Jim’s Blog

Another week has galloped by: we are almost finished with January! The best I can do (at this late hour – once again) is to jot down a few notes.

A) Gaza. Making some small progress towards bringing cargos of construction materials to Gaza – from Iceland (the country, not the shop!).

B) Again, some small progress towards making contact with Declan Ganley (who was instrumental in Ireland’s “No-Vote” against the EU’s Lisbon Treaty) with a view to influencing the conduct of the European Union.

C) Some ideas but no action towards making a film on “The Voyage of the Land-Ship”, a book I had as a child. I would bring my old 8m Sea-King from Maldon (Essex) via Bury-St-Edmonds (Suffolk) to St Albans (Hertfordshire). I am hoping that local breweries might provide the (dray) horses.

D) Miscellaneous. I thought I had made some progress towards Marital/Family Harmony but it seems I was mistaken! On another front, I have taken part in some activities for Christian Unity Week, here in St Albans. My friend (Mike) who suffered a massive stroke three weeks ago, seems to be making a miraculous recovery – I wonder what God has in store for him (Thanks to staff at Hemel Hempstead General Hospital). Is it true that Lourdes’ cures can now be had over the internet?!

TTFN. Jim.

1) For Jay: Thanks for your comment. The note on my little web-site “business card” should read “stay tuned” – in French, I think this would be “restez accroche (a ma poste).
2) Concerning the nick-name of our unfortunate prince’s Pakistani friend, I wonder what was his own nick-name (sobrique)?!
3) I have learned that a small boat, carrying medical supplies, medical staff and several european and north-american political figures, is, at this very moment, trying to reach the coast of Gaza. I cannot find any reference to this obviously newsworthy event on radio or TV or in the main newspapers. Does Israel control all British media? I understand that another similar boat, attempting a similar humanitarian delivery a week or so ago, was rammed by an Israeli gun-boat in international waters and was forced to limp to port in Lebanon. perhaps we should all buy tickets to charter a ferry or 30,000 tonnes or more to make a tourist visit to Gaza from Larnaca. Anyone interested?
Good-night and God Bless. Jim.
PS. My fiiend Mike is making a steady recovery (in hemel Hempstead General Hospital. He suffered a major stroke and probably should not be still with us. Thanks to all hospital staff.

Sunday, 11 Jan 2009.

It seems that it was best part of a life-time, after the Death and Resurrection of the Christ, before some-one (Mark?) got round to writing up the first Gospel. I supposen the original diciples were so busy rushing about the place, they never got round to putting quill to parchment – I know just what it must have been like. Nevertheless, there is no greater tru-ism (?) than “No job’s done until the paperwork’s done” so I’m going to make a big effort – starting tomorrow! I recall standing in for one of my sons as a “despatch phone answerer” (ouch!) at Kingfisher, one arm of the now dearly deceased Woolworths. The job was to answer the calls made to the dispatch warehouse by the various shops – “no Mars bars, too many bicycle clips”, etc., then make the correction to the next delivery and, if possible, explain why the error had occured. The problem was that, on arriving at work there was already a heavy-duty answer-phone backlog of queries to deal with. These had to be addressed during the ever-so-brief silences between the phone ringing with more new queries such that, by the end of the day, the whole lot had been cleared. Well, that’s what I shall have to do, starting tomorrow – write up the day’s events and also clear some of the notes I have made over the past MONTH! Good luck, pal!

Good-night and God bless. Thank goodness it isn’t tomorrow yet!

Jim (23:45).