For Passing My Driving Test...

To celebrate me passing my driving test, my parents took the whole family out for a meal. And of course this had to be followed by a Stars and Stripes ice-cream at the end (there’s marshmallows in there!).
So, what’s going on right now then?

Youth Councils This weekend we had Youth Councils (a regional meeting for young people in The Salvation Army) and I really got something from it, particularly the evening session (but I’ll write more about this next time). The only thing I found difficult was sitting on that rock hard floor. I don’t know – maybe it’s just me. I was exactly the same during school assemblies. Ever noticed that the people that make us sit on the floor either stand, sit on chairs or lean against the wall? (from whence we were drawn forward). REVOLUTION!

;)

And my African Salvation Army shirt got its début...

We all travelled up together on the minibus. While waiting for said minibus, Stacey decided to decorate Paul:

There are some pretty exciting things coming up over the next few weeks and months. Next week I’ve been invited to a conference in Edinburgh, which I’m really looking forward to. I found out today, however, that I need to give my presentation in Danish... No worries though, my Academic Jumper and I will pull through.

In a few weeks I’ve been invited to sing as the guest soloist at a local concert. I’m really looking forward to this opportunity although it’s going to be a little different to what I’ve done before. It’s not necessarily a Christian concert, which is unusual for me (although I’ll be doing one or two Christian songs). When you sing a Christian song, the most important thing is the meaning and the words. When you sing a non-Christian song, people expect it to be, well, good. And that’s a little more pressure. But I’m very grateful for the opportunity.

PS: I should really point out that I passed my driving test in June 2001. My brother did pass his driving test last week, and as Dad said we should go out for a meal to celebrate, he remembered that we never celebrated my driving test. So it was a double celebration. My brother wasn’t best pleased.

Then and Now

This week I had the opportunity to go to Copenhagen, Denmark. It’s a great city that I visited once before when I was fifteen (nine years ago now...) but as that was on a travelling holiday through Denmark and into Sweden, I didn’t remember too much of Copenhagen itself, until I started walking around the town centre and it all came back to me. Coming home, I looked through the family’s photo album from the trip and saw that I‘d taken a lot of very similar photos this time round... A fifteen-year-old and a twenty-four-year-old John walking up the Round Tower.
At the top of the Round Tower: Outside the Resistance Museum (which I’ve never actually been in): The Amalienborg Palace: The Little Mermaid: Being a bit of a thinker (at times), I got thinking about all that has happened in the time since I was last in Copenhagen. A lot. On that trip I spoke my first ever Danish sentence (which probably went along the lines of ‘En Big Mac, to McChicken Sandwiches, en Happy Meal, tre milkshakes og en kaffe, tack’, but still). Now, after having studied Swedish for five years, Danish is now my main language, and I’m currently writing a PhD on it – I never would have seen that coming. It would be kinda cool to have a conversation with the fifteen-year-old John and give him a little advice about what was coming up in the next nine years, but he’ll just have to work it out for himself. In those days, I was a bit of a poser in front of the camera, but not any more.

A Day in the Mind

As a bit of an experiment, I decided to write down (most of) my thoughts over a 24-hour period. And they went something like this:

10.22pm
Argh. I'm sitting next to a couple on the train who are actually arguing about a Sudoku puzzle (Well I'm sorry, I thought the 2 was supposed to go in that box! [She doesn't sound particularly sorry]).

10.24pm
Are there any places in London where you can do Morris Dancing? I'd like to give that a go...

10.26pm
In every train carriage, why is there always someone listening to Christina Aguilera?

8.11am
No! I weigh the same as last week. Stupid Rainforest Cafe.

10.47am
I have pins and needles in my leg.

11.24am
Man, I look trendy today (from the front. From the side I look a little balding, but I made my peace with that in 2006).

11.49am
The next station is Barking (tee hee).

11.51am
I'm usually up and about earlier than this, by the way.

11.52am
Rather liking the rather unusual version of Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree by the Puppini Sisters.

12.24pm
In a full lift... Where to look, where to look... Don't be the weird smiling guy in the corner...

12.56pm
It seems that Germans really do wear white socks.

1.14pm
If someone doesn't say 'thank you' when you hold the door open for them, is it rude to say 'you're welcome' anyway?

1.28pm
Great. They've finally put lights in the library. Can we be expecting the light switches any time soon?

2.33pm
I had no thought for 65 minutes. Until this one.

5.15pm
My head hurts.

5.26pm
One day I'd like to help out at a Salvation Army music school. But that probably won't be in this country...

5.28pm
I need to see Cloverfield (I later find out the whole story thanks to a reader review in one of the free London papers).

