The paper kingdom

What to tell?...

2007-03-27T13:46:00.000-07:00

So as I look back at the little pocket of time between January and now, what is there to tell? Work ticks along, with it's own peaks and troughs of satisfaction and stress, but a generally pleasant time. My inability to get down to writing any decent songs frustrates, especially when there are moments, often late at night with my acoustic guitar on my knee, that I actually do stumble across something that works... but alas it is never written down and is forgotten by the next morning.

I found myself in Edinburgh a few weeks ago, for the record (and in case I ever try to convince any of you) it does not take 6.5 hours to drive to Edinburgh from Wiltshire, especially on a Friday night. Well at least I had the company of a good friend, followed by the company of several good friends on my arrival. I realised just how much I miss all the things that have remained in Edinburgh, especially the church family at Charlotte Chapel.

Maybe if I post more often, then I'll have more to write about, for the moment why not read my brother's blog, he writes so much better than I and finds himself in a situation with so many interesting things to write about.

The Rock and Roll Lifestyle...

2007-01-11T12:17:00.000-08:00

As soon as the wave of Christmas had started to subside, I found myself driving a rather overloaded car to North Wales, with the tingle of anticipation evident in all three of us. After a stop to buy the essentials (drum sticks, strings and picks) we found ourselves amongst the beauty of the Welsh mountains, my brother Jim in the backseat cleaning and restringing the guitars and Rob (who might as well be one of the family) controlling the tunes to get us fired up for what lay ahead.

After a little appehension as to whether the scrap of paper Rob was holding contained sufficient directions to get us there, we ended up in the quirky studio perched on the side of a Hill, and once set up retired to the Mongolian Yurt which would the temporary home for the three of us.

All in all it was a fantastic three days, a great end to 2006.

Jim hitting all the right chords..

It was worth buying those sticks after all...

Rob rocking it up in the control room...

Christmas chez Barne

2007-01-11T12:06:00.000-08:00

After my first ever work Christmas lunch (a significant milestone) I found myself travelling back from London late on the 22nd December with precious little time to finish my Christmas shopping. Fortunately the rather unexpectably placed delicatessant in a nearby village saved the day, and Christmas rolled on.

Altogether a lovely family time, the highlight being perhaps the musical crackers. Each one contained a whistle which played a different note, and our hats all had numbers on them. From behind a score sheet, the musically minded among us directed the rabble into our own little carol orchestra.

However the real musical highlight was to come over the next few days....

So I'm just going to....

2006-12-08T17:23:00.000-08:00

give up apologising. To anyone who actually reads these rare posts, I'm afraid that as part of the package you'll need to come to terms with the fact that I am utterly useless at keeping this thing going.

Anyway, this post is to mark the special occasion of Rachel's birthday.

As for me I find myself in London this weekend. Visits to London are always charged with emotion, I was trying to put my finger on why this is the case whilst sittng on the bus this evening. I think one reason is that I have all sorts of those fuzzy warm childhood memories of London, especially of Christmas visits to Harrods, that resurface when I'm here. Also London forces you to confront life in both it's grandness and griminess, something that can easily be escaped elsewhere. On top of that it is in some ways the centre of my Englishness, it has echoes of what it was, and is, to be British.

It's hard to explain these kinds of emotions...

So it's been a while

2006-10-21T04:10:00.000-07:00

since I last posted on my blog. For that I apologise. I do have a couple of excuses but they probably won't be sufficient to excuse me. Life ticks on, rehearsing with the band takes up most of my time, along with writing songs.
The most exciting thing for me to share with you is this...
As you know, I work for a Landscape Architectural firm called Gillespies, and about a month ago I was working as part of a team on a design competition for a new park in the centre of Birmingham.

We are competing against some pretty big names in the world of park design.

The six entries are here:
http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/GenerateContent?CONTENT_ITEM_ID=78066&CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE=0&MENU_ID=0

(it's not a pretty link to look at, but it does the job)

The pdf's are at the bottom, if you have some time, have a look at them and tell me which one you like the best and maybe guess which one I was involved in.

