New Kid on the Blog

My mate Brian has decided to offer his own response to the widely revered/reviled (delete as appropriate) 'A Generous Orthodoxy'. I thought it was a great post, so go look at it here . Or see what the fuss is about and get a copy of the book

As regular visitors will know, Friday is normally the day I blog least, as it is my day off. Well, I seem to have given up time off for Lent (don't worry, I have been making time for family and getting some rest, it just hasn't been a whole day off for a few weeks). So here I am having spent the day in schools (both schools had 'end of term services' today) or in the car or visiting or -as I am doing now - preparing for Palm Sunday and Holy Week. My greatest disappointment this year with all of our palm Sunday services is that there are no Donkeys! Usually we have little processions in our villages with slightly temperamental beast of burden to add a little excitement, colour and odour to the proceedings. these days there are fewer people, even in the countryside, who own animals and those who do are not willing to take the risk of having them take part in a public event, mainly because our society is getting more litigious and insurance for such events has skyroc...

Having posted the video Christian vs Christ follower pt 1 , I probably gave the impression that I agreed completely with the whole 'Christian no more' idea which says, it seems, that the word 'Christian' has become so debased that those who seek to follow Christ need to give up on it and find another way to describe ourselves. Well, i agree that 'Christian' has been devalued, but I don't subscribe to a 'throwaway society' approach that says 'if something doesn't work then we dispose of it'. I think that the character in the video who is 'the Christian' is probably more of a 'Churchian' - of whom I have met many in my life. For them the culture of Church, particularly the Conservative Evangelical sub-culture, is where they find a sense of identity and even self-importance. This identity is built up with Christian books which re-enforce certain attitudes, with Christian music, with the way they dress, wit Christian media ...

Very busy couple of days has left me with little time to think on blogging, but cos the stuff from the last couple of days has been very good I thought I would leave you to muse on that. By which I particularly mean the youtube video (by the way the others in the series are nothing like as good, but this one offers a bit of something to chew on which I will probably have something to say more on later) Anyway, I was interested to read in yesterday's Guardian (one of the main national daily's here in the UK) that blogging is apparently on the wane. Apart from one missed day, i think that's a bit of a harsh judgement on me. I never realised i was so influential in the opinions of a nation.

Following on from a comment on my last post (thanks Mandy) I thought I would explain why the fracme.blogspot.com url appeared and why my email contains the same {at}yahoo dot com... Well, for a long time I used to sign my name acme, just an odd affectation of mine, not quite sure where it came from, except too many road runner cartoons as a kid. It fitted with my initials A C McCollum if I added esquire to the end (teenage humour, great stuff, eh?) So ACME it was. Then after my first Job as an ordained minister where I was just plain 'Alastair' or more formally 'Revd McCollum' (though strictly speaking it should be 'The Revd Mr McCollum') I went to a parish for my second Job where I was known as 'Father Alastair' - a very 'Anglo Catholic' kind of a parish. Whilst there I signed up for a yahoo account which conveniently combined my rather flippant teen name with my new status as Fr. so Fracme was born. An online persona consisting of, well, ...

Thanks to imago dei for blogging this, its good to see something 'Christian' that isn't a total Turkey! Unlike the film that Tom talks about in his latest post ... I had a bit of a rant in the comments for that one, but you don't need to read that!

I am actually doing this on time! The question to get conversation going this week is: Please tell us: What story is on the front page of your local newspaper? Do you think the event is worthy of front page coverage? This was a bit difficult, as there is no piccy of the front page on the website for our local paper, the Cambridge Evening News, and there is lots of updated news on the site with no information as to what was the front page headline so I went to the local shop and checked out what was on yesterday's paper (there's no Sunday edition) and then looked up the story on the net.. It was this: 50 jobs axed by council Worthy of being 'Front page news' ? Well local council services in the UK are in a bit of a mess in lots of ways with funding from central government a thorny issue at the moment. The reason given for this state of affairs was The council is pushing forward with a complete revamp of its customer services in an attempt to simplify its own systems...

