2004 on Ricky Moorhouse

Gravatars

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 21:04:19 +0000

I've now implemented Gravatars for the comments on this site.

It was a bit tricky as this is coded using ASP (VBScript) - but I've managed to get it working using the code from http://www.frez.co.uk/freecode.htm#md5 - although interestingly the VBScript version wouldn't work, so I have used the javascript version - a bit of a strange way to do it, but it seems to work. I didn't realise before that you could mix languages in ASP, but it turns out you can by including one in the page using the <script runat="server"... tag, and then it can be called from within the other code on the page even if it's in a different programming language!

Water in the petrol

Sun, 28 Nov 2004 08:59:46 +0000

On Bonfire night before we went up to Portsdown hill to watch the fireworks, we filled up the car at the BP petrol station opposite All Saints church. The car was initially fine, then on Saturday it started making a loud squealing noise, which we thought was a problem with one of the belts. By Monday I'd planned to take the car to the garage, however the car wouldn't start at all, so I assumed that the battery had been worn down, so borrowed a battery charger and left it charging. However even with doing this, the car wouldn't start, so later in the week Ben towed me round to the garage. When the garage had a look, they discovered that the problem had been caused by the petrol tank containing water, so they would have to remove the tank and the fuel lines, drain them and clean and dry them thoroughly. The only place I can think of where this could have come from was when I filled it up, which apparently does occasionally happen (as I found out from the garage, from BP and from trading standards). So I contacted BP about it and after conducting an 'investigation' they said that it was highly unlikely that it came from there tanks. It's a mystery where it came from then!

Promising meeting

Fri, 12 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday I had my first meeting with the Archdeacon since becoming one of the church reps for St Luke's. It was a very promising meeting and the archdeacon said that he wants to have a lively evangelical church community at St Luke's that will reach out to the people of Somerstown and to students - which would be a good thing. They are planning to follow a similar process to that of appointing an Incumbent - but for a "Priest in Charge", which means we will have quite a say in the process and the opportunity to interview the prospective vicars. The only real difference will be that a Priest in Charge doesn't have a permanent position.

WBW 3 - Australian Shiraz

Wed, 03 Nov 2004 23:59:59 +0000

We had this over a week ago, and it's took me a long time to get round to posting it, so I'm too late for the round up anyway! We've not had Shiraz before, and weren't that keen on it.
The wine was a bottle of Wolf Blass Eaglehawk 2003, and had a slightly blackberry like smoky aroma. It was a too sharp for our tastes really, as we generally prefer something a bit smoother.
From the Wolf Blass website: The 2003 Eaglehawk Shiraz is a fruit driven style with a bouquet of lifted spice, plum and red berry fruit characters and subtle oak overtones. The palate is of medium body, showing soft complex fruit flavours with rich berry characters. Soft tannins help finish the wine with a dry lingering finish.

Firefox Extensions

Mon, 01 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

I've been thinking of putting a list of the firefox extensions I use on my blog for a while, and then Dean listed the extensions he finds useful and asked what anyone else was using - so I decided I should post it! So here is my list of firefox extensions:

All in one gestures

Extension that helps you to navigate the web just using the mouse - includes mouse gestures and extra wheel navigation

Web Developer Extension

What a hope we have!

Wed, 06 Oct 2004 12:34:24 +0000

We had a really good bible study last night on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18:

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.

Which really encouraged us to see things in a right perspective, in relation to the great hope we have for the future in Christ.

First day in Bulgaria

Sat, 25 Sep 2004 08:13:27 +0000

On the plane over Des met a guy who'd recently brought property here, who could recommend an estate agent for us to contact. So in the morning he gave them a ring, and their colleagues took us for a drive round 3 of the properties for sale, and a few others that had been sold and done up, so we could see some of the things that had been achieved. The properties gradually got better throughout the day as in the amount of work that needed doing on them but they all had potential.

Going to Bulgaria

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 10:37:47 +0000

I fly today at 5 o'clock to Varna, and then I've got no idea where I'll be staying (?). I'm looking forward to it, but I'm not really sure what to expect there. I've set up my phone so I can use it there, but vodaphone charge £1.69 per minute for calls in Bulgaria, so I might get a sim card out there. A few useful links I might need:

Belkin Technical Support

Fri, 10 Sep 2004 15:54:17 +0000

The other day we were looking at buying a wireless PCMCIA card for Laura's laptop, so that she can use it at the university and at home with out new Belkin Wireless Router, which has been working well with my work Thinkpad since we got it set up. I liked the idea of getting a Belkin network card so that it is the same as the router, but according to the information I found online it doesn't support WPA - apart from an addition to the manual on the Belkin site that tells you how to configure WPA with the card. I then decided to phone up their pre-sales technical support line to check on this and I got through to an advisor immediately without being put in a queue. Also the guy I spoke to knew everything I needed to find out about the card without having to look it up on the system somewhere - Very impressive com,pared to a lot of technical support departments!

Interrailing July 1999

Sun, 05 Sep 2004 18:18:06 +0000

While sorting out all my various documents on our different computers today, I found some old webpages that I'd made back in 1999 after going interrailing around Europe with a bit of an account of some of the places we visited. So I've included them now on this site under the travel section at the side - I might try and add a few more bits that I remember from the trip and some photos soon, but for now it's just the text.

