What can I say?

I love my church. Absolutely, flipping awesome. For those who aren't aware of what happened the night of the 27th of September 2006, on my way to Powerhouse, I'll do a quick run down. Personally I think this will be worded better than the police statement, but who am I to judge. God'll decide.

In short, I was mugged. It could be elaborated on...In this way. Wills and I walk a good deal faster than a group of girls...Especially if it includes Lydia. It's not that she's slow, I've just noticed she walks slowly. (Sorry, Lydia) When you leave a group of about 10 there is an air of insecurity about the place. But it's not generally noticed until recollection. For example, today.

Walking to a prayer meeting the last thing you suspect is two masked thugs ask you to empty your pockets. Especially when you're only 30 seconds away from the entrance to the church. Regrettably that's exactly what happened. There were two Asians wanting my stuff, and Wills' stuff. The taller guy, was considerably taller. But quite skinny. He said "Empty your pockets". I didn't think that was a very nice thing to say, perhaps "Hello my name is Phill, I'd like whatever is in your pockets so that I can buy some drugs." I didn't want to fuel anything, but, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I said what I've always wanted to say to said "Mugger". "Why are you doing this?" I believe he was slightly taken aback; all I wanted to do was preach the Gospel to them, that's a lot more valuable. He hit me. Hard. In the face. Blood, Blood, Blood, Blood, hand to face. I thought he'd done his worst (incidentally I was right) and tried to walk past him again.

Why he tried to go in my pockets I'll never know, but I just took his hand out again and walked towards the church. Did I mention the other guy said he had a gun? I didn't believe him for a second, but that does add to the drama somewhat. Walking away was strange. It wasn't worth looking back, but I do wonder what the guys were thinking. Why didn't I just cave and give them my valuables? Why did I challenge them? It's rude to answer a question with another question, I've heard. Maybe manners are something I should work on. What was different about me? I only think that God can answer that. He took away my spirit of fear; I knew He was protecting me and the only thing that happened was 3 hours in A&E to say "Suck on some ice". No one was hurt, nothing was stolen, and my girlfriend, Abbey, was able to preach the Gospel to a police officer who was taking statements etc. An overall brilliant night.

Why do I love my church? Because in the space of 2 hours I received about 10-15 messages checking I was ok and that they were praying for me. That is love on a whole new level. I've grown again and I can't wait for what God has next in store for me.

Two blondes were walking through the woods and they came to some tracks. The first blonde said "These look like deer tracks." and the other one said: "No they look like moose tracks." They argued and argued for a while and they were still arguing when the train hit them.

Just a quick note...on my way to a cheese..

Society. I thought I'd mention something...I met my girlfriend's mum yesterday. That was surreal. Mainly because she's not the kind of mum who is polite just because you're going out with their daughter. She was good, and honest, so I knew if I was making a bad impression. I found it immensely funny when she spotted me holding Abbey's hand and her mum (Elizabeth) gave me a "look". It made my day...after that it was fine. She seemed to like me...I was myself so it would have been a bit tough if she didn't like me.

We spent the afternoon in Harrogate, and I enjoyed my first ever cup of tea from Bettys. Which was nice. Elizabeth's friend Beryl was with the party so I felt a bit out of control...but after walking through past times and various other posh shops I scoffed at just to make people think I was far above them, it was coming to an end. I could tell something was going on when we all made a visit to Bettys' toilets and they didn't come back for 20 minutes. I found out there was a little social area in the "Ladies" bogs and they'd talked about me.

Wonderful.

They came up all smiles though so the report card says..."Dishy" - said Beryl.

Now to find some cheese

Fifteen

The word of the month is: Nonce

As in nonce; one with no brain; idiot; one with nothing to think with; nonce

I saw The Princess Diaries on Wednesday. It's not a very good film. It really isn't. She's supposed to be a rubbish public speaker, but the character is far too sarcastic, it doesn't fully make sense. Apparently the books capture the character better. You'd hope the film would though. It's one of those feel good films, you watch when you're down, or with a girl. More often when you're with a girl.

In other news; I'm mighty impressed with the new iTunes. iTunes 7, I believe they called it. Quite good. Nice features like fetching artwork for you, Artwork slideshows, downloads manager, iPod status page, and an annoying little feature that messes up the audio by having it cut out or crackle like a horribly scratched record until you change the Quicktime settings to 24-bit sound. You'll be pleased to know it now works pretty much perfectly. Running Windows always creates problems.

See you in a bit!

It's eleven o clock in the morning...I didn't get much sleep

This week I've been mostly feeling the heat of Britain. Being Britain it's been a fairly unstressful time...Because there has been no heat. I haven't enjoyed a good pint in a long time. Last night was no different...The first time in a long time for having a pint of Stella and it was served to me in a plastic tumbler. Not enjoyable. Not at all.

Becky and Dot (honorary Gateway-er) are back from Wales (they've been in Northern Ireland and...Wales), so last night was spent around their living room. As per every other free evening. As much as looking at photos is fun (which it isn't) when you are in a group of 10 of which 4 have been to a party, and there are in excess of 200 photos to be looked through, there is little or no use in trying to enjoy the evening. "I wasn't there...I don't care.."? Even worse is giggles from behind a laptop that only three people can see. I'm sure some people enjoy that kind of antics, but the lads and I decided that pub was more enticing. After many (no that many) gay jokes and Anchorman quotes we returned to discover the laptop had been removed and we were able to discuss serious things like not watching Eddie Izzard. One of my favourite topics.

Some people think me and Adam are married...I was a little worried when we went into town together yesterday and, after buying important things like Xbox games and controllers, he said "Is there anything else we need to do?" That's not quite how I'd have said but it was too late. We're not married...That would be gay. Maybe I'm going a little crazy...But it's still funny.

Wedding's and all the frills

It's always a good thing...to go to a wedding of 2 good friends. That's what I did yesterday, proving myself right that it is a good thing to go to a wedding of 2 good friends. Besides an excellent ceremony, with good worship, good looks from the gride and broom, and a good talk by Dave Devenish (apostle) (don't ask why I added that), the food filled me like nothing else, good music from a ska band called "revelation", and an excellent speech from the groom himself, which is rare. (A good speech, not a speech in general.)

Mark H was back from Canadia and that made me happy. He had had about 2 hours sleep when we set off on a 3 hour coach journey to Bedford. This made him amusing. He then didn't stop until about half way through the journey home. Incredible. He told some good stories from his time in Canada, but you'll have to read his blog for that (it's one of the sidebar links). The journey down turned into delegating roles for a prospective band doing various dance covers; Dave Mullen changing his responsibility frequently from "volume controller" to "phase controller" and "general mixer", but we had decided on a number of members, making funny laughs up and down the coach.

We had to be sensible being at the front, and our church elder and his wife in front of us, but I don't think we upset too many people. The journey home caused the coach driver to stop when Zeke decided to try and get into the overhead compartments. I think he missed coaches and wanted to get the most out of the one he had for lack of knowledge of the next time he would be on one.

Since getting back from the lakes I've been relatively relaxed, making posters, meeting Adam, working from 10 hours cleaning two kitchens on my own and getting very tired (never doing that again), watching silly films, winning poker, the list goes on. I've just got back from Selby and have a very "Yorkshire" accent going round my head. Phenomenal.

One week until I die of exhaustion. Freshers are trouble...a lot of trouble.