Zoe Beresford fired from The Apprentice

… and so my fave gets fired :-(

Book: “Freedom”, Jonathan Franzen

“Freedom” by Jonathan Franzen was the most recent selection at the Cover to Cover Book Club and was selected from my list. I originally added it to my list after seeing it on Oprah’s book club list.

The book was  an OK read, not gripping, at times I wanted to know what happened next. It was a book that was broken into a number of sections telling the stories of interconnected characters and going backwards and forwards in time. In some cases I was glad a specific section ended but in others wanted more. Not a classic.

This was also the first book I read on the Kindle. An interesting experience. Getting the hang of it now including playing music on it.

Glastonbury 2011: Beyoncé

The 3rd successive headline act/night. Great performance but could have done with some more up-tempo tunes. Great voice, moves, legs (!) etc.

Guardian review

Sunday afternoon

Despite the hot afternoon I worked on my Global Corporate Challenge steps by walking round Peel Park with Hannah (who was on her new scooter bought with her birthday money). Very hot by the end of the walk. Home on my own while the rest of the squad went strawberry picking.

Lunch, by the way, was a Rachael ham cooked in the oven on the previous evening. We all thought was very tasty and may be even better than Dad’s!!

Sunday morning service outside in the sun

A last minute decision to hold the service outside but was made while we were having breakast together. Amazingly speedy set up and put away at the end. Great teamwork! Looked like it had been planned and practiced. Great service with the KF guys sharing the Word.

Pics here

Glastonbury 2011: Coldplay

The 2nd headlining night at Glastonbury. Watching on TV. Another great live performance from Coldplay.

Guardian review

Holme Christian Community Fun Day

A fund raiser for DCF and a replacement for the Big Yellow Bus. Helped to set up and put away. Loads of people came and a good amount of money raised.

Some pics here including Mark with his purple hair!

Glastonbury 2011: U2

A great spectacle watching U2 perform at Glastonbury on the BBC. The first time for 25 years that they have played in front of a mixed audience i.e. not a U2 gig.

Thought they did a great job and there was a good crowd reaction and minimal protests.

Guardian review

Life Group (with Danielle Strickland (on CD!))

Listened to the 2nd of Danielle Strickland’s Creative Bible Readings on Malachi from Spring Harvest Minehead Week 3. This one was all about the prophetic and included Andrew Marin talking about his work in Chicago.

Another well received talk followed by worship and praying for each other, especially for Ben as he leaves for 6 weeks ministry and holiday in Finland.

Attended by Dave (KF student), Maria, Dave E, Ben, Joly and Tracey.

Elders Meeting (Social Action)

No idea what was wrong with me tonight. Felt wrecked, sleepy and was nodding. Probably over-tired and room was warm. Nothing to do with the content of the meeting. Dave ran through his CEO report of where the whole of the Care Centre was up to. Doing well on funding issues despite the massive government cuts.

Golf: Rory McIlroy wins US Open

US Open 2011: Remarkable Rory McIlroy wins by eight shots
Fourth sub-par round leaves Northern Irishman 16 under
Jason Day second, Lee Westwood tied for third
Guardian article (including video)

BBC article

TV: The Apprentice (Series 7)

Not usually a fan of this but have got into this series. Isaac loving watching it so good to watch with him. Also watch the follow-on programme on BBC2.

So cheering on Zoe to win. Seems like most people hate her with a passion but she continues to hang on in there. Hoping she goes all the way.

No idea how this will go as Sugar seems to fire people based on all sorts of other stuff unrelated to the task that episode.

TV: Gordon’s (Ramsay) Great Escape South East Asia (Series 2)

If you can get past the swearing etc, this was another great travel and cookery series. My fave food continues to be Thai (and that was the best episode) but great to see the other countries’ cuisine being explored including lots of bits of animals and insects that I would never eat ….

Channel 4 on demand
The Thailand episode

Singer: Vashti Bunyan

Stumbled over Vashti Bunyan via this Samsung TV advert.

And the full original Train Song track:

The song also featured in a Reebok/NFL ad a few years back.

Can I be your friend?

Classic vid from English National Opera showing a guy doing things in real life that we do on Facebook and Twitter. Great stuff.

Via

Film: Senna

Took Isaac to see the film Senna at the end of a busy Saturday.

Not usually a big motor sport or F1 fan but we went to see it on the back of this Top Gear feature on the film. Great TV and you could see that Clarkson had been deeply impressed by Senna while researching the programme.

We loved the film. Nothing filmed specifically for the film, all edited clips from existing film. Well worth a watch by everyone. A human interest story. Also worth staying to read the credits and see footage during the credits too. Amazing man, amazing film.

Trailer:

Not in the film but here are some overtakes:

Wikipedia entries for the man and the film.

Asif Kapadia's biopic of Formula One driver Ayrton Senna has become an unexpected hit. So how did this little-known Hackney director end up making it?
Guardian interview

Cover to Cover Book Club: Jonathan Franzen’s “Freedom”

Only four of us for this latest meeting of the Cover to Cover book club meeting at Vicars Cafe in Saltaire, including one lady who was on placement at the cafe as part of her theological training. The book this meeting was Jonathan Franzen’s “Freedom”.

Turned out that I had read the furthest, one had given up early doors and the other had got quite a way through. A mixed reception to the book to put it mildly. I am still keen to finish the book to nail it.

Lots of other discussion as per normal on a variety of topics most with some connection to Christianity.