Ikea Sofa - 45 days and counting!

Wed, 01 Sep 2004 16:06:42 +0000

Well we ordered our [Ikea] [Fågelbo Sofa] on the 18th July, and received it initially when we expected - 2nd August, although instead of being in 2 parts and us just having to put it together like they told us would be the case, it was in three seperate packages and we had to put the backs on each part and join it together. After a while trying to understand the diagrams (no text on the instructions of course!) we got the first half together and then found that for the second half the bolts seemed to have a different thread to the holes for them. After phoning Ikea, and waiting a couple of days for a 'product specialist' from the store to get back to me I was told to try hitting them with a hammer to get them in as thats what they do in the store, or they could get someone to come out (which would take 7-10 days), I decided to try it and got them a bit further, but then they got stuck. Next step - get someone to come out. The upholsterer came out, was shocked at the advice we'd been given, put screws in to hold it temporarily and said he'd need some parts, we then had to wait 7-10 days for them to arrange this. When they phoned us back it turned out they couldn't get the parts, so we had two options: a discount (of 10%) or a replacement. We chose the replacement which took another 7-10 days, and arrived yesterday without the bolts to fit the replacement parts together - Aparently it will take another 7-10 days for them to find and ship out a packet of bolts for us...

Back to work

Sat, 14 Aug 2004 00:11:03 +0000

Well I've now been back at work at IBM Hursley for a week and I'm currently working in the DBDC team which will involve dealing with DB2 and database connectors installation and fixing problems. It will probably be mainly working with DB2 on the mainframe (OS/390), although the team is going to start to be more involved in DB2 on distributed platforms as well. It's been quite strange going back to a different team, having to get all the userids sorted out again and starting to learn how to do things for my new role but the team I'm working with are great and have been really helpful. It's also been strange adapting back to British life - the supermarkets seem expensive and there are lots more choices! I'm sure after a few weeks I'll have got used to life back here a bit more - although this week I've found it quite tiring commuting to work. Although with car-sharing I don't have to do all the driving, but that means finishing at times that are convenient for both of us.

Heading back home

Wed, 30 Jun 2004 15:03:22 +0000

Well we fly back home today leaving Montevideo at 5.50pm, everything is pretty much packed and Jonathan is going to give us a lift upto the airport. Just a few more goodbyes to say and check our mail before we go. It still feels strange that we´ve finished here and are heading back, but it will be nice to see our families, as we´ve definitely missed them. But it´s going to be strange adapting back to life in England after our time here.

Coming to an end

Wed, 16 Jun 2004 13:00:50 +0000

Our time in Uruguay is coming to an end, the last 9 months seem to have flown by really quickly, it's incredible. It's interesting to look back over the time we've spent here and see what's happened. Firstly, I'm amazed at how my Spanish has improved in the time we've been out here - well I say Spanish, more like Rio-de-la-plata-ish. When we came out here, I could only understand a few words of spanish and speak about the same, where as now, I have had conversations with people, taught the communion group, and preached (well writing it in English and translating it first!). God has definitely helped me to get to this point - I couldn't have done it on my own I'm sure. I still find myself falling into the same mistakes in the language though, particularly when praying in church!

Beef and Ginger Stirfry

Wed, 09 Jun 2004 13:10:46 +0000

Ingredients

thin Beef steak- cut into small strips or pieces
small piece of Ginger
Cumin
Carrots
Broccoli
Green Pepper

Heat some oil in a pan, and add the ginger and cumin.
After a few seconds cooking, add the Beef.
Once the beef is cooked, add the vegetables and stir fry for about 5 minutes.

Served in the picture with Egg fried rice:

1/2 medium sized Onion (finely chopped)

Changing flights II

Thu, 03 Jun 2004 13:42:37 +0000

So I arrived in Montevideo at 6.30 on the overnight bus from Salto, to go to the American Airlines office where I thought it would be just a case of them telling me the options and prices for them, and me selecting the one we wanted. I was wrong! I got to the office, and showed the lady in there the tickets, and she looked them up on the computer. Aparently there wasn't anything to tell her whether or not I could change the route, it just said I could change the dates for free - If I wanted to do anything else I had to speak to the original travel agent (in England), and get them to get the airline office in London to put the details on the computer system! So I went to an internet cafe and phoned our travel agent (Key Travel), who took a few details from me, and then said "you're a purple, I'm going to have to transfer you" - whatever that meant! Once she found that the other department was busy, so decided to try and help me herself, so I found out that we couldn't change the route - so what would have been the point of transfering me? In the end I got the dates changed so we don't have a stopover in Miami anymore, so that we can get through Miami before it gets too close to 4 July.

