Music of the day (updated)

In 1998 the Swedish group kent released an English version of their album Isola. It had the “feel” of Radiohead and got decent airplay on the alternative and indie radio stations.

Its hard to pick a favourite track, as most of them are pure class, but “lifesavers”, “if you were here” and “things she said” stand out. However the only track i could find on YouTube is the airplay edit (i.e. short version) of the final song on the album... I won’t complain, it might not be the best but its still good.
So here is kent and 747 (named after the length of the album version, which is infinitely better!)



To see their latest single (in Swedish I’m afraid) click here

UPDATE: I found some more vids from Isola!!
Things she said
AND YES I FINALY FOUND If you were here although it sounds better in swedish (on du var här)

Music of the day

Here's a song from last year... Its from a live performance so lacks the depth of a studio recording, but makes up for it with its raw edgy-ness...

I heard this last year (those who read my old blog might remember how it made up for the lack of coffee one early day...) and its still a great driving song...

So here is The Raconteurs and Steady, As She Goes



(Ok after the initial treat of two songs in one day... I'll stick to one a day and try to find some more good but old ums)

Music of the day

I didn’t really get into music until my late teens, early twenties, so it was british music of the 90’s that shaped my tastes...

I remember hearing a song on the radio back in, I think, ‘98. I quite liked it but as it was on an indie label it was hard to get hold of (sorry this was pre-itunes for you kids out there...). Now it wasn’t great, and when I did track it down I really didn’t want the whole album, so I never bought it. However I came across it on YouTube my accident, so even though my tastes have changed somewhat, here is Electrasy and Morning Afterglow

Swedish Word of the day...

A few years back I was sharing a suite in a hotel in budapest with some swedish colleagues and one complained about the bed- he'd just got a Tempur mattress so the one in the hotel was killing him. I'd never heard of this so he explained that it was a memory foam mattress. Later on, Katarina explained that they had been developed for NASA and I was given a pillow. I have to tell you, as skeptical as I was, it works. Now I hardly ever have neck aches, and if I do, its because I wasn't using it.

So today's SWOTD is kudde or "pillow".

Why do I blog?

(I’m really setting out my stall here...)

I started my old (typepad) blog for several reasons; I wanted to share some pictures of my Mexico climbing trip, I wanted to keep in touch with friends, I I needed a virtual church noticeboard as our church was going through a rebuild (I used to post pictures to keep members up to date with the progress), I wanted to get in on some conversations online. So on the old blog I had a regular “thought for the day” and I got into theological/ministry issues, along with some personal stuff (music of the day, etc).

I stopped the old blog when I couldn’t afford to pay to keep it up (long story- I left ministry to do some more PG study, funding fell through, difficulties finding work, them I got ill) but wanted to keep online so I moved to blogger.

For a while I didn’t post much- mostly because I wasn’t feeling well. As I introduced here my illness even affected my ability to concentrate (read/blog/etc). Now I’m beginning to feel better I’m starting to blog again. This accomplishes several things- I’m stuck at home, either bored or ill so it gives me an outlet. However, if you’re looking for deep theological insight, we’ll I’m afraid you’ll really need to shift it to find the pearls. Its not that I’m not into that any more- Its just that its going to take a while to get back into reading and thinking... so if you can put up with all my junk, please stay and read...

So in short, this blog is really becoming a sort of journal covering my life’s ups and downs. It focuses on my health, my interests and my journey... so maybe the title wasn’t too far off

Swedish Word of the day...

After a feeling quite good over the weekend and ito this week, today I'm not so good. I've a constant low level headache [UPDATE: Its more like a constant sinus headache that increases when I move my head...], I'm a litle lightheaded and dizzy too... Oh well, lets hope its just temporary and I continue to get better.

So today's SWOTD is vacklande or "groggy".

"Economist" on religion & public life

The The Economist(yes I do feel strange and sullied) have a cover story about religion in public life and politics. What makes it all the more interesting is that (although there's no way you'd know as the "forget" to mention it) 7 years ago they published an obituary for god as they thought he (sic) was irrelevant...

Swedish Word of the day...

The post office has released this year's Christmas stamps (and ignited a bit of a controversy... but I can't really be bothered by that right now).

So today's SWOTD is frimärke or "postage stamp".

Edinburgh

When I was a kid (no, don't stop reading...) I found a stack of old Look and learn magazines in a charity sale (for Blue Peter if I remember correctly), so when I found some of their images on the web it brought back memories... Anyway, here is their guide to Edinburgh.

