Food for Thought - brightens up a rainy Sunday afternoon!

Well, we've reached the six month mark for Food For Thought (FFT), and I have to say our last meeting before the summer hols was a lot of fun. With 80 people and a bouncy castle packed into the village hall, we kicked off with Alison leading us in some energetic song and dance moves.

Then Susan led the activity on the tables ( a cross between Blue Peter and the Generation game) with a challenge to each table, to create a 'home in a shoebox' in just ten minutes. All ages took part together, diving into old magazines, scraps of fabric and glue etc. with some amazing results.
The Cubs and Beavers had created a wonderful picture, that scrolled out across the width of the village hall, with images of the homes and buildings which house our community.
The children had a great time on the indoor bouncy castle, whilst the men were busy on the BBQ.



The kitchen was abuzz with tea and coffee and in general everyone seemed to be having a good time.Watching all this interaction, - a community sharing together,- brought Acts 2:46, a very special passage to mind.

I will always remember the day finishing with Michael trundling his BBQ through the rain and wind to the car, still with his little Chef's hat on..he reminded me of someone....Papa Smurf I think...but I'll let you be the judge of that!

New dates

Hello Everyone,

These are the next Food for Thought dates,

23rd September 2007

28th October 2007

2nd December 2007

27th January 2008 ( 1year anniversary!)

24th February 2008

30th March 2008

but don't forget about the August mid-week BBQs!

1st August@ The Crosslands (Tim's Birthday on the 12th I think?)
8th August @ The Harwood's (Jeremy's Birthday
15th August @ The Alibocus' (my Birthday on the 18th)
22nd August @ The Barratt's
29th August : Still looking for a venue!

Looks like a lot of birthdays in August, so there's bound to be a lot of cake at the BBQs!

and as you know I love my food, especially Curry so here's some food for thought in the form of the Curry charts:

At number we have:

35. Poppadum Preach - Madonna

34. Korma Chameleon - Culture Club

33. Bhaji Trousers - Madness

32. King Prawn Massala Drinks Are Free - Wham

31. Dansak Queen - Abba

30. Korma People - Pulp

29. Tikka Chance On Me - Abba

28. When I Phall in Love - Nat King Cole

27. You Can't Curry Love - Diana Ross and the Supremes

26. Korma Police - Radiohead

25. Things Can Only Get Bhuna - D:Ream

24. Tears On My Pilau - Kylie Minogue

23. It's Bhuna Hard Days Night - The Beatles

22. Brothers in Naans - Dire Straits

21. Girlfriend in a Korma - The Smiths

20. Pilau Talk - Doris Day

19. It's My Chapati and I Cry If I Want To ? - Dave Stewart/Barbara Gaskin

18. I'm a Bhaji Girl - Aqua

17. Sag Aloo - Black lace

16. Take That and Chapati - Take That

15. Bhuna Round The World and I Can't Find My Bhaji ? - Lisa Stansfield

14. I Don't Want To Dansak - Eddie Grant

13. Dansak on the Ceiling - Lionel Richie

12. We Are Jalfrezi - Sister Sledge

11. Vindaloo - Abba

10. I Don't Want to Go to Chutney ? Elvis Costello

9. Rice Rice Baby - Vanilla Rice

8. Jalfrezi Jalfrezi Nights - Kiss

7. Tandoori Deliver - Adam and the Ants

6. Love me Tandoor - Elvis Presley

5. We Don't Have to Tikka Clothes Off ? Jermaine Jackson

4. Bye Bye Balti - Bay City Rollers

3. Bhuna to be Wild - Steppenwolf

2. Livin' Dhal - Cliff Richard

1. Raita Here, Raita Now - Fatboy Slim

TTFN :-)

Klynn

More Food for Thought…….

Let’s face it, summer’s arrived and it’s time to lay back and slow down, so no more rambling articles this month, no moral dilemmas, just a few snaps to browse over.

Talking about browsing (wait for the link!), head to the internet if you’re pooter literate and get a load of the FFT blog, www.foodforthought.gb.com, it will give you the low down on all summer events. Happy holidays!

Just to get the record straight, Alison doesn’t

normally wear voluminous, cerise shower caps,

she was merely getting into character for the Pentecost Rap (that’s her story anyway!)

Mid Week August Bring and Share BBQs

We have 3 hosts for the August midweek Bring and Share BBQs .

We only need 2 more venues so if your interested in hosting a mid week BBQ on the 22nd or 29th of August then please let me know

Klynn

Barbecue Joke

After 4 long months of cold and winter, we are finally coming up to summer and Barbecue season. Therefore, it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking as it's the only type of cooking a real man will do, probably because there is an element of danger involved.

When a man volunteers to do the Barbecue, usually on a Saturday, the following chain of events is put into motion:

Barbecue Routine

1) The woman buys the food.

2) The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes dessert.

3) The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill - beer in hand.

Here comes the important part:

4) THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.

More routine....

