2006 in review

High Points
* Time spent in Rio de Janeiro, as well as trips to Taiwan and Hong Kong, Italy and Sweden.
('Christo Redontor on Corcovado mountain, Rio)
(Sunrise at Alishan, Taiwan)
* Arrival of 1st 2 nephews.
(Benjamin and Nathaniel)
*Being asked to be a godfather for the 1st time.
* Succesfully negotiating my 1st year at Ridley.
* The ongoing getting to meet and know new people and developing of friendships through Ridley, church and elsewhere.
* Deepening of my relationship with and understanding of God through much of what I am studying and experiencing at Ridley.

Lower Points
* At times the frustrations of Lisa's job situation.
* The struggles of writing some of my essays and particularly of exam week!
* Friends made in my 1st year at Ridley moving on over the summer.
* Missing Liverpool and friends and family there.

Scary Moment: Toss up between the aforementioned exam week and giving a short talk / homily in Ridley chapel to all my fellow students and staff.

Humorous Moment: Getting to read in Ridley chapel again to all my fellow students and staff that "Too much learning is driving you insane!" (Acts 26 vs 24) Made me chuckle anyway!

Best Sporting Moment: Without a doubt Steven Gerrard's majestic equaliser in the dying seconds of the FA Cup final against West Ham - absolutely amazing!

Not much else to shout about, particularly for a fan of Liverpool and England football or England rugby union and cricket teams!

Best Music
New albums: In no particular order, Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Stadium Arcadium, The Killers - Sam's Town, Razorlight - Razorlight, Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am I'm Not, Bob Dylan - Modern Times, The Fratellis - Costello Music.

Newly discovered old albums: Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks and John Wesley Harding, Radiohead - Pablo Honey.

Rediscovered old favourites: The Levellers - Levelling the Land, Runrig - The Cutter and The Clan, Oasis - Definitely Maybe.

Fave Songs: U2 - Window in the Skies, Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Snow (hey oh) and Dani California, The Killers - When We Were Young and Bones, Bob Dylan - Workingmans Blues #2. Also, older songs either rediscovered or newly found this year: Bob Dylan - Tangled up in Blue & Mr Bojangles, The Beatles - Octopuses Garden, The Levellers - The Game & 15 Years, Velvet Underground - What Goes On, Metallica - One.

Favourite Film: Has to be Bond - Casino Royale

Favourite TV: 24 series 5 definitely, though unfortunately this was only on Sky and only got to see it quite belatedly on DVD.

In terms of TV actually watched 'live' Spooks latest series was awesome as well.


Would be interested to read other people's views of 2006 - under whatever headings you choose. All the best for New Years celebrations tonight, and for a joyful and peaceful 2007!

Comedy Classic

Enjoyed watching a look back at Spitting Image on TV last night. Took me back to my childhood days of sneeking into my brothers room to watch it on his black and white portable knowing that my parents probably wouldn't have approved of me watching it in the sitting room! When I first started doing that I probably didn't get half of it, but it was a cool thing to be able to say I'd been watching it - sure I'm not the only one who did that kind of thing with TV programmes as a kid! Anyway this look back reminded me of how funny it really was. 1 interesting thing was that I hadn't realised how many people who are very famous for other things now were involved in it - Steve Coogan, Harry Enfield, Alistair McGowan, Ian Hislop to name a few, but really surprising was that Rob Grant and Doug Naylor were involved as well, and responsible for writing the infamous chicken song (click to listen and watch the video - if you can bear it)! They went on to write the Red Dwarf TV series and books - 1 of my all time favourites.

ps Liverpool have just snook a 1-0 win away at Spurs which is a really good result. Good end to an up and down year for the red men.

Music

As mentioned in the below post I've enjoyed adding a bit to my music collection over the last few days. Lisa and I treated ourselves to the new U2 singles collection and the new George Martin Beatles mix 'Love' album on CD - both expectedly brilliant.

