Happy holidays

Hi everyone,

It's been a good Christmas for Beth and me, I hope you, my friends, are all well and are enjoying your holidays.

We have spent that past week at Beth's parents' house which has been lovely. The days were occupied with eating, walking along the canal in Carnforth (there was a beautiful swan family - mother, father, and teenager). We saw Beth's brother and his family on the 21st which was also a treat.

I had a pretty good haul from Santa this year: a couple pairs of desperately needed blue jeans, a winter coat, some candy, soap, etc. and two excellent bottles of wine, as well as a portable wine bibber's kit, complete with shoulder-strap, handkerchiefs, corkscrew, plastic wine glasses, etc.

We did a lot of reading by the fire as well, and I read Dostoyevsky's The Idiot. Unlike Crime and Punishment, it starts of happy and ends up very, very sad. For this reason I prefer Crime and Punishment.

Finally, I had a very good piece of news arrive the day before I left for Carnforth. I was accepted for the postgrad program I applied for at the London School of Economics. I can't remember if I've already blogged about applying there, but it's an MSc in Comparative Politics, with a focus on Nationalism and Ethnicity - my favorite subject. This was really exciting because LSE is 'the business'. Thus, if the Lord wills it I will be moving to London in July and starting classes at the LSE in September. I'm now going to do a bit of bragging about it because when I lived in Canada I didn't have a clue what the London School of Economics was and this way you all can understand why I'm excited. Something like 13 nobel prize winners have gone there and around 40 world leaders including JFK and Pierre Trudeau. The professors there are basically celebrities, and the course leaders for the degree I've applied for are the best there is.

Needless to say, nothing is ever set in stone. There are a number of very large hurdles, and like I said, it very well might not be in God's plan. Anyways, it was exciting just to be offered a place. Hopefully though, things will work out, pray for me about that if you will.

Gettin' by

Hey friends and family,

suppose I better hurry up and do a new post so that my last one doesn't continue to leave its depressing last word in cyberspace.

Since my last post I've dedicated serious time to the enjoyment of my great friends here in Leeds. I've had the blessing of seeing them a couple times a week since I last posted, and had some great times. Last Saturday was really fun, we had a few pints in Headingley, and then went dancing at the Hi-Fi club which was smashing. A truly therapeutic evening.

This Friday just past, our Christian club met up at my favorite pub (also in Headingley) called 'Arcadia' which serves up the finest selection of real ales in Leeds. These babies are hand pumped and served just slightly chilled. To most this would sound gross (warm beer, and flat too), however, the reason most beer tastes like crap when its warm and flat is because most beer is crap. A good cask ale (my favourite being one brewed right here in Yorkshire by Caledonia) has nothing to hide and no "pee" flavoured aftertaste. Mmmmm, there is, I'm afraid, no North-American equivalent, although I've had some damn good local stuff from Micro-Breweries there.

Flash forward to Sunday where Beth and I spent a leisurely afternoon once again at the Hi-Fi club. They serve up some bad-ass jazz/blues there on Sundays and some really awful food. I had remembered it being alot better, but my roast beef and yorkshire pudding were totally freezer burned and nasty. When the waitress asked me if the food was all right, I was like "no, it totally sucked, but whaddya' do?", well, she gave me a free drink, so I chose the most expensive beer. A German Wheat Beer served in one of those crazy tall pint glasses that they serve Belgian and German beers in.

Anyways, I've changed my outlook. Optimism has become a matter of survival. If life gives you lemons, you use them to chase tequila shooters, right? I bet someone has said that before, but to the best of my knowledge it is a Drewfasa original. Please feel free to tell me if I have plagiarized it, otherwise, hurray for me!

Beside beer, I have also been medicating myself with the Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, Dave Brubeck Quartet, and Ben Harper.

Blessing to all my friends in the blogosphere! I miss you all very much :)
Ciao!