Christmas Pressie List... (because I have writer's block)

1. New Reebok Trainers (at a ridiculously cheap price according to my mother)
2. New patrick Trainer/Boot thingies (never had these before so am quite excited, but also according to my mother were ridiculously cheap, which is apparently why she bought me two pairs of footwear this year)
3. 2 Pairs of Cargo Pants (never had these before very excited about these)
4. 8 Pairs of new boxies
5. 16 Pairs of new socks, 1/4 white, 1/4 black, 1/4 brown, and 1/4 cream
6. 1 £10 virgin voucher (as in the store, not as in to buy a virgin unfortunately... - joke!)
7. One long sleeved t-shirt top striped but in beige very light and nice an comfy
8. One trendy brown t-shirt with army green khaki design on front
9. 1 water pistol with target with suckers on to stick to bath!!
10. 1 DVD boxset of 24 season 5. (yesssssssssssss!!!)
11. 1 "The Anthems" double CD (yesssssssssssss!!!)
12. 3 x bottles of flavoured syrups for coffee - irish, vanilla and hazlenut respectively
13. 1 x James Patterson's latest Alex Cross novel, entitled "Cross" (yessssssssssss!!!)
14. 1 scarf and beany (both by bench)
15. 1 x Gillette shaving Gel
16. 1 x Nivea for men face scrub
17. 1 x Black leather wash bag
18. 1 x Nike long coat, beige colour very nice (small size but still too big for me - gutted!!!)
19. 1 x £30 HMV Voucher Gift Card (temporarily lost in the tip that is my room)
20. The joy of seeing family members love what I got them.

:-)

Sancho's Service Announcement:

Due to various internet access problems and switching to google, and the busyness of the festive season, and various muscle spasms and other health nastiness, I have been unable to post for a while.

My apologies, normal service will be resumed shortly...

Relax.

The Curse Of Christmas...

Get your own back here!!

hehe!

Painful Truth.

I've just read this book in one night!!

I didn't intend to, but the honesty, rawness and sheer awful beauty of it kept me connected to Cameron's unbearably painful story.

Written by a 27 year old committed christian it isn't one of those "nice" Christian books full of platitudes and steps to success; rather it's one mans painful account of his and his ex-wife's failure to have the marriage God wanted.

As I read this tonight (start to finish in three hours!) what came across was not a person who wrote a book to get back at his ex partner, but some one who wanted to share his painful journey of learning what it means to really follow Jesus in every situation. The book doesn't end with a nice happy hollywood ending, rather it ends with the tension of living with continuing pain and a deep sense of failure and brokeness of the author, whilst living in the hope that someday (though not yet) good will be brought out of it.

As I read this tonight it deeply affected me, and i felt a great sense of connection with someone who struggles with easy answers to complicated situations as much I do. I got a lot out of it, even though I've never been married or divorced, and my lasting impression was of the faithfulness and love of God in the authors life, even when he or his wife was neither to each other. Cameron is honest in his struggles, and after finishing it, I felt the same deep sense of sadness that he must feel, yet also the sense of peace at a God who is there with us in difficult times. This book doesn't say that Divorce is ok, in fact it sadly shows that it's a last alternative when no choices are left between two people.

When I read this I realised that God hates Divorce, but works through the people who go through it. Loss, Brokenness, Responsibility, Commitment and Honesty are all discussed, but in very real ways, not idealogical theological theories.

I read this because some of my friends are going through this at the moment, and I wanted to try and understand what they were going through. I'm gonna reccomend this book to all of them because it's based in reality.

Excellent book, though very, very sad yet filled with an earthy, pain-filled hope.