I've also been busy downloading a few things on the basis of various friends recommendations as well as things that interested me in the end of year Q mag. So spent the last day or 2 working on my essay with the following all on constant rotation in the background:
* the new Bob Dylan album 'Modern Times' and his older classic 'Blood on the Tracks'
* the Fratellis 'Costello Music'
* the Guillemots 'Through the Windowpane' (bit of a 'slow grower', getting better with every listen)
* the Kooks 'Inside In - Inside Out'
* Damien Rice's 2nd album '9'(how much better than most of the current solo singer-songwriters is this guy?! Such a refreshing change from the likes of the 2 James's Blunt and Morrison)
Would recommend all of them!

2 songs over these few days have particularly stood out for me though, from artists that have just keep churning out so many good songs over so many years. So went looking for them on 'youtube' to see if I could find videos to put on here. So enjoy the latest great offerings from Bob Dylan (unfortunately via a bit of a dodgy home done video set to the music - but enjoy the music anyway!) and U2 (actual video of the new single):
(had to put them on separate entries below 'cos could only get 'youtube' to do that rather than adding them to this entry)

Bob Dylan - Workingmans Blues # 2

U2 - Window in the Skies

Christmas chez Elliott

Didn't get the white Christmas I'd hoped for here in Comberton, but have had a very enjoyable and relaxing few days. After spending the Christmas and New Year period last year trekking around the UK to Liverpool, Cumbria, Edinburgh and St. Andrews (great but pretty knackering!) Lisa and I decided it would be nice to have a Christmas just staying at our house here. It has also meant that we have escaped the dreaded lurgee (aka tummy bug) that unfortunately swept through most of the rest of my family who were together on Christmas Eve triggered by our 11 month year old nephew - who I'm told just continued to grin away innocently!

We've cooked ourselves a great Christmas dinner, enjoyed a few walks around the village and just generally chilled in front of the fire (hence the tacky image above!) and TV (though has anyone else thought that the Christmas TV selection this year has been pretty poor?). I've also spent a bit of time adding to my downloaded music collection (see blog entry to follow soon).

Haven't just been anti-social 'scrooges' though - enjoyed the Christmas morning service at the village church, followed by coffee with friends around the corner. Then on Boxing Day we enjoyed the company of my brother and his girlfriend for a few hours over lunch before heading over to meet up with my cousin Andrew and his wife Hannah at her parents house about an hour away. They live in Aberdeen at the moment so it was good to get a chance to catch up with them - doesn't happen too often!

The main downside to the few days has, as so often the case for me, been the sport. Following all my recent optimism about Chelsea and Man Utd needing to watch their backs, Liverpool only went and lost to Blackburn 1-0 on Boxing Day - talk about crashing back down to earth after a great few weeks, but unfortunately so typical of the Reds! How could a team so demoralised after being beaten 6-2 by Arsenal come out and beat Liverpool just 3 days later - very annoying. Then the cricket - going from bad to worse! Little good can be said about England's performance in Australia over these last few weeks, but to not even make this latest test complete its 3rd day was sinking to even deeper depths! Absolutely pathetic!

Overall though a really good Christmas - not quite up to the level of 2 of our fairly recent Christmas's when we were skiing, but definitely 1 of the best! I think I was definitely ready for the rest and have benefitted from it - managed to write over a thousand words in just a few hours on holiday essay number 2 today, a marked improvement on the painfully slow progress on essay 1 last week.

Hope your Christmas's have been good celebrations as well, and that Santa visited with desired items! I'll leave this here for now - off for curry and a beer with some friends.

Celebrate it's Jesus' Birthday!

Just back from a midnight communion service at the village church. Always seems to me to be appropriate to start the day of celebration of Christ's birthday by acknowledging and commemorating the amazingness of what he ultimately came to do. Anyway - doesn't look like Santa's made it here yet the glass of red and mince pies are still untouched by the fireplace. So better go and get some beauty sleep ready to see what goodies daylight will bring later!

Will leave you with this though, courtesy of cartoonchurch.com. It made me chuckle:

Happy Christmas all - enjoy your celebrations on this, Jesus' birthday!

