tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32487124239252613902024-02-19T18:18:26.667+00:00Love from DaddyConversations with the son they stole:<br>
A window on the world of a father <strike>being</strike> torn from his little boy<br>
by the secret family courtsDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-64521508338201348032013-07-03T09:56:00.000+01:002013-07-03T09:56:37.217+01:00One hundred and twenty six?!<br />
75 years ago this tea time, Joe Duddington earned himself a place in the history books:<br />
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<i>"With my lovely blue streamlined engine Mallard, we drew away from Grantham. I accelerated up the bank to Stoke Summit an' passed Stoke Box at eighty five. Once over the top, I gave Mallard her head, and she jumped to it like a live thing!</i><br />
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<i>Then, 'Undred 'n eight. 'Undred an' nine. 'Undred an' ten.</i><br />
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<i>"Go on, old Girl", I thought. "You can do better 'n this!" So I nursed 'er, and shot through Little Bytham at 'Undred an' twenty three. And in the next one an' quarter 'mile, the needle crept up further.</i><br />
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<i>'Undred twenty three and 'alf. Undred twenty fower. 'Undred twenty five. An' then for quarter of a mile, while they tell me the folks in th' car 'eld their breaths... 'Undred twenty six mile per hour. One 'undred n'twenty six? Tha' wus th' fastest a steam locomotive 'ad ever been driven in th' world."</i><br />
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Until just before they set off back towards London, not even everyone in the train, supposedly a 'brake test special', knew that a world record attempt was on the cards.<br />
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'Mallard' was only a few months old - just 'run in' really, and Joe reckoned he could have gone even quicker in the right circumstances, but thanks to the Second World War, a planned attempt to go faster in the autumn of 1939 never came to pass. Her record 126mph run stands to this day as a world record for a steam train.<br />
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Tommy Bray, Joe's fireman, must have been right on top of his game, too, as they hurtled along the East Coast Main Line. I ride on the footplate of steam locomotives at 75mph, and have ridden diesels at well over 100, and no matter how well an 'A4' rides at speed, the physical toil, whilst travelling at that speed, is something to marvel at.<br />
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<a href="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/07/02/article-2353575-1A9DDBAA000005DC-185_964x633.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="131" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/07/02/article-2353575-1A9DDBAA000005DC-185_964x633.jpg" width="200" /></a>All these years later, Mallard's record still stands, despite murmurings from the USA, and over the coming weeks it will be celebrated with what you have dubbed 'Mallard's Party' - which I think is a good way of putting it!<br />
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In the 1960s, when even 'A4s' were going back to their Doncaster birthplace, straight from service, to be cut up for scrap, two of the engines were re-painted and given away, as a kind of 'diplomatic gift'. 60008 'Dwight D. Eisenhower' went via Southampton and New York to a museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin, later to be joined on the North American continent by 'Dominion of Canada', 60010.<br />
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Despite both having gone to countries with shortages neither of British ex-pats, nor railway enthusiasts, it is fair to say that neither engine was particularly well cared for. In fact, 'Dominion of Canada' was not only a tatty, rusty mess but sporting a great big dent in the iconic streamlined nose, made, apparently, by hitting it with a 'buckeye' coupling on a Canadian vehicle. '60008', meanwhile, had suffered the indignity of having her valve gear covered in silver paint, instead of being polished. Meantime, all four 'A4s' left here have steamed - three are still busy working on the main line and 'Mallard' takes pride of place at the National Railway Museum, in York. Their long lost sisters have quietly rotted.<br />
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To cut a long story short, after many years of saying 'no', the Americans and Canadians were persuaded to loan their locos for a visit to celebrate their classmate's record, on the condition that the NRM not only paid for it but did them up whilst they were here! The total cost of having the engines with us for little over a year is astonishing, and the costs are seemingly a source of some embarrassment to some of those involved. The money spent could have had 'Mallard' back in steam, as she was for the 50th anniversary. It might even have finished 'Flying Scotsman' off, but that's another story!<br />
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Nevertheless, enough people were desperate to see those engines back again, even if only briefly, that they stumped up the money.<br />
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'4489', as Dominion of Canada has become once more, looks absolutely stunning now, restored to her original condition, complete with Canadian style bell and whistle (Big Grandad remembers hearing that and knowing which engine it would be, when he was a boy!) and garter blue paint. We will see all six engines on Saturday, and that's the one I am looking forward to seeing the most - but by next spring, they will be gone, back to their hitherto less than careful, and seemingly less than enthusiastic, owners. That will be that.<br />
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What a shame, that the two engines could not return to steam here (for there is plenty of opportunity for them, and, indeed, a prospective investor!) with links to their respective embassies, and working visits to their adoptive home countries. Time will tell what happens to them this time round, but I wouldn't bet on seeing either again with my own eyes.<br />
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The story of those two engines is not unlike yours, son, except you were never given away willingly, you were taken by force.<br />
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Each brief, hectic visit you spend with us, like those two shining engines in the museum at York on Saturday, is a glimpse of what could be. Objectively, you are in better hands. I no longer hesitate to say that. Your progress with reading, writing, speech and other academic basics is being hampered by inability, inattention and disinterest at home. You are at risk of falling short of your potential.<br />
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Like those two engines, you are loved and would be cared for better by those you leave behind, but the vanity of the 'owning' party requires that things stay as they are; like Mallard, as Joe Duddington pushed her towards the history books, 'you can do better than this' - but we can't hope to 'nurse' you to help you achieve it, with the lot we have now.<br />
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There is so much you continue to miss out on because I am only your Dad one full day every three weeks. I am your sister's Dad every day, and time will tell how you get on comparatively. In years to come, Step-Mum and I hope neither of you will feel hard done to. For now, we can but pray and strive for things to get better for you, and in the meantime, do our best to make what time we have, special. I know you are looking forward to going to York this weekend and seeing that once-in-a-lifetime lineup of steam superpower.<br />
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'Mallard' became the fastest steam engine in the world, 75 years ago this tea time, because Joe Duddington and Tommy Bray used the best of their skills and exhaustive physical effort to propel her to that achievement. Having at long last broken the total stranglehold that kept us apart completely for 666 days and left you alienated, I will keep them in mind as I continue fight for what's right, and strive to do my best to help make you, my son, the very best you can be.<br />
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See you on Friday, mate. I'll be the first parent at the gate, as usual.<br />
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Love from Daddy<br />
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<i>Daddy is back, and is grateful to the many named and anonymous sources of kindly enquiry and support over the last few months, during which time the stress of extensive litigation and the impossibility of speaking candidly and with his customary authenticity without breaking arcane court secrecy rules has made (necessarily anonymous) blogging awkward.</i><br />
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<i>Daddy and Step-Mum now have a little girl of their own, whom Daddy cares for, full-time. The news for Daddy and his son is better than it was, but still not good, as will become apparent over time. They were reunited in October 2012, by court order, after 666 days of forced separation.</i><br />
Daddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-44284911360585394722012-07-29T10:17:00.003+01:002012-07-29T10:17:20.379+01:00A whistle from your DadI've just passed Norton Fitzwarren and as 'Oliver' digs into the climb to Whiteball, my thoughts turn further west.<br /><br />Little Paddington is with me in the train and I hope to see some of our relations later on in the journey, but first we have to go through places which are particularly difficult for me - along the sea wall and past the nursery.<br /><br />I know you will understand that I have reached the conclusion that I am entitled to a life of my own, and as such this is the first job west of Bristol I've done since I last saw you.<br /><br />As we hammer over the marshes to attack the South Devon Banks, The crew have been asked to greet you with a whistle from me. It's the best I can do right now.<br /><br />Love from DaddyDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-62798852402158327932012-07-29T10:17:00.001+01:002012-07-29T10:17:17.139+01:00A whistle from your DadI've just passed Norton Fitzwarren and as 'Oliver' digs into the climb to Whiteball, my thoughts turn further west.<br /><br />Little Paddington is with me in the train and I hope to see some of our relations later on in the journey, but first we have to go through places which are particularly difficult for me - along the sea wall and past the nursery.<br /><br />I know you will understand that I have reached the conclusion that I am entitled to a life of my own, and as such this is the first job west of Bristol I've done since I last saw you.<br /><br />As we hammer over the marshes to attack the South Devon Banks, The crew have been asked to greet you with a whistle from me. It's the best I can do right now.<br /><br />Love from DaddyDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-71025884144840689492012-07-25T21:16:00.002+01:002012-07-25T21:17:34.299+01:00Keep the changeYesterday I was at the airport to welcome my cousin (with her children) back to the land of her birth.<br />
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I don't know that you can actually <i>catch</i> jet lag, but thanks to an unscheduled late night helping out a friend, I went to bed when they had been in the air for an hour and a half and was arriving at Heathrow on the Number 140 by the time they landed.<br />
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There is a peculiar sort of welcome party laid on for those arriving in London this week:<br />
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Either you are shot by the 'Met' or smothered by the Olympic do-gooders in their gaudy shirts and new trainers. Tricky choice.<br />
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The man next door is one of the volunteers - he's been at it for almost two years now in various forms, and even his own wife has apologised to us for his preoccupation with all things Olympic!<br />
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Anyhow, hard on the heels of the Botswana Olympic team, my cousin and her son and daughter, and their luggage, came through the one-way doors and we headed back to the bus station.<br />
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My first cousins once removed have been to this country before but not for a little while. Mindful that Virgin Atlantic's catering might not have been up to much, I handed them a note, telling them it was worth more than they thought (the exchange rate being as it is!) and sent them off to Smiths to get themselves something to keep them going on their bus ride, which would have taken them not far from you.<br />
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They came back, suitably amazed at the availability of Cadburys chocolate and Coca-cola (although I am informed that it tastes different here!) and promptly handed me a generous fistful of change, having spent less than half what I'd given them. On the bus home this reminded me of a little story about Big Grandad, and his sister - my cousin's Mum, who sadly is no longer with us and had her own sad story of loss.<br />
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Big Grandad and my Aunty were the children of Great-Nana and Great-Grandad, who were Salvation Army officers. In those days, that vocation was a poverty-inducing one, and they were never very well off.<br />
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On a long train journey (before the days when officer families had cars), Big Grandad tells me that his parents told him to go with his sister and have something to eat in the dining car. Such was the expense of this (some things never change - railway catering prices being one!) that they couldn't afford to go with them.<br />
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Big Grandad and his sister went into the dining car and were offered all manner of food. Despite being particularly hungry, mindful of their parents' sacrifice, the two children politely declined everything that was brought out to them, to the bewilderment of the train crew. In the end, they had but a toasted teacake each (that was nearly a pun, wasn't it!), and that was that.<br />
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Returning to their parents, they were asked what they had had to eat, and as they gave their account, faces fell, as it turned out that dinner was a fixed price and they could have eaten as much as they wanted...<br />
