Race Against Time

A pretty big time restriction right now, so I'm going to attempt to get as much down as I can in a very short time!

See you on the other side...

Point One:
As those of you who read Katie's blog will know, we had a little day in Hamburg (where I lived for a little bit) this week. And very nice it was too (and hot - I reckon it was close to 40. Katie thinks I'm exaggerating, but it was 34 degrees at 8.30pm and MUCH hotter during the day. Maybe Philipp can tell the the temperature from Hamburg on Monday?!). I can't really add too much to what Katie said about it - she did quite well in retelling the day's events - but I can add a couple of pictures that she didn't have, mainly because I didn't give them to her (By the way, Hamburg's a particularly nice city, so if you're ever in the area, drop on in).

Me by the Small Lake (I'm not going to mess around with fancy photo comments).

Me and Katie by the Small Lake. It's amazing that this picture turned out well... The lady that took it for us was, in her own words (well, translated), 'not that good with technology'. We assumed she was just being modest, but when she tried to take a photo with the camera facing her, we saw that she in fact wasn't (modest or good with technology).

While waiting at the airport, there was the customary mad rush to get a seat. You know how it is - there's no member of staff around or anything, but one person gets up and the rest zoom to the desk. It was boiling hot, uncomfortable and claustrophobic. I thought to myself, 'I don't know whether I care enough about sitting next to Katie for this to be worth it'. The man next to me laughed, because I'd said it out loud.

Point Two:

NAMED AND SHAMED

As recently mentioned on Andy's blog, there has been a distinct lack of bloggage on the part of certain people whose blogs I check fairly often. I thought that maybe if I mentioned them, they'd be shamed into writing something. On his blog, Glyn wondered whether this is the beginning of the end for blogging. No. I certainly have no plan to give up yet. And actually, I know that more people are reading this blog than ever before AND that other friends are now starting to blog, so that's good stuff.

So come on Matt, Glyn and Tim (Graeme just saved himself by posting yesterday).

I've noticed that three of the above names are Mitchie award winners. And this has troubled me. Have some of the above people, on winning a Mitchie, now decided that they've achieved all they can in the blogging world and that there's no need to carry on? NO. The Mitchies were meant to encourage bloggers, not discourage them. Oh no.

I should mention that there will be a very slight blogging break from me for a little while, but not for long - and I'll be back!

Point Three:

Speaking of new bloggers (which I was a few lines back), Anna (who, rather excitingly, was enrolled as a Salvation Army soldier last week), has given up Bebo and finally jumped on the blogspot bandwagon. So that's good news. And now we don't need to pass a mini-exam every time we want to write a comment on her blog.

Point Four:

And I've seen the new Harry Potter film. And it's not bad. A little long, but there's some really good bits. I made the following observations:

a) There is, in fact, a limit to the amount of time you can sit and watch Daniel Radcliffe rolling around on the floor.

b) I want to be Luna Lovegood's friend.

Point Five:

If I had my own music awards, I decided this week that I would give out the following awards:

Best Key Change 2007: The Feeling - Never Be Lonely

Best Opening Line 2007: Mika - Stuck in the Middle ('I sit and think about the day that you're going to die.')

But I don't have my own music awards.

The Godfather

Isn't this little guy cute? And look at the baby he's holding!

Apologies for not blogging a little earlier, but I was kinda waiting for a certain thing to happen first - and today it did! This little chap, Oscar, was born at 11.45 this morning to my friend Danni. That's pretty exciting (he was only seven hours old in this picture). And as you may have guessed from the title of this post, I was asked to be the baby's godfather, which is also pretty exciting. It was very nice to be asked and I'm very chuffed, but at the same time it's a little scary because I've realised I'm at the age where I can be a godfather. I'm growing up!

I'm taking the godfather thing pretty seriously - I think I'm taking it more seriously than Danni had planned when she asked me! Apparently (according to the dictionary), a godfather is supposed to support the spiritual welfare of the child in question. Now that's a pretty big task, but I'll try to live up to it and hope I'll be able to help in some way.

So, on hearing that Oscar had been born, I headed into town to buy something for him. I'd already bought the card (so I was pleased that he was a boy after all, or that would have been £2 down the drain...) Now I really wanted to get him an elephant, I don't know why. I went into mothercare (written with a small 'm' because they do it too) to find my elephant. I found lots of little toys that were all very cute, etc. blah, blah but I really wanted an elephant. Fortunately my mum (yes, I was with my mum, so maybe I'm not so grown up after all) found a shelf of elephants. And I bought him Humphrey, which I kinda wanted to keep, but I would have felt a little guilty. I forgot to take a photo of him (Humphrey), but the good ol' internet helped me out here.

In other news:

1. The other day at cell group, we were discussing (I say 'we', but I didn't say anything because I was the newby), about how 'nice' Christians should be and what being 'nice' was all about. And then the next day at Songster (choir) practice, the reading was about being 'nice' and what that really involved, whether Christians are too nice, not nice enough, etc. Isn't it weird when that happens?

2. I've seen on these blogs that sometimes people discuss books they've been reading and give their views on different theories and ideas. So I thought I would do the same too. The other day I was reading Mr Busy (which Katie bought for me, because I have a reputation for being quite busy), which I sat and read and enjoyed, but I realised afterwards that My Busy isn't particularly busy at all, but merely does things quickly. This presents a few problems:

a. Mr Busy is, in fact, nothing like me at all.

b. Should I write and complain that Mr Busy is really the story of someone who would better be named 'Mr Fast' or 'Mr Quick', although this could overlap with Mr Rush, which I haven't read.

c. How many of the other Mr Men are fraudsters, claiming to be something they're not?

3. The other day, someone told me that my blog is unusual because it is, and I quote, 'pointless'. I didn't really know what to do with that, so I thought about it and put it on my blog.

A Bit of Day-Seizing

Well I've had a very interesting day. And here's why:

As those who you who read this blog often will know, I'm a bit of a fan of the World in One City project, whereby two guys are attempting to meet a citizen from every country of the world living and working in London (within the space of a year) to prove that London is the most international city in the world. And they're doing very well in that, having found citizens from 106 countries at the time of writing. They've been interviewed on the BBC and in the London Paper, so word's getting round. Good for them.

But why am I telling you this again? Well, on their website (see link in right-hand column), they put up a list of those countries they haven't met anyone from yet. So there was me scanning the list, seeing the countries you'd expect to see on such a list (if you knew such countries existed), such as Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, etc. And then getting towards the bottom of the list I saw 'Ukraine'. Now, as you probably know, I am not from the Ukraine, nor am I ever likely to be, but one of my best friends is. Determined to stick to my motto of 'seizing the day' I decided to email these guys and tell them about my London-dwelling, Ukrainian friend, Alina.

So today, me and Alina met one of the guys from the project in a pub in the centre of London. And he was very nice too, and evidently chuffed to be getting country number 105. It was a pretty busy day for him as he was meeting us, a Uruguayan and a Luxembourger all in the same day (when have you ever done that?). I was particularly excited as this meeting was marking two 'firsts': (1) the first time I've ever met a comedian, and (2) the first time I've ever taken part in 'a stupid boy project' (see previous post). So keep checking their website to see the write-up of Ukraine - it may not come up for a little while. And maybe I'll get my name up in lights yet.

I think that was a good bit of 'day-seizing'.

In other news:

1. I managed to convince an Australian working in Quiksilver that I was one of his countrymen.

2. I learned that Colgate had some difficulties when they first started advertising their toothpaste in Spain as 'colgate' in Spanish roughly translates as 'go hang yourself'.

All in all, a productive day.