5 things you probably didn't know about me

I've been tagged! This idea that you put 5 of the more unusual / less well known facts about yourself on your blog and then 'tag' 5 other people to do the same has been doing the 'blog round' for a while now - I've enjoyed reading other people's without ever expecting anyone to tag me! (Thanks Mel!) So here's my 5:

1) I'm training to be a vicar, my Dad is a vicar, my Grandfather was a vicar (he actually died in his 80's following a heart attack suffered while pronouncing the blessing at the end of a service) , my great and great great Grandfathers were both Methodist ministers! With that line behind me doing what I'm doing now was not my original plan - if you'd said it to me 11/12 years ago I'd have laughed and denied it vehemently!
2) My jaws don't line up properly - when I was born I had to be tube fed because of it. Still affects my speech to a certain extent today.
3) I love music and my lifelong dream has been to be able to play guitar. I've tried to learn so many times and just can't do it - just not musical and no sense of rhythm (can't even sing and clap in time at the same time!) When I was a teenager my best friends had a band - I was their number 1 groupie and so wanted to be able to play with them. We were really into very heavy metal and when I was 17/18 I grew my hair long and had a pony tail! Even now I watch the many talented guitarists at Ridley wishing I could join them!
4) I love Ireland. Lisa is Irish, my Dad is Irish, and pretty much all of my summer holidays have been spent over there. Even thought about looking at going through the selection process to train to be a vicar in the Church of Ireland rather than over here at 1 point. Despite having travelled a fair bit, my favourite spot in the world is sitting on the rocks with the waters of the Atlantic lapping at my feet, looking out at the islands, at the back of a little harbour over the road from my Grandparents house on the Atlantic coast of the south-west corner of Ireland.
5) Many Christians over the last number of years have asked where / how I met Lisa, seemingly expecting me to say something like church, Uni Christian Union, etc. etc. But we first met at our University student union's Friday night 'bop'!

I'm going to tag: Rich (as his wife tagged me!), Ellen, Mouse, Simon H & Harry

Evangelical Anglican 'covenant' business

I've been wanting to put something about this on my blog since I first read about it on Malcolm's blog earlier in the week, but I've been too tied up with my essay over the last few days to really do it justice. However, David G has summed up really well pretty much all that I would have to say anyway, so rather than me waffling on about it click here to read his post.

Also worth looking at: Bishop Tom Wrights response, Fulcrum's initial response, some thoughts from Andrew Goddard, the Cartoon Church blog, and Paul Roberts 'Lament for Evangelicalism'.

Essay woes...

Why do I always seem to manage to use 10 words to say something when 1 or 2 would probably do the job just as well?!! I've just finished a 1st draft of an essay a few days later than planned. It has been very interesting and challenging reading and writing about the characteristics of, and the challenges facing, Britain's Muslim community. The problem is I've got to write it in an absolute maximum of 3000 words - my draft has come out at 4,700! I always seem to have problems keeping to the imposed word limits, but even by my standards this one is bad - it's going to be a major job to edit and tidy it up. Ah well - at midnight on a Friday night that worry is for another time.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas!

Sorry about the cheesy title - but it is appropriate! These couple of photos show the view that has greeted us as we've looked out of our front windows a couple of mornings this week, though without quite doing it justice - nice and white with frost everywhere. We're here for Christmas this year - and it would be so cool to wake and see this view on Christmas morning but with proper snow rather than just frost. I love snow!

Pure Genius!

Talking of intelligence agencies (see post immediately below) though of the British rather than American variety this time, Lisa and I saw the poster that now adorns our study wall at the imaginatively named 'Irish Pub' in Rio de Janeiro. I've got a bit of a fondness for good Guinness and also like many of the TV and poster commercials that Guinness have produced over the years. This one was a new one for me and made me laugh:

My name is Jack Bauer, I'm a federal agent...

24 rocks - I want to be as cool as Jack Bauer! Sat up into the early hours last night watching series 5 on DVD through to its conclusion, absolutely hooked. It maybe unrealistic - but who cares! Gripping, absorbing, addictive TV at its very best and no less so 5 series in. Kiefer Sutherland and co I salute you!!

Just heard today that series 6 starts on Sky 1 in the New Year. Why does Sky get all the best things - especially when we've been tantalised by having the first couple of series on terrestrial TV? I'll have to wait months for it to be out on DVD - so unfair!!

Did Jesus ever do a number 2?!

