“Time goes by so fast; people go in and out of your life. You must never miss the opportunity to tell these people how much they mean to you.”

I love the above Quote. Unfortunately, loving and living are 2 entirely different things and I must try harder – could do better. Over the past few days I had the opportunity to observe people who take time. Not even time to save the world but time to stop and listen. Time to notice that a smile wasn’t real, time to help, time to give advice, and I saw what a difference it made for the people the time was spent on.


I went on a training day for Worship Leaders a couple of days ago. We looked at different aspects of Worship leading, both from a musical and a theological point of view. I felt a bit baffled because there were people there who had so much more experience in both aspects and yet they were quit happy to have me there too. At one point all the different bands went to different rooms to work on a song, creating different intros/outros, trying to find a different way to interpret a song etc. The person leading the weekend went round from room to room, listing in and offering advice where it was wanted. Now our drummer is quite young and although he knows a lot about music he doesn’t have a lot of experience of playing in a group. Now the person leading the whole workshop, certainly having so many different things on his mind, 2 other bands to check up on, maybe even having to prepare for the next session listened to us for a bit and made some general observations regarding our whole group – but in the end he just stood next to our drummer, showing him a certain beat and just remained standing there, tapping his foot to help keeping the rhythm. Until the drummer got it right and got confident enough to play it. He didn’t get impatient when the young boy couldn’t get it right, he didn’t roll his eyes when he fell back into his old was of playing – he just stood there until we all got it right. I know that to our drummer that bit of time – it wasn’t ages, it was maybe 10 minutes – meant a lot. Because the next day at the hall he proudly showed the “different” beat he had learned. All it took was someone to take a little bit of time out their busy schedule.

Today I received an Email I wasn’t very happy about. An Officer felt that SAGIC weren’t doing a good job and he felt our ways of doing business weren’t fair. My first reaction was to reply to the E-mail in a bit of a sarcastic manner, asking how he would do it if he had to deal with approximately 1000 schedules in a very short space of time and the people who should support you in that task where not giving you the necessary information? Luckily I thought twice (that doesn’t happen often) and I gave him a ring, asking if he could point out what exactly had upset him. At first he was quite strong about how badly he had been treated (he was surcharged for not having kept a deadline despite having been warned about it on at least a couple of occasions). But once he had said everything he had to say, telling me how wrongly I was doing it all I tried to explain my view and why I was doing my job the way I do it he started to understand my view and we parted in an almost friendly manner. I was on the phone for about 15 minutes, the 5 of them not being very nice for me as he was clearly quite annoyed with us. I could have written an E-Mail in 2 minutes (I’m really fast at typing – hence the typos!) but the extra 13 minutes mean that he has now promised that next year he’ll be in time and even though he wasn’t declaring undying love for me (a) he’s married and b) he’ll still have to pay the surcharge) he even had a friendly word for me and thanked me for my understanding and patience. Not that I was either of these when I was dialling his number – in fact I thought that he’ll get a good piece of my mind.

A few days ago I got a text saying: “I know you tried to hide it but you weren’t very happy today, were you? I hope you are feeling OK, thinking of you, xxx”. Now I suppose we all notice when people close to us are unhappy or upset. I also suppose we let people close to us know when something’s wrong so I was quite surprised at that text because it wasn’t from someone I would have considered particularly close – certainly not close enough to share anything that would upset me. And I know that this person would definitely have had better things to do than to watch me – but they took the time to notice that I wasn’t happy and more than that, they took the time, a couple of days later, to check up on it.

I suppose none of these things, considering that a day has 24 hours, took up much time. But all of them meant that someone had to stop for a minute and take time for someone else - I suppose in a way telling them that they are important enough to notice.

And sometimes I’m so wrapped up in myself, my problems, my issues, my thoughts, that I just forget to stop and tell “my” people that they are definitely important enough to notice, to take time, to realise when something upsets them, to listen to their worries. So I wanted to tell you that:

You may go in and out of my life. And sometimes time may go so fast in-between you entering and leaving that I forget to tell you how much you mean to me… if I do, please pull me up on it, will you?

Just so you know...

Switzerland managed to get 9 Medals at the winter Olympics this year. Yes, my little country, the one you all make fun of, little innocent Switzerland managed to get 9 medals. And the UK? Well… they were there too… they even managed to get a medal. Yes, a medal – as in 1. Well done.