Have already delivered this sermon, and am thinking about how I might adapt its central theme to a change of reading for this evening's service, as this evening we will have the Old Testament reading instead of the verses from Philippians... Year C Lent 5 Passion Sunday (2007) RCL Principal Isaiah 43.16-21 Philippians 3. 4b-14 John 12.1-8 Passionate There are a number of things I am passionate about and over a pint and packet of peanuts will wax lyrical over all sorts of things – Motorcycles, guitars, Star Trek, philosophy, real ale, music, movies, children, marriage – the list goes on and on; and so I do, as many people will tell you. A couple of weeks ago we had our marriage preparation day, which we offer to all couples soon to marry in the Parish Churches of our Papworth Team. It was a good day, and it is always invigorating to see young (and not so young) people setting out on the journey of discovery that is marriage. These people are passionate about each other, and want the...

This week's doozy on the blogtalkers blog, though like last week I am doing this at the end rather than the start of the week... What do you feel most guilty about? Eeek, how much can i give away on a public blog like this.... Actually, the thing i do feel most guilty about is an ongoing thing, it is the way that I allow my time to be squeezed so that I often feel I don't do justice to anything. I don't make enough time for my wife, sometimes I hurry my work - especially planning for services - and I sometimes allow myself to get so overloaded that I start missing stuff, meetings and appointments and things like that. It's not just about organisation, though that is part of it. I think that sometimes I try to please too many people and end up pleasing none. That is significantly deeper than i planned to be. I think I will leave it there.

It has been a busy week, worthwhile and valuable in lots of ways, but a hard week. What has particularly overshadowed the week and used lots of mental/emotional/spiritual energy has been the death and funeral of one particularly special member of our local congregation. I'd known him since before I actually came here as he was a great friend of one of my colleagues and we'd first met a year or so before I moved to this village. When I got here I tried to visit every few weeks, but there were long stretches of time when I couldn't due to other pressures, though we would meet week by week as I led services here. When he became very ill I visited as frequently as I could make it, and for the past month or so nearly every day. He was a man of great faith who missed his wife very much and longed to join her in death, in the arms of our eternal God. Above all, he trusted in Jesus, and just a few days before he died he said to me 'I know where I am going, I'm not afra...

Quilly and Dr John's response to my last post made me think about the things we find funny or not and why. The reason I loved it (and have watched it about a dozen times) is that I have a voice thing. I love the human voice in all its versatility, timbres, resonances, squeaks, noises. I have quite a powerful and versatile voice - for as long as I can remember I've been doing stuff with voice - including a degree in Drama. Sometimes when I read stories to my daughter I get so carried away that she tells me to 'stop doing the voices daddy' so she can get on with listening to the story (she obviously doesn't appreciate my talents!) Along with this I love dialects, and have a pretty good ear for them and being someone without a strong accent of any kind other than a pretty standard brit accent I'm intrigued by both the Devonshire burr of my home county and all the other many and various accents that people have. So when someone comes along who can do a very good...

This made me laugh so very very much... Beatbox Fame Game Uploaded by loranger

Am amazed by how low down the scale I come out as reformed Evangelical on this quiz... But please don't start stacking up the faggots for the fire yet, it is only a very general quiz. Fun though! You scored as Emergent/Postmodern . You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern 79% Neo orthodox 71% Roman Catholic 64% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 61% Modern Liberal 43% Charismatic/Pentecostal 39% Reformed Evangelical 29% Classical Liberal 25% Fundamentalist 14% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Another Dave Walker cartoon that seems to say exactly what I might want to say but better than I could say it.

This one is for the local magazine for this village, part of a whole load of 'demystifying' articles I have done... Perhaps I will post some of the others if things stay busy like they are for a bit. More of the Easter Mystery Last year, around this time, I tried to say a little bit about what happens in Church around Good Friday and Easter. Rather than going over the same ground again, this year I want to talk about Palm Sunday and the days which follow it, though it will be leading up to Easter Day again! Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter. On that day we remember that Jesus entered into the city of Jerusalem not as a King would be expected to do, with an entourage, chariots and great white horses, but humbly and riding on a donkey. The people who knew who he was still proclaimed him to be a great person and laid their cloaks and branches from Palm trees down on the ground in front of him , as there was no ‘red carpet’ available, which is why we call it ‘Palm Sunday’....

