Monday, March 30, 2009

You Tube and copyright

You Tube has removed one of my videos, saying it breaches copyright? I don't really know how it can, it played everyday in Las Vegas and all I have done is to film it and redub the same music in time with the original played so it sounds like it did in Las Vegas. Ho hum. Anyhoo here it is now on my blog.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Blacking a Bottom

For the past 3 days I have been very busy Blacking the Hull of our Narrowboat The Robber Button. I have never really done D.I.Y on the boat before but I had a go. There are a few blogs here about it.

Apart from that not a lot has been happening.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

People come People go

Life is strange, or maybe my life is strange. You have contact with people you make friends then they drift out of your life for various reasons then: Hey presto they are back again for short while. Over the years I have had friends from church who have moved on for millions of different reasons. One chap just drifted away, came back into our lives for a short time then drifted away again. I didn't see or hear from him for years and years, then I bumped into him one evening in my local shopping mall. We hugged and chatted for a few minutes, then I gave him my mobile number as he didn't have his with him. That was about a month ago....and nothing.

I received an email from someone this week who I made contact with again via facebook, we have been friends or over 20 years, he and his lovely family are in another country and work in the mission field, he is leading a hard but rewarding life, I was really blessed to read what he is up to and it is a privilege to pray for them. They have moved to a knew town in a different part of the country, they have new jobs teaching in a seminary and their daughter is in a new school. I'm looking forward to keeping in touch via blogs and emails and one never knows....

The 3rd and final ones are a few new people in my life I guess, I have 3 blogs, this one, one about the mission I took part in Mozambique and one about our Narrow Boat. The narrow boat community is a lively one and a lot of narrow boaters have blogs, I really enjoy reading about other peoples lives on the waterways. Their blogs range from the very informative, the technical to the musing of every day life. Life on the waterways is usually a friendly and helpful place and boaters in general enjoy the community and social life (usually involving pubs and grub) I feel after 18 months of owning a narrow boat we have been excepted into the life of our marina and that of narrow boat blogging world and community. Our biggest problem is we don't get enough time to enjoy our narrow boat.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Feeding of the 5000 less 4950

Yesterday was a completely different day, I spent the day cooking a meal for 50 people. As a Church we cater for many events one being Alpha and Alpha+ on a Wednesday evening. So armed with a small budget and knowing what the last few weeks meals had been I went to Tesco Tuesday afternoon. I had decided to make a beef and redwine stew with goose fat roasted spuds and a Apple crumble.

9am Wednesday I was peeling my many, many pounds of spuds, and an hour and half later they were pealed and cut and were washing off, then I was peeling my many lbs of apples, then onions and garlic. As I walked past one of my trays of goodies I knocked a box and broke a bottle of wine!!! then my mum phoned me, to see where I was as I wasn't at home? I told her I was cooking a meal at Church on my own for 50 people, I said I had just broken a bottle of wine. She phoned me back abut 20 minutes later to say she was going to pop down and give me another bottle and she also wanted to help me...

So about 30 minutes later my Mum was in the kitchen pealing the rest of the onions then making my crumble pastry, I was starting the cutting of the joints of meat then frying that off then frying off the garlic and onions. By 3pm the basic stew was slowly cooking with a bottle of red wine. I had started the vegetarian meal, of Mediterranean Roasted veg (they were roasting) in a spicy fresh passata I was reducing the tomato with garlic and fresh chilli. About 4pm my Mum had finished making the crumble and that was slowy cooking in the oven,I had done the first few batches of washing up, and we had called my Dad to collect her.

I had par boiled the spuds and they were going in the oven, the veg's had roasted and had a wonderful flavour and I had chopped the olives and all was well. I had no problems all day apart from the bottle issue... At 7pm I was serving up the meal into bowls to put on the tables. Mr and Mrs Church Administrator helped with the serving and washing up and I was home at 9pm.

I had a few compliments and I was very happy overall by the food I cooked, if I do it again there are maybe two things I will do differntly...so all in all a sucksess.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Boats and Food

We had a really nice weekend, Friday evening we arrived separately at The Robber Button, I arrived about an hour before Mrs EB and I spent the time cleaning the boat and getting it nice and warm. When Mrs EB arrived we drove up to Stone and had a wonderful curry. Saturday was far to windy to go out so we stayed at the marina, I helped Jon and John move a couple of boats and made us all bacon and egg sandwiches.

Sunday I couldn't get out of bed as I had a horrid migraine. Today I went to the dentist ...all very good mouth wise. Then I went to Tesco to do a shop and I also looked to see what they had for a large meal I am cooking for Alpha and Alpha+.

Cooking for Alpha and Alpha+ means cookin for 50 people... I haven't cooked for that many people for many years and I am a little anxious, I went to have a look at the kitchen this afternoon and to see what ingredients they have in the kitchen... they have nothing... Oh well I have a budget of £2 a head and I have 3 or 4 Vegetarians. All good fun.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Facebook

Well I haven't been on facebook for a few weeks now and to be honest I haven't really missed it, I do miss the funny comments I read on the front page but apart from that ...not so much. I guess come Easter Sunday I will log back in and turn my account back on...but there again I may not.