We agreed not to meet again until September when we will be discussing Middlemarch by George Eliot.

Civic Service marking the election of Councillor Naveeda Ikram as Lord Mayor of Bradford

Mrs Naveeda Ikram, Britain's first female Muslim Lord Mayor, has served as a councillor in Little Horton, Bradford, since 2004
(Daily Mail article)

Only went to this service to support Isaac who was singing a solo and with the Bradford Academy School Choir (who were invited to sing as the school is in the Mayor’s ward). Turned out to be an amazing service and one that I would highly recommend to Christians wanting to pray for those in public office across Bradford. A great preach to on the theme of what should mark out Bradford as a city.

After the service, the congregation was invited to process back to City Hall for refreshments. Isaac and I couldn’t stay but that would have been great.

Also good to hear the pipes and drums on the streets of Bradford.

Spring Harvest Booking for 2012

Even harder this year as we needed to book 2 x 4 berth units for Spring Harvest 2012 as Isaac will be sharing with Joseph.

Tweet: all set for madness that is booking the next @springharvest a double act with ann in and amongst school run and trying to get to work ASAP

Round to Ann and Dave’s for 8am to hit the phone lines. Dave did the school run for the girls and Femi. Ann got through at 8:45. All the Skegness 4 berth standard self-catering units had gone so we went for the 2nd choice of Minehead. Job Done! Minehead for the 2nd time here we come.

Tweet: booked @springharvest 2012 minehead wk2 with egans, 45 mins to get through, 2nd choice, all skeg 4s s/c gone, but happy, my 25th succ time

Hannah is 8

Happy Birthday, Hannah! Time continuing to fly  by, Hannah is our youngest …

Family party tonight and Build A Bear Workshop Party next Saturday.

iPod transmitter

Yet another iPod transmitter bit the dust – due to the flaky cigarette lighter in the car and the fact that I put the transmitter in the slot and put away every time it gets used every working day as I play mainly podcasts on the iPod through the car radio.

Went to Matalan to see what they had and picked up this classic transmitter that plugs into base of iPod and no need for any other wires. Where has this been all my (iPod) life … and good value too.

Sunday church and walking

Breakfast at church followed by a great meeting led by Hilary and Tracey – the kids loved it.

After lunch at home, I tried to rectify the shameful Global Corporate Challenge step count yesterday by doing 2 laps of Lister Park in the pouring rain. The park was just emptying from the Race For Life event, spookily I had my pink polo shirt on so I looked like I had dressed for the part. Despite the amount of working the step count seemed low on the pedometer.

All Age Worship prep

Took 3 hours with Rachael, Sue, Anthony and Dave to plan the 3rd in our Christian Olympics series. The themes this time are training and discipline. No lunch and a different day due to the current Marriage Course that is underway at the moment on a Sunday afternoon.

A very bad day for steps for the Global Corporate Challenge, worst day so far, not very active at all.

With the Girls doing lunch

Last day of the girls half term holiday and we did their fave treat, Italian restaurant for lunch. As always at Mamma Mia’s in Bradford service and quality of food first class and today also had lots of flavours of Italian ice cream too – a  bonus. Usual orders for all 3 of us. Love how they love food.

Half term trip with the girls to Newby Hall, Ripon

Girls are on 2 weeks half term while Rachael and Isaac just had the 1. I took off Thursday and Friday of their second week to have time with them. Great to have a long weekend off work.

Main part of Thursday was a trip to Newby Hall in Ripon. Weather not too good as we left Bradford but was glorious all day at the place.

Lots of great stuff to do and see. All 3 of us had a great time walking round the gardens, seeing the willow animal sculptures by Emma Stothard, doing lunch, miniature train ride (the train being in Grand Central livery), ice cream, a number of go’s on the adventure playground (especially the double swing with ropes to pull to make you go higher and playing in the water jet “garden”. I also caught the sun a bit. Highly recommended day out for all ages.

Culture Club: Away We Go (film)

Led the latest Culture Club meeting, the sixth one of the year, when we watched the film “Away We Go”. One of the better films we have done. People happy with the happy ending which was a novelty for the films we have done. The soundtrack by Alexi Murdoch was also complimented.

Good discussion on all sorts of topics including families, parenting, people’s attitudes to and styles of bringing up their kids.

Attended by Mark, Hilary, Tracey and Eryl.

Meeting details here.

New Phone:HTC Desire S

Finally joined those who have a decent surfing phone and got an HTC Desire S mobile phone on a Virgin upgrade. Amazing phone and almost immediately realised was the ideal phone for me. Lots of happy surfing to come especially with Twitter via TweetDeck.

Spent the day charging it and updating all the contacts via Google contact list to sync to the phone without having to put any contact info directly into the phone.

Picked up a Case-Smart case for it from Carphone Warehouse as well as a screen protector. All going well until the final tab on protector when applying it to the screen left a very sticky black mark like plaster sticky. Tried to rub it off with a damp cloth but over next couple of days made a big bubble making the screen looking dire but was quickly sorted via Rachael who bought a set of protectors from Ebay and applied one perfectly. It was like a new phone again ….

Walking in Peel Park

To try to sort out my woeful weekend step counts for the Global Corporate Challenge went on a solo walk round Peel Park doing a full circuit around the perimeter between getting home from church and having a late-ish lunch. Again not as many steps as I would have liked but at least I am showing willing.