A full day

From getting the kids to nursery to climbing up the stairs at 11pm, it feels like a full day. Much of it was spent doing difficult things - dealing with the problems managing a group like Bradford Street Angels produces. The work itself, helping those worse for wear on a weekend, is fine. The problems come from holding together such a diverse organisation; from born again Christians to determined Atheists. I am sure though that we should be able to create a models where such diversity can live together. I remember living in the Hive Housing Co-op, where anarchists and devout communists were forced to live side by side for the common good! If it was possible then, it is possible now.

A group of us from Street Angels were interviewed for the T&A local newspaper at lunchtime, I ducked out of the photos. After nearly a year in the limelight, I am really happy for others to gently come to the fore.

The street clean provided a welcome break in the day. I find it really satisfying to help tidy up the street and get to know the neighbours through the process. Others may not see it as mission, but both the street cleaning and the community gardening have brought Ashgrove together that has never happened for 60 years. I know this because elderly neighbours who have lived here for a long time have said so! For me though, to see women from a refuge working alongside Sudanese Asylum Seekers cleaning up the house where a 26 year old man died last week is a remarkable sight. It feels like we are building community. No mean feat in a street of between 400-600 people from every continent and every faith, where nobody knows their neighbour.

Spanish lessons today once again reminded me that I am clinically thick. I really try, but am convinced that there is a part of my brain which is missing - like the part that can help you play the guitar, or do complex science, or make sense of episodes of Lost. I do Spanish not because I will ever be able to speak it, but because I love my wife, and it means something to her that I should at least make an effort. But my Goodness, I hate it, and it makes me feel as stupid as a stupid kid in a special school for stupid kids. Adios, buenos noches por ahora.