I phoned o2 I was supposed to be able to upgrade my phones today, I phoned o2 and no.... not until April 13th... ho humm so next month then.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Passion

I am one of those people who likes the TV on in the evening, but I also surf whilst watching it with one eye. But recently I have stopped watching even with one eye when the soaps are on, there is something so unreal about east enders and coronation street that I have lost complete interest even with one eye. I used to love The Bill and I do enjoy watching that but that seems to have come off the boil... maybe its the budget cuts or maybe I have changed?

I have loved watching Heston Blumenthal's new cooking programme on Channel 4, he is a genius and I love his way of solving a problem... A layered drink... click this link and enjoy I am one of those people that really do want to go his restaurant and try the tasting menu. There are people everywhere in all walks of life who are just natural brilliant people from social workers to brain surgeons, preachers to chefs, we all know them, we have seen them , heard them or watched them they stick out a mile at what they do, Heston is one of those people. It isn't a secret ingrediant that he or they have, it is just a passion for what they do. The greatest of all Passions is about to happen again, the Easter Story, Christ's Passion for Man.

Easter is the most important festival in the Christian calendar. It is the commemoration of Jesus's death and his rising from the dead, also known as the resurrection. It comes at the end of Lent. The week leading up to it is called Holy Week.View of Jerusalem

Palm Sunday is the first day of Holy Week and celebrates Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Crowds of people came out of the city to greet him, throwing down palm branches on the road. Many churches give out small crosses made from palm leaves, as a reminder of Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem and his death on the cross.

On Good Friday Christians remember when Jesus ate the Passover meal with his disciples, breaking bread and drinking wine, which is now known as the Last Supper. Since then this meal has been symbolically re-enacted by many Christians as a way of drawing closer to God. This is called the Eucharist or Holy Communion, which means 'thanksgiving'. It is a reminder that Jesus sacrificed his life for mankind and is also a part of many services throughout out the year.

The Bible tells us that, later that night, Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot. After his arrest, Jesus was brought before the Jewish high priests who found him guilty of blasphemy because he called himself the Son of God. They handed him over to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.

As was the custom at the time of the Feast of Passover, Pilate gave the crowds the choice as to which of the two prisoners should be freed: Jesus, or Barrabas, a notorious criminal. Ironically, the the same crowd who had welcomed Jesus with palm branches a few days earlier now chose Barrabas to be released, and Pilate condemned Jesus to death by crucifixion.

Painting on tiles of Jesus carrying the crossOn Good Friday, many churches hold services meditating on the events leading up to Christ's death: his interrogation, flogging, the mocking by the Roman soldiers, and his journey with the cross to Golgotha, the place of his death. Finally he was stripped naked and nailed to the cross, where he hung in agony for three hours, jeered at by the crowds, before he died. This is the day when people traditionally eat hot cross buns, because the cross on the bun is a reminder of the cross Jesus died on, and a reminder of the Christian belief that Jesus died to save us all.

Jesus was taken down from the Cross and laid in a Tomb to be made ready for death, this couldn't be done as The Sabbath had started and it would be another dau before Christ could be made ready for a burial.

Easter Sunday marks Jesus' resurrection. The Bible tells us that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb to make Jesus ready, followed later by some of Jesus' disciples. They discovered Jesus' body had gone and that the tomb was empty. Jesus then appeared to Mary and many of his disciples, speaking with them on separate occasions during the following forty days. As he left them for the last time, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit so the disciples would know God would never leave them. He then ascended into heaven. The Church celebrates this on Ascension day.


Sunday, March 08, 2009

an Update

We had a wonderful time in a cold Barcelona, the Gothic Area is a labyrinth of back streets crammed with little shops and Tapas Bars, which we visited a few of. It was wonderful to get away and spend a bit of us time.
Arriving back in the UK we got home and planned to visit The Robber Button, when I woke Saturday, Mrs EB was already wide awake and had been up a couple of hours, the sun was shining and we set off for Great Haywood Marina. We set off for Tixall Wide and had a few hours there enjoying the peace and quiet.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Barcelona Update

Mrs Eb and I are in Barcelona at the moment enjoying a mini break, the city is a busy city and itis full of charm and has someamazing eating places. Last night we went out to look for somewhere to eat, it was drizzling and cold so we wrapped up warm and I put my sweedish style hat on, as we crossed Las Rambles a man looked at us and said "English?" and asked us to go to his bar...we declined. How the heck did he know we were Englsih?
Anyhoo we are having an amazing time exploring the back streets, finding little tapas bars and just chillin' out. This lunch time whilst at El Xampanyet a world famous Cava Bar, Mrs EB and I were enjoying some Tapas and Cava and my phone rings... a chap from Norway asked if he could buy a photo of mine taken whilst diving...yay I thought. We will see what happens.
It all ends so soon, be back home tomorrow

Sunday, March 01, 2009

mini update

It would seem I am a nerd, someone who likes and knows a little about computers, I have been playing with some .ico files on some websites I look after. The ico files are the little picture or letter you see next to the http web address like the B on a blogger page. I have been making some of these but without a box around them so you only see the letters. This has been a challenge, but I have managed it:-)) to see what I mean have a look here.