The Joy of Shopping

Today we got the family shopping in. This is one of the highlights of the family week, filled with as much fun as a 21 moth old can handle. While Julie uses her list making power to do the actual shopping. Charlotte and I go through three stages.

1- Running around the shop like mad things.

When Charlotte runs, you can imagine 'road to Amarillo' playing in her mind. Also included in the itinery is picking up odd objects from the shelves,

and waiting for grannies to say 'what a lovely boy' (for some strange reason, old people, and mainly old men, seem to think that every baby and toddler is a boy, despite any evidence to the contrary, including wearing pink dresses).

2- Up on daddies shoulders, leaving daddy with a sweaty neck, atleast I think it was sweat.

3- In the trolley for spins and the odd treat.

Today was our 5th wedding anniversary, and to celebrate we went out for lunch. Charlotte got a balloon on the way out, and then while Julie held the balloon, Charlotte ran away from her around the car park shouting 'I am not a number'. She slept on the way back.

Tonight Julie and I tried to watch ocean's 12 (part of our anniversary gift to eachother). Unfortunately, Julie got lost in the plot after the first 15 minutes, wondering when the minis were going to come into it.

Lie down and tell me all about it

Thursday night was good in work. While we had hard to handle guys in, they were great, and we had no bother. At one point we heard the whiz of what sounded like a firework, as it is the time of year that they start appearing on the street. When I went down to the door to see, I found them playing with a rocket baloon. Great fun.
Friday I had an interview for a course in Ballymena tech, Counciling with young people. I knew from talking to Caroline that it was just a 'get rid of the people who think this will allow them to practice' interview. Liz, the tutor interviewed me, and I think I ended up interviewing her more. She was encouraging me to see this course as a step to the Diploma in Councelling, which, acording to her, would allow me to practice (I always have the image of Lucy from the peanuts cartoons with her wee booth when I hear about counceling). I am a we bit doubtful of this, but doing the diploma in a few years might be a good move (but it is advised that you recieve counceling yourself while you are studying the diploma).
Oh yes. I was offered a place on the course.

Cool toys

I do like cool gizmo toys, but am truly aware that the fun of them wears off after a while (my own toy boy atests to that), but I have come across a couple of really cool toys (and as it is nowhere near my birthday or Christmas, you will know that this is no hint).
How cool is a Radio Control Dalek to scare the neighbours cat, and i thought the Darth Tater was cool untill i saw Spud Trooper. Geeks across the country are now counting pennies.

On another subject, I tend to read too many books at once. I am in the middle of Marks Gospel, The Seizing Art of Kung-Fu, Heart of Darkness, and some Clive Cussler audio books of Dirk Gently stories. Boys own adventure stuff, but good fun. It never gets confusing between them, probably form reading comics and mixing different stories. Infact, I am watcing Lost both on chanel 4 and RTE (about 13 weeks ahead). That is confucing.

Subtle decoration

On Friday we took two of our older boys in work to Belfast. This came from a conversation we had a few weeks ago about loyalist paramilitary, and how great it would be to go to the Shankill Road. So we took them, on a Belfast City open top bus tour.
These are part of the peace dividend, more tourists mean more for them to do and the fleet of busses grows every summer.
We went round the Titanic Quarter, to see where the ship was built, then through the town centre and up the Crumlin, before reaching Shankill Road. This is where the boys suddenly came alive, getting the camera and camera phone out.
The tour guide started "and on your right is a mural...", boys lift camera "... of the Queen Mother." Boys lower camera disappointedly.
They ended up taking photos of the subtly decorated Shankill Road Rangers Supporter club and some paramilitary murals. Then the Falls road. I really wonder what went through there heads at this time, but they talked afterwards about the murals, and mentioned some of the ones on teh Falls.
Good discussion with them afterwards. We really don't know how it will effect them, but we hope it showed them that Garvagh is such a small place, and that our petty difference don't amount to a hill of beans in the rest of the world. I do know thatthe photos they took will be circulating round Garvagh, mostly as mobile phone screen savers, as i type. So conversations will come over the next few weeks. Most of what I try to get them to do is understand the real history behind what they belive. Getting back to the reason for being Protestant/loyalist. (Interesting bit on Peter Davids [August 21, 2005] site about not going back to the source material.)
We then went to the Lagan valley leisure pool, and had a discussion on how best to remove a nipple ring.

