Grape Expectations - Harvest Time! - Part 1

So after months of growing and waiting and watering and waiting and growing and pruning and waiting and watering and loving and waiting here they are! The finished product! The result of my loves and labours! A prime example of grapes from the Mashbury vineyard.

This photo was taken by the lovely Chell who has helped me and supported me throughout the past months - the joys and the sorrows of growing ones own fruit in a maritime climate as opposed to the Mediterranean climate of the vineyard regions of France and Italy. (I am the one holding the scissors)

I would like to say at this point that if you would like to claim a bunch of Mashbury grapes then please let me know and you can have some. Obviously if I'm seeing you in the next week or so they'll be a lot more tasty and fresh (They're already VERY ripe and quite soft)


Please see below for a couple more parts of the final chapter of the vine saga for 2006...

Grape Expectations - Harvest Time! - Part 2

Here I am post 'snip' - surprisingly still looking reasonably comfortable and happy!! This is my best 'Mr Gumby' pose modelling the fantastic bunch of grapes as featured in part 1. Don't say I never talk about anything of any depth on my blog eh!?

Grape Expectations - Harvest Time! - Part 3

And...here I am busily washing the grapes in the sink to get all the bugs and dead leaves off them (yeah there were some bugs - but not too many and they're washed off now :)


So all in all a fantastic grape experience all round - my expectations were most definitely met and exceded by far... I would value your comments on this exciting series on my blog!

The Leeder Birthday Calculator (Patent Pending)

Without wishing to spin this out some of you will know that I was 27 last week… All of a sudden I feel like I am becoming a man! And as the relentless toll of the years gently yet insistently draws me into my 30s I’m starting to realise I’m not a teenager anymore. And that sucks!

The purpose of this blog is to aid all of those who find themselves in a similar position to me and is particularly relevant to those who were born in 1979 (like me) or 1980. I hereby announce my invention of a valuable tool which will prove to be incredibly useful for people born in one of those two years and, although I have realised this now for many years, I think it is likely that I am the first person ever to blog about it. Ever.

As I said earlier, the years do have a habit of marching onwards and one problem this brings with it is an increased occurrence of the odd ‘Senior Moment’. Now, many of you will I’m sure be thinking “Why the heck is Matt, who is 27 yrs old, blogging about suffering from senior moments” many others will be thinking “What’s a senior moment” and still others will not actually be thinking at all… Well, in answer to the first group of people I promise you I do have the odd moment and even now at my tender age I have a habit of forgetting my age!

So this tool I promise will help those of us born in ’79 and ’80 to remember our age FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES! Awesome eh? Even the inevitable onslaught of senility cannot defeat us with this bad boy under our belt!

Now I have spun this out quite far enough. Here, with no further a due, is my patent pending Birthday Calculator.

My ‘creation’ allows the ‘user’ I take the two digit number at the start of any given ‘year’ and the two digit number at the end of the ‘year’ and add them together. Then for the rest of my life I will know what my age will be on New Years Day of that year. i.e. This year is 2006. Thus 20 + 06 means I was 26 on 01/01/06 hence it is my 27th birthday during that year.

If you were born in 1980 then this works for any year also but the answer it gives you is the age you will be on your birthday that year – some would say this, what I like to call the “birthcalc v 1.2 formulas”, is even better!

So, for you thickies, here’s another example. In 2076 my ears won’t work, my eyes will have fallen out and my brain will be running on 3% power hence I will have a terrible memory and won’t even be able to see my diary. However, I will simply recall my Birthday Calculator formula and hey presto – I will know that on New Years day that year I am 96 (20 + 76)! I will be 97 that year!

So there you go - as you can see it is faultless (unless I live to 120 – I plan not to).

A few short updates...

After the mega long last post here is some light relief in the form of a few short updates...