Reflecting back on another term at Ridley, 1 of the things that I've been studying a bit is Christology (basically meaning 'study of Christ'). Who is Jesus Christ? Was he really both fully human and fully divine at the same time? As part of the reading I was doing I came across the following gem written sometime in the 2nd century a.d. by a guy called Valentinus:

He was continent, enduring all things. Jesus digested divivity: he ate and drank in a special way without excreting his solids. He had such a great capacity for continence that the nourishment within him was not corrupted, for he did not experience corruption.

Jesus in person managed to eat in a special way so that he never had to poo! Does it say something about my level of intellect and the maturity of my sense of humour that this has amused me so much, and stuck with me more than pretty much anything else of all the interesting and challenging things I've read and studied in my time here?!!

I actually read this while sat enjoying a pint of Guiness and some great live Irish music played by some very friendly and down to earth guys from Dublin in a Dublin city centre pub during a brief visit over to my in-laws in October. There was something oddly appropriate about sitting reading stuff about who Jesus is, his divinity and his humanity, in a place like that. As we all prepare for Christmas we're preparing for a time that is meant to be all about remembering that God really did become fully human in the person of Jesus Christ; and as I believe he showed during his time on earth in person, I believe that sitting in that Dublin pub with real down to earth people is the sort of place we'd find Jesus if he were present in the flesh today. And yes I do believe that as well as being fully divine he was fully human, with EVERYTHING that that entails!

Reds on the march!!

Played 3 won 3, goals scored 11, goals conceded 0, including 7 goals scored away from Anfield after only managing 1 all season up to that point. Happy stats in the Premiership for Liverpool fans at the moment. Enjoyed watching a vintage Liverpool performance against Charlton earlier this afternoon - though it has to be said it was due in no small part to what I would describe as the most inept and feeble display I have ever witnessed from another top flight team. Liverpool should have scored into double figures - we missed sitter after sitter against an absolutely awful Charlton team, and had to rely on Alonso's 2nd min penalty before finally wrapping it up with 2 goals in the last 10 mins. If we hadn't won that match I think I would have given up on footy for good! Still 3 more points and now up into 3rd - watch your backs Chelsea and Man Utd Liverpool are on the march! Also, if we keep playing like this Barcelona won't know what has hit them when we meet in the next round of the Champions League. Nothing like an optimist eh?!

This is all helping to keep my spirits up despite the absolute disaster that the Ashes series is turning into down under.

Virtual Bible Study

'Dream' which is a kind of emerging church community for 18-30's in the Liverpool and Merseyside area has set up a blog that it is calling 'dream lectio', which has a Bible passage posted each day, invites people to read it, post their thoughts about it via comments, and obviously read other people's comments and respond to them etc. So its basically an attempt to get people reading the Bible together without having to be gathered in a 'normal' Bible study group as such. It was set up in response to this post on the Dream blog about the difficulties of being disciplined enough to read the Bible regularly and understand parts of it etc., and is seen to be a way of encouraging and helping people who struggle with this. It has only been running a few days, but the response seems to be good so far.

Part of me wonders whether this is just encouraging a bit of a lazy, impersonal 'armchair' approach to Christianity and the Bible, and certainly for me one of the advantages of group Bible study is the group dynamic - the interaction and insights brought by face to face discussion and debate. However at the same time I know this doesn't always work and that some people really struggle with both reading the Bible personally and with Bible study groups etc., or can't make it to group meetings for all kinds of reasons. If this is providing a way into and encouraging regular Bible reading and study for those who really struggle with it then surely it's a good thing? Let me know what you think.

Family photo

Wanted to go back and add this photo of all my immediate family at the baptism in to my previous post, but for some reason when I go back in to edit the post although it will let me change words etc. it won't let me add in a new image. Can any blogger experts explain or help?

Nothing quite like your own bed!

I feel great right now! After a fairly crazy few days (hence the absence from blogging recently), it was nice to get home yesterday and have a night in our own bed, and a lie in and lazy morning today - no getting up and onto my bike at 7.15 to cycle in for morning prayer! As much as I've enjoyed the last few days, and as much as I do enjoy going away etc. I've realised that there is nothing quite like a good night's sleep and lie in in your own bed.

