Category Archives: Joanna

Posts related to the rather wonderful Joanna

10/10/09

The Invention Of Lying

Last night Jo and I went to see ‘The Invention of Lying’ in the cinema. I went to the film largely because of Ricky Gervais being the writer, director and main actor in it so held high expectations as we entered the cinema to catch the start of the film (and the Orange adverts which don’t beat the ones from a few years ago).

The film starts with an introduction to a world where there is no such thing as a lie and you see Mark (Gervais) going on a very honest date, arriving early to pick up his date who informs him that because he was early he cut short her ‘me’ time and has no hope for this date….Ricky informs her that he knows he’s out of her league and is likely to be sacked the next day.

Sure enough he is sacked and after being evicted from his house for not having enough money for rent he goes to his bank to withdraw his final money and upon hearing that the computer is down lies to the cashier (the first ever lie in the history of mankind) so he can withdraw extra money…the computer comes up and shows up his lie but because lies don’t exist it must be a mistake on the computer.

The film shows Ricky Gervais’ writing and acting at his very best with a very dry sense of humour running throughout the film. Ricky incorporates his atheist views as a key part of the film when he lies to his dying mother that she won’t just have an eternity of nothing but will go to her favourite place in the world…following the nurses overhearing the whole world gathers on his doorstep where he invents ‘the man in the sky’.

Alongside this the film has a love story running throughout in a world where people only look for equally matched partners.

Gervais said in an interview that he expected a ‘revolt’ in America because of the atheist side of the film but as a Christian I didn’t take it that way at all, it was a funny, dry-humoured film in true Gervais style, with a fantastic concept running through and some good sub-plots (if plot is the word!) and actually had some good messages to take away.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film and would recommend you go and see it, hopefully this blog doesn’t contain too many spoilers too!

09/15/09

Carrier Bags

I don’t go shopping that often (by this I mean a shopping centre style shopping) but I do know that when you wander around towns where people are partaking in the act of consumerism they are usually clinging onto a handful of plastic bags with a variety of brands and logos showing the world exactly where this particular consumer has been shopping.

It’s the same with supermarkets, you reach the checkout with a trolly of food (in my case 80% impulse buys and 20% what I actually need) and the (friendly?) cashier asks you if you could like some carrier bags.

I am well aware that I’m not describing an unusual scenario yet despite taking lots of bags (and then re-using a few times or just throwing away) we forget the environmental impact of them.

Jo has worked on a checkout this summer and the typical response of people being offered bags is ‘yes’ or ‘yes, I’ve left mine in the car/at home/ in my pocket but I cannot be bothered to move my wallet to get them out!’ and I’m as guilty as the next person. 9 times out of 10 when I go shopping and forget to grab the bags for life from my kitchen… I even think about adding some to my car but keep forgetting to help the bags make the transition from my kitchen to the car.

This forgetfulness usually results in me buying more bags for life.

The problem is that somehow we need to stop using so many carrier bags.

Both Sainsbury’s and ASDA have done promotions offering bags for life to customers for free and encouraging them to re-use them next time (although most forget!), when I was younger Sainsbury’s used to give you 1p back per carrier bag you re-used (before the days of the Nectar Card and Bags for Life) and this encouragement continues in the form of loyalty points for re-using bags in both Tesco (eugh!) and Sainsbury’s but not in ASDA who don’t have a loyalty scheme just cheaper products.

When Aldi first opened in Bexhill where I grew up I remember us taking our own carrier bags because they charged for them so the few times we visited Aldi we took our own or just put the shopping in the boot loose because ‘we weren’t going to pay 2p a carrier bag’.

Years on from that Marks and Spencer’s charge for carrier bags and a WHSmiths in Sheffield station do the same (I don’t think this is all WHSmiths) but this trend hasn’t caught on.

I think it’s time that we started charging people for carrier bags in order to encourage people to reuse their bags….hitting people in the pocket may make them think about reusing, it would certainly make me remember to put the bags in my car!

I am challenging myself to actually remember to reuse my bags from now on and will make the occasional reference to my success of this on my blog (although I appreciate that how I use my bags doesn’t make interesting reading!)

On a completely contradictory tangent bags for life are actually worse for the environment because they take longer to biodegrade….cotton bags are better and probably last longer!

