On the Dinosaur trail, Durham, NC

The Durham Bulls

Bruce and friends

We arrived this afternoon and spent some time with Bruce at Pullen Park, and took a short trip on the train. Before dinner we went to Locopops where we indulged in some wonderful handmade ice lollies, I’m sure we be back there several times in the next few days.

We left for our big road trip today, right now we’re in a hotel in Greenville, SC. Tommorow we’re heading for Raleigh, NC  to spend some time with PJ and Bruce and then onto Savannah, GA for a few days after that.

I loved the book and can’t wait to see the movie which is out 14th  August,  I’ll need  a big box of tissues and plenty of popcorn.

Rather than sending yet more TARP money to Goldman Sachs and their cronies, the government should have spent it on getting real bread into supermarkets.

Commercially produced bread has the texture of sea sponge and tastes sweet due to large dollops of high fructose corn syrup and chemicals that have no business masquerading as food. It’s not right or good that bread lasts for weeks on end, it’s simply not natural.
Even the ‘fancy’ supermarket french sticks are full of preservatives, that’s criminal! Real french bread is so good that there shouldn’t be any left after lunch, any that is, is rock hard by 5 o’ clock.

The only answer is to make my own, but that requires some effort on my part. I’ve just come across this no knead recipe and might try it out today. If it works I’ll take pictures and let you know how it goes.

David grilled some tandoori chicken last night, It was so ridiculously hot and humid that to have started with the oven inside would have been torture. We simply used a jar of Pataks tandoori paste mixed with some yogurt and then put it on the grill. It’s nice served with some lemon wedges, rice, salad and naan bread if you have it. I think I saw the jars of tandoori paste in a SuperTarget, but I’m not sure.

Our Orlando apartment, we were not able to get a room in the conference centre.

David, Guy Richard and Jonathan Hays in the assembly hall at the Coronado Springs Resort.

The assembly hall.

The Assembly is over and there were many highlights for me, one being Ligon Duncan’s use of the word “indefatigable” during his discussion with Tim Keller. The only other time I’ve heard that word used was when George Galloway addressed Saddam Hussein back in 1994. For the record, Ligon and George did not pronounce it the same way, so I’m none the wiser on its true pronunciation.

Dress among the delegates was mixed from shorts and flip flops to the usual suits, ties and tasseled slip on shoes. I think it’s fair to say that stripes are in this year and checked shirts, not so much.

I sat in on some of the debates, namely the one regarding the proposal to create a study committee over the role of women (which didn’t pass by the way) which was quite interesting, but much of the other business, for me at least, was as dull as thump. I’m sure though, if you were a delegate or the kind of person who reads the BCO at bedtime, then it was riveting stuff.

Our first time at the PCA’s General Assembly has been a great experience so far. We’ve met old friends and some new ones, I have photo’s but no USB cable so you’ll need to wait until I get back.

In the exhibition hall I spoke to the nice lady from CFP and then we saw Malcolm Maclean at his booth selling psalmodies, we also caught up with Guy Richard,Jon Payne,Jonathan Hays and Bryce Hales.

Martin Cameron from HTC came up and introduced himself to us which was nice, I don’t think we’d met before. Later on we went out for supper with a bunch of guys and we got to chat to Burk Parsons who was very nice and recommended the recipe their church uses for communion bread.
Later after the evening worship service Jonathan introduced us to Jason Stellman who pastors a congregation somewhere in Seattleshire.

There have been seminars in between times and the business proper didn’t really get going until today. I stayed in to watch a little bit of the proceedings today, but it’s not really my cup of tea, so I’m back at the room getting a little rest before this evenings discussion between Tim Keller and Ligon Duncan on female deacons.