"Holy tipple may take priests over the limit"

In honour of this story in this weekends Grauniad (if you don't get it leave a comment and we promise to only laugh for a bit before explaining) I'm posting one of Jon Birch's Ongoing Adventures of ASBO Jesus

All Saints Day/All Hallows/All Souls Day

I bet that if you attended a Seventh-day Adventist Church last weekend you wouldn’t have heard much about this day in the Christian Calandar. This isn’t just to do with adventist aversion to a liturgical form, but more to the belief in “Soul Sleep”. However, does this mean we throw the baby out with the bathwater?

After all, isn’t it worthwhile spending time remembering the lives of those who have are no longer with us? A time to collectively say thank you for all they gave us, a time to reflect on grief, on bereavement and on death?

You can change the name, you can reject the theology behind the traditional Calandar, but that doesn’t mean we can’t address the subject, does it?

Swedish Word of the day...

(As a bonus- due to my lack of activity recently- you can have two SWOTD today...)

One of my learning methods involves watching films- Swedish films with subtitles so I can hear how the words are pronounced, and English films I know with Swedish subtitles... (Ok I'm also using a language course produced by a reputable educator not just watching TV!).

So today's SW'sOTD is Du ska ju bara spränga bort dörrarna! or "You're only supposed to blow the bl***y doors off" (at least that's how Charlie Crocker's famous words are translated in the subtitles!)

Swedish Word of the day...

I'm not quite sure what Jimmy thought when he popped by to visit last week... The flat must have smelt like bar and I had a haedache... OK, the head ache was real, but the smell came from my experimental mulled "wine" receipe and from the pot that had been boiling away earlier... (yep I know that I shouldn't have let it boil...)

So today's SWOTD is glögg or "mulled wine"

Trick or treat (or how to run a protection racket...)

Its that time of year again...

(I think one of the best blogs about the religious/pagan implications of Halloween is this one, however I want to focus on trick or treating)

I can remember... (oh dear I’m slipping into old phogey mode here), I mean, when I was a kid (no, that’s just as bad), oh just get on with it....

Growing up in the Uk Halloween wasn’t really a big deal. Today you can’t go into the supermarkets without tripping over costumes and mask, all so the little “dears” can go and pretend to be gangsters, Yes thats right, they little “dears” can go and run a parent sanctioned protection racket. “Give us a treat (sweets/money/etc) or will put eggs through your letterbox/window/etc”

I don’t really care that kids want to dress up, I don’t really care that people give them sweets. What bothers me is that society is telling kids that the threat of violence is profitable.

(On my old blog I did point out that if you were into winter climbing, this is the perfect time to get your gear out and prep them for the coming season. Somehow kids don’t stay at the door for a long time if you answer it holding a file in one hand and an ice axe in the other...)

At the Docs...

I saw the doctor yesterday for my monthly check up... not a lot to report as everybody seems to be waiting for me to see the specialist. I'm seeing him in two weeks time, only almost 3 months after being referred! To be honest I’m feeling quite good at the moment. i still have difficulty sleeping and I get tired out easily, but at least I’m not getting really bad headaches or dizzy spells at the moment (hence the inane blogging...)...

Fingers crossed I’m starting to get a bit better...

Preaching...

Yesterday’s SWOTD reminded me that I’ll be preaching (assuming I’m well enough) in Edinburgh on 8th December.

Its almost a year after I last preached (although thats not actually true as I led out in worships/devotionals at the camp in summer) and its strange to think that I used to do this every week.

Funnily enough it was actually easier to prepare for when I was preparing a sermon almost weekly than it is annually! I must have used every approach- I went from preaching from a complete text (actually quite useful as I printed out a copy in font 16 for a deaf member!) to using notes to keywords (once a member couldn’t believe the piece of paper he found in the pulpit with 6 words on it were my sermon notes...).

I think the secret was the fact that I used to live with the text for a week. I’d be reading it on saturday and sunday after church, then after a day off on Monday i’d be back with it. I’d read around it, I’d ask questions of it, I’d look for answers, during the week my visits and bible studies would impact on it and by the time i got to look at other book/commentaries by the end of the week I would normally have a handle on it. Thursday it would be coming together and usually by friday it was there...

Now without that routine I’m kinda lost! I have a title though (but I find that I forget my ideas as they are spread out over weeks not days!) so if you’re in the area hopefully I’ll have “beginnings and endings” ready by December!

Swedish Word of the day...

Listening to Swedish radio yesterday I understood (guessed) that they were trying to give out an email address.

So today's SWOTD is snabel or "@" (or trunk!).

Swedish Word of the day...

Katarina was reading a book over breakfast yesterday, when I asked what the title meant I was told to look it up. which I did...

So today's SWOTD is predikanten or the preacher.

Swedish Word of the day...

I had to go to B&Q to get a few things to finish off the skirting boards... I had to stop and ask what one of the items was on the list though...

