I went for a wander this lunchtime.

And took a couple of pics.

The world around us keeps changing, and, so it seems, do we. There's a tendency to allow the inside of us to move on from the outside of us - it's sometimes difficult to keep the 2 in sync. and when those things inside no longer match with what we perceive others expect (or demand) we can experience discomfort, turmoil, confusion, and weakness.

Nature, despite climate changes that may or may not be happening, apparently does not have a conflict in this way:

Oh deep joy.

Isn't that what the bible says - when you're feeling a bit persecuted.

I'm removing the hearth from the fireplace in our living room with some prejudice. Said hearth does NOT WISH TO BE REMOVED.

I'd hoped for an old brick structure with nice soft crumbly lime mortar. Some of them have been stuck in with modern hard cement, and the old lime mortar ones are interesting too. Lime mortar is designed to work while slightly damp - ie in old buildings without good (or any) damp courses. Well this is an old building and this is the dampest part of the house. Let me assure you that the guys who designed this stuff knew EXACTLY what they were doing.

I've taken some before and during photos. When (not IF - there shall be no IF here) it's completed I'll take some more and post them.

*edit*
I can't finish today (the mortar is hardening) but I can post pics anyway.
Before.

Bang, bash, biff, wallop.

At last!

Brick slips in place to pack the hole to height for the quarry tiles.


Dinner now calls... and possibly a well-deserved cold beer.

Spam!

Just occasionally a spam lands that I think is funny.

*Offensive words warning*


The title was "Ordinary men have ordinary sex. Megadik..."

To which my automatic response was 'Megadik will make you a complete plonker'.

Do I never learn?

A New Linux Distro has been fluttering its virtual eyelids at me. Actually make that 2 distros, with the new Mandriva 2008 edition.

But Sabayon might actually have a point: they've included things like proper (proprietary) drivers for graphics cards, which so many of the other distros shy away from, leavinging their GUI desperately crude compared to Windows. Mandriva 2008 comes with the new Liberty font set, which includes a full set of windows equivalent fonts. This *might* solve the other major linux issue of text that makes you *think* you need glasses.

Just had a weird thing happen.

Clicked 'view blog' after I'd posted and got the image below. Guess we know what drives blogger.

Moderate miffage

Ever have one of those times when interaction with others brings frustration and disappointment instead of relationship. Somehow, that *seems* to be how things are right now, with a whole pile of things: no one or 2 individuals to blame. It makes you want to *do something* about it, but of course there's really nothing to be done except offer grace and just get on with it.

Maybe I'm learning - or going soft.

How did we.....

manage in the days before the internet?

I've just produced a study on the sabbath for the meeting here. 10 years ago I'd have needed a room full of books and hours typing. Now I can cut'n'paste scripture straight into my notes, extract 'rules' for Sunday practice in the 1800s and obtain a detailed explanation of how a strict Jew has to handle the sabbath in the 21st century.

Fantastic. I just need a cheap PC, broadband and a careful eye on the quality of sources.

And if you don't know the site Biblegateway is just a Godsend.

This is slightly 'fiddling while Rome burns'

Another quiz, courtesy of Fernando.

What's Your Political Philosophy? And do you really care anyway?? Like hell I'm George Dubya Bush! created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Socially Conservative Republican Social conservatives share a belief in traditional morality and social mores and the desire to preserve these in present day society, often through civil law or regulation. The government should use its influence in the public square to support traditional family values. Old School Democrat 75% Socially Conservative Republican 75% New Democrat 65% Green 50% Foreign Policy Hawk 35% Libertarian 35% Pro Business Republican 30%

It seems to be taking

a ridiculous amount of time to recover from this cold.

It's been over a week now, and yesterday was the first day I *felt* like it was lifting. Came home after a couple of hours at work on Wednesday, returned on Thursday, but that was too soon and just did a couple of hours on Friday too. I'm *just* tired tonight, rather than feeling borderline drunk with odd stuff from the body fighting the infection sloshing through my bloodstream. Not aching doesn't do any harm either.

Now there's just a few hundred images to edit. And I need to decide between fotopic and flikr as the best place to pop then up. Flikr appeals because it's more blog-centric, but the lack of speed is almost unbearable.

I need to finish writing the travelogue, before it all fades. Plan is for Tuesday to go cook Hayley and Kita (and Chris) some Thai food, since I've apparently learned how and don't weant to foget that too. Can't be too bad, as what I made last night was actually edible.

Sorry not to be around much

Between jet lag, getting back to work and the cold I caught just before we left Thailand I've been hammered flat. However I *hope* the cold is now receeding and I shall return to a somewhat better level of postage.

"So my question is how did you know, or how will you know you are married?"

Randall asked this question on his blog, and I rather thought the answer I gave might be interesting here.

Chris and I always felt like we were chosen for each other, pretty much from the second time we met (the first time I was busy trying to tickle the tonsils of a girl called Sue - my only other GF). Later I can remember talking to God and asking 'how about a girlfriend?' and He would say 'go out with Chris'. I'd then disagree and want someone else: partly because we had a great friendship and partly because I was hormone-driven and wanted someone a little sexier. But I think, even at that point (we'd been BF/GF a couple of times) that we knew we were going to be married.

But it was always very clear to us that we weren't married. True, we didn't live with each other or have sex (although that was a close run thing a few times) but we KNEW we weren't married - marriage was a very specific joining at a very specific moment, and it was that moment we were working toward.

We've talked this over briefly again today. Chris's wording differed a little from mine but encapsulated EXACTLY the same idea. From the moment we made and meant the vows we were married. It was before first love-making, before sharing a flat, before cooking a meal and even before we could get away for a good kiss on the way to the reception. I'd suggest consummation *sealed/confirmed* the vows we made, but that married status was already present to be confirmed, and actually made the act capable of consummation instead of fornication if we'd not been.

So there you go - we knew from the moment we exchanged vows. I don't know if the words "I now pronounce you man and wife" make any difference. I suspect not, but for the less clued up they might be a useful guide......

A quick taster

Sorry these are a little on the large side, but smaller doesn't do justice.

This may not surprise you

But we're back.

My body clock thinks it's presently 3.30pm while my watch says 9.30am.

I've had about 30 min sleep in the last 36 hours.

We've opened all the post.

My second 2Gb memory card has nearly finished uploading from the camera (just got there after I typed this). Chris's images still to be done.

It was good.

It was hard, some of the time.

Food is astonishingly cheap, at 'native' prices.

We met some interesting, good people.

I've hand-written a huge amount covering roughly one third of the trip. Some of this might even make it as far as this blog.

TTFN