Changing Flights

Wed, 02 Jun 2004 11:49:56 +0000

Yesterday I rang up American Airlines to find out if we could change the route of our flight or not, and they got so far with it, even found all the details for our tickets on their computer and then decided that they needed to see the actual tickets! So I asked if fax would be acceptable, but no, so here I am in Montevideo. The plan is to post some of our stuff back home from here too as it should be more reliable. Hopefully we'll be able to change the route of our flights to go back via Sao Paulo instead of Miami, as that would be a much shorter route, and wouldn't have to spend as long waiting around. Just have to see what they say today, and how much they want to charge me for it. Although looking on their website, the other route looked cheaper than the route we've currently got tickets for - so hopefully that means we should be able to do it :)

Escuelita - Pentecost

Mon, 31 May 2004 02:11:49 +0000

Yesterday I looked at Pentecost with the kids - firstly I asked them "what day is it tomorrow?" and got answers such as Palm Sunday, or Day of selling 'Pasteles'! When I told them it was Pentecost, only one of them could say it and had to teach the others - despite most of them having been in the church for at least 2 years! We went on to look at Acts 2:1-13 and talked about what had happened - which went well. Then I asked them who the Holy Spirit is - to which the first answer was God, which I was pleased with. We then followed on by looking at John 16 - where Jesus told the disciples of the work of the Spirit. In the end they seemed to have a good understanding of the basics about Pentecost - we'll see next week how much they remember. At the end we finished off by doing pictures of Pentecost using tissue paper as tongues of fire.

Black and White

Sat, 29 May 2004 01:25:35 +0000

Snudge and Des

Home group was promising

Sat, 29 May 2004 01:18:23 +0000

We had a really encouraging home group on Tuesday this week - it was an answer to prayer! The group has decided to meet ever week, whether or not Gilberto (the vicar) is around. This shows quite a growth for the group, as they are always very reliant on him, and the studies often just end up to be him preaching. It was a really good study on John 1:35-42 - where Andrew goes and tells his brother Simon Peter that they've found the Messiah. It led onto all sorts of things in the area of how can we encourage growth in the church by different ways of inviting people - both within the existing congregation and outside. It was also interesting afterwards to here some of the concerns of the people in the group, and to realise that the same concerns are found here as back home - the small group who appear to do everything without any credit and keep getting given more to do, and the larger group whose involvement is restricted to services.

Preaching in Spanish!

Mon, 24 May 2004 01:54:54 +0000

Today I preached in Spanish for the first time up at the chapel. The passages were 1 Samuel 12:19-25 and John 17:20-26. While I was preparing it in the week I was very nervous, but once I'd got it finished, translated with Laura's expert help and read it through a couple of times I felt much more confident! You can read it on our website: English or Spanish. Preaching up there was interesting, as people often find it difficult to understand my Spanish, as I can't roll my R's enough for them to notice them, however I think most people followed at least some of it, and were appreciative.

Catechesis

Mon, 10 May 2004 00:38:23 +0000

Today I took the Catechesis for the first time on my own, which was quite nerve-racking, but once I started it was quite enjoyable. I started off by looking a bit at Communion - what it is, why we celebrate it, what it meant to each of them and why they want to take communion. It was interesting to hear their opinions and ideas. One of the reasons for taking communion I was given was "so I can go to youth group". After a brief discussion on these things, we went on to have a look what the Paul had written regarding the Lord's supper in 1 Corinthians 11:17-29, which was useful to get the point across to them that it was something serious.

It's my birthday!

Wed, 05 May 2004 20:14:57 +0000

Well I'm now 23! It's a bit strange having my birthday in autumn instead of spring, but it's quite nice! I love the autumn colours, and it's also great to see a different place in autumn. Unfortunatly, it's been very cloudy these last few days though, so I missed getting a photo of the yellow leaves against the blue sky, but this should do for now! It was a really nice birthday, although any post from England still hasn't got here - so it'll be a long birthday :). In the morning I opened my presents from Laura - she got me Lee Strobel's A Case for Christ, Love Actually on DVD, a pen, notebook, some sweets and later on in the day, a scarf. We then went out to a restaurant that we'd not tried before - we both had Chicken with salad, and didn't know what to expect. The salad turned out to be a sort of apple and cheese coleslaw and was really tasty.

Brrrrrrrr!

Thu, 22 Apr 2004 20:20:55 +0000

It's suddenly got cold here in Salto! I've gone from walking around in shorts and t-shirt to wearing a fleece and jeans. We've had to put the 2 blankets on the bed rather than just sheets as we'd got used to, and last night we decided that we could do with a hot water bottle. So we used Sprite bottles filled with hot water - which actually did the job quite well!!

Escuelita and Icons of Uruguay

Sat, 17 Apr 2004 20:19:45 +0000

This morning at Escuelita some of the kids were terribly behaved! It's been a long time since they have been, but I guess this week with it having rained a lot, and there being a lot more kids there it probably made quite a difference. We were looking at the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal, and how they had a contest to prove which god was real. They each prepared a bull to sacrifice and then put it on the altar and prayed. After the prophets of Baal had been praying for a day, nothing happened. When Elijah set up his altar to the Lord, they tipped water on it, and then he called out to the Lord. The Lord answered by fire, and the sacrifice, wood, stones and soil were burnt up.

Page 23

Fri, 16 Apr 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Jon told me to:

Grab the nearest book.
Open the book to page 23.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

From the NIV translation of the Bible:

As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" > >

Chicken in a creamy garlic & mustard sauce

Tue, 13 Apr 2004 20:17:37 +0000

Just a recipe I cooked for tea tonight!