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<a href="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/dining2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/dining2.jpg" width="200" /></a>Now, I have to say this doesn't seem to run in the family. Despite having supposedly been fed at nursery, I used to take you in the restaurant on the 1200 Plymouth - Paddington and more than once you polished my meal off, causing me to have to order a second!<br />
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<a href="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/dining1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black;">I'll be on the West of England main line again more than once in the near future, and heading your way. </span></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/dining1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/dining1.jpg" width="161" /></a>I know you will be moving away from the line when you leave the nursery, but keep waving to the trains, son. One day, I might be on it. And next time God's Wonderful Railway brings you to London, you can be sure of a warm welcome from all your family here.<br />
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Love from Daddy<br />
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<br />Daddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-43190213512427843082012-07-23T10:00:00.000+01:002012-07-25T20:00:57.429+01:00A happy anniversaryHard on the heels of a sad occasion which shouldn't be, we have a rather happier one, as Step Mum and I celebrate our first wedding anniversary.<br />
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Getting married twice was not something I ever had planned. I should add that it is not something you <i>should</i> ever plan for, but to quote Alan Partridge, I was given promises which weren't kept.</div>
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Covenants are important. We have talked about that a lot recently. I think the biggest lesson I have learned is that, as in business, the parties to a <i>contract</i> weigh one another up, and take considerable steps to ascertain the likelihood of one another keeping their part of the deal, one of the most important parts of a <i>covenant </i>is being sure not only that <i>you</i> <i>"enter into this new and holy relationship with reverent thought, honest intention, and in the fear of God", </i>to quote the Army articles of marriage, but that the other person does, too!</div>
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It was of course a day when you were keenly missed, but we had a lovely day, staged at places which were 'home' for me in particular, accepting the kindness offered by our Army and Railway families.</div>
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We had a job getting all our elderly relations to (and through) the day, and not quite all of them made it.</div>
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Our special train was hauled by Great Western Railway 4-6-0 No. 4953 'Pitchford Hall', specially chosen for the occasion, not only because it looked a treat on the umber and cream, but because it was the engine on which you had your first cab ride on your second birthday.</div>
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<a href="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/kwed2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/kwed2.jpg" width="132" /></a>The specially made headboard, from the same foundry that produced the shedplate I had made when you were born, has since graced a number of other vehicles, including at the National Railway Museum and a run past Grandma and Big Grandad's house, and the level crossing on the North Staffs line where I used to go watching engine and van moves on the main line when I was a kid. We will of course use it on future family occasions.</div>
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Objectively, it has been a difficult first year of marriage for us. We have had a lot to contend with - but we have made it out the other side. Mummy's claims that you were at risk because there was a likelihood of Step-Mum kicking me out have been proved somewhat ill-founded. Indeed, Step-Mum didn't just welcome both of us into her life, but she sacrificed an awful lot for us - and without her I wouldn't have been able to get as far as today. There is no doubt, the full force of what Mummy has unleashed would have broken me if I'd been left facing it alone.</div>
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The thing is, when you have entered into a covenant and seen it smashed to pieces; when you have seen the administrators of that covenant run a mile, you are even more careful before entering another one.</div>
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You will find out for yourself in time that Mummy's wild claims about Step-Mum and me are a load of old cobblers, and that you have a Dad who keeps his promises, so far as he is able.</div>
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Time will tell what all of us make of our lives, with and without particular people around. I will be sad for you though, for all the time and people that you may have lost by the time you are free to seek the truth.</div>
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Love from Daddy</div>
<br />Daddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-73475971797135640072012-07-17T11:22:00.000+01:002012-07-17T11:30:50.026+01:00Who moved?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Your fourth birthday leaves me wondering what to write to update last year's piece.<br />
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<a href="http://lovefromdaddy.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/any-happy-returns.html" target="_blank">I told you then</a> about the chronology of your life, about what had happened, and all the people who had vanished from your life.<br />
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A year on, despite having not even seen a picture of you since, we know a lot more that we did about just how that happened. We know what conflicting arguments were made, what dubious logic was successfully advanced to people eager to hear and act on what was self-evidently nonsense. We know, too, that our instincts have, as more often than not, been right, about what has been going on.<br />
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I have been told recently by Mummy's legal executive that I am not entitled to answers to questions about you, which include asking when and how you are going to see your Dad and your paternal family again - if indeed you ever will in some cases (Great Grandpa is really not well, for starters).<br />
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You however will one day be able to ask questions of your own, to which you will draw your own conclusions about the answers, from whatever information is available to you.<br />
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At your house today will arrive, as usual, a gift and a card from us (as from others), the only likely proof of which I ever will get is the signature from Royal Mail. We won't know if you got it, let alone see you open it. We won't know if you knew who it was from. We won't know if you knew why it was sent.<br />
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Today, as usual I will be found at Paddington. We certainly don't expect to see you there today, but it is good discipline and a point of focus for me. <a href="http://lovefromdaddy.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/meet-you-by-bear.html" target="_blank">One day you might want to come and find me there</a>. I want also to mark today the kindness of the people who have given to you by giving to us, in all sorts of ways, over the past year. They will understand the significance, particularly.<br />
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I'm not a big fan of smug wayside pulpits like the one above, even if the theology is right, but it would be a good challenge to all manner of people involved in your case at the moment. They know who they are.<br />
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It's not your fault - none of this is - but if you grow up and feel far from your Dad, guess who moved?<br />
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The question for you, then, is who moved you?<br />
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My commitment to you is that I will still be here if you come looking. Just like all the toys you put in their bed the day you left, I'll be waiting for you when you come back.<br />
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Happy fourth birthday, Son.<br />
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Love from Daddy.<br />
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<br />Daddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-49106464937258869512012-07-09T22:23:00.000+01:002012-07-09T22:23:08.564+01:00Holy HuddlesWell, it's been a busy weekend in the Army world.<br />
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After an unexpectedly fraught day on Saturday, we made it to Westminster Central Hall for the evening meeting of the commissioning of the 'Friends of Christ' session of cadets, several of whom we know from various places.<br />
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It was good to share in the occasion; oddly enough, it was the first time I had been to a commissioning, despite the fact that for much of my life I would have envisaged already having been to my own.<br />
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You see, it is all very well the Candidates Director saying, as he did on Saturday night, '<i>Don't worry about your children. God knows about your children</i>', but people like Step-Mum and I are in circumstances where it's not quite that simple.<br />
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I have to say that when you have been personally (and painfully) 'hung out to dry' by certain Army leaders to whom you looked for help, when you have seen your infant son's welfare become, at times, a political football, when you continue to see the Army at an organisational level ignoring the pain of people suffering an affliction which affects you personally, and when you know that speaking out about those things compromises your standing in the eyes of some mighty men (and women) who would hold your future in their hands were you an officer, and when you see Godly men and women stifled by church red-tape, it's a conundrum.<br />
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When your ability to 'leave your nets' is compromised by the debts you've racked up as you were dragged through the courts by another Salvationist, it is of little practical help that, under God, you have stuck to his, and the Church's, precepts, to that point. Especially when the Army struggles to show any sign of upholding and acting as arbiter over covenant relationships which it administers.<br />
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As it happens, the Army had every opportunity to have me for an officer before I even met your Mum; before practical matters impinged upon my ability to 'go'. I was a member of the Vocational Fellowship when I was still a junior soldier. Even my careers papers from school record (to the complete bewilderment of the 'careers officer') my intention to follow your great-Grandfather into training. In the end, I turned up to a candidates interview to be told off for being 'too Army', to find that my assessment conference place was cancelled (a surprise only to my Corps Officer and me) and that they would much sooner I become a 'Lieutenant' in a hurry, which would after all allow them to make me a corps officer sooner and plug a hole in the division. My insistence that I wanted to go to Denmark Hill and train properly for a life's work cost me any opportunity at all, at that stage.<br />
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A later interview a few years on the railway later, included on the divisional panel a young officer, not long out of the college, who told me '<i>we have to give you a hard time now, because we can't afford to have people dropping out all the time like they used to - this is a lifelong commitment</i>'. Yeah, you guessed it - within a year, that particular Divisional Youth Officer had cleared off to another denomination at the drop of a hat.<br />
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Now, I am quite willing to testify to God's timing. I am quite happy to testify to God having guided my life in directions I never expected, or even wanted, because he knew better, and he held the future. Indeed, I can only have any credibility working in the field I do now because I have been there, done it and unwillingly bought the t-shirt myself. Nevertheless, I am also pragmatic enough to understand that organisationally, as from a policy standpoint, the Army is capable of getting things wrong, because it is full of fallible human beings like me. The Army has let people, has let officers, down in the past. Sometimes has been open enough to admit it.<br />
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As I sat in Westminster Central Hall on Saturday, I looked at my friends on the platform and I wondered where I fitted in - no less convicted of a calling from God to serve, but frankly not sure any more where he was asking me to cast my lot in the longer term.<br />
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In the ministry which I have recently embarked upon, I have no great resources of finance or people - but even Commissioners have told me (not that they want to be quoted as such!) that I am doing a pioneering work; that one day, the Army's practical outreach to families in general and fathers in particular might show the hallmarks of what we are feeling our way into.<br />
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That work is <i>no less</i> a calling and no <i>lesser</i> calling - and it offers me a degree of autonomy and a freedom to speak up and speak out which the Army's senior leaders tell us from the platform to use, and tell us in their emails not to. An officer recently pointed out to me that there are things I can do now which they simply wouldn't be allowed to.<br />
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Moving forward a day, and west a continent, General Bond spoke last night at the commencement of the International Leaders' Conference in Toronto. She, as usual, was speaking on her 'One Army, one mission, one message' theme. She said this (my emphasis added):<br />
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<i>“<b>You are the Salvation Army</b>... The SA on fire, the SA that knows who it is, the SA that is convinced of its calling”</i></blockquote>
