Neil's Slightly Random Wiblog

…I am celebrating my favourite annual celebration of all things evil by dressing up as a slightly scruffy bookshop assistant, and frightening customers with my lack of knowledge.

… Someone ripped off a wing mirror on my car last night. So annoyed, perhaps I am glad I have to move away from this road.

Have taken the room in St. Thomas. It is not perfect, but the people seem nice, they have a cat, it is cheap, the area is lovely, and the view from the room is stunning.

Mum cooked a lovely roast for us all, and my Dad has finally bought himself a digital radio.

I dreamt that my friend DT had died, then I was compared to Ira Glass in the comments of this blog.

…just been to see A good Year, it is really wonderful, a very enjoyable film, without being too twee. Got ever Crowes not very perfect accent quite soon, and then was really drawn in. Much better the the TV version of A year in Provecne which although great, dwelled on boring bits far too much. I would say that almost anyone would find somthing to like in this film.
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Seeing a room in St Thomas tomorrow, funny to think that within 2 months I will be living elsewhere.

…I am being forcedto move house, the landlord wants the house back to live in (he will have to worry about the inch wide cracks in the wall now, not us!).

We have some options, we could stay together as a house, or we could go our seperate ways. At the moment it could go either way, we saw a house nearby yesterday that we could all live in, and I am seeing a shared house in St Thomas that has one room spare.

So if you know of anyone looking to rent/share in the Exeter area please let me know!

… 3 good things from the last few days,

Firstly went to see Boy Kill Boy at Bristol on Sunday night. Well worth the drive, this band is excellent! Much better than other bands of their type (Hard-fi etc) and the band is great with the audience, and come accross as nice, which is all important for me at a gig! You will also be pleased to know that no boys were killed during this gig.

Secondly a long awaited CD finally arrived from Amazon today, Music for Biscuits, old advertising jingles from the Mike Sammes singers. jazzy, vocal harmony adverts for brands such as TUC and International Harvester tractors. Hilarious and charming, my life is that little more complete now that I own this album!

Lastly, finally got to see the film Crash, as the Picturehouse were showing it for £1. I loved it, I can see why it won all the awards now. It looked good, I liked the story, and the music was great. Ivonne detested it, with passion – I think we must have been watching different films…

…After the news about the SPCK bookshops a few days ago there has been a bit of debate about what this means for the future of the chain. Dave has commented Here and Here, a commenter who wants to be a priest (or something…) has written a few thoughts Here, and there are worried voices appearing all over the net hourly, such as Here.

So do I still feel positive about the “takeover”? I am not sure, when I first looked at the St Stephen foundation website I noticed things like They are persuaded to join “Feel-Good” churches where they are told they will be saved by making a donation and saying a few simple words. Unfortunately, many of these are “feel good” churches are established just to make the management rich, which I agree is the case, but failed to give proper attention to One hundred and fifty thousand souls convert or revert back to the Roman Catholic faith each year in the USA. In their misguided belief, they assume that this is the true Church of Christ. and then going on to say the orthodox church is in fact the only true church.

Now I may be in the awkward situation of having no churchmanship (and so believing there is no such thing as the true church of Christ), but I have always seen SPCK to stand for unity in the wider and extended church, even often embracing groups that may may be termed by some as heretics and certainly but others as liberals. I have also always backed SPCK for its support in promoting things like Peacemakers, an initiative to foster understanding between Christians and Muslims, and one their long term aims has been To encourage Christians from different traditions and cultures to learn from one another. Sadly I can see no evidence from the St Stephens site thats they share these aims, although much of the site seems to have changed from when I looked on Saturday morning!

I still hope it is going to be good for the chain, and if need be I will contact the charity myself to talk through any worries I have, and will be talking to my manager tomorrow about the situation as it stands.

…One of my housemates brought home the most huge pumpkin today, later he will be carving it, and then we can ward off evil spirits and perhaps junk mail with it.

…One of my housemates brought home the most huge pumpkin today, later he will be carving it, and then we can ward off evil spirits and perhaps junk mail with it.

…All SPCK Bookshop staff were sent a letter and a press release this morning, regarding the future of the SPCK Bookshop chain.

It was announced yesterday that the entire SPCK bookshops chain will transfer to the Christian Othodox charity St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust as of the 1st November this year.

Full press release here

It is obviously good news that this has happened, as SPCK were unable to support the bookshops themselves, and more closures were certainly in the pipeline. SSG have assured staff that it is their full intention to keep all the shops open using the name SPCK, and they have the vision of making a diversity of Christian materials available which is shared by SPCK.

It is quite a relief that one of my jobs is secure for the time being, and as I was hoping to do more hours there over time perhaps I should become an Orthodox Christian to help my chances of promotion…

…The Walkabout, souless towny pub, over priced, awful beers, blaring screens on all the time showing sports and the contant risk of being glassed, often from above.

The Odeon Cinema. It will come as no shock to most people that I hate this place, it smells smokey (despite the fact smoking has been banned there for years), it is overpriced (both for showings and refreshments, but above all the staff are the rudist I have ever met. Typically the staff are young, surley and huddle together and ignore any question. They are reluctant to help and seem a little annoyed that you have encroached on their peace.

Tesco Metro. It was bad before the refurbishment, now it is unbearable. The general shopping area is bearable, but its when you get funnelled into a tiny checkout area it all goes wrong. No one knows where to go, the self service checkouts are all manned (whats the point in them?) and you have to add 5 minutes to their expected waiting time.