The crazy few days started with the last day of Ridley term on Thursday which also marked the end of Ridley's 125th centenary year. This meant that we were graced with the presence of Archbishop Rowan who came to preach at the advent carol service - pretty impressive considering he had been in hospital for an operation under general anaesthetic just a couple of days previously. He gave a really thought provoking and interesting sermon about advent. The service also saw a great performance by the Ridley gospel choir (which has made it on to YouTube - click here to watch and enjoy via Dave's blog). It was followed by our college Christmas dinner and party - which included a number of star acts of drama and music by many of my talented fellow students and some staff, and then some great DJ'ing into the early hours from DJBurley. Very enjoyable end to what has been a fairly hectic and tough term!

Then on Friday, having spent the night after the party in the luxury of my Ridley study, Lisa and I were up early to sort a few things out and then by 11 were on the road up to Liverpool, as we were due to meet with the Liverpool Diocese Director of Ordinands (basically the guy in the diocese who keeps an eye me during my training and who in the not too distant future will be helping me to sort out where I go for my curacy after I finish at Ridley). He's fairly new in that job and I hadn't met him before so it was good to introduce ourselves and chat to him about how things are going for us etc. We then had a great weekend staying with friends and visiting and having some time with various friends and some of my family - including our friends and their gorgeous 2 week old Maisie born the day Lisa had her succesful interview (see God is Good post below). A very enjoyable Saturday, made all the more so by Liverpool's 2nd successive 4-0 win in the league - we'll be back challenging Chelsea and Man U before you know it!!

This all built up to a great baptism service and celebration on Sunday for our nephew and Lisa's godson Benjamin. Really special service with my Dad (the proud Grandfather) preaching and doing the baptising.

(Benjamin with 'Rev Grandpa')

(with Parents and godparents)

After a great meal at the Yuet Ben on Upper Duke Street (my fave Chinese restaurant), it was then back in the car on Sunday evening and on up the M6 in howling gales and driving rain to my parents place in Cumbria. We'd arranged to go up there with them after the baptism for a couple of nights as we'd not made it up there since last Christmas - and also because I'm really missing being within reach of the Lake District and Wales etc while down here in Cambridge (as below photo's will show the Gog Magog's (a small area just south of Cam.) don't quite compare!). So was glad to wake to fairly decent weather on Monday and had a great day with Mum and Dad, we drove over to Haweswater in the Eastern part of the Lake District via various floods and had a good walk.

(Mum and Dad with Haweswater behind)




Even capped the day off with a Mum cooked roast dinner - bliss!

Back in the car on Tuesday morning to do battle with the A66 to Scotch Corner and then the long haul down the A1 and A14 to home, via the delights of Bar Hill Tesco's. Fun didn't end there though - had a really good evening with friends and a great home cooked Indian courtesy of Rich B, before finally making it back to the comfort of my own bed.

Now for the essays...

Boogying the night away!

Went clubbing last night to the 'Fat Poppadaddys' night at the Fez Club here in Cambridge. It was the 1st time in a long time that I'd been into a proper night club (as opposed to bars with late licenses etc. - and even those extremely rarely), and it was great fun! I actually spent most of the time in there dancing - which for those who know me well must be both a surprising and a frightening thought! The mix of music played was really cool (apart from the section of solid techno) and very varied - far better than I remember music being in clubs I've been into in the past. It was just a very enjoyable and welcome change from the books and busy-ness of Ridley life, and good to be with some friends from Ridley in a very different context to normal. Note to self - its good to let my hair down and do different things now and again!

Truth, faith etc. (and a very funny preaching blunder!)

Heard an interesting quote in a sermon last night (not the blunder referred to in the title - that comes at the end of this). The guy was preaching on the 1st part of John 14 - where Jesus says 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life' - and he said that 'Jesus doesn't have an exclusive claim to truth but he does have a claim to exclusive truth'. There are lots of things all around us that we can all see and know to be true, but there isn't anything that offers the same truth as Jesus!

