General Chat

Thank you kandj and others <3 <3

Last night I purchased a used Kindle from ebay.

This morning I reported the "loss" of my Kindle to Amazon.

Hoping you all have a pleasant day :-D

Hello all

Another interesting week of posts, thank you Cynthia.

David I hope you have a better day today.

"For with God, all things are possible."
(Matthew 19 v 26)

Good morning :-)

You are bound to feel a bit out of sorts for a while I think David - take care.


Get REAL !
by louis gander

Tattoo's ink smeared everywhere,
with piercings by the score -
and colour-copied rainbow hair,
how can we handle more?
To get a little self-respect
our clothes must have a label.
Our auto's must be perfect,
or we're appeared unstable.

Eye lashes must be fastened on.
Scent squirts out from sprayers -
liner must be perfect drawn
with powder caked in layers.
Our jewellery we can wear with pride
and aging spots can cover -
the wrinkles we can try to hide
so no one will discover.

Through remedies we dig and dig.
We make a real fuss.
But apply the lipstick to a pig -
it's surface, surface, surface!
We try to conquer blunder,
we think we've conquered dull,
but what I have to wonder
is, what's inside our skull?

Man can't look beyond the skin,
Man looks at the face.
Man sees only fat or thin.
Man sees only 'race'.
God sees through all shallowness.
God sees through the skin.
God sees down inside our heart,
God sees deep within.

Some day man might teach our youth.
Some day man might feel.
Some day man might learn the truth
and hopefully get REAL!


Cx :-)

Thank you Cymthia <3
Since my return from Hospital I confess to being shook op, sometimes in pain. and vulnerable. For the first timr I confess to being at times sad.
IIn my absence my Kindle has went AWOL, presumed stolen :(`
Also a small collection of Belfast paper backs have disappeared.
I feel reluctant to name the culprit as I cannot prove it :-S

Good morning :-)


Well, I am only a youngster at heart Sylvia!! :-D


Kitchen War
by louis gander

Discussions were beginning in the kitchen fraught with hate -
and anger soon was spreading with the "who was best" debate.
"I'm protein for the people," said the big roast to the greens.
"I am so much, much better than potatoes, corn and beans."

"Without my oven you are absolutely nothing around here,"
said the stove so loudly so that all the rest could hear.
Close by was some oregano, paprika and some clove.
"Oh, do not boast for you are but an old and rusted stove.

Said the sea salt to the spices, "Here's some good advice.
If you can't add some flavour, you're no better than the rice."
Said the white rice to the sea salt, "Let me say a thing or two.
The spices have a million times more flavour than you do.

The fridge could not stay silent and the toaster now was hot.
Disposal? It was spinning while the blender had forgot.
And that is how it started as the food began to fly.
Please tell me why there's no respect. Please tell me, tell me why.

From floor to wall to ceiling, there was food stuck everywhere.
And you could even see the peas come bouncing down the stair.

The bragging had continued and the sink began to boast!
Then gravy splashed the window...and the fork had stabbed the roast!
The big 'ol roast let out a scream. "I'm dying!" was his yell.
It rolled right off the table and on the floor it fell.

The hush was so immediate and no one said a word.
No sound was heard except from one small window perching bird.
Hysterically, it laughed and laughed. I thought it'd blow its cork.
And then we all had seen it too - that cheap weak plastic fork.

The laughter had crescendoed and it filled that messy room.
But then who had to clean it up? The dustpan and the broom.
Not one had learned a lesson and not one humility.
They still each think they are the best. That's how they'll always be -

UNLESS they all repent and learn of God's most precious Son.
ONLY THEN can we have peace for each and everyone.
Until then we will be at odds. Until then we will fight.
Until then we will be at war - and world, a messy sight.


Cx :-)

Hello all

"Call to me and I will answer you; I will tell you wonderful and marvelous things that you know nothing about."
Jeremiah 33 v 3.

Seems appropriate to share this verse from scripture following on from Cynthia's post today.

well, you are only a youngster, Cyn ;-)

Or you just didn't live in the backward places like a mill town, with a grandmother who just refused to have it removed, which is the only reason I know about them :-D

Good morning :-)

Thank you Elizabeth - lovely to hear from you <3

Take care during these hot days David - I think I can only remember electricity :-D


Number Please
by Deborah Anne Wilson

One day I had to make a call
To a business pal of mine
But though I called back all I got
Was a busy line

Next I called my doctor
And I heard someone say
"Oh, I am so sorry.
The doctor isn't in today

I called my Mom long-distance
Put all my quarters in the phone
A voice on a machine said
"Sorry, we're not home."

A lively game of telephone tag
It went on like that all day
It seemed that no-one cared to hear
A word I had to say

So I called my local company
A voice told me what to do
"If you have never bought from us
Please push button two

Please push button number three
If you have bought from us before
To speak to a real live person
Push button number four"

So I tried, but no-one answered
There was nothing to be done
Except to leave a message
So I pushed button number one

Thank God I have a Saviour
Who is always there for me
I can always call to Him
And the call's toll-free

I can always reach Him
When I call to Him in prayer
There are no recorded messages
For He is always there

Would you like to call Him?
He'll answer one and all
Just open up your heart to Him
He's waiting for your call


Cx :-)

My late Father was an Irishman from Belfast. He left Belfast in 1940 when his Father (a Docker) died in Purdeysburn Hospital March 1940. Belfast was being blitzed. Father came to England and worked forked for Wimpey for the rest of his life (England was being blitzed.)
In 1945 in Newcastle he met and married my Mother in 1945.
Dad was working night shift on an open cast coal site at Bedlington. He was half way up the jib of a drag line, greasing it. Someone down below started the machine, the chain ran over Dad's left hand amputating two fingers. He could have lost his arm, or his life.

