At home with the mice

For the last week we have been trying to deter some unwelcome guests of the rodent variety.

Fair play to Cardiff Council, their pest control service came out the day after we called them and were very helpful in a) helping us realise this wasn't an insurmountable problem, b) reassuring us that this was a very common problem for lots of people at the moment, and c) advising us on what to do.

So we now have a house full of tasty poison, which we think is working, The mouse poos, that they handily leave behind as evidence of where they've been, are getting smaller. Which presumably means the mice are getting smaller, which means we've killed off the big ones and now the small ones are venturing out.

As an animal lover I do feel a bit conflicted poisoning mice, but less so after we discovered one had pooed on our toaster (and possibly in our toaster). We have now binned said appliance and are waiting for the mice to be eradicated before replacing it.

We have also been using a lot of anti-bac cleaning wipes and having a big tidy / clean under and behind the furniture. It's quite hard work, but necessary. If only, because otherwise you sit there wondering what is behind / under the sofa you're sitting on.

And that's not a nice feeling at all.

St. David's Day

As a special themed life group tonight we looked at St David and all things Welsh before having a short discussion about patriotism and nationalism

St. David's last words, at the end of a long and fruitfullife of missionary endeavour among the pagan Welsh, were apparently 'Be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed. Do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about. I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us.'

'Do the little things in life' ('Gwnewch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd')  is probably a very good maxim for living. Little things can mean a huge amount. It always amazes me what people remember - little things you say or do that meant a lot.

The 'other' Premier League - Neath FC v Prestatyn Town

I like going to quirky football matches. My friend Matt lives in Neath. Neath FC play in the Welsh Premier League. We decided to go. It was pouring down in the morning and we almost ducked out. But then the sun came out and a gloriously sunny afternoon provided the perfect backdrop to a game of football that only occasionally rose above the mediocre, but was quite entertaining nonetheless.

Non-league, local football is about grass roots atmosphere. There is always a cute teenage girl selling programmes. There is always someone who brings in their own supply of food - the lad in front of us who ate an entire family-sized packet of hobnobs in this case. Tea is always served in styrofoam cups that allow the heat from the liquid to burn your hand off. People are friendly, stewards are funny, there are no police, there's banter between the fans. I love it.

Neath's star player is Lee Trundle, one-time Swansea City 'legend' and now knocking the ball about in a competition somewhat below his true level. His skills and touches set him apart from every other player on the pitch, most of whom looked like decidedly ordinary unathletic blokes. He was surrounded at the end - the only autograph the kids seemed to want.

The most unathletic player was the opposition goalie. Looking at him you could believe he'd have his win bonuses paid out in toblerones. He wasn't a bad stopper though, getting down smartly to two free kicks from Trundle that would have tested most keepers, and pulling off a very good save at his near post in the first half.

Neath won 1-0. They should have had more. But Prestatyn fought hard and kept going even when they finally went behind late in the second half.

The Muppets - a glowing review

There is always a danger that a reboot is going to mess up a franchise or ruin childhood memories. We had some trepidation going to see The Muppets. Thankfully, our fears were unwarranted.

My main comment about this film is that it is so nice to finally see a new film starring old characters that is not a knowing, smart-arsed, mockery of the original. This is a respectful homage to the original Muppet Show and films, and recaptures the ethos of those movies. I am so used to cynicism in movies these days, this unabashed celebration of something that was ground-breaking in its day was really refreshing.

The rest of the audience seemed to think so too. We were in a full screen with hardly any kids and there was a lot of laughter.

Yes, the plot was a bit weak. It felt like the ending was a bit abrupt. I’m not really sure the bad guy worked. But generally, there was much to love about this. In no particular order…

The references to being in a movie – just like the old movies always had.

Re-uniting the Muppet gang in the same order and from the same sort of obscure locations that they were gathered from in the first movie.

Fozzie’s dressing room in Reno.

The set-dressing – Kermit’s mug on the desk from Muppet Show days, a picture on the wall of Jim Henson.

Beauregard’s appearance.

Dave Grohl’s cameo – keep an eye out for him.

Choosing to use a montage to speed things up, followed by travelling “by map”.

Camilla and the Chickens’ musical number.

The 80s robot using his mo-dem to help in the search.

Mary’s song as the rain started to fall on the window, and the subsequent pull-away shot.

Jim Parsons (Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory) turning up unexpectedly mid-song.

The sell-out version of Rainbow Connection performed by Muppet wannabes.

A great sub-plot featuring Animal that meant he was more than just a one-joke character (for once).