Ingredients

chicken pieces (1/2 chicken breast cut into bit size pieces)

100ml double cream
mustard
2 garlic cloves
1/4 green pepper
1/2 small zapallito (or courgette)
sweetcorn
few leaves fresh parsley
sprinkle of oregano
dash of cumin

fry the chicken and garlic in olive oil, after a few minutes, add the mustard and mix in well

once the chicken is cooked, add the cream and the herbs

Kites in the park

Sat, 10 Apr 2004 20:17:01 +0000

This morning we took the kids from the Escuelita upto Parque Solari as an Easter treat. It was a really nice time, as it was cooler than it has been - so not too hot for running around. A lot of them had home-made kites with them, made from plastic bags and sticks- which flew very well. It's a common thing for Holy Week here in Uruguay, for people to fly kites.

Youth group trip to the Zoo

Tue, 06 Apr 2004 20:16:21 +0000

We went to the local Zoo with the youth group today, as they're on holiday from school. It was nice, but quite a contrast to seeing the animals up at Iguazu. They all seemed to be in really small cages, apart from the deer, �andu and goats. The peacocks all had had their feathers cut off - possibly for selling for carnival costumes. The kids all seemed to enjoy the trip and have lots of fun, and we finished off with a ride on the spinning swings (don't know what to call it!), which was interesting as it appeared to be powered by little propellers, one on each side!

Back home & Free delivery for shopping

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 01:28:22 +0000

We arrived back in Concordia on time, even though there had been some problems with the bus causing us to have to change buses at midnight. As the bus doesn't enter Concordia on the way back and just stops at a road junction outside of town we had been worried about how we would get in, but fortunately there was a remisse there, and we could get a lift in to the bus station (10 pesos) after dropping off one of the others sharing it on the way. At the bus station we were just in time for the bus to Salto, just got our tickets and could get straight on the bus.

Back to Foz - wet paint, but still caught bus!

Thu, 25 Mar 2004 01:27:15 +0000

Today we checked out of the hotel, and headed back down to Foz ready for me and Laura to get the bus back this evening from Puerto Iguazu. We took a few detours along the way to look at a bit of the scenery, and the edge of the forest before heading back to the [Carima Hotel] where my parents had booked their last night. Surprisingly when we got to the room, the brochure had had the price of the buffet changed to the 19 real that they had charged us the previous time - don't know if this is because they knew we'd check or not though ;). We then chilled by the pool and had some drinks there before heading back. Unfortunately, the painter had just been round touching up the chairs, and my trousers got lots of white paint on them. We complained at reception, and they said they'd send someone down in the next half hour to clean them in the room (this was about 45 minutes before we needed to leave). After going back to reception once more to clear things up, eventually they sent someone who didn't really understand us, and took the trousers off to the laundry. Then the phone rang to say that the Laundry was closed. We went back up to reception to try and get the trousers back, as I needed to where them to travel in. After lots of complications we were escorted down to the laundry to get them back, and we headed off to Puerto Iguazu in a taxi (25 real). We opted for the taxi as aparently the bus doesn't always wait for you at customs and you have to wait for the next one.

Artificial Beaches

Wed, 24 Mar 2004 01:26:10 +0000

We had an early start today, and headed out through the town to a place called Santa Helena, on the edge of the reserviour We had a picnic lunch there and then went to have a look at some of the artificial beaches along the edge from there before heading back. In the evening we had dinner at the hotel, which was nice, although the 'Brazilian wine' turned out to be a not to nice Uruguayan wine, and the food seemed to cool off too quickly with the air conditioning But the food itself was really nice.

Itaipu Dam and on to Cascaval

Tue, 23 Mar 2004 22:23:31 +0000

We planned to go to the [Itaipu Dam], but spent too long thinking about it and getting ready before realising that they had set times for the tours - 8, 9, 10, 2 and 3. We checked out of the [Carima Hotel] and found that they charged us 19 real for the buffet instead of 14 as it said in the brochure in the room. When we questioned it, they didn't seem to care that the brochure was wrong but that the price was 19 no matter what. Also some how they manage to run the hotel without a manager on Tuesdays! After checking out, we went to the supermarket and then on to have lunch near the dam before waiting for it to open. After lunch, we went on the free tour of the [Itaipu Dam] - which was well worth going on, it's an incredible size construction, and interesting to hear about the building of it. After we'd finished the tour, we headed upto Cascavel where we were to stay the next 2 nights at the Deville Express Hotel there. We checked in and then headed into the town, which was much bigger than we'd expected - We thought it was a small town, but it was more like a city. We had dinner at McDonalds (I had a Salad and grape juice - which was lovely although different to the salads in Chile or Argentina.) and then drove down the main street. The main street is curvy all the way through the shopping areas, presumably as some sort of traffic calming, which was different. After this, we headed back to the hotel and found the entrance and front car park full of football fans and security guards outside the entrance to the annex where the rooms are. I guess the team were staying there or something.

