Confused.com

This is a famous car insurance and they have their adverts everywhere now. I thought about them today as I read this article about the local rotary club that has been forced to fit a belt to the sleigh that SANTA uses there - or face a £200 increase in its insurance premiums. I am sure this is essential as going about 2 miles/hour in a sleigh is pretty dangerous for a big guy like SANTA. I just hope that SANTA will find good insurance for his deers on Christmas eve, I hear that they leave the sleigh parked in double yellow line while SANTA is delivering gifts!

What is next for Christians?

I received this article with just one example about Christians treatment in Egypt. The article is published in Arabic in Arabia Net and here it is in English. All i can say is that we keep praying.


Egypt Copt jailed.. 45 years after father's conversion

(AFP) — An Egyptian Christian woman has been jailed for three years
because her father's brief conversion to Islam 45 years ago made her
legally a Muslim while her official papers said she was Christian, her
lawyer said Thursday.

Shadia Nagui Ibrahim, 47, was charged with fraud for stating
Christianity as her religion on her marriage certificate, unaware that
her father's conversion to Islam in 1962 had made her officially a
Muslim, Michael Maurice told AFP.

Nagui Ibrahim left home in 1962 when daughter Shadia was two years
old, converted to Islam and took on the Muslim name Mustafa.

Three years later, after a reconciliation with his wife, he moved home
and re-converted to Christianity. In the process, he got someone to
forge his documents back to say he was Christian.

State reluctance to allow citizens to put their religion of choice on
national identity cards means many seek forged documents that can
result in criminal prosecution, New York-based Human Rights Watch said
in a report earlier this month.

In 1996, the man who forged Ibrahim's documents was detained for
falsifying dozens of documents and confessed to changing Ibrahim's
papers.

Authorities detained Ibrahim and also informed his daughter that on
paper, Ibrahim was still a Muslim and therefore so was she. Children
in Egypt automatically take their father's religion.

Under Egyptian law it is also illegal for a Muslim woman to marry a
Christian man.

She was charged with "providing false information on official
documents" for stating she was Christian on her marriage certificate
in 1982.

After a lengthy trial, she was sentenced to three years in absentee in
2000 but the case was subsequently dropped.

She was detained again in August this year and sentenced to three
years on Wednesday after just one brief court session, her lawyer said

Gingerbread "person" anyone?

This is the last straw I think. The news that we are now supposed to change the name of gingerbread man to gingerbread person or gingerbread people as it is not politically correct anymore.

I don’t like gingerbread anyway (nothing personal really) but I had so much fun helping in my local school with making gingerbread man with the kids, it was fun and messy experience. I was trying to follow the recipe while running after the kids who are trying to taste the dough that had raw eggs and stopping others from dipping their toys in the honey or making tracks on the floor with the flour. However, eventually we made the gingerbread man and they were really nice.

So what is the problem with calling them gingerbread man? And who exactly got offended by that? And where is all this political correctness taking us? and what is next? protest against snowman? Most women -in my opinion- do not actually mind what we call those ginger cookies, and it is not– as far as I am concerned - an equality problem in anyway. When God created us both men and women, He created us on His image, equal in His sight. Equal in being sinful, equal in our need to His grace, equal in being human and equal in our need to be accepted and loved. But saying that, He gave us different talents and different characters and so different ways to contribute and make a difference.

So when it comes to fitting that IKAE bookcase with instructions that only an expert in Egyptology can read and understand (as it seems to be in Hieroglyphics), men are well talented to do that and most women will have no problem accepting that. On the other hand, cooking, tidying and baking “gingerbread man” is enjoyable and women love doing that. I might be still sticking to the old stereotype but I believe that the issue is not who does what or what do we call things, gingerbread men or postman or chairperson etc. The point is that we are all accepted as equal in God’s eyes and that if I was the only woman on earth , Jesus would have still died for me and for my sin. It does not matter who does the ironing, what matter is that we are equal in being people who need to be loved and accepted as we are.

Mr speaker...Big brother is watching!

Yesterday the BBC showed the first of a series about the Blair years. Yesterday it was about the relation between Blair and Brown over the years and the reality of different stories about the tension between the two of them. Here is a clip that shows at least the funny side of Mr Brown or the side of him that forgot that Big brother is ALWAYS watching.

Beware, Christians approaching!

