Life on Trumpton?

I wonder, have you caught the truly inspired promotional teaser trailer for the second series of BBC 1's Life on Mars yet? If not, you are in for a real treat:

I was in stitches when I saw that. The drama series of course is set in the 70's - the Golden Age of Trumpton and Camberwick Green... and although the programme is much grittier than the trailer implies (although it does have extremely comedic moments too), lampooning Trumpton is a very appropriate way to promote it.

Whoever dreamed up the concept of Life on Mars, must be a genius. You get to do a cop show with all the 70's prejudices and nostalgia... yet maintaining the moral high ground as we see it through the eyes of Sam Tyler, a detective who is either in a coma, insane... or quite possibly trapped 33 years in the past. Although this is the second series, we will definitely find out the truth... because it is also rather sadly, the final series.

My personal belief is that Sam has travelled in time... in his mind. He is in the body of an entirely different Sam Tyler from 1973. He has been sent back to put right a few wrongs... and when they are accomplished, he will awake from his coma in 2007. He will get back to his office and check the records and discover the truth. That he was in the body of another man from the past. I believe they have borrowed several ideas from Quantum Leap. Nelson the barkeeper seems very important... and it wouldn't surprise me at all if he were God... and the test card girl were Satan.

Whatever the truth is, we will find out together from February 13th as once more we'll be "'avin 'oops", whilst watching the adventures of Gene Hunt and Sam Tyler.

Oh and I couldn't resist uncovering this little gem of an advert from Quaker Oats, which is not wholly unconnected:

Good old Windy Miller and his Uncle Goober!

A Saturday Less Ordinary.

Today's been only slightly less mundane than most Saturday's.

I decided to go shopping for shoes, because my work shoes are frankly falling apart. Now, we have a shoe shop in town... I used to work their for a summer job while at college. My mum works their part time now. It's because of those facts that I won't go there, despite there being a possible discount. I'm just not comfortable being served by people who know me... especially family (though mum wasn't there today). I don't know why, its just the way I am. I suppose that's another thing that has to go out the window in the continuous evolution of Nick Payne.

So I checked my blog and emails.

Then I did a Monet!

I decided last night to wipe the mega long entry "Live and Let Live". I don't feel there was anything wrong in what I said... but it was that post which was throwing the sidebar on my page out of whack and after sleeping on what to do about it, I felt it was probably something that people didn't need to hear.

The reason I mentioned Monet, is because I was told a story about him once. He was renowned for his soft blue and green works... but there was a period in his life when he suffered from cataracts. It was during this period that he painted pictures in vibrant reds and yellows. He had one set of cataracts removed and painted half the picture in his older colours and the other half in the reds and yellows. When Monet realised that his eye problems had interfered with his artistic efforts, he destroyed most of his paintings from that time. Now that is a philosophical question for art... our pains, hardships, joys and sorrows form the backbone for our creative works... so was Monet right? Did his cataracts damage those particular works... or enhance them?

I digress. As I waited for the bus, a teenager came and asked what time the bus would come, he was very civil. However, five minutes later his mates came along and he had a personality transplant. It's interesting how easily we change our behaviour to suit our company... all the more interesting for me having made personal observations regarding myself.

Got my shoes and purchased two books from Waterstones to keep me out of trouble - "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman and "Hood" by Stephen Lawhead. Looking forward to get stuck in to those. The latter should be extremely interesting because it relocates the Robin Hood legend into Wales. Having said that... Robin himself is most probably an amalgamation of several different legends. I'm a fan of Lawhead's work, especially the books he has written that tie into Celtic culture and the ancient legends and lore of the British Isles.

Part of me was thinking of going out tonight and wandering into a pub to do some crazy man dancing. However I'm cooking myself chicken and asparagus with pasta in a pesto sauce... so I won't get time.

I'm hoping to cycle over to Astwood Bank tomorrow, to attend the church of some friends. However there is a very big hill between us... and last time it nearly wiped me out. I want to tell some of them the things I have concluded here recently. I'll let you know how I get on.

Blessings

N

Just Do It!

Just before New Year, I posted a blog entitled "Grappling with God".

I think I may have left it hanging there and never told you what occurred in the week or so after that... it was a pretty intense period.

Without going into specifics, I ended up in a situation which made me increasingly restless. I felt like I was in a set up, whether it was of divine, human or evil origins I didn't care... I was tearing myself apart out of fear... because I had no say into where I was going.