Anyway, teasing aside, I thought as you all enjoy making fun of Switzerland so much I’ll tell you a little bit about it. Mainly about the political system – to prove that it does make sense, even if you don’t know the name of the President.

Where most countries have a single person to be their president, Switzerland has 7. 7 people work together for a period of 4 years to represent Switzerland (it’s rather unusual for a person to be elected only once – the average President stays on for 2 to 3 periods). Each one of them is head of a department with exception for the one that gets chosen to lead the 7 – this person changes every year, in fact, it’s almost like a rota system. The 7 people who work to lead the country come from different political parties – the left wing (2 reps) is as much represented as the right wing (1 rep) and family oriented Christian parties (2 reps) get a say the same way business oriented economical parties do (2 reps). This has the benefit that most decisions have been thought through thoroughly, taking into consideration the effect each decision would have on various groups of the Swiss population. If the people still disagree with a decision made they have various ways of making the presidents re-think their decision, they can start initiatives and write petitions. But I won’t bore you with details.

The fact that all the “main Stream” parties are part of the “reigning power” makes it impossible for a lazy opposition whose job in most countries consists in attacking ever decision made by the president and blaming all the bad things that are happening on the incapability of the leading party. There is no time for this in Bern.


Not only do all the parties have to work together to get to a decision – once the majority of the group has made a decision, all of them have to represent that decision even if they personally disagree with it. That means as long as 4 of the 7 agree on something, the other 3 have to go along with it – even if the “leading” one for that particular year is against it, he or she will have to represent the decision made. This is called the principal of collegiality. It's what nice people do :-)

So yes, we are a sweet little country with some great winter sports people, lovely mountains, four national languages…

…and, oh yes, a Libyan threat of Jihad spoken against us.

And you guys still think we sit on the fence… go figure.

Have you all had a happy Easter?

That was just a rhetorical question really, as I know that most of you must have had an awesome time in the Philippines (Katie), the Dominican Republic (Stacey & David), the Faeroe Islands (John), France (a group of people) Switzerland (Glyn) and Lowestoft (Ok, not as glamorous but still, Andy &V).

A few weeks back, when I first realised that so many people were travelling, I thought this Easter was going to be quite boring. Not in the spiritual, Christian sense of it of course, but just, you know… But I was wrong.

A few months back, just after Christmas, Tracy and I were asked to organize a play for Easter. We thought that surely it couldn’t be that difficult, after all when we did the Christmas Play there was so much material that we were spoilt for choice and that we should easily find something that we could do for Easter. We were a bit wrong. There are a lot of scripts around but nothing (and I mean NOTHING) seemed to be doable for us – we looked at so many different ideas (thanks by the way to everybody who kept telling us where/how/trough whom we could find more scripts or ideas) but I think we really weren’t easy to please with this.

During all this searching I too had to give in to the flue in January. And while I was at home I made the most of the excellent day time TV shows that make me proud to pay for my TV licence. I now know more about DNA Tests and why one would need to have one done than is good for me. And in all that the idea of a play was born. I will post the play in my other blog (www.anna-scribbles.blogspot.com, I'll find the fancy way of adding hyperlinks one day)– it might be the only thing to ever be posted on there but that’s OK.

So Tracy and I spend hours sitting in her car at the seafront working out how to turn this idea into something that made sense – Tomas the Disciple went from believer to Doubter to Traitor, Defender and finally back to Doubter. Poor bloke.

After hours of writing, rewriting, rephrasing and deleting we felt we had sort of stitched something together. I would just like to say that we have taken ideas from other people and the Professor was completely based on books that have actually been written by clever people who did their research, the idea to have a gardener was “stolen” from the “Glyn writes” blog.

There were several occasions were we felt that it wasn’t going to happen – when people we asked to be part all said no. But slowly it started coming together and there was a point when suddenly it wasn’t “Tracy and Anna are so excited about this and we don’t want to be the killjoy to tell them it’s rubbish” to “we are all together in this one”. It was great – great to see people coming to practise saying: I wasn’t comfortable with my lines, I thought we could change it… what if wore… how about having the chairs… and if I came in trough that door… and the lights could then… maybe if you spoke quietly…
It was so cool to see this turn into a group thing with everybody supporting everyone. It was as if everybody brought in their own knowledge about different things, like Darren giving tips on the acting, John correcting some Biblical facts that weren’t accurate, and Phill, spending hours to create our very own, very big tissue box – to make sure people could see what the Tissue Lady was doing.

