Activity week

The past week has been our activity in work where we have weird and wonderful activities, er, alll week. There were 11 spaces, and for the first time since I have been at the Cornerstone, we filled all 11 places. Not to our regular drop-in crew (they are probably still trying to decide if they should go) but to churchy type kids. A great week with 'Crystal Maze' games, Bananana boating, photo treasure hunt, beach games (in the rain) and a day out to greater Belfast area for a fun pool and Iceskating. I did found these kids a wee bit lacking in street smarts, if you know what I mean, compared to our regulars. I did find it harder to work with churchy kids now, mainly because they seem to need spoon fed a lot of the time. Most of the kids we work with are very capable of entertaining themselves (and sometimes legally too) but you always have entertain these others. Ok, not all the time.
Matt Robinson, an up and coming young youthworker helped out at the week too, and unfortunately, some of the kids were gullible enough to think he was cooler than me. As if ;-)
When we were at the Ice Skating, I saw Lara, a young woman I was youth worker to many years ago. She was a leader in a summer scheme. I watched with great pride, seeing her help young people on the ice, taking time to teach and encourage, some of the things I tried to do with her when she was young (but not on the ice, I cannot teach much on the ice except how to fall). I didn't approach her, for fear of breaking the spell, and the music was too loud to talk over, but it is always great to see ex-young people grown up and being a good example to those that come after them.

Cow Curling

This game is a bit of fun, but the odd thing is the product it is promoting. People actually buy chocolate flavour vodka?

Tragedy and travesty

This week was back to working with the guys. Unfortunately, the first thing that happened was we found out that the father of one of the boys died last weekend in a drowning accident. We were at the funeral, and the whole family were, understandably, in a mess. I always go back to the saying at these times, when I wonder what I can do, that sometimes the only thing that you can do is be there.
Just heard on the news after lunch time that there were disturbances in Garvagh last night, with throwing stuff at passing cars, damaging property and painting the kerbstones (near the end of the marching season!!!) and the UVF slogans on property. News like this makes me angry. I am sure that some of the mob were our regulars. I really want to beat some sense into them. That is the hard part of the job: loving the unlovely.

What's in a name?

Sandcastles, Charlottes nursery, take two whole weeks off a year, one on Christmas week, and the other on the 12th week of July. For those of you who are not from sunny Northern Ireland, the 12th week in July is the week in July that contains the 12th date, for that day is a public holiday. A day when men use their British freedom , decide to walk down a particular road(s) wearing orange ribbons; these men are called 'Orange men', not to be confused with David Dickinson. This results in a) other people loose there British freedom to go down that road to get to somewhere else, and have to go a different road; b) Nationolist Polititions don't get a lie in; c) A good excuse for a few riots, bombs, rapes and murders by people who don't understand freedom.
Anyway, the holidays ment that as both Julie and I were working on Friday, Carol nad Billy came to look after Charlotte. They taught Charlotte 'Humpty Dumpty', but Charlotte could not say 'Humpty Dumpty' and it came out more like 'Engelbert Humperdinck'. Could this be where Arnold Dorsey got the name, trying to convince his manager that the stage name 'Humpty Dumpty' would bring in a younger audience, but unable to say it due to having been at the dentist?

The end days..

The last couple of days of holidays have been very relaxing. Monday was too hot (27-29c)to do much. We were in the garden for a while, and I even did a bit of weeding in the wildlife patch (just over a square meter in 45 mins). After lunch went for a drive so Charlotte could sleep.
Its the same every time we plan BBQ, the weather turns and yesterday was no exception. There was a north wind that blew a sea mist over ballymoney, so it was chilly, and a bit damp at time. But we still had a good day with Alex and Christine, good food and god company, you cannot beat it.
On Monday I watched a bit of Richard and Judy. They were talking about the terrist attacks and specifically, what to do if you see somone behaving strange on the bus, suspecting them of being a bomber. Richard asked the expert if they should physically restrain him or go over and talk to him. The expert said that if you see someone behaving oddly on a bus, you should tell the bus driver to stop the buss and get everyone off. There is soooooo much wrong with most of this, especially considering how many odd people you see on busses.

Mum

We were in HamiltonsBawn over the past couple of days seeing my Mum. Her mind is alot sharper than it has been, but her body, particularly her legs, are getting weak.
We took her to Scarva for a cup of tea and a look at the flowers.


I never realised how beautiful Scarva is without the bands, Black men and crowds of the 13th of July. Good place for a cup of tea. All four of us enjoyed ourselves in varuious ways (Charlotte learning how to open and close a gate 50 times, and helping mum steal sweets from our car).

Charlotte was more sure of herself from last time and played both in and out of the house.

TV round up

With Dr Who finished, and New Tricks gone, what can I watch now?
What about the second season of americas 'the aprentice' . Now thats what I call good reality TV.
Enterprise has finished on Channel 4 (at last) so hopefully they will replace it with new Stargate:SG1.
I do read books and talk to my wife as well, incase you were worried.

Goodbye, hello (and goodbye again)

This week we said goodbye to our good friend Caroline (one of the acclaimed Rountrees) who is relocating to Wakefield to a new job. It is sad to see her go, but the way the world is now, she isn't that far away by plane, post, e-mail or even blog (hint, hint).
We also said a brief 'hi' to Anna and K Wells. Anna was a good friend of us at university (not that I went to University), and she married K from USA and lives in Oregon. Anna is one of the most genuine people I know and K is just a really cool guy (even likes Farscape. cool or what!!). It was great to see them, wish it could of been longer. They are showing friends that came with them the delights of our wee islands (they have been to Edinburgh, and were on there way to the giants causeway).

Anna

& K

Beautifull location (and wife)

New Batmobile

BatGirl

Robin and Howard the Duck

Dad talking about comics.

Good food

One small step for John and Jacquline, but she is only 19 months.

Makes it!!

Typical Glasgow weather



Comic book guy

Holidays

Back from our holidays to find we have another week off together. Julie goes back on 13th while I gat one more day of freedom.
Centreparcs was great, and really child orientered.
We bumbed about mostly, and hired bikes, went swimming, shopping and ate loads. Charlotte took a day to get used to it but after that she was in great form. Julie took her to a toddlers music group where they sat in a circle and sang songs. Charlotte is a shy child and kept to her self, untill they sang 'five speckled frogs'. The children were encouraged to go into the centre of the circle and pick up a frog. Charlotte went up and took two frogs, one for her and one for the child beside her. Awh!
We do hope to go back to centreparc some year.
John and Jacquline pamperd us in Glasgow with great food and rest, as they endeavoured to entertain Charlotte (much head shaking ensued). Charlotte loved their stairs and continually climbed them (if it was an escalator, we could of left her there all day). I did get to buy a comic or two, including the great and very funny 'Formerly Known as Justice league'.