Got back from Italy yesterday (hence such a long break in posting) - we travelled home on my birthday and it was a long day of not doing very much - Chell has been really sad about it today... it's funny how she is more protective of me having a lovely birthday than I am. It's so nice to feel loved and cared for by her - especially in her protectiveness. She's just off out buying some stuff for our breakfast (Yeah, I know it's 10:30 - call it brunch!)

Today we're travelling up to see our friends Will and Debbie - we're also going to meet baby Katie for the first time ever. Something that we are both very happy about doing - but most especially Chell!

I am also very happy because I have just downloaded iTunes 7 and they have sorted out the issue with iPods leaving gaps between each song - now you can listen to an entire album with no gap between each track. This has been my biggest bugbear for using my iPod over the past 9 months so well done Apple!

Oh and the grapes are looking great!

A long trip to sow some seeds

It's taken me a while to get round to blogging about this but at last I have arrived at my keyboard with some time on my hands. I am in fact going to recount a story about an experience I was party to that occurred last Friday. Brace yourself - it's a long one! Long enough even to rival some of Glyn's lengthier efforts! (Ha!) Along with me were Jon and Paul - the other members of the band I'm in* - hereafter referred to as E=...

(*please note that event and person specifics have been changed to partially mask what actually occurred...and make this post less 'searchable' on Google...)

The story in fact begins late on Thursday night...

All along it had been our plan to make a trip over to Northern Ireland to gig at a festival there. The organiser of the festival, called 'Lara' Festival (sic), promised us a decent gig and decent pay so who were we to turn it down? Our flights were booked for 8:25 on Saturday morning to fly from Stansted to Belfast International but on Thursday night we (i.e. Paulo) discovered that due to the current security level of our airports we needed to arrive at check in a whole 3 HOURS before the flight! So we were already looking at 5:25! I ended up getting up at 4:30 (bleugh) and we arrived at the airport at 6 ish - which was fine. In fact, when you weigh this up against the rest of the day - it was perfect!

The flights went without a hitch (relatively - my bag had to have a full cavity search because apparently my guitar pedals and cables look like a 'device'...hmmm....!?) and when we arrived at Belfast we met our man. His name for the purposes of this illustration is Cliff. At this point he didn't seem too detached from reality.

So we chucked our stuff into the back of this big minibus and went to pick up the other band who we were meant to be playing the gig with that night. We met them without a hitch and off we drove in our bus. Us 3 + Cliff + the bus driver + 4 in the other band (hereafter called Freeslave - for that is in fact their name!)

Now, to be fair, until this point nothing out of the ordinary had happened (apart from Levski's hair which I swear I saw moving... it was almost as if his head had been abducted by a colony of long haired fallow rats from the planet Zipplewig). Aside from the long journey (it was by now 12 noon) and lack of food (it was by now 12 noon) things were fairly normal - until we turned into the carpark of a small-ish church in Portadown. This church was actually a Portacabin, which I thought was entertaining given it's address. It was at this point that 'Cliff' uttered those fateful words... "Guys, we'll just swing by here to see if they've got any equipment you might find useful for tonight". At this point small bells started ringing in all of our ears. Equipment? We didn't know what 'equipment' he meant - nor did we know what equipment was already at the venue... so we followed him in...

To be confronted by the smallest guitar amp you ever saw; I think it was a Stagg practise amp. Certainly not one for a stage as the main guitar amp for a rock band. Alongside this were various odds and ends – bits of PA system, a brand new budget drum kit (no cases, factory heads i.e. nasty) and for cymbals a Sabian Solar budget pack consisting of paperweight crash, featherweight ride, and flycatcher hi-hats (that’s all they were good for).

A bit of clarification is probably needed at this point – you see we’re certainly not musical snobs, nor are we arrogant good-for-nothing muppets… our maxim on gigs is that we are always on hand to serve the event, but we also knew how much this guy was paying to have us there hence we wondered why he would think gear like this was appropriate…?

So we picked up a few bits of PA, a keyboard for Freeslave and the ‘drum kit’ but left guitar amp less and bass amp less. Paul and I guessed they must be at the venue already?

