multikulti is dead. long live multikulti.

the emporer has no clothes on.
only now (a significant german) someone has said it.


















angela merkel declared yesterday that multikulti has 'utterly failed'. it seems to me that germany is coming to something of a crossroads. I'm praying for germany.
for eyes to see where they've come from, the place they're at now, each path that opens ahead and to see the only one on whose shoulders the government will rest and whose increase will never end.
I'm praying for reflection and honest discussion about what culture - identity - germany should have.
and most of all, I'm praying for leaders, for a new generation to emerge who can lead the country in the right path, not returning to fear and violence, but uniting with faith and vision.

come on stoney!

great news! stoney is going to release his new ep now the support target has been reached on pledgemusic.com. he gets a fair wage and we get great music. all that and touring with athlete too! come on stoney, the world is waiting for you

jojo gets some uncle sherif time

the intelligensia

on the path to the beach at saltford

riding the bus with cousin adam

no armbands!

piper alpha memorial

summer sweetie

the (twenty) three degrees

the posse

waiting at the bus stop

a different kind of tranquil

the weather in norther norway isn't always perfect!
it can be foggy for long periods in the summer, this is the view over the bow of the boat

tranquil view

mountains

another view of (three of) the helgeland's seven sisters

northern norway

here's a few pictures from around northern norway
this is looking over brønnøysund

monkeys on mushrooms

ok that's enough of that plane stuff - here's diddle diddle dumpling
and little miss muffet on those funny mushrooms...

small planes part 4

this one had jet engines, wow

small planes part 3

bit dodgy this one, noisy, almost missed the far too short connection and then lost luggage! at least the food was good...

small planes part 2

this one had slightly worrying patches near the propellers

small planes

thought I'd share a few I've been on lately...

footie

while england were beating hungary last night, norway were beating france in oslo thanks to 2 goals from this guy erik huseklepp

oh, ok then...

...except dancing maybe

fun day

there's hardly anything more fun than a parachute!

skye's summer project

is learning to swim, she's very excited about it (and so are we!)
she's getting really good and very confident

mormor time

riding on the train

waiting for the train

girls at the beach

here are some old pictures from a fab holiday in wales

mountains

looking east from bodø harbour towards the sharp peaks of the lofoten mountains

approaching bodø harbour

beautiful day out here

almost mid-way between northern norway and iceland
it's hard to believe the wind was blowing at 50knots (about 57mph or 92kmph) just 24hours ago

aarhus

this is a great pal of ours, chris, on a trip we had to aarhus denmark in september 2007, good times!

fun at the zoo

here's an old picture of 2 of our monkeys on the loose at the zoo...

bodø

so this is a new city for me, in northern norway, just inside the artic circle, in fact, arrived last night for fuel (and milk) it's neat and tidy and surrounded by mountains. I like it.
best of all, coming here gave me my first glimpse of the lofoten islands

big sky

crazy moose

another one is this statue of a moose on a rocky outcrop above the road

art installations

the local government has set up a number of art installations like this funny 'wind house' at the picnic area near the bridge

seven sisters

this is a mountain ridge called the seven sisters

helgelandsbrua

went for a run out to this big bridge the other day, there are fantastic views over leirfjord and the surrounding mountains

new norwegian satellite

so it looks like norway is tracking shipping (ok, me!) in their waters from space

world cup

back into port, the sun's shining, the grill is hot and almost it's footie time!

lovund

there's some awesome scenery just lying around here, like this island, which has just about all you need, a mountain, rock climbing, beaches and a hotel

man overboard

ok, so it's just a drill...
but hey, any excuse to race around the harbour in the sunshine will do nicely!

flying north

new rig

and got to wave at thomas, whose on board just now

sleepymeg

shopping therapy

we have a lot of fun in the supermarket - can you see why?

fan club

siesta

while the ladies painted, the kiddies slumbered

the mural

yeah, cool isn't it? it's got butterflies too

a big pink tree

so auntie mim has come to help paint a mural in skye's room

pen-y-fan

got in a cheeky trip up pen-y-fan in the brecon beacons, it's a proper mountain but only took an hour and a half (sorry andy...)