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Proud to be British!

What a year to be British in fact the Queens speech this year is going to need to be an hour long for Her Majesty to be able to capture the year in words!

There’s a self-deprecating negativity that seems to ooze from the pores of most British people when it comes to anticipating large events. “It’ll be a disaster”, “Just hope it doesn’t turn into an unintentional farce”, “We’re Doomed!” and so on. The run up to the Olympics were no different with predictions of huge gridlock and traffic chaos, threats of strikes, nightmare weather just days before, and major cock-ups by a security company that I wouldn’t trust to guard over my dustbins let alone a worldwide jamboree of sporting excellence.

The news might try to fill us all with doom’n’gloom and the tabloids might like to sensationalise the headlines by making us believe that it’s all down to the latest scapegoat to grab their eyes. But despite all this we’ve had a year where we’ve been able to stand tall and proud, where we can loudly sing out the national anthem and where we’ve talked about truly inspirational stories and people.

Perhaps it comes from our grey, wet, weather. Perhaps we’re just the kind of people that can’t believe that we can genuinely stand as equals with the big boys, but we’ve always liked to support the smaller teams and the underdogs. Perhaps it’s just an inherent humility – it’s just not British to blow ones own trumpet you know.

Well I say stuff that. With the Jubilee earlier this year, the Torch Relay then putting a spark in peoples eyes, and then the most amazing showcase of Britain with the 2012 Olympic Games I am just bursting with pride at being British.

I confess I am a proud patriot anyway, and I get goosebumps whenever I hear Elgar played or see the Red Arrows fly-by or watch the Last Night of the Proms but this year has caused me to stand taller and prouder than ever before.

The year kicked off with the Diamond Jubilee celebrations and with the Queen, and the other Royals, visiting as much of the UK as possible and embracing so many different elements of culture to bring relevance to “the yoofs” whilst also bringing the pomp and circumstance that we also love and enjoy.

It’s quite something when you look at our Royal family and realise just how famous they are around the world, and how much they actually do for the UK. There’s no other Royal Family out there that comes close and, with Princes William and Harry, the future looks very nicely sorted.Forget the scandals that the media likes to rake up – the Royals are genuinely Brits who we can, and should, be very proud of.

Then, of course, there’s been the biggie – London 2012. The Olympics and The Paralympics.

For 6 weeks (after the initial fiasco with G4S and the usual British pessimism) the news was bright and cheery each day. We celebrated. Offices resounded with chatter of “Did you see….?” and Kleenex shares went through the roof as the nation collectively shed tears of pride and joy every time we saw another victory or heard another glowing report about the organisation, the games makers, the venues – even the WEATHER played along. For once our kids were presented with real inspiration and examples instead of the z-list celebrities who feel that they need some trashy scandal to ensure they get enough exposure.

Those with tickets to the games were eyed with glowing green eyes of envy and the London 2012 website was probably refreshed more than eBay when it offers a unique crisp that looks just like Elvis.

KingsGate (our Church) hosted a special evening where there was food, music and the opening ceremony on the big cinema screen. Over 1000 people crammed in to watch Sir Danny Boyle’s (it’d be criminal if he didn’t get a knighthood!) wonderful “Isles Of Wonder” presentation and we all cheered, laughed, cried, sang – and yes, we did all stand when the National Anthem was played. Being unable to be in the venue itself, this was the next best thing and was a joyous experience. He successfully wrapped the essence of British-ness in Union Flag printed paper and tied it off with nice red, white and blue ribbons to be delivered to a world that, whilst not always understanding ever element, appreciated the humour and uniqueness of the audio/visual feast that was unfolding before their eyes.

During the event itself all you heard were compliments on the volunteers who made up the “Games Makers” and they were touted as being one of the great highlights of the event. I know there were some who had come from abroad to volunteer (which I find amazing) but the majority were British and there’s still pride to be had in the whole block of volunteers who served with a smile and with no complaints.

The clever usage of iconic venues around London served to deliver a huge profile boost to these tourist attractions, whilst also presenting them in somewhat unexpected ways (be honest, you would have logically expected Horseguards Parade to host the show-jumping rather than Greenwich wouldn’t you?)

Even the sun blessed us with its presence over the majority of the 5 weeks, and the crowds brought their own sunshine as they cheered on Team GB, ParalympicsGB and every other competitor. As the commentators were heard to remark quite frequently – it’s a good job they didn’t put a roof on the Olympic Stadium as it would surely have been blown away by the roars that came from the 80,000 crowd.

