Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah

This morning was a great morning. And I needed a great morning. I woke up to discover that since I started my last health-kick, I have lost 7lbs! (Over three kilos to those Europeans who read this). And gone from belt hole 5 to belt hole 3 (not since yesterday obviously). So that was nice. And then while walking to the station I was accompanied by a squirrel on the way. And then university went really well. The only thing that would have made it more Hollywood, as far as happy days go, would have been if the squirrel and I had stopped and sung a duet together.

I'm 23 years old. Often I think that's quite old, but then the other day it dawned on me that it really isn't. It can't be that old - look at Elmo and Big Bird below. It's just that I very rarely get to act like a 23 year old, if you know what I mean. And by that, I just mean have some fun with friends. I love everything I'm involved in at the moment, really I do. I've tried a couple of extra things but they haven't really worked out, so I'll need to put my thinking cap on there. That's one of the reasons why I'm really looking forward to music school this summer.And I can tell you now that I definitely won't be blogging next week I'm afraid as I have a three day exam. This is a short post, but revision calls.

Coming!

This post was originally called 'Belts and Big Birds', but then I suddenly realised that that might be somewhat misleading as to the actual content of the post.

My Defence of Eurovision

I have decided to use my 51st post (please note how quickly this has appeared after my 50th post - I'm getting better!) to defend the Eurovision Song Contest. Now, I realise that this may not be the post of mine which gets most comments, but that doesn't matter. Since the contest, I've seen many people complaining about how the Eastern countries vote for their friends, etc. Much of this has come from Terry Wogan, who revealed his poor knowledge of geography ('Georgia must be near Serbia'), history ('Armenia is a former satellite state') and memory ('Baltic voting again' - before the Baltic countries had voted). I thought it was a great contest!

Here are some facts:

1. This block voting that Terry Wogan talks about - countries voting for their friends - is simply wrong. It's not countries voting for their friends at all. The borders of eastern Europe do not tie up with the borders between ethnic groups as they largely do in the western countries. Consequently, does Estonia always give good points to Russia because they are friends (which they most certainly are not) or because nearly 26% of the population of Estonia are ethnic Russians? Nearly 29% of the population of Latvia are ethnic Russians. I believe there are large numbers of ethnic Russians in every one of the former Soviet states. The same is true in the south - 38% percent of the Bosnian population are ethnic Serbs. The line 'Bosnia gives points to its best friend, Serbia', just isn't accurate.

2. Terry Wogan seems to forget that many of these areas - the 'ex-Soviet block', the 'Scandinavian Block' and 'the Balkan block' (interestingly, Wogan seems to use the terms Balkan and Baltic interchangeably) share celebrities. Did Belarus get top points from Russia because the two countries are friends, or because the Belarusian singer came very high in the Russian version of Pop Idol? The singer from FYROM is a big celebrity in all of the former Yugoslav countries. The Ark, from Sweden, are very popular all over Scandinavia. Cultures and tastes are often very similar between neighbouring countries.

3. Languages. Serbia sang in Serbian, a language spoken and understood in Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Montenegro (although Slovenia and Macedonia have their own languages too). They can understand the songs! If one year, every country sang in Serbian apart from maybe Hungary that sang in English - I think Hungary would get quite a lot of the British points!

4. 'No-one voted for the Western countries.' Yes, that's true. Including the Western countries. The only reason the United Kingdom got points from Malta was because many Maltese had decided to boycott the Eastern European countries - they were protest points. (The UK song had 'nul points' written all over it!)

5. Yes, it seems that Cyprus and Greece always give each other points (and Ireland often gives them to the UK, but that's ok), but this never affects the winning song. Finland won last year (never won before), Latvia and Estonia have both won recently (and got crappy points ever since).

My rant is over! Something must be right about the contest if nearly 11 million Brits watched it! I thought the music was of a high class too (at the beginning, before the Ukraine, UK and Romania got their hands on it...)

