My new toy

I’m not really a gadget freak and don’t like following the latest technological fashions, simply because I can’t keep up. However, I have recently retired my ancient old Nokia 3310. It’s served me well for the last four years, and is a sturdy thing, once surviving a four-storey fall down a tenement stairwell on to a concrete floor. However, now my address book is full (it seems I know more than a hundred people) and the battery appears to be dying, I have reluctantly replaced it.

My new one is taking a bit of getting used to - after so long with a really basic phone, it’s like upgrading from a rickshaw to a space shuttle. Although I’m not bothered about most of the fancy functions such as games or the internet, I have been enjoying the camera facility, and here’s a couple of pictures I took on it over the weekend.

47 things to do so far…

We're nearly halfway through 101 Things To Do at a Christian Music Festival.  Thanks to all those who have been submitting their ideas - please do keep them coming!  After so many excellent contributions, I'm sure we can get to 101!

Eng-er-land

I'm feeling a bit sorry for England at the moment - specifically the players at the World Cup. They were criticised after their first two matches by their impatient, insatiable media for their peformances, despite winning both games with no goals conceded. Sure, they should have beaten Sweden but with the injuries suffered and the fact that the match was not a must-win, the draw was hardly the national disgrace many would have you believe.

So I'm breaking ranks with many in Scotland, and am hoping England do well in the World Cup, because the players deserve it. In fact, I was never especially anti-England to start with, just indifferent. However, the irritating, jingoistic London media means I still don't want them to win.

My loyalities are nearly torn tomorrow for the Croatia-Australia match, but I will overall be rooting for the boys in the red and white checks from the land of long rocky coastlines and Tomislav beer.

“Oh, you’re that Simon?”

Over the past few weeks, I've really enjoyed becoming more of a part of St Silas. I've been to more services, met loads more people, made good friends, joined a homegroup, and found out lots more about the church as a whole - where it comes from, what it's doing now for its members and the wider local community, and where it's trying to go in the future.

Some of the Episcopalian trappings such as liturgy or queueing up for sacraments are a bit alien to me, but there's a lot less of that stuff than most SEC gigs, and I wanted to be challenged by new experiences anyway, which is definitely happening.

The title of this blog is something many St Silesians have asked when I've introduced myself to them and they've realised they're talking to the guy who wrote the review. Despite my rather controversial introduction to the church, nobody has yet tried to beat me up, which is something I am grateful for and which I think most of us would tend to look for in a new church.

I'm feeling more and more that St Silas is where I'm meant to be, where I will able to contribute something and where I'll learn loads about myself and Jesus. And I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone there - whether I've met them or not - for making it the inclusive and challenging place that I have enjoyed so much and which praises the name of the Big Cheese so powerfully.

Last night I went to my first "Deeper" service. I'm very keen to move on from the "church review" phase of my blog, and don't want to be continually commenting on the detail of what goes on at St Silas, because I think everyone there deserves the right to get on with life without them or their work in the church risking being "made public" or seen as being judged in any way. However, going by what folk said to me tonight, a "review" of Deeper is somewhat anticipated given my track record. So here you go. One last time…

Deeper is a monthly evening event which had been explained to me as a more intimate and informal approach to church. This made me slightly apprehensive - part of me worried that it would involve everyone taking turns to announce their top five character flaws that they want the others to pray for, or a "hug as many people you've never met as you can" session.

But thankfully it was nothing like that - all it involved was cushions instead of seats, a chatfest over coffee halfway through, and a much more laid back sermon (which I didn't realise was the sermon until it was nearly over). Overall the service was inspiring and uplifting - the preaching and music really touched me, the general ambience was relaxing and non-threatening, and I had many wonderful conversations with both existing friends and new acquaintances.

So "Deeper" is definitely a valuable part of what St Silas does, and those who make it happen clearly put a power of work into it every month.

I just wonder whether a more accurate name for it would be "Fluffier".

Case solved

After the murder threat yesterday, it seems the bizarre web searches continue.

Not content with searching for "simon varwell murder", whoever it is that is trying to scare me is now looking for "where does simon varwell live".

I'm not worried though, because I smell a rat. A Justin-shaped cheeky rat. This is the same person who emailed me a few months ago pretending to be David Icke. I worry about him.

Not as much as the demented soul who has been bored enough to search for "assymetrical mullet", however.

Murder

One really interesting feature of WordPress, which hosts my blog, is that it shows you what words or phrases people use if they arrive at your page through a search engine.

