Christmas

So another Christmas has come and gone, and on reflection this has been one of my favourites. Relaxing, family time. Very enjoyable. I hope you have all had a great Christmas dear readers.

The Magnificent Attraction of Stairs

Strange title for a blog post you may think, and you would be right to think so. Its in reference to a curious thing I observed whilst at church today. The church I attend is held in a local school hall, the entrance of which is raised up from the actual hall itself. Consequently to get from the door to your seat you have to drop down a handful of steps. Simple enough and something I haven't really paid any attention to at all in the two years we have been in that building.

However, today I was stood by the door on welcome duty (essentially hello and welcome to Christ Church etc) and was highly distracted by the three young toddlers who were besoted with the stairs. No matter where mum or dad carried them to, they were determined to return to the simple staircase, whereupon they climbed it with great gusto and laughed heartily upon reaching the top.

It was all highly entertaining/distracting, and funnily enough I can just about remember when stairs held that kind of attraction to me.

So there you go folks - The Magnificent Attraction of Stairs.

Quarter Century

I had a strange thought the other day (Steph you will have heard this already of course) about the reality of turning 25, which will happen to me in a very short period of time. Its a sobering moment when you realise that you are half way to 50, and that you only have another 25 years to accomplish anything before that milestone in life.

Its especially sobering when you look back to your previous 25 years and realise that you haven't really accomplished that much.

Though, that of course doesen't take into account that you haven't really been in a position to accomplish much in those initial 25 years.

Strange yet interesting.

Update

An update for all you die hard readers out there... All none of you. :-)

Life has been interesting since my last post. The degree is all done. Completley and utterly and totally finished. I graduated last Thursday in a flurry of highly enjoyable pomp and ceremony. Twas marvellous and a great way to end an often fraught three years.

I have also been blessed with a wonderful relationship with Steph. After a couple of interesting years waiting to see what would emerge the Lord has guided us and provided for us both in what is still a difficult situation (ie trans-Atlantic dating). It continues to fill my heart with joy and has made both of us quite the world traveller with a couple of trips Stateside in my case.

Life still has its ups and downs, little health issues here, job confusion there, as well as the many blessings and difficulties of living at home. But, all in all its been good.

Praise the Lord.

The End

As I sit and type I find myself nearing the end of a number of phases of my life. My room is looking increasingly bare as I begin the process of packing up five years worth of accumulated clothes, postcards, books, and assorted bits and bobs, all of which have laid untouched in this room which has been home for so long. And it is a long time, with many, many memories, such growth in my faith, and almost two complete degrees.

Because of this it seems so odd to be leaving. To be leaving not just a room, but a place that has been host to almost a quarter of my life, and allowed me to be blessed with wonderful housemates and friends from across the globe. Odd indeed.

I am moving back to St Helens next week unsure of what comes next in so many areas of my life... Strange.

As well as moving house, however, I am also slowly coming to the end of my masters degree, an endeavour that has rarely taken the course I expected and at times has seemed like the greatest of weights dragging me under. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now, but... whilst looking forward to finishing, the very process of finishing will be accompanied yet more uncertainty.

Don't get me wrong. The Lord has blessed me in adundant ways and I trust that He will continue to make my paths straight in all His love, strength, wisdom, grace, and just nature. Its just one of those reflective days folks..

New Post

So.. I've been asked to put up a new post. I'm not really sure what to post though. I've been learning a lot from the Lord these last few months and have been thinking an awful lot about some analogies that help to explain our relationship with the Lord which is cool. However I think i am going to post about my favourite place (at least on this blog), Sefton Park. I have so, so, so many photos from this beautiful city centre park, but I took a few cool ones today. First up this is cool little waterfall..


Secondly a friendly little squirrel. Nice...

Autumn leaves arriving...

So Autumn is on its way and the leaves are starting to fall on the ground. The days are closing in and the whole idea of sitting indoors with a cup of tea and a good book seems to take on a whole new significance. Its that time of year when life seems to slow down a fair bit, and yet in studentdom things go nuts. The freshers are finally starting to settle in, the second years are becoming far more aware of what it means to 'work' at Uni, whilst the third years are just generally up to their eyes in books and notes. In the worlds of Christian ministry then its also the time when the CU starts to look towards things like House Party and general mission activities associated with Christmas and also activities that take place on a weekly basis. Agape STINTers also know that though things seem busy now that they will only get busier. So... Its a funny time of year. Its especially funny if you are a postgrad who doesen't quite know where he is up to right now. Will I be a student in 3 months time? Will I be one in 3 weeks? Who knows... Well, its not quite like that. I think I will still be a student in 3 months time but this is still an uncertain time.

The Lord is good however and as David says in Psalm 37 we should:

'Wait for the Lord and keep his way.' (Psalm 37, v 34)

Indeed the notion of waiting for the Lord and trusting in Him is something that we see elsewhere in the Psalms...

'Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.' (Psalm 27, v 14)

Seems like a good plan... ;-)

Germany and the Summer

Its been a long time since I posted and even longer since I posted something other than a picture or two. Life seems a little strange right now. At the start of this summer I felt somewhat uncertain as to what 2006-2007 would be like and yet at the same time had a certainty as to what it would look like if that makes sense. And yet I seem to now be in the position whereby nothing is certain, absolutely nothing. Except the Lord that is. He has been teaching me, guiding me, seeking out the inner most depths of my heart. Which has been so, so exciting. And yet... As I write this I feel somewhat sad, somewhat hollow. I know the Lord is seeking to fill that hollowness and I hope and pray that I am open to him, but... for the moment I am afraid, confused, uncertain. What better a place to be I don't know, but what a worse place to be I also do not know. Take care guys... Enjoy a few pics from a vvv good holiday in Germany.

