Tunnel Vision

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Kath

24 or so years ago as a school girl I went to see some of the work my Dad was doing. I was taken to a public consultation about a new road scheme, a scheme to divert the A3 road around a troublesome bottleneck junction at Hindhead, on the road down to Portsmouth from London. At various times over the following 23 years we, as a family, would be come familiar with the routes of possible roads, which valleys around the local area would be destroyed, which people were up in arms about which part of the possible solutions. We had to be told to be quiet on walks around Hindhead as we loudly asked, “is this where the road is going?”.

At some point the idea of a tunnel was hit upon and planning started. Dad’s stress levels seemed to rise and fall with each new transport minister who came along and funding was promised, taken away, promised again, taken away and one dark day in the Arnold house it looked like all was lost. 18 years of work might be washed away in the need to save money.* Thankfully for my Dad’s sanity the scheme was finally approved and work began on a tunnel that strangely seemed to please most of the local people. the people using the A3 and the dormice. Strange how these things work out.

On Saturday we got to walk through the tunnel along with 6,000 other curious people. I’m not one to usually take notice of such things but when your Dad has poured hours of what felt like blood, sweat and tears into getting it finished it feels like a pretty big achievement. Well, it is. Although it pains me to link to an article from the Daily Mail, here’s a very sweet write up of the tunnel and Mr Paul Arnold. I think it’s a pretty good legacy to leave as he heads off to retirement next year and the new challenges that will bring. I’m excited that there is more to his life than this tunnel but I’m also very proud of his work on it right now.

*please note, most of this is made up from my sketchy memory, if you want the accurate up and down story, maybe find the official website or something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Husbandface and Dad stare intently at the tunnels. As I took this picture Husbandface turned to me and said, “you’re going to blog that picture aren’t you, with the caption- ‘Husbandface and Dad stare intently at the tunnels'”. Yes Husbandface, I am.

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Beautiful.

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Kath

I know, it’s been a while, I’ve been spending a couple of weeks figuring out if it really is possible to cough up a lung, after many sleepless nights and a marriage on the edge* I’ve discovered it’s not. I’m not sure it was worth the trouble for the sake of science but there you go. Somethings have to be done.

In the meantime some good things happened through the coughing. Helplessness Blues by the Fleet Foxes is a more than worthy follow up to the first album and you should buy it now. Here’s a pretty taste with some big questioning lyrics to make the thinker in me very happy indeed.

“I was raised up believing I was somehow unique
Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes
Unique in each way you can see

And now after some thinking, I’d say I’d rather be
A functioning cog in some great machinery
Serving something beyond me”

*UPDATE: I’d like to confirm that my marriage isn’t on the edge. Hyberbole and sarcasm got the better of me. If my marriage was on the edge I don’t think I’d be writing about it here… but as the excellent husbandface pointed out, it’s not always good to joke about such things…

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In which I talk about… The Royal Wedding. Sorry.

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Kath

I’m trying not to blog about this (fail) I’m trying not to show that I’m vaguely interested in this (fail) I’m trying to convince myself I can enjoy it in a post modern ironic way (think I’m failing on that score as well).  I’m not sure why, but I’m a little bit interested in the Royal Wedding. Maybe because they are my (just about) generation, maybe because it feels like we’ve grown up with William and Harry, maybe it’s some gene of my Nana’s infecting my body with love of the Royal Family, maybe I’m just nosey and am as obsessed with the weird celebrity culture as the next person. For what ever reason, I’m interested in the Wedding on Friday. Urgh. There, my confession is out, I hang my head in shame. I shall now try a neat little bit of twisting this into something profound to slightly justify myself.

I like William, but there is no basis for this, I’ve only seen the carefully crafted media image of William. I like that he seems himself and seems to want to show that he’s trying hard at this weird thing that he’s been born into. I want to believe that he really is as caring as he seems. I’d like to believe that he’s different from the rest of the family, I want to believe his marriage will last as the Queen’s has done. I want to believe in something good and lasting. Yes, I know, sickening at best isn’t it? I realise what I’m doing, I want a hero in this world. I want to see someone live a marriage that lasts, I want another Johnny and June, I want another Martin Sheen and his love for his wife over 50 years. I want some big fat dignity in the public eye and not more affairs suppressed by super injunctions. I want someone who doesn’t mess up in spectacular ways. I want a hero. I know William can’t be this, I know that he is a flawed human, I know that we know little about what ‘really’ goes on in his life. I know that we can only guess at best, but I want at least some public figure I can respect.

