Live to Kenya

Welcome to Sam's blog.

For those of you new to this particular segment of the internet this blog is a mixture of thoughts and wonderings from my wanderings. And for those of you not new to this blog, its the same. :-)

I am currently on a train on my way to Thatcham- where my parents live. It is quite misty outside at the moment and has been for most of the journey since leaving Newcastle.

I often walk up and down the train and it's very interesting looking at the different passengers, most of whom are reading newspapers. I always think that is strange given the mediums' dwindling popularity nationwide.

The mist outside has taken on a rather red hue now.

Having walked along this train it seems like the daily mail is most popular today. Usually its the guardian!

On a completely different note: what must it be like to be engaged to a royal?!

To be on the front of national newspapers for days on end, see your family tree examined, your school 'friends' interviewed and everything you've ever worn analysed?!

The coverage of the engagement announcement did make me laugh though. "And now we go LIVE to the wildlife park in kenya where the proposal was made". "What's the scene there lucy?"

"Well clive its pretty dark here but thankfully our camera crew are shining a massive light on a tree so you can just about make that out. I'm making my way now up to the ACTUAL rock where the proposal happened".

"What extraordinary scenes lucy."

"Yes clive, and here you can just about make out some markings, scraped into the kenyan stone: KM 4 PW". Amazing stuff. Back to you clive".

"Thanks lucy. Now we can speak to John who sold kate middleton her first goldfish- is that right John?"...

And so it goes on!!

Full scale fog now outside.

Adios.

Wet.

Back in the north now and it is very wet! After a week in the balmy south, especially in devon where it was so bright and hot i needed sun cream, this weather is particularly noticeable.

Let me tell you a bit about Longbarn: its a camp for 8 - 11 year olds in kent, set in the middle of a forest. As such there is not much electricity (there is some thanks to a couple of solar panels), no flushing loos, no internet, and no showers.

Surprisingly, speaking as someone who loves cities, mod cons, and a shower in the morning, going to longbarn is one of the highlights of my year!

I help run the camp, along with around 15 other leaders, ensuring the kids fufill one of the most important rules of the week: to have fun!

Its always strange re-entering society after a week there. One is struck by people using money, rushing to get places, and wearing suits! This is compared to longbarn-ers who emerge into the world needing a wash, engrossed in the idiosyncrasies of camp and looking blankly at a £10 note!

This year's highlights: winning astroblitz (longbarn's premier game), aceing survival (enter forest, cook lunch, try to make sure children don't get food poisoning), and having a bunch of kids really understand the bible stories we were teaching them and ask some excellent questions.

Check out scripture union (who run the camps) to be inspired yourself. :-)

Adios.

The big L

Hello from the train!

I have worked out how to write on this blog from my new phone. Woohoo!

I'm on the train to devon after a week at Longbarn camp. (The big L). This is the fifth year i have been and it was, once again, brilliant.

Now REALLY tired though so won't write more, hope to do so soon.

Is Sam Wylie there...?

I haven't forgotten about this blog, honest!

But I just haven't had any big thoughts that I could put down here to make it really interesting reading.

Generally life in the North is good. I have been here for more than a year now which is amazing! I'm driving a bit too now so am getting to know the roads better and feeling like I'm piecing parts of the city together.

I will be going off on holiday soon and I'm really looking forward to that. Not getting up early for a few days will be great.

One quick observation from today: I was on the Metro (Newcastle's underground rail network) and some tourists asked a Metro worker how to get somewhere. As he was describing where to go he asked them if they knew a particular road.

"No", they replied, "we've only just met this city".

What a nice way to describe being new in a place!

Adios.

The Boys Are Back

I have just finished watching a brilliant film.

It is called The Boys Are Back, and stars Clive Owen.

The film is set in Australia mostly - Southern Australia I think.

The setting is quite extraordinary - amazing vistas and sunsets as well as beautiful coastal shots.

It is about journalism (one tick), cars (two ticks), and real men (three ticks). When I say real men I mean men going about their lives, portrayed in a genuine way - in a way that men in real life actually live. (Know what I mean?)

I found it moving, funny (Owen is a sports writer and can't leave his kids so he writes about the Australian Open tennis from his house watching it on TV instead of being actually there), and quite uplifting.

The two boys in the film are excellent. The older one looks very much like Rubert Grint and I spent most of this film thinking it was him, but he's actually another very good actor - George MacKay.

He plays a 17 year old who is finding that stage between being a child and an adult quite difficult. But he has a firm friend in his younger step brother.

The younger boy really loves his brother, and that relationship is one of the best in the film. It really moved me at points.

*The main character - Owen - would certainly be classed as 'flawed', and so do be aware of that if you see it.

*The film does at one point go to England. This is a cue for rain, red buses, posh schools and English pubs. Please excuse its stereotyping, persist with the film regardless!

I didn't see this film advertised anywhere, so it may be that it only came out on DVD. But it is certainly worth a trip to HMV or Blockbuster for the experience.