PS: Quite a lot of people seem to have been quite taken with the German performance. I can tell you that Roger Cicero's album Männersachen is fantastic (it's in German of course) and it's available from www.amazon.de priced €14.95 (if you want the version with Frauen Regier'n die Welt on it). A brilliant CD.

Me Again...

So... yes, I promised that May would mark the return to my days of blogging glory. However, May is turning out to be a bit of a sucky month in several ways, so I apologise for how long it's taken me to get this post done. Today was also coursework deadline day... Nuff said.

Point One
So, Katie (yes, the embargo is over and I can now mention her by name once more) finally delivered the Tagalog translation of the William Booth quote, so that's now at home in the right-hand column. The Slovak quote has also been updated (Anna managed to forget the pretty important bit about God). To celebrate the end of the Katie embargo, I will tell you an exciting fact about Katie. Sometimes, when she speaks, it's like she's a really bad actress.

Look out for that.

Point Two
I recently discovered a blog the other day, which I found very cool. It's the exact kind of thing I love. Two guys have decided to try and prove how global London is by finding a national of every single one of the world's 192 countries. Hence the London picture at the top of this post. This national has to be living here, not just on holiday, and they have to live in London - no commuters. This is the kind of idea I wish I'd had first... Check out www.worldinonecity.blogspot.com. They're up to 71 countries. Not bad, not bad.

Point Three
My health-kick is back on - I'm determined to carry round less of the lard by the time summer comes round. I've often started a health-kick and they don't usually last too long. But now, I've discovered that one of my tops accentuates my man boobs, so I'm wearing that one a lot to remind me of the task ahead.

Point Four
This is my fiftieth post - is that worthy of a mention?

Point Five
As all of my close friends will know (if you didn't know, then you're obviously not a close friend ;) ), I'm a little bit of a Eurovision fan. And the other day I was watching Swedish TV (as I do to keep my Swedish up to scratch) and they had a programme about Eurovision on it. It had a bit about how Georgia is in the Eurovision for the first time and what a massive deal it is for them to be accepted as part of Europe and start to look towards a new, exciting future after years of war and hardship. The President of Georgia even spoke to say how proud he was and how he had always longed for Georgia to be able to join in. You see how some of the Eastern European countries put in their very top performers and how seriously they take it. And then you look at the United Kingdom who sents in whatever rejects they can find who dance around with suitcases making pretty banal innuendos (although they do have nice voices). One guy said 'And this is from the land of the Beatles?' On the one hand it seems a little disrespectful and on the other hand it's kinda embarrassing.

But not half as embarrassed as I'd feel tomorrow night if I was from the Ukraine! Just you wait.

But it's all fun!

All that's left to say is:

VOTE GERMANY and

SLOVENIA!!!

(Obviously those are two different countries. It's not like Bosnia and Herzegovina or Trinidad and Tobago or anything like that. If you're from Germany, you'll have to just vote for Slovenia or maybe Serbia. Or drive over the border - there's one not far from you - to vote for Germany, but that's a little silly. OK?)

AAARGH!!

I needed that.

People, I am well aware that April was not my best month for blogging - yes, the posts I did put up were rather good, but I didn't really blog at the frequency I should have. I know. And I feel bad. But these last few weeks have been like AAARGH!! You know, when things you were excited about don't quite turn out as planned, etc. And I thought, well maybe people come to Mitchenstein to be entertained and or cheered up and I can't go throwing negativity around so I waited. And waited. Also, due to the amount of study I have at the moment, I haven't really had much else to blog about. And no-one wants to know about my translation from Norwegian or postcolonial translation theories if they're honest. And I think we should be.

So here are some positive things:

Point One:

This is a picture of me introducing Hokey-Cokey Elmo to Tickle-Me Elmo Extreme:

This was from October. but I thought this was a good a time as any to put it up.

