Francaise Nes Pas?
I know, I know, my french is terrible...but it'll have to do because I'm off to France on Friday at 5:30am..Nice (rhymes with "Peace") to be precise. I'm hoping it'll be sunny..but since it's March I really don't know. It is the south of france so maybe it'll be hot...who knows...it will be what it will be.
Right then..back to the business at hand. You may be confused....one post ago I was in Utah skiing (not while posting), and now I seem to be off to France????!!!? Yes! Life rocks..even more so with God *grin*
Lets get on with the update...
I left you with a bit of suspense at the end of the last blog...you wanna know what Dad bought me? Or how about the much cooler thing that happened? I'll start with the shopping (saving the best 'till last)
It's a new bass!!! A few years ago I was on my way up to Scotland with a couple of the guys to meet our scottish friends. We picked up someone called Marvin who I had never met before, and who also is a bass player. He told me about this thing called a "MusicMan" and how good they are..so I kept them in mind, having never heard of them before. Shortly after that I was in Sound Control when, lo and behold, there was a Musicman!! I immediatly asked the guy behind the counter if I could try it. His response? "So you want to have a go on one of the best basses in the world!?". Which was a good start I thought. I played it and instantly fell in love with it. It was soooo nice to play, and sounded sooooo good. Ohh yes baby! Ever since then, whenever I've seen one in a music vid or a bassist using one, it's not unheard of for me to cry "That's the bass I want!". While I was over in the Yoo Ess Eh last week I was owed some birthday/christmas money from Dad, and had a lil bit of money saved up, so was going to get one...finally! When I asked Dad how much my budget was he replied that he was going to buy the whole thing for me! I was gobsmacked! Thanks Dad!!! You're great!! (not that you're reading this). Anyways, got the bass, played it on monday night at worship practice and yesterday at another practice and it just sounds phenomenal...soooo smoooooooth. Ahhhh yeah.
Ahem...sad-bass-drooling-rant over.
Now for the even better thing that happened. Some of my more loyal readers have no doubt noticed that a regular commenter on my blog is Mafia (aka "Lisa"). Since we started chatting through the blogs, Lisa has been out with us a few times over the past few weeks. During that time we got to know each other. Just a lil bit ;-). She's great, she's fab, she's amazing, and now, after both of us praying and giving the whole thing up to God...she's done me the huge honour of being my girlfriend.
And now she's running away home for Easter....nooooooooooo :( (never mind the fact that I'm goung to France :-P)
Aaaaaaanyways...so that was said news from previous post.
There is a *lot*of catching up to do, so I'm probably just going to be concise :-S
Skiing
Yep, went skiing. Most of the time we skiied there was just hard-pack snow (it hadn't snowed in 3 weeks) except for the last day when it snowed almost a foot and we were first up the mountain...mmm...skiing in snow up to your shins is sooo cool. I love skiing. Last day was the best cuz of snow which made it more challenging. Having flat downhills is fun for going fast, but quickly loses its appeal.
Salt Lake City...
...is full of mormons! This is the place we went skiing (not in the city itself...obviously), and the place we hung out. We ate food, and on St. Patrick's day I had a pint of Guiness to remember my Grandad by (I'm half Irish and my Grandad was fully Irish). He was great :)
Also saw a couple of movies; "The Jacket", which isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I quite liked it, and "Hostage" with Bruce Willis. Typical, fun, action, Bruce Willis movie :) Tried to get a wide-margin NKJV at "Harriet"'s request while I was over, but could only find a mormon bookshop which only mormon bibles and Catholic ones...not what I was looking for!
Weather Men - Can You Trust Them?
When it snowed on the Friday, the snow report said that there was 10" of snow everywhere except the 'Snowbird' resort which was reporting 4". Seeing as this was pretty much on the same mountain as the other resorts (indeed, it was right next to 'Alta' which was reporting 10"), we decided the weatherman was wrong and went to Snowbird. It was great! Nobody was there - I guess they believed the weather man and went elsewhere!!!! Beautiful powder up almost up to my knees..it was sooooooo much fun..much nicer to fall over in ;)
Serious Books?
When I go away, I like to try to catch up on some reading. This time I took "1984" by Orwell and "Brave New World" by Huxley. Been meadning to read "1984" for ages, but hadn't even heard of "Brave New World" until Lisa mentioned it. They were both really good! Really interesting, and scary at the same time...amazing how they've influenced culture and were really ahead of their time ("1984" was published around 1949, and "Brave New World" was published in the early 1930's!). I thoroughly recommend them to anyone who wants a deep book to read. They're not *that* long to read either :)
Afraid of Flying?