This is a film that I massively enjoyed. Perfect? No. But excellently written characters, lovely scenery, good story and it certainly made for a lovely way to spend an hour and a half.

Adios.

P.s As I said on facebook - you may have to think of this as more of a monthly magazine column than a 'blink and you'll miss the next post' blog... :-)

Portugal

I have just returned from a lovely holiday to Portugal: a few thoughts...

Temperatures in the mid 20s, lots of tennis, sunbathing on the beach and great company.

--

Travelling towards the place we were staying in I was struck by just how big the world is!

I find that in the midst of a busy life - work, housemates, shopping - its easy to think that my the world is the whole world.

I guess that travelling broadens ones horizons and although thats a cliche, when you think about what it really means its true!

--

The weather in the Algarve for the week was just beautiful!

Blue skies and high temperatures, but not so hot to deny the enjoyment of it.

But now I'm back in England and yesterday it was raining...

--

One reason that makes me pleased to be back however is the language.

I hadn't learnt any Portuguese before I went over and so that meant I was pretty stuck.

Advice: When going abroad learn a minimum of hello, goodbye, thank you, sorry and please!

Thankfully my family knew a bit more than me though so I survived!

This is my 50th post. :-) I'm enjoying writing this blog and glad that many readers like it too.

Adios.

Lighting up Hadrian's Wall

I saw Hadrian's Wall being lit up last night!

For American readers who may not know what Hadrain's Wall is, it stands as the ancient barrier between Roman conquered England and 'barbarian' Scotland.

It is a World Heritage site, and quite a sight indeed.

It was being lit to commemorate the 1600th year of the departure of the Romans from these shores.

So below is one of the becans, with others stretching off into the distance.

Below that is a picture of how it all looked before it got really dark, and below that is just a cool picture of another wall (I like to call it Sam's wall). It doesn't keep anyone out, well apart from some sheep maybe...

Winter Olympics - Quality isn't it?!

I'm loving Vancouver 2010!

The sports that go on are just amazing - moguls (flying down a slope going over bumps and then doing massive jumps), ski cross (four skiers zooming round a track - bit like the first lap of an F1 race, but with jumps), airels (what looks like gymnastics on skis), and then ski jumping which is surely the most graceful sport in the world.

Check these videos out:

USA goal - or is it - puck enters goal on 0.1/0.0 seconds...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/vancouver_2010/ice_hockey/8535723.stm

Stunning skills from USA's ice hockey team. The commentators got pretty excited too!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/vancouver_2010/ice_hockey/8535723.stm

Life - what's it all about at the end?

I wonder how you felt when you heard that the designer Alexander Mc Queen had died http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8511115.stm? Or how about the Georgian luger http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/vancouver_2010/luge/8513595.stm?

And how did you feel when you heard that 200,000 people had died in Haiti http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8524842.stm?

If you were like me you would have felt more sorrow for one of the first people mentioned than the second.

Why is that?

I think it's strange.

I mean when I heard that the Georgian luger had died I was genuinely upset. I heard just as I was going to sleep one evening and it was awful news.

But how did I feel when I heard that 200,000 people had died in Haiti? Did I feel 200,000 times the sorrow? Did you?

Why not?

Is one life worth more than 200,000?

Perhaps the sheer scale of the number of deaths makes it difficult to comprehend.

Or maybe it is the celebrity culture - we feel we know the one person who dies and so are personally sorry in a way in which we cannot be for 200,000?

I don't know. But it's worth considering.

Adios

Life - what's it all about?

So; I've just seen the film Invictus. Its about the South African rugby team and their mission to succeed in the 1995 world cup but also their mission to use rugby to unify the country.

And its very good. A bit 'Hollywood' at points, but their are some funny bits and the rugby action is pretty quality - they had some lush camera angles going on!

It did make me think a bit about life though. Cos you see I've been working now for 7 months, 5 days a week, 8-5 each day. And the time outside of that seems very small. Weekends and evenings are all you get.

And I've only been doing this full-time-work-business for a short period of time. What must it be like when you've done it for years?

I guess its a sign of me feeling more settled at work though that made me think more about what I actually want to do with my life. I'm not now constanly thinking just about surviving the day.

I mean life is so short and I want to use it well.

The work I do is good, but what about something more? Something so that I look back and see what I've done and think "yes, that was really good".

So no firm answers on that but a few thoughts.

Firstly work isn't what its all about. Work is how we eat and keep warm. But sometimes that is all it is. So maybe the thing I can do will be beyond work, something else.

Secondly looking at that paragraph up there a bit, the word "I" is there a lot. But I know that my primary purpose here is to serve God. So really it should be: "what can I do for Him?".

Thirdly, other people. That's what life is about too. God knew that people couldn't live on their own: we need friends, companions, people, community, family.

So there's something in that too - living among others. With other people, and with them in my life.

Hmm, as I said no firm answers, but a few thoughts.

Adios.

Long time no blog

Woah! Haven't written on this for the whole of this decade!

Well that's partly because my computer has been so slow, but I think I've found a way to speed it up a bit now so hopefully I'll write a bit more on this...