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 Charlie Knox26, m, resident of spa, northern ireland, a thinker, who tries to be real, enjoys the company of nala(left), indebted to jesus for his grace and instruction in life and whose, amongst other things, studying sports science at UUJ. enjoy rugby a whole lot! |
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Sunday, October 31, 2004 Back at it. Played my first rugby match of the season yesterday. My first game in 7 months counting the off season...and boy don't I know it...every muscle in my body is as stiff as can be. I hadn't planned on playing. I had been coaching in Magherafelt with the u-14's and arrived back at the club 20 minutes before the afternoon games started. On arrival i heard that the 5XV needed a player and i just couldn't resist the offer... I was just fed up with too many weeks without a game and my groin was feeling not so bad. The game went well apart from major cramp in both calves with about 20 minutes to go. Otherwise everything held together and we also got a win. Now got to start training seriously again see if i can get myself up a team or two and get some confidence in my leg back. posted by charlie | 10:49 PM | Thursday, October 28, 2004 Cropper Got my hair cut yesterday. I'm thinking the hairdresser must have thought I was going to Iraq or something as she gave me a rather military look, taking the short back and sides thing to the extreme. Tempted to bring out the shavers and shorten it all! posted by charlie | 5:23 PM | Tuesday, October 26, 2004 A day on the Ballynahinch River For a few years now i've contemplated the possibility of taking the canoe on a stretch of the Ballynahinch River. Driving home from Downpatrick yesterday i noticed the river was in good flow and decided it was time to have a go. Needed a paddling partner so I rang Tim Edgar who had a day off and felt pretty up for it too. Waking up this morning the weather was lovely. Game on. First problems were in deciding how to get the canoe to the river. Being quite a large and heavy thing, a trailer would have been handy but we really only had my car. So we laid all sorts of protective and cushioning items on the roof and then lifted the canoe on top. We attempted to tie it down tight but our 'knots database' was fairly limited and we didn't get her sitting as steady as we had hoped....however there was no stopping us. So we filled up with food before we left - important to keep the calories up on a cold day. And then hopped into the car, Dukes of Hazrd style due to the fact we had tied the doors shut whilst attempting to keep the canoe on the roof. As we drove towards the river the ropes clearly weren;t doing a good enough job so we had to take her real slow with Tim hanging out the window holding the canoe in place. Got a few weird looks along the way - the canoe was at least 3 or 4 foot longer than the car!!! (I did attempt a picture of the canoe on the roof but just as i went to take a photo, the batteries died!!). Anyway made it to the Riverside Road, our starting point, without any catastrophes! We took the canoe off, left the car to Dunlops and then started on our way around 2:00pm. First while was fun getting a feel for the canoe having not been in it in a while. We hit Ballynahinch about 10 minutes later....through a few housing estates etc. Our first white water was just before the town...felt big at the time but after some of the stuff that was to come they were nothing. In the town, just behind the baptist church we came close to a few swans. In the end we followed them for about a mile down river until we hit a block in the river. Effectively we were now cornering them....i was scared. Eventually we decided to pull right over to the side and thankfully they passed back up the river. Next major incident was when i let go of my paddle and had to dive in after it before it got away - water was baltic! Not long after Tim's paddle broke in half and immediately after that the boat capsized and we filled with water. It took us a while to figure out how to get the water out as it weighed an absolute ton but we got there! And headed on. We also managed to do a makeshirt repair on the paddle with some rope. On we headed minus Tim's waterbottle that got free down the river. 
