I’ve been the proud owner of a MacBook Pro for around 2 months but there has been a little niggle with it which I got around to sorting out today with Apple in Bluewater.

I booked myself a Genius Bar consultation online for 2.00pm and was promptly seen at 2.00pm. The young woman looked at my Mac and saw the problem immediately and said ‘it should not do that I think we need to replace your machine rather than repair it’

So … here I am new machine, no hassle, no unnecessary waits and they transferred all my data for me while I went off and had a coffee.

Ok some may say there should not have been a problem – but when I have had problems with HP, Dell, PC World or whatever it has never been this easy to sort.

Thanks Apple – I’m enjoying being an Apple customer … I may just look at the iphone in a few days …!

ok – a bit of self interest and blatant sell here …

I have a voucher for anyone that wants to join Virgin Media and get £50 credit on their bill – I also get £50 credit for introducing a new customer …

so anyone out there (in UK) interested?

you only have until July 31st!

So today is Friday 13th – lot of things will happen today that people will put down to superstition and yet if they happened yesterday or tomorrow people would not even bat an eyelid.

What amazes me, actually, is the number of Christian that subscribe to this stuff.

It’s just another day people – it’s the weekend nearly … have fun and enjoy!

Did you know the fear of Friday 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia – I can tell you are impressed!

Not only does this T-shirt look pretty good but all profits go to the Burma Campaign.

Two great reasons to go here and but it!

As a ‘good Anglican’ I try to follow Common Worship Daily Prayer in the morning. I say ‘try’ not out of weakness but out of a desire not to be tied to unnecessary guilt trips which Jesus actually freed us from.

I struggle with a particular prayer called ‘the collect’ which is a special prayer for the day. I guess I don’t fully understand the point but today’s hit me in a clearer way than normal:

Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Love over arches all we do as Christians. There seems to be a lot around ‘church’ at the moment of ‘love’ being sidelined and ‘possessing truth’ being the over arching attribute. I do not mean only the Anglican Communion here with the current sexuality discussion, but also the Roman Catholic church of which some priests will tell me that the catholic way is the only way, some free church who call the Roman Catholics a sect (which as the majority Christian denomination is difficult to see!).

Everyone wants to be right. More than that – actually it seems that some do not only wish to be right, but want to take delight in attempting to prove that others are wrong. Of course, while these discussions continue, those that need to be introduced to the loving, missional, trinitarian God miss out on the opportunity to do so, or steer clear because they see that those who already have a relationship with Christ can’t get on.

One of the reasons the church grew rapidly in Acts is that people liked what they saw and so the number grew daily. What they saw was radical acts of love and community. Even before that if we look at the disciples we see their people who would have initially hated each other able to exist in community (tax collector and zealot)

Lets stop trying to prove ourselves right, others wrong and get back to following Jesus …. let’s get back to love!

This is a unique and first blog for me – written on my shiny new Mac Book Pro which I bought today in the Apple Shop at Bluewater.
A beautiful machine – and a big thank you to the very generous person who helped me get this!
So … my first post from my Mac … nothing to say other than brag on my blog!

In preparation for leaving YFC and losing my ‘identity’ (well mobile, computer, email address, life, freinds ….)I subscribed a while ago to gmail to see what it was like.
I have been using my gmail account for a few things and its got a few amazing features such as stacking ‘tab style’ replies so its easy to remember what others have said. It also seems to have a great spam filter as I have not received any – always good.

Anyway – this is not a free advert, but I’ve just noticed I have 50 free invites to give to people to try gmail. So … if you are thinking of changing your email address, or wanting another – drop me a comment with your email addy and I’ll send you an invite.

The Passion, which wil be screened on BBC1from Palm Sunday looks to be another good quality broadcast which could give opportunity for a lot of discussion and chat about Jesus.

For ides for how this could be used look on the Churches’ Media Council website.

I’ve had a googlemail (@gmail)account for a little while which seems to be ok.
I don’t know what others’ experiences of gmail are … but so far so good!
Anyway … I have some free invitations to hand out to join – if you are interested then get in touch.

I’m quite the Mr. Annoyed from Kent today!
The family (Sarah’s car) is a 3 year old Kia Sedona which we were able to buy from new.
The car, in 3 years has done around 20 000 miles which is very little.
Last week the Sedona stopped starting and the started motor needs replacing, and we are only 5 weeks out of the 3 year warranty.
Kia said they MIGHT be able to help – but today they have decided not to!
Apparantly, we got the car serviced a little too late on each occassion: the 10 000mile / 12 months service and the was missed by a few weeks – but the mileage was not exceeded at all. We had the car serviced within its 10 000 mile boundaries on each occasion!
But … this is immaterial – the starter motor should last well beyond 20 000 miles.
I suggested we pay labour and they pay for the part – but the big rich company does not want to help its customer.
Kia want us to pay £300 for an item that was obviously not up to scratch when we bought our brand new car.
That does not seem fair does it!
Kia’s strap line is ‘the power to surprise’ – their greed and lack of customer interest has certainly been a surprise today!
So … if I was you – I wouldn’t buy from Kia!