williamonthehill

Sunday Evening Rudeness

I am confessing to a moment of unchristian behaviour. Earlier this evening I was waiting for a 176 or 197 bus at the Dulwich Plough. I waited ages, at least twentyfive minutes. The stop was empty when I got there. People and buses came and went but the bus that I wanted failed to appear.

Anyway, a number 12 bus pulled up and a few people got off just as a 176 bus came down Lordship Lane. At last! The 176 bus pulled into the stop and I got on the bus, thinking nothing of it except that I had waited a long time. Anyway, as I shuffled down the crowded bus, making my way to the stairs to the upper deck an older black lady just behind me starts to rant at me about how rude I am to get on the bus ahead of her. Pardon me? Rude? Moi? I am rather afraid that I let her have it and gave her more than a piece of my mind, pointing out how long I had waited, how I had been the only person at thr stop when I changed buses, etc.. I am afraid that I got treated to the 'sucking teeth' treatment, as well as the shaking heads and the odd 'snidey' comment about "White people" being this and that.

Magical chattering mobile phones

The announcement earlier this week that airlines have been given permission to allow the use of mobile phones on flights, made me groan.  As I have stated below, I am not a frequent flier and with the imminent arrival of mobile phones I am less likely to want to fly. I can think of nothing more horrifying than the prospect of being locked in a confined space with no way of escaping until the door is opened at the arrival airport with a person less than 10 mm from my own ear, shouting inane 'chatter' into his or her piece of grey plastic. At least on a train I can walk away. The bus is similar, but in an aeroplane one is a prisoner. As someone who feels that sharing germs on an aeroplane is bad enough, the prospect of  sharing someone else's phone chatter feels me with absolute dread.

The mobile phone seems to free people from all normal commonsense and etiquette. For a start, most people have a need to shout - What's that?!!! Dinner! No! I'm on a train (plane, bus). The contents of most people's mobile phone chatter seems to consist of post-mortems; " so he said, and then I said, then he, then I,... The more embarrassing post mortems are frequently to be heard on the bus or the train on Monday morning. When Helen phones her mate Cathy and gives a blow-by-blow account of everything that happened from the Friday night dancing around the handbags, up until Sunday night's good night sexual manoeuvrings. The most embarrassing such call I was ever forced to listen to was on a bus. The 14 year old schoolgirl had a voice like a megaphone and she had no shame, or not much that was obvious. Some of the contents of the phone call would have curled your hair.I will spare you the details.

Many people feel their mobiles are a type of magic totem or fetish. Research studies tell us that very few owners of cell phones understand the technology behind them. I swear that many people actually, really believe that they function by means of magic. Wherever one goes one can see people gazing into their phone screens and scrolling through their address books. I never know whether people do this in order to validate themselves in some way - "what a good and popular person I am; see, 150 numbers"; or are they looking desperately for someone to phone so they Can 'chatter'. I was once behind a middle-aged couplee in a department store who were looking at buying a cordless telephone ("so we can chat in the garden") The wife turned her nose up at one model since it could store "only 200" numbers. "We want at least 500" she said in her rather shrill voice. Why? You can't tell me that this woman, or even this couple, have 500 friends they want to talk to every day. Most of us, even those of us popular, have anywhere near that amount of 'friends' in real life.Is this an indication of the loneliness that most people feel most of the time? Loneliness and insecurity.

I think that what fuels the need to just 'chatter' in as loud a voice as possible is  so as to drown out that negative self-talking that most of us hear most of the time. To drown out our own chatter and to break down that sense of feeling lonely and feeling unimportant.

Mediocrity 1 - Excellence 0

Who has not watched the very public fiasco that has been the Terminal 5 story since Thursday and has not felt sorry for the members of the travelling public who have suffered?  I am not a frequent flier and so can afford to feel smug. I do not intend to pass through Terminal 5 any day soon.

