Holy Ghost Walk II

Yesterday it was Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week and to kick off the most important 7 days in the Christian calendar I helped organise the 2nd of the local churches Holy Ghost Walks. The concept of the Holy Ghost Walk follows the popular format of the historic city ghost tours, where as you wander around, you are greeted by a spooky character, normally played by a failed drama student looking to pay off their student loan. The difference is that the characters represent people associated with Biblical stories.

This year we decided to go with the Easter story, so some could describe what we did as a passion play. However, with flimsy scripts, lame jokes, wooden acting and costumes made from curtains and duvet covers it was more a combo of Monty Python passing through the Crossroads Hotel on the way to Oberammergau! Nevertheless, over 100 people turned out to join in and a good afternoon was had by all. We had a new route that started and finished in the village of West Barns near Dunbar. It took in the Biel Burn and the Seafield Pond before heading back to the hall.

I played the part of the man who provided Jesus with a donkey to arrive in Jerusalem. With me was my junior sized donkey Stuart, who we called Dinky Donkey. Other characters included the market stall holder who complained at having their table overturned in the temple, Mary who had washed Jesus' feet, the owner of the Upper Room who was played by the local GP in the style of Ali G, but by all accounts sounded like he'd had too much wine and came from the South African quarter of South Wales. A real scoop was to get use of a huge rowing boat for the day where Simon Peter shamefully told his story of betrayal, and to finish off we had 2 Roman guards playing a game of snap with the crowd to win some of Jesus' shredded clothes. The final stop was back to the West Barns village hall for a short epilogue by Rev Gordon Stevenson, accompanied by trays and trays of really good home baking.

Alloa Alloa

It's been a busy few weeks since returning from York. With Easter fast approaching there has been a lot of work to do in the schools teaching the kids about it. We are also doing our Holy Ghost Walk again on Palm Sunday so this too has led to less time for stuff like this. And with the London Marathon just up the street too, any spare time I have has been handed over to getting fit.

Sunday was the first test of my fitness and the opportunity to step up the pace over a longer distance. The Alloa Half Marathon is a new one for me so i thought I'd use it to see how fit I was. It's a pretty varied course taking you through a council housing estate where the locals offer you their support, into the town which is full of empty shops and then out to the foot of the Ochills where the scenery is well worth the run out. The latter stages take you up a steep 1/2 mile+ hill at 11 miles, and then up another more gradual hill up to 12. The rule of 'what goes up has to come down' seems to have bypassed Alloa's highways, as the road to the finish is flat with no downhill to reward your last 10-15 minutes of hard work. The final 100 meters is great as you come off a roundabout and there it is, out of the blue. I like many others did an eye popping sprint to the finish losing all my dignity with snot and dribble all over my face.

Thanks must go to the Portobello runner Grahame Henry who ran with me shouting at me for the last 6 miles. I have never done a long run with a motivator before and it certainly paid off as I came in with a 1:25:29. I had got my pacing right for a change as I found at 10 miles I was thinking 'only 3 to go, nearly finished' as opposed to my usual feeling of 'how am I going to make it through this last 3'. This was a good start for my road racing season as in all honesty I had only expected a 90 minute run at best. Maybe Grahame should do a podcast for other runners. The only disappointment of the day was that I discovered later that my time was just 2 seconds short of a PB.

The next day the reality of running London hit me...well my door mat. My number and laces (yes you get a pair of red laces) and a whole wad of information that is a bit overwhelming arrived in the post. I'm now entering the zone of looking forward to it and the belief I could beat my Loch Ness time.

Sight seeing in York

Slightly earlier in the year than usual, I have just returned from another school trip to York with 90+ kids. A week of museums, walking around shops, ancient buildings and sitting on open top bus tours is sometimes tiring. The York Minster Education Centre is interesting, but as I have heard the talk 4 times before, my mind began to drift as I sat at the back of the room in the shadows. The drift turned into sleep and only as my head flopped down did I wake up and realise it. The thing is, so did all the kids who had spotted it and passed it along the line, so when I woke up they were all laughing and staring at me. I tried to pass it off as a moment of prayer but the snoring was a give away. These kids have eagle eyes and nothing gets passed them. Like today for example when we were on the city walls and the same kids came to tell me there was a naked woman in a window. Sure enough there was, so if you are that woman who lives next to the walls, perhaps you could get some curtains to preserve your modesty. Another great sight "It's the best thing I've seen in York" as one kid put it, was the arrest of a vagrant. Those same kids said, "Mr Taylor, that man is getting arrested for peeing up the wall". My doubts were ended when sure enough a bloke was stood peeing up the wall as he had his collar felt by the local plod. He then resisted arrest so the wrestling began. Arm locks, head locks, pindowns and all but the Big Daddy Splash were being used to restrain this drunkard. The poor officer of the law looked up to see a whole open top bus full of kids all watching, taking photos and getting very excited. It was great entertainment and we even got to see the back up arrive and throw him into the van.

The itinerary had a few changes. The Viking re enactment bloke 'Leaf' from Danelaw, and strictly not Danelaw Dave invited us to his place instead of coming to us. Danelaw is a mock Viking village with long houses, livestock and everything you would expect to find in a viking version of a Wimpy housing scheme. So we got to hear 'Thor's Hammer' sat around a fire in a smoke filled long house, in near darkness. You can't really get that experience across in a text book and I was impressed. This man never ceases to lose his passion for telling these stories. He told me that if you cut his veins, living history would bleed out of him. It's who he is and watching him tell stories is like watching a master craftsman at work.

Also new for 2010 was Poundland! Yes having been ripped off in all of Yorks crappy museum shops, I thought a visit to a quality retailer might go down well. It did as most of them bought their own body weight in chocolate and sweets and still had money left to buy branded junk at the National Railway Museum. Finally the journey back was okay too. The nightmare of getting all their bags off was eased by the help of a guard who had not noticed all of our bags had ribbon on them, whereas the nice silver suitcase she offloaded at Dunbar did not. As the train left and everyone had collected their bags, we realised that some poor soul going to Edinburgh was now without luggage, because I was stood at the platform holding it!

Favourite quote of the week on the ghost tour. Q: (Ghost story teller) Does anyone know what arson is? A: (kid) It's when your messing around.