On the Saturday morning we had to fly from Salt Lake to Chicago, and then in the evening I was going back to England from Chicago. About 5 minutes after takeoff from Salt Lake, the captain came on the intercom:
"Ladies and Gentlemen, as you may have noticed we are currently in a holding pattern. There is no cause for alarm, however currently we are unable to pressurise the main cabin..."
What!? It sounded much scarier than it was, and the result was that we had to fly around at 10,000ft for a couple of hours. This was so that we could breath @ 10,000 feet, and burn off fuel before landing back at Salt Lake. For reference, the top of one of the ski lifts during the week had a sign saying we were at 10,500 feet, so I wasn't worried about breathing. When we landed they had to check a door was shut properly (can't exactly do that in-flight!), do a bunch of tests, make us sit there for at least an hour, and then take off again. Ironically enough (and yes..it is ironic) our flight was overbooked, and we'd been offered $300 each and a later flight. We decided not to so that we could get there earlier, however if we had, we probably would have gotten to Chicago quicker, and $600 richer!!!
Fun!
Flying home that evening I had to trust the airline baggage handlers with my shiny new bass...it was traumatic I can tell you. Was quite worried that it would get to the other end in bits! Luckily, after some prayer to God (Lisa - thanks for praying xxx) I got to the UK with a whole bass intact! I walked through the "I have stuff to declare" corridor at Heathrow for the first time in my life, and paid import tax on it. Why didn't I just walk through and not pay?? Well, I've been wanting that bass for a very long time, and I really wanted to honour God for giving it to me. I really felt that it was right by God to pay the tax ("give to Caesar what is due to Caesar"). And besides, I didn't have to pay for the bass..what right have I to complain about paying only the tax on it (which came to about half the amount that my current bass cost 5 years ago!). I missed my bus back because we landed late, and had to catch a bus an hour later. I dashed home (after a lift from Adam - he's the man!), had a shower, and went to see My Girl for the rest of the avo/evening. It was sooo good to see her - that last week had been agony..I missed her so much :(
That was Sunday, and since then I've had Monday, Tuesday, and now today.
Monday
Back to work..but only for four days (not four days all on monday...four days spread over..uh..four days). I went straight from work to see Lisa. She cooked me a rather scrummy Black-Pepper chicken meal before I had to dash off to worship practice to christen my bass. I walked in, and immediately got laughed at for my burned, panda-eyed face (which, to be fair is pretty funny). I got my bass out and plugged it in, and as I was about to play it I looked up and there were about 5-10 people standing in front of me and staring at me....no pressure then! LoL. Had a lil play, and it sounded a bit better than the old one :-S however, as soon as I played a song with the full band I instantly heard how much better my Musicman sounds...ahhh yeah...it sounds soooo smooth! The difference is just amazing!! I love it :) so nice to play. And that was when God challenged me about it. I must admit I was putting a lot of value on the bass and wouldn't have dreamed of letting anyone else play it (they can play my old bass for heaven's sake!). So God told me to let Tim play it on Sunday when I'm not there...and...hard (oh so hard) as it was, I'm gonna let him. The bass is just a thing..and even more than that..it's not even my thing..it's God's! I'm glad God made me do it though, cuz it means that I know that God is the most important thing :)
All That Jazz
Tonight we've got an Alpha Course meal and they've advertised it as having some light 'Jazz' entertainment. Little did we know that we are the 'Jazz' band! We've never really played Jazz before at all, so "Harriet" worked with us a bit and we went through a few songs. Instead of my usual piano lesson on Tuesday, "Harriet" worked with me on some of the harder basslines for tonight - we're just gonna blag our way through the rest! It's scary, but gonna be great fun...always fun to play new stuff that pushes you *grin*
"Harriet" also mentioned which next new song we're probably gonna do at worship...it's such a good song..I love it. Must figure it out though *grin* I get a real buzz out of successfully figuring out basslines just from listening to it - I guess cuz I've never been any good at it, and now that I can kinda do it, it's exciting!!
Last night I went round to Lisa's again - she's going home for two weeks today :'( so had to make the most of it. We met up with Lucy & Mark for a bit, and went for a drink with them. I had Subway on the way back - haven't had one in ages...mmm...turkey, ham, salad, mustard and mayo...sooo good.
Right - I guess that's a long enough update...I've been adding to it near enough all day (on and off between work!)
Listening to: Delirious - "Majesty (Here I Am)" (World Service)
Book recommendation that every Christian man needs to read: "Wild At Heart" (by John Eldredge)
Right then..back to the business at hand. You may be confused....one post ago I was in Utah skiing (not while posting), and now I seem to be off to France????!!!? Yes! Life rocks..even more so with God *grin*
Lets get on with the update...