5.39pm
I never knew there was an underground station called Stonebridge Park (Bakerloo line).

5.41pm
Or South Kenton...

5.46pm
That man over there looks like a bald David Beckham pressing his face up against a window.

5.58pm
Are those Breakfast Subs from Subway as good as they look? (I've been had before).

6.15pm
A film called Jumper? Do your research people. If you were releasing an exciting thriller film in America, you wouldn't call it Sweater, would you?

6.19pm
Umbrella...ella...ella...a...a...a

6.26pm
Preparations are still underway for 'my' gospel choir.

7.08pm
Pancakes! (Not eating them yet, just thinking about them).

7.58pm
Pancakes! (Eating them).

Swell.

Back to East London... (Part Two)

Our next port of call was Hackney Downs station, and our destination was the old Clapton Congress Hall. I’ve heard so much about this place, which was a Salvation Army church which could seat over 4,000 I’m told. It was also the Training Centre for Salvation Army officers before the complex at Denmark Hill was opened. It used to look like this: But last I read, it looked like this: So there’s us, just moseying on down Lower Clapton Road and there it is down a little cul-de-sac – looking much better than I was expecting. It was quite strange to see it suddenly for the first time: After they had built the new Training College in Denmark Hill, there wasn’t such a need for the Clapton Congress Hall anymore, so The Salvation Army eventually sold it (but it’s not all bad because there’s still a Salvation Army church about fifty metres away): We then travelled to Cambridge Heath because I wanted to see the building where Booth lived and where the name ‘Salvation Army’ was chosen, and where, and where..., etc. But when we got there it turns out the building doesn’t exist anymore, so we had to sit at the beautiful Cambridge Heath station for fifteen minutes. It looks like this: And Patrick and I looked like this (because it is Quite Boring): But who cares about the past? Why would two young guys spend their time walking around London looking for old buildings and graves on a Saturday afternoon? I know some people who would ask that. I know definitely of some people who read this blog who would ask that.

And my answer is that I find it totally inspiring. Totally. These were people and places that, in many ways, changed the world. These people were determined to show God’s love to those people who had little chance of seeing it elsewhere. They fought for what they believed in. They saw real need and wanted to improve lives. And today The Salvation Army is bigger than it’s ever been and doing so much good in the world, that I’m thrilled to be a part of it. It makes me want to look at what I do and inspires me to do more.

And walking across Tower Bridge at the end of the day I took these two beautiful shots of a city that still needs people like William Booth as much as ever: And just to go the whole hog, I’ll post the famous speech Booth gave just before his death in 1912:

While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight;
While children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight;
While men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight;
While there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight.I'll fight till the very end!

Back to East London... (Part One)

Back in September, five of us travelled to East London to have a look at some of the places where The Salvation Army began. As we were also trying to visit all the places on the Monopoly Board on the same day, we ran out of time slightly, and there were a couple of Army places we didn’t quite get round to seeing. Today I was in London with Patrick and we decided to go and see the last few places (At our Salvation Army church there’s a chance I might be leading a little tour around London to see some of these places, so I thought I should at least know where they are).

Our first stop was Stoke Newington (which isn’t really East London after all - or is it? Matt?). We were going to find Abney Park Cemetery, a place both of us have heard about and seen pictures of, but never visited. This was the final resting place of William Booth, his wife Catherine, and a number of other Salvation Army greats. We’d seen fantastic pictures of Booth’s funeral procession to the cemetery, such as this:
(Click here to see the full photo – and do, because it’s good.)

But we had heard that the cemetery had since fallen into disrepair. Wikipedia puts it nicely: ‘Nature has been allowed to take its course’. We saw the entrance to the cemetery and I recognised it immediately, although it looks a little different now: We took our chances and went in.

It’s an absolute maze. Every few steps the paths fork and we really had no idea where to find the Salvationist graves. We did a lot of walking around (and asking ourselves why we had come to a cemetery on a Saturday afternoon).Bike man clearly wanted to be in the photo.

But then we (I say ‘we’, but it was actually Patrick) found them (and very nicely kept they were too!):
As it turns out, if we’d gone left at the entrance and not right, we would have found them a lot sooner!

As we left, we saw the map of the cemetery with the Booths’ graves clearly marked. D’oh.

The... Genius of Ace of Base

Maybe it's because I recently heard they were making a new album this year. Maybe it's because I'm getting old and getting sentimental about the music I used to listen to. Maybe it's because I heard one of their songs the other day. Anyway, for some reason I decided to dig out my old Ace of Base songs.