And you know what amazes me most? That at the point where I felt that everybody that was involved with the play one way or another was getting excited about it I lost faith in it. Completely. All of a sudden I thought: This is never going to work. We need a big name in it because I can’t do my part so I started asking people if they could do my part, people who are known to be good with this sort of thing. I felt we needed someone to come along to our practices to try and safe what there was to safe, to tell us what to do because at the rate we were going… and anyway.. and it was only us, how did I EVER think it could work? (Un) fortunately none of the people asked could make it. And now looking back I am quite annoyed with myself because everything we needed was right there: People who weren’t involved but who still kept asking how it was going and supporting us this way. People who offered to sew all the costumes, people who gave their time and talents and worked really hard.

The day before the play I was absolutely useless because of my nerves and it was lovely to go to the cinema and just think of something else because at that time nothing could be changed anymore anyway. I was only slightly concerned about Paul – he seemed to enjoy a movie with Zac Effron in it (although he told me if I ever said that to anyone he would deny it – but we know the truth, don’t we.)

So when we finally played it out and everybody was perfect with words, cues and actions that all felt great. The congregation/audience joined in right from the beginning. It was pretty cool to walk in and have everybody clapping before I said the first word. It was awesome to see some of the shyer people really raise above their inhibitions, those who were struggling with lines to be word perfect and all our desperate last minute changes were in place as if had had millions of rehearsals. People even came from Dartford to see it 

But that didn’t make it the best Easter ever. The best Easter ever was when my Dad said to me: I’m really proud of what you did here. But I would have been really proud anyway.

...and when I'm old I shall wear purple

After having taken some time off bloggage I thought it might be time to make some efforts to keep my readers. Mainly those who get bored at work without my entertainment.


Those of you who know me know how excited I get when I have visitors from home coming. It's great to have people round and even better if they are people you haven't seen in a while and whom you've really missed. I think it's just the coolest feeling when you get a text saying: I have a weekend off - have you got a spare bed and a little time for me? And I'd do anything to be able to say: YES!!!

So just before Christmas Annemarie had a few holidays left and she decided to come and see me. It was funny but it was only at the airport that I realised that I had never ever seen Annemarie without her husband David. I had been friends with David and we used to lead the youth Group in Thun. I remember when we once went to some sort of event as a youth group and Annemarie was there. That was before they started going out. He said: Don't look, but it's her, over there... That's how it all started and it was really cool for her to come and see me so that we could get to know each other more. We had a great time and I look forward to catch up with both of them in Mai.

In February I had Martina (right) and Sonja (centre) over. The best thing ever is when you have friends whom you haven't seen for a long time but when you see them it's as if you had never been apart. When I first came back to Switzerland from Brazil Martina was going out with my Cousin and I couldn't stand her. Now you may tink that it's a bit silly to write that in a blog but she knows that and basically everybody does and this story still makes me the root of many jokes so I think I'm allowed to tell it here. Anyway, because she was going out with my cousin and I was living with my aunt we were forced to spend time together, like meals etc. And somehow all the disliking slowly turned into liking and there was apoint where I staretd to look forward to seeing her. So since then we had pick nics in her car, random car trips trough the hills, loads of swimming in lake Thun and Spagetti. I really miss her!

Most people who come to stay with me are friends. But in some rare cases I get a random message saying: I'm so and so, I'm related to x or friends with z. One of these People was Pamela (centre). She is Jasmins sister and we had only met briefly. It was a lovely idea for her and her friend Lara to come and spend the day with me when they were spending some time in the UK. I was really worried that it might be awkward to spend a whole day with someone I don't really know but I couldn't have been more wrong. After about 10 Minutes of walking down the high street it was as if we had been friends for years. Lara and Pämi hed the great idea to bring me some Swiss Chees Fondue. I didn't have the right pots to prepare it so we had to stand in the kitchen while eating to enable us to keep it stiring etc but it was one of the best meals I had.