The suprise conversations

2006-09-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

On Monday night I had the opportunity to speak to some people who I wasn't expecting to....
They weren't expecting to speak to me either, but there we were, 3000 miles apart and it was quite fantastically wonderful.
Good friends don't really change, and that's the way I like it.

The first day of the rest of my life...

2006-09-03T12:33:00.000-07:00

Well maybe the title is a little over-dramatic, but tomorrow certainly marks a new stage in my life. A proper job, and for a whole 12 months with only 20 days holiday (the company is www.gillespies.co.uk).
I'll be living at home, and commuting in each day, let's see how the early mornings go!

I gave an address (sermon) in church this evening, I felt very unqualified, but as is always the case God faithfully enabled to do it through his strength. I had more interesting conversations with the congregation of my very liberal parish church in the few minutes after the service, than I have had in the last seven years of occasionally attending during the holidays.

Oh and I'm getting pretty excited about this music festival that I'm going to with my brother, the one that I was trying to win tickets to.

A bit more catch up...

2006-08-23T07:18:00.000-07:00

So yesterday, in answer to a previous post I got offered a great job in Oxford at a company called Gillespies, and I shall be working there for the next 12 months. God is faithful.

What could have been....

2006-08-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

So I need to bactrack a little, as I haven't had a chance to post in the last couple of days.

Last Saturday a friend of mine, James, came over for the afternoon and the decision was made, along with dad, that what that afternoon was in need of was a spot of golf. We dismissed the dark threatening clouds in an optimistic manner, remarking that by the time we arrived at the first hole they would have dissappeared in place of beautiful sunshine. This was not to be the case, in fact neither would the golf feature much in the afternoon as it unfolded.
The clutch cable snapped as we were driving there and we came to rest at the entrance to a farm track. There we stayed for several hours, and within an hour or so we found ourselves sheltering inside the car from the downpour, admiring the appproaching lightning and waiting for the AA.

Now James has a friend who works for Radio 2, and he needed someone for a quiz that very afternoon. The prize was to win tickets to a local music festival that I had my eye on, with a sensational line-up. www.endoftheroadfestival.com

So there I found myself, with the windows steaming up, the rain chattering on the roof and the lightning around us, talking live to Dermot O'Leary on Radio 2.

We had a lovely chat about all sorts of things including eating puffins, before I successfully managed to get both of my questions wrong, and lose out on winning the tickets.
A truly memorable afternoon even if I didn't win the tickets.

So what now?

2006-08-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

This evening was one of those great 'father and son' times. We cooked Toad in the Hole, talked about wine and attempted our first Sudoku together. We're a bit rubbish.

We are staying in my cousins house, a big country hall in Suffolk, a place which holds most of my happiest childhood memories. It is beautiful here.

Now to answer the question that I set myself in the title of this post:
Well I guess the answer is that I really don't know, I think for the first time ever in my life I don't actually have anything sorted out for the next 12 months of my life. I have no university course to go back to for at least a year, all the jobs I have tried for have falle through, and nothing else really looms ahead.

In theory I should have something, as I have to do at least 9 months work before I'll be allowed back to university, but I have nothing. It's amazing how it doesn't worry me at all, I know that God will provide.

The paper kingdom

2006-08-15T14:31:00.000-07:00

Why the paper kingdom?
It's the title of a song that I am writing at the moment with a good friend James, and my brother.

In some ways it's our tribute to Josh Ritter's 9 minute epic, Thin Blue Flame. But it's much more than that as well, whilst we admire his heartfelt lyrics as he wrestles with his idea of God, our views are a little different. The song is auto biographical for all three of us really, with most of the lyrics coming from James. It talks about the way in which youth tells us that we can have anything we want, and that we deserve it as well. We surround ourselves with this paper kingdom that looks so good, built for our own pleasure and enjoyment, without any reference to God, so tempting to do. Of course the paper kingdom so easily burns, and what are we left with? nothing, apart from what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.