Again, another 'between appointments' post, but have just had to write a couple of articles for local village magazines, so here is a sneak preview! Newsletter Easter 2007 April sees the greatest celebration of the Church year. Forget Christmas, forget everything else, Easter is the day that makes Christians who we are! It is a joy filled party that reminds us of the great love of God which takes way the power of death and sin and causes us to shout ‘Alleluia! Christ is Risen – He is risen indeed, Alleluia’. It is impossible to overstate the importance of this for those who follow Jesus. His resurrection from the dead is what gives us hope, it is the meaning behind our faith, it is the greatest truth to which we hold. St Paul, probably the greatest teacher of the Christian faith, wrote ‘If Christ is not raised from the dead then all we believe is in vain.’ But, having said that, if that was all we believed and all that we were concerned about then those who claim that Chris...

Remember that mad rush I was talking about with regards to Mothering Sunday, well, it's here - so I thought I would post my sermon, or at least a taster - it is continued elsewhere! Mothering Sunday (2007) Year C RCL Exodus 2.1-10 John 19.25-27 Mothering Sunday Mothering Sunday, which is today, always presents a few problems for those of us called to preach on this day. With the changing patterns of our world and society, the changes in the structure and nature of ‘family’, and the terrible misuse of power that has come from the concept of ‘Mother Church’ something which should be a relatively simple subject becomes something of a minefield for us humble preachers. For we cannot pretend that families are what they were fifty, thirty or even ten years ago. Nor can we pretend that the Church has taken the responsibility it should have in caring for its members in the last few hundred years... [more]

St Patrick's day.... I have a mix of American, Irish, Indian and Devonshire blood in me, so I can sometimes loose track, but I am proud of my Collins ancestry so here's a God bless ya all on St Paddy's. Not sure if it was very bad of me to do, but i took the image above from One Old Green Bus so go and visit and donate towards the bus if you can in return for my thievery, please.

have joined Which offers a weekly post to talk about! this Week: If you had to spend a year on a deserted island with any five bloggers, who would you choose and why? I thought this would be easy, but I don't want to offend anyone I leave out - if you're not here then just assume I really wanted you in but I was being kind by not stranding you on an island with me for a year.... For those I am including, please don't think I want to torture you for a year or anything. I won't say too much, but here they are. Firstly Dr John. Wise, funny, likeable, witty. He could keep us all amused all year with stories of Pigeon Falls, and perhaps we could put together a whole train layout using coconuts. Next Jem . Bit of a cheat to include him, but have known him for years, he may not blog very much but he continues to be both one of the most sensible and one of the most completely crackers individuals I know. Third Brian . New to the blogosphere, but again an old pal, he may be...

Lovely wife has expressed unhappiness at me posting pictures of our young folk on the internet, so I have removed those postings. Sorry.

I don't know what you have planned for your weekend (rather an obvious statement, as most people who read this blog are half a world away) but I hope it's a good 'un. This is one of those weekends where being a minister really cuts into family time. In the UK it is Mothering Sunday (not Mother's Day, that's a card company invention...but i may well post from the vantage point of my high horse on that later) and I would really quite like to make a fuss of my lovely wife who does so much to keep our family together whilst i am running round like a blue-bottomed buzzy insect thingy. We both take as much of a share as possible in looking after our children, and I make sure that whenever possible I am around between 5-7pm to cook and/or feed and/or bathe and/or read stories at bedtime with Jack and Katherine. I also try to do my bit with housework etc because I am quite certain it's not a wife/mum's lot in life to be a housekeeper! (More often than we all cont...

Brian has finally given in to the blog affliction that is sweeping our world. He takes pride of place in my blog links sidebar bit because either A) he is funny and worth reading or B) needs serious massage of the ego. You decide when you go and visit him here . And don't forget to bookmark. And do remark on the windswept and interesting photo of him in the about me section... He also is the first person to have his own label category on this blog, because he was in the last posting too and we do a podcast thingy together.

Well, this is it, the pointless drivel church website is up and running - or gently ambling in the case of me and Brian. It's basically a forum for us to air our views in a podcast format about, well, um, anything. But mainly Churchy, faithy stuff. Visit it here , or in the link that will appear in my sidebar very soon...

