John Allan's web-site for the Philippians series at Belmont.

Posted in the hope that Ben will blog it, and thus CathSoc people will see it re. a potential CathSoc trip to Belmont.

I had Sunday lunch at Pizza Express with Mark, Monica and Monica’s parents, my fluency with Italian matched my fluency in Italian, Monica did an awful lot of translating. It’s always amusing when a foreign-themed restaurant gets customers from the country of origin, Monica’s Dad wasn’t impressed by the speed of service, but he became very quiet when the food arrived.

On Monday we all went to Living Coasts in Torquay by train, I had the idea to visit Paignton Zoo on Tuesday, so I bought a joint ticket for the linked attractions, saving money and giving me a nice long "weekend". I really like watching penguins, especially the free-roaming penguins, one of who took an interest in my shoes; they’re so cute. The fur seals were a little disappointing, they were just basking unlike the last time I visited when they were squabbling over the highest part of their basking rock, but still they are lovely creatures. We had lunch at the nearby Brewer’s Faire, but ended up sitting around a bar table because there were no free 5-seater tables. I was a bit tired and headachy from spending so much time being in "Asperger social-mode", so I walked at my normal walking speed back to the station, and read my book for 20 minutes or so while the slower moving group caught up.

Today I went to Paignton Zoo, walked from the station to the zoo, and arrived in time for the lion talk and managed to stump the keeper by asking about the differences between African and Asiatic lions. She remembered that Asiatic lions are slightly smaller, but we were both sure there was something else. I looked this up later; Asiatic lions have scantier manes, but tend to be generally have more fur and a fold of skin on the belly. Moving on there were several groups of free-ranging ducklings, and male peacocks displaying all over the site, which was causing the tapirs to huddle in a tight mass, and the meerkats to move through their tunnels into the porcupine enclosure, highly amusing.
I did get one surprise though, one of the keepers from Living Coasts was also at the zoo and she recognised me from yesterday, while stroking a Barbary sheep she had looked after for a while, apparently this sheep has a bad habit of butting his keepers, other than her. I also went to the parrot show, some of the birds seemed less than professional, the cockatoo seemed to have forgotten much of its act, and there were a few other little problems but it was an enjoyable show. Especially when one lady volunteered to assist with one trick involving the macaw retrieving a coin from her hand, not realising just what she was getting into. The shock of the macaw, not a small bird, landing on her arm caused her to drop the coin. I helped out by putting the coin back on her hand, so the act continued without further incident.

This may sound odd, but I often enjoy talking to Jehovah's Witnesses, which was the case this morning, while waiting for someone to open the clock shop I work in.
The conversation meandered a bit, including the importance of the Bible as the "repair manual" for humanity, the importance of understanding the context of the Bible to understand pieces like the significance of Jesus saying "I am" (Mark 14:62) (John 18:8-9), the exact phrase being one only God could use.
The fun part came when he gave me a pamphlet, which claimed that the "new earth" and "new heavens" refer to "a righteous society of people living on earth" and "a perfect heavenly kingdom, or government". I took a different stance following from Revelations (21:1) "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away". I stated my belief this earth would cease to be, like a building with failing foundations it would be torn down to make way for a new perfect earth.
The next fun part that got him thinking was my belief that God actively works through mechanisms understandable by science as well as supernatural means, as the Genesis Chapter 1 version of the creation story, parallels the current scientific belief about the creation of the universe. And that God used evolution as His tool to create all life.
The reason I enjoy these discussions is that I enjoy turning the tables on the evangelists of the less theologically sound religions.
The day continued to be interesting when a chap turned up at the shop carrying a white bunny outfit, apparently he's taking part in the upcoming fun-run to raise money for charity. And somehow the shop was involved in a photo shoot from a local paper, I decided to turn down the opportunity to be photographed next to a giant rabbit.
I then had a few fun jobs to do, fitting a replacement movement into a case, requiring a lot of parts transferred from the old movement. I have the most interesting Saturdays.

Climbing

Went to the Manchester Climbing Centre in Gorton yesterday with Goran, who kindly showed us (myself and Emma) how to climb. We've been a couple of times before (once to Froggatt Edge in the Peak District with some university friends) but have forgotten nearly everything due to the ravages of time. Emma was feeling better, having been off school all week with laryngitis, but still has not got much of a voice, and was a little suprised to run into some of her school kids there (not as suprised as them, I suppose).
Stayed climbing most of the afternoon, with Emma doing most of the belaying (that's the guy at the bottom holding the rope so that you don't hit the floor when you fall off the wall) and me doing the hard work climbing. Apparently I could do with losing some weight.