Point Two:

And since I last posted, the William Booth Quote campaign (it's a campaign now, not a project) has picked up speed again and I now have it in Latvian, Greek, Korean and Slovak - so thanks to Evie, Haris, Tim and Anna. Unnamed Friend 1 also managed to get it for me in Tagalog. Before losing it. Apparently some of you can't see the Greek and/or Korean versions as your computers don't have the fonts... Well I can assure you they really are there - I can see them! 23 languages down, but... quite a few to go. Can YOU help?

Point Three:

So, Please Don't to Cry received quite a positive... reception. Keep your eyes peeled for Mitchenstein, the album, featuring Please Don't to Cry in an exciting Bhangra mix.

Mitchenstein at Eurovision

No, of course I haven't been selected to sing at Eurovision (not this year anyway), but you can't have failed to notice that it's May soon and that means Eurovision will soon be knocking on our doors.

Now, you may not know this, but for many years, countries had to sing in one of their official languages. A few years ago (I don't know when), they (whoever 'they' is) changed the rule so that countries can sing in any language they like. This was of course great for countries like Iceland and Finland who generally speak good English and could now sing in a language that other people had a chance of understanding. However, some other countries don't quite have the English skills they think they have. They can be kind of creative with the English language, I feel.

So as I felt like a break from revision, I decided to have a go at writing a song, Eurovision-stylee. I think you'll agree that it's beautiful. It's called 'Please Don't To Cry'. (And what started out as a stupid five minute joke actually took a lot longer.)

(NOTE: I even included the customary 'name-as-many-other-places-as-possible-so-that-they'll-vote-for-us' trick. A sure-fire winner.)

(NOTE 2: This may be the ultimate in the procrastination that Glyn was talking about).

Please Don't To Cry

(Verse 1)
When I saw you and I said goodbye,
I doesn't to know that you were to cry,
I looked on you and said, 'Why, why?'
You looked on me and did a big sigh.

(Chorus)
So please don't to cry,
If we can just try,
We can fly high and high in the sky,
So don't say goodbye
Or I will die.
You are the person I've been thinking at.

(Verse 2)
I said at you 'It can't be so bad',
You looked on me and said 'I'm so sad',
I put my hand upon your shoulderpad,
I went to home and put my ghetto blaster on.

(Bridge)
You stand in front with your beauty,
I am filled with bewonderment and duty,
I love you like Soo is loving Sooty,
You are the person I've been thinking at.

Yes, you are the person I've been thinking at.

(Chorus 2)
So please don't to cry,
I have new hi-fi,
I love you right up and up at the sky,
So don't tell a lie,
Please look at my eye,
And see you are the person I've been thinking at.

I love you in Tallinn and Berlin and Birming... ham.

My love is precipitating down,
My love is precipitating down,
My love is precipitating down,

At you.

Some More Points...

Point One:

Well the number of new languages appearing in the right-hand column has slowed down slightly... But I did get to add Russian this week (thanks Anna!), so remember, if any of you speak any languages or dialects I don't already have fluently, let me know so you can translate William Booth's quote for me! Nineteen languages and counting...

Point Two:

I came home from the Sunday morning meeting on Sunday (strangely enough - that's when we have them) and I realised that I didn't really like my hair... It had got quite long. So I shaved it all off again (but didn't ask for money this time!). Then I went to the Sunday night meeting and only 4 people noticed... (We get considerably more than 4 people to the Sunday night meeting). Now, of course, I didn't do it to get noticed, but I reckon that more people did notice, but were worried about commenting in case they'd missed it in the morning meeting...

Point Three:

I had a great weekend last weekend. AJ and Mike very kindly invited me round to see their new place and to catch up. I'd kinda been out of the loop for a while, as far as meeting with other young Salvos goes, so it was really cool to catch up again. In the evening we went to a concert at The Salvation Army in Wickford as some of my friends from Germany were over with their band. It was really cool to see them again (I hadn't seen them since German Music School in 2005) and we had a great time, catching up again on Sunday and Monday. Hopefully I'll see them again this summer.

