Love and Valerien

I need an early night. Big Brother has been exhumed for an eighth series... So worth watching the opening episode if only to be able to dip in or out if needs be later. There is no escape from televisual narcosis.... Doesn't Carole look like Millie Tant? And Lesley like Stella Rimmington on methadone?

A house full of wimmin will be great though. Having lived in a very female heavy household... oh the simplicity by comparison of living with disgusting men.

Mars for sale

PS fancy a few acres of Mars? I am practically giving it away!

and

Interesting add on Brit TV for Screwfix Direct…. “You’ll pay less and save money” Verbatim. Or was ot save money and pay less. Well think about it.

Astronomy, romantic idiocy and the moon.

“seen an ad on tv for the 1truelove a moby thing using astronomy and numerology to give you the name of “the one” down to his/her name.. Well people who believe in the soupiness of romance mite believe in astronomy bit like that amerikan who sells bits of the moon, made 9 million so far..”

The Ping Pong Ball Goes Ping Pong Ping Pong

In the run up to my last essay did txt my brother will all to frequent updates how I was doing or not....

Kevin sent me a classic

"Can u add"...A ping pong ball goes ping pong ping pong ..." i used that in draft nvsin ass! didnt work though! k!"

well brightened up a dull day.

Catching Up With Life....

Safely back from London. Now back to catching up with my life. Have a couple of blog posts in the pipeline, but then I had a few before doing Yearly Meeting. So watch this space....

Somewhat Christian... 46 to be precise....

Your Score: Somewhat Christian

You scored 46 Chirstian!

Link: DarthKull on The How Christian are you? Test written by OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

{{You've been in Christianity for a few years and know what you need to do, but still a small bit of doubt is in you.}

angry, depressed, tired and spiritually cold (advices and queries 10)

"Come regularly to meeting for worship even when you are angry, depressed, tired or spiritually cold." (Advices and Queries 10 QFP 1:02)

In my current condition I feel I am seeing things not as they are but as I am. I am angry, depressed, tired and frankly messed up. I pray that my presence at Yearly Meeting is a help rather than hindrance to the meeting as a whole. Bear with my self therapy dear Friends. Coming to this Yearly Meeting might be a diversion from my journey towards wholeness, but perhaps wrong turnings and dead ends are part of the journey too....

Have been sitting mostly in the East Gallery, by tradition a gathering place of Young Friends. Well 39 is still pretty young for Britain Yearly Meeting....

The seats in the galleries are probably the hardest in western Europe. OOoo my bum!

In the session on Equality and Inclusion a Friend spoke movingly about her anger at exclusion of women from science but that anger is not love. At times I have a song "Angry Love" ringing in my head, forget who it was by or even the title.

"You sing with a hunger, you can call it an anger, you sing with an angry love"

I woke up last nite and couldn't get back to sleep. I was already short of sleep. So by the end of first plenary session this morning I just needed to crash. I did so in the worship room. Freaky.... The thought occurred to score some valerian. England takes drugs in psychic defence... definitely going to cut out caffeine except when i really really really need it...

Managed to score a bar of fairly traded chocolate on sale in reception here at Friends House. Yumm! That's got me Convinced (Laughs out Loud)

Let the light shine!

PS Official Blog of BYM at www.britainyearlymeeting.blogspot.com

Give Peas a Chance!

OOOOps

here's that poster spotted at Hammersmith Friends Meeting House one morning...



observant readers of previous post will have noticed repeat of Give Peas a Chance Poster.

Going Up To Jerusalem (QFP 6:11)

“We did conclude among ourselves to settle a meeting, to see one another's faces, and open our hearts one to another in the Truth of God once a year, as formerly it used to be.” Yearly Meeting in London, 1668 (Quaker Faith and Practice 6:02)

Well I got here! Yay!

I am at Britan Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (them dodgy Quaker types).

Here was my first view of Friends House.



Would you believe it! As I stood outside the main door someone actually offered to take a picture! Feel the Love! And thank you friend whoever you are. Makes a change not having to slip someone a fiver LOL! Span the World in Friendship!



BYM has an official blog, I am merely an unofficial Blogger.