On we drive – down the road to Armagh our home for the night and the town of our gig. We arrive and it’s at this point that we start to realise this day is going to get worse before it gets better. The venue is a posh, new-ish bistro situated within the towns art centre. No sign of any more PA, or amps, or anything. We load in the PA, keyboard and drums into the corner of the bistro which is currently hosting lots of smart looking people around well set tables sitting eating, chatting, quietly and smiling even…

“Uh, Cliff, are you sure?” … “Of course, of course, why it’s the best venue in the town…” etc

We’re dropped off at our hotel. It’s nice – 3 star. We find our rooms but not before double taking (and eventually comprehending correctly) the bell boy; speaking to us in thick Irish tones “Arr yoo tha two gays in the double room?”...

In a nutshell (I realise I’m spinning this out – don’t want to miss anything) during the afternoon Jon and I visited the local music shop – the same bell boy said it had a “lethal selection of guitars” which turned out in fact to be 7 guitars, none of them with a price tag exceeding £40. The shop was filled with cardboard and after the bored shopkeeper guessed and announced that we weren’t ‘local’ we turned heel and left ‘Twilight Zone Guitars Inc’. We also visited Armagh City Shopping Centre which consisted of a lingerie boutique, 12 empty shop spaces and a spar shop. Awesome.

The plan for the evening at ‘Lara’ Fest was a film premiere (made by some of the team – apparently with a budget of £250,000 ??? – tried for distribution at the Cannes Film Festival – failed) followed by a DJ set (really nice guy called DJ Barry (sic)) followed by, at 9pm a set from Freeslave and ourselves.

Upon returning back to the venue to tune drums we had half expected a full PA rig and guitar / bass amps to be there especially as it was by now 4:30, the film started in 30 mins (and thus the evening’s programme). Jon, Guinness in hand, is starting the lengthy and awkward process of tuning drums in a posh restaurant...this is bad...very bad...

Now, at this point it's important to mention that throughout the day we had been in contact with our friends from the band Dave (sic) who at this point called up and very kindly offered their PA and their gear! When we mentioned this to Cliff he said it was an “answer to prayer” – I’m sure most major Christian Festivals rely on prayer but in quite a different way to this… I ended up outside on the phone to this guy Paddy Quinn (real name – brilliant!) to chat about PA and stuff. He said he’d arrive at around 9pm (that is the same 9pm that we needed to start the gig) but as it was the best offer we had it would have to do...

When I walked back into the Bistro I found Jon and Paul, who I’d previously left sitting at the bar, sitting at a table looking slightly shell shocked. Apparently since I was outside they had been started on by a drunk Irish bloke at the bar with the immortal line “….Hey, yooow, stop farting in miy prwesence…no, seriously, F*** Off…” - hence their new location away from the unhinged bloke at the bar. (Paul wasn’t sure if he had indeed let one off or not – they though it was best to back down just incase)

Cliff offered to pay for our dinner at the Bistro, dunno where he’s getting all this money from, but first we decide to go outside to the Cathedral gates and pray; for the day, for the gig, and for the unsure sense of fear that was building up in us. So we stood and prayed for 20 mins, said our Amen’s but as we turned to walk back in this drunk guy appears (another one) and shouts after us “…Yeah, Yooou keep walkin’…” What is it with this gig? We decide to skedaddle inside ASAP.

Upon arriving back at the Bistro a bouncer has arrived who, just after we sit down to eat, promptly ejects the drunk bloke who had followed us down the hill from the Cathedral and into the bar. Awesome mini tussle ensues – don’t remember this happening at Spring Harvest, or even the Bull and Gate for that matter…

So to cut a long story slightly shorter the PA finally arrives at 9:45pm – Freeslave go ‘onstage’ at 10:45pm we go onstage at about 11:45 and play til 12:30. Cliff kindly allows us to walk through the high street carrying our guitars and bags – feeling slightly scared but much relieved that the worst of it is nearly over.