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<i>Now Yes, we do respect other churches. We thank the Lord for what they contribute - and in many ways God has given them gifts he has not given us. Now that’s the truth. But <b>God has given something to the Salvation Army that, if we surrender it, I think we will die. He’s given us a holy passion for him. He’s given us a holy passion for the marginalised. He’s given us a holy passion for the lost. We cannot lose it.</b> <b>We must be one Army on fire, all around the world. </b></i></blockquote>
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<i>And we need to be the Army of the 21st Century. And we need to, with this kind of purpose and power, to move into the world together...</i></blockquote>
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<i>...<b>We were never meant to be a holy huddle. And if you are content going to your corps, Sunday after Sunday, enjoying the music, enjoying the fellowship, and you do not care what happens beyond your walls, I need to tell you, maybe I’m being too direct, but you’re not the Salvation Army</b>”</i></blockquote>
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I absolutely agree. General, that sounds like an Army I want to be serving in. Wait, I am!<br />
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I have to say though, to the senior officers, from the soldiery, that this cuts another way:<br />
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You weren't meant to be a holy huddle either! And if you are content going to conferences, sitting in meetings and visiting one another at headquarters, week after week, enjoying tea and biscuits with dignitaries, promoting each others' books, stifling the creativity of the best officers, tolerating the incompetence of the duds, and pontificating upon the state of 'your' army, and you don't care what happens beyond your walls (or your halls), I need to tell you, and maybe I'm being too direct, but neither are you! <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(Except of course that, as we know, the Army legally belongs to the General).</span><br />
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I sense especially at the moment that the Commissioners are a 'holy huddle' of a sort, because it is very difficult to discern individuality, new thinking or difference of opinion among them. I don't doubt for a moment that they have all of these things, but it's as if there is an unspoken rule, tightening its grip, that they keep it behind closed doors, where the efficacy of internal debate is beyond the sight of the rest of us. Of <i>course</i> the church, and its leaders in particular, should show solidarity. But we are in danger of confusing <i>holding</i> the line with <i>toeing</i> one.<br />
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As an example from my own experience, those who have met with me (and they have) over the last little while to talk about you in particular, or the Army's response to family law in general (and I try to keep those subjects discrete) didn't want anyone else to know that they were doing so, and certainly didn't want to be quoted. Particularly since they have done so little, I wonder why. Maybe it's <i>because </i>they've done so little.<br />
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On Sunday, we participated in something of a 'health check' on our corps. I think a good few of us, when asked what we would like to do to improve what we do, looked at the boards of post-it notes and were struck that other people were thinking what we were. Not everyone agreed, not everyone felt able to say exactly what they thought, I feel sure, but particularly if you think the afternoon meeting needs revitalising, or the speakers in the foyer re-connecting, it turns out you are in community! That board of 'improvements' is now a range of <i>opportunities</i> which as a corps we can consider and do something positive with.<br />
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I happen to think that if the Army was less afraid of debate, and less afraid of letting people crack on, those Commissioners would likewise feel emboldened by community of views amongst those whom they lead. People would be able to come forward and encourage them.<br />
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As it is, ironically, an Army which, to quote the General's vision, reaches out to the dispossessed, inadvertently dispossesses the soldiery and corps officers in particular by failing to show that their concerns are the Army's concerns, and giving advocacy to causes which they personally can identify with or have expertise regarding.<br />
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To come full circle, I am reminded nevertheless that if Step-Mum and I are ever to become Salvation Army officers, we will have to have our candidacy signed-off by a Territorial Commander. One of the hurdles, if you will, is that we have, through no particular desire of our own, ended up at closer quarters to the top of the tree than most, and that speaking candidly of my experience, as I do, is unlikely to help unless things change!<br />
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General Bond told the conference yesterday <i>"Any time his people meet together, he wants to come with the unimaginable, the unexpected and the impossible. So we will wait on the God who loves to surprise us". </i>My question is, will the Army let me do the unimaginable, the unexpected and the impossible, <i>for</i> and <i>with</i> God? The messages are mixed.<br />
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Even so, as our Lieutenant friends, the 'Friends of Christ', settle into their new positions at the foot of that command structure, in appointments some of which are out on a limb, either metaphorically or geographically, (the General spoke last night of people 'working in difficult places' ) we wish for them God's richest blessing in their individual ministries - because whilst their officership will be governed by the Army, it is for the one who calls each of us that they will labour - and his will be the 'well done' for which we, and all our fellow Salvationists, of substantive rank or not, must strive.<br />
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Love from Daddy<br />
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<br />Daddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-49898916168005971602012-07-06T14:19:00.000+01:002012-07-06T14:19:33.760+01:00Encouragement<br />
A number of friends of ours are being commissioned as Salvation Army officers this weekend.<br />
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I thought I might, with that in mind, share this speech by Commissioner Vic Poke, our former Chief Secretary:
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It's all about doing your best in the situation you find yourself in, and leaving the big stuff to '<a href="http://lovefromdaddy.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/man-with-plan.html" target="_blank">the man with the plan</a>'. <div>
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Love from Daddy</div>Daddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-68102539931970344102012-07-04T19:43:00.001+01:002012-07-05T10:14:33.618+01:00The wages of stupidityI had other plans for a piece I was going to write today - in fact two pieces were already vying for my attention when Step-Mum picked up a tweet from <i>@salvationarmyuk </i>which raised more than a little interest.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 'Travelling Horse of Wrexham'</td></tr>
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Whilst there's a saying on the railway that there's '<i>nowt so daft as the general public</i>' (and a good degree of CCTV evidence to back this up), it is dangerous to proceed on that assumption in the PR space.</div>
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When the UK territory tweets "Read our latest response to the statements made on Australian radio regarding the LGBT community", they immediately invite not just a look at their piece, but for people to hit Google in search of their own truth. Five bewildering minutes later, having read the <a href="http://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/Response_To_Australian_Radio_Comments" target="_blank">UK territory response</a> (now, curiously, removed, but not before a <a href="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/ausincidentukt.png" target="_blank">screenshot </a>was collected!) to something they didn't clarify the origins of, and the <a href="http://www.salvationarmy.org.au/about-us_65047/media-centre/current-media-releases/joy-fm-interview.html?s=1575092867" target="_blank">Australia Southern territory response</a> which gave us the radio station name to whack into Google, I was listening to the 'Salt and Pepper' show on 'Joy 94.9', an Australian radio show, clearly by gay people, for gay people.</div>
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Their interview, on the back of a statement responding to a proposed boycott from a former pop star, which was only really reported by the <a href="http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/australian-pop-star-calls-salvation-army-boycott-over-anti-gay-stance170612" target="_blank">gay media</a>, with Major Andrew Craib, (at the time the Territorial Director for Public Relation, now all of a sudden Divisional Public Relations Secretary for South Australia, <i>quelle surprise</i>), was by the Army's agreement. He was not ambushed! That being so, you have to ask the question - what on earth were they thinking when they agreed to give an interview to a show which describes itself thus (cover your ears, children, the Army wouldn't want you reading some of these words so I've had to edit it):</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"'Salt and Pepper' takes a salacious look at the week that was. Think of it as a queer media watch' Serena, the salty one and Pete,the peppery one, are a couple of grumpy old journo types who bring you an overview of the week in media. From Royal Wedding w**k to the simplest of idiots making stupid errors, we will look at media treatments of gay events around the world, and the headlines that you didn’t read right here in our own back yard. No one is immune – not event our own joystars. Join them to hunt through headlines, and wade through mediocrity, and just have a rollicking time."</i></blockquote>
I am not sure on what grounds they felt it was desirable or sensible to give an interview to a show for homosexuals which hinges on the word 'salacious', on a station with only 216,000 listeners, on a show that airs at 2300 on a Tuesday, but Major Craib's comments suggest that it was all about the money.<br />
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The Army was so desperate to try and make sure gay people kept giving, that it put itself forward for ritual humiliation. That would have been bad enough, but Major Craib's performance was an utter disgrace and a total embarrassment. If the show set out to <i>'wade through mediocrity'</i>, well, they succeeded.<br />
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I'm not going to type it all out, but I would encourage you, if you're a Salvationist, to grab your handbook of doctrine, a Bible, and listen to it <a href="http://cpod.org.au/page.php?id=307" target="_blank">here</a> or <a href="http://www.cpod.org.au/download.php?id=9182" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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You might feel sorry for a soldier being stopped in the street and fed to the bears like this, but a Major? In a Public Relations appointment? Deliberately putting himself in that position? Was he crazy?<br />
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He didn't understand the scriptural or theological basis of our beliefs. He didn't understand the context of the book of Romans. He didn't even identify that the Army uses the same bible as all other mainstream Christians, or manage to make the point regarding Leviticus that if they objected to the old covenant, maybe they would like to take on a Jew regarding that, since they, not us, still live rigidly by it? Bit of a training issue, one might suggest?<br />
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He did, however, understand that his brief was to try to make good any damage to the Army's reputation amongst gay people or sympathisers, who may put their money where their mouths are and stop giving - and herein lies a greater problem, which becomes painfully apparent in the UK territory statement.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://michaelrosensays.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/salvation-army-official-says-gays-deserve-death/" target="_blank">Another blogger</a> has said this:<br />
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<div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><i>"Craibe’s reason for doing the interview was to convince members of the LGBT community that they should ignore the boycott call because The Salvation Army is a good organization doing good deeds in local communities. However, he was not prepared for the tough, but fair, questions he received. Instead, of tamping out the boycott flames, he undoubtedly fanned them.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><i>While other Salvation Army spokespeople have stepped back from Craibe’s dogmatic statements, they have not completely repudiated them. They have all articulated the belief that members of the LGBT community are sinners existing in spiritual death and in need of salvation. Nevertheless, The Salvation Army is delighted to take their money.</i></span> </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><i>The Salvation Army is certainly entitled to its religious beliefs. But, given its beliefs, what did the organization really hope to gain by going on a radio show targeting the LGBT community? While Craibe was not adequately prepared, I’m not sure any amount of preparation would have helped much given the organization’s religious beliefs. Rather than helping to end the boycott, the interview will likely strengthen it.</i></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><i>The follow-up statements from The Salvation Army are also troublesome. The Salvation Army USA official statement makes it sound like the organization accepts the LGBT community. However, as Byrd’s [US NHQ PR Director] email to me reveals, the posted statement may really be just a fig leaf hiding what many in the LGBT community believe to be The Salvation Army’s true position: You’re a sinner. You’re broken. We look down on you. But, we want your money.</i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19px;"><i>"</i></span></div>