Iguazu Falls (Brazilian Side)

Mon, 22 Mar 2004 02:01:03 +0000

Today we planned to go to the falls in the morning and then see how much there was there and decide the rest of the day based on that, however we found out that the park is closed on Monday mornings. We investigated the prices of helicopter rides over the falls, and found that it was too expensive, so that ruled that one out. Instead we decided to go to the bird park where they have lots of birds both native to the area and not. The leaflets say "birds in their natural habitat without the restriction of netting and cages." However a lot of the birds are in fairly small cages. It is well worth a visit though as there are also huge aviaries where you can go inside and see the birds close up. It was really great to be able to see the toucans, and amazing how close they would come to you - They look like cuddly toys with a very furry looking body and amazingly blue eyes. Once we'd finished there, we had some lunch in the cafe and headed on to the falls. It was nice to see the falls again from a different angle, although there wasn't much more there. The views were good though, and a couple of coyotes strayed onto the paths around. Annoyingly though (as at the bird park) people were ignoring the signs and petting them.

Heading across to Brazil

Sun, 21 Mar 2004 21:43:18 +0000

Today we checked out of the youth hostel and got a taxi across to Brazil to stay at the [Carima Hotel] where we relaxed until it was time for Dad to go and pick up the hire car. We spent most of the time by the pool, had a swim and cocktails which was really nice, although I got a nasty sunburn across my back :(. After Mum & Dad set off to get the car, we had lunch in the hotel coffee bar. In the afternoon we tried to go out to the [Itaipu Dam] (the biggest hydroelectric dam in the world), but found that it is closed on Sundays. However on the road to the dam there is also an 'Eco museum' which tells the story of the dam and how they have protected the wildlife and replanted trees to make up for the flooding of the area. After that we headed out to the Brazilian three frontiers park, and had a look at the monuments from there. We found the Geocache that was there which hasn't been found for almost a year, so we were quite pleased about that.

Puerto Iguazu

Sat, 20 Mar 2004 17:04:17 +0000

Having a lazier day today, caught the bus out to 3 frontiers, where you can see three posts coloured to match the flags of the three countries on the banks of the rivers in the respective countries. On the way back we went to a Orquidario which my parents had seen a sign for before when they were staying at the hotel up the road. There there were loads of local plants and birds including someof the 'air plants' that grow on tree bark. The lady there also told us about the garden of Hummingbirds, which was another hidden beauty. So after lunch, we headed up there - it was a family garden, but they'd arranged it so as it attracts hummingbirds. There must have been hundreds of hummingbirds come and go in the time we were there. It's well worth a visit if you're ever in the area. In the evening we went back (with Mum & Dad this time) to the 'Corner Restaurant' for the buffet.

Iguazu Falls (Argentinian Side) - Day 2

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 17:03:58 +0000

Today we went to the park again and had a bit of a less hectic day. We started off by doing the high tour around the tops of some of the falls - which was lovely apart from the annoying hoards of tour groups there. After that we had pizza for lunch and went back out to the devils throat to take the ecological tour boat back along the river. That was really nice and peaceful, and we saw 3 turtles, an alligator and a black splodge which was supposedly a toucan. After this we took a bit of a walk down the Macuco trail to try and see some monkeys - there were lots of giant ants, and we saw something that looked cat like but unfortunatley no monkeys. In the evening Laura & I went to the "Corner Restaurant" and had a lovely all you can eat buffet (15 pesos including desert!)

Iguazu Falls (Argentinian Side) - Day 1

Thu, 18 Mar 2004 16:59:06 +0000

We arrived today after the overnight bus, and jumped straight in to doing everything on the first day - we checked into the youth hostel and headed straight to the park. Once there, we set off on the lower trail and then went on the boat ride under the falls and got drenched - but it was fun! After that we went across to San Martin Island where we got some lovely views of the falls from. After we'd finished the lower trail, we got the train out to the devils throat which was just amazing- you could see the waterfalls all round and the big gorge with water pouring in from all sides. There were loads of butterflies all over, so hopefully I should have some nice photos of them here soon.

Politics and Religion

Thu, 11 Mar 2004 10:58:24 +0000

We had a nice chat with Marcelo yesterday, and learnt a few more interesting bits about Uruguay. The conversation started of with whether or not there is freedom of religion in England, and then went on to Politics, Computers, Voting and various other bits and pieces to compare. Here voting in the elections is compulsory, and if you don't vote there are financial sancions - loss of social benefits. It was also interesting to here how in the financial crisis here a couple of years ago, all the political parties joined together to sort things out, before seperating again once things were sorted.

Back to school

Wed, 10 Mar 2004 10:55:39 +0000

It's back to school time here in Uruguay, most of the kids go back to school today, but some went back on Monday. They've just had their summer/Christmas holiday and it's time to start the next school year, assuming they passed the last one -as here they have to repeat the year until they pass it. As it's back to school time, there's lots more stationary around in the shops, and school uniforms in many windows. But the number of people in the office shop yesterday was crazy - 4 queues to the counter filling the shop, and they'd employed 3 or 4 security guards especially for the occasion. Everyone was getting their supplies! At the weekend, we gave the kids from Escuelita books for school, and on Monday it was nice to see some of their work in their books.

PhotoTime Tuesday - Transportation

Tue, 09 Mar 2004 10:04:58 +0000

The underground in Buenos Aires

Chatting to our friends in Pompey

Sat, 06 Mar 2004 16:19:45 +0000

Last night we had a lovely chat with our friends from back home over the webcam in the internet cafe. You can see them here:

Miuerhi = Moorhouse?

