Fence Panels

Today I would like to share with you my inaptitude towards doing DIY.

I woke up this morning and was informed by my wife that one of the fence panels had blown down on the side of the garden that is our responsibility. I went to have a look, propped up the old fence panel, wedged the compost bin against it and went back inside. Job done. Or so I thought...

Apparently just wedging the panel in place is no way to fix a fence. I ended up going to B&Q. I wrestled with one of those extra long trolleys which appeared to have rear end steering so it took me ages to figure out how to push those weird things along. I eventually found the fence panels and struggled to get it onto the trolley. I bought a fence post and only crashed 4 or 5 times on the way to the checkout. I must remember to thank the kind lady who was working there though. 5 metres before I got to the checkout, she informed me that the trolley I was pushing was actually made for pulling... oops.

Anyhow, I got home, opened my book (also bought at B&Q) which tells me how to do every DIY job going in simple step by step diagrams. Not very manly I know, but hey, I'd rather follow instructions and have some chance of getting it right than guess and get it wrong.

It looked simple enough: "take out the old fence post, put the new one in, cement it in place(?!?!). Oops, I hadn't bought any cement...

I went outside to take the old fence post out. My book didn't tell me what to do if the fence post was rotten and broken off at ground level. I decided that maybe I could dig it out so for about an hour and a half I hacked away at the rotten wood. When I wasn't making much progress I resorted to using my drill. There I was drilling loads of holes into the rotten wood (I figured that if I drilled enough holes, eventually they would blend into one big square shaped hole...) when suddenly the drill bit broke off in the wood.

At that point I sort of gave up. I put the new fence post into the hole, which was now almost 6 inches deep, sawed off the end and nailed the fence panel to it. It has now been up for almost 5 hours.

I'm still waiting for the next gust of wind...

Jesus' Car

Dudes and Dudettes,

I haven't written on this for 15 days. Here's what been going on...

I turned 25 on the 18th December. I am officially in my mid twenties. Should my dreams start dying now? I don't think so...

A week later I enjoyed a protracted christmas. I worked on Christmas day in the afternoon, so I celebrated it at home with family, followed by at work with colleagues. I then had my in laws down to visit on boxing day and my family visited from London on the 28th. All in all very busy.

I thought I would share a story about my daughter today:

Emily, who is almost 3, woke up on Christmas day and came downstairs. When she saw the Christmas tree with all the presents under it her face lit up like the little fairy lights. She said "Daddy, is it my birthday?" I explained that no, it was in fact Christmas day. I also explained that Christmas was when we celebrate Jesus' birthday. "Where is Jesus?" was her immediate response. Have you ever tried explaining to a 3 year old that Jesus is everywhere, but that we can't see Him per se. Emily seemed to be happy with this until breakfast time came around.

"Where will Jesus sit?" she asked.

Becky then phoned her parents and whilst talking to her father, another classic from Emily: "Mummy, is that Jesus on the telephone?" If only...

We cleared a space and set a place for Jesus. Emily asked where He was again. We explained that He was already here.

"No He's not," replied Emily, "Where's His car?"

Kids eh?

Man Flu

Today I have a cold. Well, technically I've had a cold for a few days now, but today it has come to a head. I can't really breathe very well, my nose is dripping and my muscles are aching. Oh and I keep coughing up big lumps of mucus... All in all I don't feel very well at all. I had to swallow my pride and phone work to tell them that I could not come in today.

And what does my wife call it? That's right: "Man Flu".

I'm not a big fan of that term. It implies that us men are not really ill when we have a cold. It implies that we are making up the symptoms and that in actual fact we could get on with things and that if they (women) had the same thing they would just soldier on and not let it affect them...

I would like to put one thing straight. When we men have a cold of this magnitude we are not faking it and we are not just moping around for moping around's sake. We are ill and deserve any sympathy we can get!

And one last thing: You ladies should all be pleased that all we have is Man Flu, after all, people die of "Bird Flu"!

Laterz

Iron Maiden

Yesterday evening I went to watch Iron Maiden. I travelled with 3 friends down to Cardiff and watched them at the Cardiff International Arena. Something strange happened though. There I was in the middle of a crowd of people who were all going crazy for the band with their hands up in the air, singing their hearts out and shouting with joy whenever Bruce Dickinson sang or said anything.

In essence they were worshipping Bruce Dickinson and Iron Maiden.

Maybe that's why I felt alone in the middle of the crowd, at odds with what was going on. A short while back I would have joined them and, without realising it, would have worshipped the band. Crazy or what?!?!?

I got a strong feeling that God was showing me where I have gone wrong in the past by putting humans and their achievements before Him and His achievements...

Today

Today I am very tired. : (

Check out this hymn

Take a look at the words of this hymn. They were written in 1707 by Isaac Watts (You know, the dude with the lightbulb... Or was he the apple man? No that was Newton...). They describe the truth of the gospel in three verses so simple and yet so powerful. Take a look:

Adam, our father and our head,
Transgressed, and justice doomed us dead;
The fiery law speaks all despair:
There’s no reprieve nor pardon there.

But, O unutterable grace!
The Son of God takes Adam’s place;
Down to our world the Savior flies,
Stretches His arms, and bleeds, and dies.

Justice was pleased to bruise the God,
And pay its wrongs with heav’nly blood:
What unknown racks and pangs He bore!
Then rose; the law could ask no more.

In essence he's saying Adam (representing us) sinned so therefore we are punished to death. But through God's grace His Son Jesus takes our place, opens his arms and dies. Justice was done but death was defeated as he rose again.

Amazing to think that even 300 years ago there were still people with a faith so strong and an understanding of the bible so amazing that they often put us to shame!

Laterz