What has struck me about what I have heard or read about this story is how it illustrates very well a thesis of mine which I have been working up for a few years. I have a very strong belief that Great Britain Plc is actually under the governance of the mediocre. Once upon a time we were told that the country was governed, managed and taught by a meritocracy. This was back in the days when we were governed by a man who smoked a pipe and spent his family holidays in the Scilly Isles. I actually think that Harold Wilson was right. It was the time when a bright boy or girl could go to the local Grammar school and then get a government grant to go on to University. It was indeed the time of the meritocracy and these Grammar school types entered into Academia, the civil service, the city and business. The country did all right by them on the whole.

Now I detect a change and not for the better. I am not sure that the change took place solely under the governance of New Labour. I think this tendency towards mediocrity began before 1997 and indeed, was probably detectable by those who had eyes before the end of the 1980's.

When I look about me at our public services and our financial institutions what I see at the highest levels of those institutions and organisations is mediocre, even very poor management and leadership (actually, in most situations leadership just isn't there).

I have listened to Willy Walsh chair of BA on several occasions now. He neither inspires nor impresses. Indeed, he seems to be one of those creatures on whom I ponder and think: how did you get your job? He is the Chair of BA and yet he barely acknowledges his own failure to lead this project (Terminal 5) to a successful conclusion, nor does he seem willing to admit that, yes, just perhaps the project management of this huge and important project was not what it should have been.

The failures are many and great. This is probably not even the place to unpack the issue and I am not privy to the whole story. I rely on the media but I have no doubt that some of the insiders would tell you things that would make your hair curl. But lets look at what is now in the public domain. As I understand it BA was handed Terminal 5 nearly six months ago. Yet, if the media is correct, there have been no major test's of the facilities, rehearsals of the tasks nor the recruitment of the necessary numbers of staff to cover the jobs to be done. It appears that Willie Walsh was going to take Terminal 5 into full operation with (pretty much) the same staffing levels in the organisation as he had before Terminal 5 became operational. What was the project management team thinking? Anyone with commonsense will know that Computer dependent  projects will have faults and errors. That is usually why you build into the project some 'proving' and 'refining' time. And, and here is a simple thing - the Architect might think it is very cool to minimise on signage but, on Thursday it led to complete confusion and panic when staff brought in from the other terminals couldn't find their way to the posts where they were meant to be. Oh, and no one had sat down to work out how many cars and vehicles could pass through the car park entrance in a given period. There was much confusion, congestion and frustration caused because staff couldn't get into the car park quick enough, and the lack of signage confused the work force.

I say that this is a pretty mediocre show by British Airways and as well as making BA a laughing stock, it also makes GB Plc a laughing stock. It is inevitable that we should now have opinion formers and newspaper editorials looking worryingly across to the eastern part of London and worrying about whether we actually will be able to deliver on the Olympics.

The story of the L'Arche Communities

I promised a few weeks ago to post something about L'Arche communities. Here is something I wrote last year and which was published in Catholic Life magazine.

A Sign to the Downtrodden - The L’Arche Communities

The names Raphael Simi and Philippe Seux will not attract instant recognition. Who are they you will ask? Raphael and Philippe were two middle-aged men with intellectual impairments (we would say; ’learning disabilities’) who were befriended by a quite extraordinary French Canadian man who knew he had a call from God to make a difference to our world. That man was Jean Vanier, ex Royal Naval Officer, son of a Governor-General of Canada and a Catholic who was on fire with the love of God. In September 1964 Raphael, Philippe and Jean moved into a house in a small village, Trosly_Breuil, near Compeigne, France. They lived together as three friends and slowly, as they grew in love for each other they became a family. The three companions called the house ’L’Arche’, the Ark. Like the ark of Noah their little home was an ark or a sanctuary against the prejudices of the world. Today there are over 130 L’Arche Communities worldwide. So was the L’Arche movement born.

What Jean Vanier wanted to create was a different way of life for persons who hitherto had been locked away from society in vast Institutions. With his friendship with Philippe and Raphael he saw a way of doing this and he had the resources - personal, spiritual, financial to carry it out. What happened next was an Epiphany for Jean Vanier.