09/14/09

Porn For A Pound

Walking into Poundland last week during a trip into Hull I went to browse their CDs and DVDs as I usually do in the hope of their being something worth buying.

‘Are those porn DVDs?’ Jo remarks to me.

Sure enough, there on the top row (top row not even being that high…a 10 year old could easily reach it) was a full shelf of various porn DVDs… retailing (as most things do in Poundland) for £1,

I have to say I was a little bit shocked… I wouldn’t say I’m easily shocked but that was one thing that did…needless to say I didn’t purchase one (or any number for that matter) but just left the shop feeling slightly shocked and wondering if even porn fans were feeling the hit of recession.

I realise that in blogging this the result may be two fold. You may be feeling as surprised as me or you may be grabbing your car keys, putting on your shoes and heading to Poundland!

(If it is the latter may I suggest you visit www.xxxchurch.com)

09/5/09

Italy… Finally!

It’s well over a month since Jo and myself returned from Italy and our epic journey driving across Europe and all my intentions of doing several Italy posts seemed to fade in the midst of moving house and spending time without internet but finally I’m getting around to it!

Although I’ve not done masses of travelling abroad I think it’s easy to find yourself a Britain away from Britain in a typically Peter Kay style book it, pack it and leave holiday however to many extents I think it’s sad that we feel the need to create a Britain away from Britain. One of the most exciting things about being in an uncomercialised part of Italy (and indeed driving through so many countries on the way) was that you begin to get a feel for the culture, you see what a typical Italian village is like, you see the sorts of shops they have and the lifestyle of the people.

The Italians seem to have this fantastic idea of family values, every afternoon from about half 12 until 4 the shops close and traditionally they have a family meal and family time…there seems to be this real sense of family before work which is fantastic and something I wish Britain had.

The contrast to this lifestyle was when we visited Florence and Assisi, both of which are far more commercial and with very different priorities, the shops stayed open and a lot was in English not to mention miles of stereotypical tourist junk with shops reminding me of Regent Street (aka tacky street) in Great Yarmouth.

All that aside though as a whole Italy is a stunning country, there’s some fantastic views, miles of open countryside and some brilliant places to visit. They have a public transport system that runs on time and everyone seems far more relaxed, family orientated and friendly… not to mention the wine is very cheap!

As I previously blogged driving somewhere really does open your eyes, you see much more through your car driving across a country than you do flying into a commercial airport and staying in a British hotel and it gives you ideas of other places to visit… not to mention it makes an exciting road trip to tell people about!

08/12/09

Moving Away From Middle Class?

Last week (2 sundays ago) at church Jo and myself met Fred*. Fred wandered in at the end of church, looked at the large bible at the front, sat down then moved outside the church where we also were so naturally we started talking to him.

Fred told us that he had just read something in the bible, sat down and prayed for his family and then gone to read it again only to find it had gone…as if it was never even there, he reassured us that he wasn’t on drugs and told us his experience again. (We believed him the first time…God works in funny ways!).

So we stayed talking to Fred for a while after everyone else had left and he shared with us his story…a year and a half ago Fred’s parents were killed in a car crash, suffering a nervous breakdown he then ended up leaving his fiance and becoming homeless until a week before he met us (he was homeless for a year) when he’d moved to Great Yarmouth and found himself a flat and was now trying to get himself some nice clothes, a job interview and his life back on track.

Needing to leave Fred reassured us that he would come to church the following week and we said we’d go for a drink and chat after…sadly Fred didn’t show up however I don’t think that matters too much.

The reason I share this is because when talking to someone else about it he seemed surprised that we listened to him and even offered to go for a proper chat the following week yet to me it doesn’t seem unnatural, in fact it seemed to me exactly what Jesus would have done.

The first person Jesus revealed himself to was the women at the well…she wasn’t an angel…quite the opposite. She had 5 husbands and was living with a man she wasn’t married to, she had to go to a well in the middle of the day because her village hated her…yet Jesus met with her, Jesus talked with her, Jesus loved her and accepted her.

Park Baptist in Yarmouth seems to be moving away from being a middle class church and that’s fantastic because I’m convinced that if Jesus was here in the flesh he’d be seeking out people like Fred. So I finish this post by saying go and do like-wise…if someone like Fred comes in your church talk to Him…offer him a meal and even if he never returns pray that God would do the rest…it’s all about the seeds!

