National Anthem: God Save the Queen (all 6 verses)

God save our gracious Queen,

Long live our noble Queen,

God save the Queen!

Send her victorious,

Happy and glorious,

Long to reign over us;

God save the Queen!

***

O Lord our God arise,

Scatter her enemies

And make them fall;

Confound their politics,

Frustrate their knavish tricks,

On Thee our hopes we fix,

God save us all!

***

Thy choicest gifts in store

On her be pleased to pour;

Long may she reign;

May she defend our laws,

And ever give us cause

To sing with heart and voice,

God save the Queen!

***

Not in this land alone,

But be God’s mercies known,

From shore to shore!

Lord make the nations see,

That men should brothers be,

And form one family,

The wide world over.

***

From every latent foe,

From the assassins blow,

God save the Queen!

O’er her thine arm extend,

For Britain’s sake defend,

Our mother, prince, and friend,

God save the Queen!

***

Lord grant that Marshal Wade

May by thy mighty aid

Victory bring.

May he sedition hush,

And like a torrent rush,

Rebellious Scots to crush.

God save the King!

Taken from http://ingeb.org/songs/godsaveo.html.

Although verse 6 may seem excessive, and not a great way of keeping Scotland united, it is thought that these words were first sung when Bonnie Prince Charlie set foot on Scottish soil, and was a “prayer” to save him from the Scottish Uprising, and keep him safe so he could become the rightful King.

Verse 4 has been put in bold, as I think no matter where we come from, we could learn a lot from this verse.  Right now the last part of this verse is my personal prayer:  I pray that through all the unrest that we see throughout the world, one day, we can live like brothers – accepting of each other’s differences and embracing one common goal of living in harmony.

Lord make the nations see, That men should brothers be, And form one family, The wide world over.

Can you find 30 books of the Bible in this paragraph?

The paragraph below contains a hidden books of the Bible. See if you can find 30 books!

This is a most remarkable puzzle. It was found by a gentleman in an

airplane seat pocket on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu,

keeping him occupied for hours. He enjoyed it so much he passed it

on to some friends. One friend from Illinois worked on this while

fishing from his john boat. Another friend studied it while playing

his banjo. Elanie Taylor, a columnist friend, was so intrigued by it

she mentioned it in her weekly newspaper column. Another friend

judges the job of solving this puzzle so involving, she brews a cup

of tea to help her nerves. There will be some names that are really

easy to spot. That’s a fact. Some people, however, will soon find

themselves in a jam. Especially since the book names are not

necessarily capitalized. Truthfully, from answers we get, we are

forced to admit it usually takes a minister or a scholar to see some

of them at the worst. Research has shown that something in our genes

is responsible for the difficulty we have in seeing the books in this

paragraph. During a recent fundraising event, which featured this

puzzle, the Alpha Delta Phi lemonade booth set a new record. The

local paper, The Chronicle, surveyed over 200 patrons who reported

that this puzzle was of the most difficult they had ever seen. As

Daniel Humana humbly puts it, “The books are all right here in plain

view hidden from sight.” Those able to find all of them will hear

great lamentations those who have to be shown. One revelation at may

help is that books like Timothy and Samuel may occur without their

numbers. Also, keep in mind, that punctuation and spaces in the

middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete really

well against those who claim to know the answers. Remember, there is

no need for a mad exodus, there really are 30 books of the Bible

lurking somewhere in this paragraph waiting to be found.

God Bless!

(I cannot for the life of me remember where I found this originally – but found it in onenote when I was organising and sorting out the pages)

Don’t list the books you find, just leave a comment saying how many you can see – I’m up to 28 now – the last 2 are being rather elusive.

********

I found the  last 2 🙂

(3 February 2012)

30 Things About Me:

https://jdaviesx.wordpress.com/about/30-things-about-me/

This was a Twitter trend and I decided to write this up on a page instead of writing it all in a blog entry

Please get dressed first

Please Get Dressed before coming to your appointment (orange quirky news)

What is the world coming to when people think it is acceptable to attend welfare offices in their pyjamas?  Surely people should be treating their welfare appointments as if they are job interviews and wanting to make a good impression and show willingness.

I am under the impression that a condition of receiving welfare payments is to be actively seeking employment and not doing anything which could have a detrimental effect on being successful in gaining employment.  I also understand it that if someone fails to comply with the conditions that they have their welfare payments stopped.  Surely this scenario would come under the category of an action having a detrimental effect on gaining employment?  Should they then have their welfare payments stopped for not dressing in an appropriate way?