“ I found with Raphael and Philippe, the first two people I began to live with, that I began to discover myself. I began to find the child in myself. I was never so happy as when I was living with them in a very simple way in a little house, working together, having fun together, praying together. That is to say, I sensed a completely new meaning to my life, very different from when I was in the navy, very different from when I was teaching philosophy, but something much more fulfilling. It was a place where it was quite clear that Jesus was present.”

Jean Vaniers’ message as lived and witnessed by those who live in L’Arche communities world-wide is that we are healed by those whom we have rejected. The charism of the L’Arche movement can be defined as friendship with people with learning disabilities, being with them, living with them sometimes but being with them as friends and comrades always.The Charter of the L’Arche movement states that :

“L’Arche seeks not to offer a solution but a sign, a sign that a society, to be truly human, must be founded on welcome and respect for the weak and the downtrodden.”

L’Arche are small communities; households where the learning disabled and the able live together, sharing life as a family and as equals. Everyone is a volunteer, both the able and the (dis)abled. No one has to live in a L’Arche community unless they really want to. As relationships of mutual trust and respect with each other are built they discover the gifts of the person with a disability and in the process their own values are revealed. All this is lived in the spirit of the Gospel and prayer forms part of daily life. L’Arche are communities of faith where the Gospel values of Jesus are lived out every day.

One person who famously shared his life in a L’Arche community was the Theologian and spiritual writer Henri Nouwen. Invited by Jean Vanier to be ‘writer in residence’ at Trosly-Breuil, Henri Nouwen discovered, as his friend Jean had before him, that being in such a community became a healing experience. For years Henri had experienced severe depression. At L’Arche he discovered that the love he received from his fellow residents, and the love which he gave in return healed him. This was an example of what Jean Vanier described as the ‘theology of brokeness’ in action. When his time at Trosly-Breuil came to its end Henri decided to move permanently to a L’Arche Community, ’Daybreak’, at Richmond Hill, Toronto, Canada where he became Chaplain. There

Henri was asked to assist a core member, Adam Arnett who had severe disabilities. In a L’Arche community a Core member is a resident with disability. The able-bodied volunteers are known as ’Assistants’. Later Nouwen wrote about his experiences in a book, Adam,God’s Beloved. Henri became Adam’s friend, guide and teacher.

Between 1986 and his death in 1996, Henri felt deeply fulfilled during his time at L’Arche. He demonstrated a core value of L’Arche in that wherever he travelled to speak about his work as spiritual guide and theologian or as Chaplain to the community he was accompanied by a core member who was also co-speaker. “They won’t remember a thing I said but they will remember that Bill and I stood here as friends and equals together.” he said.

Jean Vanier is himself a Catholic, and life in the communities have a ‘catholic’ flavour to them, in which prayer and the sacred life have an important part to play in the life of the communities. Jean himself has always been careful to emphasise the Ecumenical nature of his vision. Core members and Assistants come from all backgrounds and religious faiths although Catholics and Anglicans dominate. Prayer and the spiritual life are encouraged among both core members and assistants. But so also is meaningful work, education and personal development. The heart of the mission of L’Arche is to seek to encourage core members to develop and share their gifts and skills, and to become as independent as possible. ’Us’ (the able-bodied) and ’Them’ (the disabled) attitudes are discouraged within the community and all members of the community work hard at living together in community, with house meetings, prayer meetings, celebrations and meals eaten together and work done together. The type of life being lived in L’Arche households all over the world is best summed up by Jean himself when he spoke of that first ‘Ark‘ back in 1964: working together, having fun together, praying together.

To those who wish to volunteer the post of an assistant in a L’Arche community can be tough. Indeed it is closer to a calling than any mere volunteering because it calls on the volunteer to:

Enter into relationship with others,
To discover the gift of the person with a disability
To get to know themselves
To build community
To question society’s values,
To be people of peace and reconciliation,
To discover the Gospel of Jesus.

