Fighting Spending

Lifehacker's Top 10 Ways to Trick Yourself into Saving Money has some quite sensible ideas - most of which are, refreshingly, about avoiding unnecessary spending rather than just tips for finding deals and messing around with interest-free periods on credit cards etc.

I particularly liked #9, #8 and #2.

What's your favourite?


"Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." Luke 9.23

Picture Memories

I came across these pictures from my trip to Uganda years ago. Unfortunately they've faded a bit and the scan isn't too good...

In the truck - the boys loved this truck, climbing all over it as we bumped down the 'road' - the girls sitting safely in the middle! We drove about an hour and a half away from the town to a lake, so that they could be baptised. They had become Christians earlier in the year and had been desperately waiting for this day ever since!



Waiting for baptism - the 'White Eagle Boys' had never seen any expanse of water before and they were slightly overwhelmed with the lake. It wasn't long before they were leaping and splashing around in the water though. And they were really excited to be baptised! About 20 that day... (I think I did three!)


Mukama ye ba si 'bwe!' Jesu ge kabaka!

Just a glimpse

My mp3 playlists are constantly changing, but my current collection is about as strange as they get! Here's a sample of what I've been listening to recently:

Landslide - Fleetwood Mac (live)
Crosses - Jose Gonzales
Broken - Jack Johnson
Second Hand News - Fleetwood Mac
Hoppipolla - Sigur Ros
Answer in the Sky - Elton John
Reign - UNKLE
Les nuits - Nightmares on Wax
Protection - Massive Attack
Saltwater - Chicane
Hope - Faith Evans (feat Twista)
Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead
The letter that never came - Thomas Newman
Goodbye my lover - James Blunt
I will always love you - Whitney Houston
Send someone away - Embee
Dead in the water - David Gray
Lose yourself - Eminem
8 Mile rap battles!

You make me feel like a ...

Gender is such an interesting thing. I've never felt confined by my gender, although I realise that this may be an unusual experience. Any limits on the possibilities open to me have always seemed those of skill or competency, and not because I am female. I am thankful indeed to have been born into a family environment and been part of a wider network (school, church, friends) that has encouraged and enabled me to follow my own path, without worrying about society's expectations of me as a woman.

Actually I've always been glad to be a woman, and at times even glad to play the 'helpless female' when it worked to my advantage. I've always (and perhaps cynically) seen social expectations as something to take advantage of when working in my favour, and subverted or ignored when not!

I love the freedom in being a woman, and implicit in that, the freedom not to be a man. While I want men and women to enjoy equality of opportunity and expression beyond gender lines, I also want to celebrate the differences between us. While I recognise in myself some traditionally masculine qualities (or 'Martian characteristics', as some have heard!), I don't ever want to feel that the only way I can express those is to be less female. In fact, I long to use all the talents God has placed in me while more fully the woman He has made me. O to be the woman described in Proverbs 31!

I've always felt that to be a woman of God is to celebrate everything that God has put in me that is female. And for me personally, much of that is tied up in the idea of what it means to be in partnership with a man. (Though i'm not saying that a woman is incomplete without a man!) But I guess, for me, some of what I want to enjoy as a woman is to be pursued and loved by a man, to enjoy beauty and 'femininity', cherished and protected in marriage, submitted to my husband, motherhood... Like many girls I know I identified on one level with the picture John Eldridge paints in 'Wild at Heart' - the secret desire to be rescued by a knight on a white charger and carried off into the sunset.. (although - for any secret admirers out there - I will accept a more liberal interpretation! though the horse is essential)

I've always been a independent sort of person, as I'm sure those of you who know me would agree! So some of this has come as a surprise to friends in the past. And I realise that some of this is controversial - not every girl friend would agree with those things I have picked out.

I remember an occasion a few years back which sticks in my memory as a moment of epiphany about myself. I was at a party with some friends, but ended up having to leave early and walk home. Some friends (guys) offered to walk me and I waved them off with a 'oh no, don't worry, I'll be ok', but as soon as I'd left realised that I would have loved someone to have insisted. They were valuing my independence and right to make my own decisions, but somewhere in me was the social and cultural expectation that a guy should walk a girl home after dark, should insist on doing so despite protestations to the contrary! So although I was perfectly capable of getting home and wasn't worried about walking alone in Durham or anything like that, I guess I did want those social roles to still work in my favour!

music meltdown

I was reflecting this evening on the effect music has on me. I love music of all kinds, and I find it hard to pin down any particular type of music as a favourite.

I've discovered that for me, music serves as a kind of emotional and mental warm up, like stretching for physical exercise. Some of that warm up comes from the lyrics of a song, rehearsing situations and emotions, but not all. The music itself, the chords, the melody, the rhythm, has an effect beyond the lyrical content.