Now, when I was younger, Ace of Base were THE band. It was all they played at the fifth-year/sixth-year disco. Everyone had the Happy Nation album. We all knew the actions to The Sign. Ace of Base were, quite simply, cool.

Ace of Base were always able to write a good catchy tune and they had some good ideas. However, listening to their songs again, the lyrics struck me. They range from surreal to weird to plain wrong. What was going through their minds? Here are some genuine Ace of Base pearls:

‘Every time it rains, I get wet.’

‘I’m like a clown. I have fun for everyone.’

‘I believe in there’s a world down under.’

‘The sunshine fills my hair.’

‘I want to kiss you, not just ordinary miss you.’

‘How will I do to protect our little world?’

‘I know it’s hard to be seen as a person when you play Alice in Wonderland.’

‘They cannot rise their voice yet.’

‘We don’t need no education telling us the right to choose if we have no choice.’

‘One day I’ll give you myself in a ring.’

‘The bridge over time is what you need to see the light.’

‘Lucky love belongs in teenage heaven, I know.’

‘Believe me, crows will always fly – they’re only birds.’

‘Life will never be bad under my spell, kiss and tell.’

‘I can give you something no-one else can ever give you. Me.’

‘I’m longing to see the offspring of me.’

And then I'll leave you with one of the weirdest videos I've ever seen. The year was 1996 (I think) and I reckon someone had just worked out how to do some new video effects... It starts to get really weird about two thirds of the way in. Enjoy!

Upd8*

1. As those of you who look at Project 365 will know, this week marked the beginning of the Wind Band at my corps (Salvation Army church). I'm always trying to think of new things to get people involved (my gospel choir is still very much an intention!).

And it went very well! A trumpet, two flutes (possibly another one coming), an oboe, two clarinets, a euphonium and a bass (it is a Salvation Army Wind Band after all). But I knew a few of the kids played woodwind instruments and all of a sudden we have other closet woodwind players coming out of the... well, woodwindwork. I'd chosen fairly easy music to break us all in and thinking of the kids, only to find out that the worst player is, well, me. Did you know an oboe could squeak? I discovered that in front of everyone else... But practice makes perfect!

2. Once again, I feel the need to mention my much-documented battle with the bulge ('much-documented' in that I talk about it all the time). Determined to lose that stone I put back on (although still a stone and a half lighter than I was this time last year), I've started another health-kick. I'm currently losing weight and the rapid speed of... one pound a week, BUT I'm going in the right direction. So check me out in March!

3. Thanks to all those who asked about my presentation at uni, which I was very happy with. I think we did ok (my and my Academic Jumper). I wasn't quite prepared for how nerve-wracking it would be to hear the line 'Now, are there any questions from the floor?'

4. To my knowledge, January doesn't have an award for the most stupid question ever asked, but if it did, the award would certainly go to the person who asked me 'John, did you know that Scandinavia isn't a country?'

Now that in itself isn't the most stupid question ever - maybe some people don't know that Scandinavia isn't a country - but when it comes from someone who is fully aware that I am in my sixth year of Scandinavian Studies at university, it's a little. well, d'oh-inducing. I won't reveal who the person was, but if she wants to reveal herself, she can.

*Apologies for the textish title here. I vowed I would never call a post 'update', but then I couldn't think of anything else. This looks a little like a name for a Salvation Army youth event though, doesn't it? Don't get me started. :)

Who Dunnit?

(Look, before we start, if you're intending to play the Murder on the Dancefloor game, you might want to skip this post, as I will be giving rather a lot away...)

So, was it the costume designers?

Was it the dancers?

Was it the choreographer or the cricket player?

Was it the newsreader or the judge?

Or was it the bumbling oaf of a TV presenter?

A brief recap...

It was, in fact, the bumbling oaf of a TV presenter. Which was kinda exciting for me, although about half-way through I realised I should at least make it look like I was trying to determine the identity of the murderer. As it turned out I did rather well - not one person guessed it was me, although the clues were there!

And here:

The Clues

1. First I said I was hiding in the cupboard because I liked the feel of silk - later I said it was to go and get my rockclimbing gear.

2. I said I would never enter Crane's dressing room again - but then later I read out a clue I had found in his dressing room bin.

3. I was just generally shifty.

THINK PEOPLE!

After we'd finished the murder mystery, someone asked what we should do next. I, being me, shouted out my automatic answer to this question without thinking:

HUMAN PYRAMIDS!

(If you don't want to make human pyramids, don't ask me what I think we should do: Just for future reference).

And make human pyramids we did:

The stupid ceiling wasn't high enough for the one we originally wanted to make.

Good-o!