I am staying at Hammersmith Friends’ Meeting House. Many thanks in advance to Hammersmith Friends especially John Marshall for making my stay fabulous and enabling me to feel the goddes presence.

Here is Hammersmith FMH



I am sleeping in the childrens room, on the floor of course. Once a Young Friend always a Young Friend….

Here’s of the toys



Give Peas a chance!



Not the best poster produced by the Society of Friends pretty dam good!



Are you listening Tony?

Good to see a bit of flower power in the SoF. Here is a view from the East Gallery



and here is a close up.



And love this Quakerly mug



We had a little local difficulties with the errant Spanish back in 1588.


Right, must dash session starts in 5 minutes LOL

Voting Day

It was Voting Day here in Old England. When I was at primary school I remember Voting Day, it was mega because the school was used as a polling station so us sprogs got a day off school.

Here is a Polling Station for Independent Electors of the City of Leeds, such as Bluebell



The Big friendly letters in BOLD BLOCK CAPITAL SANS SERIF LETTERS I remember from my primary school days. No doubt designed by a bored civil servant at the Home Office (Lilibet Windsor’s Ministry of Police Propaganda and Prisons) on a dull day before my time.

Goes without saying that I remembered to Vote Green this morning. The Country is indeed gripped with election fever and democratic frenzy! Yeah baby!

Desirable Divorcees

I wonder if Queen Bobbitt remarried?

What I did in my holidays (Part four)

The lovely Manuela’s celebration of life on the occasion of the commencement of her 41st trip around the sun did occur on the easter weekend, it was lovely to enjoy her hospitality in Loopy Liverpool. Above of course is the largest Steeplehouse in Old England. Pretty Impressive?

Here is the Birthday Girl with the scran as we prepared to leave for the party.



Loading it into a wheelbarrow of course



Perhaps Portugese Rose would go down well



And off we set



Passing an ultra modern Anglican Steeplehouse on the way with a lovely pyramid shape. Give me that olde time religion! Last steeple house I saw in shape of pyramid was a Plymouth Brethren Gospel Hall in Birmingham, it proably had the same architects.





Wonder if Manuela’s plan to have a marquee in the park was a bit whimsical



We got it up in the end, but it was heavy going when there was just me Gavin and Manuela. Things got a bit better when the reinforcements turned up




Not sure it would have stood the wind and the rain but there u go. I was there honest! But no one ever photographs the photographer unless u slip ‘em a fiver



Manuela was left holding the baby



But I was on hand to drip feed her some rose



Goes without saying we tidied up



Competition amongst English Cities for Phallic Architecture is very intense, here’s Loopy Liverpool’s attempt to rival Leeds



Feel the Love! You know you want to!




Cheers Manuela! Here’s to the next 40 years!

Perhaps Liverpool is the Pool of Life as Carl would have it

Fieldwork through the ages (part one I think)

Perhaps I’ve lost that Blogging feeling…. Anyway here is a picture of Armley Mills. Fancy working 14 hours a day 6 days a week in a Dark Satanic Mill?

In this style 10/6

See it really is a top hat not a bowler

If you want to get a hat get a head

This is actually a top hat not bad for a self portrait. Well if I didn’t take pictures of me nobody else would. I am actually hard at work on a field trip to Armley Mills.





Really digging this Local and Regional History vibe! I could have gone to New York! I could have gone to Ibiza! I could have gone to Thailand! But no on Saturday I went to Armley! Keep It Real!

Magick, Freedom and a Sense of Power!

"'People doing it say "there is something magical about this lifestyle
to me... because it is living an alternative, it's living a
contradiction to all the standard programming and the way that
everyone expects you to be. Whenever you are doing something that is
different from the norm, there is a magic to it, a freedom and a sense
of power."'"

(from Loving More: The Polyfidelity Primer by Ryam
Nearing quoted by Gyan Nisarg in article Communal Sex Lib in turn
included in "Sexyouality - Challenging the culture of Monogamy" edited
by Merrick and published by Godhaven Ink)

Indifference Is NOT the Same as Caring

The article below is published in the April/May 2007 newsletter of Carlton Hill (Leeds) Preparative Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (the not so pecular people called Quakers).

