A barber's son

Dave was 62 when he died this week. He was out jogging when suddenly he passed out of this world and went to join El Pasto and FLN entering a reality described by C.S. Lewis thus:

"The term is over; the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning......the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them."

I first met Dave in 1965. It was a coffee bar like event in a corrugated tin mission in Rawtenstall where I took a big step to becoming a Christian. I have never forgotten it although I can remember none of the prepared questions Dave came round to ask me as I sat there listening to the Crossbeats, a Merseyside rock and roll group. I remember telling him all this last year and he had no idea.

Dave met his wife at that church. Jessica was in the same year at the local grammar school as Teapot and that is how I met her. We were married at the local parish church where Dave became a much loved lay reader. He was also well known in the area as the chairman of the governors of the school we all left all those years ago.

He and I were part of the same bible class under the leadership of his great mentor, Fred Hoyle. I think he liked to see himself as taking on Fred's style as a preacher since Fred himself had been a well liked lay reader before he died.

I remember his obsessive commitment to Gilbert and Sullivan. He and his friends would try to attend as many performances as possible when the D'Oyly Carte opera company made its annual visit for a season in Manchester. So my picture of the sleeve of the biography of John Reed is very apt.

He was very in to cars and drove an Austin mini van, grey in colour, with no door handles on the inside but a plastic wire to pull to open the door. Jessica went off to university in Bangor and I have memories of his tales of daring do outwiting the Welsh speed cops on his jouirney as they laid in wait for the invader from across the border.

And the barber's son? My mother in her knowing way of the tribes people of the valley told me how Dave's father was a tuppeny happeny barber in Coughfold. Funny how we are classified.

I feel so strongly for Jessica his sons Richard and Joel and his circle of close friends especially Chris Jimmy and Duncan. I can imagine the calls at the house, the flowers being delivered, the smell of lilies and the seemingly endless cards. The church will be full for his funeral and the school will be closed. I did not see him often but I shall miss him.

"..we ache with hope
we hold on with hope
we let go with hope"

Steven Curtis Chapman

Matt's Day

The flag may fly for St George. Today may even be Will Shakespeare's birthday but for us it will always be Matt's day, the day he was born on 23 April 1976 and I was there!

Teapot has posted eloquently as ever and she and I with Mrs FLN [and Robbie] have been to Chatsworth for the day determined to be somewhere special but different.

This is the photo I took of Matt on our summer holiday last year as many of you know. It is at the top of Helm Crag and now stands on my desk at work.

I spent some time last night reading his blog. It was like hearing him speak, but not only that, it had the added special brew of quirky musings and passion for what was precious and dear to his heart and soul.

Perhaps in the more quirky vain here are some lines on blogging when he restarted his blog last year!

"Am I a hopeless, serial blogger, crying out into the blogosphere wilderness, hoping to make his mark on the world in some small way? It looks like it.

This time, though, I'm gonna try and concentrate on my life as a freelance IT consultant, with other "life bits" thrown in for good measure. Of course, it will probably ramble off into completely different directions, but that's the beauty of blogging, ain't it? (or is it?)... you see, I'm so pyschologically damaged by blogging I'm already feeling constrained by my self-imposed blogging remit (sic). Why oh why am I doing this? Only time will tell, and I'm certainly not promising to post regularly (can you hear me making my way towards the slippery slope marked "obsessive blogger" once more?) That way lies madness I tell you!"

Perhaps I can call it "an ode to blogging"!

feeling flush....

.....you can purchase an electronically controlled toilet made by Toto with automatically warmed seat, and options for washing and blow drying the rearmost parts.

This is big business in Japan. Trouble is the wiring on some models has not been up to scratch. There have been short circuits, overheating, melting of the toilet seat and a scorched backside! Some seats have even caught fire!

Earlier this week the company's phone lines were jammed by anxious owners following a head line in the evening paper saying "Toto to fix buttock scorching bidets"

What would Thomas Crapper say? He was a master plumber of the nineteenth century and invented a spring loaded lavatory seat which as the sitter rose operated rods which automatically flushed the toilet. Over time the rubber buffers on the underside of the seat would wear causing it to stay down for a few seconds but then release itself rising quickly to smack the unfortunate user on the backside. Not a great idea. His company however is still in business.

All this reminds me of the outside tippler lavatories of the terraced houses of the Lancashire mill towns where Teapot and I grew up. These relied on a wooden board well down the shute which tipped over when the weight of accumulations reached the appropriate point.

Teapot's father is a great story teller as all who know him will confirm. One morning and half awake in the middle of winter he cleared the ashes from the downstairs grate and took them outside to the dustbin. In a moment of confusion he tipped them down the tippler which turned over sending the hot ash down and a plume of steam in return frightening him into the new day with visions of Dante's inferno.

He will be staying with us for a time towards the end of May. An extra slice of cider cake for the first blogger who can get him to tell the story!

Just another day

I remember one of my first blogs on 5 October 2006 with the title "I am optimistic" following the shootings at the Amish community in Nickel Mines Pennsylvania...

...and here we are again in Virginia.

They passed a law in Virginia a few years ago that restricted gun purchases – to a maximum of one per week!

We on this side of the pond find it hard if not impossible to understand how passionate many people are in the States about their so called right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment. If you want to read some of the arguments go to http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/
gerard_baker/article1662949.ece
and some of the comments.

And we think we have a gun culture problem in some parts of our cities!

Easter 2007

What made Easter special for me this year?

I was given these words written by El Pasto almost 5 years ago.

"it comes to us all at some point, and I think it's THE ultimate thing about Christianity that makes its message special, that we know where we are going when we die and it will be great!

It's something I feel strongly about, I suppose because of my work in the hospital but also because it is one of the most important aspects of my faith.

(I don't really see the point otherwise) "

They echo so strongly now. They underline the strength of faith forged in his sharing in the sufferings of others. They capture the hope he shared with FreelanceNerd.

And they speak something of eternity into our loss here and now.

"no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him"

says Paul in his first letter to the church at Corinth

Coming to a hospital near you

On Saturday evening we saw on TV the government's latest idea for hospitals with persistent funding deficits, where targets are not met or inspections come out with a no star or one star result.........

......transportation to the moon and take over by intergalactic management consultants the Judoon.

No hiding from their ruthless classification and search for the guilty. Once they find their quarry justice is swift ....dismissal Judoon style! No Trust chief executive can resist their search.

Here's hoping Mrs EB and Doc Spoon stay earthbound for a while yet.