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Even though I agree with the position the Army espouses, I am troubled by the logic, which is strong. It's not a big deal until you go to those people asking for their money, not least because once they've given, rightly or wrongly, they feel that they are owed a form of acceptance of their life choices which we cannot in all good conscience afford them.<br />
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As the blogger, Michael Rosen, concluded:<br />
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<i>"The Salvation Army cannot have it both ways...</i></blockquote>
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<i>...The Salvation Army should develop a communications strategy before speaking. And, that strategy should be absolutely honest. Come to think of it, perhaps The Salvation Army needs to be honest with itself. Perhaps it should actually embrace the boycott movement rather than fight it. Perhaps it should stop accepting donations from people it believes are unrepentant sinners.</i></blockquote>
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<i>All nonprofit organizations should be true to their mission and values. When engaging the public, all nonprofit organizations should have a carefully crafted, but thoroughly honest, strategy in place. The Salvation Army missed the mark on both points."</i></blockquote>
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William Booth believed there was no such thing as 'dirty money' - he would take it from anyone - even the likes of <a href="http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/www_uki_ihc.nsf/vw-sublinks/03400A9D251917CD8025706D00552D81?openDocument" target="_blank">Lord Rothschild</a>.<br />
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When I was a boy, I thought that was such a wonderful view to take; indeed, when I used to do my 'red shield appeal' <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(if you read 'red shield' in German, there's an interesting conspiracy theory!)</span> enveloping during the mid-90s, our envelopes used to bear the words 'we do not benefit directly from the national lottery', or something similar. Grandad explained to me that the word 'directly' was because whilst we didn't take money from Camelot, we weren't to know if the tenner someone put in their envelope was as a result of three balls matching on the preceding Saturday!<br />
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It's not that simple though. In my youth I failed to perceive that there is no such thing as a free lunch. <a href="http://www.thepavement.org.uk/story.php?story=1108" target="_blank">Not from the state</a>, not <a href="http://www1.usw.salvationarmy.org/usw/www_usw_cascade.nsf/vw-sublinks/A614957AE8037BBB80256EFC006973EB?openDocument" target="_blank">from private donors</a>. He who pays the piper may not exactly call the tune, but he can decide on the basis of the tune played if he wishes to fund the piper further.<br />
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The question I therefore ask is, does that matter? I would say yes, if it does to the donor, at least!<br />
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If you receive money to use as you see fit, that's great. But if you receive money wrapped with expectations other than those which you feel are right, that's a different matter.<br />
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The Army already subscribes tacitly to feminism, cheaply portraying men as abusive, homeless drunks who need setting straight and women and children as their victims, who need protecting. You only have to look at the materials we send to prospective donors, and put on the walls in our halls.<br />
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Similarly, at a lower level, there are those who, on this particular issue, are waving a rainbow flag through the Army's corps', and even the corridors of power, in pursuit of doctrinal change. There are many Salvationists who do not understand the Army's stance, because we are often scared of teaching it, and there are a good few, I reckon, who actively oppose it or even break it, but are soldiers nonetheless.<br />
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At the point where a radio show which claimed to want 'balanced debate' rounded on Major Craib for correctly asserting that homosexual acts are a choice, and therefore may be abstained from, there was a decision to be made. Do we want these people's money as our first priority, or do we want to be 'true to our colours'?<br />
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It was too late for the interview itself. Major Craib was in complete meltdown - in fact, we heard in the background the surest sign that someone is 'dying' in an interview - the ringing of their mobile phone, followed by a short silence and a message tone. I wonder who and what that was. Maybe we should have ordered Major Craib a taxi <a href="http://politicalscrapbook.net/2012/01/abbott-twitter-row-interview/" target="_blank">like Diane Abbott?</a><br />
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Returning to that first tweet, the international Army has decided to respond, and it's only because of that decision that the likes of me even know about the incident. That's right, something damaging happened in Australia as a result of a public spokesman dropping the ball, so we told the world. It looks like that has hit home now, in the UK at least, because the webpage, the statement, and the tweet advertising it, have all been excised less than 24 hours after they appeared. Light the blue touchpaper...<br />
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The interview took place on 21 June and it was yesterday, 3 July, that the UK territory's statement appeared. It appeared to have common elements with those from other territories. The opening paragraph, for instance, matches that on the <a href="http://www.salvationarmy.com/usn/www_usn_2.nsf/vw-dynamic-arrays/A2AF0257B165B3C085257A28005D5F1E?openDocument&charset=utf-8" target="_blank">United States NHQ page</a>. Australia Eastern's Major Bruce Harmer's competent (though not hugely edifying) 'Q&A' response is also available there.<br />
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The UK territory chose not to link to that bit, but to write their own conclusion, and it's the last paragraph with which I must take issue:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"We respect and value the diversity of our staff and the people we support and treat them each as unique individuals. As well as having a right to be dealt with professionally, <b>people can expect from us encouragement and a respect for their individual beliefs, ambitions and preferences.</b>" <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(emphasis added)</span></i></blockquote>
Insufficient use of the comma has inhibited the clarity of that last sentence, but I am sorry; for precisely the reason outlined by Paul in his epistle to the Romans, it would be utterly wrong of me to '<i>encourage</i>' a preference for sin, <i>the wages of which is death</i>. (Rom 6:23). It would be wrong in civil society to believe that unsaved sinners merit wilful disrespect - it doesn't fit with '<i>love the sinner, hate the sin</i>', but I am still entitled, indeed called, to the sincerely held belief that those who participate in homosexual acts are going to hell - and, regretting that, to sincerely want to do something to bring them to salvation and a more fulfilling way of life.<br />
<br />
General Bond told us fervently from the Albert Hall platform a few weeks ago that she believes in the devil and hell, but not that we should evangelise out of the 'turn or burn' mould.<br />
<br />
Scripture tells us again and again that the devil wants us to be comfortable with sin - to think nothing of it. That's the most dangerous situation - when we tell ourselves '<i>it's ok</i>'. We are specifically called to guard against it!<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." (Romans 12:2, MSG)</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. " (Ephesians 6:13, NIV)</i> </blockquote>
Does the Salvation Army still believe in sin? In strong doctrine and strong mercy?<br />
<br />
I hope so. If it doesn't, why would any Salvation be necessary?<br />
<br />
If we do, then we should say so - and maybe it would be prudent not to expect donations from those who vehemently disagree, or would seek to mould us into something else.<br />
<br />
A senior officer recently said to me that if we removed from the soldiers roll everyone who broke the dedication covenant made in relation to their children, we would have far fewer soldiers. We remove them for drinking alcohol, but not for failing to uphold the principles of Christian family life in relation to Children regarding whom they freely entered into an extra covenant relationship with God.<br />
<br />
Maybe we should tell people, when they bring their child to the Army to be dedicated to God, that we don't actually worry about whether the covenant which the Army administers and into which the parents and congregation enter with the almighty, is kept? If the covenant is defiled by disrespect, the ceremony is as a clanging gong, is it not?<br />
<br />
And if homosexual acts are one day no longer sin to be identified as such, when and how did we become arbiters? More to the point, which sin might we legitimise next?<br />
<br />
The one that shouts loudest?<br />
<br />
The one that's most socially acceptable or politically expedient?<br />
<br />
The one which threatens to stop giving money to us?<br />
<br />
If as individuals, or as an Army, we are ever foolish and short-sighted enough to take our eyes off being the best we can be, as saved sinners and sanctified saints, and dilute our doctrine for the highest bidder, or to keep the cartridge giving up, ours will be the wages of stupidity.<br />
<br />
Eventually, we wouldn't even be there to love those people as God intended<br />
<br />
Love from Daddy.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Daddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-7001128970303873922012-07-03T20:13:00.001+01:002012-07-03T20:13:27.501+01:00Keeping records<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">W A GALLAGE </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">GULLIDGE William Arthur </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">B Company 22</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 8px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; letter-spacing: 0px;"><sup>nd</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Battalion</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Kokopo</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/gullidge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/gullidge.jpg" width="140" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">So reads, when translated from the Japanese phonetic script, the entry on the <a href="http://montevideomaru.naa.gov.au/" target="_blank">log</a> thought to be the most accurate record of those on board the <i>Montevideo Maru</i> when it sank, torpedoed by a US naval ship, in 1942.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">The <i>Montevideo Maru</i> was carrying POWs and internees, captives of the Japanese, when it was sunk on 1 July 1942. It is recognised as Australia's greatest loss at sea.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Amongst those on board, all of whom (the captives at least) perished with the ship, was one of the finest Army march writers - Arthur Gullidge, and most of his men of the 2/22nd Battalion Band, fellow Salvationists, seven of whom were from Brunswick Citadel corps and had joined up <i>en masse</i> with their bandmaster</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Speaking at the funeral of the great Welsh composer Joseph Parry, Elfed said it was impossible to bury a musician because his songs and his music lived on beyond his death - and that is certainly true of Gullidge, the seventieth anniversary (to the day) of whose death we marked on Sunday afternoon with the playing of <i>'Emblem of the Army'</i>. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/emblem.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/emblem.jpg" width="320" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Gullidge's was a unique style of march, characterised by a minor key opening and (from where I sit) heavy, technically challenging bass solos, and indeed if there were to be any criticism levelled at his famous marches, it would be merely they are quite similar! You hear a Gullidge march, be it '<i>Victorious', 'Army of Immanuel', 'The Fount'</i>, and you just know it's one of his - or the 'honorary' one, '<i>Crown of Conquest'</i>, written as a tribute to him by Ray Steadman-Allen.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">You can find out more about the story of Arthur Gullidge and his band, on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgZW_Vhq-SY" target="_blank">YouTube</a>, and in a recent blog piece <a href="http://rolyhill.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/lest-we-forget-anzac-day/" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">The sinking of the <i>Montevideo Maru</i> was a communications man's nightmare in the dark days of 1942. The ship had not, apparently been carrying any markings indicating its cargo, and in the context of the thinking of the day, it is unsurprising that there was cover-up about what had happened until the war was over. Gullidge's wife and children were kept in the dark for three and a half years about the fact that he had died.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">These days, it would be much harder to effect a cover-up like that. Wars are played out on the television, and where that falls short or is silenced, it is hard to stop social networks from doing their stuff. You only have to look at the lengths the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/20/words-censored-on-chinese-twitter_n_1367175.html#s796738&title=Prostitution" target="_blank">Chinese </a>have to go to now, with their attempts to effect censorship.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Nevertheless, obtaining information about much smaller matters like the state of your teeth, is rather more troublesome, even with all the legal provision of the Data Protection Act 1998, a piece of legislation Step-Mum and I are now very familiar with.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Two weeks ago, after I raised the issue with the aim of completing my set of healthcare records (and because the health visitors hadn't checked), Mummy suddenly decided you should go to the Dentists. She reluctantly gave me the details of the surgery, and when I rang them to check when you were due to be seen, they helpfully told me not only that you were going the next day, but told me, quite without me asking, the details of Mummy's next appointment, too!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Unsurprisingly, when I said I would like to attend with you, Mummy cancelled the appointment, and all of a sudden the surgery are being rather less obliging - indeed they've not replied to my correspondence at all. So, it's Subject Access Request time, another tenner to cover the maximum statutory fee and another trip to the post office for a recorded delivery.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">We now have had to play the data purchasing game with, amongst others:</span></div>