Thanks to the old fart for pointing me towards the visual dna website which made the last post possible. i tried to edit the post to include this but blogger wouldn't let me

Five very satisfying minutes thinking about who I am and why pictures say more than words Read my VisualDNA ™ Get your own VisualDNA™

I don't have nice bouffant hair ...or good sound right-wing political agendas... ...or a certainty which brooks no doubt (except about important things)... ...or a narrowly defined theological agenda... ...or a great desire to be rich... ...or terrible taste in suits... ...or perfect teeth... ...or a desire to ask people to give me money to spread the gospel (don't remember Jesus mentioning a 'mission fund')... ...or a calling to ask for the assassination of foreign presidents... I will have to stick with being an impoverished, not overly 'successful' country Vicar who just tries to get on with this loving, praying, ministering stuff. Oh, the reason I mention this is a post on Dave Walker's blog here .

Been way too serious round here lately... Whilst trawling some of the aforementioned blogs I found, at Genesis blog (which is being moved to another site, but will change the link when i get my act together) some funny Jack Bauer stuff... Having got into this whole 24 thing quite late in the process (have watched five seasons worth in the last six months or so) I am just now catching up with the whole Bauer culture - and this made me laugh, quite a lot...

Thinking about Kurt's comment again, and the responses (much appreciated) from Deb , Quilly (despite the misspelling ;-) ), Dr John and Tom I am revisiting this whole 'why do i blog' question. I've said before that (if I'm honest) there's an ego part of it that makes me think 'waheey, people are reading what I wrote', and there's simple self-expression - all the more enjoyable if people read and comment. On deeper reflection, though, it ties in with my previous mention of 'integrity' or perhaps more accurately 'integration'. One of the things i really value on this blog is being able to think out loud, and to explore stuff via this nice shiny screen which otherwise might bounce about my head and get nowhere. It does mean that pretty much everything is a work in progress, and makes me think of that rather twee fridge magnet 'be patient, God isn't finished with me yet'. But it's enjoyable, and I really do appreciat...

Before i go off to bed I feel have i to respond to Kurt's comment on my last posting. He says 'the way you write about your faith confuses me. It's like you're trying to analyse a smile' I'm grateful for the comment, thanks Kurt, but I'm not sure I agree. Well, I agree that the way I write about faith is confusing, mainly because I am, like most theologians, sorting this out in my head as I go along. On the other hand i think that if we leave faith unexamined then we leave ourselves open to the manipulation of any convincing idiot that comes along and we become liable to drift about following any wind of doctrine that takes our fancy. When i talk about compartmentalising faith what i mean is that some people turn their brains off when it comes to faith, others don't live out the values they proclaim on Sundays in the rest of the week, others don't allow themselves to feel God in their lives and keep God as more of an intellectual concept than a f...

Busy day today, and realised again that I am trying to do too much when i missed a meeting this morning because i forgot! At least I missed some of it, until i got a call saying 'you're meant to be here.' My mind was filled with funerals, (other) meetings, memorial stones, prayer (good thing), Annual meetings (have six of them to do for my parishes over the next few weeks), Mothering Sunday (this coming Sunday in the UK) and lots of other pastoral, theological and generally churchy things. Alongside this my little man (aged 2) got walloped with a hoover yesterday (his big sister trying hard to play cleaning up) this has split his front tooth and he is obviously in some discomfort, he didn't sleep so well, so neither did we. And the dog puked very nastily too in the kid's playroom... My mind was on other things. The biggest difficulty in ministry, perhaps in any kind of living these days, is the number of pressures which come from every direction. In my job there...

I've seen this on Dr John's blog and on the old fart's blog, so with such illustrious companions on the journey i couldn't resist this meme, only rule is that each statement must be answered with three words only... here goes 01. Where is your cell phone? Its behind me.. 02. Boyfriend/girlfriend? not since marrying 03. Hair? way too much 04. Your mother? short and fun 05. Your father? beyond this world 06. Your favorite item(s)? slightly battered motorbike 07. Your dream last night? really can't remember 08. Your favorite drink? strong real ale 09. Your dream guy/girl? my lovely wife 10. The room you are in? my messy study 11. Your fear? old and alone 12. What do you want to be in 10 years? wiser, thinner, breathing 13. Who did you hang out with last night? my gorgeous family 14. What are you not? boring old git 15. Are you in love? very much so 16. One of your wish list items? new acoustic guitar 17. What time is it? just after midnight 18. The last thing you did...