I tuned in to listen to a program on a Christian radio station and just before it was about to start, there was an announcement that said: “the following program contains material that may let you reflect on your life style”. The program was on how our diaries reflect our priorities and commitment to different things. It also did ask the question: where is God in our busy lives. However, the interesting point was in that early “warning” before the program started (it certainly felt like a warning). Do we now need a notification on a Christian radio stations before hearing God’s word? that we are actually about to listen to God’s ways being preached? Or are we so worried about offending people or saying things that do not conform with their life styles? If we are going to do that we should have a warning on every printed bible; “this book may actually change your whole life, you may be living in peace, you may be saved for eternity and you may actually start to love your neighbours as yourself”. And what about going to church: “becoming part of this community may lead to a real fellowship, less gossip and spiritual fulfilment, beware!” I may have read too much into that little announcement, but Jesus was also clear from the beginning, he did say that it will be a hard and narrow road walking with him (Mathew 7: 14) and that in this world will have troubles (John 16: 33), but the biggest promise is that he himself will be there every step of the way. So if we are going to put warnings up about Christian values, let us put the promises there too.

I have won the Lottery!

YES! I have.
I have won the €UROMILLONE LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL. The good thing about this lottery is that you have a chance to win if you play and you ACTUALLY win if you don’t play. I received a letter informing me that “due to the mix up of numbers, addresses and the holidays, the results were released on the 2nd November 2007, your name attached to ticket with serial number 7216-05 drew the lucky numbers which consequently won the lottery in the 3rd category. You have therefore been approved for a lump sum payout of € 785.790.00 in cash, congratulations”
But this is not the exciting part, the important part is that for “security reasons” they are asking me to keep this from public notice until my claim has been processed and the money is safe in my account. There is also another “little” form to fill in with few needed information that is important to claim my prize. The form includes my name, address, date of birth, my bank account and sort code (obviously to transfer the money) and some identification.
I am just amazed with how brave those people are, the envelope got my name and address printed on and the stamp is a Spanish stamp too. I think this is the new age lottery, where it does not matter whether you play or not, you still have a chance as long as you hand in all you personal and bank details they will grantee a win. Just a minor change in details though, THEY will win the millions out of naive people.

Christams shopping list

As Christmas approaches, i thought a helping hand is needed if you are stuck and need few new ideas. so here it is..enjoy!


A Japanese boy looks at a 10 cm (4 inch) model of Japan's rocket-powered boy Astro Boy encrusted with diamonds, rubies and emeralds worth about 100 million yen (£415,000) displayed at a Tokyo department store April 7, 2003.
Artist Osamu Tezuka, considered the father of Japan's animation or "manga" industry, created Astro Boy as a serialised comic strip in 1951 and set his character's birthday far in the future-April 7, 2003.


A shark-shaped model inlayed with 4,276 diamonds is displayed at a shopping mall in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei province in this picture taken on May 24, 2005. The 26 cm (10 inches) long model is made of 18K platinum and worth 18.8 million yuan (about £1.15 million).

A model demonstrates the use of Umo Inc.'s 24-carat gold leaf "Gold Facial Treatment" at the Beautyworld Japan 2007 trade fair in Tokyo. The treatment costs 30,000 yen (£130).

OH..deer!

Have you seen the chocolate Christmas deers? I could not help thinking about the Easter bunnies and wondered if an accident in the production line for Easter bunnies has led to the idea of the Christmas chocolate deer. Well, you can see the photos and make up your own mind. For me it is wonderful chocolate anyway and will be eaten regardless!

The boy king

Few days ago the face of the 3,300-year-old mummy of Tutankhamun (the boy king) was reveled for the first time to the public.
“The golden boy has magic and mystery” Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told reporters before the body of the mummy was moved to its new case. Thinking about it, the greatest thing in Egypt is a burial site! The pyramid itself. Ancient Egyptians were obsessed with death and the after life, all the focus was on “what happen after we leave this life”. It is the part I like about ancient Egypt, they have made so much scientific progress and they believed in the after life and realized that it is more important than the here and now (I obviously disagree with them about the final destination of this after life). The boy king was buried with all his earthly possessions all the gold and jewelry etc, and the belief was that these were the things that will be used again in the after life. So you die and come back to the after life and you find that same old vase that you always hated right next to you, not a great start to eternity, is it?

But on serious note, where are our treasures? And do you think about your treasures when you hear the stock market report or when you read the word of God?