Positive punctuation and Negative news

I couldn't decide whether this should be a positive blog or a negative one. So you get both.

The positive is provided by Lynn Truss through her book "Eats, shoots and leaves" which I am reading at the moment.

This should be a boring book because it's about English grammar and punctuation. But in fact it's a very funny book because of her writing style and her quirky use of examples. This was why it was a best-seller a few years ago and gave her the fame and fortune she so richly deserved. A cliche anyone?

The negative comes from Sky News. They promise me "Fifteen minutes of news every fifteen minutes." So I sat down at 9.45 p.m. last night prepared to be told the latest current events and rose at 10.00 p.m. in a rage. Why? Because they showed endless pictures of Prime Minister Gordon Brown meeting and greeting people whom I took to be heads of state and talked over them about the Home Secretary fiddling her expenses.

I was incensed. The business about the expenses will be forgotten next week while the talks the PM has with these people will have an affect for a long time to come. AND THEY NEVER TOLD US WHO THEY WERE. How frustrating and maddening!

Precept

I have been away at Lindors Country Hotel in Gloucestershire for a week.

The week was organised by my friends from Brimscombe in that county, under the auspices of Precept Ministries. It was a week well spent.

We were looking at the Book of Hosea. It was an intense study, both in work and in content. The work was partly our own study with a handbook, and then interactive study with a leader, whose name was Ann Absolom. I found it hard going but worthwhile.

I came away with a new way of studying the Bible, and with new ideas of how to make the Bible better known in the Church.

Am I still angry? Yes. Because yesterday I went to sign on at the Department of Work and Pensions in Kendal and was greeted with the words that I should not be drawing Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) as I was applying for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). I blew my top at this.

Not only am I not applying for ESA, I am not being paid my full amount of JSA either. What little I was getting was about to be taken away. They saw Mr. Angry. And they kindly backed down, although I have yet to be paid my JSA.

Today I went round in a van, helping to pick up Shoe Boxes for the Samaritan's Purse Christmas Project. We collected 650 boxes from the area around Lythm St Annes. Mr. Angry did not appear. Thank God.

Dreams and Reality

Coming off these anti-depressant drugs is really weird. I am having very strong dreams.

They started as nightmares but my wife Audrey prayed over me and they gave way to very realistic dreaming.

They are so realistic that each time I woke up last night and turned over after a dream I had to tell myself: "This is reality. I am in bed at Brook House and I am turning over." It was remarkable.

A lot of the dreams take me back to former work situations and difficult relationships I had there. Today I see that this is bubbling up from my subconscious and showing me the repressed anger that is down there.

May God give me the grace to forgive those who have hurt me and to get rid of the anger that is causing my depression.