I was born and raised in a large house in Portland Road Newcastle.
It had a combination of gas and electric lighting in different rooms.
I was too young to wonder how or why.Those rooms with gas lighting could be turned up or down with a lever on the ceiling. Parents only rented a small part of this house which included my GF and Aunt May and family.

David, as an interesting little fact .................

my grandmother still had a gas wall sconce light in her bedroom in the 1950s.

She loved the ambience of the gas light so much that she refused to have it removed when the house was wired for electricity. It was lit every night while she undressed and got into bed.

She died in 1954, and I think grandfather left the sconce there but never used it.

They lived across the street from us until we moved to a larger house in 1951, and I spent a lot of time with her.

She also cooked using one of the big old black leaded fireplaces with an oven by the side heated by coals shoved underneath it when needed and a swing out plate where you could put a kettle to boil. She also had one little gas ring in a wonderful extension grandfather had built as a kitchenette-sort of place

My grandfather was a builder and would have done anything she wanted .......... this was what she wanted!

Wrong place to mention it perhaps, but since the passing og my parents I have traced my ancestry on both sides of my tree to 4 x GF & M back before they had electricity.

Since my discharge from Hospital I have a carer comes in the morning to give me a wash ans shave and take car of any other needs. This morning I managed to give myself a a good wash and shave before he got here, then I returned to bed, my legs giving me gyp, especially the left. The limbs I have taken for granted since 1945 are now a source of pain. But the problems they now cause me is my fault.

Hello all

I also liked reading the poem ElizabethK.

Happy Wednesday blessings to everyone. Enjoy the sunshine but remember to use the sun cream too.

I like that Cynthia :-D

Good morning :-)


I Chose The Bed Instead
by Cheremiah

Get up, get up, the Spirit said
Don’t just lie in bed
Let God prepare you for the day
For whatever lies ahead
But the covers felt so nice and warm
All nestled round my head
And instead of choosing to come to God
I chose the bed instead

It didn’t take me long to see
I had made a foolish choice
When I did arise the first thing I heard
Was Mr. Regretful’s voice
I overheard Mr. Doubtful
He was speaking to Mr. Gloom
They plan to visit you today
The time will be at noon

They are bringing their friend Ungrateful
Mister Forgetful too
Who will do his best to make you forget
How good God is to you
I knew I was in trouble
How could I face the day
Right then and there I took the time
To get on my knees and pray.


"My child" a voice gently whispered
"Let all the worry cease
Mr. Hopeful, Mr. Thankful, and Mr. Joy
At noon will bring my peace".


Cx :-)

Good morning :-)

The distancing rule is being relaxed here it seems Sylvia - we are down to 1 metre soon. It seems as though that church is way ahead of us!! I went to a funeral in a local cemetery yesterday. Quite a good number of people scattered around and obviously trying to maintain distance but you could tell it was a struggle for them - they just wanted to be with their friends. On the whole though, they were being careful.

A Prayer of Thanks

Father, despite all the problems which surround us,
we thank you for summer days.
For green grass
and beautiful flowers
leafy trees and
running streams.

For birdsong and children laughing as they play.
For sunshine
and clear skies
the smell after a summer rain
and beauty
everywhere
we turn. Amen.


Cx :-)

I've enjoyed reading the Gladys Aylward story. Thank you, Cynthia.


Update on the Baptist Church from yesterday.

No sign of the Canadian Baptist members, but the Filipeno church members were there from 9:00 am, people arriving with what looked like food between then and the start of their service about 10 or 10:30 am.

Found out why the food when I next went into the kitchen .......... several of the cars had left, but some were left, and people were preparing for a Father's Day Lunch to be held in the basement, including one poor father standing just outside the basement door with a small (very small) BBQ, with a woman (probably his wife!) continually checking that he was doing it right.

Spatial distancing round that BBQ seemed to have gone by the board, because the next time I looked out, he was being "helped" by 3 men!

Good morning :-)

Thank you for those words Vera and I hope you are keeping well.

Good to see you back David and do take care of yourself.

Epilogue - Gladys Aylward


Her friends insisted she take her first furlough after 17 years, to see her family and recover her strength. Through a popular biography (The Small Woman by Alan Burgess); a Hollywood movie of her life, (The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman), which received numerous awards; and a BBC interview on “This is Your life,” she became an international figure. She was invited to many places to tell her story and dined with such dignitaries as the Archbishop of Canterbury and even Her Majesty the Queen.

But after ten years in England, China beckoned again. Gladys settled in Taiwan, and once again began working with orphans. She opened the Gladys Aylward Orphanage, and within days it was filled with children. She used her fame and prestige to raise money for them. When the burden became too great as her strength began to fail with increasing age, the Lord sent Kathleen Langton-Smith from England to help her with administration.

On New Year’s morning, 1970, just one month shy of her sixty-eighth birthday, after speaking to soldiers' wives at the American army base, Gladys went to bed without supper, and later that night slipped into the presence of the Lord she had served so faithfully. Her body now lies in a marble tomb on a hill in the garden of Christ’s College at Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.

In an interview during her later years, she had expressed her surprise at God’s call to serve Him in China with all her educational limitations. She confided:
“I wasn’t God’s first choice for what I’ve done for China. There was somebody else…I don’t know who it was—God’s first choice. It must have been a man—a wonderful man. A well-educated man. I don’t know what happened. Perhaps he died. Perhaps he wasn’t willing…And God looked down…and saw Gladys Aylward.”

We thank God for the example set by this extraordinary woman.

Cx :-)

Wishing you all well <3 <3