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Hospitals</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">GP surgeries</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">A Primary Care Trust</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Nursery</span></li>
</ul>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">I've spent over £100 just on obtaining, or trying to obtain, information which I shouldn't have needed to ask for. The next step for some of these places is the Information Commissioner, or a claim in the civil courts. Not really good enough when some of those who have given the most grief are agencies of the state.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">I have to say that part of the problem is that so few Dads in my position seem to go through the process of obtaining what they are entitled to. The moment I was prevented from keeping an eye on your health myself, these things became important. With one in three children missing their father from their home, places such as these should be receiving more requests than they are, and would as a result know more of their legal obligations.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">For the benefit of other Dads who may be reading, everything you need to know is on the <a href="http://www.ico.gov.uk/" target="_blank">Information Commissioner's</a> website.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Mummy would of course have little to fear from all these records being pulled, indeed she might be more keen to share them, if it weren't for the fact that they are stripping the veneer from her competency as a parent. Similarly, she probably wishes she hadn't told all her family and friends to read this blog, now that, with time, my claims about her duplicitous and vindictive actions are all being proved accurate.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">In the same way that you can hear a Gullidge march and instantly recognise his hallmark, the day will come, a good few years down the road, when no matter what has happened (and I might even have gone to my reward by then), you can open the books and see the sheer administrative lengths I went to on your behalf in the face of all this hostility and opposition. Even if I haven't been, or aren't around, you will be able to discern the hallmarks of your father's labours.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Love from Daddy</span></div>Daddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-58772137738646462202012-06-28T16:02:00.002+01:002012-06-28T18:41:17.253+01:00Measuring happinessYesterday, on the occasion of the launch of the <a href="http://www.savechildhood.net/" target="_blank">Save Childhood project</a>, the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/shortcuts/2012/jun/27/why-british-children-so-unhappy" target="_blank">Grauniad ran a piece</a> on unhappiness in childhood, something this country seems to be particularly adept at causing:<br />
<br />
Typically, though, they didn't mention the fatherlessness epidemic in their lists of ills. The Centre for Separated Families, though, <a href="http://www.separatedfamilies.info/media/press-130612/" target="_blank">said this week</a>, in response to the government's consultation on changes to the Children Act 1989:<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><br /></i></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>"Unless family mediators, Cafcass officers, social workers, child support professionals, children’s centre staff and all the other individuals and agencies that parents come into contact with start to work outside the lone parent paradigm, children will continue to miss out on the vital relationships that allow them to grow and develop into psychologically secure and fulfilled adults.'"</i></span></span></blockquote>
<br />
I am in the middle of a lot of white-collar court work at the moment, but I am left to worry about how you are getting on.<br />
<br />
Your medical records tell me that you are hitting, spitting, biting, not sleeping when you should and sleeping in Mummy's bed when you do.<br />
<br />
They tell me that you are scared of the bath, have successfully refused to go to nursery on occasion, and are scared of the abstract notion that someone you've not seen for 19 months is going to take you away. There is even a suggestion that someone you are calling 'Uncle' has appeared in your life and is acting as your confidante, whilst your Aunty is referring her own sister's parenting to health visitors for intervention.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, that doesn't sound like a very happy little boy to me. It would be a poor kind of father who wasn't bothered about that - and I am very bothered about it. For the time being, though, all I can do is paperwork.<br />
<br />
Love from Daddy.Daddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-52525485547561942212012-06-17T08:27:00.003+01:002012-06-17T08:27:34.028+01:00What's on the cards?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
According to a YouGov poll in the last week, 80 per cent of Brits (and 88 per cent of fathers) think that 'Fathers day is just another way for companies to make money on cards and presents'.<br />
<br />
This is slightly curious, given that 52 per cent of those questioned also disagreed with the notion that 'Fathers day is unimportant and just another day', but reflects the fact, I think, that whilst the day may be important, it is not treated as such, because fathers aren't regarded as important.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/fday2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/fday2.jpg" width="148" /></a>In the 18-24 year old age group, only 73% agreed in any way that 'Fathers are instrumental in bringing up children'. Well, what you've never known, you don't miss, I suppose. Given that only two-thirds of children have their father around, why would many more than that think they were important?<br />
<br />
Step-Mum accidentally took me into a card shop last week and I had to leave, because all the saccharine rubbish was too upsetting. They don't do a card which says 'Thinking of you today because someone stole your child'.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, with the help of Moonpig, I have sent a few cards this year, to the fathers in your maternal family, all of whom have seen you more recently than me.<br />
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Most of them are professing Christians - one of them even works for the church, with young people.<br />
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All of them have stayed silent for the last two years or so. None of them have ever sought to disassociate themselves with what is being done to you, as it was done to your late Grandmother.<br />
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I could talk about 'Good men doing nothing' - but instead, noting that two of them have children younger than you, I will remind them that what they deem appropriate for you, could happen to them one day. To celebrate today for themselves, whilst agreeing that others don't deserve the same, makes their position the ultimate in hypocrisy.<br />
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And as they enjoy 'their' day, with their children and family around them, they have no more rights to fatherhood than I do. They are just running their luck for a little longer.<br />
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Ironically, it's me that's fighting to change that - for all of us. Including you.<br />
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Love from DaddyDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-71590780981141022042012-06-16T11:05:00.001+01:002012-06-16T11:05:20.064+01:00A busy weekAfter our Scottish sojourn, it's been an action-packed week in the world of the disenfranchised father.<br /><br />I received word that on Tuesday, Brighton Congress Hall closed its contact centre. As you know, I consider them about as acceptable as testing cosmetics on monkeys, but unenlightened churches usually set them up with the best of intentions.<br /><br />More to the point, the likelihood is that the fathers who were going there are now facing disruption at best, and quite likely cessation, of their ordered contact with their children. Many of them will have been ordered to see their children at the Army.<br /><br />Meantime, silence from Mummy's solicitors. They send lots of letters, but when their threats come to nothing and they start to have to respond to correspondence, they tend to look at the court diary and hope they can hold out until next time, because there is nothing they can say which will help their client's position. So much for the paramountcy principle.<br /><br />Thursday brought the announcement of the Government consultation on changes to the Children act.<br /><br />There is almost nothing proposed that can't already be done within the Act - a judge is empowered to imprison or fine mothers who breach contact orders (even if their solicitor says they are innocent) - and to reverse residence. Such recourse is common if you are a Dad upsetting the CSA, but otherwise reserved for 'show' cases.<br /><br />I feel let down by my party, after all the pre-election rhetoric, but nevertheless, the proposal is an improvement, so we must bank it, like the gay movement did with civil partnerships. The world will not change, so they will have to revisit the issue.<br /><br />Over the last two days we have received some interesting documents, which we are still studying. Amongst them is my police record! It makes interesting reading, especially compared to the stories various people an organisations have told.<br /><br />Yesterday I sent Mummy a very pleasant text asking which Dentist you are seeing. No reply. Maybe that means no dentist, I don't know. The court rang to change the hearing time for Monday - fortunately not by much; I also sent my fathers day cards.<br /><br />I'm on the Bakerloo line now - not bound for Scotland, where you told us it goes, but for Trafalgar Square, to see what happens there today.<br /><br />And tomorrow? Well, amongst other things I have a sermon to deliver!<br /><br />Court on Monday, meetings at Westminster and elsewhere on Tuesday, and so it continues.<br /><br />Busy, busy, busy.<br /><br />Hang on in there, mate.<br /><br />Love from Daddy<br />Daddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-58111469468802040322012-06-07T19:31:00.000+01:002012-06-15T00:05:49.362+01:00Showers on the Fife CircleIf you'd asked me a week ago where I would be now, I certainly wouldn't have guessed that I'd been in Scotland since Sunday.<br />
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Step Mum has had the most unorthodox of bank holiday weekends - by not having any time off work! Indeed, she has been working long days and late nights throughout. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/dedic8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/dedic8.jpg" width="133" /></a>When you were a baby, it was me who once brought you and Mummy with me to Glasgow for a night - I remember going to Baby Gap in Buchanan Galleries to buy your dedication outfit. Now, it's Step Mum, as the earner in our household, who is bringing me to Scotland, owing to her employer's late shout calling in her weekend.<br />
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As it happens, the job's not finished yet, so having flown up on Sunday night (less said about the two hour delay arriving to find they'd booked the wrong hotel and McDonalds for tea, the better!) we are still here! This has caused a few logistical issues, but it's given me the opportunity to have a few days away from London - and neither of us have had to cook for a week!<br />
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Today, I am trying to 'clear' Scotland. I first came up here about ten years ago and by the end of today, connections permitting, I will have travelled on every piece of railway in Scotland over which scheduled passenger trains run. I've done a few bits which are freight-only, too, but those days are over now, probably for good.<br />
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I've been to the Bo'ness and Kinneil railway, Ardrossan Harbour, Largs, Alloa, and last night I dropped in to Inverkeithing and found that yes, you can still ride behind a 'Skip' on the Fife circle, 1708 off Edinburgh. I'm going back for the whole run this evening. It reminds me of a time when I used to do a lot of trips behind Class 67s, and it reminds me of you.<br />
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You of course have done a fair bit of mileage up here, too. You've been to Kyle of Lochalsh, and you've been over the stretch of line I'm on now, between Linlithgow and Polmont, albeit asleep at the time!<br />
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I sent you a postcard yesterday. It is as much as I can do directly. We are waiting for the next court date, and Mummy's solicitors, whilst sending me weekly letters with some new threat or other, are ignoring my repeated requests for them to confirm when the court order, some 18 months old now, is going to be adhered to.<br />
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Their only response? They tell me that Mummy isn't breaking the order at all. I am struggling to find a definition of the word 'shall' which fits the meaning they are ascribing to it!<br />
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You're not seeing me though, are you. That's the reality. So the words are of little consequence and the pieces of paper of no meaning.<br />
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Love from Daddy<br />
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PS: I've not been able to post what I wrote earlier yet. I'm now on the 'Skip' job now, coming round the Fife circle curve at Thornton Junction. 67011 in charge again and it's slinging it down, so I'm in the saloon!<br />
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Paisley Canal earlier this afternoon was my final scheduled passenger mileage in Scotland.<br />