I left you with a bit of suspense at the end of the last blog...you wanna know what Dad bought me? Or how about the much cooler thing that happened? I'll start with the shopping (saving the best 'till last)
It's a new bass!!! A few years ago I was on my way up to Scotland with a couple of the guys to meet our scottish friends. We picked up someone called Marvin who I had never met before, and who also is a bass player. He told me about this thing called a "MusicMan" and how good they are..so I kept them in mind, having never heard of them before. Shortly after that I was in Sound Control when, lo and behold, there was a Musicman!! I immediatly asked the guy behind the counter if I could try it. His response? "So you want to have a go on one of the best basses in the world!?". Which was a good start I thought. I played it and instantly fell in love with it. It was soooo nice to play, and sounded sooooo good. Ohh yes baby! Ever since then, whenever I've seen one in a music vid or a bassist using one, it's not unheard of for me to cry "That's the bass I want!". While I was over in the Yoo Ess Eh last week I was owed some birthday/christmas money from Dad, and had a lil bit of money saved up, so was going to get one...finally! When I asked Dad how much my budget was he replied that he was going to buy the whole thing for me! I was gobsmacked! Thanks Dad!!! You're great!! (not that you're reading this). Anyways, got the bass, played it on monday night at worship practice and yesterday at another practice and it just sounds phenomenal...soooo smoooooooth. Ahhhh yeah.
Ahem...sad-bass-drooling-rant over.
Now for the even better thing that happened. Some of my more loyal readers have no doubt noticed that a regular commenter on my blog is Mafia (aka "Lisa"). Since we started chatting through the blogs, Lisa has been out with us a few times over the past few weeks. During that time we got to know each other. Just a lil bit ;-). She's great, she's fab, she's amazing, and now, after both of us praying and giving the whole thing up to God...she's done me the huge honour of being my girlfriend.
And now she's running away home for Easter....nooooooooooo :( (never mind the fact that I'm goung to France :-P)
Aaaaaaanyways...so that was said news from previous post.
There is a *lot*of catching up to do, so I'm probably just going to be concise :-S
Skiing
Yep, went skiing. Most of the time we skiied there was just hard-pack snow (it hadn't snowed in 3 weeks) except for the last day when it snowed almost a foot and we were first up the mountain...mmm...skiing in snow up to your shins is sooo cool. I love skiing. Last day was the best cuz of snow which made it more challenging. Having flat downhills is fun for going fast, but quickly loses its appeal.
Salt Lake City...
...is full of mormons! This is the place we went skiing (not in the city itself...obviously), and the place we hung out. We ate food, and on St. Patrick's day I had a pint of Guiness to remember my Grandad by (I'm half Irish and my Grandad was fully Irish). He was great :)
Also saw a couple of movies; "The Jacket", which isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I quite liked it, and "Hostage" with Bruce Willis. Typical, fun, action, Bruce Willis movie :) Tried to get a wide-margin NKJV at "Harriet"'s request while I was over, but could only find a mormon bookshop which only mormon bibles and Catholic ones...not what I was looking for!
Weather Men - Can You Trust Them?
When it snowed on the Friday, the snow report said that there was 10" of snow everywhere except the 'Snowbird' resort which was reporting 4". Seeing as this was pretty much on the same mountain as the other resorts (indeed, it was right next to 'Alta' which was reporting 10"), we decided the weatherman was wrong and went to Snowbird. It was great! Nobody was there - I guess they believed the weather man and went elsewhere!!!! Beautiful powder up almost up to my knees..it was sooooooo much fun..much nicer to fall over in ;)
Serious Books?
When I go away, I like to try to catch up on some reading. This time I took "1984" by Orwell and "Brave New World" by Huxley. Been meadning to read "1984" for ages, but hadn't even heard of "Brave New World" until Lisa mentioned it. They were both really good! Really interesting, and scary at the same time...amazing how they've influenced culture and were really ahead of their time ("1984" was published around 1949, and "Brave New World" was published in the early 1930's!). I thoroughly recommend them to anyone who wants a deep book to read. They're not *that* long to read either :)
Afraid of Flying?
On the Saturday morning we had to fly from Salt Lake to Chicago, and then in the evening I was going back to England from Chicago. About 5 minutes after takeoff from Salt Lake, the captain came on the intercom:
"Ladies and Gentlemen, as you may have noticed we are currently in a holding pattern. There is no cause for alarm, however currently we are unable to pressurise the main cabin..."