Typically but not exclusively the volunteers are young . For all of them life in a L’Arche community is a positive expression of a desire to be less self-centred; less ‘me’ and my ego. More about the other and living a life of service. In that respect it is very counter-cultural “a sign of contradiction” in our very selfish world.

Some assistants stay for a brief time, perhaps six months, others live in a community for years and even decades. Jean Vanier himself still lives in that same house in Trosly-Breuil that he purchased back in 1964. Athough no longer the President of ‘L’Arche movement world-wide, nor even the leader of the community, he is still engaged with core members and lives and works with them every day. Each day of his life Jean Vanier lives out what he calls ‘the theology of brokeness’.

“ You see, I believe that we are all very broken in our capacity to relate. Human beings like power and to be admired and to be brilliant. When you start living with people with disabilities, you begin to discover a whole lot of things about yourself. Some are easy to live with, but others can make you climb the wall. Others can make you touch your own brokenness, your own poverty, your own violence and so on. I have lived experiences when I have sensed incredible violence inside of myself. Maybe being in community I didn't hurt anyone, but I discovered who I was.”

The L'Arche Prayer

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Father, through Jesus Our Lord and Our Brother, we ask you to bless us. Grant that L'Arche be a true home, where the poor in spirit may find life, where those who suffer may find hope. Keep in your loving care all those who come. Spirit of God, give us greatness of heart that we may welcome all those you send. Make us compassionate that we may heal and bring peace. Help us to see, to serve and to love. O Lord, through the hands of your little ones, bless us; through the eyes of those who are rejected, smile on us. O Lord, grant freedom, fellowship and unity to all your children and welcome everyone into your kingdom. AMEN

A voice calling from the hillside

Someone has asked me about the title of this Blog; William-on-the-hill. Well, I live on the Sydenham/Forest Hill borderlands, high up on the hill ( a ridge really) on the summit of which lies Crystal Palace (burnt down in 1936). My bedroom window faces east and I would have a brilliant view over the eastern south 'burbs - "if it wasn't for the 'ouses in between"! As it is I often experience wonderful sun rises. I also use the title in the sense of trying to give an overview of the  things which I comment on.

Having recently purchased a digital camera I intend to post photos of some of the local sights just as soon as I can learn to control the technology!

I will also write on local history from time-to-time. The local Anglican church, St. Barts has a mass grave containing the bodies of 13 workmen who fell to their deaths on the same day during the construction of the Crystal Palace. In the house next door, once the Vicarage, Sir Ernest Shackleton was born (he later spent a term at the nearby Dulwich College). The neighbourhood was once very fashionable, especially after the Crystal Palace was opened. Along the hillside there are some large Victorian Villas, and in one of them the Oratorian Fathers lived. In 1856 they founded the Orotorian church, at the bottom of the hill in lower Sydenahm - Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception & Saint Philip Neri. Until 1976 this was the only catholic church in this area. The parish to which I belong - The Church of the Resurrection of Our Lord - was calfed off and consecrated as a church in its own right in 1985. Before that our church was a chapel of ease. We are the daughter parish of the Oratory church (not now an Oratorian church, sadly).

Bishop claims opposition "selecting the evidence" in Embryology row

Archbishop Nichols voices concern at Government position on key moral issues

Archbishop Vincent Nichols used the occasion of the annual Easter Monday Men's Mass, at St Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham today, to draw attention, again, to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, shortly to be debated in Parliament.

The Archbishop of Birmingham, was the principal celebrant and preacher at the Mass promoted by the Catholic Men's Society that has taken place each
year since 1919.

In his homily, Archbishop Nichols said: "You will have read about the provisions of this Bill to permit the creation of animal/human hybrids, to increase the use of human embryos in stem cell research, to remove the 'need for a father' from law and birth certificate. It may well also be used to change the laws on abortion. You will have heard of it in your parishes and, no doubt, asked to write to your MPs. Today I repeat that request."

The Archbishop continued: "Beyond the details of the research which is to be permitted, there are a number of underlying trends, increasingly common in our public discourse, which characterise this Bill and debate about it. I want to draw attention to these as part of our witness today.