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I wonder when you will next come up here?Daddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-74565288984720961072012-06-01T16:10:00.001+01:002012-06-02T10:20:04.228+01:00The uninformed worshipper?<br />
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<br />
It was good that, after lobbying from a number of us, THQ decided to make the congress meetings available to <a href="http://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/Congress" target="_blank">watch again</a> (although not for long, I hear - SP&S need to protect their revenue!).<br />
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General Bond is a powerful speaker. She has a limited but distinctive range of speech inflections - Step Mum and I still (fondly of course!) mimic her high-pitched 'Who wouldn't <i>want</i> it?' strapline from her installation address.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/generalpreach.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="118" src="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/generalpreach.png" width="200" /></a>For as long as she spoke about Jesus, she was on fire. Some of her political comments crashed and burned with me, though, but that's for another time. What the General does impeccably is lead an Army meeting. She has an innate musicality, and a sixth sense for creating and moulding atmosphere in a hall.<br />
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The musical highlights of the congress for me were not 'Blood of the lamb lite', (good as it was), nor the contributions of the staff sections. They were in the closing moments of the morning meeting, as the General led the congregational singing.<br />
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It is one of the beautiful freedoms of Salvationism that we have next to no set liturgy. As a meeting leader, the idea that you can take the congregation on a journey with the freedom to deviate, or stop off, at the spirit's guidance, is a wonderful tool. And so, having deftly rolled an uncommon but beautiful combination of tune and old Army words (SASB 643, 'We the people of thy host', to 'Healing Stream') to the boundary as she made her appeal (marred only by a howl of feedback from the PA system) the General decided to start knocking the ball all over the ground.<br />
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What happened next wasn't her fault - but it should teach us a valuable and transferable lesson.<br />
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"Let's sing the first verse of 'Jesus, keep me near the cross'".<br />
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The pianist had no need to change tunes, but the a/v team were out of the game. Not everyone knows those words any more. Barely anyone has a songbook of their own in a congress meeting these days. Those that could sing it (a good number, of course), did, and those that didn't know it, struggled. <br />
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You could have typed the words out several times in the time available, or searched the songbook for them.<br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<i>But the screen stayed blank.</i><br />
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Undeterred, the General, being an all-rounder, bowled the pianist a googly. Or did she?<br />
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I happen to think that if you are the pianist in the Albert Hall for a congress led by the General, you ought to be able to manage the founder's song without the copy. Plenty of Army pianists could have. Great Grandad used to pick a chorus and surreptitiously indicate to his teenage son what key he wanted it in, sharps indicated by fingers on the right hand, flats on the left.<br />
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It turned out to be no matter. No sooner had the pianist wafted their bat at the incoming delivery and looked for a tune book, than General Bond plucked the ball from the air, one handed, as, with a commendable choice of pitch (not a cricketing analogy this time!), she started the singing '<i>and now, hallelujah!</i>...', <i>a capella</i>.<br />
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Boom. <i style="font-style: italic;">That </i>was what made my hairs stand on end. <br />
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The Albert Hall can be a swine to sing in - that's why those 'mushrooms' are there! But putting thousands of Salvationists in that famous cauldron and letting them sing is a dead cert for making a glorious noise. The most mellifluous and vocally-competent football crowd you ever heard.<br />
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In four distinct parts, '<i>boundless salvation, for you and for me</i>' rattled round the walls, conducted, song book in hand, by the General herself. How I wish I'd been there, just for that.<br />
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But if you didn't know the words by heart? Well, we were halfway through singing it for the second time before the words appeared, accompanied by a bit more PA howl...<br />
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If the ISB had played one of their big pieces badly, or the ISS had forgotten a repeated chorus or coda, people would have been quick to say so. But when the audio visuals are poor, something that actually impedes the worship of the congregation, why the silence - and why let Powerpoint steal our spontaneity?<br />
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If I am in the congregation, my needs are few and simple, but increasingly forgotten - and this is true for lots of corps and lots of other churches now, but demonstrated by the congress.<br />
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<b><u><br /></u></b><br />
<b><u>I need to hear the spoken word</u></b><br />
It really is inexcusable when the microphone gets switched on after someone has started speaking. How can I understand, be touched by, and respond to things I cannot hear or make sense of? See also: Mix, below.<br />
<b><u><br /></u></b><br />
<b><u>I need access to the words when I sing</u></b><br />
If you want me to sing from a screen, I need the words, the right words, to appear. I need them to advance at the right time; not to be expected to 'just know' when, say, a line is repeated. I need the words to be correctly spelled and punctuated. If this is too much to ask, can we just use the song book, which meets almost all the requirements?<br />
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This is divine worship. The best for the highest applies. If you can't play the piano, you don't offer to be the pianist. If God's not given you the gift of spelling, you might not be the one to write the slides.<br />
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Whoever runs the slides must give the task their full concentration, and must be sufficiently competent to dig out (or even type!) words quickly in order to help the leader of the meeting maintain their flow. Dare I say it, but no small degree of familiarity with scripture, and with Army music, songs and ecclesiology is necessary, and that these competencies are as critical as that of the pianist's ability to read music and play the piano.<br />
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<b><u>I need an idea of the tune, and when to start singing!</u></b><br />
Many songs in the Army song book have multiple tunes, and some of us like to mix them up even further than those suggestions (some of us even remember the rule, written in the songbook, of checking every verse actually fits the tune you've selected!).<br />
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How often, though, have you been in a meeting and a song is called, you rise to sing, and the first sound the band plays is the first note you are expected to sing? An introduction won't kill the band. It will introduce the tune and key, and it will give the congregation chance to get ready to sing. If it's not obvious, the meeting leader can also tell the congregation to which tune we are going to sing.<br />
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<b><u>I need to hear a decent mix</u></b><br />
It sometimes feels like the only feedback everyone accepts in an Army meeting is the howling through the PA, or the thud of people tapping on microphones to see if they're on.<br />
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Many Army halls have PA systems set with no reference to what is a <i>useful</i> EQ balance. Too much bass, too little mid and treble, and thus vocals are often indistinct. I'm coming to worship, and not at the Ministry of Sound. If I can't hear and understand the spoken or sung word, I cannot respond to it.<br />
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<b><u>I need to be able to sing my part</u></b><br />
Choral singing is as much a part of Salvationist DNA as brass bands, if not more so, because it is more inclusive. We sing, we sing well, and we sing in four part harmony. Amazingly, we have done this since 1986 with a tune book that has barely any words in it, whilst the Welsh and Scots churches, supposedly behind the times, are still producing tonic sul-fa books for those who want them.<br />
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Why are we trying, particularly through the auspices of 'Scripture based songs' and the like, to turn Army meetings into 'Songs of Praise'?<br />
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Why are we so often, needlessly, being pushed into singing in unison? In that same congress meeting, did we really need to have 'Lobe den Herren' (which has survived the test of a long, long time) to the ridiculous new 'walzy' arrangement, when that monochromatic 'amen' could have sounded again from God's people in glorious technicolour? Vocally, as scripturally, there are many parts in one body.<br />
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Your Great Grandad was known as a man who was not easily riled, but Big Granded remembers that one night, in an Army meeting he was leading as a Divisonal Commander, he turned from the platform to a very talented 'busker' at the piano, saying <i>"Captain, could you just play the straightforward harmonies, please?" </i>Save it for the offering, or the band or songster piece. Congregational singing has to be functional or it falls down!<br />
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When left to their own devices, those Salvationists in the Albert Hall did not sing in unison. Let's remember our heritage, and at least give people the choice by giving them the chance. This is <i>their </i>worship, too.<br />
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Second only to the General's skill and craft as a preacher and meeting leader, I was struck that congress gave us an example of how more and more, we are seeking to use modern technologies, which can make or break a meeting, and the extent to which people engage with the ministry of God's word. We need worship to be inclusive, accessible, clear and simple. And we need to remain true to who we are.<br />
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These tools (and boy have some corps spent money!) are only as good as the workmen. Maybe it's time that we should elevate the standing, the training, and our expectations, of the person doing the audio-visuals. We have made them the most important person in the meeting, after the preacher.<br />
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Love from DaddyDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-33575507885567938352012-05-28T14:30:00.000+01:002012-05-28T15:09:57.511+01:00#iwillfight?It's been a strange old weekend.<br />
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Sure enough, Saturday morning came and the postman woke us with some more nonsense from the nursery. It says something about a nation's priorities when a nursery is more likely to get in trouble for mishandling data than for helping to split children and parents. Having given them several 'last chances', I am now left with no alternative but to hang them with whatever legislative rope comes to hand.<br />
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Anyway, in the same way that we are not going to be going to the Olympics, we had the strange situation of being in London during a big Army congress, which, for one reason and another, we didn't attend. There were other occasions in your family over the weekend, and yesterday we went up to see Grandma and Big Grandad, to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.<br />
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On Friday night, though, we were at the Regent Hall for the 'warm up' gig with Commissioner Christine MacMillan, shortly to retire from her appointment as leader of the International Social Justice Commission, whose visit was of much interest. There was a great deal of atmosphere, and a sense of anticipation as to what the weekend would bring.<br />
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Ironically of course, the 'I'll fight' theme betrays a common but fundamental misapprehension regarding Army history. Begbie's biography of William Booth, like the War Cry of 1912, quotes a good deal of what the founder said on 9 May in the Albert Hall, but it is generally accepted by Army historians that he is unlikely to have uttered one of his most famous quotes - indeed, words in that form were first attributed to him several years earlier! A year on from a band's <i>120</i>th birthday, we commemorated a speech (the one he <i>gave</i> was a stirring one in its own right!) using words probably never uttered in it, which was a little odd.<br />
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The idea, though, that 100 years on from the promotion to glory of that great visionary and the founder of our movement, The Salvation Army should make another push into the field of social justice, is most laudable. I hope people take more time this year to study Booth's work and writings, which remain so very relevant to us today, if not in their practical absolute specifics, then in their sincere, Godly and audacious intent.<br />
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The '<i>#iwillfight</i>' hashtag was designated on Twitter over the weekend, and it was interesting to see what people had to say as the congress progressed. Predictably, much of it was about the event, the venue, the music, and admiration for people and their words. I ventured to suggest that it was today, and in the days ahead, that our 'fight' will be tested. We need the hashtags <i>'#iamfighting'</i> and when we win, <i>'#ifought'</i>!<br />