Although we were initially gutted not to get tickets to the Olympics, we did manage to somehow secure a set of tickets on two consecutive weekends to see the Paralympics – with Athletics in the Olympic Stadium and Boccia in the Excel on the first weekend and then a general access Olympic Park Ticket for the weekend of the Paralympic Closing Ceremony which we doubled-up with the “Our Greatest Team” victory parade on the Monday.

It was phenomenal. The organisation genuinely *was* superb. The games-makers really were as friendly and brilliant as the news made out. The Tube system worked amazingly well without any major issue. Everything was signposted and guided so there was no travel-related stressed. And the venues were beyond amazing.

When we were in the Olympic Stadium we were sat just above the cauldron and could see everything. Yes we had to dodge a few 747s as we were that high up in the stadium, but you didn’t feel removed from the action and you could still see everything going on – and you could even see the facial expressions on the athletes faces.

Outside the stadium we noticed a Anna Sorokina, a Russian athlete who had just taken the Silver in the Women’s Javelin F12/13. We just had to ask for a photo and if we could see the medal itself and she was so friendly. To add the cherry on the cake, a passing games-maker came and offered to take the photo so we could all be in it together. There was such an approachability to everything and everyone. We spotted one of the ParalympicsGB coaches and he was there chatting to fans quite happily and there are many other stories from other people about how welcoming everyone was. I mean even the McDonalds staff at the worlds largest McDs were super friendly and chatty, despite still having queues well out the doors even with the superb efficiency they were working under.

Heavily laden with enough souvenirs to open our own museum, so many photos you could wallpaper the whole of Buckingham Palace, and a vast treasure of lifelong memories, we were of mixed emotions when we got home after the victory parade.

Normality is sinking back in (very slowly it has to be said), but there’s still the odd mention of the Olympics here and there – and when there is you can see the smiles on faces and the glimmer in peoples eyes as they recall when we, as a nation, truly showed the world how Great Britain really is.

I’ve always been very proud and patriotic – but this year I’ve been almost bursting with pride. Long may it continue.

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Rock & Roll with extra cheese (and some rather spicy sauce!)

When it comes to music, films, TV etc (entertainment in general I guess) I’m a rather odd specimen of a man – enjoying an eclectic mix of styles, genres, eras and volumes! I can watch everything from sci-fi blasts to detective dramas, comedies to quizzes, debates to debacles. I listen to music from so many eras covering pop, rock, dance, jazz, classical, electronic, metal, worship, atmospheric and more. In fact the only music I can’t appreciate is manufactured plastic rubbish that you know doesn’t mean anything to the person singing it.

One era and style I do particularly love is 80s Rock. I grew up listening to Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Meatloaf and more and still love ramping up the volume to scream out the lyrics to some of the classic anthems from that time.

So when we saw an interview with Justin Lee Collins and Shane Ward on BBC breakfast talking about the West End musical “Rock of Ages” I immediately knew that this was something I *have* to go and see.

We’ve not made it to London (yet – it’s planned for sometime in the future though!) but when a film version was released my curiosity was definitely piqued.

Last weekend my wonderful wife, who has impeccable taste it must be said, chose for us to see the film when we had a chance to escape the kids for a day and grab a couple of hours in the midst of all the house hassles.

All I can say is WHAT A BLAST!

Now I’ll get the potentially offensive stuff out of the way first – although everything in this film is done to maximise the cheese factor and it’s all done in a humorous manner. The film definitely isn’t one for the kids, despite the 12A rating. There is a bit of bad language but there is a lot of suggestive and sexual innuendo in the film. Part of it is set in a “Gentlemans” club and features pole-dancers, there is a scene that involves strongly implied sex and there are other bits. BUT – none of it made me feel uncomfortable and it is all played for laughs.

That aside (and, as I say, it didn’t bother me at all) the film is a great romp from beginning to end. The storyline is a cheesy cliche wrapped up in a fairytale sugary syrup – girl meets boy and all the typical journey that tends to follow in those storylines. Think Grease or Dirty Dancing, set in the 80s scene with blue denim or black leather trousers and black T-shirts. You’re not getting a story that will change your life forever and that will bring about world peace to sound of whale song. You are getting a joy-filled, hugely funny, musically superb couple of hours that entertain and leave you with a huge smile on your face for days to come.

The music in the film, as with the storyline, differs slightly (and also significantly in parts) to the stage show but contains so many classics from that time including everything from Journey to Poison, Def Leppard to Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar to Styx and so many others and some of the mash-ups in the film are pure genius! By the end of the film there wasn’t a foot that wasn’t tapping, a head that wasn’t nodding and there weren’t many people who weren’t singing along.

