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A Strange Thing

27 January, 2009 by thevicarswife

The Joker started crying at tea tonight because I gave some of his extra broccoli to his brother.

Some yummy broccoli

My children are unusual (the Curate says I can’t call them ‘strange’).

Posted in Family, Food, Kids | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments »

More on Matthew’s Begats

20 January, 2009 by thevicarswife

My copy of Behold the Lamb by Andrew Peterson arrived a few days ago and since then we’ve been enjoying the album, even though it’s really for the Christmas season.

Of course, we are particularly savouring Matthew’s Begats and the Queen loves the song so much that she keeps on nicking the lyrics sheet and trying to sing along. Just in case you wanted to aswell, I’ve found the lyrics on the web.

I’ve also found a Matthew’s Begats book which I’m considering buying for the kids (and my godchildren), which comes with a cd of the song and the story of the people in it.

If the Queen cracks the lyrics I’ve promised I’ll upload her singing it onto YouTube. Watch this space….

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Complaining Works!

13 January, 2009 by thevicarswife

Asda logo

I had a letter in the post today which cheered me a little. It was an apology from the manager of the Asda store which I’d shopped in for the first time on New Year’s Eve. He wasn’t apologising about the shocking queues in there, but then I’d not actually complained about that.

I had complained about their magazine displays.

We were hurtling around the shop trying to find a few sandwiches for lunch after a morning trying to sort out things in the vicarage we’ll be moving to at half term. We took a short cut down the magazine aisle and I was horrified to see the display of ‘Lads’ Mags’.

The store had a full shelving stack of FHM, Nutz and the like, with their glossy covers of buxom naked women. Because they had so many of these mags, they had them handily diplayed right at the height where my kids could get a full eyeful.

Now, I would really prefer it if these magazines were not produced, sold or desired by their readers. However, given that this is the case, I feel strongly that they should displayed out of the eyesight of the under-18s. Hence my complaint to the manager of Asda. The over-sexualisation of children in our society is a worry to many and surely this sort of display must make a contribution.

So I was pleased that he wrote to me, apologised and told me that he has arranged for ‘the magazines in question to be moved up to the top shelf to avoid any other issues’.

Seems like it’s worth complaining. Maybe I should start a campaign?

Posted in Kids, Lads mags | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

The Beautiful City

7 January, 2009 by thevicarswife

Beautiful City 1

Beautiful City 1

The Curate remarked that my artistic shot of a beer can might give you the wrong impression of the lovely place where we live. Empty beer cans are a fact of life here, where excess alcohol is the cause of many troubles. But you mustn’t think that discarded beer cans are all there is to life in the inner city.

The picture above was taken in our local country park on New Year’s Day. We can get there in ten minutes in our car and you can see our church spire from the top of this hill, if you look in the right direction. About twenty of us from church climbed the hill and enjoyed seeing our breath in front of us and feeling our legs beneath us as we walked off some Christmas calories.

Beautiful City 2

Beautiful City 2

This shot I took last night from my kitchen window as the light faded on a bright and cold snowy day. This magnificent tree lifts my heart when I do the washing up (so that’s nearly every day).

There is much beauty where we live, as well as brokenness. And not just in the scenery.

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A Snowy View

6 January, 2009 by thevicarswife

Here’s a snap I took in the snow on the way home from our mum’s coffee morning today.

Snowy Days in the Inner City

Snowy Days in the Inner City

You may not be able to read the strapline across the pale blue at the top of the can: ‘Enjoy Extra Cold’. I guess the drinker who deposited this with the fag end was probably extra cold. Not sure about the enjoyment part in this weather though.

Posted in Alcohol, Inner city | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Matthew’s Genealogy of Jesus or Easy Ways to Learn Difficult Bits of Scripture

30 December, 2008 by thevicarswife

Just been reminded of this great song by Andrew Peterson based on the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel. It makes me smile, especially when he sings ‘Listen very closely, I don’t want to sing this twice.’

I’m planning to buy the album ‘Behold the Lamb’, which I’ve just found is less than a fiver. Maybe a bit late for this Christmas but I’ll be word perfect with the genealogy by next year…

Posted in Faith, Fun | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment »

An inner city advantage

22 December, 2008 by thevicarswife

In the last three weeks of term the Curate and I attended three school Christmas productions. The first one we attended was performed by the morning nursery.

The Engineer was dressed as an elf and had to work in Santa’s workshop, rather gruesomely using a saw on the teddy bear he was carrying. The nursery children enthusiastically sang along to Bob the Builder’s ‘Can we fix it? Yes we can!’ as the Engineer and his friends ratherly sullenly appeared on the stage area. The Engineer looked like he felt it very much beneath his dignity to perform for us.

The Engineer looked about as grumpy as this elf

This elf looks cheerier than the Engineer did

As well as Santa and the elves, we had a snowman dance, a Christmas tree dance and and a full nativity scene, complete with a laughing angel and Mary broadly smiling from ear to ear. The children sang ‘Happy Happy Happy Birthday to the Baby Jesus’ and the nursery teacher reminded us that the Baby Jesus is the most important thing about Christmas. There were children of many different colours, nationalities and religions in the show and everyone there was very pleased with the performance.

My friend Sunshine, who lives in a beautiful university town, has a daughter who is also in a nativity play this Christmas. Her school, however, thought it should send an apology and explanation, I guess because they were concerned that parents would object. They reminded the parents that the nativity play happens only rarely, and asked for the parents to indulge them this year.

What a blessing to have kids in a church school in a happy city, where many cultures are able to celebrate Christmas without anybody feeling the need to apologise.

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Sourcing new jokes

21 December, 2008 by thevicarswife

The Joker has been expanding his joke repertoire of late. In case you would like to do the same I can recommend the following sources:

  • Infant Christmas production (there was a character with an endless supply of dreadful cracker jokes, but also a nativity play I hasten to add, just in case you were worried about standards dropping in church schools)
  • Basil Brush joketionary (the Joker’s joking hero)
  • Sainsbury’s – an unusual joke source you may think but the Joker was telling one of his (What do snowmen wear on their heads? Icecaps) as we passed the ready meal section and made a fellow shopper laugh. The laughing shopper then passed on a good Sainsbury’s joke to the Joker. I had to explain it to him in the dairy section and he’s been telling it since then: How do you get a bear to eat cheese? You say ‘Come on bear’. Say it out loud.

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Credit Crunch Snapshots 2

3 December, 2008 by thevicarswife

The house next door has been sold at auction after it was repossessed. Our neighbour who is on the case with these things found out the price from the auction house. It went for less than half the price that was originally paid.

This is bad news for neighbours who want to rearrange their mortgages after coming off fixed rate deals. The value of the houses has dropped so much that they can’t go anywhere else, but have to stay with the original mortgage companies on the (most expensive) variable rate. We are thankful for living in a tied house, even if it confuses people when we fill in surveys and applications.

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Credit Crunch Snapshots 1

2 December, 2008 by thevicarswife

After the recent repossessions on our street, we are seeing the recession in action in our neighbourhood:

Yesterday I met my neighbour at the pedestrian crossing. He’s lost his job so he and his wife are going to English lessons. He’s an Asian, who previously worked in Europe as a skilled parts machinist, but has been on a factory line here because his English isn’t as good as his other two or three languages.

I wonder how he and his wife are going to manage to pay their mortgage if he doesn’t get another job soon.

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