It’s funny looking back now that there weren’t any posters for Lara Festival anywhere inside or outside the venue – nor anything with the names of the bands until the venue asked us what our names were so they could put them up on a chalk board outside (nothing to do with Cliff). The punters were primarily normal people who had come in for a drink and just happened to end up watching the bands play – there were about 25 people there – none of them knew they were attending ‘Lara Festival’. No tickets sold. No one coming along. How is this thing still running?

It’s now 1:15am – we’ve been up since 4:30am – we are knackered. We walk into the hotel to discover a blues band in full swing downstairs (under mine and Levski’s room) – they don’t stop playing half-cut bad guitar and drum solos until 2:30am when they finally shut up and we…drift…off…to…sleep…

TO BE WOKEN UP AT 9AM BY A BLUMMIN’ MARCHING BAND GOING PAST OUR WINDOW – FOLLOWED BY ANOTHER – AND ANOTHER! Unbelievable!

It has to be said the rest of the day was fairly normal (breakfast, trip home, much story telling to ensue) apart from one thing… just before we left Cliff took us to one side to chat through payment for the weekend. He explained his side of it (having paid £450 for our flights, £130 for our hotel rooms, £100 for our backline (oh you mean the backline that we organised once we got here Cliff?) but we agreed on a figure quickly and he pulled out the cheque book – and promptly signed and counter signed (i.e. forged!) the cheque in front of us! This guy is unreal! He then went to the hotel desk and did the same again… we had to get away…

So we’re all packed into the bus and Cliff clambers on to give us some final words of wisdom. “Guys, you’ve sowed some seeds. See you later.” And off he goes… Cheers Cliff…

The last few weeks

The last few weeks have been very busy indeed but the end is in sight – a week from now I will be on holiday and a week and 3 days from now Chell, myself, Matt W and Christina will be in Italy! Horray! It will be molto buono!

The past few weeks have been really tiring – especially with fitting in work for the SA in between the E= gigs. The busy thing has also meant of course that I’ve been lapse on keeping my blog up to date – for which I apologise. However, I have compiled a collection of short anecdotes and updates from the previous few weeks to fill in all the blanks in my life (if only!)

GRAPE UPDATE – the grapes are still growing but I must admit I haven’t been caring for them as perhaps I should have been. However I’m sure they will still do just fine without me!

BACK UPDATE – (see post a few down) My back is still hurting a bit. I guess part of that is because I haven’t really given it a chance to heal very well since damaging it (we keep playing all these gigs and lifting heavy equipment around – not a good plan for a bad back).

SUMMER SCHOOLS – we’ve now finished our rounds of the summer schools. We visited four in total, the last one being last night down in the Vinehall School nr Battle with the Central South division. Though what they were doing in East Sussex remains a mystery!?! The summer season has been really amazing this year. We’ve met so many people and really been blown away by the stuff we’ve experienced and the places we’ve been privileged to visit. Here’s to the next season of E= - which starts when we get back from our holidays in mid September. But there’s three more gigs to do between now and then…

FIANCE UPDATE – Chell is still my fiancé. J

That’s about it really – obviously that last point is the most important one!

Hope to do some proper updating on the blog again really soon…inconsistency frustrates me just as much as the next man or woman!

Public Information Statement

Many weeks back I was phoned at DHQ by a gentleman who was incharge of booking guests for Territorial Music School - they wanted to book me to come during the week and lead a bit of worship. Remember at this point that I was in the presence of witnesses during this phonecall (i.e. Matt White and others in the office). Here is a paraphrase of the conversation:

TMS rep: "Hi Matt, can you come and visit us on this day...[gives date]
Me: "Oh, wait a sec, I'll just check my diary [checks diary]...oh dear, sorry. I would have loved to have come along but I am actually in France that week so no can do.
TMS rep: "Oh that is a shame. Sorry to hear that. Nevermind, maybe next year?"
Matt: "Sure"
TMS rep: "Ok. Goodbye and God bless"
Matt: "Bye"

So, that was that. All done and dusted... no tentative "maybe", no "oh I'll pencil it in and get back to you", just a straight forward "sorry, no can do"...