Point Four:

I kinda like the idea of having a poll on this page (see right), but the only problem is that it shows the numbers of people voting... So now it looks like only 12 people have viewed this site this week, even though I know others have read it, that haven't selected an option. What's more, who on earth voted for 'Heart'?! How on earth can you choose being able to hear monkey thoughts over creating tornados?! Madness... In Germany they called that power 'Liebe' ('Love'), which is even lamer...

Point Five:

This has been a fairly short post, and admittedly not one of my best, but I could hardly let this weekend go by without wishing everyone a HAPPY EASTER! I hope you all have a great weekend, whatever you're doing. I really love Easter Sunday - there's always such an exciting feel about it. So if you're not doing anything this Sunday, why not check out a local Salvation Army or other church and see what's going on?! (You can't say I didn't try :-D )

PS.

Point Six:

Here's hoping for a Mars Bar Easter Egg from someone... Someone told me that you should never reveal your favourite sweets, because that's all anyone will ever give you in the future. But I can think of not much better than being inundated with Mars Bar eggs...

Na Kobunda! (Lingala)

After the success of my previous point-style post, I'm sticking to that format once again. (I'm sorry, but I'm really churning out good posts at the moment...)

Point One:
The project to get William Booth's 'I'll Fight' speech in as many languages as possible is really going well! I think a blog always works better if there's a project on the go. Since I last posted, the quote has been added in Dutch, Estonian, Lingala, Swabian German and two Swiss German dialects. And the Icelandic version has been improved - huge thanks to Anna, Philipp, Jóhanna, Lizette and the Clarks. So if you're reading this post and you speak another language or dialect fluently and think you can translate the quote (in the right-hand column) go for it! So, any Welsh, Scots, Gaelic, Czech, Russian speakers out there?! (or others, of course!)

Point Two:
Ok. This week, I was headed with Danni and Unnamed Friend 1 to a rehearsal in Romford. The journey was going very well (or so I thought). However, I wasn't on the road I thought I was on - which meant that I didn't follow signs to the road I should be on, because I thought I was on it. Got that? Anyway, we ended up in Rainham for a long time. We managed to get out of Rainham and into Romford - 'Great', we thought. 'We won't be so late now.' However, we somehow managed to completely bypass the centre of Romford and ended up right in Ilford town centre. Great. After driving around for a long time, we found a sign to Romford and followed it. Into a dead-end.

In the end, we just took any road that looked big and ended up in Seven Kings (I think that sounds like such a wonderful place). I know Seven Kings and was mightily relieved as we finally made our way to Romford Salvation Army. (Although slightly disappointed as we'd decided that if we didn't find it soon, we were going to go to McDonalds before going back.) And we were only 45 minutes late for the rehearsal.

But in order to keep the interest going, I gave Danni and Unnamed Friend 1 the Mitchenstein family history tour (as my parents lived in Ilford and Chadwell Heath and my mum lived in Seven Kings before that). So a waste of time was turned into a thrilling interactive history lesson. I think they'll agree.

And yes, on the way home we went through Harold Hill, but that's only because I'd never been there before and wanted to have a look round...

Only two points today - the other thing I was going to mention is how slow the blogging world has become recently, with lots of people taking huge blogging breaks... Things have improved since my last post, but not everyone is back to it yet!

Take care everyone.

And I thank you.

EDIT: Check out the poll in the right-hand column. Now, I know this isn't the hard-hitting journalism you've come to expect from Mitchenstein, but this was just a trial run. And you know it's fun anyway. (Looks like you'll need to refresh the page to see your vote added).

