Jude Smith

My new job will involve an hour of commuting each way. Got an email earlier in the week with just the best suggestion... I quote: "Personally, I would recommend the adoption of a commuting theme song to mitigate the horror. The thinking behind that is to have a silly, but rather glamorous theme song playing in your head, as you're walking over London Bridge etc, as it makes you imagine you were in one of those 80's films set in New York, rather than just in some hideous rat race-esque rugby scrum with some brokers from Penge." Any suggestions? Best one gets a beer (if I know you.. if you're in Singapore or Dallas, unlikely!)

... just like we said it would be.. Was just pontificating in the pub about what little fear inducing trick would be played to swing the good old US of A firmly into the arms of George W Bush. And then as if by magic I get home to find that Osama (family friend of Mr. Bush.. slightly tongue in cheek but hey), has doen a little welcome to a second term speech for George. How sweet. My question is, what is Al Jazeera doing by releasing it now.. Wednesday would have been fine... Moreover if we assume that its not the CIA feeding this through then we are left assuming that Bin Laden wants Bush in power... Anyway its late- I should stop theorising and get some sleep.. A final thought.. maybe watch for news from Libya. Wide ball hunch?!

Just watched some of the speech.. Not sure what I think now. Its very anti Bush, maybe pro Kerry, who knows. But the fact remains that many many Americans will vote Bush because they believe he is tronger in the war on terror. Will this attack consolidate that.. I think so... Or maybe Bin Laden is just reminding the US that they are not infallible. Who knows.. Now I really am going to bed.

I went shopping today with my family (dad, mum and niece). As is traditional in the family Smith, first stop was for a quick coffee before hitting the stores. Was just about to wander to a comfy seat with my latte when a suitably rotund witch acosted me and my niece to ask if we wanted to do the Halloween Ghost hunt. Now as you can imagine I don't really go for halloween, and was slightly offended that John Lewis (surely a bastion of demure Englishness) had bought into the loveless Americafest of Halloween. However my niece was intrigued by the lure of the lucky dip if she were to find the twelve ghosts hidden in twelve 'never knowingly undersold' departments. So after coffee the quest began.. the first one in childrenswear was easily found, but thats where the error was. We should have just stopped at that point. But no! It got into our little heads (well me mum and dad's) that we should now get all twelve. How hard could it be? So, we split up (tactics fol...

Think that just about sums up where I am at at the moment. Panic not- its in a good way. Without going into all the detail I'm about to embark on a mahusive adventure with God. I start a new job doing some cool prayer stuff in the City (why do people keep asking me which city?) in January. Its fantastic and God has totally shown himself in the whole process (which will be blogged in due course), but its just a bit scary. This thing has God so all over it that as far as I can work out I can ONLY get it wrong. I can only cock it up.. Its really revealing my humanity to me: I feel utterly inadequate. On the one hand I know that it puts in good company, Moses, Abraham, Sarah, Esther, David, Gideon, Peter, Paul, Mary (te he)... (and thats just the canonical ones) On the other hand, well it makes me want to run away. Today I've become aware that it puts me in a place of immense trust, yeah of God, but also of my new friends, co-workers, bosses, fellow pilgrims (so...

Very quick post. Feel quite aware that those of you who pray might want to pray into the situation regarding Yasser Arafat. The BBC is saying that he is very sick (Flu and gall stones), Aljazeera is saying he will be fine. I just think this could be a critical moment in the Middle East. The differing news coverage is also interesting.. wonder what Fox is saying?.. oooh sorry I said news coverage..

You may have noticed that my blog is looking un peu different, and has a few crazy things on it.. (don't think I ever read Topsy and Tim as a kid.. but I can learn). Thanks must go to my lovely friend Rach who has circumnavigated my technical rubbishness by doing it all for me.. You are great... Thanks also to a certain reputable theological establishment who shall go unnamed.