whose living below the line is it anyway?

so my beautiful wife Val wrote a cool blog which you should go read here and the bottom line of which is we are going to be taking the Live Below the Line challenge next week [may 2-6]

her summary of it is here:

“From May 2-6, I will be taking the Live Below the Line challenge. I will be living on the equivalent of 1 Pound a day, or R12. I am doing this to raise awareness for and to better understand the challenges faced by the 1.4 billion people who live in extreme poverty. The money that I would have spent on food during the week (check out the rules), I will donate to a poverty alleviation project. This is not a warm-fuzzy-feeling initiative though. The truth is that most of us have absolutely no idea what it is like to live below the poverty line. Conversely, we lose sight of the abundance we enjoy daily. Yes, I will be limiting my food and drink costs to R12 per day while the truth is that for those 1.4 billion people living below the poverty line, their R12 or $1.25 or 1 pound has to cover far more than food. It is all they have to cover their health, housing, transport, food, education, hygiene, electricity and other needs. I cannot even begin to fathom such living.”

[tbV wrote this before chatting to me so when she says “I” she means “we” cos she didn’t know i was joining in with her yet]

so we are going to give it a try and would like to invite you to join us – some of the people i would specifically like to invite to join are those who have had a lot to add to my blog lately – people like Amanda and Cindy [the pita Royal Wedding], Morne, Warren, Joanne, Filon and Jeff, [simple is the way], Nathan, Elton, Bernard and Gizelle [new audio thort – forgiveness] – you have had a whole bunch of stuff to say about me and the way i do things and so i would love to extend the invitation to get involved in something positive that we are going to be doing and the money you save during your week can go to whatever charity you see fit to support [World of Birds included]

as Val says, this is nothing in terms of making a significant impact on poverty or anything like that but probably more for us to, at least for one week but hopefully for much longer and even forever, really ‘get’ it a bit more – also maybe for a bunch of us to see just how much we are able to do without and some of the stuff we waste our money on…

so it’s just one week – only food and drinks – and going for R12 a day – who is in?

and go and read her full blog post if you haven’t yet

you can also check out the shopping list we are using here and the menu for the week here and we’d love your thoughts, comments and ideas if you have any..

please let us know who is going to be joining us…

sometimes doing nothing is something [Happy Eastering!]

this morning i walked up the mountain [slash glorified hill] above the stellenbosch sports fields with my friends megs and gnomus and a cup of BP coffee at a few minutes past 6 in the morning…

we walked to the rough wooden cross and found a place to sit and stared across the valley at the luminated cross in the distance [til they switched it off]…

there was more cloud cover than actual sun but we did get some glimpses of light and had some moments of silence and just meditating on the significance of the day and then we had a good time of catching up and talking about now and the future and life and God and cutlery…

and there was a moment when i thort it would be rad if there were more people there to be able to enjoy the amazing time were having – i have gone to the rhodes memorial easter morning vibe where hundreds of people turn up with blankets and there is a band and programmes and it’s all very nice for those who want that, but i actually thort, no, this is great. if more people come then someone will want to ‘do something’ and for us here in this space and time, that’s not the point. we don’t have to make it official, we don’t need a programme, no-one needs to take charge – we can just sit and be still and know that he is God – and then enjoy the community aspect of three friends on the side of a hill.

and actually that was enuff. an amazing start to this truly significant day.

and nothing was actually a very big something.

brett andy blogsite up and running

So somebody suggested i create a separate site just for brett andy’s and it is probly still under construction in terms of getting the right look and feel, but here is a look at brett andy mock I – only one brett andy on it thus far but will add regularly as and when i have them… feel free to bookmark and spread around…

Check it out here http://brettandy.wordpress.com or here…

But definitely not here.

brett andy IV

more brett andy’s – i think of these the weaker ones are weaker and the stronger ones are stronger but if you could leave a comment as to which are your favourites or just your top one, that will be very helpful, thank-you:

“I imagine it must be fairly awkward when the slow dance music starts playing at a Smurf club.” [brett andy]

“I think if aliens ever invaded our planet and spoke a kind of English we could understand, it would be quite awkward if their word for ‘probe’ sounded like our word for ‘hug.’ [brett andy]

“I think a great horror movie would be one where a killer is running rampant in a mime college. Cos if you’re caught screaming you fail instantly and have to repeat the whole year again and are the exhorbitant school fees really worth it?” [brett andy]

“To me bungee-jumping is nothing more than leaping from a height while secured by a long nylon-cased rubber band from the ankles.” [brett andy]

“Michael Schumacher. Margaret Thatcher. Martin Luther. Imagine a world where you were forced into the occupation your last name dictated.” [brett andy]

“I had a flea circus once and the fleas were insanely talented in a whole variety of different acts. But it was the neighbour’s dog who stole the show.” [brett andy]

“Do you think it was by accident that ‘desert’ and ‘dessert’ are spelled one letter differently? I don’t think so. Someone with a brain obviously realised the unnecessary confusion that would have resulted if they had both been spelled exactly the same.” [brett andy]

“If you could send a vacuum cleaner into a black hole in the middle of space, I imagine they’d have a lot to talk about.” [brett andy]

“Since hardly anyone has ever had contact with this snowman creature, where do we get the idea that he is so abominable?” [brett andy]

“I started a business designing and manufacturing shoes for circus clowns using the lead from discarded pencils. But I had to stop once I was made aware of the huge carbon footprint I was creating.” [brett andy]

[if you’re on Twitter you can follow brett_andy for the shorter ones and if you want to see the ones you missed so far then click here or here but not here]

don’t lose sleep over this…

interesting article on short sleepers, those rare people who can go without sleep without it affecting them – late to bed, early to rise and still on full power… i’ve always suspected but the article does say there are more who think they are than actually are… hm…

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/112502/why-people-can-run-on-little-sleep-wsj

i kissed dating, part Step up! [Both of you!] – for the Men?

Jesus-loving single guys, this blog is for you:

i would love to hear from single Jesus-loving guys who read this blog. This seems to be a really huge cry from Jesus-loving women out there and i really think it’s important that we hear both sides. I don’t believe this is only a guy responsibility. I think there are issues on both sides of this dilemma and the best way to move forward on it is to hear from guys in the situation.

Here are some of my questions:

* Do you think it is fair to say that the guys in church need to step up and take some responsibility on this issue?

* In what areas do you think the girls in church need to take responsibility for the situation?

* What do girls do or fail to do that exacerbates (increase) the issue?

* What can the girls do to make it easier for you guys to ask them out/initiate relationships?

In case you were not yet aware of what issue we are talking about, the topic was raised when I wrote that you need to date someone who has Jesus as their number one focus. A bunch of girls responded by saying “where are these guys?” – either they don’t exist (Christ-following girls outnumber Christ-following guys in church) or else they are not asking us out.

From a single guys perspective, what are your thoughts? Why is it that girls have this perception which often leads to them dating people outside of the church cos of frustration or loneliness and lack of opportunity?

snake bites boob, dies of silicon poisoning

this was probably the most bizarre story of the week – an Israeli model, Orit Fox, was holding a massive boa for a photo shoot and she was licking it in the face which i am guessing annoyed it some little bit and it bit her on the boob and then later died of silicon poisoning… just a reflection of the times we live in a guess…

check out the rest of the story here