Trying again to use my new system of keeping longer posts off of this blog I thought I would post a taster of this week's thought and leave you to decide if you want to follow the link and see the rest! I have to say that p'raps I should have done it with a better sermon... but don't let that put you off. Let me know what you think of a) the sermon and b) the split posting! Lent 3 (2007) Year C RCL Principal Readings It doesn’t stop with being saved! People have some pretty strange ideas about what it means to be a Christian… Quite often I hear the words ‘well, I don’t go to Church, but I try to be a good person’. Or ‘I’m a Christian, I’m interested in spiritual things’. I’ve said it before, but trying to be good, or even coming to Church or reading the Bible doesn’t actually make a person a Christian – any more than sleeping in a garage makes you a car. There is something more to the way we live, the way we are, when we are followers of Jesus Christ. (more)

Not likely to be a long post, due to things to plan for tomorrow. Maybe when planning is finished I'll write some more. Thanks for sticking with me over the past few ropey days! When I blogged last night I felt rather like i was at the end of my resources so didn't really say that much. It was a tough day with little man being potentially very ill and perhaps needing an I.V. drip, but all that worked out in the end. It was made all the more tiring by spending lots of time in the car, taking little man and lovely wife to hospital, getting back to pick up gorgeous girl (daughter) from primary school, getting stuff to a local shop for the end of fairtrade fortnight, which my wife was involved in organising for the village, getting daughter sorted out and looked after by friends a couple of villages away, getting back to hospital, and then having to make sure everything was in order for the Marriage Prep day today before getting food sorted and kids to bed etc etc. It was a lon...

Apart from busy-ness i have had good and bad reasons for not blogging over the past few days... Good reason -- my birthday on Weds meant that the evening which i might have used to blog in, was used in a nice meal out with wife and a couple of friends. Thanks Jem for birthday wishes Bad reasons - very very busy, lots going on, foremost of which has been ongoing poorly-ness of my beautiful baby man - his bug meant that he got quite dehydrated, which meant that we have had to go to the Doctor a few times and actually ended up spending much of today in the local hospital. Fortunately he's not 'clinically dehydrated' and it looks like the bug is on the way out, so they let him come home tonight and we are just giving him lots and lots and lots to drink. Thanks for the good wishes. Sorry I've not been blogging, and sorry to the folks i normally visit regularly on the blog scene who i've neglected. Am now almost keeling over on the keyboard due to fatigue so will try ...

Not a complaint, but by way of apology to those of you who do make the effort to come and check out the New Kid blog every now and then (still not sure about keeping the name, but no one responded to my question as to whether after 2 and a half years i am entitled to still call myself the New Kid on the Blog). There is so much going on, much of it good, all of it important - and i don't list all the busy-ness in order to make myself look important but as part of my ongoing campaign to let folk know what it actually is that we do, us strange breed known as 'Clergy'. Yesterday, for instance, as well as trying to support my wife, as our little boy is still poorly! I had a meeting with my fellow foundation Governors (ie those appointed by the Church) for the local school which is having its 'Statutory Inspection of Anglican Schools' today. Following which a long meeting at which the Clergy discussed planning for our 'wedding preparation day' on Saturday - a da...

And so very British.... Cartoon by Dave Walker . Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons .

Last week I mentioned i had spoken on the theme of faith and belief as the opening talk in a series of Lent thoughts about the Apostle's creed. So here it is Congratulations on making it to the first of our talks for this Lenten period as we grapple with the Apostle’s Creed. As it was my suggestion that we follow this series over these five weeks it is also my responsibility to say why this is a good idea, and what we hope will happen, before I get on with talking about what we are doing when we say ‘I believe…’ particularly when we consider this creed that we will be looking and saying together over the coming weeks… I’ll come clean and say that the reason we are looking at this document over the coming weeks is because I think that on the whole very few of us really think about what we are doing when we stand up together and say the Creeds. Week by week we reel off either the Apostle’s Creed – our subject of study and the version used in morning and evening prayer; or the Nic...

