Joan and Zig = one sleep.
Me, two sleeps.

Then we are proceeding with the moving experiences .......

Computer dissembled today.
(keep Lappy operating until tomorrow night)
Forgive the gaps in next few days.
Will blog from my iPhone if I can.
I will have so much inside.
Got to come out.

You are beautiful
whatever the circumstances.
Whatever the feelings.
Don't dissemble from knowing your beauty-full-ness.

Two sleeps

for Joan and Zig

Three sleeps for me.

Then, after 24 years in Romford
we drive away.
"My old man will follow the van..."

Life boxed
life striding
life changing
leaving all behind.

All
but
not
humans.
Human relationships - never.

Relationships
abiding relationships
live on
beyond miles
beyond boundaries
beyond bars
beyond distance
beyond seas
beyond belief
beyond difference
beyond individual uniqueness
beyond
beyond
beyond
beyond

My life is a blurrrr at the moment.

Here we are
Little Sheila and me.
U2ing when I have 300 books to box still.

Goodnight from Boxville.

Coffee



Heaven



with new friends
love it love it

My Mothers chimney pot from her roof with the rest of our garden placed together for the home move on Wednesday. I cannot possibly have time to see U2 in London tonight but .... Er ..

-- Posted from Pip's iPhone
You are beautiful.

The boys were outside...

..... kicking the club door again.
They were on a suspension from club.
Only a week before they had reached a peak of violence.
They had been smashing numerous car windows and stealing from them.
They then steamed the club swinging iron bars and broken cues.
Then six of them had acquired a scaffold pole and rammed it with force at my office window.
All our windows are made of unbreakable glass (it was either board them up and live in darkness, or grill them up and create an environment of hostility and defence – or this type of glass).

It wasn’t therefore the window that broke but the frame smashed and splintered as the glass bent to allow the metal pole through.
I was upset because ‘Gloria’ my canary Gloria has got to flying for some time. Yes, she is OK thanks!


Now the boys were back, eight of them.
I went out to face the hostility while the door was locked behind me.
They were only sixteen/seventeen years of age but I faced a barrage of all sorts of abuse and questioning.
Legs apart, arms by their sides,
fists clenching and unclenching,
jaws tight and teeth prominent,
the leaders of the group were frustrated and angry.

I could have stayed with my black to the closed club door and facing them stood my ground. That is what I felt like doing. It was much harder to wander across the pavement towards them, thirty feet away. I felt I had to, though. Still chatting in a warm but firm way, I bent down, feet in the gutter and bum on the kerb. The boys had moved with me, still slagging me off. Circling me and kicking stones around with aggression. I picked up the pebbles from the gutter and flicked them across the road with my thumb. I felt my back vulnerable as they moved around me like restless wolves.


Before long, however, I was joined in the gutter by one, and then two, until most sat in a line talking while the others crouched in the road, facing me, only moving for cars going past. We chatted on – and the words became friendlier and the conversation more positive – that leads into another story, but…


The analysis of this was – I had deliberately taken a non-aggressive body posture. I had made myself vulnerable, very hard to do under such circumstances (my trained mind told me to do it, my emotions were telling me to run in and slam the door or at least keep my back protected). The boys had ‘paced’ me and had followed me into a non-aggressive posture. They had a limited repertoire in dealing with conflict – ‘Fight or flight’ – i.e. fight your way out of aggro – or, if well down the pecking order – damn well run!


I have a larger repertoire and was able to think alongside my strange emotions and decide on how best to steer the situation, morally, verbally, and non-verbally. Emotional Literacy in action.


Reading and understanding body language isn’t just an interesting subject – in a hostile environment it can be dangerous not to.
It is an important part of letting Jesus live through us. Not doing it can also be insensitive, non-developmental and not of the Kingdom.

An extract from
'Gutter Feelings'
my first book.
Out of print but aiming to see it available in the near future.

Just in from Norway and ....

..... Joy on the Skype from Barbados.

Funny, Joan was telling her all the news and telling me, at the same time.
BBC News style, one presenter in Barbados and two back in the Wilson Mansions studio.

There is a Rugby Game recorded but I am too tired to watch it.

AND - missed U2 at Wembley Stadium tonight.
Loads of humans I know, and love, including Torgrim from Norway - they were there and texting me as I sat for two hours in Oslo Airport - kind things.

As I flew in over London I was looking out to see if I could see a spectacular Wembley in glorious full colour - but no - the driver didn't go that way.

Zig missed me.
Lots of big purzzz.

** Banks is the local Barbados beer which Sheila waved in front of the web cam.
"I must go and wash the sand off my feet" she says - here she is living in a hotel on the beach.!! Work eh!

And I got through immigration without a passport tonight ........ and a lot more to click about tomorrow/later today hey hey.

Blob Classroom

Share This Report this item Preview this image

Download £2.50 Add to Basket (830 kb) File Dimension: 2560 x 1810 pixels (8.5" x 6" at 300 dpi) Download: 1 documents , 830 KB (Click for details) Description: Remember the good old days back in the classroom? Here the Blobs are up to their tricks - some hard at work, others being picked on, others enjoying disrupting the lessons. A discussion starter to get an open conversation about memories and experiences of life at school.

Big Book of Blobs


Big Book of Blobs
A photocopiable collection of blob pictures to promote discussion. These blob pictures offer a unique way to initiate discussion about all sorts of issues and subjects. They are organised into themes and scenarios that include: Places - beach, cinema, cliff, concert, disco, homes, playground, staffroom, village | Issues - bullying, death, disaster, divide, fame, families, feast, money, parents, protests, romance, sleep, talk, water safety, world | Occasions - Christmas, Easter, football, lecture, nativity, Olympics, skateboarding | Personal Development - body, caged, caring, doors, leaps, river, rock, shadows, valley, vertigo. Each picture is accompanied by ideas and questions to kick-start class, group or one-to-one discussion. Complete book included on accompanying CD Rom.

Contents:
About the Authors Introduction Theme 1: Places Theme 2: Issues Theme 3: Occasions Theme 4: Personal Development

Reviews:
"The more you look at the materials the greater number of uses you can see for them. Anyone who buys these books will find them of enormous value in promoting pupils' emotional and physical well being and safety...worth every penny." Carol Smart, SNIP "This book provides a whole tool box full of resources to start discussions over a huge range of subjects. It will enable the discussion to be better focused and in more depth." Review by Norman Cooper, Barnados Family Worker, Facts & Fiction Magazine.
Details HERE.