"One is the selective use of evidence. We hear consistently the claims that the type of embryo experimentation being permitted by the Bill holds great promise for future cures of illness like cystic fibrosis and MS. The evidence for this is so far sparse. Very little progress has been made through embryonic stem cell research. In contrast, work with adult stem cells is showing far better results. All the published research points in this direction, even in the specific task of finding cures for cystic fibrosis. Yet we hear little about it. What is to be lost in facing these facts? They actually indicate the pathways of successful research to which there are no ethical objections.

"Instead, we know that the best scientific research often contributes to that sense of wonder and awe at the complexity and beauty of the created world which is itself a signpost to belief in God. But our objections to the Bill are ethical. We are not trying to protect God, but ourselves and our
society. Some of the things the Bill proposes are wrong and will do harm."

Archbishop Nichols emphasised: "This Bill makes clear the ways in which scientists are researching into every aspect of human reproduction. It makes clear the ways in which the law of this land is now bearing down on the fundamental patterns of relationships within the family and society. It's as if, in the exploration of an old house, we have now, at long last, reached the basement which no-one has visited since the house was built. If, in that basement, we found a network of strong pillars and beams, we would be foolish indeed to start cutting through them without very careful thought and calculation of the consequences of doing so for the rest of the house.

"But this is what might well be happening. This Bill permits the commercialisation of aspects of human birth: the donation its fundamental elements and the use of surrogates. Research is opening up for us the possibility of engineered human birth away from a natural mother. Because we can do these things, does it mean that we should? Are they really for our common good?"

The Archbishop stressed: "The conception of a child can never simply be a question of the rights of adults. It is also and always a matter of the rights of that new life, that child. These rights, too, must be respected. The provisions in this Bill which permit, in certain circumstances, the need of a child for a father to be set aside neglect those rights. And the proposal that, with the full support of the law, reference to the child's biological father may be omitted from the record of birth is to burden a child with the weight of a lie from the first moments of life. That is a dereliction of our duty. Its repercussions will be felt in years to come. In these ways we weaken crucial pillars in the foundations of our common home."

He added: "Let me take a different analogy. Only slowly, and with the help of science and technology, have we come to realise the damage we have done to our natural environment. We know now we must act to correct that damage. Yet we also live in a 'human environment', too, within a 'human ecology', made up of the structure of nature by which we are born and flourish, and consisting in the network of relationships of family and community. This Bill proposes a profound interference with some of these structures: a diminishment of the practical respect shown to human life in its beginnings,
a restructuring of crucial patterns of parenting. Members of Parliament must think carefully about this Bill and pay attention to the instinctive recoil
that many feel about some of its proposals. There is wisdom in this repugnance. We must make our own thoughts and conviction clear.

"This is why the present position of the Labour Party not to permit a free vote on the key moral issues in this Bill is disturbing. To suggest that Labour MPs with conscientious objections may abstain would not be good enough. We must press and pray for the right of members of the Labour Party to vote according to their conscience on these fundamental moral issues. For them not to be able to do so would suggest that, within the Party of Government, there is no space for the views and the votes of those who have ethical objections, especially when founded in religious belief. Nor can
this be isolated as a Catholic issue because the profound moral principles and convictions addressed in this Bill are of concern to people of many faiths and of none."

Archbishop Vincent Nichols concluded his homily: "So today I ask you to act on these concerns. Now is the time to write to your MP and to join in public debate if you get the opportunity. In this way we follow in the footsteps of St Peter and of many who have gone before us, not least the great Bishop William Bernard Ullathorne OSB, the first Catholic Bishop of Birmingham (September 1850 until he resigned in February 1888) who did not hesitate to
challenge the evils of his time, among them the evils of the penal colonies and the dangers of excessive drinking."

"Faith is a practical project. We are the builders of our world. There is a task at hand and we can do no better than to build on Christ as our
foundation. He, who alone has conquered death, is the one to be trusted. Let us renew our trust in Him and work in His name."

