Famous faces

I was walking down Oxford Street this week and I saw Lionel Blair. (Looking very well for a man in his late 70s - I have his autograph somewhere). I smiled to him and he smiled back. It's part of London life I guess. You do see people whose faces you recognise. I got on a bus with former Mayor Ken Livingstone the other day and sold Twmpath tickets to Cerys Matthews last week. A few weeks back on Hampstead Heath I spotted local girl Lynsey de Paul who I see about from time to time. In the past I've knocked the doors of the late Alan Coren, actor George Layton and others. I once gave a tract to Sue Perkins, who used to live in the next street. What is most difficult is the many character actors who live around here - faces you know but can't usually put a name to (eg Janine Duvitski - I looked her up, there are others and I don't even know what they were in).

Anyway my point is that it's a weird thing, one pretty much the result of TV and beyond. You know who they are but they don't know who you are. When I smile in recognition, they look back and think 'do I know this person?' It must be unnerving if you're not sure.

(I notice that all the people I mention are quite old. Am I just walking past the young and famous?)

Pethau Cymraeg

Three things actually

1. Check out this link on Alan's blog here

2 I was going to comment on Ryan Giggs scoring the other week for Manchester United. He has now scored in every season (17) that the Premier League has been in existence! More here and here. Great footage here.

3 Then there was also Duffy at the Brits. More here and here.

Of course, things are going well in the rugby too.

Just looking for some reflected glory I guess.

Another three days

On Wednesday I was at Spring Court with the older folk in the morning. I also had a haircut on the Kilburn High Road. At night it was our usual midweek meeting for prayer and Bible study. In the afternoon headed into town to Tottenham Court Road, had a nose in the electrical shops and drunk a coffee then met up with another member of the Westminster Conference committee to look at The American Church. The buildings date from the fifties and obviously get a lot of use but will be adequate for our use next December. A very nice man with a penchant for irony helped us sort out what we were going to do. Various auditions appeared to be going on in the different rooms. One interesting room had some historical artifacts including a portrait of Whitefield that I'd never seem before. I'm not sure how old it is. The site is where Whitefield once had a church. Augustus Toplady is buried somewhere on the premises I understand.

I spoke this evening on Christ's intercession using something I found in Turretin. After the church meeting we had a short church members meeting where we heard a testimony in preparation for an intended baptism on Sunday. Eleri and Rhodri joined us for this. They had gone to the Hampstead School prizegiving. The speaker was a former pupil who is now a backing singer for Amy Winehouse (Eleri pointed him out to me when we saw a bit of Glastonbury while she was looking for footage of Cerys Matthews there - she now has a child in the same school as our youngest two). Rhodri's girlfriend got a biology prize. Guess what they gave here? Richard Dawkins' God delusion. It is a pretty humanist school I know but considering that is not a biology book and Sibyl is the one we are baptising it seemed a little odd.

Thursday went mostly on preparation for Sunday. Up in Golders Green Jews for Jesus were out in full force. It was nice to meet Stephen Pacht their UK director. I also got talking to a Jewish PR man called Nick who saw me reading the Calvinistic Methodist Fathers book and struck up a conversation with me. He took note of the book for further reference and recommended some Jewish reading for me.

On Friday we had a meet up over a Chinese meal (Green Cottage) to say farewell to a former member and assistant here who is off back to America on Monday after a six month stint in the UK. Mark Raines is about to become assistant to Mark Chanski in the Reformed Baptist in Holland, Michigan. Among his hearers will be Al Martin, now in retirement from Essex Fells. In the evening we had the clubs for children and young people. I was leading - on Jairus's daughter. We also got the baptistry prepared.

Saturday morning we had a bit of a clean up over at the church in preparation for the baptism. The rest of the day it was more preparation and more reading from Welsh Methodist history while listening to Thijs Van Leer.

Tamaid Cymraeg

Something Welsh for St David's Day. This is Cerys Matthews singing a folk song - a favourite of mine. It's about a little tinker boy wandering around working. The chorus is a Wenglish mixture.

Bachgen bach o dincer
Yn crwydro hyd y wlad,
Cario'i dwls yn dacle',
'neud ei waith yn rhad;
Yn ei law 'roedd haearn,
Ac ar ei gefn 'roedd bocs,
Pwt o getyn yn ei geg
A than ei drwyn 'roedd locs.

Potsiar peipar twigar owns agen
Potsiar o the peipar
O the knickerbocker line.
La di da di da di
Hock it on the chen,
The potsiar o ddy peipar
O ddy knickerbocker line.
Holi hwn ac arall
Ple'r aeth y tincer mwyn,
Gyda'i becyn ar ei gefn,
A chetyn dan ei drwyn.
Bachgen bach o dincer
Ni welir trwy'r wlad;
Mae'n golled ar ei ôl
I 'neud ei waith yn rhad.