Tuesday, June 27, 2006

bric a brac mic a mac = perfect logic

- Random gigs rock the mike!
- Flatmates here and elsewhere rock the mike
- Chats with 55 year old women who have entertaining stories about their childhoods and upbringing rock the mike!
- Kids rock the mike (but they are hard work!) : Does anyone have any ideas of how to entertain the mostgorgeousbuthyperactiveandintoeverythingkinda one and a half year old, an opinionated six year old girl, a very shy eleven year old boy alongside 2 very entertaining sisters aged 8 and 9 to whom I'm know as "scuseme" and who all continuously demand my attention en même temps?!?! Your suggestions would be muuuuch appreciated!

Click on mes fantomes and Smile!

I did :)

P.S If you're going to pronounce mic as mike, spell it as such! Mac however does not = make :P

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

à contre-courant

Recently I've been gradually coming to realise that what I want to do and what God might actually want me to do could well be 2 different things! It's a bit of a shock to the system to realise that, even though I did kindaknowbutdidn'treallywanttokknowsoinsteadburieditatthebackofmymind, and even more of a struggle to move towards actually doing it. And then that started me reflecting on the perfect example and I came to realise a few things
- He was willing to stoop down and meet people where they were, do things outwith the acceptable norm; not afraid to get his hands dirty
- He was willing to endure the cross
- and He went through with what he said he would do willingly though he had the power to evade it
- He understands


How completely contrary this is to my mindset, how contrary it is to the mindset of our culture, how utterly counter-cultural Jesus was, then and now. In a culture where all that matters is that we please ourselves, living a life with the objective to please God simply goes against the grain...

please


Just so you know, I did actually publish this on Thursday! ... silly date formatting on blogger grumphlimfrgrmph...

Talk about a direct answer...


One night I'm ridiculously worried about my lack of job and debating with family and with God about where I should be for the summer, the following night I am frantically filling in forms for a 2 week admin placement which started the following day (i.e today)! There aren't many things which better cups of tea, lady chats (mostly about babies), and labelling files... oh yaaaas... God is soooo GOOD!

Monday, June 12, 2006

Diversecity...

This wonderfully cheesy phrase is painted all over the walls of this lady's old school... but over the last few days, the very concept of diversity has become fresh and exciting once more to me! To think God actually bothered to create such a diversity of peoples on this earth, of so many cultures, , colours, languages sights, music, foods... I know I'm singing an old cliched tune here but after this weekend...
- 28 degree heat (resulting in the odd waterfight)
- the start of the westend festival
- sweaty silly swashbuckling sambasambaSAMBA
- an Asian-swamped Mela in Kelvingrove, full of pretty pretty material, bangra pop, where there was a falooda stall and it was surreal not to be in the minority
... I feel like I've just returned from a holiday in some exotic country! (I'm sure photos will appear at some point from various different corners in the near future.) The travelling bug has been fed and I didn't even need to leave the bubble that is the westend this time.

But I think the awesomeness of diversity really hit me while I stood waiting for a bus outside a 30 floor tower block in Springburn containing around 200 asylum seekers of over 25 nationalities still in the process of trying to make asylum claims, ... standing in a Glasgow bustop and listening to banter in 3 or 4 languages... the language student in me jumped for joy!

A few words of advice: DO NOT try to climb 28 flights of stairs in one of these...


...even if you can't find the lift. Be sensible and ask where the lift is. This is far more favourable than nearing colapse as you reach the 20th floor.

If you go to Springburn, do not be misled by deceptively short train journeys, because if you add on findingyourdestinationandgettinglostontheway time, it will be inevitably be a lot longer than getting the bus that goes straight to outside the door of where you're meant to be.

Samba is cooolio... anyone feel like forming a samba band with an aspiring conducteress and me?!


Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Soyez cultivé

Jamie and I spent a productive silly late night last night looking into what's happening in Glasgow summer... Here is an itinery of what we may try and see (i.e all that's cheap and decent and free!).



Saturday 10th - Brel
2pm: Tom Colquhoun, innovative virtuoso solo guitarist.
4pm: Paul Tracey Quintet: contemporary standards and originals from energetic quintet.
6pm: The Jazz Collective, from standards to drum and bass.
(all FREE)

QMU 9pm -> Samba Ya Bamba (an awesome band!) £5

Sunday 11th June -

Surely there's no age restriction on this!
Carnival 2pm-7pm Byres Road (whole road's gonna be closed off and open to chaos! Main stage on uni place just across from the greatest street there is)
8pm-12pm The Goat -
Gary Devenay (My Latest Novel) &
Jim Lang (No.1Son) + David McGinty (Endor) + BELA (all FREE)

Tuesday 13th - Brel - 7.30pm
Endor (acoustic set) and Wake the President 3 quid

Wed 14th/21st -
"Talking the West-End Talk" - all about languages (especially made for linguists like me! :) ) - Hillhead Library 1pm FREE
9pm - The Goat - The Zephyrs FREE

Tue 13th/Thurs 15 June 8pm - The Liquid Ship
Free Candy Live Acoustic Night. Apparently it's "Glasgow’s best acoustic music evening!" (I dunno if calling Free Candy means that we get free sweeties, but I hope it does!) FREE


Sunday 18th June - Cottiers Bar 4pm till 7pm - Michael Dean Jazz Quintet 4pm till 7pm . FREE

Wednesday 21st June - Oran Mor A FREE gig with a French title should at least be interesting if not decent... with these bands... a bargain I conclude.

23rd June - 2nd July - Lots and lots and lots of Jazz! Most of the free stuff seems to be in either Brel or The Goat.

And for those of who will be kicking about in August - yuuuummmmmm!

If you want to check things out more thoroughly for yourselves, information was gleaned from

www.westendfestival.co.uk

http://www.jazzfest.co.uk/

Photo by Neal