The casting was probably the biggest surprise. Tom Cruises involvement had me a bit concerned, and the Mrs and I both raised eyebrows when the opening credits rolled and we saw Russell Brands name (not the biggest fans, but his involvement was a no-brainer really), however the whole cast are brilliant totally embracing the ham-it-up nature of the film and throwing themselves into their roles completely. The two stars of the show are newcomers and manage to stand their own ground surrounded by Cruise, Brand, Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta-Jones and others. What has been a huge surprise is the discovery that the actors all sing their own parts (they obviously did this seperate to the filming as you can tell they are miming at points, but they did record the vocals they are miming to!) and that includes Tom Cruise who manages to do a great version of “Paradise City” and “Wanted Dead or Alive”.

The film has so many highlights in it that I can’t do it justice to just pick a few. The funniest moment of all though has to be the scene between Brand and Baldwin – I am never going to be able to listen to the song they sing again without thinking of the film (I’ll say no more as I really do not want to spoil it for anyone!)

If you have a decent sense of humour, and don’t get easily offended, and you love the 80s then you really have GOT to see this film. It’s only made me even more desperate to see the stage show, and we’ve already said that we’ll be getting the Blu-Ray when it comes out!

And if you want to enjoy the original versions of the songs used in the film and the stage versions you can subscribe to my Spotify playlist – to which I may well add a few additional Eighties classics that didn’t quite make it into the show but definitely deserve a place there. Saying that, if all the classics were to be included in the film and the stage show you would be there for days!

The Spotify playlist can be found here: http://open.spotify.com/user/geekyone/playlist/0aAPSQsTp3jDpWt3iwYedo

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Purpose, Conviction, Vision and…. patience

 

I’ve mentioned here in the past that I can struggle with the P-word sometimes. Patience is something that I can often lack, and always need more of.

What makes things worse is when you have a clear sense of purpose, a definite goal and total faith in what you are doing… but you still have to wait.

As you cannot help but have noticed, we are moving house. We know God’s calling us to move, we know where, we have complete faith in that – but the time still ticks by and that exposes the patience, or lack thereof. After waiting for so long for the starters pistol to fire, we know that we’re on the final straight and we can see the finishing line in front of us (appropriate metaphor for this year really). Unfortunately it’s one of those scenarios where time seems to slow down, and the goal seems to move further away with each step closer we take.

There’s no doubt that this is the right move and there is no doubt that this is what God wants us to be doing – but we’re definitely at that point of wishing it was all over and done with (well, except the move itself as that needs to wait until the summer hols :-D)

If you happen to have a spare 30 seconds, please shoot a prayer upstairs for us!

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Legends, Lessons and a Lyrical Life

It was sad to hear the news that Robin Gibb had passed away at the weekend, succumbing to the cancer and related illnesses that had affected him recently. As part of the Bee Gees, his influence on music in the latter quarter of the 20th century cannot be underestimated or dismissed with several commentators and contemporaries saying they are second only to The Beatles.

Last night we sat and watched the excellent “One Night Only” on the Bio channel, a recording of a ’97 Vegas concert featuring most of their big hits. I was pleased to see that my 15-year old daughter was aware of some of their music and actually knew some of the tunes.

But that just made me think… if kids are taught art, English literature and similar at school then shouldn’t there also be space somewhere for learning to appreciate music and to at least give them a bit of an appetite for the legacy of music instead of the plastic pop and manufactured “celebrities” that they idolise.

Why not teach some of the main classical pieces? Introduce them to blues and jazz, take them through the history of Rock’n’Roll and pop music. Teach them to understand the cultural significances, the lyrical and music complexities and beauty, the lives that led to the great songs and symphonies.

Why not have lessons listening to Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Handel, Hendrix, Louis Armstrong, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Abba, Nirvana, the Specials, Dylan and more. Put the music into context within history and help them to learn history in that way, by associating music to events. Let the music tell the story.

And, you never know, it may just be that legends will live on and that a new generation of musicians will rise up and compose the next great songs to inspire a generation whilst having a greater understanding of world history and social changes.

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Pssst…. wanna buy a house?

*GULP*

The “For Sale” board has now gone up! We’re listed on the main housing websites! It’s happening folks! (and, yes, there *are* a lot of exclamation marks there!)

Yup, after much heaven-driven heart-shaping and a mad dash of DIY our house is on the market. It’s quite a milestone really, a bit like planting your flag in the ground, and it certainly gives a very stark and visual sign that the years of waiting are coming to their climax.

There’s a long road yet to travel – we need to find a house, we need a buyer, there’s schools to sort out, plans to be made, packing to be done, money to find… but this really does stand out as a milestone.

Prayer is very much appreciated at this time!