Untangle

Marko blogged about a game earlier this week called Untangle. Incredibly addictive but lots of fun.

Have a go!

Aw shucks!

I found out a couple of days ago that this blog has been nominated for an Irish Blog Award in the Best Newcomer category. I have to say I blushed a little when I heard, and felt all happy and smily. I don't think I'll be getting through to the 2nd round of judging, there's a huge list of newcomers and from checking out some of them the competition seems tough, some incredible bloggers out there!

Congrats to everyone!

PS Ruth's Kitchen Experiments has also been nominated in the Food and Drink Category!

Europe is a country

Too funny:

Cruise missiles

Step 1. Tie balloons to car

Step 2. Drive like a madman

Step 3. Watch people freak out

(HT to Marko)

Jargon busted

I posted before about Sainsburys making an effort to explain how their chicken is produced with little luck but just found this jargon buster on Channel 4's Big Food Fight section that explains this all better.

Be informed!!!!

Irish Blog Awards

The Irish Blog Awards are about to be judged! I've been reading their blog recently and am actually quite excited to discover some new local blogs... yeah I could google and find some but hey if someone else is going to list them for me why waste my time? Anyways there seems to be a lot of hype about it at the minute and they're not even announcing winners until 1st March!

Another working Monday

I mentioned before how Monday is my day off but also how I had ended up doing a little work then. Today turned out to be the same but it's all good.

Firstly, the day started off with a training morning being held in Church House for youth leaders, teachers, ministers etc being held by CEOP talking about Internet Safety for children and young people. It was really very interesting and actually taught me a few things... well it was more of an advertisement for websites I've never encountered before.... but also made me understand a little bit more about the threats and dangers young people face online. I'll definitely be looking into this a bit more and hopefully will be able to do some of the training they have produced with the young people in Bannside.

After that I rushed down to Banbridge for an event at one of the catholic churches in the town,where Mary McAleese was going to meet with the clergy in the town as part of her first official visit to the town. I never really had any thoughts on what she may be like in real life, but she was very warm, personable and enjoyable to listen to. My boss spoke a little about the history of the clergy group in Banbridge and what all has come out of that group in terms of cross community relations and ministry to the town from working together. Mary got up after that and spoke for a while and she encouraged the clergy in their work, talking about the influence the church has had in Northern Ireland both through the troubles and since the troubles. She finished with a metaphor of the river: it starts with just a little trickle but as it comes down the mountain and to the sea the flow becomes faster and the river wider, and the impact on the environment all the stronger. A beautiful image.

Not a bad day at work really!

Free Christian Children's Talk 1

Very often I have to do what's called a "children's address" in our church service, I've used similar talks in school assemblies and in some of our children's groups. So seeing as I'm starting to share some of my youth resources I may as well share some of these too.

This one was inspired by my recent visits to the dentist.

I have to apologise for the way it's written, it always feels weird to write like that but it's vaguely what I would have said. It's also aimed at children between the ages of 3-8/9.

Well I have some pictures to show you this morning and i want you to tell me who is in each of them.

Who's this? A policeman, and he's catching a robber. Policemen work very hard doing all sorts of things but the main thing that they do is work to get rid of crime.


Who's this? A doctor and the doctor has to do lots of training and works very hard to help us get rid of bugs when we're sick or pain when we're hurt.


Who's in this picture? The dentist and in this picture he's pulling a tooth! Ouch! The dentist gets rid of pain in our teeth and fixes what's wrong with our mouths.


What's happening in this picture? A fireman is rescuing someone from a fire, what else does the fireman do? He puts out fires, he takes away fire that can harm us.


Who's in this picture? The bin man! He comes and collects all the rubbish and the recycling to take it away for us.


This is someone you might see at school, who's this person? The caretaker. He works hard to clean up the school and get rid of dirt and mess so the school is clean.


This is the last photo, it's a bit hard because we don't really have these people in our country, but lots of other countries might need them. Let them have a guess at who this might be. It's an exterminator, he goes into houses and other buildings when little bugs or mice or other little creatures move in that shouldn't be there and he gets rid of them.

The bible says: But God shows his great love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners. (NCV)

All these people have jobs where they get rid of something and all those things they get rid of are all things that are bad for us: crime, sickness and pain, sore teeth, fire, rubbish, dirt, bugs and mice....

Jesus did something very special when he came to Earth, he loved us so much that he died on the cross so that he would take the blame for all the bad things we do. And he did all that so that we could be friends with him and go to heaven to be with him. Jesus takes away the bad things so we can have a great promise of heaven.

But he doesn't just take away the bad things and forgive us as soon as we do them, we have to pray and ask for forgiveness so that can happen.

Let's close our eyes and talk to God.
Dear God, thank you for Jesus, thank you that you love us so much that you sent him to die on the cross for us. Please forgive us for the bad things we have done, help us to choose the right thing in future. In Jesus name, Amen.


Pictures sourced from Google image searches

If you are using this talk please let me know for curiosity's sake, I'm just interested to know where it's being used.

Our first radio show....

....turned out rather well. Initially we were very nervous, but soon got into the swing and had a great time, made a few mistakes but fixed them alright. All in all a great first show. We're next on this tuesday (8-10pm) and that should be our slot from now on. Looking forward to the potential this has for our young people.

Radio time

A while ago I had asked Would I make a good DJ? I decided that time wise I really had very little and declined the offer. However I was asked if maybe some of the young people from church would like to be involved. So to cut all the details out of the middle the plan is that some of our young people will take turns at hosting a time slot we've been given. Tonight is our first night on Shine FM 102.4FM between 8 and 10pm, but then from next week we'll be taking the same time on Tuesdays instead. It should be fun but I do feel rather nervous about it all at the same time.

Typing test

Can't remember whose blog I saw this on but had to have a go:

49 words

free Touch typing

Hmmm not happy with that, will have to have another go later

I really am mad

Just to explain what I meant earlier when I said "it'll get weirder when I post about him later today" have a look at my latest post on my cooking blog.

Happy birthday Stewie!

I love Mondays

Monday's are my official day off... well except for today when there was a little emergency rush for me to write a document for the church committee tonight, however I don't have any other work to do until tomorrow now, it can all wait.

Monday's are great, I chill out a bit, take Stewie for a longer walk than normal, sometimes visit my parents, get stuff done round the house and get the shopping in, which I love. I love it not just for browsing through the groceries and thinking what I'll be cooking and so on, but also cos I have cool little notepads for my shopping list which make me all happy in my own little nerdy way.


I designed it on Vista Print and bought 3 of them. I've had them for a while and am really happy with them. However I've laid out the categories according to the layout of my regular store which causes problems sometimes in other shops so I hope they don't rearrange it any time soon!

And yes I know I'm weird for having a "Stewie" category but hey, it'll get weirder when I post about him later today.

Free Youth Bible Study 1

I've decided it's high time I share some of the resources and things I have or use or write in my work so here's the first installment available for free download for use by anyone. But if you do use it please let me have some feedback on it.

It's a Bible study that I wrote and used with our 11-18 group in October on the story of David and Bathsheba which kicked off a series on "Famous Bible characters, Lesser known stories". (Files in pdf format)

David & Bathsheba Study - Leader's notes

David & Bathsheba Study - Handout

Still on the chicken run

Since we decided to buy chicken that has been given a better life than intensively farmed chicken I've had real trouble getting any. Is it because more and more are buying it? Or do the stores just not have the stock? Well, I was in our local town yesterday passing by the "posh" deli café and noticed something I recognised from Hugh's Chicken Run:


At last! I've found chicken to buy! Yeo!