*name changed

08/10/09

Life, Moving, Wedding and Street Invasion

So perhaps the other Italy posts never quite happened…I seriously have so much I want to blog on at the moment but so little time and I suspect next week I’ll have lots to blog, more time but so little internet!

Next Monday I move to South Cave ready to start my new job as the Youth Facilitator for the Hunsley Christian Youth Trust from September…summer seems to be flying by and I’m feeling a little sad to know that it may be a while before I see everyone I know in Yarmouth but I’m excited about the new job and having a house and being able to moan about bills and council tax!

This week contents insurance is on my to-do list alongside getting some telephone numbers to phone electricity folk next week…today I arranged for the Post Office to re-connect the phone line…and for free…cashback! (If you want a phone line re-connected the Post Office don’t charge and don’t have a contract which makes them way better than BT!).

I haven’t just been packing boxes and avoiding Italy blogs I’ve been busy working on our wedding website which is getting near to being finished (markandjoanna.co.uk) and I have done our first wedding blog on their and in the next few days will update it more as we lay down deposits on venues and churches…how exciting! If you don’t know the Mark/Jo wedding is next year on the 17th July…this time next year I’ll have a wife!!!

I think so far I have 5 friends getting married next year so it seems to be a good year for weddings…2010 makes it easy to work out anniversaries!!! I have also been asked by Dave to be his best man for his wedding two weeks after mine and Jo’s which is pretty awesome and I’m looking forward to that too…all if good!

Street Invasion

Last week I was lucky enough to be involved in Street Invasion in Peterborough. Street Invasion saw 80 young people come together to serve God at 8 bases across the whole of Peterborough, doing social action, training/learning illustrations and inviting young people off the streets into an open youth club. Myself and Simon Campling (who is a genius at Newton Faulkner covers!) headed up the City Centre base and although we had less youth than the other venues what we had was perfect for St Mary’s! In other parts of the city over 50 young people would turn up to just one venue…how crazy is that? God was doing some awesome things in the lives of young people on the streets and those who were street invaders!

Anyway until I remember to blog on Italy later this week…goodnight!

07/30/09

Italy – The Drive!

For those who don’t know I left the country on the 9th of June and only returned on Monday and the reason was simple…a holiday!

Joanna and myself were very kindly offered the use of Clive and Florence’s Italian villa which is set in the heart of the Umbria region.

Due to the remote nature, environmental concerns and stupid surcharges on hire cars for young people we took advantage of my insurer allowing us to drive in the EU and drove to Italy, spreading the journey over 3 days with 2 stop-overs we caught the ferry from Dover to Dunkerque armed with snacks, clothes and a trusty TomTom.

Our route involved going through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Italy (plus Germany on the route home) stopping at Metz and Beragmo on the way there and Strasbourg and Dunkerque on the way home. The cross-country route was largely because we were warned that the French over-price their toll roads (and they do!). 1,200 miles in 3 days is crazy but strangely relaxing, I love driving and having never been to Europe other than Spain (and the UK) it was exciting seeing new places and surprisingly easy to adapt to the other side of the road.

I had a couple of driving observations too which us Brits could learn from!

1 – Speed Limits

The average speed limit on a motorway is either 120 or 130km/h which is roughly 75/80mph which makes you feel like you’re moving a lot faster and so consequently I don’t think I witnessed a single person speeding, no muppet coming up behind you flashing when you’re going the limit just a relaxed driving style that us Brits don’t seem to have.

2 – Hazard Lights

I discovered that hazard lights have a use in Europe other than for short-term illegal parking…when you’re driving on a road and traffic suddenly slows down or becomes heavy on go the hazards…then people a way off can see that there’s a jam and brake with plenty of time, I really loved this rule as it seemed so simple yet such a good idea and I’m tempted to try and introduce it here (I wonder if we’re meant to anyway!).

3 – Police and Workmen

Finally the police are either not around or are busy getting stuck in on European roads. The only time we saw police was when they were towing away broken down cars or clearing the road, none of this cruising for someone going 1mph over the limit nonsense we have here…also their roadwork men only appear in 2′s or 3′s but have no tea hut which means they probably do as much as 20 workmen in Britain do because they don’t have tea breaks every 10 minutes!

All in all I loved driving in Europe, it’s so much more chilled out and driving through Switzerland was stunning and I think more people should try it and the craziest drivers on the roads are in fact the British!