Now I had great times with all the people who have come so far and I look forward to have loads of more people staying for a night, a weekend, or how ever long they think they can bear me. But I know that a lot of these visits have been made possible or at least been made easier by Andy and Tracy with endless drives backwards and forwards to Airport, Stations, Busstops, carrying suitcases and chasing bookings up online. THANK YOU GUYS!!!!

..and the next one is in sight already! 2 weeks until la bella arrives - the fact that in the last picture we took together you can still see Zavvi prooves that we have been appart for way too long and I had to live without random serenades at lake Thun, hot Chocolate around cheesy bartenders, impulsive decisions to get a piercing and sneaking into empry churches to sing the greatest version of Amazing Grace EVER sung!

On other notes my Tracy has graciously taken me to see Wicked. I loved the Music and, considering that usually stories where people die but then miraculasly (is there a word like that?) end up still being alive for whatever reason makes me want to poke the writers in the eye I quite liked the story line too. I was most amazed at the voice of the girl in the wheelchair and the guy in the ubertight trousers. And I won't even have time to digest all thismusical pleasure because my Tracy will also soon take me to see Sister Act - YAY!

If you happen not to be as lucky as I am to have Tracy who takes me to see all tehse shows then I thought I'd just mention taht on Easter Sunday evening there is a little play going on at Southend Citadel. It's nothing big, but it's the first thing I've wriitten (with loads of help of course) and if you have time then please come along! It's absolutely free and you get a free Songster Song and Band piece and all of that PLUS we have our own jingle so it would definitely be worth coming along.

Picking out the raisins

You might have heard that the world economy is not at its best at the moment. In fact, if you have turned on the TV, logged on to the Net, listened to the Radio or read a newspaper (even The Sun counts) you will be aware that times are not easy. The news of the Credit Crunch have invaded our everyday lives so much so that small talk is no longer about the weather but about the financial crisis. Even the question that you’d ask when you first meet a Swiss person has been changed from: “Do you yodel?” to “And how is the Franc holding up?” (They usually ask about the Euro – but I understand what they mean).

Fact is, the world is in a crisis. People are loosing jobs and houses and even the most basic things are getting more and more expensive. It is not a nice time.

Thing is though, that over all this, God is still in charge. He is so to speak, Master of disaster – however disastrous times may be, he is still the Master. And I’m sure that, if he can use good times, how much more will he be able to use bad times to show people that he is there, just waiting for them to come to him in times of need.

Thing is also that this is our time to stand up, to open doors and "shine our lights". I am convinced that people who would in normal circumstances not eve think about asking questions about life may now be wondering if there shouldn’t be something bigger than Wall Street, something more honest. And cool, in a time where demand is on an all time low, we have the one thing people might still be asking for!

Now with the Economy lying on the floor in defeat we can take the opportunity to look at all bad things it has done to people (by the way, have you ever stopped to think about headlines like: greedy bankers are to blame for all of this? As if the bankers where the only greedy ones! I only need to look in the mirror to see someone who’d love to spend more than she’s got – and I’m definitely not a banker).

But that wouldn’t help AT ALL, would it, really? So why don’t we look at all the good ideas the Business World came up with, and maybe use them in our favour? Most of them are no big new ideas, just basic stuff really!

- Customers won’t give you a second chance. How true –true for church people too! If people come to your place once and they don’t feel welcome they won’t come back. And I’m not even worried about the figures we like our Corps to show but about the number of seeking Souls that feel they have been looking in the wrong place. How sad would it be if your hour came and you got to spend eternity with the Lord and while you walk into Heaven you see all the poor wicked people who have been to your place of worship but you were too busy to have time for them.

- Don’t sell what you have – sell what they want! No explanation needed really. Except of course, we don't sell. We just give.

- Make them feel loved. Do you know the advert with the Top ups where this couple runs after the guy because he didn’t say Good Bye and the slogan is something like: with longer between the Top Ups, you are going to be missed. People appreciate when they are missed. It’s nice to get a Text or call asking where you’ve been if you didn’t make it to a meeting or so.

-Don’t be stereotypical or fake. Again, think of the advert of the fat banker guy with the introductory biscuits and introductory niceness? How many people come into your place of worship with ideas and prejudices – have fun proving them wrong.

