Last night we had a very successful final planning session for the Promise Auction, and even managed to record another classic video for the event.  It don’t want to speak too soon, but it looks like we’ve managed to jump over every hurdle and through every hoop (however pointless some might seem) and we’re almost there.  Rest well, you’ll need your stamina for Saturday!

If you weren’t there, you not only missed a classic quote from Simon (one we can’t publish on the website) but you missed out on some very exciting news too – now you’ll have to wait until Saturday {smirk}.  Once we’d finished the formal part of the evening we made our way through the ‘mist of sulking’ outside the multimedia room and headed to the Youth Hall.

I thought I’d leave you with three videos to make up for the lack of updates recently.

Typical Teenager? Ask your parents what they think ;o)

Parkour on a bike – simply amazing!!

Finally, a poem by John Goode entitled ‘My God‘:

Whilst watching this and thinking about the Promise Auction, these words really stuck out for me:

this is my God

the same God that I prayed to on my knees
spoke to Joseph in his dreams
parted the Red sea
raised Elijah among the stars
and lately I’ve been thanking them
for life’s hard times
because it’s in those times
that my lessons come
that my blessings come
I have a little more than a few
and a little less than some
but anything I have comes from nothing I’ve done

This Saturday: meet at the Church from 10am to set-up for the Promise Auction – dress code for the evening (not the day) is dark trousers or jeans, and we’ll provide a brightly coloured t-shirt.

Next Week: Pizza & Promise Auction Review

Printed copies will be available at Spurgeon Baptist Church on Sunday morning, and a limited number will be available on the night.

Please see if there’s anything you can do to help…

Come along and bid generously – or just enjoy the evening!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock recently (and I know some of you do) you are likely to have heard lots of buzz about Twitter.  You may not understand it – or want to understand it – but at Amicus we’ve jumped on the bandwagon.  If you’re already a Twitter user, you can ‘follow’ Amicus here; if you’ve not signed up for Twitter yet, you can see the Amicus updates in the firs column on the right.  Also on Twitter already, yours truly, Nicci&Simon, and MK Camp – coming soon…well, wait and see!

Also, in the second column on the right you’ll see that the next four calendar items are displayed for a quick view of what’s going on and what’s coming up.  Can you click the items to see the details of the event, but you can still click on the “What’s On” icon at the top of the page to view the whole calendar.  Any questions?  Just ask…

News: it’s only fair you know that Chris Buttenshaw has been keeping things from all of us.  Words like deception, betrayal, duplicity and shiftiness spring to mind.  But it’s not so bad.  The news is that he’s been secretly taking driving lessons and has secretly passed (not sure if that counts though).  Congrats Chris – and well done for beating Steph to it ;o)

I found this video this week and thought I’d share it – then realised it kinda fits with this weeks activity too (see below for details):

Next Week: Marble Run

In devotions Sarah kept us on the Promise theme and encouraged us each to write down a promise for someone else that we would keep in the week ahead. We’ll check back in when we next meet and see how we got on.

During the evening the following two strange stories from the animal kingdom were discussed – and are included here to save you the effort of searching for them.

Finally, I just had to share this amazing video – the making of a gigantic crevasse in the the street.

Next Week: Promise Auction Video Recording

You will find all the information you need on the Promise Auction page which can be viewed at any time by clicking on the rainbow-coloured icon on the right side of the page.

When you’ve finished looking at the Promise Auction information, please take a look around the rest of the site – you never know what you might find. The following links will take you some of our recent updates:

• Surprisingly Fishy…
• I find your lack of pants disturbing…
• Easy-Peel Squirrel Skinning…
• Breathe With The Monkey
• Extraordinary Bum Shuffling

Anyway, last week was our first look at planning for the second Promise Auction to raise funds for the 1st Bletchley BB Company.  With the aid of a chair, Nicci acted as scribe and noted our suggestions, comments and ideas on the whiteboard.  Steph and David disappeared to discuss how to present the information to the Church on Sunday.  The rest of us racked our brains to think of what could be done differently, what needs to be fixed, and what worked and should stay the same.  There’s a long way to go and we would love to make sure this Promise Auction is even better than last year’s.  Can we do it?  Well, in the words of the man of the moment:

All we’re saying for now is keep Saturday 25th April 2009 free and join us for a fantastic event!

