Published April 15, 2007 by

The evolution of tomato soup

tomatosoup.jpgTonight marks the first expression of distaste about having to cook for myself.

Due to both Isobelle (my housemate) and I being away for the weekend, our pantry has welcomed it’s usual hosts with open arms but really rather empty arms.

If I get home and I’ve had a long day, good or bad, I want decent food relatively quickly. Sometimes baked beans or scrambled eggs doesn’t cut it for ‘good’ and pasta is truly uninspiring unless it has something real in it – carrots for example. Carrots require cutting. Cutting is not fast.

So the bare pantry yielded the option of nachos which meant opening a whole packet of corn chips for just me, a can of mushroom soup (not nice on it’s own), a few other odds and ends and a packet of tomato soup.

I gave it some thought and remembered that sometimes I really quite like tomato soup and cheese on toast.

Tomato soup is not the most interesting of foods, least of all from a packet. Yet it does do a very curious thing in the microwave. If you mix it up with water and milk (As inspired by the directions on the back) it goes this watery disgusting liquid white with pinkish flecks. As you continue to heat it it gets a red skin on the surface, which when you mix disappears into more of the initial. Eventually the soup turns the colour it should. It doesn’t taste as good as from a can and that to start with has never been the most substantial or inspiring of foods.

I got the distinct impression of feeding my stomach with salty red water and cheese that had melted somewhat strangely.

Needless to say, where tomato soup sometimes distinctly hits the spot, sometimes it really doesn’t.

I’m trying getting over it by recalling the glorious lunchtime Eggs Benedict that I ate and eying off chocolate about an arms length away.

Cooking Life

Published April 12, 2007 by

What doesn’t make me happy

  • Designs that are almost there but not quite and really, really need to be because they are hugely annoying and are due shortly
  • Excessive Homework
  • Half written posts that will probably never get finished
  • Computers that are so stuffed that they interrupt half a day of work
  • Ebay buyers who like things tailored and so make things complicated
  • A messy room
  • Staying up late with no time to properly unwind before going to bed
  • Alarm clocks that go at 6:00am
  • Connex Trains (the token extra)

And with the ease of a pigeon falling off a clothesline, Rebecca slips back into comfortable pessimism.

Find her some enthusiasm, creativity, speed and sheer brilliance…

She’s already tried the coffee.

Life Uni

Published April 12, 2007 by

What makes me happy

Seeing God do good stuff in my youth girls (and the boys)! They are almost all up at Soul Survivor for the week. I joined them this evening and I’ll shall return on Friday night. I was somewhat thrilled when the first main session lined up pretty well exactly with what we’ve been looking at over the past few months around not letting the world dictate who you are and much about building character and the pettishness of how we treat and believe the externals. Please pray for them.

Christianity Church Ministry

Published April 10, 2007 by

Ruling it out and taking it in

Tonight spelt out my first evening as part of Vocare – which I believe I have mentioned quite a while back but really not explained.

To cut things short, a small group of us ‘young ones’ are paired with a small group of some ‘older ones’ and we meet every two months over a meal to discuss life and spirituality and “radical discipleship” and the stuff below.

In a nutshell the ‘rules’ if you think Monk style:

1. A commitment to Stewardship

A commitment to explore with others, what it means to bring your lifestyle and career choices under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

2. A commitment to Reflective Spirituality

A weekly commitment to pray for 20 minutes, reflecting on the Prayer of St Francis, the Gospel of Luke, and practicing silent contemplation.

3. A commitment to Active Spirituality

A commitment to participate in an act of public witness to ‘God’s kingdom and his justice’. (Matthew 6:33) every two months.

A commitment to one communal act of public witness to ‘God’s kingdom and his justice’, for the year.

4. A commitment to Gatherings

A commitment to gather together for a shared meal, conversation and learning, once every two months.

5. A commitment to Learning

A commitment to spend some time with a mentor to share learning, once every two months.

A big call? In some ways yes, in others the time commitment and the actuality of it all shouldn’t be hard – I was thinking about it and this should be stuff I am already doing. All the better if I have something to ‘make’ me and people to spur me on.

You will be able to follow the Luke passages we’re collectively going through as I’m fairly sure they’ll be posted on the Advoc8 blog, no doubt I will probably share my thoughts as I think best into words.

What was interesting was that we did talk about rules and the negativity surrounding the word. We established that a rule is much more about a being a corrective than something that boxes you in. It is what you can align yourself with -in this case some discipline into living – and I intend to use it for such.

My ‘mentor’ didn’t happen to be present so that’ll be a whole new thing when I get there.

Please, cheer me on, join with me in as much as you can, share your insights on the Luke passages via Advoc8/here and take a further look at the Prayer of St Francis as it is quite a powerful piece of work. Also if you have ever been involved in something of the sort and/or ‘The Common… (erm something that I’ve forgotten – prayer?)’ I’d love to hear of your experience.

I am quite excited.

While on the subject of rules, John Smulo has been taking a look at the ‘golden rule’ (Which my feed-reader only just picked up), it’s interesting.

Christianity Life Relationships

Published April 10, 2007 by

Twenty down to Four

postcards.gifHere’s where you help me. Please.

I have made 20 odd postcards – admittedly, some of them quite quickly. Now I need to narrow them down to four final cards.

These must work as a set and all must be in the same alignment – all horizontal/all vertical. Keeping in mind that my word is Chomp and my Image is Tongs, which would you choose? These are meant to be postcards you would give to your friends, apparently.

The only other constraint, the second postcard across on the top row MUST be included as it is the only colour version I have done this size. And it’s probably smart to have at least one that includes both image and word.

Pick three. Probably easiest to follow a format of: Row X, Column X. rather than describing them.

Click the thumbnail to get the larger image.

Design Uni