had a good time at the drop in

As usual this week I visited the Drop In Centre that has developed out our ministry to the homeless.

This week at the drop in we had a few songs from singer/songwriter Wes Harding who is associated with a local prison chaplaincy. He sounds quite good with just his acoustic guitar.

Afterwards a few of us played our usual game of Mexican Train dominoes – a trend which some of us have taught the people who come to the Drop In.

The Drop In is a safe place for all sorts of people to hang out drink coffee and get a bite to eat. It’s just great being around these guys.

See also this post about the Drop In.

History of Now

I've just been watching the first two parts of this fascinating BBC documentary - the History of Now: The Story Of The Noughties. At first I thought it was just going to be a round up of the decade - the sort of thing you get on New Year's Eve. But it turned out to be much more. It's more like a popular introduction to sociology - picking out themes and trends of the decade.

The first part focus on how age has become such a watershed in our culture. The second one looks at class and concludes that though it appears that the barriers are disappearing in fact social mobility has got a lot harder. It also gives the new definition of social class that emerged in the last decade - postcodes. I've been exploring this site where you can put in a postcode and get quite an accurate description of the people that live there. Go on have a go.

I haven't watched the third part yet but the trailer said that it was going to be about globalisation.

The End of Time

Callie manged to watch her first full grown up Doctor Who story over Christmas. She joined ten million in the now regularly Christmas tradition. But this was not just another Christmas special. It was David Tennant's final story as the Doctor and featured a show down between the Doctor and the Master.

I felt it was pitched about right for Callie's introduction to Doctor Who. It wasn't too scary and there were some exciting and moving moments. As usual there were a number of moral and spiritual themes. The Doctor reluctantly takes a gun to face the Master. The Doctor's pacifist beliefs win out in the end as he doesn't end up using the gun on anyone. The returning Time Lords plan to ascend into an etheral state and destroy the universe in the process. But of course the Doctor stops them.

It is interesting that the writer R.T.Davies continually plays not just with morality but also with ideas about the afterlife.