5) The woman goes inside to organise the plates and cutlery.

6) The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is burning. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he deals with the situation.

Important again:

7) THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN.

More routine.....

8) The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces and brings them to the table.

9) After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.

And most important of all:

10) Everyone PRAISES the MAN and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts.

11) The man asks the woman how she enjoyed ' her night off.' And, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing some women....

Footnote

If the Barbecue catches fire then the man gets out the hosepipe.
Meanwhile, the woman calls the fire brigade.

Even More Food For Thought……………

More Food For Thought……………

Thursday evening, late back for dinner, we burst through the door and my ten year old son flies into the study,

“Blast – I missed Sam!” -

“What do you mean?” (I’m in the hall struggling with bags) -

“I was meant to meet him at church” -

“Huh?”

“To pray together.”

Now at this point I put the bags down and a bemused and somewhat stunned look comes over my face – bear with me! –

“We were meant to meet and pray together, anyway, it doesn’t matter, he needs prayer points but I’ve already got loads, I’ve done tons of praying”

Ever had that feeling that time has stood still and you’re hovering in another dimension? Sam’s a lovely boy but I wouldn’t put him down as a big prayer. The lesson in theology from the study goes on ……….

“With all my praying I‘ve enough points for a really thick skin – to protect me from attack!”

Wow, it was slightly surreal, but it was good, made sense, Nils would be proud.

“It’s great, I’ve so many prayer points I can go and attack people now and steal all their stuff – yeh – I’m well sorted!”

Now – yeh, you see – I see what you’re thinking. The philosophy starts to crumble and I go into the study to try and make sense of life. Samuel is on Runescape.com – the internet game world where he and his class mates meet up to chill out after the only too real world of school. Do any of the rest of you find this weird? Anyway, hopes of a son in the priesthood vanish and I shove Samuel over to create myself a character, - if you can’t beat’em join’em. Half an hour later I’m still wandering around in a virtual forest. I’ve made three fires, burnt my prawns twice and driven a pick axe into an unsuspecting miner who happened to walk in front of my iron ore (I’m attempting to smelt a sword, I haven’t even found church yet). Well, hey ho! What can we learn from all this? You know what - I’ll let you decide.

Back to the reason for writing this article. Food for Thought (FFT)! Come, COME - it’s great!– well so says the feedback handed in from the last meeting. Loads of “Yes we want it to continue”, “yes, more of the same” etc etc. “More cake!” (I question the sanity of this one - lack of cake is not one of our problems). We’ve got loads of good stuff ahead. June 24^th will be our last meeting before the summer, a bit of a celebration that we’ve made it this far, BBQ, fun for all the family etc. Summer will be regular picnics, BBQ’s etc. Next term maybe smaller groups in addition to FFT where we can ask the big questions in open and free discussion. Who knows, keep watching, we’re currently building the FFT website, www.foodforthought.gb.com so take a look. Anyway, back to June 24^th, get yourself along, bring the children, gain more prayer points and you never know what you can do! Enough prayer points and you certainly won’t burn your prawns!

Food for Thought –What in Heavens’ Names That?

Why don’t people go to church? - that’s the question we set out to answer almost a year ago when we first got together to establish Food For Thought.

According to my mother-in law the answer’s simple. Posed with the question on recent stop while globetrotting between Trinnidad and Sweden, she paused thoughtfully over her coffee and answered – ‘It’s drafty!’

Well……...mmm..you know, - I’m not buying it. There’s got to be more to it than that. Having sat through a match at Old Trafford with the snow settling on my head there’s one thing for certain – it takes more than a draft to put people off.

So what is it,- people don’t believe in God? – well, see – that doesn’t hold up. 98% of Winterslow village in a 1998 survey, given the choice, registered themselves as Christian rather than ticking the box , no religion. You believe in God alright.

OK –they’re just not interested!

If anything – the opposites true. On John Humphries recent radio 4 programme – Search for God, the BBC was inundated with more emails, texts and letters than they could cope with. Listening figures soared. They didn’t know what hit them. Not interested? I doubt it.

Well - OK, maybe we don’t have all the answers but my guess is that there is no one answer. There are many, - big, small, profound and downright trivial. We know, - we wrote them all out, just to see how many we could avoid. Everything from weak tea to threats of eternal damnation. I don’t know which is worse! No seriously, we filled a big page – and we made that our starting point.

So why do we want you to come? well you know, - you don’t have too, but it would be nice. We,ve got good coffee, short sermons, maybe no sermons, chilled out dress code, stuff for the children to do. But really, the biggest reason, because we know it’s good. We know that life can be spiritual, that it works well with God. You don’t have to agree, we don’t ask you to – it’s your journey, it’s your choice. But Food for Thought might help, help to think through the questions that matter – and have fun together. First meeting January 28^th, village hall, minimum drafts, good coffee, we’ll even go easy on the damnation- hey we might not mention it at all. Come and try it, no pressure, you might like it. We really hope you do!

Susan