Long weekend

On Saturday we had some youthworker friends in for tea. Ruth, Gail and Natalie. Natalie works in Legacurry, and is quite a bright, down to earth young youth worker, that a few of us have got to know at the Youth worker days in Church House. Great to have them all and the craic was 90. We talked a lot of rubbish, but just as much about real topics in youth work.
Sunday service was taken by Rev. Ronnie Wilson (Kenneth still in Romaia on a team). He really turned me off when he was about do the readings. He told us the page number and then waited until we had looked the passage before telling us what it was. Even more insulting was that the passages were Mark 1 and in Revelation! I felt quite patronized.
As it was such a beautiful day we took a walk in the 'port' after lunch, and Alex and Christine were round after that for a while. Then I tried to get Julie into 'Lost'.
I took today off with hours I have built up, so were were at Junction One, and Antrim Libury sale (100's of books. I got and Astrix book, one on Kung Fu, Bill Bryson and a Fimbles Video for Charlotte). Charlotte loved Junction One, as we let her loose, and she ran around like a mad thing.
While Julie was out at Holiday Bible Club, I had a surprise visit form John and Jo (from the wedding). Great to catch up after the wedding. The look like a happy couple.
I feel ready for work now.

Even prouder father

Charlotte is now reading her first 'X-men' comic, and showing signs of mutant powers. Cool.

Not a very exciting week. Not many in drop-in, the hordes have decided not to invade coffe shop, and I have seen a good bit of 'Lost' on RTE.
Our TV started to loose its sound at times, and just when we found someone we can send the TV to to get fixed, it stopped doing it. Now our problem is a DVD control that does not work. It's a hard life.

drunk and possibly dangerous

Quite a disturbing incident today in drop-in. Spud came in drunk, and sat by the snooker table. He is to old for that session, so that is how I first tried to get him out. He wouldn't budge. The conversation went like this:
Me: Spud, you are too old for this session, come back tomorrow.
Spud: (slured enough to strip paint) I'm just sitting here. I never caused trouble.
M: Spud, you have to go.
S: Wheres Ruth?
M: On holiday, but you have to go.
S: Why do I have to go, I never caused trouble.
and so on for 20 mins, going in circles, with Spud progressing to 'I'll Kick you head in', and 'do you want me to splatter you around this room?', and he obviously never heard anybody say no to that question before. I was getting angry and trying not to let it show, but I did make fun of his 'I never caused trouble' mantra, by beating him to it several times.
After the third threat to beat me up, which I did believe, I told him I would call the police. Anther threat to me, and I took out the mobile and did call. It took another 7 mins for him to realise that I actually DID call the feds, and he got notions of violence again. Threatened me and Matt (who took it well) and then got up. He walked about the room and ended up throwing one table tennis bat across the room, and waved another inches from my nose, and yet another threat because I called the police, this time he was going to wipe me off the face of the town. I was trying to not shake too much (fear, not raging anger), and he picked up several snooker balls. He eventually left. I called the feds back to let them know he had gone, and they said they would still send the car (which was at anothr call).
Spud came back in and I stopped him in the hall. ' Don't you tell me what to do' slured Spud, ' infront of my friends again' (there was one other in at the time). ' Don't do it to me either' I replied.
It seems he was making a show for Philip (who was trying to help me get Spud out), but I do not doubt that he was serious about getting violent, even offering to fight me for a tenner!!!! He went through a few 'hard man' talk, ( some, mainly drunk men, use the line 'do you know who I am?', which is fun to reply 'no, do you know who I am?' Really confuses them.) Could be true, but I doubt top paramiltery are willing to beat a youth worker up. Bad publicity.
It really shook me, so we closed early. I think next time I should try to get him to go out, while making him look as if he won.
I'm off now to look for self defence DVDs on e-bay.