Some people

I met Arun Gandhi yesterday, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. What an amazing man, what a wonderful speaker. He really did "glow in the dark", as Victor so perfectly put it. So much of his talk was personal, about the time he spent with his grandfather when he was a grotty teenager and what he learned in that time - and I left feeling nourished and convinced I could make a difference in some small way.

He spends his life campaigning for peace and non-violent activism and when searching for a link to read more about him, I was saddened to find that in January he was widely criticised for his comments on the Israel/ Palestine struggle and had to resign from his institute as a result. Illustrates the danger of intervening in such a violent and protracted struggle, even though I am sure he had the best of intentions.

The talk was part of the Festival of Spirituality and Peace which I've been doing a little volunteer work for, so uplifting to have all of these people from different faiths and cultures together discussing issues that truly matter and also just having fun. These guys from Zimbabwe, they're called Siyaya, did the most amazing song and dance in a stuffy Anglican church, it felt a little surreal but also oh so inspiring. Quite a change from the dour hymns! And not for the first time, I was left thinking it is no bloody wonder nobody goes to church in this country anymore.

(And it also left me thinking about an adventure to Africa... but as I'm supposed to be working on my commitment issues, that's going to have wait!)

Fantastic weekend.

Movements tell a hundred words

I'm going to be a Duke of Edinburgh Award Leader. This means I get my very own group of 14 year olds to encourage to achieve something in their teens - unlike mine, which were spent getting wasted on 'mixies', that unique form of Scottish cocktail, and smoking myself sick whilst hanging around in bus shelters hoping for a fumble with the local talent.

As part of the application, I needed to do an enhanced criminal record check. This requires submission of the past ten years of addresses. I found it most disconcerting to try and write these down. It took some doing!! In particular, I realise that although I think I want a settled existence, all the evidence is to the contrary. Clearly, I have ants in my pants.

Here's the list.

• Gosford Place, Edinburgh - 2 months
• Salt Lake City - 5 months
• Nepal - 2 months
• Wanaka, NZ - 2 months
• Batu Puteh, Borneo - 3 months
• 61 Canning Road, Highbury - 1 year 6 months
• 10B Tabley Road, Tufnell Park - 8 months
• 2 months crashing on floors and then with Garry & Cat post relationship collapse
• Somewhere in Queens Park - 6 months. Interestingly, I can't remember the address. Obviously blanked this one from the memory in spite of its significance.
• Somewhere in West Hampstead - 6 months.
• 139 Rathcoole Gardens, Hornsey - 1 year 6 months
• 224 Fernhead Road, Queens Park - 1 year 2 months
• 162 Kingston Road, Jericho, Oxford - c. 8 months
• Witney, Oxfordshire - 3 months in the sticks, a kind of 'trial run' that never got past the gates
• 4 Warwick Street, Oxford - 3 years

Scary.

A reminder

I'm just about to upload some pictures from the weekend and I came across this in my files. I took this image in the week before I left BT as a reminder never to go back. It was what I could see directly in front of me. Oh, the irony. In case you can't read it, the full text is as follows:

Heart?

He has it.

Do you?

Heart: We believe in what we do.

Live the values. Create the customer experience. Make our vision reality.

Worship at the corporate temple.

Actually I made that last sentence up. It wouldn't be out of place in all of that though. There's a comedy show at the Fringe called 'Who Writes This Crap?" I feel this could well be a must attend for me as a creator of such nonsense.

On another interesting BT note, Michelle rang me today to tell me they were getting sued as I hadn't paid a bill to Haymarket. We're due in court on Tuesday. How hilarious. And how truly incredible that nobody has paid it in all that time.

Here's another one. My daily view. Really, it's truly incredible that anyone can be inspired and creative and enthusiastic in this environment. To me, this goes against all common sense.