Ten Points

Recently I've had quite a lot of thoughts I could blog about, but they don't really hang together very well, so this post contains ten points. The ten things I've thought I could put in my blog that aren't really enough for seperate blog posts. These are they:

Point One:

In fairness to Katie, she did make me a certifcate after I went on my Twinkie hunt. This is it:

It's not bad is it? Other than stupidly writing the word 'signed' where you're supposed to sign, she did quite well. By the way, Katie says I mention her a lot on my blog. For the next four blogs there will be a Katie embargo.

Point Two:

I really like William Booth's 'I'll fight' quote and, as you may have picked up, I quite like languages, so in the right-hand column, I now have this quote in as many languages as I could find. The Icelandic and French ones seem to finish weirdly and the Portuguese and Danish ones have missed out the 'as they do now' bits, but they're all I could find! If any Icelandic, French, Portuguese or Danish speakers want to help, feel free! And I don't read Polish or Finnish, so I have no idea about those... And if you know the quote in any other languages, please let me know (maybe Anna knows it in Swiss German?)!

Point Three:

For some reason, the 'about me' part of my blog is now in Icelandic...

Point Four:

For the first time in months and months I don't have any deadlines at the moment. As someone who spends their entire life with deadlines and needing to be somewhere five minutes ago, it's quite a strange feeling! I'm not sure I like this new freedom...

Point Five:

Forget about HoDo - do you GoMo? The other day I was running for the train - really late for uni and quite stressed. And as I stressed on by, the postman (not even our postman) said 'Good morning, mate' - and that really brightened up my day! So go on, GoMo! (Good Morning, obviously).

Point Six:

Yesterday morning I was collecting for The Salvation Army on the High Street. I haven't been able to do it for the last few years, but I have to tell you that I loved it. I had a really good time. I really liked being there - people came and spoke to me, told me how they loved the Army, asked me the time, wished me luck, told me that they hoped I didn't get too cold. People were also very generous. One guy said that he thought we probably had enough money by now. I don't know what he thinks we do with it! One thing I really liked was when a family was debating how much they'd give - obviously the mother wanted to give quite a bit more than the others did and she said 'I don't care - there's just something about them.' I really liked that.

Point Seven:

Speaking of quotes, I read this quote from 1912 the other day: 'The Icelanders have an idea that the presence of the Army in their country lowers them in the estimation of other nations.' (History of the Salvation Army, Volume 5 - 1904-1914). I quite liked that quote too!

Point Eight:
Cleo Rocos was making eyes at me the other day. I sort of gave a double take as she walked past me and she looked at me and smiled a sort of 'Yes, I am famous' smile. I told Katie (the embargo hasn't started yet) that I'd seen Cleo Rocos. Katie thought it was a coffee bar.

Point Nine:

This post got longer than I was planning... I think I might start learning Greenlandic. Those two things are unrelated.

Point Ten:

My brother was exploring the internet the other day, when he came across the Michael Jackson Moonwalker game for the MegaDrive (weren't they the best?). Now, part of me vaguely remembers it... Does anyone else? The graphics are so bad. The basic premise is that he has to go around dancing and saving little children holding teddy bears. Hmm... Anyway, to defeat the baddies, he makes them dance. Ingenious. And he gives a little 'woo-hoo' (in his own way) every time he gets hurt. What a classic.

It even works on dogs...

And, of course...

Hunting for Twinkies...

Thanks to Tim, I ended up on a hunt for Twinkies today. Now, my friend Katie is a school teacher and needs some Twinkies for the Easter production of Grease. Another friend Tim (who I haven't seen for one year, by the way - I don't know why that's relevant, but it feels it) helpfully pointed out that I can go and get some Twinkies for Katie because, and I quote, 'they sell them at CyberCandy, only 10 minutes away from uni'. This meant that I ended up looking for Twinkies.

