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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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Friday, December 30, 2005 Christmas 2005 (a quick summary, in no particular order!) 1. Last minute shopping As per usual shopping was left to the two days before christmas. Belfast was as hateful as ever. Must hit the internet in November next year!!!! 2. Nocturnal Nature This year has been lots of late nights and late mornings/early afternoons. With the reduced daylight hours I haven't spent nearly as much time outdoors as i would have liked. I have however been at a ton of partie with lots of snack food, drink, games (empire featured alot), and the old guitar as even been out a few times! Thanks to the Cavan's, Jeff Richardson and the Cole's for providing the venues and hospitallity. Of particular note was getting to sing into the early hours of the morning with Johnny and Nev Richardson.....a little quartet could be on it's way if we pick up another member!!!!!! 3. Jenny home  Has been great to have Jenny home for a few weeks. Distance relationships are tough so to have her home for a few weeks in a row has been real good. Feels alot more like a normal relationship! She's also got meet alot more of my friends and family which has been good. 4. Annual meet up with school mates Met up with my mates from school on Christmas eve. We do this every year. A chance to catch up with each other and the year's goings on. 5. Ricey and Emma get engaged  While i was out with the lads from school on christmas eve i got a phone call from Emma and Pete to tell me that they'd got engaged. So happy for them both. They bring out the best in each other!!! Congratulations to you both! 6. SJ passed her driving test I was awoken early yesterday morning to take SJ out for a drive before her test. I then had the agonising wait in the test centre waiting for her to come back. It brought much relief when she mouthed through the window 'I passed'. We'll likely not see much of her now. I might not see much of my polo either!!!! 7. Snr yth formal Last night we had the annual Senior youth formal. Was a great night's craic as always. This year we downgraded on the food front a little, lessening the price of the ticket and also allowing us to give more money away to charity. We headed to Temple Golf and Country club and had a buffet style meal (which packed me rightly!) and then strutted on the dancefloor for a few hours under the musical providence of Stu Neill and Dave Steele. 8. Narnia Did get to see the Lion, the Witch and the wardrobe with Jenny one night in Newry. Really quite enjoyed it. Brought back fond memories of the 80's BBC TV series (albeit with a slimmer version of lucy!) and found some of the lines quite inspiring. Will probably have a go at some of the Narnia books in 2006. posted by charlie | 4:12 PM | Tuesday, December 13, 2005 Not usually that amazed by climbing (sorry weeksi) but this brought out a little awe! posted by charlie | 10:22 PM | Sunday, December 11, 2005 Global travel from the comfort of your own home! On Saturday night I was sitting down by a lovely peat fire watching a little Parkinson when Gregory called me up to the computer room to show me something. I was very tempted just to sit my ground but I'm most glad i didn't. What he had to show me was without doubt one of the best things i've seen so far on the internet. It's an interactive programme from google , called earth google that allows you to view sattelite images of the earth. That alone mightn't sound like anything particuarly special but when you can zoom out from the streets and buildings of downtown chicago, fly across the Atlantic ocean and arrive in any european destination of choice just a few seconds later you'll be mightily impressed. So far I've recounted lots of memories from times in the States. I've dropped by lots of the houses that i stayed in and places i visited in Chicago, Nashville and San Francisco. I did a quick jaunt around some of the cities in europe that i visited this summer past and even went back to Kiev for a quick moments. I've been to my University in Jordanstown, took a quick peek around the City airport and swung by a few friends houses around Belfast. I reckon this programme could revolutionise the way we do a lot of life. It'll certainly make a big difference to travel. Maps are bound to become redundant one of these days. If you download the free version you'll see that you can add the road names over the top of the images (even in Ballynahinch!). I suppose it's also a little scary. If you and me and any other average Joe can see places in this much detail, how much more detail can the 'power's that be' see........I suppose I always knew they had some pretty powerful gear but actually seeing it on your own PC brings the Big brother thing home a little more!!! Well head along to http://earth.google.com/ and download the free version! posted by charlie | 5:02 PM | Wednesday, December 07, 2005 Longest post yet? Well i've been dosing on the blog front. Life of late has been reasonably busy. A Papa's death Many of you will have heard that my Papa Knox died a few weeks ago. He had a fairly rough ride in the last years of his life with Alzheimers but slipped away on Thursday 10th November peacefully and with his family around him. Dad paid him a fantastic tribute at the funeral. He reminded us of a hardworking man who wasn't fond of the spotlight , a man who loved his family, who was full of laughs and craic, kind to those he ran into around the country and yet a man who wasn't perfect, a man who always leant hard on Jesus because he knew that he himself never quite cut it. I have so many fond memories of Papa. Too many to list. He always loved to play with us when we were children, I remember him constantly acting the lig and joking around with us - the dinner table was always good craic, I remember many days working with him at his business or delivering goods around the country with him. I remember driving down the motorway with him opening and closing the driver's door saying 'ouvre' and 'ferme'. A man who taught me so much about what it meant to be a man and if i can say it, what it meant to be Knox. He was also a man who exampled to me a vibrant faith that made all the difference