A map of the river (thanks to multimap). As we headed further on down the river the highlights were, our first rapids, finding a few footballs, obviously kicked into the river at the Tech or at Millbridge, and an incident were we had to duck under some barbed wire. Basically we had to lie on the floor of the boat to get through. As soon as Tim was through he stood up to get back in his seat. Just at that moment we hit a big rock, the canoe stopped and Tim was propelled head first to the front of the canoe with his feet left dangling in the air. I was in stitches. Shortly after this we hit another hazrd. The remains of some steel bridge were blocking the river and as we approached it was clear we would have to get out and pull the canoe over the top of it. So on arrival we hopped out and tried to pull the canoe out of the water. Unfortunately the canoe started to fill with water and with the river in such strong flow the canoe filled quicker than we could get it out of the water. Within 2 or 3 secs the canoe was pinned to the bridge. We tried several times with all our might to get it off but we were barely moving it. In fact it seemed we were making things worse as the canoe was going further under. By this stage the water was starting to freeze us. So we got out and talked about our option. I thought the boat was a goner. It really didn't seem like it was going to move. We were talking about leaving it thumbing a left and coming back with a bunch of boys when the water level had dropped. However, having been there for 20 minutes we decided to have one last go at freeing it. We both got under one end of the boat and lifted for all we could. We got her moved about an inch bu that showed it would move and so we stuck at it. With each lift she was coming further until evenutally we managed to get her standing up on one end and the water draining away. It was a fantastic feeling to get it free - definitely made us feel like men - especially as we thought we were doomed!! We did loose my sunglasses at this point and the two quality footballs we had collected. We caught up with and retrieved the latter on down stream. There wasn't too many incidents for the next wee stretch. Just lots of smooth running open water. We did hit a lovely big mill at one stage that i never knew about. Just after the mill we hit our biggest rapids so far. Lots of white water and going pretty fast. We negotiated them quite well and got a real buzz in the process! Just cool knowing you could be bucked into the water at any moment! This was only the start of the rapids. We came across several more sets from here on in and definitely didn't fair as well on them all. One such threw me out of the boat into a fast flowing stream where i got carried off down river hitting my legs off all sorts of rocks - it was sore and cold. However soon i got over it as I watched and laughed at Tim, in the boat on his own, getting dumped out after he hit a rock. Downside here was that he lost his hat and a contact lens - the latter not helpful since Tim was keeping his eye out for big rocks and telling me the best course to take! We did come across another massive mill. One fella at the rugby club later told it was functional up until 10 years ago and is worth millions. As we went along time was ticking and the light was starting to go. We decided we would try to make it to Kilmore. The last part of our journey took us through Raedemon Estate - beautiful country with Pheasant's everywhere. On exiting the estate we saw a sign saying 'Danger; Weir 150 metres'. At this point, with light failing and feeling cold and tired we decided to call it a day. So we pulled the canoe into a field, hid it under some bushes and made off over the fields for Kilmore. After lots of muck and bog we made it to some hosuing. With no money or a phone that worked (tim's spent the day in my pocket - probably didn't like the few dousings it got along the way!!) we found a phonebox and had to reverse the charges. Some friends ended up picking us up, giving us a shower, some dry clothes and some fantastic warm food. Just what the doctor ordered! We arrived home with lots of scratches from overhanging trees, lots of aches from being thrown about the canoe and also from being thrown out of it. However a fantastic days craic - Lots of laughs and lots of memories. Look forward to doing it again. The canoe is still near the river. Maybe we will get to Downpatrick as we had hoped sometime soon!!!! posted by charlie | 9:09 PM | Monday, October 25, 2004 Visual Aids As you can see below i got meself an image on the blog (and hopefully more to come!). Much easier to do than i thought. Just followed instructions on blogger website. [picture below is from a day in the mournes not so long ago..] posted by charlie | 5:40 PM | Sky at the Saddle 
posted by charlie | 5:28 PM | Weird goings on @ home - Milk went missing from gate on 3 consecutive days. - Flower baskets taken off pillars at front of house (at one stage during this night the dog was barking like crazy until we let her in). - On several occasions Dad gets up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and smells cigarette smoke coming in through the vents. - Mum home alone. Car pulls up into driveway and sits outside for 5 minutes. One guy gets out but no door bell rang. Car drives away. posted by charlie | 4:38 PM | The Motorcycle Diaries (note: better looking at this link after you have watched the movie rather than before!) Watched this on Saturday night. Fantastic. Definitely the best I've seen in a while. Profound yet entertaining story, great shots, stirs a whole range of emotion. And if you are willing to go to the cinema without knowing too much about the movie (ie. don't read the reviews) there'll be a little surprise waiting at the end for you. On the cinema website it gets a rating of 92% (not always reliable but in this case it certainly was.) Below is a little descriptor from the movie website. 