Fri, 05 Mar 2004 10:04:38 +0000

The other day we had some sheets washed at the Lavadero (Launderette), and they will deliver them to you once they've been washed and dried. When I dropped the sheets off, they took my name - which I said and then spelt for them, but the lady there stopped me before I'd finished. On Wednesday, they delivered them and I had a bit of a chat with the deliverey guy, who was intrigued as to where we were from because of an unusual surname, which I thought nothing of, as it is unusual for Uruguay. He asked us if we are from far away, and whether we are Mormons, as there are lots of Mormons here and it's a usual assumption for foreigners.

Uruguayan children - observations

Tue, 02 Mar 2004 00:25:05 +0000

In the last week, we've had a few of the children round from the barrio, and it's quite interesting to see the differences between them and children back home (in general!). The children that we've had round love to clean and wash up - which I was surprised at. However we had a bag of packaging foam pieces from a parcel that we'd received and they thought that it was sweets or some other type of food - and asked where to buy them.

Bread rolls

Sun, 22 Feb 2004 11:07:01 +0000

At youth group yesterday we had lots of bread rolls left over, so we decided to leave them in the fridge at the CAIF for Sunday to see if there was anyone who needed food. This morning at the service we got through the sermon and Gilberto was just about to start the Eucaristic prayer and realised that they'd run out of wafers! I don't understand why it was left to that point for him to find out though! Anyway, he was going to send Sendi home to find some bread, but she conveniently disappeared to the toilet. Then I remembered the bread in the fridge, so I got it and we had communion using have a finger roll. He still decided to dip it in the wine and put it in peoples mouths, and it was very squidgy - surprised he managed!!

Exodus

Wed, 11 Feb 2004 08:24:40 +0000

I've just finishing reading Exodus in my personal bible studies, and whats really struck me about it is the way that everyone had their own part to play in building the tabernacle, which is particularly clear in Exodus 35. God gave each individual the gifts and materials, so that they could do the work between them. I see this as an old testament copy of 1 Corinthians 12 in many ways, and the church needs to be like this example of the Israelites. They all took their part that God had given them in order for the glory of God to be with them - so we all need to play our part in the church for the glory of God. It's also clear from these passages that God gave each individual the things that were needed, and that God gives us the things we need to what he has set before us. We need to acknowledge that they are gifts from him, and use them as for his glory.

"As an intellectual argument, evolutionary theory is in big trouble."

Tue, 03 Feb 2004 08:39:55 +0000

It appears that 'Darwinists' are getting worried about evolution not being the only option taught in schools. They're getting defensive and it appears that they're realizing that they've not got any ground, well other than stubbornness that their view is right! According to Albert Mohler:"When a scientific alternative to evolution is presented, they deny that the theory can be scientific simply because it rejects evolution. Evolutionary theory is now at the core of their definition of science itself." Even between themselves they can't agree about any of the details - just that evolution is the only thing that can be right. Berman seems to worry not only about the theory of evolution being rejected but that looking at alternatives is "jeopardizing the nature of science itself, our education system, and even our form of government". If we do follow down the evolution route, even though some of its proponents seem to be loosing their faith in it, then where does it leave us? As Mohler writes: "If human beings are not made in the image of God, and if the entire cosmos is nothing more than a freakish accident, morality is nothing but a mirage and human beings--cosmic accidents that we are--are free to negotiate whatever moral arrangement seems best to us at any given time."

Uruguayans and rain

Sun, 01 Feb 2004 08:13:50 +0000

It's interesting to see how differently people here react to rain than those in England. Here everything stops when it rains, people stay in their houses and there's no-one on the streets. A lot of the smaller shops close because of rain as well. So after talking to Gilberto, Youth Group was cancelled yesterday, because there wouldn't have been anyone there. If everything stopped when it rains in England, the country would come to a standstill!!

Outdoor service and party!

Fri, 30 Jan 2004 11:34:54 +0000

Today we had a lovely outdoor service in the church garden, because the church has been getting very hot, and last week I commented to Gilberto that it would be nice to have a service outside sometime. By the sounds of things, others had mentioned it too. It was nice, a bit noisy though -but everyone seemed to think it was good so I think we're having another one on Sunday. After the service we had a small party for Laura's birthday (a week late - but still nice) One of the unexpected guests is in the picture - he sat there quite happily while I took his picture, then jumped off!

Weather change day!

Tue, 27 Jan 2004 07:47:57 +0000

This morning I updated the weather on the [samespirit] front page to be the forecast for Salto rather than Montevideo, which I've been thinking about doing for a few days. Interestingly though, the same day - the site I was originally getting the weather forecast from changed the way they do their page so it would have broken my weather script if I hadn't changed it!

Busy but cool day!

