Scarborough by night

I've been to the gym this morning in an attempt to regain a little fitness for the up coming bike ride from Edinburgh to Newcastle. Apparently, people normally take five days over it. Why the hell we're doing it in three I don't know. I don;t suppose once a fortnight is going to help really, but I've paid my membership and I feel good after it. I'm banking on everyone else being enthusiastic amateurs. I'll wrote about it. You'll see.
I had an encouraging message from Kim in Australia, welcoming my return to the blogosphere. I didn't think anyone still read them.Better be careful what i say. Already got into big trouble.

Alright I haven't forgotten. The day of the exam results thirty five years ago. We set off to Scarborough. Me and Spud, and Spud's dads car and very little money. The roads were clear and we got there by 3.30am. We stopped on the cliff over looking the bay. The moon was full, and glistened on the quiet water. The lights lined the streets. Quiet. At three o'clock in the morning, I can report, Scarborough is silent. Even a simpering ghost would have disturbed the tranquility. Scarborough was dead.

We looked at each other. Spud lit a roll up and we looked at each other again, and repeated the earlier conversation. 'What do we do now?'... 'We better get back then' two 17/18 year olds told each other. And that's what we tried to do.

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I went to my home group tonight for the first time in ages. I don't know why I have missed them I guess they weren't in my diary. The home group is a group of people attached to the church, it's a sort of Bible study /social group. Tonight was a social occasion. We went to someones house way outside Manchester in a little Cheshire village called Nether Peover. The house is beautiful and we are entertained to wonderful food and sparkling rose wine. It is good catching up with them and I intend to restart going. They are mostly medics or headteachers and people like that, and they have a bit of an evangelical fundamentalist bent, and they can be a bit overpowering to people not from that social stratum, but they are good people with sharp and inquisitive minds. They are also funny, which helps a lot. I like them.

My spiritual life has been rather neglected recently and, prompted by Spud, needs reinvigorating. Spud is the guitarist for his church band, would you believe. A most unlikely convert, although, come to think of it he has always had a spiritual bent. I think he was a 'Christadelphian' when we were young. He, or his church anyway, were on the morning service last Sunday and he sent me a link to hear it. The programme was very good, although I only listened to the music. Fortunately I new all the tunes since they are much the same as the ones played at my current church. In fact both churches are called Emanuel, his in Norwood and mine in Didsbury.

Anyway the link to the podcast is as follows: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnds

And that wasn't the only link of the week. Try this one, it's funny http://en.tackfilm.se/?id=1274644354921RA41