Thank you, O Dr Toast!
You have merged my two passions! Toast and poetry – poetry and toast – how could I have lived without such eloquence at breakfast? (And the occasional slice of cinnamon toast in the early evening?)
This is for you:
(ahem…)
Cinnamon
Sugar and spices
Meld with the warm buttery
Crunch – ecstatic bite!
(But my offering is so little – check out the Doc’s wurdz…)
So tonight after choir practice I took a look at the current state of work on the removal of the organ.
Things have moved on a lot since Monday. Now in the place where the console has stood for decades is just a hole in the floor with a few wires trailing out, and the shadow on the floor where it once stood. In it’s place is our replacement organ, lent to us by the organ builders, an electronic organ a good deal younger than the Compton going off for repair.
Today there was a lot more to see at the other end, as the door to the vestry had been removed, and the vestry itself were a number of ladders and platforms to give the two man team access to the organ itself. The instrument is almost totally enclosed by a wood panelled box, which I assume was added around the organ after it had been built. However this solid panelling poses a problem for removal as the only access is now from the back, through two small doors above the vestry door. This is what makes the whole job take so long, as with the minimal room inside the organ, each pipe has to be carefully removed.
Further down the church is more evidence of work, as various planks of wood are laid out across the tops of the pews, where the pipes are placed after they have been removed. From there they get taken to the organ builders van ready to be transported back down to Kent.
Currently the hope is that we will get the Compton returned in time for Easter, but that is definitely more a hope than a definite, hence why the organ builders have provided us with a loan organ. Ultimately the big date that has to be achieved is July, as we have the bishop coming along then to re-dedicate the organ, and we can’t very well re-dedicate it if it isn’t there!
I blame Jasper Fforde.
It was in the back of ‘The Big Over Easy‘ that I first discovered the comic properties of toast. His advert for the Toast Marketing Board really did make me laugh out loud.
And then, while harmlessly shopping for an amusing card for a friend, I discovered Edward Monkton and his Interesting Thoughts on toast.
And now this.
It’s amazing what Google allows you to discover – this is perhaps why it is one of the best search engines in the world – but I’d like to you try this:
1. Open another window (so you can do this and still read the instructions, of course…)
2. Go to Google.
3. Type in ‘toast’. (Yes, I may be crazy, but it’s necessary. I’m a teacher. I teach English to teenagers. It’s a requirement. Just humour me.)
4. Hit the ‘return’ key.
One of the things you are likely to find, once you get past all the pictures of Jesus on toast, is a link to Comedyhome.com, on which you will find a little flash animated cartoon called ‘Toast‘. Inventive use of the machine, I will say…
By the way, if you are ever stuck without a toaster, the Internet always has a solution. Try The Toast Shop – six different varieties of Toast by Post, all for a modest charge…
We’re really enjoying the new series of A Seaside Parish, but I think one of the reasons that we’re enjoying it is because the outlook has widened out to include the local Bishop, and a variety of other parts of Cornwall. Although we still see life in Boscastle, it is showing much more about life in the wider church.
One of the interesting additions are a pair of new priests, who at the start of the series were just weeks before their ordination. This week we saw one of the practising presiding at a Eucharist on his dining room table. Now I know it sounds odd, but I’d never thought of a priest as practising this, but having seen the show it seems pretty obvious! The one interesting question that Beth asked was whether ‘it counted’, i.e. whether he consumed all the bread and wine after he had practised!
Next week we see the other new priest perform her first wedding. However from the trailer all does not go according to plan. Quite aside from the nerves of the first time, it seems she manages to drop the wedding ring, and of course the BBC film crew are there to capture the whole thing and broadcast it to the nation!
I had a great e-mail from Andy Tiller at Cognima today, as part of my ongoing discussion with him over Shozu:
Hi Richard
Thought you might like to know that we plan to make the change you suggested in our next ShoZu release (due February). The Java app will then work with an ‘ask once’ policy.
Thanks for helping us clarify our thinking on this.
Best regards
Andy
It’s really great to find an IT company that is happy to listen and open to discuss their product with their customers. Whilst most people would think that was a pretty obvious idea, you’d be surprised how many times I’ve put in bug reports or feature requests and not heard a thing!
Also it was great that the positive response means that next month I’ll finally be able to give Shozu a go. A somewhat better outcome than this example given by Hugh McLeod, where although the guys at RememberTheMilk responded, ultimately they couldn’t solve this guys problem.