Journal: not the !*€'*! caretaker

So there I was with a day off and very little dome in the way of work (other than a few funeral calls, some pastoral stiff and a late night foray into the rainy night to overcome some welfare state/health service inadequacies). I potters a bit, tidied the study a bit, played with electronics, had brunch with the other half and watched a film.

Rushed out to do a quick call and on my return found a van (which I assumed was for the group meeting there later) parking up - so I left them to it. A little later one of our children popped into the church building to find something and was replaced by one of the other children as she also looked. Bottom line - I ended up going in and, as the caretaker, was challenged about not having opened up  and stuff.

So, I (nicely) point out that I'm not the caretaker and how the group have a key holder and how it's their responsibility to be there to open up and all that sort of thing. Seemed the group had been told that the people doing the whatever it was needed an hour to set up and no one had arrived. The rest is history (like the wallybean who has broken the heater controls in their desire to have the building heated to twenty-one degrees if I find them).

But you know, it's interesting how duplicitous people are - when they think you're the caretaker they know their rights, when you're the cleric they become different again! Fortunately I explained the issues and (kindly) left them to set up. But the tide is going out and the joys of living over the shop are diminishing as quickly as the mould grows!

Lord, You came as fully man as a servant to all - why isn't there just one story where you are mistaken for the caretaker of the shoveller of (You know what) so we can find a way forward with biblical integrity attached. Should I turn over the tables and use the whip I've made to drive them out? Perhaps I should just remain silent or ask them a cutting questions using the blatantly obvious?

It's not easy trying to pick up the cross at times is it?

Going around again - an essential piloting skill!

If anyone learning to fly has questioned the time and effort taken on 'emergencies'  - what is now exercise 12/13E (Emergencies: Abandoned take-off - Engine failure after take-off - Mislanding/Go-around -Missed approach).

Can I suggest they watch this.

And then applaud some excellent airmanship

:-)

That's (not) entertainment!

One evening, after a particularly stressed week behind the altar, I sat down for a bit of R&R with the Mrs. Vicarage and a DVD. "It's a Will Smith film," she said and so I sat back for a bit of light relief. The film? 'The Pursuit of Happyness!" I sat transfixed and descending deeper into a pit of despair as Will's character slept on a subway station toilet's floor with his son. OK. there was sunshine at the end, but the journey left me even more mentally and emotionally exhausted than I was at the beginning.

Tonight we decided to have a family film night and ended up with 'The Beaver', a film chosen because the clip shown at the cinema looked funny and because it was billed as a 'comedy'. Wow, what a journey - a man with a depressive illness and a beaver puppet stuck on the end of his arm (well it was until near the end anyway!). Like 'Happyness' there was a ray of sunshine at the end but it was a long wait and although I'd appreciate (and use it) in a different setting, tonight wasn't the night!

In an attempt to recover from what we had just seen we chucked the other DVD on the player and sat back to enjoy the other film 'The Dilemma'' which was also billed as a comedy. Sadly if this is comedy then something has gone very wrong with my comedy gland because it was abysmal. I found myself stressed and thinking I was back at work and although there are comedic episodes the film was a total cringefest. I don't think I have been so embarrassed and frustrated at the erros of judgment made and the potential for being made to look awful since Norman Wisdom's pathetic character hit the silver screen.

So, anyone out there seen a film that didn't produce what was hoped in the way of lightness, laughter, plot or something? Let's have a go at nominating the very best and the worst of the films we've seen and we can even have a special 'Christian' category so all you out there can nominate 'Left Behind'!!!!

So let's start it off with a nomination for the 'Worst Comedy' - The Dilemma


The floor is yours