'Let the world change you, and you can change the world.' Set in January 1952, Ernesto is a 23-year-old medical student specializing in leprology. Alberto , age 29, is a biochemist. The two men bid goodbye to their families and to Ernesto's girlfriend Chichina Ferreyra. Flush with a romantic sense of adventure, they pile onto Alberto's 1939 Norton 500 motorcycle (nicknamed "La Poderosa" ["The Mighty One"]). The aging bike carries them farther and farther away from familiar and comfortable Buenos Aires surroundings, to surprising and exciting destinations. The two friends become as close as brothers. Over the course of eight months and 8,000 miles, what starts out as a lark becomes a profound journey of discovery, not only of themselves but of a continent filled with infinite sorrow - and infinite hope. From homeless miners to riverboat prostitutes, from lepers to prosperous gentry, Ernesto and Alberto discover an affinity for humanity within themselves, and a determination to change the world. posted by charlie | 4:22 PM | Tuesday, October 12, 2004 Simple as ABC Renewed my first aid certificate over the past couple of weeks. Made me sqeamish on a few occasions - definitely causes you think about whether you ever want to leave the house again although even there doesn't seem safe!!! Heres a few crazy statistics i picked up.... 'The average age in Northern Ireland for somone suffering a heart attack is 34' '15 years ago 1 in 35 adults and 1 in 25 children had asthma. Today the same figures read 1 in 7 and 1 in 3' posted by charlie | 4:27 PM | Sunday, October 10, 2004 A little look behind the scenes in NI politics The 1st part of a 3 part series, The East Wing, looking at the collapse of Stormont Rule back in 2002 was on tonight. Particuarly enjoyed the perspective of one commentator who in reference to the whole situation said, 'Although outwardly things were rough, on the inside they were actually working'. He criticised the media at the time for not documenting some more of the postive sides to Stormont. He commented that the inner workings at Stormont were functioning relatively well (eg. the bill making) and that whilst squabbling in the public eye, behind the scenes the parties were working well together. In his opinion the media had lacked insight in choosing simply to report on the cross party bickering etc. Looking forward to the next part. posted by charlie | 10:50 PM | Friday, October 08, 2004 An encouraging story Had a interesting chat with a mate the other day on our way to coach some rugby at a local high school. We were just talking about the current craic, as you tend to do when driving along in the motor (definitely a sacred space in my experience). The conversation got onto my plans to do teacher training next year. He was asking me what subjects i planned to do. I mentioned PE with my obvious interest in sport, Geography because i enjoy it and would also like an academic subject and then RE because i suppose it would give me a chance to talk about matters faith and the chance to break down some neagtive and false perceptions of God/faith. At this point he stepped in and said...'We actually got round to talking about God with our lecturer in Tech the other day.' Now my mate isn't a christian, although he frequently says things and acts in ways that cause me to think that maybe the only thing that makes him not a christian (in my opinion and his) is the often skewed, narrow expressioned definition of what we both consider a christian to be! Whether this is the case or not he is definitely on a spiritual journey as his class discussion went on to show. Knowing that he wasn't a christian in my mind I wondered if maybe the lecturer was a christian and was having to defend his faith to this bunch of cynical, questioning higher education students with no interest in God. In fact as my mate went on to explain the reverse was actually true. He explained that it was the lecturer who was holding firmly to a 'no room for God' position, often referring to his belief in science and how he wouldn't believe anything unless there was concrete proof. The students on the otherhand, from what he told me, passionately argued that all the evidence we have pointed towards God being real and they spent considerable time trying to reason with their lecturer. I then asked my mate. 'Out of interest, how many Christians were in your class?' 'None,' he said. This was a just a wee reminder to me that the times we live in aren't perhaps are as far away from God as we are often tempted to think. Not suggesting a belief in God necessarily brings any of these young people closer to him but it definitely is a very crucial step in the right direction. It reminds me that people are open to God and that the opportunity to share the life freeing message of Jesus maybe isn't as far away as we think.......perhaps our approaches are what require a little review??? posted by charlie | 6:26 PM | potent thought from jonny baker 'q/What is the mission of God? a/the redemption of creation' jonny's thought was supplemented in the comments section by this fella..... 'My thoughts on the subject… I believe from both my Jewish & Christian heritage that God's mission is the recovery of shalom (wholeness) in his creation. Part of this, undoubtedly is individual salvation, but God's Redemptive activity goes beyond. He is in the process of making "all things new." [this last phrase reminds me of a scene in 'the passion movie...'] [brackets mine] I suppose i just like the breadth of these thoughts. God isn't just interested in helping me and my wee world. Nor is he just interested in the human side of creation. He created 'all things' and still intends that all things be redeemed.. posted by charlie | 5:47 PM | Sunday, October 03, 2004 Up the coast Spent a night up at Whitepark bay last night. What a place! Was up with a bunch from the senior youth in the church. It really is an impressive setting and the quality of the facilities are superb (cleanliness, uptodateness, views). Only let down was the lack of access to drinking water after the kitchen gets locked at 10:00pm. Some of us where fairly parched last night! Particuarly enjoyed a few danders on the beach, especially one late last night with the full moon giving us a fair bit of illumination. Also, it was generally just good to spend some time with folks who you know well but don't usually get time to sit down and chat and laugh with etc. You know that type of time where there's no time pressures or other stuff on. Just relaxed time. I Like that. Also enjoyed a few reflections on U2's song 'grace' with Andy + Linzi Gibson. posted by charlie | 9:01 PM | |
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