Saw V for Vendetta - mindless entertainment - in the evening with Hadi & Goran, and then went for pizza, kebab & chicken. Pleasant day. Oh, and Wednesday are 6 points clear of relegation with 5 games to go, so I'm gradually calming down about the football.

I'm not sure whether this is fantastic or hideous. It certainly seems like it would be easier than reading Butler's Lives

I've nearly repaid my student loan, at last the end is in sight, I've decided to stop the deferment, mostly so I don't have to fill out the blasted form again, since there's only a little left to repay.

Sometimes getting benefits is mixed blessing, I didn't realise at the time but many benefits fluctuate over time. My initial Housing Benefit, covered almost all my rent, but it seems that my attempts to update the rent office about the variations got misplaced and so I had been underpaying rent for a while. Thankfully I was able to pay off the difference clear the mess up quickly, although I've requested that the Housing Benefit will get paid into my account, rather than the rent office, and just pay full rent.

I had a couple of things come to mind, while running errands today for work, and wondered what people think about them.

Firstly, Is Hell, a cold rather than a hot place? Hell is often defined as being cut off from God, since God is the ultimate source of everything (energy included), would Hell be a cold barren place, with the fires of Hell being an attempt to keep the (demonic) population from freezing solid, by using the souls of the damned as a fuel source?

The Second one, are some of my current answers to the age-old question "Why do bad things happen?" in reference to natural disasters, is misinformed or stupid decisions. My point being that earthquakes, volcanoes, and hurricanes tend to be regular occurrences in some areas. Yet thousands suffer each time a hurricane flattens known vulnerable areas like Florida and other parts of the South-East coast of America, as the result of their or their family's decision to live in that area. The same goes for cities, like San Francisco built close to known fault lines.

For human relationships, the problems are more complex, but the simplest answer I have is that we willfully ignore God's guidance. To use a computer analogy, we disable the firewall and anti-virus software, because it slows down the computer, and then go surfing porn and 'warez' sites, and then gasp in disbelief when a 'cracker' steals our credit card details and loots our savings. Then when an expert is sent by the manufacturer at his expense, to show us how to fix the problems and prevent them happening again, he gets nailed to a cross for his troubles!

As a summation, Bad things happen because we and others in this world make bad choices, through ignorance and contrariness and we and others suffer the consequences of these choices.

Diseases, I don't really have a good answer for, I must admit that the cold and flu viruses are definitely not one of my favourite parts of God's Creation, just having got over several days of a cold. Does anyone have any insight why God created viruses? It's nice to feel better afterwards, but somehow I don't think that was the reason!

Ben asked a question, sort of. I made a reply, sort of. It took me chuffing ages, so I mention it here to make it seem more worthwhile to myself. I believe it was Pratchett who pointed out that the difficulty in spelling banana is knowing when to stop.

As I'm here, previous posts:

On the resurrection.
On the universe as a closed system.
On faith and works (in various places).
On the problem of evil.
On the Blessed Virgin Mary and labour pains.
On law and grace.

Hello,

Minutes to kill at the library, so I'll blog. Luke's birthday yesterday, so had a meal out at A.S.K. or Ask, depending on who you're talking to. Amazing pizza, but incredibly tired at the end - skipped out before the bill had been settled (not without throwing an appropriate amount of money at those contemplating said bill)

Visited 4/5 agencies now, nothing much has happened yet. One of my old managers is asking me back to do some tmporary work - not sure what to do about that; sounds like a trap, but potentially very useful.

I got a book on Christian Meditation from Chritians Together at County Hall, which is good, and my work colleagues got me (no pound sign!?)35 worth of book tokens, which is a cross between a present and torture, as I had to decide what I should spend that amount of money on - the conlusion: Jeeves and Wooster, An Intorduction to Logic, British History, And a History of the Crusades.

It's going to kick me off any second, so I'd better post. Bye.

Hello there - I have an interview with SPCK tomorrow.

Sheffield was the featured article on WikiPedia today (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield), There was some quite interesting stuff about the sheer variety of the landscape, both in variation of height and habitat types.
Something Dad will find interesting, if he didn't already know is that Sheffield Wednesday FC is the longer-established of the two Sheffield clubs by 22 years

Deus caritas est. Fact.