Friday 31 December 2010

Goodbye!

Thought that might catch your attention! I really meant to put goodbye 2010 as we are now very near to the end of this year and the beginning of the next.

I do wonder where the last twelve months have disappeared to as it seems like just a couple of weeks since it was last new years eve.

I am sure that as I get older time seems to go faster.

The new year is just a few hours away and I am sure there will be much written about resolutions and plans for the new year - I am not intending to write about either.

What I would like to do is take this opportunity to wish all my readers a new year that is joyful, peaceful and healthy.

May 2011 be a really good year where you are able to say in 12 months time that it was a very good year.

Wednesday 29 December 2010

All Change

Hi Folks,
I suspect you will have immediately noticed the cosmetic changes I have made (gone from red to blue) and the more observant of you will have noticed I have changed the grouping of other blogs and sites of interest.

I may add some other blogs and sites during the next few days or may leave it as it is. Whatever I decide it will be with a view to showing readers some of the other things I am interested in as well as church and Christianity related stuff. It may be that some of this will give readers a better picture of who I am and what I am about.

I can promise that I will steer clear of politics as much as possible because my Mom always said there were two things you should never discuss and one of them was politics - the other was religion but I really do believe I can break that one as Christians have a responsibility to be witnesses of God's love and grace.

I did make some mention of not having blogged much recently and what I might do with this blog in the future and Pam BG has picked up on this and written a very interesting piece around this discussion.

I have also come very close to telling two people where to go over on a post at Connexions but managed to refrain from being rude.

I hope you like the changes and find it easier to navigate the blog with the new groupings and that you will find some of the new links interesting.

Incidentally in my last post I said Christmas was all over for another year and obviously I realise that it isn't for Christians but for those who have no interest in the gospel story it will be.

Monday 27 December 2010

It's all over!!

It’s all over – well for another year anyway. Christmas has come and gone and I am sure that before we know where we are next Christmas will be with us. I am convinced at the risk of sounding like my mother that times goes faster as you get older. (I know it can’t but it certainly appears to!)

I imagine that during this week the media and perhaps many of us will start thinking about the year that has gone and the year ahead with some emphasis on what we think the year ahead might bring.

I was sitting here looking at other blogs I read and thought it was perhaps time I did a little bit of maintenance work on this blog. Those who visit regularly may notice some changes during the next few days as I am on holiday until next Tuesday but my wife is working in the morning so I will be looking at this blog and making some adjustments.

It has been a sad year in a number of respects with the loss of two bloggers who were both quite unique in their own ways and were the first blogs I used to check each day. Bob the Black Country Brummie was a tireless campaigner on a number of local issues while Olive Morgan was one of the oldest bloggers I know of – I have kept both of them on my blog for some time now but feel that perhaps the time has come to take the links to their blogs off mine. I noted too the other day that Doorman Priest has decided that his blog has run its course and I would like to thank him for the enjoyment reading his posts have given me – especially when he has been writing about his school and some of the amusing things the pupils have been up to.

I may well remove links to blogs where there have been no posts during the last four months as I really feel whatever I am linking to should be relevant and reasonably up to date.

I have also thought about changing the way I group items together and one idea I had was that anything local would be put in its own category – there are some local links already but there are one or two more I might add.

Finally I need to think through the future direction of this blog – I did mention this a few weeks ago and I have to say that in some senses the original impetus of the blog seems to have waned. I don’t know if I ever really had an aim for the blog or whether I should have. It may be that the style and content has been right for me and for the blog and I am pleased that since it started in June 2007 I had just over 10,000 visitors, given that I wasn’t really sure if anyone would visit other than by accident.

I do occasionally check the statistics and note that there are a number of casual visitors but also that there are a number of regulars to who I say thanks for keep coming back.

Well I think this post is probably long enough so will end here with the old saying ‘Watch this space’.

Sunday 19 December 2010

Good point on bad weather

I was just looking through the blogs I read and found a post on Black Country Kid's blog which I have a great deal of sympathy with.
He makes some very good points about the bad driving that is evident in this particularly wintry weather.

Wednesday 15 December 2010

Carol Praise Tonight

Don't forget if you are in the Walsall area tonight and have a free hour we would be pleased to see you at our Carol Praise event - 7-30p.m. at Pleck Methodist Church (see earlier post for more details)

If Jesus had been born in the Black Country

Here you go folks a little bit of the Jesus story told in the way it might have been had Jesus been born here in the Black Country.


God sent Gabriel ter the sitty o’ Nazreth tew a yung wummun nairmed Mary. Er wuz Elizabeth’s cuzzen. Wen Mary sid th’airnjul it mithered ‘er cus ‘er day know wor ‘e wuz doin theer.
Gabriel sed ‘Now doh be frit Mary. God aye arf blest yo. Yo’m gunna ave a babby an ‘is nairm is gunner be Jesus. E wo arf be a grate mon an e’ll be called the Son o God.
Mary’s ansud ‘Ah’m a sairvent o’ the Lord soo lerr evvrythin’ appen wo yo’ne sed.
Mary’s bloke wus nairmed Joseph, E wuz a carpinter and they wor very well off.
The emprer sed tharr all the Jews ad gorra goo ter the plairces we’er theeer Fairthers wuz boirn ter rite theer nairms dahn.
Mary an Joseph went ter Bethlem t’ ave theer nairms put dahn. Wen thay got ter Bethlem theer wore no room in th’inn so they went ter a stairble ter rest.
While they wuz theer the time come fer Mary ter ave the babby and they wrapped im up in swaddling cloths and laird im in the manger.

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Carol Praise

Don't forget if you have a free evening tomorrow (15th) and are anywhere near Walsall we would be pleased to see you at our Carol Praise event at Pleck Methodist Church, Bescot Road, Walsall. WS2 9AD starting at 7-30p.m. and to be followed by mince pies, sausage rolls and tea or coffee.

Christmas is coming.......

Christmas is coming,
and the shops are going mad
got to get a present for me
dear old Mom and Dad.

I am convinced that the world is going mad and that for shop and v=businesses there is a degree of Jingle all the way as their cash registers ching with the sound of money going into them.

We have just had a new Tesco store open in Walsall and very foolishly on Saturday I allowed my wife and daughter to persuade me to go and have a look at it - not a good move really as it was extremely busy and I was amazed at how much stuff people were buying - I suspect the shops will only be shut for one day and yet you would think people were stocking up for a siege.

At the risk of sounding like Scrooge I am tempted to say Bah Humbug to the whole thing - of course the only thing that stops me is that the story behind all the trimmings and turkey and tinsel has to be the most amazing story ever told, and of course the reality of knowing Jesus as Lord and Saviour gives the whole thing an added dimension that is sadly missing for many of the folk I saw in Tesco on Saturday.