© Independent Catholic News 2008

RECIPE

MTEDZA SAVOURY RICE

(serves four)

125g thick-cut streaky bacon, cubed

2 tbsp groundnut oil

1 large red onion, thinly sliced

Half green chilli

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

250g chicken breast - marinated 24 hours in lemon and thyme, then chopped

400g basmati rice

700mls chicken stock

Handful of coriander, roughly chopped

4tbsp peanut butter

1 green pepper

1 sliced spring onion

Squeeze of lemon

Salt

METHOD

In large cooking pot, heat the oil and fry the bacon a golden colour. Stir in the onions and sweat down for five minutes. Add the garlic and the chilli. Stir in the chopped chicken and the rice and fry for a few minutes making sure that the rice doesn’t stick. Add the stock and put the lid on the pot. Bring to the boil and then simmer for ten minutes, then turn heat right down and cook for further ten minutes. Stir in the peanut butter, half the pepper and coriander and season to taste.

Serve hot or cold, finishing with the remaining three greeneries, a squeeze of lemon and a scattering of peanuts.

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This is a recipe from Malawi which I picked up during a FairTrade promotion. It is very tasty. I thought I would post it up today because last night was the Premier of what turned out to be Anthony Minghella's last film, The Number One Ladies Detective Agency (BBC One TV)

All That Jazz

Because I have been ill in bed, and because BBC Radio 4 has hacked me off (see previous post) I have spent many pleasant hours listening to Jazz on my MP 3 player. When my dad died in 2004 I inherited his record and CD collection. Thousands of tracks, just thousands. The records, well I didn't know what to do with those. Archaic technology. I  rehomed the better ones. I am afraid that my dad was never a careful collector and many of the discs were scratched to billy oh so out they went. Some went to charity shopsThe CD's I transferred to my PC and I have a great collection.

I never get much time to listen to Jazz these days. My dad was a great afficionado. Was a regular at the "100 Club" in Oxford Street. He didn't think much to Ronnie Scotts, too expensive and too full of 'toffs' for his liking. No, dad liked Jazz to be the music of the people, a tradition which the 100 club has always tried hard to fulfill. Listening to the Count Basie Orchestra, circa 1963, playing "Sunday at the Savoy" as I write this reminds me of many pleasant Sunday lunchtime sessions in pubs around the East End and into the Essex countryside listening to amateur players and up and coming young stars 'strutting their stuff'.

Now the ttrack has jumped into the next Basie Album - and what a jump! Atomic Basie is circa 1959 and starts with a very lively, driving, pounding rendition of Kid from Redbank. Can that cat play piano. Awesome stride piano. Loud brass section. Makes one glad to be alive. Neal Hefti was the arranger. He was brought in by the record company to 'relaunch' the Basie brand which was getting a bit tarnished by this stage. And what a job he did. Their is a most definite west coast 'cool' take to many of the tracks which are very post bebop. On this album is a most wonderful version of "L'il Darlin" . We played it at Dad's funeral wake. Memories

The Chimera of the Brown Premiership

As a Catholic I find myself living in an increasingly intolerant society so far as my faith and my beliefs would have it. Lying in my sick bed I have had every opportunity to listen to the news and to opinion concerning the bru haha created by Keith, Cardinal O'Brien Primate of Scotland. Leaving aside for the moment just what this fuss has been about ( I will return to the subject later) I have been struck by just how much old fashioned bigoted hatred is to be found in the hearts of the so called liberal establishment. References to "allegiances to Rome" and the use of the word "Vatican" as a term of insult. Amazing. And this hatred was broadcast on good old BBC Radio 4. I have to say that some of the comments aired by that broadcast station made my hair curl. And why, one wonders, is it so acceptable to bad mouth the Catholic Church and Catholics? Perhaps because if we were Moslems being insulted and denigrated in this way we would bomb them? Yes, that must be it. Double-Standards.