So imagine my overwhelming surprise when I start hearing reports from people who attended TMS this year saying that my name was in the program and that people were really disappointed when I didn't turn up? In fact, I also get the impression that no attempt was made to cover my back at all...even though I had said no in the first place and the ERROR WAS NOT MINE!

So, in closing, if you speak to anyone who went to TMS and they bemoan my inefficient diarising please make my side of the story (i.e. the true side) known.

Busy days

This week is crazy - feeling a bit run down actually. We've been playing at Newday Festival with Paul Oakley a few times over the past 6 days. So I've been up and down the M1 (normally in the rain!) - here is my plan from the last few days.

• Drove up last Wed night played on Thurs morning
• Drove back Thurs afternoon.
• Fri rode around all day with Matt W picking up stuff for the LNE summer school. Stayed at home Fri night.
• Went to Summer School Sat morning stayed til the quiz in the evening then left for Uttoxeter again at 9:45.
• Yesterday led worship in the morning with Paul, Electralyte gigged in the afternoon, led worship again with Paul in the evening and drove home. Got to bed at 1:30...

Now I'm at home but leaving for Summer School again shortly... and we're at Rocknations in Bradford on Saturday...I'm gonna miss the final day :(

If you get a chance please spare a prayer for myself and the other Electralyte boys as we galivant around.

Jump! Part 1

I wanted to blog about this as soon as I could. I've just returned home from a week of gigging in the south of France - hence I haven't blogged for a little while (Sorry about that if you've wasted time checking - I know I hate that myself...)

What a fantastic week! I've not really enjoyed France like I did this week - I suppose that's partly due to making some great friends during the week - both English and French people... To be honest we didn't have too intense a week at all - 2 sessions leading worship and a gig one night were the only work commitments we had to fulfill - the rest was leisure time for us!

So we found outselves at a beautiful, clean river in the village nearby (that's how we knew we weren't in Essex anymore) - and promptly started chucking ourselves into it from rocks. See the piccy:


I gradually gained confidence throughout the week - starting off on little jumps on the waters edge. The sheer awe of emerging without any latex sausages on my fingers encouraged me to carry on and up the anti a bit... I progressed to a 3 footer (wooo!) then 10 feet high (woooooo!) then 20 feet high (steady on!)...then we changed venues to a different river where I knew at once that the gauntlet had been placed before me! The picture above is a snap shot of me doing a little jump at the second riverside venue...

If you look really carefully you can see my life flashing before my eyes...

Jump! Part 2

It's almost possible to get a bit religious about this - things are so different with context afterall... so without further ado here is the bigger picture!

Those cliffs are about 80 feet high and I jumped from about 55 feet, or something like that. It is officially one of the scariest things I have done to myself...


Unfortunately I landed a bit badly and duffed in my back - so I've been grimmacing every time I get up ever since the jump (yesterday afternoon!) but apparently there's nothing too wrong with me and I should be up and at 'em again really soon... and I know I would be disappointed if I hadn't done it at all. I just hope that when I shut my eyes tonight I don't keep seeing a video replay of falling through mid air into the dark blue abyss! It was terrifying and fantastic all at the same time!

Thing is people were jumping from the top as well, the fools! Now I don't feel such a hardman afterall...

Grape Expectations - update

Ok, so fair enough I've been a bit lapse with the whole vine check thing again. Very sorry - in an effort to redeem myself I have taken this photo this evening on my return from France (see other posts for more info on France...)

Hopefully you will enjoy the picture below - it wasn't actually dark when I took the picture but the flash went off and made the sky look darker than it was...


