Traffic Mismanagement

Have you noticed how there seems to be a never-ending array of road signs that go up all along our roads.

For instance, there a "New crossing ahead" sign two doors down from us, concerning a zebra crossing that has been there ever since we moved in nearly a year ago and judging by the state of the crossing markings, has been there considerably longer!

I bet it's no-one's job to take old signs down, only to put new ones up. But I must admit the sign does act as an indicator that I'm just about to get to my house, so I don't drive past it!

However, the photo (right) is of another incredible bungle by someone. On the Southend Arterial Road (A127) there's a direction sign off to Laindon, where we live. However, they've just put in a speed restriction, so they decided to erect a "Speed cameras" right in front of the direction sign, as you can probably see from the picture. Sorry it's not very clear, but it was taken through the windscreen as we travelled down the road.

So here's a message to all those who may come to visit us from the direction of Southend:-

Take the turning where you would have read "Laindon" if the direction sign was not totally blocked by the "Speed cameras" sign.

Joke just in

Just received the following from a friend:

The Family Court was in session. The judge had to decide who was to have custody of the sons. The judge asked the boys if they wanted to live with their Mum. They said no, because she beat them. So he asked if they wanted to live with their Dad. Again, they said no, because he beat them. So the judge asked them, "Who do want to live with?" They replied they wanted to live with the England football team because they don't beat anyone.

My thanks to Zac's nephew for that!

Be still and know ...

"Be still" says the Psalm (Psalm 46:10). But I don't find it easy. When I get down to the church office in the morning there are always plenty of things to do, so I want to "get on". But God wants me to be still and know his presence.

So I've developed a new tactic. The temptation is to switch on the computer straight away as it takes a fair amount of time to load everything up. But if I do that, I get distracted by emails, etc. So I don't turn on the monitor. When it goes quiet, I know it's time to enter in my password, and I can do that without the screen. Then, as I have an email "hot key", I can press that and know the emails are loading up.

Then, when I've had a time of quiet, I can switch on the monitor, and all is ready to go!

This morning I was pointed to the hymn "Dear Lord and Father of mankind", so I re-read the words. It reminds us that our words and works can drown out the "tender whisper" of his call and cause us to miss his blessing.

Then I read these words, God whispers in order to draw us closer to him.... Through his voice, I begin to recognize not just the handiwork of what he does, but the heartbeat of who he is. (Margaret Feinberg, The Organic God, p. 96)

I still need to learn the lesson of being still, and knowing God's presence, but maybe I'm slowly getting there. One day I might even be able to NOT switch on my office computer as soon as I get in!

Fond of a font

I read an article recently that said most typesetters despise the font "Comic Sans MS". What a travesty! It's a great font!

In fact I shall attempt to type the rest of this blog entry in that very font. It has a friendly, informal look to it. AND the font is one of the few that do a small 'a' in the way we actually write it, so my wife confirms that it's helpful for children to read.

So let's hear it for Comic Sans! My friends, use it whenever you can! Show these 'experts' what we think of their disdain!

(If the above hasn't come out in Comic Sans, then you've probably not got it in your font library, so why not?? It also shows I've been mugging up on using HTML, in order to get the font to come out in the first place!)

Would my Grandmother have watched the football match?

As I sat thinking about our football win yesterday, and the fact that Basildon town centre was very quiet (as no doubt were other town centres), I began wondering whether my Grandma would have watched the game.

You see, she only ever watched one game a year, the FA Cup Final. I don't know why this was, it just was. And I started to think, maybe she would have added that game to her football watching portfolio.

And then I realised - of course she wouldn't have watched it! It was on a weekday afternoon and you don't watch television on weekday afternoons! There were so many other things to do on a Wednesday afternoon, no time for that football nonsense!

Sadly, our country's work ethic has deteriorated over the years...

Sorry about the lack of entries

Sorry about the lack of entries on my blog page in recent days. But I'm back now!

So, what can I comment on? Well, there's the budget. Is it the necessary medicine the country needs as the Tories are saying? Or is it a terrible mistake as Labour are saying? (note, for obvious reasons the Lib-Dems are saying very little!)

My answer is, "I don't know." I hear both arguments but don't know which, if ether, are right. And, of course, we'll never know, unless we pull very swiftly out of recession, which seems unlikely. And if we don't, would Labour's solution have been any more effective? Quite simply, we'll never know!

But onto more important things - the World Cup. It's the crucial match this afternoon (if you're reading this later, I'm referring to the match against Slovenia).

I hear that a Primary School is closing half an hour early so people can watch the match! What IS that all about? School finishes at around 3 pm anyway, so they'll only miss about 15 minutes! And they can always press 'record', so any goals scored in that time can still be seen (assuming they are scored by England in the back of the opponent's net!).

Football Season

My wife bought a second hand 'fluffy' football, suitable for our small grandchildren to play with indoors, in keeping with the current World Cup mania.

Because it was second hand she decided to wash it. It came up well, see picture.

You see, she took note of the washing instructions, which read, "Do not iron".

Just as well she read them; I mean it's an easy mistake to make ...

Maybe not, if you wanted a rugby football!

We had need to visit Chadwell St Mary and saw a sign to "Grays Beach". It was one of those brown tourist signs. Those of you who know this part of Essex may well be surprised, like us, to find a beach so far down the Thames towards London (maybe it's the "last resort").

Intrigued, we followed the signs, and found a park by the river. The river shore itself was mud. But "land" side of the high sea wall was a large children's play area, with sand. Also a paddling pool and adventure golf, although this was closed due to tree roots growing in it! I'd have thought that would have just made it more adventurous!

As the large power station (or whatever it is) is to the east, it doesn't block the sun. However,it was pleasant enough. But we had to go to Basildon town centre so off we went. I must admit, until that moment, I didn't think I'd be saying we were going up-market to Basildon!

We parked in the multi-storey car park. The minimum rate was 90p. The machine had two notices on it:
"No change given"
"Overpayment accepted"

They could have been more honest and written, "You're bound not to have 90p in coins, so just pay us £1 and we'll keep the 10p!"

That's over 11% as a tip to NCP. (Yes, it is - work it out, it's 11.1% to be more accurate!)

But I DID have 90p in change! So, got you NCP!