I don’t know about your church (if you have one) but I, despite all the moaning about things (read: people) that annoy me because they are wrong (read: don’t do what I think they should), love my church. Despite the horrid Carpet. Because I can feel they care. They must do, or why else would some of them be at the hall on Saturdays at 8 to prepare for X-Stream Club, for Kids who wouldn’t hear of Jesus otherwise. People who get up early to pick up the elderly, people who spend their free time in the drop-in to feed the hungry. People who, however much I could make lists and lists about their shortcomings, are made in the image of God. And I hope that we can go more in this direction and less in the one that we sometimes feel more drawn to. Where we feel the need to “teach each other lessons”. Where we fight our little internal wars and forget the ones just outside the door.

So here it is: If you think that your life might be worth a little more than FTSE then maybe check out your local church. With that I don't mean the building. Or the Service. It might be a young peoples' group in your area, an open choir (I know a good one ;-)) or a drama group (we need you!) A parents and toddler group or a housegroup. There are many people out there who would love to welcome you in.

And if you are part of a local church, make sure you keep your doors open!

My Happy List

It has been indicated that people think I should be updating my blog. And they are right. The thig is - I don't know what to write about. So I thought I'll just tell you about all the little things that made me happy lately. As inspired by Colins "bad things list", please welcome here my "good things list"

- Going to the Lake District. I did take some pictures but I can't load them on the PC at work. Just take my word for it, it was lovely. We left Southend friday night and drove to Birmingham. Because of my silly legs I was treated like a princess (or a bit like a dog who needs walkies all the time) but I was given loads of legroom which was nice. We slept in a travellodge wich was really nice except for some reason the rooms we were given were on opposite sides of the hotel. Even on different floors. So I had the nice room and Tracy and Andy had the loud room. After that we drove up to Windermere which was just absolutely breath taking. We went on the boat and drove around all the cute little villages while Tracy kept chasing sheep to take pics. Apparently sheep don't appreciate being on Facebook, they all ran off which was funny for Andy and me in a nice warm car. Not sure Tracy thought all that running was great though. My favourite part of the whole weekend was when we walked up to the waterfall - it was so much like home! I got a bit carried away and started skipping and left the Peases to explain to the shocked tourists that I wasn't British. On our way back we stopped at Lynley and Stephen for food and a tour of the hall in Manchester, which was really lovely. They now say the 'all, experience 'ealing and eat pies - nothing else but pies.

-The Singing Company. Although I am convinced (and with me many others, I'm sure) that there would be more suitable people to lead a kids section in the army than me I have decided that I'm really happy doing it. I only decided that last sunday. The kids sang out greatly and they got applauded twice, firstly for the song and then because they did so well being only 4 of them (3 kids and Louise). I even got some (very small) smiles out of them, which was lovely and made me feel a bit like some weird old proud grandma - which most of them probably think I am anyway. After that I just walked away which left tha kids unsure about what to do and the poor group just stood there on the platform while the leader had fled back o the saftey of being hidden in my seat. OOOOPS!

-My Cornet. I'm sorry to be very off-show-ish here but a couple of weeks ago the Cornet section was highly diminuished. As it happenes there were only 2 of us, and one of us was feeling ill, leaving me to play the tune by myself. And I did it. It was an easy tune with no high notes, I knew it well and you may think that there is nothing special to it and absolutely everybody could do it. And of course you are right thinking that. But those of you who have ever been to a bandpractise where I played know that, as soon as my part would be remotely audible, I just stop playing and start smiling at Keith. Because, well, I figure if people could hear what I play they'd realise that I can't play at all. And that is why I'm quite pleased about having stood my ground and played out my guts.

-My home. I have not been home very often over the last few days and I find that coming into my flat now truly feels like coming home. It is the best place on earth. Of course its a pitty that this best place is far away from some other very nice places and people but it feels truly like the place where I wanna keep the fridge clean and make sure the towels get washed every week.

-Hot Chocolate. I can't imagine that one could need any further information about this point but a little tip: Try the hot chilly/cinamon one. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

-Guitar Hero. If ever I have too much money and am bored enough to spend it on a game it would be this one.