Indifference Is NOT the Same as Caring

In December 2002 an attender at Carlton Hill was severely ill. A small group of Carlton Hill Friends, I being one of them, did what they could to help. This resulted in a state of rather messy conflict between me and the said attender, which, is still ongoing, (read permanent). For this reason I felt unsafe to attend meeting for worship, and was only attending when on door keeping rota, once every 8 weeks. The meeting was not initially unsupportive. The small group of Friends helping said attender were of some support initially. Some later proved to be broken reeds (Isaiah 36:6 if you must)

What really hurts, however, is the reaction, or rather lack of any reaction I have had since I first became infrequent in attendance at Carlton Hill, and then began a prolonged period of not attending Meeting for Worship or any other activity in the Meeting House.

What is really shocking is that, I understand that I was on the door-keeping rota and there was no reaction for 3 months to my not turning up to do door-keeping (the reason being that I did not have a copy of the door keeping rota). Does Carlton Hill PM not even value Friends prepared to be on the door-keeping rota? It hurts that Friends went out of their way NOT to get in touch with me. Likesay nobody phoned, nobody wrote nobody emailed. My contact details were in the yellow book. So much for being a Society of Friends!

Then in January 2004 I passed a Friend in the street outside the Meeting House who said “Bluebell we missed you”. This really really hurt! and just as I was considering a return to Carlton Hill…. I know when I am being bullshited! Quit the hypocrisy Friends!

I came to Carlton Hill wanting to belong. For 3 years I tried everything, I did not turn away anyone who reached out to me, though I could name Friends who I reached out to and did not reach back to me. Friends! It would seem that while professing to be Friends we do not befriend the person in the next pew. Especially not if they are “different”. So much for being a Peculiar People!

Likesay, I will be back to Meeting for Worship, but Friends! when I do return, don’t tell me how much you care when you do not, or you will get a bit of good old fashioned Quaker plain speaking from me. Likesay, indifference is not caring.

Britain Yearly Meeting’s Epistle 2003 said that we should ask the question how much community we have in our local meetings and how open and welcoming we are. The level of true community at Carlton Hill is disgracefully low. On the whole, Carlton Hill PM is a false community. Don’t get me wrong, probably better than most meetings in BYM. Why is it as Quakers that we are, probably quite good at building community at national and international level, and pretty lousy at local level?

Conflict within Carlton Hill has been badly handled. There is a bulging carpet because too much has been swept under it. This is again a sign of false community. Again, there is a myth that messy conflict is the worse place to be, when it is often, probably always, healthier than false community.

One Friend described the Plymouth Brethren Assembly that he had attended as a student as outwardly welcoming but rigidly hierarchical underneath. Sounds a lot like Carlton Hill (apart from the outwardly welcoming bit). Another thing I have learned about how Carlton Hill seems to work in practice is that a Committee is a group of individuals who all believe that nothing can be done who resolve to take no action. That is of course if it actually meets. Ah commitment problems...

And don’t get me wrong. In this ocean of snow, there has been, if not a sea of palms, at least some moving signs of hope, such as the card sent by one Friend after I was badly attacked (resulting in head injuries and a broken skull). Also my overseer has been supportive through my prolonged accommodation crisis (though I have had to badger him to be so, and I really do not have the energy). I feel I have been tolerated in my time at Carlton Hill. But tolerance is not enough. Indifference is not caring. We are a worshiping community insofar as we are a true community and no further.

Bluebell Eikonoklastes

ENFP

ENFP - "Journalist". Uncanny sense of the motivations of others. Life is an exciting drama. 8.1% of total population.

Free Jung Personality Test (similar to Myers-Briggs/MBTI)

Androphage Attenborough moments (or Shag it! Kill it! Eat it!)

Did text my brother

“Gr8 Attenborough Moment with mail spider of 1 species trying 2 pull female 10 times his side who mite mistake him 4 dinner (there’s female intelligence 4 U!) & mite eat him anyway.. our chap succeeded nicely & red hot arachnid nookie ensued and he still got eaten so every1 happy the calories will come in handy & he won’t b able 2 cheat on her our chap has passed on his jeans which I am told is the meaning of life think of his big androphage daughters b x”