams, lands of milk & honey . .and Angels playing their . . . HOLD ON! THAT'S HEAVEN!

I got mixed up =s

Today, with flights back to normal, the skies are full of condensation trails, once more, and we see a return to the feeble washed-out blue that we're used to. 'Made me realise that when my grandparents maintained that, in their day, the summers were longer, the light was clearer, and there were wild flowers, insects, and birds a-plenty . . . . well, maybe it was all true !

Hot Air

Isn't it great that U.K. politicians have had all of their plans ruined, this week. They had fully expected that every front page and every lead-story would feature their disingenous electioneering nonsense. Instead, that spot has been occupied by an Icelandic volcano & the ensuing travel chaos caused by its even greater output of hot air and half-baked outpourings. Seems like Divine providence to me =]

Evidence For The Soul?

I had glandular fever, very badly, when I was about 10 yrs old. I ran a high fever and was not really with it for much of the time. I couldn't lift my head from the pillow,'cos of the pain in my neck. I was off-school for weeks. On my worst night, when mum stayed awake to watch over me, . . apparently, I was moaning and threshing about all night and she was really worried.

Well . . I think I was granted a 'state of grace' or something of the sort,'cos in my head I knew nothing of this. In my unconscious mind, I was overlooking a beautiful green valley, with a sparkling stream at the bottom and fairies ( yes, fairies!) flitting around amongst the colourful, perfumed flowers. The light and the colours were brighter than anything I'd ever experienced and the air, itself, had the most beautiful perfume.

In the distance, I could see a man and a woman I seemed to know. The man was leaning on a spade. As I got nearer, I realised that they were my dads parents - but much younger. I wanted to go down into this beautiful valley to be with them, but they said it wasn't my time, but I could come back someday. I moved toward them and they said, "No, . . you've got to go. Can't you hear your mother calling?"

Well, I woke up to mum calling my name. It was a wonderfully fresh, sunny day, but I told her I was really annoyed she'd woken me, 'cos I was having the most wonderful dream of my life, and told her all about it. Strange thing is . . .Grandad was still living at the time . . .but I definitely felt that someone was watching over me, that night.

On another occasion ( I was a little younger) a dentist came close to killing me with too much gas. As my semi-conscious self struggled to breathe . . .I suddenly found myself floating up near the ceiling, in the waiting room, looking down on my parents. I was calm but curious and drifted down to their level 'til I was seeing through my mother's eyes. The nurse came out of the surgery and gave them( and me) a real worried look as she went to get something. She'd gone to get some smelling-salts and, as the dentist broke the glass vial under my nose, I was snapped back, as if on elastic, into the dentist's chair and mum rushed in to pick me up, crying . ."What have you done to him!".

For a few days, all the colour left the world and I was really sad. It seemed like I'd 'half' died. Gradually, it came back . . but never to that luminous childhood brightness that it had been before.
So . . I never worry about dying. So far as I know, the soul is incapable of worry or upset or pain. All of that stuff resides somewhere in our mortal body, and at our moment of passing . . . well, we'll just feel curiosity - nothing more.

'Masters' of the Universe ?

You know . . I'm so old, that, when I was a kid and went to the doctors, he would address me as
"Master Fretwell". In those days, this was a common form of address for boys in school, too. Grown-ups would commonly address a male child as 'Master . ." instead of 'Mr ' to differentiate him from an adult.

I'm just darn' glad that my surname wasn't 'Bates'. That would've been SO embarrassing -.-

Thoughts from an English village church

:}

I found this traditional Gaelic blessing in a village church, the other day.


Deep peace of the running water to you

Deep peace of the flowing air to you

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you

Deep peace of the shining stars to you

Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you

Forever . . .

1960's skooldaze and the bus to oblivion

Back in the 60's, I used to have a 50 min bus ride to & from my High School . .and that was the best bit of the day, in some ways. Mind you, our handwriting used to look appalling - written on the upper deck of an old 1950's double-decker bus! There was one particular corner where the ancient omnibus always healed-over quite a bit.

One day, just for fun, the boys on the upper deck all jumped over to that side of the bus as it rounded the corner. We actually managed to get the wheels off the ground on the opposite side! The driver was still white-faced with shock when he got off =p Ahhh . . . schooldaze

Easter eggs

Allegedly, Mary Magdalen was called before the Roman Governor to be questioned ref the disappearance of Christ's body from the tomb. She was carrying an egg in her hand.

The Roman scoffed at her testimony: " Ha!" he said, " The Nazarene was no-more resurrected than that egg can turn red. "

The egg promptly turned red . . .and that is one possible reason why we have Easter eggs. (yum-yum) . . .signifying 'new life'.