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I was reminded by a quip made by General Shaw Clifton at <a href="http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki%5Cwww_uki.nsf/stc-vw-sublinks/7A8510FF8E8D431F8025714D0048116B?openDocument" target="_blank">his welcome meeting</a> in 2006:<br />
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<blockquote>
<i>"It's a strange quirk of the Salvation Army's legal constitution that a general takes office at midnight. </i><i>It gives him or her a few hours to mess things up without anybody noticing, I think that's the rationale... there must be a reason for doing this to people at midnight!</i></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<i>...But I did wake up at about 6am, and Helen was sleeping soundly, so I thought 'that's not fair' so I woke her up and said "do you realise I've been the General for six hours?"</i></blockquote>
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<i>She said "What have you done so far?!"</i></blockquote>
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<i>I had no answer to that one! I said "I've slept through most of it so far!""</i></blockquote>
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That afternoon, General Clifton went on to say this, and I think this is all the more relevant in the context of social justice and this weekend's congress:</div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>So it is that God, who raised us up, is calling us again to be a Christ-centred, Cross-conscious Army. As I said to the High Council just a few weeks ago, He calls us back to the old wells. <b>He is not calling us back to old, worn out methodologies, but to the things that made us what once we were</b>: humility, simplicity, nothingness, brokenness, a readiness to risk all – even our reputations – for the sake of Christ, obedience come what may, a fearlessness that the world could not comprehend, a total and ruthless rejection of worldly enticements, a refusal to be seduced by, and to root out from among us anything displeasing to God, a heart for the lost and lonely, being all out for holiness and allowing Jesus to grow Himself within us to change us, and change us, and change us again, from glory into glory ‘til in Heaven we take our place.</i> </blockquote>
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<i>Where do you stand in all this?</i></blockquote>
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Many tweeted <i>'#iwillfight'</i> this weekend. But did they all get up this morning and get fighting? </div>
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This is the Salvation Army that put phosphorous matchmakers out of business, and kept bread affordable.</div>
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This is the Salvation Army that <i>bought a girl</i>, losing a man his liberty, to bring to light the exploitation of children.</div>
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This is the Salvation Army that gave women a full and equal role from the off, long before most of society did.</div>
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This is the Salvation Army that turned the world upside down, with Soup, Soap, and Salvation.</div>
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<a href="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/metflag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/metflag.jpg" width="240" /></a>This is the Salvation Army of our forebears; of your and my ancestors. </div>
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This is the Salvation Army, then, of people like you and me. <i>"Sing it as our comrades sang it, many a thousand strong, as <b>they</b> were marching to Glory", </i>as<i> </i>I used to sing in the singing company.</div>
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In kindness I ask all our Salvationist readers, and myself (and one day, as your Dad, will ask you):</div>
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'What have you done so far?'</div>
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Love from DaddyDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-63641215107233209592012-05-19T11:31:00.002+01:002012-05-19T11:31:46.065+01:00A drive down memory laneWell, it's a Saturday morning, so of course we should expect now that we're going to get something nasty in the post, and we have, but let's not waste time with that today.<br />
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Yesterday I had a bit of a trip down memory lane.<br />
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Some years ago now, having cycled up the hill to the circuit, I arrived at Brands Hatch and pitched my tent under the trees on the outside of Druids.<br />
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Next morning, I was woken at some unearthly hour to be told that, unlike at Oulton Park, you can't camp around the circuit! That day, I started my first full season photographing the British Touring Car Championship.<br />
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When I was a boy, I used to watch the BTCC's slot on 'Grandstand', with Murray Walker. Here's one particular incident I remember having on a rather worn out video tape!<br />
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<center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/g1nsqzCNpfQ" width="420">&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/center&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</iframe>
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</center><br />
Yesterday I returned to Brands for the first time in pushing a decade, as did the Schnitzer team who ran Steve Soper and Joachim Winkelhock back in 1993, when they took the British title. <br />
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It's the <a href="http://www.dtm.com/en/index.html" target="_blank">DTM</a> meeting this weekend, and I decided to take advantage of the cheap Friday tickets to go and see what was cracking off. It was frustrating, not having access to the paddock or being 'signed on' to go 'inside the fence', but I couldn't resist getting the camera out, so here's a few pictures, and a few famous names:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ralf Schumacher</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David Coulthard</td></tr>
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Anyway, I had an interesting day out, the little black car was able to stretch its' legs, and I got a few happy snaps.<br />
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It was sad to see children your age there, some of them with their little pairs of ear defenders on (which they definitely needed - the DTM cars make quite a racket!), knowing that I never got the chance to introduce you to 'my sport' and the environment in which I spent a few happy years working.<br />
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This morning's letter from the solicitors indicates that Mummy still considers it appropriate to break court orders, but equally appropriate to try and use them to persecute me, even when they don't say what she'd like them to.<br />
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Either way, as we approach 18 months since we last saw one another, yesterday held a bit of sadness for me. They will let you drive at Brands from the age of 11 now, and as I wondered about the likelihood that you will get the chance to do those sorts of things with your Dad, I was reminded of your very early driving career...<br />
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Plenty more where they came from!<br />
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Love from Daddy.<br />Daddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-75976110731732774842012-05-09T00:09:00.000+01:002012-05-09T00:09:10.853+01:00"Tonight, ladies and gentlemen...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
...I shall be tweaking the nipples of fear!" Good old Joe Pasquale.</div>
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Mummy's statement arrived today.<br />
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Of course, it arrived late, and by email, which no self-respecting solicitor accepts as service. It also arrived after I had written to the court to draw their attention to the fact that not only was it late, but I had emailed David Cobern to remind him, over two hours before the deadline.<br />
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David is very anxious that I shouldn't share any of the content of this statement, or anything else to do with the proceedings, publicly. This is in common with most people, and most cases, connected to family law, because nobody wants the world to see how families and children are treated by this industrial mincing machine. You will recall, though, that this blog has been causing consternation to David's client for around about the same amount of time that I have been back at court trying to get things sorted out for you (but not before - at least, not since last time we were at court... see the pattern emerging?!).<br />
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As part of his 'appeal' to me (yes, he did use that word) he helpfully referenced the Family Procedure Rules and their associated <a href="http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/family/pdf/practice_directions/Web_pd_part_12g.pdf" target="_blank">practice directions</a>.<br />
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Of course, the problem is that unless our readers happen to recognise your face, they don't know who any of the parties, or the child, in our case, is, because I only name people who work in the industry, who are involved in many, many cases in the South West of England. Even the most recent of my pictures of you are now almost half a lifetime out of date, so what are the odds on a random stranger finding an anonymous blog and working out who we all are? There are, in any case, more efficacious means of dealing with the specifics, like parliamentary privilege, and the Data Protection Act.<br />
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Let's just remind ourselves that over a year ago, I was told I had until the end of the afternoon to pull this blog down, or face an application to the high court for an injunction. That didn't happen, even when other people were paying, and now that Mummy's legal aid has run out, it's a brave person with debts running into tens of thousands, who takes on a man who already has lost his income and whose only 'asset' is a house worth less than he owes on it, jointly owned by the other party.<br />
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For the first time, today, I saw some semblance of half an explanation as to why Mummy separated us - and it's based on things she claims to have discovered after she did so, which is an interesting chronological concept.<br />
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The central claim is that my association with you, and your experience of having me as your Dad, was an unhelpful one, and that the status quo, that of bastardisation, is best for you.<br />
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I could make all sorts of running, and they would be good arguments, substantiated with truth and evidence, about the flimsiness and desperation of the claims Mummy is scrabbling to make that I was a bad influence on your life that you are well rid of. But there is no need, even in anonymity, to go into that level of detail.<br />
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Because I have too many pictures, and too many hours of video, of a happy, contented, relaxed little boy of two spending time with his Daddy, for anyone ever to believe that load of old cobblers. And as of this week, I am going to be saying less, and sharing more and more of those.<br />
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The court is unlikely to lower itself to personalising your case to the extent of looking at pictures and video of you. Previous judges have refused; if they had to do that for all the children whose lives they tinkered with, whose families they smashed and helped to steal, they might find it harder to sleep at night.<br />
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But you just look into your own eyes, son - and you will learn about the Dad you lost.<br />
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Plenty more where that came from.<br />
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Love from Daddy.<br />
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<br />Daddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-25331730812940120202012-05-07T21:18:00.000+01:002012-05-07T21:18:03.169+01:00The two RonniesIt's a few years, now, since I used to go to the then Wickes British Open at the Assembly Rooms in Derby, to watch the snooker. I got Willie Thorne's autograph and everything. Your uncles went to the Crucible the other day to watch this year's world championship, the final of which has just finished.<br />
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Well done to Ronnie O'Sullivan - and how lovely it was to see, and hear about, his little lad, and what fatherhood means to him, as Ronnie Jnr stayed with him for the presentation and interviews.<br />
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You can guess some of the things that crossed my mind as the confetti fell in the arena. At great moments of achievement in our lives, there are people we want to share it all with.<br />
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Especially in the case of such a naturally gifted guy who has had to face his demons, it was lovely to see the Two Ronnies on our screens tonight.<br />
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Not far from where they live, we are working to give other Dads the chance to do just the same, for and with their children...<br />
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Love from DaddyDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-40938004881696785212012-05-07T13:23:00.001+01:002012-05-07T13:23:58.417+01:00Covering your tracksAfter Saturday's post, here's a lovely quote from last night's '<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01h7k21/Have_I_Got_News_for_You_Series_43_Episode_4/" target="_blank">Have I got news for you</a>' from Jeremy Clarkson, who knows a thing or two about <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/the-worstkept-secret-is-out-jeremy-clarkson-had-an-injunction-2376453.html" target="_blank">injunctions regarding one's personal life</a>.<br />
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When, rather predictably, Ian Hislop led the panel in ganging up on him, he came up with this hard-earned piece of wisdom:<br />