What!? It sounded much scarier than it was, and the result was that we had to fly around at 10,000ft for a couple of hours. This was so that we could breath @ 10,000 feet, and burn off fuel before landing back at Salt Lake. For reference, the top of one of the ski lifts during the week had a sign saying we were at 10,500 feet, so I wasn't worried about breathing. When we landed they had to check a door was shut properly (can't exactly do that in-flight!), do a bunch of tests, make us sit there for at least an hour, and then take off again. Ironically enough (and yes..it is ironic) our flight was overbooked, and we'd been offered $300 each and a later flight. We decided not to so that we could get there earlier, however if we had, we probably would have gotten to Chicago quicker, and $600 richer!!!
Fun!
Flying home that evening I had to trust the airline baggage handlers with my shiny new bass...it was traumatic I can tell you. Was quite worried that it would get to the other end in bits! Luckily, after some prayer to God (Lisa - thanks for praying xxx) I got to the UK with a whole bass intact! I walked through the "I have stuff to declare" corridor at Heathrow for the first time in my life, and paid import tax on it. Why didn't I just walk through and not pay?? Well, I've been wanting that bass for a very long time, and I really wanted to honour God for giving it to me. I really felt that it was right by God to pay the tax ("give to Caesar what is due to Caesar"). And besides, I didn't have to pay for the bass..what right have I to complain about paying only the tax on it (which came to about half the amount that my current bass cost 5 years ago!). I missed my bus back because we landed late, and had to catch a bus an hour later. I dashed home (after a lift from Adam - he's the man!), had a shower, and went to see My Girl for the rest of the avo/evening. It was sooo good to see her - that last week had been agony..I missed her so much :(
That was Sunday, and since then I've had Monday, Tuesday, and now today.
Monday
Back to work..but only for four days (not four days all on monday...four days spread over..uh..four days). I went straight from work to see Lisa. She cooked me a rather scrummy Black-Pepper chicken meal before I had to dash off to worship practice to christen my bass. I walked in, and immediately got laughed at for my burned, panda-eyed face (which, to be fair is pretty funny). I got my bass out and plugged it in, and as I was about to play it I looked up and there were about 5-10 people standing in front of me and staring at me....no pressure then! LoL. Had a lil play, and it sounded a bit better than the old one :-S however, as soon as I played a song with the full band I instantly heard how much better my Musicman sounds...ahhh yeah...it sounds soooo smooth! The difference is just amazing!! I love it :) so nice to play. And that was when God challenged me about it. I must admit I was putting a lot of value on the bass and wouldn't have dreamed of letting anyone else play it (they can play my old bass for heaven's sake!). So God told me to let Tim play it on Sunday when I'm not there...and...hard (oh so hard) as it was, I'm gonna let him. The bass is just a thing..and even more than that..it's not even my thing..it's God's! I'm glad God made me do it though, cuz it means that I know that God is the most important thing :)
All That Jazz
Tonight we've got an Alpha Course meal and they've advertised it as having some light 'Jazz' entertainment. Little did we know that we are the 'Jazz' band! We've never really played Jazz before at all, so "Harriet" worked with us a bit and we went through a few songs. Instead of my usual piano lesson on Tuesday, "Harriet" worked with me on some of the harder basslines for tonight - we're just gonna blag our way through the rest! It's scary, but gonna be great fun...always fun to play new stuff that pushes you *grin*
"Harriet" also mentioned which next new song we're probably gonna do at worship...it's such a good song..I love it. Must figure it out though *grin* I get a real buzz out of successfully figuring out basslines just from listening to it - I guess cuz I've never been any good at it, and now that I can kinda do it, it's exciting!!
Last night I went round to Lisa's again - she's going home for two weeks today :'( so had to make the most of it. We met up with Lucy & Mark for a bit, and went for a drink with them. I had Subway on the way back - haven't had one in ages...mmm...turkey, ham, salad, mustard and mayo...sooo good.
Right - I guess that's a long enough update...I've been adding to it near enough all day (on and off between work!)
Listening to: Delirious - "Majesty (Here I Am)" (World Service)
Book recommendation that every Christian man needs to read: "Wild At Heart" (by John Eldredge)
2 Comments:
I KNEW it!!
Mafia me thinks you weretelling me lil old porky pies (why am I commenting to you on T's blog? I have no clue....I am just blonde!)
Hurrah!
BTW T neither cliff hanger had me in suspense...I was sad enough to google for what your gift was (plus what else would T ask for?)
Congrats on a very informative blog happy hols! :)
By
Juckle, at 23/3/05 18:12
lol ... well I'll reply to the comment on his too rather than yours .. um, I'm more likely to read his than mine, so good place to say something to me ;) And nothing wrong with blondeness!!
Tris: knew i cud get u to update first ;)
xx
By
Mafia!, at 23/3/05 19:26
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