The claims that Jesus makes don't leave room for doubt about what he is claiming, that salvation is only possible through him - the questions come in regard to whether or not we accept and believe in those claims, in who he says he is, which people often seem to find more difficult in the pluralistic / 'postmodern' society we live in. I do believe that I'm saved through what Jesus has done, through what he achieved by his death and resurrection. Having said that, I don't for 1 minute claim to have faith all sorted - there are often times when I doubt things and there are many things about Jesus, about God that I don't fully understand. But God is taking me on a journey, and I feel like I'm growing in my faith all the time as that journey progresses. Keeping things nice and simple, that for me is what faith is about - its not about having it all sorted, but about taking a step to believe in the amazing exclusive claims of Jesus and asking God by his Spirit to work in you and lead you on a journey of discovery. That journey will have major ups and downs - but it's amazing, at times surprising and so worthwile!

Linking to this, a friend of mine put something on his blog last week that really made me think - it was his thoughts about what the 'opposite of faith' might be. Click here to read. Sometimes I worry and feel guilty (and I know I'm not alone in this) that there is so much I don't understand and times when I doubt things, but surely the important thing is to acknowledge where we are at rather than trying to put on a front of having it all sussed - God can and will work with that honesty, and the journey will be interesting and exciting!

Anyway, moving away from this serious stuff for now, I found this recording of someone's intro to a sermon the other night. Not to be listened too if you're very prim and proper, but it had Lisa and I in stitches! The poor bloke! Click here to listen, but read the little bit of blurb 1st.

Why blog?

Since I've started telling people that I'm blogging this is a question I've been asked in various forms, by various people including my Mum, my brother, and a tutor at Ridley. A valid question, so let me try and answer - partly in order to set some of the drivel that will appear on here in some kind of context for those who happen to visit the blog now and again, but mainly to clarify what I'm trying to do a bit for myself!

Some people use their blogs as a way of giving vent to their frustrations and angst, but that's not me - I don't get wound up by things easily and don't feel a particular need to express my feelings in this way. But maybe therein lies part of the answer to this. Expressing myself, my feelings, what I'm thinking etc. has never been my strongpoint. Being at Ridley has really brought that out - I'm finding it 'easier' (not easy - everything's relative isn't it!) to write the more 'academic' essays where I get to say: this is what this topic is about, this is what such and such says about it, that is what someone else says about it, on that basis I conclude that... What I'm finding much harder are the more 'reflective' style of essays where I have to put into words a particular experience or encounter I've had, my thoughts and reflections about it and then bring in some relevant 'theological' writing to back it up. Putting my thoughts etc. into words that make sense in an essay format is really difficult. So part of the idea behind the blog is just to practise putting my thoughts into written words that hopefully make some kind of sense, and also doing it quite quickly as I haven't got time to spend too long doing this as well as everything else I've got on. It's also good practice for me in terms of my self confidence - putting things out there that I've written or I'm thinking about for anyone to read isn't something I find easy, so it's probably a good thing to get into the habit of making myself do. Having said all of that, this blog is also about news - its a good way to let people know our news without having to send circular emails to everyone, where 1/2 the time I miss someone out accidentally or have some of the email addresses wrong!

So that is why I'm blogging, but it still leaves me with the question of what to blog. I've said that I want to practise putting what I think into words that make sense on paper - but there is a limit to that, partly because of not wanting to bore people senseless, also because it's out there for anyone to read so I need to be sensitive especially where it either impacts or is about other people! I've also said its about news - but I don't want it to just be a journal saying 'today I did this, this and this...' For some that would mean something and be interesting, for others it obviously wouldn't! I could put lots on here about what I'm doing and studying here at Ridley and other churchy / theological stuff - but again a lot of that won't mean much to some of the people I hope will enjoy the blog from time to time. So, to end this waffle - this blog will include some of my random thoughts on a wide range of topics from time to time, and it will include bits of mine and Lisa's news at relevant points. A lot of this will be linked to college and church stuff, and I'm not going to apologise for that becuse that is where God has brought me to at this stage - but I do hope there will be stuff in that that people can connect with, and that will make people think from time to time. There will also be (as seen already) lots of me commenting on sport (particularly LFC), and music because I love them, and things I come across (links to video clips etc) that amuse me and I want to share. Enjoy!

Party time!

Great news - the Mighty Reds are back! Actually managed to win a league game away from Anfield for the 1st time this season and scored a few goals as well. 4-0 at Wigan - I know they're no Man U or Chelsea, but they're still a decent team and a result like that is good against anyone! Its really cheered me up!