Gordon Brown is a control freak. Yes, a good old fashioned dictator would suit his style of management. And the New Labour project quite early on descended into fascistic tendencies. It is plain wrong to deny a free vote on a matter which is all about conscience. And why this bullyboy tactic anyway? Who is pulling his string? And why?

What is certain is that the usual subjects - the Multinational Pharmaceutical Corporations (mainly American) stand to make Billions out of this research. But it is less certain, indeed extremely improbable, that any 'cure' for Parkinson's Disease or MS will come out of this 'science'. Research into cures for these diseases are already within reach using harvested stem cells from Placentas and skin and from other living sources. It is cheaper science too. But the British public is being lied to by the government and its spin doctors when they say, quite incorrectly that this science will bring about cures for these dreadful diseases. As of yet not one, not one single 'cure' has come out of destroying life in this way. Destroying and manipulating. Do we have no respect and dignity for the human being anymore. The so called 'Chimera' clause, allowing scientists to place human DNA into Animal eggs (and vice vers of course) is particularly worrying. Why does the UK government think this is an OK procedure when just about every other government looked at it, then said 'no thanks'. Yes, which is where the Monsantos of this world come in. Not allowed to do it in the US so lets get over to that friendly UK and do this stuff over there.

The arrogance of the scientific community (and this government) is breathtaking. Back in early January the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Agency issued the first three licences for 'Chimera' research. This was before the Bill which contains the legislation to allow this to happen had even been delivered from the government printers. So far as they are concerned this Bill is a 'done deal'. Hence Brown's panic now as he realises that it aint quite the 'done' deal he thought it was. Very far from being in the bag.Typical of  the style of the 'New Labour' project. Lets piss on the people now. ***** Democracy.

Quite a lot of effort over the weekend from various scientists to persuade us that "of course" we would never go there. Never create any abhorrent half man half animal hybrid. But, you know, I don't believe 'em. And why? Because scientists could never resist doing "just another experiment" to "see what happens". Its the nature of science. They just will not be able to resist. So best not allow them to begin in the first place since we know that science is incapable of any meaningful self governance.

I am not into conspiracy theories but I am aware of what goes on in the world. Just a note to the thinkers out there who might read this Blog. Is it really credible that the US Military and the Russian Military are investing thousands of millions of Dollars into this research in order to cure Parkinsons Disease? I think not.

The Easter Triduum

I have been struck down by a very bad cold which went straight to my chest. Thursday, last day at work before the big weekend and I was feeling iller and iller. Sweaty, cold, shivering. It was sheer hell getting around Newham in the morning to visit all my clients and see them set for the weekend. Popped in to a chemist for some self medication - Lem Sip max, throat lozenges and Benyllin cough mixture. By late afternon I was really feeling like I just wanted to go to sleep. Body really heavy and I felt so exhausted. Going home, at London Bridge I was so tired out by the effort required to just get home that I really felt like lying on the floor and just going to sleep on the foyer. But I made it home and went straight to bed. Where I have been until this afternoon in fact. My chest still feels as if it is full of broken glass but I am getting better. My appetite returned with a vengeance but, alas I have nothing in the larder and I don't want to venture out just yet. So I have a friend coming over this evening with dinner.

It has really saddened me that I have missed the entire Easter Liturgy. It is my favourite and is special besides because it was during the Easter Vigil six years ago that I became a Catholic. I find the entire three days (Maundy Thursday , Holy Friday and Holy Saturday) very moving. I often shed tears by the time we arrive at the Vigil Mass and we are finally allowed to use the 'Alleluiah" word! And when the Altar servers ring the bells which have been silenced throughout Lent - what a Joyful noise unto the Lord! The Mass is always particularly moving when an adult is taken into the Church and is Baptised (if they weren't before), Confirmed and Take First Holy Communion. The Easter Vigil is the traditional time for adult converts to be taken into the Church. In our parish we had two such and I have been part of the Catechism team instructing them so, a particularly bitter absence on my part. Thanks be to God!

CHRIST IS RISEN - ALLELIUIAH!