Less of a surprise...

Everythings pretty quiet here.. People away, not much going on, work to be doing. Very different summer than last year... Hence another surprise blog (though its less of a surprise) and some more pics..

Surprise..

Thought i'd surprise anyone in case they still visit my blog and post some of the pictures that I've taken in the last month or so. Life has been busy and remains so - writing essays, saying goodbye to good friends, making research trips to Belfast. Hope you are all well...

Bringing things to a close...

The time has come to end the blog. I've been thinking for a while now that it would be appropriate at this time to put an end to all things blog-like. Its been fun, and its lasted far, far longer than I ever would've imagined. But its time to sign off... Thanks for reading and checking in folks. Maybe this will start again in the future. However, for now the end is nigh...

Dublin

So... I've been away working for a few days...

These are my places of 'work'. Firstly the rather nifty looking Trinity College Dublin...



And the National Library of Ireland, of which this isn't a good photo really, but itsn't the worst place to be working...


Right next to the Irish Parliament no-less. Or the Office of the Taoiseach (Irish PM)..


This is where I ate breakfast every morning (the grass to the left of the picture) in St Stephen's Green..


This is where my hotel was, though I will add a disclaimer in saying that my room looked out onto the small back street behind the hotel, not the River Liffey. Still, twas nice...


And this is where I got to chill out with a bit of an evening stroll along the River Liffey (thats the Four Courts builing on the right)...

A Good Day/ Long Day: Take 2

I'm running out of creativity with my post-titles. At least for now.

Today has been another long, but good day. It has including being at Church, being on the Wirral, moving lots of furniture and driving around in a van. Marvellous.

I also just watched Black Hawk Down for the first time in a long time which was great, but also frightening. If you've not seen it then please do.

One particular aspect I took from the film was the moments when the troops are flying into battle, and all you see is the relative peaceful serenity and beauty of God's world - the landscape in short - and then within two minutes the troops are thrown into a deadly 'hornets nest' of bullets. Essentially it reminded me of this perfect world which God created for us, which is now a fallen, and very messed up world.

Oh, and this is a picture of the newly refurbished Peter Pan statue that they put back in Sefton Park recently. I tried to post it yesterday but failed as blogger wouldn't let me.

A Good Day/A Long Day..

So... In the midst of all this MySpace business and - AND - the fact that I do actually have quite a lot to be doing right now, its very tempting to can the old blog and move on to new and better things, which, at the moment looks very much like spending quality time with amazing people, finishing the old masters degree and getting ready for Relay which is fast approaching.

But... For the moment I shall continue to churn out the posts, giving you some insight into my little part of this world. Splendid.

Today has been pretty good. It started with a walk in the rather wonderful Sefton Park, which still takes my breath away (don't worry guys - I'll have been to Dublin by this time this week so i can put up some new pics hopefully, ie not too many more of the park, but you must admit it does look good):

I even managed to find Peter Pan while I was there. Amazing...

After the park I helped Jules help move a lass from John Moores, which meant that I got to go and spend some time around the Anglican Cathedral which is always good. The girl lived in JMU Cathedral Campus, which as I found out, basically means that the view out of their windows is the Cathedral. Amazing. A slight prob with coordinating moving out of the halls and moving in to the new place meant that there was also time for a coffee and some relaxing on the grass just by the entrance to the Cathedral, which given the sun and its unique position was a very nice experience. So yeah... Thats been my day in essence. And its been a pretty good one.

I will say that I am missing those American types a lot, but otherwise its been a good few days. So yeah. There ya go..

Ah man... 'Ave got no hair, innit!!

Evans shaved his head. One wonders how long it'll be until he starts wearing a full-length leather coat, tinted sunglasses balanced only on his nose, and asks questions about whether we'ld like the red pill or the blue pill... Hmmm...

African Headware...

I went to the beach today. It was nice. I didn't take my camera which was a shame. But it still works which is a bonus. Ha!

I had a good chat with Bob (Simon Gilliand) which was cool - hardly spoken to him at all this year - and had a bit of scramble over some of the dunes with Bob and a Malaysian guy named Shaun.

It was nice to be at the beach in the fresh air and the sun, but it has now left me feeling incredibly tired. Fresh air, walking up undulating sand dunes leaves me in a state of... Zzzzzzzzzzzzz......

Evans came back from London today with a veritable treasure trove of African things - shirts, dresses, ornaments, and a hat (as modelled by me in the picture below) which are actually from our friend, and one time housemate, Samson in Kenya. They are a real mixture of gifts for people in Liverpool. Tis cool. I should send him a postcard.

Theres a really nice sunset at the mo.. Ok. I'm hungry, thirsty and just a bit tired.

Urban Wilderness

'And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.' Genesis 2:9.

A lot of people may take the meaning of my title to represent a ghetto of a city perhaps; an area of poverty, deprivation, and a place that is generally run down. Broken glass, concrete, the odd burnt out car may come to mind.

I on the otherhand wish to apply it to Sefton Park in Liverpool. This place - this vast green space in the middle of south Liverpool - trully is amazing. It is surrounded by a real mixture of council-owned tower blocks, old and dilapidated mansions, terraced houses, upmarket apartments, hotels, and student halls of residence. And yet, it is in so many respects a true wilderness - that of nature, of long grass, of old and majestic trees, of open spaces.

Indeed, it is for that very reason that I love it so. It trully is one of my favourite places in the city, and after 5 years, probably one of my favourite places in the UK.

Green Trees, Green Grass

Silly, silly, silly me...

I am working hard right now - honest - but I also have this great urge to procrastinate by posting more pictures of me being working, me being silly, and some nice ones I took in Calderstone Park this morning. Enjoy...