....sorrow and sighing will flee away

What has Timelord in common with Mr Topsy Turvy?

Answer. We share the same topsy turvy experience of life. Morning good and all that! And there have been things this weekend that have underlined just how much that is true.

I have been reading the writings of Isaiah again and I have been struck by what he says in chapter 35 and my title is taken from the last verse. If you read it there is a kind of topsy turvy story of desert and life, weakness and restoration, and in the end overwhelming joy. But we have to say from our experience ........not yet.

We wait............and while we wait we see around us suffering, pain, fear, bravey and hope in the face of it. Cornish Pixie had this idea of waiting in her worship leading this morning. And as part of it somehow the gaining of strength through waiting on God. How topsy turvy is that!!

So as we enter the season of advent next week end I am determined to stay topsy turvy and face down the crap that afflicts my friends with the hope that is kindled by writers like Isaiah of the day when sorrow and sighing will flee away.

O come all ye faithful

I was passing through the labryinth of passageways between the Victoria line and the Piccadilly line at Green Park Tube Station today when I heard a saxaphone playing and the sounds of "O come all ye faithful" drifting towards me.

The first carol of the year.

I remember posting a blog last year on 2 November recording my first hearing of "White Christmas" in 2006 as I travelled down the Tube that day.

You may say that I must be walking around with ear protectors on; or that I have not been shopping in the Bull Ring, or Touchwood, or Oxford Road or wherever it is. Or if only I had been in school assembly practices of late assuming there still are such things. You should be so lucky you may say.

Yet I can only speak or hear as I find.

By my reckoning the start of Christmas has been delayed 20 days!

Talking Rubbish......

Here is big belly...a waste bin with a big appetite, and a voice, or almost!

It can eat 8 times more waste than an ordinary bin because it has two hydro compaction rams powered by solar energy. And when it has had its fill it sends a text message to the mobile phone of the nearest bin man, ash chap or refuse collection operative depending on your generation.

You can see them on the seafront at Bournemouth.

It would be much more fun of course if they could actually speak or had a name. Perhaps an adjustment with my sonic screw driver would do the trick for the voice, but I am lost for words for a name!!

Happen as well.

Reindeer are coming.....

.....Sunday afternoon and one of the highlights of the week. Robbie and Rudolf will be here soon.

Rudolf has shiny antlers because he likes week old crumble and custard but whether he eats it or simply uses it to polish his manly attributes is something only he and Mrs Freelance Nerd know. I do know that there is no need for a TV aerial when Rudolf is around.

Robbie is the smaller and has been on the wagon ever since I met him and has now lost his red nose.

This time of year is a busy one for reindeers. They have special flying practice in our garden and Rudolf shows off from time to time with a loop de loop. Sadly this does not work too well with a loaded sleigh and he has been grounded before now by local air traffic control.

It is now 4 November and I have still to hear the first jingle bells of the year which just goes to show that being a reindeer is one of the cushiest numbers on earth. See my picture. One night's work and perhaps a month or 6 weeks on show beforehand and even then everyone complaining that you come too early. It is the dream job of every French trade unionist.

And for Robbie and Rudolf one of the best billets in the country as well where they seem to sleep most of the day and are nowhere to be seen when there is food to cook or shopping to buy.

......so perhaps as I write they are stirring themselves from their slumbers and will be here before long. Better find some of that week old crumble.