Today was my only opportunity to get them before Katie's deadline of Monday. With my bag packed full of uni books (six thick books, plus a dictionary) I set off for Covent Garden (where Tim had said the shop was). Via Leicester Square. Upon arrival at Covent Garden (so not ten minutes away), I checked the map (remember that I have a very heavy bag) at Covent Garden tube station and saw that it was actually at Leicester Square. Thanks Tim. So, with my heavy bag I set off back down the road I had come along to Leicester Square. Then I found the shop and the Twinkies. Great!

Then it dawned on me - I would have to break my rule. I would have to travel on the Central Line at peak time. Now anyone who has ever done this can tell you what a horrible experience that is. So I get the tube to Holborn and then get the very hot, very packed, Central Line train. Very, very hot. And I have the heaviest bag in the world (and it's got one strap, so that's some concentrated weight). I had my face pressed up against a bald guy's sweaty head. And another guy's earphones were playing TechnoSmurfs in my ear. And I forgot to mention that I was wearing an Arctic coat that kept me warm in -26 degrees. Completely unable to move my arms to remove it. I was perhaps the most miserable I have been for a long time!

I tell Katie that I've got the Twinkies and the other things she asked me to get (I remind her that I am not a personal shopper). She is quite happy and says 'the drama teacher will be so impressed that I went to the effort of getting some real American Twinkies'.

Well done Katie.

Glynjohnball

Man, all this HoDo-ing is tough. Anyway, after my last post, Glyn's comment reminded me of the joy that is Glynjohnball. After having ransacked my room, I found the only two surviving pictures of the creation of Glynjohnball. This game is native to the Channel Islands (in that we made it up in the pool room of the Salvation Army in St. Peter Port, Guernsey in 2003).

You may be wondering where the name 'Glynjohnball' came from. Well, we put Glyn's and my name together to make 'Glynjohn' and then we added 'ball'.

This is Glyn making a throw-in (you have to face the other way and throw it over your shoulder). Of course. This is Glyn and me mid-play. You'll notice that we're running. There's a lot of running in Glynjohnball (Glyn and I were at the tender age of 19 when this was taken, so we were much fitter).

Glynjohnball took off in a really big way. Before we knew it, loads of youngsters were playing it, and having a jolly good time. Until Lewis came in and told us to stop getting everyone overexcited.

Killjoy.

Do you HoDo?

(pronounced 'hoe', as in 'hoe' and 'doe' as in a deer. A female deer.)

Now, I don't know whether 28th February is an important date to you. But I can tell you that 28th February, 2007, was the day that HoDo was born.

'What is HoDo?' I hear you ask.

After another door was slammed in my face while walking around the university today, I thought 'now, wouldn't the world be a better place if everyone held the door open for other people'. You know that it would. And thus came HoDo into the world. (HoDo = Hold Doors Open). The more people who HoDo, the better. Currently there is only one HoDo (a person who HoDoes is also a HoDo) - i.e. me. But hopefully this trend will spread.

Rules of HoDo:

a) A HoDo always opens/holds open the door for anyone (including non-HoDos), EVEN if that person may not be particularly close to the door.*

b) A HoDo always says thank you whenever someone holds open the door for him. And not just a grunt, but a proper 'Thanks!'

c) A HoDo always thanks a car that stops at a zebra crossing. (Not strictly anything to do with doors, but it's just politeness).

*Of course, if the other person is a REALLY long way away from the door, then it's ok for the HoDo to leave the door. Otherwise they'll just look weird.

Now, I know what you're thinking - I do that anyway. Well, that's great - keep it up! But wouldn't the world be a (slightly) better place if everyone was a HoDo?

I HoDo.

Do you?

(HoDo Count = 1)

A Slightly Different Approach...

This suave chap is Sigurður Ingimarsson. Or rather Captain Sigurður Ingimarsson of The Salvation Army. If we a had competition to find the coolest Salvation Army officer (and I think we should), I think this guy would have a fair chance of winning. This guy doesn't even need a polo shirt to be cool. Not only does he lead a Salvation Army corps in a small town in Iceland, with his wife, which has a monthly rock/gospel event attended by around 120 kids each month, he is also - as far as I know - the only Salvation Army officer ever to have entered X-Factor!Not only did he enter X-Factor, he got into the last twelve! More than that, he got into the last nine! His reasons for wanting to do it? According to the Icelandic Salvation Army website (in Icelandic I'm afraid - although I guess that's understandable). he's always looking for new ways to spread the gospel - and full credit to him! What a great idea.