Sat, 24 Jan 2004 23:01:00 +0000

We've had quite a busy day today - we had Escuelita this morning and then this evening at 6 we had the first meeting of the new Youth Group! (plus in-between Sylvia came round to plan the youth group with us). For the Escuelita, we looked at Creation, and we'd prepared a 2 sheets in advance - one for the older ones with blank spaces for them to draw something for each of the days of creation and one for the younger ones with pre drawn pictures to colour in. On the back of each sheet was a wordsearch, and a set of sentences with missing words for them to fill in. It went really well today compared to some of the ones we did last year. First Laura read through the story of creation from the Childrens bible and we looked at it in a bit more depth, then they worked on the sheets. For the Youth Group we looked at the topic of what it is to be a Christian - Laura did an introductory prayer and explanation of what the group was about, then we had a few games to get to know one another, then we had two groups each looking at one of the two passages (Acts2:42-50 and 1 John 2:29-3:3)Then they shared what they'd found with one another and we talked a bit about it, we sang some songs and then finished with a prayer.

Bible Study

Thu, 22 Jan 2004 23:47:00 +0000

Had a brilliant bible study in the Barrio today, looking at the 4 different set readings for today. It was really cool - I got a lot from it and felt able to contribute which was good. The readings were Genesis 11:1-9(The tower of Babel), Psalm 37:1-18, Hebrews 6:13-20, John 4:1-42(Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan women). They seemed to link together quite well - the tower of Babel, where the people sought their own achievements ignoring God; the Psalm which told us to trust in God, walk in his paths and listen to him; Hebrews which talked about the certainty of Gods promises; and in John, Jesus saying his food was to do& complete the will of his father.

Feeling much better!

Wed, 21 Jan 2004 21:00:00 +0000

Feeling much better today, back into food - Yippee! We've started reading Hebrews together which should be cool. The prayer meeting tonight was at a lady's house across the street, who we didn't know, but vaguely recognised, it was a good meeting and Gilberto talked about changing the Merendero at the church to have more spiritual content. We're going to be looking at a bible story with the kids and one of the others is going to pray at the start each week.

Laura's Birthday

Tue, 20 Jan 2004 18:00:00 +0000

Happy Birthday Laura! Unfortunatley I'm not feeling too good though

Birthday Cake, Cinema

Mon, 19 Jan 2004 20:35:00 +0000

It's Laura's birthday tomorrow so I've been making her a birthday cake. She wanted a bible shaped one, so I did my best - the shape is ok, but I encountered problems with the icing so it didn't end up with a verse on it! Then in the evening we went to see American Pie - The Wedding, - the cinema was the fullest I'd ever seen it here in Salto.

Jesus at the Wedding

Sun, 18 Jan 2004 21:00:00 +0000

First Sunday service back in Salto, and it turns out that we're going to be looking at John's gospel in the Sunday services -which is cool especially after having looked at it in depth on the camp. The passage was Jesus at the Wedding in Cana, which Gilberto had previously referred to as showing that Mary was needed to start Jesus' ministry - "If she hadn't involved him here...". However the sermon sounded quite good - no particular focus on Mary and no mention of the above - so it's promising! One thing I noticed that was particularly interesting to me, was that Mary is only referred to in John's gospel as "Jesus' mother" or similar - never by name - in the same way as he doesn't refer to himself by name. They are both only referred to in reference to Jesus, there only importance is how they are related to Jesus - The only importance we have is our relation to Jesus.

Back in Salto

Fri, 16 Jan 2004 23:10:00 +0000

Arrived back in Salto today at 7.00 - In some ways, it's nice to be back - but it's been a great trip and would be nice to just keep travelling!!

Christian bookshop, Mothers of the plaza & Lord of the rings

Thu, 15 Jan 2004 23:09:00 +0000

Left the hotel in the morning, fortunately we could leave the bag there, so we didn't have to carry it round all day. We went to find one of the Christian bookshops, and got some cool books which should help us with the youth group. Then we had lunch at McDonalds - one of there cool salads again, this time to share with 2 chicken breasts - Was lovely. It then looked as if it was going to rain, so we headed back to pick up our bag, as the hotel was a few blocks from the tube. We then went to the Plaza de Mayo and watched the Mothers of the plaza parade in there protest about the lack of information about the people who were 'disappeared'. After this we had a coffee and watched Lord of the Rings part 3 before heading to the bus station to get our bus home at 23.00

Day in Buenos Aires

Wed, 14 Jan 2004 23:08:00 +0000

Arrived at Buenos Aires first thing in the morning, left our luggage and headed straight to the hotel (Best Western Comfort Hotel) to see if we could check in - we could, so we had showers and breakfast as we decided what to do for the day.

No dollars in Mendoza!

Tue, 13 Jan 2004 23:06:00 +0000

We woke up quite early, after not much sleep as the room was very stuffy - decided to get packed up and leave the hostel as soon as possible. We tried to pay in dollars, but they wouldn't accept it as the note had got a mark on it in pen - so we had to go to the cash machine and get more pesos for them and head back to the hostel before breakfast! We had breakfast at a cafe in one of the main streets and then headed off to try and get some dollars out of the bank to pay Jorge. We looked around a bit, and in the afternoon we went to the shopping centre to pass some time before catching the bus to Buenos Aires.