The problem is, the kind of hero I crave only develops as they walk through this life in all it’s mess and pain.  I want a hero right now, shiny and out of the packet, but I suspect that the heroes I love are that way because of how they’ve dealt with life, with how they’ve been broken and torn apart but have managed to keep on living and loving. I want redemption stories. I want people who’ve been touched by the Redeemer living well. Cash and Sheen have managed to live through the darkness of this world and come out of the other side, they’ve faced their demons and we respect their faith because their voices are authentic. A life lived well can only be measured at the end. Who knows what those footballers, who are at the moment being unfaithful, will turn out like, they aren’t beyond the Redeemer. Who knows whether William and Kate will last, they will still need the ultimate hero at work in their lives. Grace is a great leveller of humans and I think we need more stories of it in the public arena.

Did that work? How about, Um. Jesus is the ultimate Hero we’re all searching for? Does that work? Convinced yet or should I just get on with being nosey tomorrow instead of trying to self justify my interest? Is anyone else out there feeling like this?

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Things marriage has taught me pt 36

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Kath

Marriage throws up a number of amusing problems to overcome in ones new life together.  A massive one is adjusting to each others family traditions/quirks/strangeness (there was a whole section on it in our marriage prep course- clearly serious stuff)

You know the things I’m talking about- those things that you think are universal and then find out later in life actually are unique to your family. I discovered some of these things before marriage of course.  It was with great surprise that I discovered that not every family had the no reading at the dinner table rule, clearly not all families spent all their time with noses in books and needed encouragement towards social interaction at dinner time. It also took my brother and I a long time after getting our own cars to realise we could buy petrol that wasn’t from a Shell garage, after my Dad’s slight obsession with Shell providing the best, cleanest petrol.  You get the picture…

This Easter was another opportunity for Husbandface and I to unearth one of these quirks. I come from a family that is extremely territorial over Easter Eggs (looking back I’m sure that this is because either my Mum or I would have chomped our way through the family supply of chocolate on Easter Day if we hadn’t been). We each had our own stash of Eggs and we kept to it. Mum’s would go on Easter Day, mine would be next and my brother and Dad would hold on well into the week after Easter.

My parents came to Easter lunch with us this year, Mum bought us two identical rabbits. I immediately assigned them in my head, one for me, one for Husbandface. Later that night he brought out one rabbit from the kitchen for us to share (share?). I wondered if this was his rabbit he was sharing with me (leaving mine intact for later consumption mmmm)… I wondered if it was mine, was I expected to share mine? (but it’s my chocolate…) Should I get the other rabbit out and we could pick from our own individual rabbits? Husbandface came to the rescue and laughed at my dilemma, he then kindly pointed out that maybe, just maybe we could share both rabbits. Crazy man.

(I’m finding it hard right now not to monitor the consumption of the remaining rabbit just in case he gets more than me…I think I need help…)

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Day 46 and a thankful roundup

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Kath

Thankful for…. a palpable sense of the presence of the risen Jesus in our lives this weekend. Glad that he holds out his hand to walk us through this life and into the next. Thankful for vulnerability, the love our community has for each other, grace upon grace for broken people and the wonder of a God who steps towards us in love.

The end of being thankful in a formal internet way has come upon me. I’m thankful for it (see what I did there;)) and I hope to carry on being thankful beyond the world of Easter. Living a life of thankfulness has reminded me once again that there is someone to thank, that there is an unseen world beyond the mere physical and that I am a very dependant creature indeed. It hasn’t stopped the hard things being hard, it hasn’t been a self help technique, it’s a very real reminder that I am in the hands of the Maker of this world, and that changes pretty much everything. It’s been a helpful readjustment of my internal monologue to honour the One who made us, who loves us and who is in charge.  Here’s to more and more days of thankfulness…

 

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