"...give us a sign"

I encountered a most bizarre situation the other day that has left me troubled at the state of this country's sanity.

It all began whilst I was walking along Oxford Street in London. I made my way out of Oxford Circus tube station and turned left towards Marble Arch. As I walked along I noticed a sign on the near side of the road informing buses and other traffic of the left-lane's closure and that there was a diversion system in place. As I walked further up the road I approached the reason why that one lane of traffic had been stopped; a rather large crane doing engineering work on one of the shop buildings being totally refitted.

I walked past the crane and the workmen and continued along a half closed Oxford Street, towards Marble Arch; the far side bustling with traffic, the near side quiet due to the closure of the lane because of the crane.

As I walked, something struck me as weird.

There were no taxis going past. Because the near side lane of traffic was closed.
There were no buses going past. Because the near side lane of traffic was closed.

Yet there were people at the bus stops all along the street.

I looked around, for a split-second doubting my memory of the road's closure but a glance down the road towards the crane and the signs in the road proved my own sanity. I looked at the bus stop and noticed huge yellow signs that read "Bus-Stop not in use". Walking into the empty lane I glanced one more time at the blockage in the road to make perfectly sure that the road was in fact closed before approaching one of the hopeful bus-stop inhabitants and saying

"You do know there are no buses coming down this side of the street right?"

Confusion descended on all those who heard my shocking revelation! A general sense of "pardon?" eminated from the would-be passengers. I explained about the signs and the crane and the lack of traffic and the whole re-routing of public transport thing and gestured in the general direction of bus stops that were actually in use.
Eventually they dispersed and I continued my stroll along the road.

I approached another bus stop... once again crowded with people... waiting. One of the wait-ers was a finely dressed gentleman with whom I shared my knowledge of the road closure and the lack of buses to which he replied "well, what are all these other people waiting for then?"

"Exactly the same thing you are Sir. Nothing." came my ever-so-slightly sarcastic reply.

As I moved on from delivering my good news to those people three thoughts entered my mind. The first was that some people actually remained at the bus stop; just sitting, waiting... for a bus service that didn't exist.
The second was that I had been walking for about twenty mintues by this point, and the road had clearly been closed for some considerable time before my arrival, and so no traffic at all had been past any of those bus stops for at least half an hour. Surely someone would've guessed that 'perhaps the usual bus service was not operational at that point in time'.
Thirdly, the London Bus Company had left huge great yellow signs informing the public that the bus stops were not in use and the whacking great crane in the middle of the road hindering any buses using the street would only have underlined that message.

"A person can be smart, but People are stupid."

Written instructions and messages and signs and obvious, huge, powerful works didn't help people waste their lives that Saturday. It took a person to step out and tell them of their mistake and inform them of the truth (and even then some people didn't believe the truth when they heard it).

If the public don't 'get it' about waiting for a bus, how on earth do we expect them to know any better about anything with more significance?!

A Most Musical Weekend

WOW!

I haven't had such an intense weekend for a while.

It began in SwitzerFrance (also known as the greater Geneva area which crosses the Swiss/French border) on Thursday night when I flew in under cover of night for a suprise visit. I was to perform and sing swing songs as light entertainment at the Crossroads Church 'Guys/Girls Weekend Dinner'.

The plan was to meet up with the guys on Friday night, in the woods, in the dark, running around like lunatics and eating insane amounts of toasted marshmallows before the main event of the Saturday night dinner. The majority of the girls, or so I'm told, had no idea I was there and in order to maintain the element of surprise I was hidden upstairs in the church for over an hour.

The time came for my 'grand entrance'. Thankfully, to my great relief, the reception was fantastic (granted, I milked it for all it was worth!) but my imagination, whilst sat in the upstairs room alone for most of the hour beforehand, was playing images of "and here's our special guest, Jimmy Orr..." cue tumbleweed and mass dissappointment.

The night went really well, and all the performers did a great job. The girls seemed to enjoy the evening and so mission accomplished for the guys.

The following morning was a baptism service at Crossroads, which I had the pleasure of leading worship for. Reunited with my old band of brothers (and sister!) and in the presence of good friends we raised the roof of the church that morning. A good time in the house of God!

This was follwed by several episodes of CSI (good times D and Sarah!) and my education in the phenomenon that is... High School Musical. I admit I hadn't seen it til that moment, and I now confess, I maybe ever so slightly hooked. It's cheesy, it's catchy, it's good (mostly) wholesome Disney fun: What's not to like?!

Then came the part I really had thought through... buckle ya seat belt!

Monday Morning

3am woke up

4am at airport

6am was meant to fly home

7am actually flew home after they fixed the door on the aircraft?!

8:30am actually arrived at gatwick

9:40am arrived at college

10 - 5:15pm Lectures [including a Greek test]

5:15 - 7pm break to rehearse songs...

7:30 went to recording studio

Tuesday Morning...

2am left studio

3:30am eventually made in back to bed

7am had to get up for more lectures!!!

memo to self: that was fun, but NEVER do that bit again!

Puppy-Love?

I've come to the conclusion that grown up life is over-rated. It is unecessarily complicated, far to stressful and needs to be rethought entirely. Particualrly in the whole area of relationships.

I propose, so to speak, that we should resort back to the simple relationship antics of the school playground. No pre-nups, no mind games, no playing hard to get, no 'will they/won't they' dilemmas. Just blissful (but brief) togetherness.

It all begins with the boys are running around playing football, convinced in their own mind that they are not, in fact, at school on the playground but at Wembley Stadium in the most important of cup final matches. The girls stand away in the distance discussing which boy each girl likes best*.

Two girls (always two. never a solo mission), one spokeswoman and one backup, usually a quiet coy looking one, are then sent from the group to the middle of the game (something that under no circumstances would normally be allowed but due to the unwritten laws of the playground is permitted) to speak with the boy of choice.

His best friend, wingman, teammate, brother from another mother, notices the girls' approach and takes up his position as spokesman for his mate. Both parties meet face to face, the boys with their shirts untucked and panting like two unfit bulldogs; the girls mercilessly twiddling their hair and swaying;

"My friend fancies your friend"

"well, my friend likes your friend too"

"will your friend go out with my friend?"

The wingman turns to double-check with his mate, a galant but casual wipe of his nose on his sleeve and a shrug of his shoulders somehow communicates a positive response.
"Yeah alright".

The giggles ensue and the girls depart from the boys. the boys return to the thick of the battle before the bell rings for end of play.

For the next few hours, the 'happy couple' are inseperable (well, they sit next to each other) and news of their togetherness is announced to the world, traditionally by some kind of rhyme about tree's and k-i-s-s-i-n-g. They hold hands for the next lesson and then it's home time. They live across town from each other so there's no seeing the other until school the following day.
By which time, they get bored. By morning break the couple have split in the most heartwrenching of moments.

By lunchtime, they're best friends in the whole wide world.

On the third day, it begins all over again... Simple eh?

*for the female perspective check Gemma's Blog!