to one's life. One of the last things i remember him saying to me a couple of years back was 'Son, when we pray we breath the same air as God'. So many memories I could talk on for ages...... It was tough to say goodbye. Tough to see a man, who I'd so many fond memories of, on his deathbed, at his weakest and yet I know Papa had hope...he hadn't invested his hope in his own strength or ability, throughout his life he continually handed himself into the hands of Jesus which meant that at his weakest, he was strong. He's now crossed the finishing line of life on earth and is onto bigger and better things. His example remains. Nana also remains. She is an absolute legend. She never left Papa's side throughout his illness. Day after day over about 8 years she cared for him endlessly with so little concern for herself. It is her who will feel Papa's passing the most. Caring aside they had been married for over 50 years. Finally, can i just thank all of you who got in touch to express your thoughts around the time of Papa's death. Wild at heart For about 6 weeks now I've been meeting each Wednesday evening with a bunch of lads from the church. We're all in our 20's and all felt that to some degree or another we could benefit from getting together with a few like minded friends on a fairly reguarly basis to be real, open and honest with each other. A place where we can support, encourage and challenge each other and a place where we can have a few laughs. We decided a good format for our get together's would be to read a book together. We read a chapter each week in our own time and then have a bit of chat about what we've read when we meet up. At the minute we're working our way through Wild at Heart: Discovering the secret of a Man's soul by John Eldridge. We read critically so we're agreeing with Eldridge at some points and not at others. However we've found the book is particuarly good at getting beneath the surface a bit and I think we're all benefiting from the whole experience. Rugby Playing: After a lengthly lay off with bad hamstrings i finally made a few consecutive training sessions over the past few weeks. Things at training went well...it felt so good to be out on the pitch again making a few tackles and getting a few runs in. My first match soon followed with the Evergreen's (7th XV) against Cooke. I only lasted a half on account of my hamstrings but also because my ticker felt like it was about to pack in!! Post match recovery took a good week and I trained again last night. Currently in some pain in the hamstrings but i'm hoping that's just the recovery process! Coaching: Still loving this side of things. The lads are progressing all the time rugby wise and really are a decent bunch of lads. I count it a privelage to be involved in their lives. We did have and unfortunate series of events last Wednesday though. At 2.30 i find out we have a game that evening in Monaghan (not good when you're the coach and you have no team organised) With a few last minute phone calls and some helpful parents we got them all rounded up for a 5.00 meet at the club. The bus arrives late and we don't get away until 5.45. We arrive in Monaghan at 7.45 for an 7.30 KO!!!!!!!! We have two games to play on one pitch because of floodlighting restrictions. So we get the first game underway at 8.00. At about 8.10, in the middle of the game, the floodlights and clubhouse lighting cut out leaving over 60 young people standing out in the pitch dark! The lights remain out until about 9.10 when an electric board engineer turns up to sort things out. We get the first game back under way finishing at 9.40 ( gladly winning 5 - 0!). The second game starts at 9.45 and finishes about 10.45! We get the lads on the bus quickly but don't make it home until 1.00am. Not good when the lads all have school the next day. Off the pitch: We got all the Christian lads together from the club a few weeks ago for a chinese at 'Stevie's' in the town. We had a great evening. After some great food a few lads shared their story of faith and then for the rest of the evening everyone else introduced themselves to the group and shared a few of their thoughts and feelings about where they're at with their faith and the club. There was a real sense of togetherness amongst everyone and a sense that God could use us all in that environment to bring his love and blessing. Uni Uni has been fairly busy over the past few weeks with assignments and tests. I've been part of a group planning a year long training programme for a County Minor Gaelic Team, I've had to spend a lot of hours learning the workings of the body and I've coached a class of peers how to do a straddle on vault in gymnastics amongst other things. Really feeling quite at home up there. The course is a good mix of practical and theory and will be good prep for teaching. Movies Been to see a few flicks recently Lord of War - a somewhat fatalistic Nicolas Cage movie supposedly based on a true story about an international gun-runner, who fights with his conscience regarding the ethics of his trade. An interesting enough movie that takes the opportunity to take a stab at some policies of the US government. Flightplan - A psychological thriller featuring Jodie Foster caught up in a complex plot on board a plane. I thought it was fairly entertaining, it definitely kept me on board the whole way through. With heinsight some bits were a little unrealistic but would still recommend it. Speaking I've had a fair bit of speaking recently. Took Senior Youth at the church on Friday night past on the theme 'Jesus: Man of sorrows'. I introduced Johnny Cash 'The Man in Black' a little and then talked about different ways that Jesus suffered on earth and how because of those sufferings he is able to identify with us when we hit tough spells. On sunday night i spoke at Cargycreevy Presbyterian YF. It was their first ever meeting. One of my mates became a christian last year and has decided he'd love to encourage some of the young people in his church...super to see. Next week i have a 6th form boys assembly to take at a school in Belfast - this will be a new one for me! Although my experiences in the Wild at heart group have helped shape some thoughts. posted by charlie | 3:05 PM | |
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