Guo Nian Hao!

Happy (Chinese) New Year!

We’re now a week into the year of the Golden Pig, which only comes round every sixty years. The week before New Year, The Times had a China week, with articles about China every day and Mandarin conversation lessons – these can be downloaded with audio version free from the Times website. (Whenever I type “website” it wants to come out as “wesbite” somehow, which sounds a bit scary.)

To update the list of silly things I’ve done:

I knocked an entire mug of hot chocolate over someone’s lap at Harry’s.

Having previously mentioned the Tupperware container I slightly melted, I’ve also now managed to melt slightly the plastic wrapper on my Sainsbury’s wholemeal longlife sliced loaf. This left a couple of slices with burnt green plastic embedded in them,

Getting changed for the English dinner I turned round and saw someone standing in front of me, which really made me jump. I then realised that it was my reflection, which, due to the wardrobe (with attached mirror) being open wasn’t where I expected it to be.

Looking for a print cartridge, I found a bag of dried apricots instead, which had been languishing in the cupboard forgotten for a while.

Over the past couple of weeks I managed to eat out for five nights in a row (six if a burger from a van counts). This included a Chinese New Year party, Dan’s rebirthday curry (3 years since he became a Christian), the Christ’s English dinner, grad hall with pancakes in the MCR (I had a second lot of pancakes at Harry’s) and Thai curry at David Binns’ house, wonderfully prepared by Risa (the curry rather than the house, though that too is wonderful).

The Oxford English Dictionary has added the word “poptastic”, at least to their online edition. The entry reads:

poptastic,
adj.
humorous.

Designating or relating to a very good recording or performance of pop music. Also more generally: fantastic, excellent.

Popularized by the British television programme Harry Enfield's Television Programme (1990-2), in which the term was used as a catchphrase of spoof radio disc jockeys ‘Smashie and Nicey’.

Its use in a number of newspapers beyond its original context mean that it qualifies as an addition to the corpus of the English language. For each word or phrase that it includes, the OED gives citations of how it has been used in actual written sources. I was amused by one of the illustrative quotations for “happy-clappy”:

He's one of the happy-clappy lot. They're always speaking in tongues, casting out demons and frightening the old ladies.
(taken from Sunday Times, 8th March 1992)

Someone to whom this description would probably apply is Smith Wigglesworth, who said:

Great faith is the product of great fights, great testimonies are the outcome of great tests and great triumphs can only come out of great trials.

This is a more encouraging way of looking at things than Eeyore’s:

“It’s snowing still,” said Eeyore gloomily.
“So it is.”
“And freezing.”
“Is it?”
“Yes,” said Eeyore. “However,” he said, brightening up a little, “we haven’t had an earthquake lately.”

Still, Eeyore’s words have the merit of reminding me of the one day white winter we had a couple of weeks ago. My friends from hot climates were happy, because they haven’t seen snow before and it’s a novelty. My friends from cold climates were happy because it made them feel at home. Everyone seemed to be happy. Cameras were out in force.

I’ve had a couple of interesting dreams recently. One involved being able to fly if I pushed down on my feet. Waking up, it made a certain amount of sense, and I wondered for a while whether there really is a way of doing this. Apparently there is a short story involving precisely this method of flying, but I am assured that it is fiction. Another dream involved being able to select anyone in my mobile phone contact list and see exactly where they were at that moment via CCTV footage.

Continuing my tradition of eulogising deceased theologians and church leaders, Bruce Metzger, eminent and much loved biblical textual scholar, has died aged 93.

Yesterday evening I went to the Soul Survivor roadshow in Cambridge, promoting Hope 2008, a year of mission across the UK. Mike Pilavachi quoted (I think from memory) the entry from John Wesley’s journal for January 1st 1739:

Mr. Hall, Hinching, Ingham, Whitefield, Hutching, and my brother Charles were present at our love feast in Fetter Lane with about 60 of our brethren. About three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of His majesty, we broke out with one voice, 'We praise Thee, O God, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.'