Its an International Fair

Blimey what  a busy day. I had to miss the official opening of the New Palmer Park. Its really great, if you have children you really should go there and try it out. I had to miss the opening as my good lady wife is playing the piano at a wedding in Surrey, my old school actually. Kath can't drive because of her epilepsy so it I am incharge of travel in the McKenzies. Well we dragged ourselves to Surrey and the Priest didn't have the key to the piano so we had to drag ourselves home. Ho hum.

Shame I missed the opening. My youngest daughter loves the park. The picture is of her enjoying one of the new bits of kit.

Spent the morning talking to residents in Park about the problems and issues they face in their streets. It is always a pleasure and interesting talking to my friends and neighbours in the area.

I had a fab afternoon at Alfred Sutton Junior School's International Fair. This is a school fair with a difference all the different communities of the school have the opportunity to show off. There were stands from about 15 different nationalities including Pakistani, Ghanain, Japanese, Indian, Moroccan, German, Italian, Polish, South African, Welsh, Jamican, Bulgarian, Islandic, Saudi Arabian, Australian and English.

I was on the English Stand and we were giving away samples of scones and marmite slices. We had a short consumer test to see how many people loved marmite and how many people hated it. As usual the lovers of marmite were in the majority.

The international fair had a serious side too. The governors want to establish a Parents' Forum, which will be a way of giving the parents a voice in to the governors and to allow school parents to bring concerns directly to the governors. We want to reach out in to every school community. My committee has been asked to organise the forum. The International Fair was the ideal opportunity to speak to as many different communities as possible to hear their views. So as well as standing behind a stand and handing out scone samples I was talking to the stall holders and to get their views.

Parents, or at least the ones I spoke to, seemed very positive to the idea and I look forward to working with them on the project.



This a picture of me at last year's International Fair

OMG - Not Nice

Sorry haven't posted for a bit, been busy out on the streets talking to residents and getting things done. Have to say that rewarding though this is I really wish it would stop raining everytime I go out. There is nothing more dispiriting than holding a clipboard that has water dripping of the edges and where the paper has gone soggy.

BUT - Was going to post about Obama's historic victory in getting healthcare widened in the States and talk about our wonderful health service. I have to have yet another blooming op next week. Duff knee due to falling off a motorbike a long time ago, this will be the 4th or 5th time it has needed work. Sympathy and messages of support welcome.

BUT- Mk2 in cycling around the ward this week I have been cheesed off to note the OMG tag all over one end of the Ward. See photo. I have advised the Council and I hope that they will clean them up soon.When funds are short it really niggles me to have to spend money to clean up this unneccessary mess.

The worst of it was I was obviously following the tagger round as I kept on seeing it. V frustrating so had to make another call to report the tags.

Another Night's Street Pastoring

Well have just got out of bed after an evening's Street Pastoring. Town was amazing as it was sooo empty. I am not completely sure why, however seemed to be hardly anyone in town.

It appears that there was  something at Mango and Calvin Harris up at the University. Mango was rammed and I think a lot of students were spending the last Friday of term up at the 360. I wanted to go to the 360 but was on duty. There was also a very bitter wind coming down from the NE and it made the evening tremendously cold.

So as you can imagine there weren't hundreds of people staggering about and falling over as there usually is on a Friday. We spent our time talking to the door staff and the street people. We were able to help a guy in a door way find somewhere to sleep for the evening and when we had done this he was off to his bed and bath like a rat up a drain pipe.

My colleagues spent sometime talking to a woman who wanted to off load about decisions she had to make in her life. I hope that she wakes up this morning with a clearer vision of which path to take with her life. We chatted to the Police, who confirmed our view about the emptiness of town.

Some of our colleague came across a man who had been attacked while he was sitting in a bus stop. Ambulance and Police called. Once they had arrived we let them do their jobs and moved on.

At about 2am the decision was reached to head back to home and then home. Walking up Queen Victoria St I saw a man slumped asleep in the doorway of a travel agent. We went up to him, checked that he wasn't dead, which he wasn't.

He was however considerably more than half cut. Myself and a colleague tried to chat him round. That is talking to him until he responds. This took about 5 minutes for his befogged brain to respond. It would have been longer, but another team member had started to pray.

The unconscience man started to wake up. Being up isn't the same as standing up. We had to persuade him to stand up once he had opened his eyes. He slowly uncurlled himself and stood up in a very very unsteady manner. We gave him a bottle of water and this seemed to revive him. We asked him where he had to get to, Spencer's Wood,  we pointed him towards to the taxi rank. Off he staggered smilling towards the taxis. Once we saw that he was ok, we went off home.

Another night over, bed at 3.30....

Support the Church of England !

Ok, I never actually thought that I would ever write this, however I have to put this link up to highlight the CofE's guidance to churches about not allowing the BNP a platform at the General Elections.

http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/socialpublic/urbanaffairs/crp

I was going to talk about about recent campaigning efforts as this seems much more important. Well now I am here feet getting sorer as the evenings get longer. Although it is sooooo cold at the moment. If you see a red bennied mummy knocking on your door in Park then it is probably me coming to talk to you.

Had an interesting conversation with a chap, who wondered what had changed in the area in the last 10 years. Well apart from:

1. New Buildings at Alfred Sutton Junior School
2. Brand Spanking new hospital at the Royal Berks
3. New 6th form centre at Maiden Erleigh school
4. New school at Addington School
5. Growth of Reading University - Lots of growth there
6. Improvements to Palmer Park Stadium
7. Improvements to Palmer Park itself
8. All the buses in Reading Buses
9. One way system in Newtown
10. Leasing the Paddock at the Mockbeggar site to a community garden, some real progress being made there now.
11. Protection of the Alfred Sutton playing fields
12. Council support for CommuniCare at Wycliffe Baptist Church
13. The Police becoming community based and the setting up of a Police Office in the Arch

These are the ones that I can think of as I write, sure there are more but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.