Another late post, my sleep has been all over the place lately and i don't seem to get into any kind of rhythm with it. Monday (now yesterday) was really busy, with meetings, visits, school, Lent course (a great talk from one of my colleagues on 'I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth'). So much so that (as you may have guessed) there was no time to blog at a sociable hour (UK time, i guess as i post this its about 6pm on the East of the USA). Am still processing the talk this evening, may relate some things about it when my brain gets up and running sometime tomorrow (if i have time). I thought i would also mention that i never did get around to posting that long talk which i did to introduce us to the Apostle's Creed last week, though I might follow advice from standing under the sky and try to split the post. ttfn

Got up this morning to discover that our little two year old man had been sick in the night, so having run a bath for him and got wifely person to sort him out I found myself turning up very last minute to Church at 8.30am (though the service started on time, which i am very pleased with). Between services I found he had been sick again whilst i was out and that stuff was coming out the other way too (hence the title of the post). Remarkably he wasn't complaining, though was obviously not at his best, and though he was sick on and off all day and unable to keep food down he seems to have got through the day well. I looked after him for a couple of hours this afternoon whilst Jo and Katherine (baby girl) went out for a walk with the dogs and generally splashed about and got messy in the soggy Cambridgeshire Countryside. The two Church services I took part in today went very well, considering that at the start of both my mind was elsewhere! there was a real sense of the Spirit of...

Year C Lent 2 Readings Genesis 15.1-12, 17-18 Philippians 3.17-4.1 Luke 13.31-end Honesty and Trust If someone came to the Rectory telling me that they hear the voice of God, I must admit that I would think the worst. Just as if someone approached you telling you that they had conversations with the almighty then we might feel a little disturbed. This is not the kind of person we want to sit next to on the bus…. BUT - imagine what it would be like if we could talk to God freely and hear his voice! Imagine how it would be if we shared such an intimate relationship with God that we were able to sit and chat and be chatted to in return. That’s the kind of relationship that we are told Abram (he’s not yet Abraham in the passage we heard this morning, his change of name by divine deed poll comes later on) had with God. It’s almost chatty, and at times is quite forthright and perhaps even a little bit cheeky. If we know the story of Sodom and Gomorra we would know that Abram negotiated...

Terri said I didn't know preachers had days off Well obviously I can't stop being holy and beatific for the day, but i can hang up the halo for a few hours and stop glowing in the dark for a while Tho' that second bit may be more due to swimming in the sea near sizewell 'b' nuclear station, plus a couple of trips (in Wales and Northern England) on nuclear power station tours (what can i say, I'm a weird kind of tourist, or a weird kind of anything come to that) Oh, and being off means i can do even more meaningless blog postings than usual

But Sunday's coming....Amen, preach it.... Sorry, got carried away for a moment there. What i meant to say is Friday is my day off, as best i can keep it free, so i may not be blogging again here today. Whatever you're doing have fun today, even if you're at work toodles

My attempt at subtle humour obviously failed, as my attempt to gain a huge amount of self-affirmation whilst at the same time taking a wry look at Quilly's comment on my post about 'what kind of blogger I am' drew very little response at all... Except for Quilldancer being very caring and reassuring me that i wasn't as 'pants' as she thought my post alluded that I thought i was (see, subtle and humourous just don't work, and don't tell me my spelling is wrong, I know that humourous is meant to be spelled humourous) Talking of pants, thanks Tom for the comment, I hope that I am at the forefront of spreading the 'pants' concept to the world! If you find yourself using obscure UK youth culture phrases in your everyday life then my work is done. Probably also worth mentioning that 'pants' in the UK means underwear, not trousers... Also, apologies Quilldancer that I've not added you to my blogroll, I have been meaning to as I do enjoy m...

Thanks for all the comments over the past few posts folks! I'm just nipping through but reading Quilldancer's comment on 'the kind of blogger i am' made me think 'does this make me anodyne and rather uninteresting?' She wrote You say plenty without saying anything at all. And without offending anybody. That's an essential skill for a pastor.

I know when i am trying to fit too much into my days when i can't fit what's happening into my brain - so loosing my diary (or mislaying it, i hope) meant that i missed an appointment yesterday which I should have remembered. I now have someone (rightly) hacked off at me who waited for me to turn up and i never came. I hate being 'diary bound' because i am used to remembering stuff, but at the moment without it I am lost. Tooooooo busy.