Travelling back to Mendoza

Mon, 12 Jan 2004 23:06:00 +0000

Left Santiago at13.00 - The bus journey was good, but annoyingly they decided to close the curtains and shut out the view in order to watch 'die another day' with sound going on and off!! We arrived in Mendoza in the evening and it was raining. Got to the hostel we'd booked, and discovered that our' double room' was a converted bathroom with 2 bunk beds in that we had to go across a courtyard to get to! It was very hot and stuffy. We decided to leave our stuff, and head out to get some food - but the rain was too much so we left it a bit while we checked our e-mail. A bit later the rain had stopped, and we found a nice looking little cafe where we could eat. I had a chicken breast with vegetables (sweet potato, zapallo, carrot & potato) which was really nice and Laura had a salad - We swapped a bit of each and also shared a bottle of Mendozian wine. For desert I had a lovely almond ice cream with bits of almond on it, and Laura had lemon ice cream.

Day in Santiago

Sun, 11 Jan 2004 22:02:00 +0000

We met Alf Cooper - pastor of Trinity church in Santiago, who invited us to got to their newest church plant at Cantagallo for the service. What they have lots of different activities at the main church that bring in lots of people and they let it grow till it gets too big(700 is considered a reasonable size). Also alongside there are lots of ways of training up leaders, including theology courses run from the church. Once the church is too big, they'll take a group of people including leaders to form the new church plant. At Cantagallo - they normally have about 70 people, but they were expecting it to be less because it's holiday season - although it seemed to be near to that number anyway! Before the service, we helped to get things ready and convert the school hall into a church, and we prayed with a group in preparation for the service. They also prayed for us, the church in Uruguay, and the youth group that we'll be starting. After the service, we went to the bus station and got our tickets sorted out to travel to Mendoza and went for a look round Santiago. In the evening we had burgers and mashed potato, and watched Phone Booth with the others who were staying at the church

Travelling back

Sat, 10 Jan 2004 22:10:00 +0000

Travelled back to Santiago, the bus journey was fun!

Last full day

Fri, 09 Jan 2004 22:11:00 +0000

Last day at the camp :( Was a fun day though - I played lots of table tennis! We had a nice chat with Tito (Bishop of Chile) at dinner.

Did Judas have a choice?

Thu, 08 Jan 2004 22:10:00 +0000

At breakfast there was hot chocolate this morning, but I didn't like it much - probably should have had it with half milk - half water. The study on John today provoked some interesting thoughts on Judas - he was chosen to take the part he did, but did he have a choice? The teachers seemed to think he was evil and greedy anyway. I went for a nice walk round the block with Laura, then swam, played table tennis and table football. In the evening things went on a bit too late again! They want us all to go to the devotionals in the morning at8.30 - so why not finish a bit earlier that 00.30?

Waterfalls and faith

Wed, 07 Jan 2004 23:00:00 +0000

Slept really well! Had a coffee before going to the devotional on Galatians. There was scrambled egg at breakfast - really tasty! The study on John was interesting - particularly looking at the man by the pool - did he have faith? Not before being healed - it's not necessary to have faith in order to be healed - faith is a gift from God - it's not something you do. After lunch we went to the waterfall just a little way up the road - it was a bit of a climb up to it, but well worth it! Went swimming in the pool when we got back. The panoramic vision of the bible seemed to race through a bit for me today, but I still just about managed to follow it and get a lot from it. I tried to walk back to the cabin on my own at night - but I went the wrong way, heard wolves in the forest and saw bats flying past me.

First day of camp

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 22:58:00 +0000

First full day of the camp - woke up at 7.15 in plenty of time for the devotional at 8.30 which was on Galatians - the theme of Christ living in me. Then we had breakfast - which was really nice and consisted of yoghurt, hot bread and tea or coffee. Then we had the study on Johns gospel which was brilliant. In the afternoon we went up to view point where we could see mount Chillan. There were quite a few clouds, but it was brilliant. In the afternoon I went swimming. This evening I moved into the leaders cabin, as there was space there - It's huge and quite different to the others!!

Arrived at the camp

Mon, 05 Jan 2004 15:00:00 +0000

Left Santiago later than had been planned -we arrived at Rucahue at about 3 and then had lunch - salad and pork steak. We attempted to get a room together, but in the end decided it was too much hassle for everyone. The evening worship was excellent, and the sermon was on Philippians 3 - about avoiding Legalism, and that knowing Christ is what is important. I had to move beds as the one I thought I'd found once already taken! In the end I slept on the floor -quite comfy! In the evening there was a session - panoramic vision of the bible, which was really interesting and I managed to follow it!

Latest Itinerary

Fri, 02 Jan 2004 14:33:00 +0000

We now know a little bit more and actually a little bit less about our itinerary. After we arrive in Buenos Aires, we'll meet up with the others and then head to Jorge's friends house. We didn't manage to get on the direct bus from Buenos Aires to Santiago, so we don't have return tickets and are going on the way via Mendoza - so we'll leave Buenos Aires at 18.30 and arrive in Mendoza at 09.00. Then in the afternoon we'd get the 13.30 bus to Santiago. (Well something like that anyway!!) Don't know what time we'll arrive at the church now with this transport! The return journey is down to us - we'll have to sort it out in Santiago at some point!!! For what we're doing when we're there - you're best to look at Laura's Blog , cos she's got a lovely entrywith the programme translated! If you want to follow our route on the map, it may be right, or it may not, but it'll definitely have photos when we get back! Here's a site I found useful for city maps of the various places.