But where do we draw the line?  What is deemed acceptable?  I can remember a careers counsellor telling me that it wasn’t appropriate to wear blue jeans, as there is no place that you could work where it would be acceptable.  How wrong were they?!  When I worked in health care (adults with learning disabilities, mental health issues and challenging behaviour) we were actively encouraged to wear things like blue jeans so when we supported our service users in the community we wouldn’t draw attention to the fact that we were careers and they needed help.

Would we then have cases where people were told they couldn’t get their welfare payments if they wore blue jeans?  What would happen if a woman went in showing parts of her body and the interviewer was from a religion/ culture that expected women to cover up. (I’m not talking obscene, maybe just an ankle/ knee, or arms and low-cut tops) 

So what is the answer?  I honestly don’t know what the answer is, but I think it is very sad that notices like this are having to be put up in places and that people have so little respect for themselves that they really cannot be bothered.

Clawback – Gemma Rice – 5*

Although I have tagged this with “Christianity” and “faith” it’s not what I would describe as a religious book.  I have added these tags due to one line when Steffani is getting a tatoo of a cross done on her hip –

Sometimes we’re nailed to that cross; sometimes we’re carrying that cross; sometimes we find salvation and peace through that cross.

She describes how she is into symbols and that this is the reason she is getting the cross tatoo, and this quote really stood out for me.

I’ve also tagged this as being “controversial” and “may be disturbing to some”, this book records the story of Steffani being in an abusive relationship and details the cheating, isolation and fear that she experiences and goes on to show the good new life she forms for herself when she is finally able to break free completely and become a survivor.

I normally struggle when reading stories about domestic violence as I have been there.  However, I have to admit that this story was so accurate and believable, making me want to continue reading to find out how the story ended.  There wasn’t masses of detail about the types of abuse that Steffani experienced, but it clearly showed the way a person slowly and surely becomes the centre of your world and isolates you from everyone else you know and everything you like.

This is one of the few books that has made it to a 5* rating with me, and one that I will definitely re-read.

They say that every story has an element of truth to it, and I just pray that the writer of this book wasn’t modelling her character on herself.  It was written in a way that makes you wonder if she has personally been there.  If she has been there, it certainly looks like she has come out the other side – but then is this just a fantasy of how she would like it to end; her hopes and dreams?  I do not know and would not like to make something of nothing, but there is an accurate truth and insight with this story.

So many people wonder why when someone is in an abusive relationship that the person doesn’t just get up and leave – this book explains it perfectly and would be a real insight to someone who hasn’t been through it personally or by knowing someone who has gone through it.

Diary of the Displaced – Glynn James 5*

I have to admit this is not the typical kind of book I would normally consider reading.  However, I have an ‘addiction’ to downloading the free books from www.amazon.co.uk for my Kindle.  I have found some amazing new authors by allowing this ‘addiction’ to take hold.  It’s not an addiction that makes me feel bad, because I’m not spending anything to feed it.

Anyway back to this book.  Zombies, dog-like creatures and ghosts fill the pages of this book, but it is written in a way that is fascinating and makes you want to keep turning the pages.  Although there are details of zombie killings and fighting, it’s not overly graphic.  Glynn has the art of leaving enough out to leave your imagination to really soar and creat the scenes in your head.

The story charts the struggle for survival and escape, the bond between a man and his ‘dog’, a faith in your own capabilities and a belief in a life after this one.

Led by intuition, and friendships with the ghosts and ‘dog’, James (the central character) learns to survive.  The majority of the time, I felt like I was actually there with James, and I could feel his emotions and struggles as he learnt how to be self-sufficient and live off nature.

The development of the storyline was believable and at a pace that was easy to keep up with.  There was sufficient detail in the writing to know what was being described and experienced, but not so much that it detracted from the plot and gave your own mind plenty to feed on

Promises

Thursday 19th January 2012:  The view from outside my kitchen door.

“When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and I will remember the agreement that continues for ever between me and every living thing  on the earth.”  Genesis 9 v 16

This got me thinking; God isn’t the only person to make promises, and this is by no means the only promise God has ever made to us.  However, it really got me thinking about the promises I have made, and I’m going to take this as a sign to revisit every promise I have made and see if I have kept them – if I haven’t?  Well, I’ll need to make my own sign to remind myself.