Tramway repairs in Blackpool

The intention was to go for a walk and see the beached cargo ship off the sands at Norbreck, and the camera had to come as well as it doesn't get as much exercise nowadays since its accident.

So when we reached the promenade the realisation dawned that I still hadn't taken any pictures of the tramtrack without any tracks or trams!

Progress has obviously been slow due to the weather which also accounted for the unexpected tourist attraction off Norbreck - the stranded ferry!

The uprights carrying the cables appeared incongruously with their concrete bases hovering above the earth.

Strange to see the little JCB parked where the trams would usually be racing past, and the black drainage pipes half submerged in mud!

Rather pointless sign at this point, mainly because nothing is running very fast at the moment!

Ewoks and Onesimus

Why does everything good always have to be serious too?

This morning listening to the radio on my way to work I heard someone complaining about the Ewoks in The Return of the Jedi. Getting in the way of our enjoyment of the grand climax to the first trilogy of Star Wars films! And Jar Jar Binks doing the same thing for the second trilogy (except that I remember him having his main role in the first film, so it hardly ruined the climax!)

Well I liked the Ewoks. What’s wrong with having little comic characters in an epic film as a bit of light relief? These weird but cuddly creatures were only following in the same tradition as those mysterious people in the first film who wobbled across the sand in their cloaks and hoods and you only ever saw their eyes.

If God had meant everything to be serious he wouldn’t have given us comedy.

There is laughter and comedy throughout history and throughout the Bible. What’s more comic than Balaam’s surprise when his ass has a go at him for being so stupid that he couldn’t see the angel of death blocking his road? Or the irony in Paul returning the formerly useless slave, Onesimus to his Christian master, in the letter to Philemon, because in turning and giving his life to God, his name is finally accurate.

It’s good to know that God has a sense of humour, because he invented it. So when sometimes when disaster strikes or we feel neglected or at the end of our tether it seems God is laughing at us, be reassured. He cries with us in these times.

And when things go amazingly well, God shares our joy. God laughs with us, but never at us. Because he loves us.

What to do after Heroes ?

Not really sure how to react to the ending? Having spent the first twenty-five minutes of episode one thinking 'this is drivel - why are we watching this?' the Sinar family became hooked on Heroes and the last twenty-one weeks have been a roller-coaster ride of twists and turns!

Apparently this was a series that captured the imagination across the world! Yet the rest of the family have been untouched by it, and nobody I talk to knows what it's all about.

It seems to me that Web 2.0 is a bit like that. Tune in and you soon find thousands of examples of innovative practice, and yet a good part of the population don't get it at all or don't know it exists.

And that really applies to knowing God just as well.

Now I've just discovered that the next series has already finished in the US - oops I nearly just read the ending ...

Heroes Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroes_(TV_series)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/heroes/

http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/

Second Life and learning to fly

Well I've tried but I haven't got a licence! I'm not sure it was a good idea trying to give myself a blonde pony tail when I'd chosen the dark hippy type and now I'm stuck with a frizzy black beard and a yellow pony tail stuck on the back.

I''m not too hot on the controls either (any tips you can give me on how I get the little chap to sit down on the benches provided and not try to walk all over them - this would be appreciated.) I seem to alternate between hovering in mid-air and swimming underwater - moving an avatar is worse than learning to drive a tank! Not that I've ever driven a tank.

I did have flying lessons once - quite enjoyed this after the first half hour given over to the rudiments of flight. I was getting to grips with trimming out and quite used to inspecting all the little rivets before climbing in, I had even learnt to land and steer with my feet, but then the dream put paid to it all!

Well, when I'd dreamt that I'd had to land halfway up Blackpool Tower after mislaying a pair of wings, managed it quite well but been censured by the passengers for making them climb down seventy four flights of stairs, the confidence just went and on my next lesson I couldn't get the trim wheel right at all!

Looking back, I think I handled the aviation better than controlling the avatar!

Top Hats and Spats

Do the two have to go together?

I just realised I've never worn spats!

Does anyone still wear them as a regular item of clothing?

In Fusion?

Well I had forgotten how many people in Britain enjoy queueing at theme parks and especially how nice it is joining a queue in Blackpool Pleasure Beach!

Me, James, the best man, a Norwegian plumber and the stag boy himself, set foot in various parts of the PB early on Saturday morning and immediately joined a queue for that most institutional of white knuckle rides, the Grand National. It's not the big dips that get you, it's the very deceptive little ones near the end when you're sure you're going to smack your head on the bridge!

We lost our Norwegian friend from Wales after lunch in the aptly named Star (you need style to break a plastic fork on fish and chips!) so four of us chased steeples and were revolutionised by Irn bru before James, SB and his dad indulged in 13 holes of golf while BM Stu took some air.

The Space Invader 2 was opened by Doctor Who on the same day as Matthew was born, coincidentally, and then again according to one of the signs, exactly five years later, again by Doctor Who! Was he engaging in some clever kind of time travel and is that why it's called Space Invader 2? The queue started outside the log flume ride and half an hour later we were barcoding ourselves in - only to realise that the queue proceeded for another half hour inside up a series of inclined ramps and steps until we were faced with a sign saying '60 seconds to launch' and ten minutes later by another one saying 'thirty seconds to launch' - proving that Doctor Who was not the only one to indulge in a bit of time travel here!

But the best queue of all was the one for In Fusion (not good for Dads, I'll take some pictures, I thought, but then remembered I'd got a new card in the camera with over 1Gb so decided to take some video instead.) That queue disappeared out of site and assuming that we'd spot him on the way up because of the red hoody, waited till he came in site and took loads of video footage from the prime vantage point the two of us had taken up. Then we waited for him and the NP and BM to reappear - waited and waited - and in the end went to look for them in the shop.

'Where r u?' I ttxtd him.

'About to go on - in the front' came the rply.

Quickly James and I hared back to find our prime position still free and set cameras to repeat the exercise - only they're a little shorter than the first lot as I was worried the batteries were giving out.

Pictures are here and on facebook, the video clips on Daily Motion.

Regional Government?

I'm all in favour of Independence for Scotland, actually. And Wales. In fact I think the Government should scrap plans for regional assemblies in England (I think they have, really) and instead start a campaign to revert to the ancient kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, Sussex and Kent. Wessex should probably not include Cornwall - Kernow of course is a separate country with its own Celtic language!

I'm not so sure of the impact economically, politically or legislatively but it might mean we would have a chance again in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Why doesn't the Isle of Man enter?