The grapes are growing nicely - a couple of weeks back I gave them a good prune with Roland and Joan (Chell's Mum and Dad) and it seems to have done the trick. You've got to be cruel to be kind to these bad vino boys and girls! The grapes in the picture are about the size of my middle fingernail - so, those of you who know my fingernails well will have a great idea of scale now.

Sorry I've not blogged in a while peeps - there was no internet connection over in France. However, I've got loads of blog ideas now so I hope I can find time to get them all down!

Bad Night

I had a nightmare last night; in the old fashioned sense of the word. Can't really remember what it was about in detail but it certainly included some kind of werewolves or big nasty dogs. So, I woke up and laid there wide awake for a little while whilst I got myself back together.

Next a fly woke me up by landing in my ear. So I tried to kill it and missed...so he kept waking me up periodically throughout the rest of the night.

And then I woke up before my alarm because the sun shone through my window and tried to cook me in my quilt.

All in all - it was a bad night.

About music...

I've decided to conduct an experiment. Normally when I write a blog I am very careful and measured about what I say (and don't say) - but I thought it would be interesting to write a blog as-I-think-it! Thinking out loud so to speak. So I thought I would write it on music - which is one of my greatest loves and favourite talking points...here goes...

Why do I like music? I don't know. I know I like a good groove - well, I like music with a fat beat. Like Chemical Brothers in the olden days - or Propellerheads. But then I also like music with no beat - like, The Planets by Holst and loads of stuff by Tchaikovsky and Bach... to be honest music is really confusing in general. What is the attraction for us?

Have you ever really thought about what music is? Why does it connect with us so well? Why is it so immotive? Isn't it just a string of notes and chords and rhythms? Why is Dm the saddest key? Why does an F maj7 sound so lush? (Well, I think it does) Why does 4/4 keep cropping up again and again?

I love to play guitar - I love turing up my amps and gain and letting it ring and resonate and feedback on forever. Little licks that just have that certain something; it's not about looking good in front of people but just allowing the music to come to life. I suppose that's a defining factor of music...it's art, alive... Music as art needs time for it to make sense - otherwise there's no music; just an overblown orchestra hit of every note coming and spanking you in the face at once. Very uncomfortable!

By the questions still remain - why do I like it? Why do believe in music? I don't know - I'm never going to know. But that doesn't change the fact that music makes my heart race and my hands sweat; music makes me cry on the M25; music makes me furious and inspires me and calls me on.

Life would be monochrome without a soundtrack...

A review...

Just a quick blog 'cos I really need to go to bed - but if you have five minutes to spare please check this out - and if you have a further 5 minutes please do write a comment (at the bottom of the article) to back us up again!

Obviously it's great to read some positive reviews of the 'E=' album; we need more and more of them, so if you have any ideas on how we can get other decent media streams to review us (CCM or mainstream) that'd be great. Let me know where to chase... or chase for me if you would be so kind as to want to support the band in a practical way!

If you do have time to write a comment it would really benefit us as a band if people (such as CR) know that we have a 'fan base' behind us all the way. It helps us to gain momentum!

Thank you for all your help and support! 

Muso Loso

I hate it when people do things just to try and impress you. Like, when I went I started college to do Music and Theology we had these orientation sessions. We went round the room and introduced ourselves. Thankfully, now I have the gift of hindsight, I KNOW that there were people in that room DESPERATE to impress - reeling off instrument after instrument. One girl said she could play piano, guitar, flute, violin, cello, drums, bass guitar, sax and trumpet. Well, I can say that I did the course with her and she was lying. I knew at the time she was lying...just because you can sit with drum sticks in your hands doesn't mean you can play the things! In fact, she would have been much more accurate to say I 'mainly' play the piano or something...

Lack of punctuation indicates grumpiness whilst typing this blog...

Ben Folds' message to the church

Although it is in my collection I haven't really listened very much to the newest Ben Folds album 'Songs for Silverman'. When I have listened to it a song entitled 'Jesusland' has caught my attention a couple of times...