Just wanted to follow-up on Flic’s excellent discussion during devotions a few weeks ago, by posting an article entitled “Warning Over Search For The ‘Perfect’ Baby“.  It’s not a particularly balanced view, but makes an interesting point.  Bizarrely, the Professor quoted in the article is the brother of Sacha Baron-Cohen, the creator of Ali G.

Next Session: Plasticine Play – filming our Morph movie for the Promise Auction.  Couldn’t be more appropriate after the sad news this week that Tony Hart has died.

New year is a great time to ring the changes – and so we did by giving Simon Bradley a rest from organising the Big Fat Amicus Quiz, and instead Nick Jones took the reigns.  He produced a quiz based on the theme ‘back to school’ featuring information you should know by the end of your GCSEs.  Unfortunately as the evening progressed a number of things dawned on him:

• not everyone shares his appreciation for school
• some participants haven’t finished their GCSEs
• one participant took their GCSEs many years ago (when ‘history’ was still ‘the present’)
• one participant left school pre-GCSEs (for reference they were introduced in 1986)

We split into two teams and competed against each other and shared friendly banter in between head scratches.  It wasn’t the easiest quiz in the world (I suppose that’s the point of a quiz) but there was a great sense of acheivement when a team was confident about an answer, rather than taking a wild stab in the dark. In the end, I’d have to say, the best team won, but the prizes were shared.

Nick Butenshaw led us in devotions to reflect on New Years Resolutions, and ensuring they are in line with what God wants of us (at least I think that was it – I’ve left it too long to do the update – sorry Nick!).

Here’s something to blow your mind – a sculptor who creates his work in the eye of needles and on pin heads.  Sounds unbelievable I know – he says he lost a sculpture of Alice in Wonderland and believes he inhaled her:

Some of the parts of his sculptures are no bigger than human blood cells and to steady his hands he works in between the beats of his heart.  Amazing!

Next Week: Promise Auction Planning – reviewing last year’s event and post-event feedback, and planning this year’s event!

The shopping was competitive and secretive from the start as each team tried to keep their ingredients a secret from the other.  In my opinion the best part of the shopping was the interaction with the lady on the check-out when we tried to buy just three brussell sprouts with a total cost of 9p but with only 8p remaining in the budget, which led to to now immortal line: ‘I’m afraid I can’t afford that – can I please put one back’.  It made the otherwise miserable Tesco employee smile a little.

On our return from Tesco we made our way to two separate areas for the pizza preparation, watched eagerly by Steph and Yolanda, the two judges.  There was much chopping, frying, spreading, tasting, and laughter, before the finished items were ready to go into the oven.  During the cooking we cracked on with eating the remaining ingredients, and tidying up, before heading into the kitchen for the big reveal.

One team had decided to complete their pizza in quarters, with a different theme of topping in each.  They included the ‘student special’ (spam and baked beans), ‘fuity meaty’ (kiwi on ham), ‘poulet et poivrons’ (chicken and peppers) and the extravagant and yet topical ‘credit crunch’ (caviar and sprouts).  The other team decided on an almost-seasonal pizza stacked high with Christmas lunch goodness, including: turkey, bacon, stuffing, sprouts, carrot and a ring of cranberry sauce around the crust.

Obviously those sound a little ‘out there’ but they were each delicious in their own way.  The Christmas meal was delicious in a comfortable, obvious kind of way (but delicious none the less), and the quatered pizza was (mostly) delicious in an adventurous kind of way.  We each tasted our own and the others’ pizza and made a few constructive criticisms on how it could be improved.  The judges judged that the Christmas pizza tasted best, but that the ‘quartet’ team scored higher on team-work and presentation, with the Christmas pizza winning overall.  Congratulations – and thanks for sharing the chocolate treat.

We must mention Steph’s adventure with the garlic bread tray, which burnt her hand and was subsequently thrown onto a plastic wrapper which promptly melted to the tray.  However, there are no life-threatening injuries, and the acrid smoke created by cooking the plastic with the garlic bread didn’t kill anyone or affect the taste.  This morning after a bucket of Cif, two wire-wool scourers and immeasurable human effort, the tray is now the cleanest it’s been in 20 years and currently in the oven again serving the lunch club cooks.