Unfortunately, he was voted off this week:

I'm wondering whether I can persuade my officer to go in for the next series...

On My Travels...

This week I have been mostly doing work, setting work, marking work and travelling to Latvia.

Yes, I went to Riga, the capital of Latvia, with my friend Katie and we had a great time. I've always wanted to go to Latvia (I have a thing about the Baltic countries - 2 down, 1 to go!) Riga is stunning and well worth a visit. And there was about four inches of snow there - it was nice to see a country where it could snow and the entire country isn't crippled for two days. (Seriously, every time it snows in the UK we act like we're Portugal or something and are dumbfounded that it could snow here, here in Northern Europe of all places...)

After a large McDonalds meal we set off to explore the town (large I'm afraid because I'd forgotten the Latvian word for 'small'). And it was beautiful (Latvia that is, not the McDonalds meal). And because the pound is worth about the same as the Latvian Lat, there was no converting to be done. Which was nice. And yes, we did try Latvian food too - we only went to McDonalds because it was the first place we saw and we were hungry people!

And thanks to Katie for waiting while I spent so long in the bookshops - I should never be allowed to go to a country where the books are that cheap!

Katie took this next photo, which is why the top of the church was cut off (Honestly, how hard is it with a digital camera?!)

A real highlight for me was going to see The Salvation Army in the town. We got a guided tour of the Army's work in the middle of Riga and it was amazing to see the amount they do there for the local community. A huge thanks to Evie for showing us around!

If you look very carefully, you can see Katie sitting on the window ledge! I loved the story behind the Salvation Army's building in the middle of Riga. The Salvation Army built it in the 1930s, but the Germans and then the Soviets blocked the work of The Salvation Army and took the building. An old Latvian Salvation Army officer waited for nearly 50 years until, as Latvia got its independence, she was able to stand in line to prove the building belonged to The Salvation Army and get it back. And now it's finally being used for what it was intended for seventy years ago. That's pretty cool.

It was really cold!

Err... What Is It?

When people hear I’m in The Salvation Army, I’m often told that they have great respect for it – but they’re not exactly sure what it is! And then I thought, well, maybe some of my friends don’t actually know what it’s all about… So I decided to write this post.

The Salvation Army is best known for its social work, but it’s primarily a Christian church. And just like any church all sorts of people attend on a Sunday. We’re known for our brass bands and our uniforms, but lots of Salvationists don’t wear uniforms, and of course you don’t need one to visit on a Sunday!

This is me looking mighty fine in my uniform (obviously the main purpose of the uniform isn’t to make me look mighty fine, but it’s a nice perk ;-) ) Personally, I like wearing it because it says ‘Hey! This is me! I’m a Salvationist/Christian. How can I help?’ (And that’s quite a lot for an outfit to say!)

The Salvation Army was started back in 1865 by William Booth in the East End of London and it now works in 111 countries – from Australia to Argentina, Iceland to Tonga, Papua New Guinea to the Congo. I think that’s pretty cool.

Anyway, I'm not here to tell you how great it is, I'm just telling you what it is and how proud I am to be a part of it. It's pretty difficult to sum everything up in one tiny little post, but if you are interested in knowing a liitle more, you can look at www.salvationarmy.org.uk So if you're ever feeling bored one Sunday morning, why don't you go and have a look?

Overheard...

Overheard on the train to London this morning...


Dad: You see that there, that's 'The Gherkin'.

Kid: OK, cool.

Dad: It's called 'The Gherkin' because it looks like a cucumber.