I'll admit now that I became so agitated, I sat up for most of one night just praying about it. When confronted with the situation I deliberately flung up all my old defences. I tried to portray myself in as bad a way as possible. I deliberately talked about spiritual stuff and went off the deep end theologically. I tried to be as cryptic, aloof and eccentric as possible. These are my old weapons... the wrong weapons. I must confess that I am capable of quite devious manipulation. I can control pretty much most people's perception of me. I make them all think I'm a bit crazy and it produces the response my subconscious desires... it keeps people liking me, but puts them a little on edge so they don't want to get too close. It's not a good thing... for one thing, I know it is wrong to control people... and for another it is the familiar minefield of self destructiveness that I keep trying to amble back on to.

The day passed without event, but I was so on edge that I panicked about it for a few more days. I looked weary and burdened on my first day back at work... and my best mate said I had a wild edge to my nature.

The truth that I have come to realise, the blatant truth that the Genesis passage I was given, has enabled me to see, is that I have been on the banks of the Jabbok river for a long time. Like Jacob I know that you can't turn back and return to burned bridges... and like Jacob, I have been absolutely petrified of going forward into a land of promise... because all I can see is my big hairy brother coming to kill me. Or in relevant terms, all I could see was a future I cannot control, where I may be at the mercy of others... and it scared the hell out of me.

What God taught Jacob, was that you cannot run away from your fears of the future... you have to face everything before you. The more important lesson he taught Jacob, was that the things that he (Jacob) could not control, didn't matter. God is far more able and better equipped to handle our issues, our inner demons and anything that confronts us. Jacob walked into Jabbok alone, with God kept at a nice, safe comfortable distance. However, God is sovereign and isn't subject to the little boxes we like to put people in. When God finished with Jacob, they walked out together - Jacob sustained by the swift, sure hand of God... had discovered that which hos father and grandfather had known before him... that God was his shield and very great reward.

The man walked in as Jacob and walked out as Israel.

I have made a resolution to stop playing chess and enjoy life for what it is. Life IS to short for chess... if you spend your moments guessing and second guessing every possible pathway in your future, like some warped Grandmaster... then you are going to miss practically every opportunity that comes your way.

My name is derived for the Greek deity of victory... the same one as a certain sportswear company. I should take note of their slogan and "just do it".

From now on, I intend to.

I'm going to be less deliberate, I'm not going to fight the waves... I'm going to surf them.

I'll leave you with Coldplay's "The Scientist". It is a song I sometimes use in prayer when I have these moments, when I know I need to repent of my obsessive nature. We have to realise that it's more important to embrace God and declare our need of and love for, him; rather than poking and prodding at all the mysteries and dilemmas before us.

On the Subject of Technology...

...I thought I'd point out a few things about the current template design, as well as outline a few of my eventual intentions for the design of this place.

Some people might think I'm a bit of an egotist, because the i in Nick's Sanctuary is the only letter with a colour... this is intentional but not for narcissistic reasons. You will also notice that the other letters in title are block capital - NiCK'S SANCTUARY. What I am trying to evoke, is the need to to retain your individuality amongst the multitude of other people around... whilst not forgetting the importance of humility. I just wanted to clear that up.

Now, I'm a fan of purples and deep blues... but I don't know if they work well here. Is the sight OK for you to read? I can read it alright... but fat lot of good that is, if I have you lot all squinting with bleary eyes... you as the weary pilgrims who wander in here, matter to me. If this place can be better I'd like you to spill the beans.

As you may have gathered I'm not the brightest spark in the fire when it comes to HTML and CSS style sheets. when I visit other blogs, I am in awe of the loving craftsmanship put into some of the designs. It's like walking into people's personal cathedrals. I especially love seeing artistic designs in title bars... and if forced to be honest, I'm envious. I will get round to making this place look a bit pictorial if I can... if you are willing and able to offer a hand, I'd be grateful.

Blessings

N

Sidebar Problems

Haven't got a scooby doo as to what happened to my sidebar. Probably something to do with the length of the last post. anybody got any suggestions?

Apart from telling me not waffle on! :-)

Update as at 26th January 2007:

It would appear my suspicions were correct, my last post was excruciatingly long. In order to maintain the site integrity, I'm just going to keep the number of posts per page short... until the template can cope. If you want to see what I've been talking about prior to what you see before you, you'll have to check the archive.

Why not be totally spontaneous and randomly pick an archive month to peruse... go on, you know you want to!