Kermit’s song reminiscing about the old times.

Jack Black playing the least annoying film part he’s played in years.

Pepe the Prawn’s leather jacket in his cameo.

And Kermit’s first appearance, haloed in light and accompanied by an angelic choral arrangement.

Jongudmund's rating: 10/10 (for old time's sake)

My friend Elaine is going to have a field day with this one as she loves awful marketing linked to ladytime

I'm really not sure what the message is here. I think it might be a link to the Olympics.

Gower traffic jam confirms stereotype of Wales

I was on a youth weekend on the Gower this weekend. We had a great time, although I ache pretty much everywhere.

We also got a bit held up on the way home.

Late reviews of 2011 #1: Music

January has gone by in a blur.

But 2011 was a decent year for music and here are my three highlights.

1) The Suburban Legends - we saw them supporting Bowling for Soup and bought their album Getting Down to Business. Classy brassy ska-punk all the way from Orange County. Great up-tempo music to make chores less boring or the walk to work a tiny bit faster. Seriously, buy their album and be enriched.

2) Noah and the Whale: Last Night on Earth. I love this album. Several singalong songs, deceptively clever lyrics, muscially accomplished. It carries a sense of yearning for the brighter lights just over the hill and, in that sense, is genuinely inspirational.

3) Last but not least, Ceremonials by Florence and the Machine. I understand that Flo and co are divisive - you either love her (like me) or aren't particularly fussed (like Cathy) - but I think this is one of the albums that will be considered a classic in 20 or 30 years time. From the pealing church bells on the opening song to the haunting threat to leave this world and move up to a higher plane, I found the album deeply spiritually resonant. 'Heartlines' in particular has made me want to cry with the bold audacity of its chorus.

So there you go - three records of the year that already seems so long ago.

Provenance - update

Further to my post on the provenance of quotes and stories that are told as true, I emailed Itzhak Perlman's management agency, IMG.

I got an email back from a nice lady called Elizabeth Sobol. She said, and I quote:

Thanks for your note.
We have had many inquiries such as yours. As such, I have had the opportunity to ask Mr. Perlman about it and he has confirmed that the story is not a true one.
Best wishes,
Elizabeth

So, there you go. If you ever wondered whether that Izthak Perlman 'with what remains' story was true, there's the answer.

Do you remember a time when you believed the hype?

About 20 years ago I was in a church youth group. I was in it for most of my teens. We used to go to all kinds of events geared at young people. Some were low-key, some were huge. Some had all kinds of weird cultish things going on. One I went to had a performance by Cliff Richard (who was alright, to be fair).


One of the things we were constantly told by the people running these sort of shows was that God had ‘great plans’ for our generation. That there was a generation ‘rising up’ who were going to be ‘history makers’ and all that sort of stuff. Deeply spiritual, prophectic leaders were going to emerge and all kinds of God stuff was going to happen. Even, maybe, whisper it in case you scare it away, but ‘revival’ might break out!

I’d forgotten all about those promises until today whan I saw this tweet from Krish Kandiah, who works for the Evangelical Alliance and blogs interestingly about stuff.

There it is again – a generation on from my ‘rising generation’, it seems there is a new generation rising. Krish wants to disciple them, which you could cynically regard as code for ‘tell them how to conform to established patterns of orthodox Christian thought’.

But it made me think of my own generation and what happened to us. Okay, a good few members of my youth group have gone on to become committed members of churches, some even as elders or pastors or whatever. But the revival never came and now it seems we aren’t going to be the generation that brings it in. That mantle has been passed on.

Maybe it will keep getting passed on. Maybe ‘rising generation’ is a label that we use because we don’t want to admit that we grew up and stopped believing the hype. When we wandered into sticky theological treacle, when the marriages that people kept themselves pure for started to break down, when we stopped seeing through dark glasses and actually began to realise that churches were led by fallible, human people, and the book we trusted in was fallible and human too, then maybe we stopped being the generation that would shake the world.

When our friends died of cancer despite our prayers and God wouldn’t or couldn’t – or all we can be sure of is that God didn’t – step in and spare them that horrible death, then maybe something died in us.

Not hope, but hype.

We were never the rising generation – that expectation put on us was unfair and untrue. We were just one more in a line of generations who remain faithful despite failure.

Word of the week: obesogenic

I saw this in a blog post about public health that was talking about McDonalds and other companies posing as responsible corporations while still selling tons of their "obesogenic and dentally challenging" products.

I'm not sure who coined the word, but whoever it was deserves a 'Well done!'