So today's SWOTD is spik or nail(s)

Swedish Word of the day...

I was browsing the website of a climbing club in Sweden and came across the word for guide (or topo). As I hope to do a bit of climbing there one day I'd better start learning the word.

So today's SWOTD is förare or guide

Swedish Word of the day...

(As some of you may know, in order not to die of boredom, and for future practical, and present personal reasons-wow I really murdered the English language there- I'm trying to learn Swedish... So when I find a new word thats interesting, or if I just feel like I need to be reminded, I'll post it up here)

On sunday we went for a short walk along the cliffs near here, we noticed that the ferns/bracken were starting to go brown and die off... so today's SWOTD is ormbunke or fern

Reality Check (update)

Thanks again to all those who commented on the last post- I do appreciate it!

I thought I’d let you know how I am at the moment.

I am better- I don’t get headaches as often and I can walk/be active for a bit longer before I get tired out. Also I recover quicker- It doesn’t take me days to get back after some exertion.

I still get bad days- this week I was quite tired and useless around the house for a few days and this morning I feel rather bad- I haven’t slept well for the past few days and this morning I feel tired- both physically and mentally.

I’m also bored as there is not a lot for me to do to keep occupied... I’m trying to get back into reading as I can concentrate a bit more. I’m also trying to up the pace on my language course... I want to have made noticeable progress by Christmas...

oh well, thanks for listening...

The Noble Peace Prize (or... why didn’t they complain last year?)

I read on several sites/papers/blogs that the IPCC & Al Gore don’t deserve the this year’s prize. Whilst I disagree with those who doubt climate change- I believe the science is mostly sound, I can understand why people might be asking why the “peace” prize...

But where were they last year when the same prize was won by an economist (Muhammad Yunus) and a bank (Grameen) in Bangladesh “for advancing economic and social opportunities for the poor, especially women, through their pioneering microcredit work”.

So why didn’t they complain that this wasn’t a “peace” prize but an “economic” one?

I think that many either have an axe to grind against either Al Gore or climate change itself, or simply don’t share the Noble committee’s wider understanding of peace.

Peace is not just the absence of violence or conflict, it is also the presence of justice and rights, and dare I say it, an environment to live in too...

(incidentally the 2004 winner, the kenyan Wangari Maathai was an environmental activist before a political one and her prize was partly for her contribution to “sustainable development”)

Another Wrongful Execution?

A story in todays Guardian argues that Dr Crippenmight not have been guilty of the murder he was charged with. It appears that recent DNA tests show the body which was found was not his wife’s...

Anglocentric viewpoints...

I saw this story about an Alzheimer's blood test on the BBC yesterday. It claims the research is based at Stanford University in the US.

However, listening to Swedish Radio's English broadcast yesterday I heard that the research was a collaboration between 3 universities- an institute at the University of Göteborg, Malmö and Stanford... 2 Swedish Universities and one US...

Strange how that wasn't mentioned on the BBC!

Former Chief of Defence's & Defence Civl Servent's take on the "Just War"

Max Hastings has a good column in todays Guardian about Lord Charles Guthrie and Sir Michael Quinlan' book on the Christian Just War principle

Although not entirely happy with the theory (I side more the non-violent civil disobedience/pacifist view... most of the time- I'm complex, aren't we all?), It was one I used in sermons in the run up to the Gulf war as it had a history and was understood by members. As this column mentions, even on these criteria the current Gulf folly failed to find merit.

40 years ago...

Seeing as its 40 years since Che was killed in Bolivia, I thought I'd repost the story (from my old blog) of the Seventh-day Adventist minister who saved his life when the Cuban revolution started...

In the darkness before dawn on November 25, 1956 82 men, along with their equipment, crowded onto the 60ft yacht Granma and left Mexico for Cuba.

The voyage was an unmitigated disaster! The boat was originally designed to hold 12 people and the journey took 7 days instead of 5 (which meant that the diversionary attack in Santiago had been and gone- along with their reception party of men and trucks, and of course Batista had now put his troops on full alert...), and their arrival in Cuba was more of a shipwreck than a landing (trying to find the Cabo Cruz lighthouse their navigator fell overboard, they used up the valuable darkness trying to rescue him, then when they headed for land they crashed into a sandbank)! And of course, they'd been spotted and so when the reels waded ashore (having abandoned most of their equipment on the sinking ship) and managed to eventually regroup (which took 2 days!) they were ambushed (it didn't help that their guide went straight to the nearest soldiers to report their position). In the ensuing melee Che was shot in the neck and the Castro brothers ordered a retreat; fortunately the wound was only superficial, however when they finally managed to regroup, only 22 of the original group were left alive.