For example, many people arrive at my site because they googled (or maybe yahooed or whatever, but you get my point) for things like my name, the mullet search or names of churches in Glasgow. There’s often the occasional off-beat search phrase such as “aberdeen university is rubbish” (which I’ve never said!) or “cameron stout” (who I remember mentioning only once).

However, I’m somewhat concerned about one of the searches that led people to my blog today.

I don’t remember murdering anybody, let alone telling you all on my website or blog. I can only assume this is a veiled threat: I didn’t think my church reviews had caused that much offence.

I’ll perhaps walk a different route home tonight…

The international language of football

Thanks partly to Berti's endeavours, Scotland is getting used to not being involved in World Cups. Although I'm perfectly happy on the whole just to sit back and enjoying the spectacle of the greatest show on earth, I've nevertheless been wondering about who I should be giving my support to.

I'm torn between three teams. One is Trinidad and Tobago - firstly it's a bit of underdog empathy and secondly they're in England's group, but thirdly and most importantly it's because they've got more Scottish-based players (six) than any other team in the competition.

Then there's Australia and Croatia, largely for travel reasons. I've been to both countries, met wonderful people, and had really good times there. In Australia's favour is the fact that I know loads of Aussies, there's a historic connection, and they're new to the competion. But then on the other hand football is far from being the biggest sport Down Under, while World Cup success matters so much more to a proud, football-mad country like Croatia. Croatia is my favourite country, so I think they might just come top for me.

When Niall and I were on our big travels through Eastern Europe in 2001, we made a point of seeing as many games as we could, as the qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup were on around that time. We saw Croatia v Belgium in in Zagreb, which Croatia won, and the atmosphere was amazing both in the stadium and in the packed city centre bars afterwards.

Earlier, there was Hungary v Romania in Budapest, a match I remember for the fierce animosity between the two countries which nearly boiled over into crowd violence, and for the referee being Scotland's very own Hugh Dallas. We also saw a league match in Slovakia, and a Slovenian third division game attended by about twenty people which was most notable for its mulleted referee.

Beyond watching matches, the international language of football came into play many times on our trip. On one occasion we shared a train carriage with two Bulgarians. Despite having no language in common, we were able to talk about Illian Kiriakov (then of Aberdeen) and Stillian Petrov (Celtic) to break the ice. And Niall impressed a Czech man in Brno who kindly offered to give us a lift one day by knowing that the local team was called Bobby Brno. Having a good memory for UEFA Cup matches from the 1990s onwards does wonders for your knowledge of geography.

No wonder the Americans are so often accused of being ignorant of other countries. They need to play football more. Proper football.

Frenzy: A Review

Only kidding.

No way am I going around reviewing Christian music festivals… I'd never be able to show my face in a church ever again. Infamy in a dozen Glasgow churches is enough for me, thanks.

Frenzy was good - although mostly it was just a great chance to meet people. The four of us from St Silas who drove through together had a competition to see how many people we could speak to who we knew. Boosted by a minibus load from my old church in Inverness, plus a few pleasant surprises from elsewhere in the country, I finished a healthy second on 20.

The music was excellent, better than I thought, with some top Christian bands from all over the world. The headliners were Delirious?, who have apparently got stuff into the mainstream charts. They, and indeed many of the other bands, were kind of ubiquitous U2-style heavy rock music, but Delirious?'s visuals on the giant screens and the atmosphere they generated was especially phenomenal.

As I say though, the music throughout the day was a little samey, and I'm aware that many Christians do wonder about the point of Christian music festivals, especially because we are called to change the world we are in, rather than have a parallel reality.

David Shedden writes a wonderfully cynical blog I've recently discovered and he discussed the idea just the other day. And a non-Christian friend of mine said he never really got the idea of specialist Christian music… after all, we don't have separate Christian cheese and other produce.

So I can see both sides of the debate: I enjoyed Frenzy and might consider going to something like it again, but still hope I can be a fully paid-up member of the human race at the same time.

Blame Canada

For those of you who know about these sorts of things, I have been planning to visit Canada this September to track down the two mullets out there.

The longer term aim, after that, is to visit the numerous mullets in the USA, perhaps in 2007.  Being spread across all four corners of the land of the "free", those ones could take some time.

However, just this evening I have enjoyed the company of my old friend from Inverness, and former flatmate, Scott (pictured). He's from Ottawa, the capital of Canadanialand, and is now living near Stirling. When I told him about my plans for Canada and the USA, he argued a very convincing case for leaving Canada out of my travel plans for 2006, and combining them with my intended trip to the USA in 2007.

You see, it transpires that Canada and the USA are quite close to each other.

You learn something new every day.

A new word

Wetherspoonerism - (n) Confusing the name of one pub for another.