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<i>"Here’s a top tip I’ve got for everybody really, if you’re watching. An injunction is a very expensive way of making sure a very boring story reaches the maximum number of people."</i></blockquote>
Jeremy Clarkson does come up with some gems, but for a more reliable reference, and an explanation as to why people might want their actions to be kept secret, how about this?<br />
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<i>"They are judged by this fact: The Light has come into the world, but they did not want light. They wanted darkness, because they were doing evil things." - <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3%3A19&version=NCV" target="_blank">John 3:19, NCV</a></i></blockquote>
Love from DaddyDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-61556669690173053862012-05-05T14:02:00.000+01:002012-05-05T18:57:57.508+01:00Facial recognitionIt wouldn't be the Saturday of a bank holiday weekend without something hitting the mat, would it?<br />
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Today, we mark a milestone. The first letter from Hartnell Chanot about you since we last saw you.<br />
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We found out this week that Mummy owes the Legal Services Commission £21.5k for part of the costs she has incurred to date, secured on our old house, the sale of which has fallen through in testing circumstances.<br />
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Mummy (well, Little Grandad) is now paying solicitors out of her own pocket for the first time, which is good news, as it introduces a bit of equality of arms to things, although little in the way of proportionality, save that they are now using <a href="http://www.hartnellchanot.co.uk/person/david+cobern/18/" target="_blank">David Cobern</a>, who isn't a fully qualified lawyer - presumably his hourly fee is lower than that of his predecessor, <a href="http://www.hartnellchanot.co.uk/person/jennie+read/16/" target="_blank">Jennie Read</a>.<br />
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Having said nothing for over a year, they want this blog down, just as I have <a href="http://lovefromdaddy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/coming-off-air.html" target="_blank">trimmed the content right back</a> to keep everyone sweet.<br />
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They have threatened us with various things, including another specific issues order, because they have seen us using your picture for our charitable work, and on here:<br />
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<i>"My client would invite you to take immediate steps to remove all photographs of [you] from the website (and any other websites within your control) at your earliest opportunity. Please also provide you [sic] assurance that no further images of [you] will be posted online or displayed to the public by yourself or anyone else on your behalf."</i></blockquote>
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I am a proud father, David. Nobody is going to stop me from sharing old photographs of my little boy. Not least when doing so is part of the process of coping with that fact that I don't even know what he looks like any more.<br />
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Love from DaddyDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-74503195573447899262012-04-27T16:31:00.003+01:002012-04-27T16:36:23.456+01:00Just another nine weeksI wonder how our parent readers would feel if they were told they wouldn't see their three-year-old for nine weeks.<br />
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People who spend less time than that in the Big Brother house moan about missing their family.<br />
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But this is the problem. As at today, it is, as my iPhone app tells me,<br />
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So on one hand the Judge said on Tuesday that the amount of time we have been apart has essentially cemented the situation, and on the other they are quite content to add 'just' another nine weeks into the process.<br />
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I applied to the court on 4 March. By the time the next hearing comes round, we will be over three months on, on a second trip to Torquay, just to get to a directions hearing on how the case will be dealt with.<br />
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And by then, the Judge will be telling me how it's been over nineteen months since you saw me...<br />
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A lesson to anyone in the family justice system. Status quo is everything. Delay is the best weapon your enemy can deploy.<br />
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Love from DaddyDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-89883229951340621592012-04-23T23:15:00.003+01:002012-04-23T23:19:25.934+01:00Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderitBoy, have we had to deal with some nonsense since Friday. Mainly down to CAFCASS.<br />
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I am dosed up and we hit the road in the morning. My first court hearing in respect of you since the day the order was made that allowed Mummy to separate us.</div>
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I have no words; I need to sleep, difficult as that is when I need to, just as it is difficult not to when the adrenalin rushes tire me out. </div>
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Either way, tomorrow has been a long time coming. As I enter the den of iniquity which separated us in the first place, I draw on words popularised by Carl Jung, which hang on the wall of an office I visited recently.<br />
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<i>'Bidden or not - God is present'</i>.</blockquote>
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Love from Daddy</div>Daddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-26303376191220358642012-04-20T21:53:00.000+01:002012-04-23T23:16:43.971+01:00A nasty silenceFive Hundred Days yesterday. Another appalling milestone. I'm not going to write about anything meaty, but I want to write, and nobody's going to stop me.<br />
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In a former career, Daddy came into contact, though admittedly, often fleetingly, with a few young men who were to make it to Formula 1.<br />
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<a href="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/f1px4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://www.motorphoto.co.uk/lfd/f1px4.jpg" width="320" /></a>Some of them were talented, some of them were rich, several were both.<br />
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Quite a number of them, out of interest, came from separated parents but most bucked the trend and lived with dad because he was behind their racing. The 2008 world champion went from living with mum to living with dad (pictured right applauding another victory) at the age of 12.<br />
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I went out to Pau one year, to the F3 race, primarily to maintain my customer's contract to supply Red Bull with pictures of all their racing activities. I was told to watch out for a young man called Vintantonio Liuzzi, who, er, failed to finish.<br />
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Then there was Takuma Sato, who won the British F3 championship in 2001.<br />
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<i>'Oh, come on Dad'</i>, I can hear you saying. <i>'These guys were rubbish!'</i><br />
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Well, there was a disarmingly introverted young lad called Kimi Raikkonen, who rocked up and wiped the floor with all comers in Formula Renault. The following season it was Heikki Kovalainen who took his place, but he never performed at McLaren.<br />
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A young lad with a lot of important friends competed in Formula Renault nine years ago. He didn't need lots of advertising on his overalls, because 'Uncle Ron' was paying. That, and he was a bit of a star, winning a memorably red-flagged race which ended in pouring rain on slick tyres at Silverstone. McLaren's investment seems to have paid off, although his latest team-mate is giving him a hard time.<br />
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Speaking of which, Haywood Racing ran a guy called Jenson Button in Formula Ford in the last season before I turned professional, who I seem to remember finding round the back of the garages at Oulton Park rather well oiled at one race meeting. He'd been hot property in karting, and even before he'd done anything in F1, Colin Brown, who was similarly successful in karting, was being touted as 'the next Jenson Button'.<br />
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It's sometimes a bit odd, then, to see these guys on the telly, three of them having been world champion since then.<br />
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One of the many reasons why I stopped doing motorsports was because I became disillusioned with the flow and disposition of money, and the way some people behaved. I found myself earning peanuts photographing young lads doing what I would have loved to have done, in many cases the only difference between us being how rich our dads were. I worked with some great people, too. Talented businessmen as well as rip-off merchants. Gentlemen and junkies.<br />
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This isn't about my precarious some-time existence as a motorsports photographer, though. Another time, perhaps!<br />
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Jenson, who owns a house in Bahrain, said this, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17782601" target="_blank">according to the BBC</a>, when asked about the situation in the country this weekend, as the F1 circus arrives on the island to prop up the embattled dictatorial regime, which has paid Bernie Ecclestone just enough to ensure that he colludes in their propaganda war:<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"I'm not going to get into the details of it. You are here interviewing me as a driver and that's exactly what I am going to talk about - motor racing," he said. "The outside issues, I'm not going to talk about."</span></i></span></blockquote>
I'm a great fan of Jenson Button's driving, and how he has learned to conduct himself as a racing driver, following some wild years when even Flavio Briatore wrote him off as a playboy. But this is the money talking, surely?<br />
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As Ed Miliband spots a convenient bandwagon to jump on, Jenson sidesteps the fact that his sport operates not in Bernie's little cocoon, but in a world - a world with its share of trouble, which in the case of this weekend, is probably being fuelled by the presence in a troubled country of the greatest show on earth covering for a regime which is attacking its own people.<br />
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Whilst Force India worry about the safety of their pit crew but not enough to pull out Jenson and Lewis worry about qualifying and the threat of Nico Rosberg,<a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/19/uk-bahrain-hungerstrike-idUKBRE83I0I820120419?type=formulaOne" target="_blank"> a man is starving to death</a> for democracy in the country. Street battles are taking place every night. The Arab spring is into its fifth season and F1 has thrown itself right into the heart of the maelstrom claiming all is rosy.<br />
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The shortage of influential people prepared, as Damon Hill has now done, to recognise that the Bahrain GP of 2012 is now inescapably a political event, is not down to an inability to recognise the problem, but an inescapable reality that Bahrain and its friends are so well invested in F1, and in teams like McLaren and many of their sponsors, that nobody dare speak the truth. If Jenson spoke his fans' minds, he might well never drive in Formula 1 again.<br />
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So it is with being a father like me to a son like you. Lots of people privately think what is happening to us is appalling. If Mummy gets what she wants, you will never have the opportunity to go racing with your dad, even if I am ever able to afford it! People tell me how indescribably hard they think it must be for me.<br />
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But far fewer speak out. 'Those outside issues' that don't affect them directly, they 'don't want to talk about'. Maybe they fear that they could be next, or that however good the cause, they don't want to get too close to a subject they think is risky for them by association.<br />
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I grudgingly understand why Jenson is carefully silent about Bahrain's struggles, just as I understand why so many 'good' people won't stand up and be counted on this most western of tragedies that we are caught up in. Self interest and self preservation are destructive natural tendencies when they are deployed most carnally.<br />
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But if it doesn't at least trouble them, that bit I do struggle to understand.<br />
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So as Formula 1 carries on, trying not to notice, less be affected by, the troubles of their 'hosts', we will be off to Devon on Tuesday, surrounded by a similarly nasty silence from the many who know, but won't say; who 'would do if only'... but don't, and, that being so, all the more grateful to God for those brave souls who bear this load with us.<br />
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Love from DaddyDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3248712423925261390.post-50670568034116994062012-03-12T10:12:00.001+00:002012-03-12T11:03:23.359+00:00Coming off-airSon,<br />
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We have business at court. The court doesn't like me talking about matters before them, and therefore I am removing my messages to you from the public domain, whilst this takes place.<br />
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Over fifty thousand page views have already told very many people of the excruciating suffering we have experienced, and one day will tell you who I am and where you came from. Nobody can change that.<br />
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Take care, little mate.<br />
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Love from Daddy.Daddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09265708243311442540noreply@blogger.com1