Wii, Wii, Wii, All The Way Home

Tonight was billed as a chill out evening – with everyone bringing alone board games, music, etc – but Peter brought along his Wii and we were all sucked into a strange little world, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m not sure of the names of the games we played but they were great fun. I have a couple of pictures and a great video of people looking stupid whilst playing but I can’t upload them at the moment ( Thankfully my broadband connection has been fixed and I’ve managed to upload the pictures and video of the fun ) Click on the pictures below for additional comments and notes – and if you’re a Flickr member (like Simon, Nick J, Peter, Hannah & Laura) you can add your own.

[watch out for Steph's wiggle!]

The Wii offers you the opportunity to create a graphical representation of yourself (a Mii) which you can use to play the games. We didn’t indulge in the creation of characters due to lack of time, although Peter has already done an excellent one of himself (can you send it in Peter?). So we don’t have pictures to show of Mii characters, but in the meantime, take a look at the results of the Celebrity Mii contest. Look out for my favourites Zach Braff, Jack Black, Woody Allen, and Charlie Brown. For those who are feeling a bit creative, have a go at creating your own Mii online – then email your picture to me and I’ll post them online here.

We ended the evening with another excellent game of skittleball, which started with a sickening thud due to the water on the Youth Hall floor (grr!). But it was a more manageable game than last week – it seems that 4-a-side is the optimum number to play.

Next Week: I propose another Wii evening – Tim and Peter can put their equipment and games together for an even better experience. Who’s up for it?

Graham, Fetch The Pencil Case!

Tonight it was time for a music practice in preparation for the service on Sunday. There was a mixed bag of songs, and a variety of responses to it: most of them noisy and mildly disruptive. It’s always a challenge to keep order during music practices and if anyone has suggestions for how to better manage them, then call me Gary Lineker (I’m all ears!).

As part of our devotions tonight we watched the following video and then reflected on our materialism as a society. We considered the many possessions we own, but how we still desire bigger, better and more.

“Erin’s brother suffers from a chronic lack of heavily branded footwear…“

We ended with a mad and over-populated game of skittle-ball – which was unintentionally vicious at times.

Next week: to mark the end of exams (for all but one of us) we’ll be doing something special to celebrate. Once I’ve got my final deadline out of the way I’ll start planning. Please add your suggestions as a comment below and I’ll take them into account.

Minotaur and Little Nerkin

Just a quick update this week – I’ve got another essay to write (yeah – right now!) (

This evening we watched “Aardman Classics” which features such classics as Pib and Pog, the hilarious Heat Electric adverts from the 80s, along with some incredibly random nonsense (worse even than ‘Spirited Away’!).

For anyone interested in Aardman trivia, there seems to be plenty of it about. Did you know that Aardman were behind the Morph character (do you even remember him)?

Random Quotes:

“You’d better put a plaster on that”

“And it goes ‘bing’ when it’s finished”

“Brilliant what they can do with technology these days.”

“Going down…”

“Guess the mis-shaped rabbit”

“It’s a fireman and he’s chasing an igloo.”

“It’s a fluffy-wuffy little bunny rabbit!!”

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last couple of weeks and haven’t heard about Simon’s ambitious sponsored summer adventure, head on over to his new website to find out all about it and show him your support by leaving a comment and sponsoring him.

Next Week: Music practice ready for Sunday 26th when Nigel is leading the service.

That’s it for this week – Bing!!

Frog In A Kimono

After a couple of noisy rounds of voting we settled (although not unanimously) on watching ‘Spirited Away’. I can’t really describe what it was like – in fact the best I can say is that it felt like I’d taken some mind-altering substance before watching it. Instead, here’s the review of someone much more able to comment than me:

“Mystical. Enchanting. A key to another world. There are so many ways to describe this movie. The movie focuses on a young girl who is trapped in a sort of “spirit world”. When her mother and father are turned into pigs, young Chihiro has to save her parents before they’re cooked and eaten. It may sound silly, but this tale has more to it than farm animals. When Chihiro is frightened, she runs off. When a boy finds her, he tells her that she must get a job at “The Bath House”. A sort of retreat for spirits. But to do this, she must speak with Yubaba. The witch who rules The Bathhouse. After Yubaba agrees to give Chihiro some work. She takes her name away from her. And she is then called “Sen”.” – IMDB

Did any of that make sense? No? I thought not.

Here’s a random quote from the film:

“Only love can break the spell…”

And on that subject – big news – was anyone paying attention to the “goings-on” in the darkness of the multimedia room? Care to share? Post a comment below…

Next week: we’re continuing the Amicus Exam Stress Busting Film Series by watching a selection of Aardman Classics. Keep up the good work and we’ll see you all next week.