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A baby is born...

Earlier today I was party to a discussion about Xmas - where did the abbreviation come from?

[O.K. From where did the abbreviation come?]

I once heard someone saying that they wouldn't mind if it was written +mas (pronounced cross-mas) - they were trying to make a link from Jesus' birth to his death. The other learned opinion says that Christ written in Greek begins with the letter Chi which looks like our X.

Anyway Christmas (or +mas) is a time when we are thinking about a particular baby being born.



And after all that build up it has dawned on me that it is storks that are linked with new babies, not herons.

Still I am glad I took the picture - it is not something you see everyday in Gorse Covert.

Red sky in the morning...

Glancing out of the bedroom window this morning I saw this marvelous sky and tried to capture it on camera. (Click on picture to enlarge)

African Fellowship

The Thorpe Acre Male Voice Choir were invited out to sing at the African Fellowship in town. Their worship room is a lot more colourful than ours.

Our repertoire was:

• I delight/Bowater


• Message of Angels/Godwin


• Deep in the night/Stone


• Angels from the realms/Cwm Rhondda

Stollen cherries!

At the bottom is the Aldi box with the tempting pictures of cherries in the Stollen cake



On the top is what you get inside - who's stolen all the cherries!

The end of an era

The remnants of the Ladies Fellowship Group, augmented by husbands and Jacqui's Cell Group gathered at the 'upstairs' College Restaurant last night to mark the official disbanding of LF after 15 years. After the meal Sue thanked Jacqui for all her hard work over the years and presented her with a small gift (a floating candles set) to mark the occasion. It is not quite the end though as Jacqui has once again organised a trip to the pantomime in Birmingham after Christmas.

MagLev is dead!

Professor Eric Laithwaite (who looked as if the name Branestawm might fit better) introduced the idea of Magnetic Levitation as a transport system in the 1950s. In 1984, with a great fuss, a Maglev link was installed between Birmingham International Airport and Birmingham International Railway Station. Arriving at the train station one day we took the opportunity just to go on a round trip to try it out. However just before it got us back on the return trip it 'conked out' and we had to get out and walk the rest of the way on foot.



On my travels as a BCS examiner today I revisited the station and found that the MagLev had proved so unreliable that it had been taken out of service, replaced by a bus service for several years and now has been reincarnated as a Doppelmayr Cable Liner Shuttle.

More information: Then Now

Farewell asbestos soffit

After putting up with leaky guttering for many years, Nana's birthday present to herself was to go for new - and have new fascias and soffits as well.

At long last she has the house number sign up again as well (thanks Robin)
She was particularly pleased with the new ceiling to her porch
It remains to be seen whether the installation has a steep enough drop along the length to stop it blocking easily - which was the problem with the previous setup ever since the bungalow was extended.