Today I discovered an interview with Ben Folds in which he explains a little bit of his thinking behind 'Jesusland':

'...but you see the name 'Jesusland' and you think “wow, this is going to be a heavy song” but it’s just a little bit sad. The crux of it is that if Jesus were around now he wouldn’t have much stuff. And that’s a problem in today’s ‘amusement park’ version of Jesusland; you can’t walk around with no stuff, or you’re homeless, you’re walking around on the street. So he’d be walking around homeless on the street with long hair, and I don’t really think that the people that make lots of money off of his name would do much to help him.'

Ouch!

An article to comment on...

If you get a chance please check this out; you might find it interesting?

You may or may not remember that I once had a little moan about this magazine - he even mentions it in the interview!

There's opportunity to leave a comment at the bottom of the article too - hint hint! :D

Chris Spring Gig - Leicester Sqr - 29th June

If you can make it it would be great to see you at the Chris Spring gig tomorrow night. As I've blogged before (Thurs May 11th) Chris Spring is a genius singer / songwriter. If you managed to make it to the engagement party then it's likely you will have Chris perform a few of his songs there.

Well, this is your chance to hear him play his songs with a full band (featuring Electralyte's very own awesome drum meister - big Jon Mitson)

Just print out the ticket below and you'll get in for £5 instead of £6! I look forward to seeing you there...

Spiritual home; where are yooooou?

Chell and I are asking a lot of questions regarding church at the moment; more specifically which church should we go to?

Yesterday we attended the Oasis church in Chelmsford, part of the New Frontiers church network. We’ve been to Oasis once before and both times we’ve found it to be a really friendly church experience…which was helped on our first visit because we had friends there in the congregation. Yesterday was slightly different because we didn’t know as many people – but still, the reception we received was warm and the church meeting was cool. The speaker (church leader, Phil) spoke on their mission as a church. He referred to Acts 1 where Jesus says ‘you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth’ and related this to local, cross-cultural, and long-distance (missionary type) mission.

We left the meeting happy – but still keen to hear God more; especially with regard to where he wants us to be!?

So, the day continued and we found ourselves at Chelmsford Citadel Salvation Army where we sat down with the corps to watch the football – followed by which Matt (White) led the meeting – with a special focus on the youth of the corps. I know its passé but it really is amazing how much more passionate everyone was about the football! If I was to speak bluntly and impartially I would say that it even appears that nobody really believes that strongly in God at all (obviously I’m sure this isn’t the case – it’s just how it comes across).

After that we packed up and went to Carus. Carus is a tiny little congregation that meets once a month (which you’re welcome to come along to by the way – then it won’t be so tiny) – we sing songs and talk about God. Last night was different because we prayed for each other too! ;-) Ok, so it’s fledgling; and it’s tiny; and it’s designed and run by Matt and myself (so I’d always look for the best in it) but last night was cool – we sang to God, he met with us, we all had a chat, and a drink then we came home.

So that was the day – and we’re still searching. I’ll leave you with a few questions – as well as my up-til-now conclusions; but please feel free to chip in some wisdom…we need it!

Q1: Should we go to Oasis? We could do – it’s a nice place but… we both feel (probably more myself than Chell) that our place is in The Salvation Army; especially when most of the worship leading I do is in an ‘Army’ context. I believe it is my responsibility to stick with it. After all, 90% of the time I still believe that God has a plan for the SA all the time. :-)

Q2: Should we go to Chelmsford Citadel? It will be hard work, I’m sure of that. But it’s local and it’s the Salvation Army, and lots of our friends go there…

Q3: Should we start our own church? Or ask if we can plant a new congregation within Chelmsford Cit? Or move and spend our lives church hopping – trying every week to find the perfect church, and every other week discovering that it doesn’t exist?

Q4: Should we say stuff it all – come out of the church (not God, just the church - it never really works anyway does it?) We’ll both move to Italy where we will renovate dilapidated property and grow olives and grapes for the rest of our lives.