If you wish to view photos from the journey click here

07/29/09

BBC Radio Norfolk

This morning I appeared on BBC Radio Norfolk alongside  a lady from relationship counselling charity  relate. I was invited onto the show yesterday after Dave passed my name on as both a youth worker and young person who is engaged so we spent 45 minutes with the host discussing ‘young people and marriage’.

Other than my radio slot for Slum Survivor which lasted about 5 minutes it’s the only radio I’ve done and it was good fun (although I felt a little like Alan Partridge!). It was an interesting discussion which they’d picked after reading a Daily Mail (eugh!) piece on a Christian charity doing relationship lessons in school and also several articles suggesting that marriage is back ‘in fashion’.

It was a good opportunity to think back to my marriage blog from a while ago and also think on the things which influence young people’s views of marriage such as broken homes and constant bad press with various celebrity marriages ending, often in a very messy way.

It was also good to re-explore the subject now I am in the position to be getting married rather than thinking about it in a hypothetical sense and I’m sure this blog will have lots more marriage things in the next year (hopefully later this week markandjoanna.co.uk will launch too!), the interview made me reflect on the positive view of marriage the church promotes to young people too and I hope God uses that message which I tried to get across this morning

If you would like to listen to the discussion listen to the last hour of this programme – link

Finally Italy posts will appear over the next week, I’m going to schedule them so I don’t post too much at once!

07/20/09

Italy Blog 2!

Once again I am in an internet cafe in Umbertide and have about 4 minutes left to blog so here is a very very quick Italy blog 2!

Not huge amounts has been happening, we visited Assisi yesterday with the intentions of going to an English church service however the sat nav lost all sense of direction so we explored instead visiting the tomb of St Frances and the cathedral (pictures of the whole trip will follow soon).

Tomorrow we are off to Florence and last night Tim, Wendy, Charis and Joanna arrived in Italy so we had them over for a bbq…must go…blog soon…byebye!

07/15/09

Italy Blog 1

So as promised here is a blog from Italy…although with 6 minutes left in this internet cafe it will be short and sharp with a full post with pictures and floating melons appearing when I return to the UK (dont ask!)

Firstly the drive was lovely, drove through France, Belgium, Luxemburg and Switzerland before arriving in Italy…although intensive the drive was stunning and bizarrely Europe drivers are more chilled than in the UK except here in Italy where no one (and I mean no one) pays any attention to speed limits!

The villa is beautiful and is nice and cool, it is set on a hillside with a fantastic view and has a lovely veranda and cool swimming pool…I have also reacquainted my love for coffee ice cream…good old Italians!

We’ve visited Perugia, Umbertide, Montescastelli and Montone so far and have lots more visits coming up including church in Assisi on Sunday and Florence later next week.

The biggest news so far is that Joanna and myself are now engaged…Italy seemed the perfect place, I popped the question and she said yes so have your hats ready for July next year!!! (I also managed to lose Benvolio £20 by proposing in Italy…I never even knew I would but I hope Robert spends it wisely).

Time is ticking so have to go…blog soon…bye

06/23/09

Busy Busy Busy!

There is a serious post somewhere inside me but life has become crazy…so much for the quiet wind-down here in Peterborough. I’m currently thinking of all the things I need to do to hand over to the next student Youth Worker, the things I need to hand to others for other projects and generally clearing up 4 years of stuff.

On a side project I’m building a new website for St Andrew’s Church in Gorleston which is nearing completion too!

This week is becoming a week of lasts…at the weekend I led my final youth camp for Park Road with a very funny, inspiring and sunny weekend in Trimmingham, tonight was my last band practice and the next few days see things like last church services, youth groups and all sorts of other send-offs….it’s bizarre with 4 years in Peterborough coming to an end but I’m looking forward to some time off and the challenges South Cave has to offer.

Last night Clive and Florence came over for dinner and in july Jo and myself head off to their villa in Italy…driving to Italy through lots of places, spending 2 weeks in their villa in the Umbertide region before driving back again, sitting around last night talking about Italy over a lasagne whilst drinking red wine really makes it all sound seem that little bit closer….it’ll be my first break in years and I’m looking forward to exploring and chilling and perhaps finally getting around to reading some books!

I suppose that’s all I have to blog on this evening, I’m hoping to blog on a Christian-type subject later this week….especially as I’m at some kind of bible thing tomorrow daytime!