The Amicus gallery has been updated with a bunch on photos from the evening’s activities which will give you a visual flavour of the evening, if not an actual one.

This week’s quote of the week doesn’t come from Amicus for a change, but was good enough that I thought I’d share it here:

a: “Did you just fart while you were talking to me?”
b: “Yep.”
a: “You didn’t even pause!”
b: “Yes, I know how to multi-task.”
– Source: AuntMarvel on Twitter -

As this week is half-term, we got together early on Monday morning for an Ikea Breakfast.  We had a good turn-out but we could still do better.  We’ll have another during the end of term break – check the diary nearer the time for details.  Following a second/third round of drinks at Ikea we headed off to Lynn Gibbs’ house to fulfil our second Promise Auction gardening promise.  Everyone worked really well together with minimal guidance and supervision, and Lynn was delighted with the outcome.  Thanks to all who took part!

Finally, the picture of Nicci ‘dancing’ was taken during a visit this week to see Alex Bradley in Southampton.

Next Week: Film Making – Part Two

For devotions we contrasted the following two articles.  Please take a moment to read and consider them both:

• Christ-Like or Christ-Follower
• Killed for Being a Christian

Don’t forget to take a look at the update from our trip to Thorpe Park at the weekend.

Half Term Treats

Ikea Breakfast – we will be meeting at Ikea on Monday at 9:30am for breakfast (just 95p) and fellowship (free!).  Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll text you a reminder on Sunday night.  Also, let me know by Sunday lunchtime if you need a lift…

Promise Auction Gardening – following the Ikea Breakfast we’ll be heading to Lynn Gibb’s house to do a couple of hours work on her garden for the additional Promise Auction lot.

Next Week: Take on the Take-Away

• Blind man who has lost his dog
• Ring of Fire
• Owls
• Stretch Armstrong
• Chicken Liver Pate
• UFO
• Black Cab
• Sheep
• Time
• “Can we eat this?”
• Monkey
• Bible Story
• Secret Place

Late Update: After the scavenger hunt we miraculously beat our Volleyball Keppy Uppy record with a new high of 59!

Lost Property: we don’t often have lots of items of lost property left behind after Amicus, but this week there was a rift in the universe and everyone seemed to leave everything at once, from a Camp Consent Form (tut tut) and BB Gazette to a USB Remote Control thingy, and a pair of old trainers with a Parmesan tang.  Perhaps the oddest items, and still unclaimed, are an opened jar of Cranberry Sauce and one of Piccalilli.  If they are yours, please let me know.

Tree-Top Walk: on Monday night we’ll be joining with the Newport Pagnell Amicus group for the tree-top walk at Salcey Forest.  Meet at Water Eaton Church Centre at 7:20 and then we’ll be heading over to Lovat Hall then on to Salcey Forest.  Dress appropriately for the weather…

Next Week: it’s that time of year again where things are starting to wind down and we’ve almost reached the end of the Amicus session.  We’ll be celebrating in the same way we did last year with a bring-and-share buffet and console games (hopefully with the projector this time!).  Bring along some snacks & nibbles, drinks or cakes (homemade if possible).  We expect to be able to hand out Amicus Hoodies on the evening too.  Don’t forget that this will be the last opportunity for you to return your completed Camp Consent Form – also, please ensure you show the Camp letter to your parents.

Brute Force: On Saturday 19th July we will be honouring the promise we made at the Promise Auction to do a semi-skilled make-over on the Dungate’s garden.  We will start at 10:30 (not too early for a Saturday) and likely continue until about 4-5pm.  Lunch and refreshments provided by Lesley – we need to provide willing manpower.  The plan is that we will be involved in some cutting back, lopping, digging, pulling up and laying down.  I have no idea what those words mean, but I’m sure we’ll be able to work it out together.  Dress appropriately for the weather and activity and if you have any of the following equipment, please bring it with you:

• fork, spade, trowel
• shears, loppers, secateurs
• stepladder