I started thinking about this because of the way that music makes me want to pray. I play cds in the car and for a few weeks I've been playing a worship cd which has been really good for me. But recently I've started playing some other, more secular, cds and I've noticed that as soon as the music comes on I immediately relax, my mood improves and I want to pray. Have I just been conditioned?

It's as if it has an almost physical effect on me, a washing over. I can feel it happening! My brain runs more smoothly, my emotions come closer to the surface, I feel happier. I was listening to Rhythm of the Saints on the way home today and the rhythm woke me right up, made me smile..tapping on the steering wheel and bopping away!
All kinds of music have this effect. I've been listening to old cheese, Jars of Clay, Paul Simon...
When i used to go to Planet of Sound weekly, a few years back now, I had some of my best prayer times of the week on the trance floor - strange I know! Dancing has a similar effect on me. Actually, someone lent me an old trance cd recently and I've found it excellent for working to.

Does anyone else have this happen to them?

Making house

I have been pondering recently the mystery of a 'good house' (and i'm not talking about the physical building). What are the things which make a house somewhere you'd want to live?
Something that's really important to me is hospitality, although I'm not always as good as I'd like to be! What makes a house hospitable? What makes it a warm place to be and somewhere you feel comfortable?

Here are some ideas to be starting off with..

Values shared by housemates (e.g. hospitality)

Full part played by every housemate (rights and responsibilities)

Shared ownership (seems important but hard to define exactly what I mean.. something like 'we're in it together')

Meals together

Joint 'expenses' (food etc)

Welcoming guests - whoever has invited them

Decisions discussed together and nothing 'assumed' (tricky!)

I like to have housemates who look out for me and aren't afraid to challenge me when necessary

Any others?

Looking for guidance

At the end of last week I found myself considering once again how we find answers to the question, 'what do I do next?'

Looking for guidance.. not something where there are any simple answers!
But I always want something practical to stick my teeth into so I had a think about some of the things which I rely on when considering that question myself. These are the four things I came up with:

1) Ask - actively pray, journal, talk to people, investigate options..
2) Listen - read the Bible, take some quiet time, listen to what people say, to the Spirit inside you, have some time-out somewhere
3) Do - sometimes, when you're standing still and at a blank, I think it's better just to leap out and do *something* (rather than sitting still, doing nothing).
I always think God's impatience with Moses et al in Exodus 14:15 says something of this:
"Then the LORD said to Moses, Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on."
4) Don't Panic! I included this last one because it seems like sometimes we get near-paralysed with worrying about whether we're doing what God wants us to do. Obviously, it's important to be concerned about doing God's will and taking the path he's made for us, but sometimes God is silent and the way to go isn't clear. In those times I think we can do worse than go with common sense, or follow the passion of our hearts. (Perhaps controversial?!)

In the end, I think our motivation determines whether we end up taking the right road. If we're concerned to honour God and to follow Him, to go wherever he sends us, I believe He will honour that and we don't need to keep worrying.

The following verses all say something of the above ('don't panic'):

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."
Proverbs 3:5-6

"A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps."
Proverbs 16:9

"Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him." Psalm 37:4

"Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'" Isaiah 30:20-21

We often ask questions like these: Is this the right path? Am I doing the right thing?? Or even, am I making the best choice? Is this the straightest path?

Good questions to ask, but I think the key is in the first part – motivation and trust. If you are looking to God, trusting him, and saying ‘Lord, I want you to lead me, I want to go where you send me’ then he will make your paths straight. That is, he will make whatever path you choose ‘the right one’.

Boro Lingo

A few of us put together a list of common Teeside / Durham words..

'haway' - a well used exclamation or expression of disbelief, 'no way!'
'messing on' - mucking around or messing about
'on my bil' - alone
'a knacking' - telling off (as in 'he deserves a good knacking!')
'get wrong' - be in trouble (as in 'i got wrong off me mam')
'wouldn't dare' - as good as telling you to 'get lost' ('Break detention? Wouldn't dare!') - often mimicked by teachers!
'on a morning/evening/daytime' - instead of 'in the mornings' (used to express a repeated event..as in 'what do you do on an evening?')
'shan' - unfair
'wrecked' - upset / told off
'lend' - borrow. Borrow/lend is usually back-to-front (as in 'miss, can i lend a pen')

Hmmm.. I've adopted a few of these without realising (although i generally only use them in a Middlesbrough environment!).

Feel free to add any others I've missed!

Invigilating - the silent killer

I wrote this in the exam hall yesterday to stave off death from boredom...

Long for Blue

Of all the horrors
Within this room:
Unseeing stares
And aching wrists;
The light’s the worst:

Yellow, heavy.
A sickly pallor falls
On all who wait
And long for blue
Skies and lunch.