a short weblog on life, the universe and everything

Make sure it's a Mini adventure

While doing breakfast with my friend Conrad in Northwood today, I saw this Mini. Is it real or fake, I ask myself? To find out, check here. Fabulously clever.

I'm mobile again

Finally... I have a new mobile phone to replace the one that got nicked. My old number has been migrated so you don't need to update your records, just send me lots of loving texts! :-)

Light bulbs at the ready?

I'm kind of setting up two brand new things right now. That's why I'm so quiet. Sssshhhh...

The first is my new role as Oasis Global Prayer Co-ordinator (I start officially on 1st August).

The other enterprise is a web design business. I'm a bit stuck on what to call it, so, if you have any revelation or creative spark about that one, please suggest it in 'comments'.

Travelling companions

Tonight I sat opposite a woman who was sobbing her heart out on the Tube. Her name was Annabelle.

As I travelled from central London out to the suburbs this young lady wept uncontrollably the whole way. Eventually, I offered her a tissue - and in doing so learnt that her best friend's sister, Fiona, was killed on the Piccadilly line last week. Her murder was confirmed tonight.

I'd just been through King's Cross and seen the flowers, the memorials, the general defiance.

Opposite me, another gentleman cracked a couple of jokes. I don't mean in a mocking way; he was using humour to cope. Simply wanting to include him in the conversation, I asked, "Do you know anyone who was affected by the bombings?"

"Not directly," he said sparingly.

"Indirectly?" I enquired.

The man's eyes welled up, and he could hardly get the words out. "I was working down there afterwards ... I saw bits and pieces ... " was all he could manage.

Then our train stopped. The three of us, perfect strangers, got off together. We found out that we live in the same town.

Events like this kind of bring home the madness of these horrific attacks in a whole new way.

Another confession from Jon

I'm off to Africa for a month, May 16th to June 21st. Wow... can hardly believe it. But I DO believe it! I'll be 'shadowing' the OAS!S global prayer chain as it passes through Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Uganda, before doing a bit of safari with my brother Tim in Tanzania and other family members.

40 DAYS AROUND THE WORLD

Something small I've been working on since Christmas: organising 40 days of non-stop prayer - that's 1000 hours, through 20 prayer rooms, in 9 countries, across 5 continents...

40 DAYS is really an event for those most closely connected with OAS!S, to pray globally like never before, but if you do that praying thing yourself, perhaps you'd like to join in over the web? Click on the pic for our special website built by a team of 3 in London, Mumbai and Sao Paulo. Fun!

JON IS THIRTY... almost

I'll be thirty on May 14th and would *love* as many of you who can to come to my party weekend! Much love, Jon.

Tony Blair: "Church.co.uk is fab"

Tony Blair has just called an election here in the UK for May 5th. However, the real news was two weeks ago when he dropped in on my workplace to say:

"Is it really right that you call this building... church.co.uk? I think that's fabulous!"

The evidence for this is here. To listen to Blair's 30 seconds on Church.co.uk, click through and follow these steps:

1. Select the webcast link in the middle of the page
2. Enter your details in the e-form that appears, then
3. Select 'Faithworks Lecture - Tony Blair MP' and listen to the first couple of minutes.

In his Faithworks Lecture, Blair talked about faith and politics too. The story featured in virtually every daily newspaper, on radio, and on Sky/BBC/ITV news the next day. Even made it into the Baptist Times eventually, hehe... Church.co.uk, meanwhile, featured satirically in the political sketches of The Guardian, The Times and The Independent. (Yes, we were the subject of some mockery.)

All serious fun... but very surreal, I have to say. Very surreal indeed.

Meet the Monkeys

Took a trip to London Zoo on Saturday to 'meet the monkeys', in their brand new walk-through enclosure. Slightly depressed by the ticket price (£14) but impressed that a chunk of it goes towards conservation, including breeding programmes for some of the vulnerable and endangered species housed there. Saving creation is part of God's kingdom, after all, isn't it? Get a small piece of the action here or a close-up of it here.

Absent without leaving

You know you've been away from the blog for a long time when certain friends start phoning you, wondering if you're ok. Thanks Trev! As ever, there's lots going on, lots to report online. Over the coming days I won't be leaving or abandoning all this web stuff; in fact, probably the opposite.