Last week at our 11-14’s group Ignite, we had an Arty Evening where we did a number of creative activities for the 50 young people who came. One of those activities was doing chalk drawings outside which the kids thoroughly enjoyed. By using a huge stack of playground chalks, we managed to cover the car park in colourful pictures and slogans (without any swearing). Some of the girls even drew chalk outlines like dead bodies around my car with the words “Police Line - Do Not Cross!” The picture above was taken after only the first of four groups, so you can imagine how crazy it looked at the end.
At the end of the night, it was getting dark and the team had a lot to clear up inside. We left the car park as it was, knowing there was nothing offensive there and hoping that it would rain overnight. I never really thought it would be a problem!
Anyway, next morning the chalk was still there and I got in a LOT of trouble for not having cleared it up! I spent the next 40 minutes outside with buckets of water and a stiff broom trying to scrub it off the tarmac while cars came in and out. More embarrassingly, I had to leave the job half finished as I was driving up north to my brother’s wedding. Apparently I now owe some guys in the church a huge apology as they ended up scrubbing the rest away on my behalf! This is after we trashed the carpet before Christmas by playing messy games with flour, custard and mashed potato. I’m on my second strike.
Lesson learned? Never assume it’s OK to leave things out!
Being a fan of super hero comics and Japanese anime, I was delighted to hear of Mecha Manga Bible Heroes, a futuristic retelling of David and Goliath complete with huge armoured robots (mecha) drawn in a manga style!
Alongside the various other comic and manga Bibles starting to spring up, this version will be most welcome. For more, check out the Manga Bible series starting with ‘Names, Games and the Long Road Trip‘ and working it’s way through the Old Testament, or try the Manga Bible by Siku. I’m not sure when and how the Mecha Manga Bible Heroes will be available in the UK, but it will certainly pique the interest of a number of boys in our Ignite group.
On our way home from the Blog Awards, Kirsty and I saw this great installation at London Victoria Station. It’s purpose is to promote the TV Show ‘London Ink’ on Discovery Real Time and the oversize sculpture features an original tattoo on the small of her back. Click here to view the full Flickr set.
Fancy a scribble? All it takes is one standard Ikea kitchen and some blackboard paint! How creative.
I never got round to posting about our visit to the Anthony Gormley exhibition at the Hayward Gallery over the Bank Holiday. In all, it’s a fascinating collection of works that major on the theme of space. The centerpiece of the exhibition is Blind Light; the glass box of dense white cloud that visitors are invited to explore.
Walking into the box is an amazing experience. Although your eyes are wide open, all you can see is bright white! It’s so disorientating as you can hear the sounds of other people around you but can’t see them until they are less than a foot away! Many times someone materialized out of the mist mere inches away from me!
The other thing you don’t expect is the water. Obviously the mist is water vapour so you know it’ll be damp, but you can actually feel the water going into your lungs as you breathe and when you finally emerge from the box, your clothes are saturated with an ultra-fine water coating.
I strongly recommend you go along and experience it for yourself. In the meantime, check out my Flickr set here.
I love long weekends! It’s Kirsty’s birthday tomorrow and we’re heading into London later today to spend the weekend doing touristy things. We’ve booked to go see the new Antony Gormley exhibition at the hayward which I’m really excited about. I’ll try to take some pictures and post them to flickr while we’re there. We’re also planning to go to London Zoo and catch a show too, so it’ll be a lot of fun!
It’ll be the third time I’m in London this week after the Strategic Schools Work Conference at LICC, and an excellent visit to XLP on Wednesday. I had a great time hanging out with the team, heading into a school and playing football with some kids after school. Thanks to Michelle and Tim in particular for showing me around!
We’ve had a great weekend catching up with friends and chilling out. Part of our fun was heading over to Brighton to track down some of the creatively hidden exhibition 41 Places. From the site:
41 Places is a city-wide artwork of 41 true stories, installed in the place where they happened – stories of people who live, work and play in Brighton.
After wandering around for a couple of hours, we only managed to find around 13 (even using the map)!
Some people have made it a mission to find and photograph all 41. Check out the Flickr group to see the others we didn’t find!
Thanks to the brilliant Ship Of Fools, I’ve found a renewed sense of peace that our Lord is always with me. I followed a link under the ‘fruitcake’ section and found this little gem. Read the story then view the pictures by clicking on ‘Home’. Who knows, your own occupation may be listed too!
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