Sunday, February 12, 2012

On Retreat

This week I have been on retreat. a chance to get away from it all, think about nothing else but me and spend time with God and other youth workers from across the diocese.

After 4 years of doing this and seeing people regularly in that time, we're starting to feel a lot like a family. We are relaxed with each other, we laugh and joke a lot of the time, and I do go back to normal life very relaxed.

Andy, Rachel and Alice do a sterling job as our youth advisers  (and all the other things they do!) and being on a retreat with them makes all of us realise that we are very fortunate to be in jobs that we love doing. We are ready to pray, listen, help each other out in the best way.

It is really nice to catch up with people as well and spend the time getting to know others.

We were really blessed this year by a guy called Andy Freeman, who is the author of Punk Monk, he's involved in 24/7 Prayer and knows one very important person who set me on my youth work way - Carrie Hayward! He gave us time, to sit and listen to God, to go through our thoughts about things, to pray for those things that we had given up on.

I did come away content, happy to move on and ready. There is a lot to do over the next month or so and then we'll be getting ready for Easter!



Thursday, February 02, 2012

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I had another chance to go to the cinema yesterday - this time with someone - huzzah!!

We had decided that we wanted to see Chronicle, and forgetting entirely that it was Orange Wednesday's, we didn't buy our tickets when we decided, but waited until just before the start of it to buy our tickets, which meant that we missed out. So instead, with caution on my part, we opted for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

We settled with ice cream and a little bit of hope. It started exactly like a Bond movie, and a dark one at that and with Daniel Craig popping up as the main character, it feels like Bond, but without the gadgets. You still fear for his safety and hope that he will come out saving the world in the end, without the world actually being at risk.

A young girl goes missing and the task is to find who killed her and why. Daniel Craig is employed for the task and asks for help, which comes in the form of a woman who is described as insane by the state. These two characters are leading very separate lives, you find out about them, and they are thrown together, they solve the mystery and everything, sort of, turns out ok.

Now, this movie is an 18 certificate and for the first half an hour we were wondering why and then you find out why, it quite a dramatic way. I am pleased I am 27 and not 18, this is not a movie I would watch again, and it does worry me that the scene was allowed into the final cut, but then, it is an 18. I did not look at the screen for the duration of some of the movie.

And the use of the Bible and the law was interesting. I don't want to give too much away, but I can see why the writer has used it and how it will come across that this is a very wrong use of scripture.

A well structured movie, that is easy to follow and pulls together well in the end... could've removed the scene that I have spoken about, but it would still be an 18. Be prepared is all I can say.