-And my one spiritual growth point for this month: Forgiveness. I realised that there are 3 kinds of people who hurt you. Those who happened to be part of a missunderstanding of some sorts and who are usually quite easily forgiven. Those who are shallow and don't realise as to how they make you feel, and they are usually easly forgiven because it wouldn't be worth the hassle otherwise. And those who are hurting themselves (themselfs???). Knowing that makes it all loads easier, doesn't it.

-ALOVE. We had a great evening, thanks to all of those who gave their time to come and be part of it.

And some others, like jazzy christmas music, friends wanting to come over to see me, heels that get stuck in gutters minutes before I should be ready to march, dresses that still fit, stormy seafronts and snow on the roofs. All good and ready for Christmas!

Train Rage

When I started working in London a few months ago, many people told me that they wouldn’t like to commute because of the train journey. But I have to say, out of all the commuters I am probably one of the luckiest ones. Living 2 Minutes from Westcliff station and working 10 Minutes from Fenchurch Street Station my journey can hardly be described as hard work.

Of course it would be nice if could sleep an hour longer in the morning and be home just after 5 in the evening, but because my train goes trough Chalkwell and Leigh I have the lovely view of the boats and the seafront. And at this time of year I can see the sunrise on my way to work and the sunset on my way back home, which is really quite spectacular, even when it’s cloudy.

Of course I am aware that for some people commuting must be hell, especially those who are not as fortunate as me to be in the capable hands of C2C. Sometimes I hear opinions on how bad the public transport is in the UK and I have to say, compared to what I hear I think the Shoebury – Fenchurch Street line is really well maintained.

But there is something that does annoy me. A Lot. It’s the people on the trains. Honestly! It was all right in the beginning, I didn’t know which wagon would be the best one to get in and where to stand on the platform to get a good seat. After I while I settled for one of the wagon at the end of the train and I fond the perfect spot to wait, exactly where the doors of the train would be when it stopped.

Every morning I would wait at that spot and just a minute or two before the train arrived I would be joined by pink tie. Pink tie is about my age and wears dark suits whit pastel coloured shirts and matching ties – quite often pink. He would usually arrive at the platform at the same time as I cold spot the train approaching in the distance. We would wait for the train to stop; he would press the button that opens the door and make a gesture with his hand for me to get in first. I’d get in and take a seat to the right of the door and he’d get in behind me, sitting to the left of the door. We became friends. Not real friends, but as friendly as you can become when standing next to the same person every day. We went from ignoring each other to acknowledging each other with a slight nod and in the end we even half-smiled (move only one corner of your mouth up, only a little bit,. Don’t break into a proper smile – that would be intimidating for the English commuter community).

Or little friendship was going ever so well until one day, out of the blue, greasy hair appeared. Greasy hair has longish and, as you may suspect, very greasy hair. Despite his suits he always looks scruffy and he does smell rather intense. Not in a good way. He started to turn up just in time for the doors to open and instead of waiting next to me and pink tie he just pushed between us and started to wait in front of us, at one point fiscally pushing pink tie away when he wanted to press the door-open-button. The three of us kept repeating our little morning ritual for a few weeks but after some time pink tie must have gotten tired – he now has moved on the front wagons.

Not meeting pink tie in the morning is sad enough, but having to put up with old smelly guy who wears leather trousers and jackets on Fridays really is not the best start of a new day. I started to adapt to him a little bit, no longer waiting exactly where the doors of the train are but just slightly to the right, so that at least he doesn’t have to push me aside when he arrives. And with time I got used to him, of course still silently sending him the evils every morning when he arrives.

But now a funny thing is happening – white coat joined our little “team”. She is even worse the greasy hair! Unbelievable! If she doesn’t push hard enough to be the first one the train she still manages to push you out of her way when you are already inside the train, thinking that you are safe! And, I kid you not, I started to feel a bit as if greasy hair was my ally – and I think he feels the same way because the other day he got on the train and stood in the door in such manner that I could climb in but white coat couldn’t get past him. And, even more surprisingly, he smiled at me – proper smile! I was so taken aback that I forgot to smile back. We are now basically us against her. (They probably have a name for me too, like old-fashioned-handbag or ginger-frizz-head).

Now while I’m sitting here with nothing better to do I was just wondering if there could possibly be a person rude enough to make greasy hair and ginger frizz feel more charitable towards white coat in order to have another ally to fight the newbie rudie.