Over the last year my working patterns have become increasingly messy - having Monday as a day off hasn't always worked as well as I'd hoped, and working from home for a while reuslted in blurring of boundaries I'd worked quite hard to establish.  This morning I decided to take heed of my own preaching the other week and make today a proper relaxation day... it pretty much worked.

Central to my day was a visit to the cinema to see Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, which I thought was both beautiful and deeply sad.  Hopping back and forth in time to present two (or three) stories, it explored something of the "deep heart relationships" of the lao tong contractual partnerships of women in nineteenth century China.  Playing to an audience of seven, it was hardly a big box office draw, but I thought it was worth the £6 odd I paid to see it.

A bit of Christmas shopping, lunch out, a new radio alarm clock (the one I bought about three years ago proved not a great buy!) and some new kitchen scales (to replace some that finally gave up the ghost after about 30 years!).

All in all a good day.  Just need to keep it up now!

As part of today's service on the above hteme I am using a video short from a few years back with Paul Field singing 'God of the Moon and Stars' which you can download here for free. Embedding is (understandably given you can get it eslewhere) disabled on the youtube version.

Googling to try to check the copyright status this morning, I also found another version on youtube - not sure if it's the original lyrics (the second pairing doesn't fit so smoothly into its location in the song; there is no clear answer to irignal words I can find online) but it's more outrageous, more generous, more challenging.  Watch, listen, ponder... not only what it says but your own response... afterall, God is the God of sinner and saint, tax-gather and Pharisee...

Of course, whatever the orignal wording - the nice tame 'near and far' or the disturbing (for many) 'gay and singles bar' - the end message is identical - God is the God of everyone and everything , everywhere... and that is pretty ourtrageous!

Yesterday was a stunningly beautiful autumn day - golden, crisp and cool.  Unusual for bonfire night, in my experience.

This morning as I looked out of the window, having been roused by a hungry moggy at 6 a.m., it was misty and frosty... and also beautiful.  Not sure my pics taken from the window, do it justice, but still...

As I am, unusually, taking my car to church today (too many things to carry!) I will have go get the scraper out soon!  Mine is the blue car in the middle... well frosted up!

Just a thought... last week I decided to get organised and buy some snow-grips for my shoes just in case we get another snowy winter ... is this my reward/punishment?!

Somehow if we hear the word 'abomination' in a Biblical context it carries a level of disgustingness beyond any other (yes, I'm inventing words again... disgustingness).  Anyway, in the light of some of the recent debates I decided to use an electronic Bible to find out hust what it is that is an abomination to the LORD and to ask myself just how selective our reading/hearing is.

According to the NRSV, the word arises 48 time in 44 verses, and among the things that are abominations (no I'm not going to the obvious Levitius 18 and 20 stuff) are the following birds (sic)...

• eagle
• vulture
• osprey
• buzzard
• kite
• raven
• ostrich
• nighthawk
• seagull
• hawk
• little owl
• comorant
• great owl
• water hen
• desert owl
• carion vulture
• stork
• heron
• hoopoe
• ... and bat (?!)

So, I hope that someone has informed the RSPB that opreys are evil, that the ostrich farmers feel suitably guilty at enticing people to eat forbidden food, and that generations of parents realise the damage they've done claiming babies are delivered by storks...    Oh, sorry, you thought the NT overturned all that...?  But the Bible says...  As for the preposterous idea that bats are mammals not birds... shocking!

More seriously, this little list from Proverbs 6: 17 - 19

There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family.

Perhaps if we got a teeny bit interested in this list and pulled the tree-trunks out of our own eys, we'd be better equipped to consider the microscopic specks in other people's eyes...?

Last summer (ie the one just gone) I let my annual travel insurance policy lapse, afterall I wasn't going to be going anywhere exciting and I knew it was likely that the policy would now go through the roof - seemingly having cancer means my bags are more likely to get lost in transit, my passport stolen, or my holiday firm go bust.  I know.  I don't get it either.

Anyway, this morning out of curiosity I tried a few online quotes.  Most wouldn't even quote, 'sorry we cannot offer you travel insurance at this time'.  So, I went back to the firm I used to be with, waded through several questions about my condition... and they offered to cover me for the same price as anyone else, provided that breast cancer, metastatic cancer and pleural effusion were excluded (the latter two I don't have).  Suffice to say, I bit their hand off!  This is me for life now, someone with expensive or narrowed insurance.

But the exciting thing is that I now I can go overseas next year if I so wish!

Thank you Sainsbury's Insurance.  (Others are undoubtedly available, I believe NWB/RBS and Clydesdale offer something similar)