Glasgow's underground system is in the midst of going 'smart' with electronic cards similar to the Oyster system in London (though a long way from being as sophisticated as it will initially only cover the Subway).

So yesterday I registered for my smart card - a painless online process - and in a couple of weeks I iwll bid farewell to paper tickets as the smart card can be used 'pay and go' as well as for season ticket etc.

If all goes well, this system will be fully up and running in good time for the Commonwealth Games next year, allowing global visitors to pack into our tiny trains and be shoogled through the tunnels to wherever they are going.  It would be great to think it might be fully integrated by then, to cover at least the local buses, but overall it feels like a step forward.

If you don't get the shoogle reference, then try an urban dictionary or maybe go here

The title of this post will only make sense to those who reocgised it as a play on the title of a well-known and well-loved paperback book on history.

Perhaps it is just me, but the BBC's 1963 week seems a somewhat odd juxtaposition of the origins of Dr Who and the shooting of Kennedy, neither of which I recall as was eleven months old at the time of the latter, and, to be honest, neither of them particularly interests me. 

The story telling approach, drawing in minor characters and hearing their voices is certainly a post Modern, if not necessarily Post-Modern, phenomenon.  The idea that all history is, to some degree, 'faction', an elision of 'fact' and 'fiction', may not please some historians, but cannot be denied: whilst certain facts can be independently verified, the 'story' told cannot be other than biased, informed by the aims of the writer.  So I am quite intrigued by the dramatised tellings of these stories, but perhaps the more so by the choice of which stories to tell.  Of course drama does not purport to be history, but it semes a lot of people learn their history from drama (not a new phenomenon - lines from Shakespeare have passed into popular historical consciousness).

I do meet people who can tell me exactly what they were doing when the news about Kennedy broke, and others who can do so for the release of Nelson Mandela or the death of the Princess of Wales, but not so many, and not with such clear impact as perhaps was once the case.  Instead, I suspect we have out own significant moments, in the usually unrecorded stories of our own lives, and evolve our own mythology around them, as verifable facts and interpetted memory intertwine.

... but sometimes reinventing the wheel is a good thing.

I was catching up on stuff on the BUS facebook page first thing this morning (how sad is that?) and spotted a reference to 'beer and carols' which was perceived as really radical by the person posting.  To be fair, contextually, it probably is - but it's also a reinvention of the wheel, something we did annually when I lived in Leicestershire, and it wasn't totally novel even then.

A quick look online and I am pleased to see that 'Sing Christmas 2013' will take place on Monday 23rd December at 7 p.m.  I am minded to give my house a blitz, link up via internet and invite some folk round to participate in it (so long as they can cope with 'in jokes' for Leicestershire).  Have to admit to being disappointed that it looks as if Dibley are not hosting this year, epseically as they now own an ideal venue, but maybe they are doing new and exciting things I know nothing about.

One step removed, but in a similar vein, our Coffee Club will be carolling in our local Wetherspoon's Pub to raise money for their chosen charity (CLIC Sargeant) ahead of our Christmas Dinner there - can't wait!

So today it is evening before I get round to writing - not because I have been slaving away all day (though I have achieved quite a lot of stuff) but becuase it has been a largely unremarkable day.

Today's PAYG was based on one of Luke's more bewildering parables...

As they were listening to this, he went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. So he said, ‘A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return. He summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, “Do business with these until I come back.” But the citizens of his country hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, “We do not want this man to rule over us.” When he returned, having received royal power, he ordered these slaves, to whom he had given the money, to be summoned so that he might find out what they had gained by trading. The first came forward and said, “Lord, your pound has made ten more pounds.” He said to him, “Well done, good slave! Because you have been trustworthy in a very small thing, take charge of ten cities.” Then the second came, saying, “Lord, your pound has made five pounds.” He said to him, “And you, rule over five cities.” Then the other came, saying, “Lord, here is your pound. I wrapped it up in a piece of cloth, for I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man; you take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.” He said to him, “I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! You knew, did you, that I was a harsh man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? Why then did you not put my money into the bank? Then when I returned, I could have collected it with interest.” He said to the bystanders, “Take the pound from him and give it to the one who has ten pounds.” (And they said to him, “Lord, he has ten pounds!”) “I tell you, to all those who have, more will be given; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and slaughter them in my presence.”’ Luke 19:11-27

Sitting immediately after the story of Zaccheus and before that of Palm Sunday it is not an easy read.  Add to this that PAYG was using a Taize chant about God's Kingdom being one of justice and peace and the gruesome ending is all the more stark.  This is a complicated story and the more I read it the less I understand it.  I'm not going to try to explain it (all my commentaries are at church afterall, and I eschew the twee/trite stuff I can find online!) instead I simply invite you to share the bewilderment that comes from this odd story of an unpopular and evidently unkind king who ends up killing those who oppose him, and how that fits with Jesus as 'Prince of Peace' who goes to Jerusalem and certain death...

... well maybe... starting work on Advent 1, circulating stuff for midweek reflections, searching the web for things for Christmas Eve (Christmas Day I haven't even begun to contemplate yet)... I have odd flutters of excitement, moments of frustration and generally a sense that I should be taking the chance to draw breath before it all gets going.

Last night I spent a happy hour wandering around the centre of Glasgow looking at the lights and admiring the huge nativity scene.  Initially cold and crisp, the weather turned to rain then sleet before the sky cleared to reveal a beautiful full moon.  There is something quite magical about cold, dark nights, punctuated by twinkling lights, cheeks reddened and noses nipped by the frosty air, something that carries me back to other times and other places, with other people ... and yet remains entirely contiguous (continuous?) with the here and now.  For sure, it is all a long way from what we purport to be recalling, but it is a defiant hopefulness in what otherwise would be a dark and gloomy time of year.

I have yet to do any Christmas shopping (so far I have a stack of cards waiting to be written and a few ideas of things to buy!) but I do know what I will be using for my perosnal reflection in Advent, which feels positive, and maybe even the right way round.

The next few weeks will be pretty manic, and I will revel in every moment of them, not becuase I must, but because I may.  From cookies to crafts to carols to contemplation, Advent 2013 is filled with promise and I am looking forward to it.