Che ended up in a group of five with only a litre of water and a tin of milk. Over the next days they tried to evade the army and survive- before long they had spilled the milk and were desperately trying to share the water! A week after the ambush they found a peasant's hut and were about to go in when they heard a military toast coming from inside! They ran away, and the next day, by now tired, exhausted, and fearing that the rest of their colleagues (including Fidel) were dead they decided to knock on a farmers door and take their chances.

It turned out that the owner was a Seventh-day Adventist pastor and they were received warmly. Even more good luck awaited them. The pastor was a member of Fidel's July 26 movement and so was able to connect them back into the revolutionary network (in fact the next day church members started showing up bringing more news of the rebels and their whereabouts)! Sadly Che and his colleagues weren't such good guests: having eaten nothing for more than a week, all the food they'd kindly received had the effect that ‚"the little house that sheltered us turned into an inferno. Almeida was the first to be overcome by diarrhea; and in a flash, eight unappreciative intestines gave evidence of the blackest ingratitude."

The network of church members/July 26 managed to reunite Che with the Fidel and the rest of the revolutionaries and the rest is history.

So, lets all raise a glass of Che's beloved Mate, and light up a habanos, to the unnamed pastor who saved his life.

(from John Lee Anderson's Biog)

Update

Thanks to all those who stopped by and commented on my last post. Thanks for the encouragement. I just thought I'd let you know that the last week has been a better one for me- I'm not feeling so bad and am able to be a little more active... hopefully things will stay that way...

Reality Check

A number of people when hearing about my health problems have said things like, "hope it hasn't stopped you getting out/climbing/walking/etc" because they know how much a part of my life that is/was.

However this I think shows that many people do not know what the reality of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is. You can read a leaflet about it here, however I thought I'd share with you what it is like for me...

I have a lot of pain in my joints and muscles- spending too long at the keyboard or simply holding my electric shaver is enough to give me pain/discomfort in my arm for several hours. I can't walk for more than a few hundred meters without getting tired. My legs then either get heavy and don't want to move or my muscles scream in pain. If I overdo it I can feel this for days. My sleep is disturbed- I go through phases of being unable to sleep at night for days. I get dizzy spells or feel disorientated (it can feel as if I'm drunk for hours). I get dizzy when I stand up. I get really painful headaches. My neck muscles twitch when I lie down. I keep having a sore throat. I get pins and needles in my fingers and toes- my hands and feet get very cold. I can find it difficult to concentrate and think clearly. My stomach gets bloated and I suffer from wind, my legs and arms are losing muscle because I can't exercise like I want to. I get depressed easily and very nervous and worried about things. And that's before we get to the matter of not being able to work since April (admittedly at first they thought it was a virus and they kept telling me it would get better and that I could work again soon... not anymore- my week in Denmark looks like it set me back months- if I know it was CFS I wouldn't have done what I did) and the fact that as of yet I haven't managed to get a penny of sick pay from my 'employers'.

So no, I haven't been climbing for a while (I went bouldering in Feb/April... nothing since), I haven't being going out for a while either.

Please I'm not trying to complain about how bad I have it, I'm trying to get through this. I have been so lucky with the support I receive from those closest to me- I really do understand how hard its been to have to live with me living with this... I just want to put this out there so that people understand what Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is... after all its only been a few years since the medical world took it seriously.

Its been a while... and its not all good...

I haven’t felt like writing much recently- I’m sure you’ll see why if you choose to read on- but this is what’s been happening since I last checked in.

I went to Denmark to take part in a children’s camp (run the climbing wall, meet & greet, etc), and had a really enjoyed it. It was fun and good to meet some old friends too. However, I started to feel ill- I was very tired all the time, felt dizzy and had difficulty concentrating and even went to see a doctor. The following week in Sweden I was still ill, my coordination suffered and I started getting pins and needles in my fingers and toes- I saw two doctors, was admitted to hospital and stayed overnight.

When I came back I saw my specialist again and they changed their opinion about what was wrong with me. Before they had said that I had had a bad viral infection and that time would heal me- now they say that I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (also known as M.E.).

This means that I’m in no position to start a new job, especially one which involves a lot of physical exercise, so the pathfinder position in Denmark is having to be rethought. It also means I have to look at ways of altering my lifestyle and trying to build up my strength over time. It means that I’m still not working (and therefore not earning anything).

I’ve good days and bad days... I’m trying to stay positive, but its not easy to do...

I’ve got an appointment with a new specialist (there aren’t any in Fife so I have to go elsewhere) in November! and have been told that I’m on the (very) long waiting list for the ONE nurse in my area who is trained in this area!

I’ll leave it at that for now...