Rob Trickey's blog

Do you remember going to back to school after the summer break and having to write something literary on the subject 'what I did on my holidays'? Or does that just show my age?? A few years back, our oldest son was set the task of keeping a holiday diary, which was a bit of a nightmare (for us as much as him, as we tried to get him to do it!).

Well having had a break from blogging, I'm back again. Aiming to put something up each week from now on, probably at some point on a Tuesday.

So, what did I do on my holidays? We did a bit of travelling - south-east Devon, northern France, south Wales. Managed to be in the right place at the right time, weather-wise (although this week's decent weather seems a bit ill-timed). And although we're not particularly adventurous, we ended up going to quite a few places we'd not been before - mostly beaches and coastal areas. There's something very restful and relaxing about going to familiar places, when you know how things work and where everything is. But I do like discovering new things and new places.

With the day of decision looming on Thursday and no great clarity as to the final outcome, there is perhaps greater interest in this election than there has been since 1997. Whatever your views of the different parties (and indeed the whole process), it's certainly refreshing to have a 3-horse race, with the media for once being forced to take seriously the Liberal Democrats.

It probably says something about our culture that the turning point for Nick Clegg came not with the publication of the party manifesto but on the back of strong performances in the TV debates. Has style trumped substance? Perhaps so, in our celebrity-obsessed culture.

In John 21, Jesus has a very moving encounter with Peter, in the course of which he asks him 3 times whether he loves him. Three times Peter says yes. The three questions mirror the three times Peter denied that he was a follower of Jesus, on the night of his arrest. Jesus is offering Peter a new start, despite his abject failure. That's the main point of the story, and that's why John records it.

But there is something else going on here too, something which tends to be masked by English translations of the passage. In Greek (the language in which the text was first written) there are several words which can be translated as 'love'. One is agape, another is philia. In the Greek text, Jesus first asks Peter about his commitment using 'agape'. Peter replies using 'philia'. Second time round, the same thing happens: agape ... philia. When Jesus asks the third time he uses the word 'philia' and Peter responds in the same way.

Agape? Philia. Agape? Philia. Philia? Philia.

Monday being my day off means it's an opportunity to sit down and watch TV in the evening. Except of course that there's rarely anything on worth watching. And now we have even more channels of not much worth watching ...

That said, we did get into watching the Secret Millionaire (9pm on Channel 4). In case you've not come across it before, the idea is that a millionaire goes undercover for a few days, living in a (usually deprived) locality and visiting community projects, meeting both 'clients' and 'providers'. Then at the end they decide which projects/individuals they're going to give some of their money to.

It's all a bit contrived and by now, you do wonder whether the beneficiaries haven't already figured out what's going on before the great unveiling, at least in some cases. The show's been around for a while now - are we the only ones who watch it?

But mostly, the surprise seems genuine, and never fails to produce a certain dampness on the cheek, at least for the adults in our house. It's heart-warming stuff and it does seem as if the millionaires get as much if not more out of the whole experience.

Finally got round to watching one of my Christmas presents last night: 'Stripped', the latest live show released on DVD by Eddie Izzard. I appreciate that Izzard is an acquired taste - but in my book, he's a genius. His ability to improvise and to follow wild tangents means you have to be prepared for things to get a little surreal - as it does when he notes that giraffes have no warning cry to communicate danger. But they can cough. Izzard imagines this to be a discreet, 'British' kind of cough, before the whole thing morphs into two giraffes playing charades in order to communicate the fact that they are about to be attacked. As I say, the man's a genius.

The man's also an atheist - he was keen to tell us that, having been for many years an agnostic. This change may have been a recent thing, because he did have something of the zeal of a new convert about him, keen to share his new-found insights into why there is no God. Some of this hit home, as the reflections of an intelligent person saying 'hang on a minute'.

In Mark 10 we read the story of an encounter that Jesus has with a rich man, who comes to him with a question: what must I do to inherit eternal life? The question is sincere and Jesus sees great potential in this man, and so calls him to follow him (one of the few people Jesus explicitly calls in this way). But because this will involve the dispersal of his many assets, the man is not willing to do this (not yet, anyway).

This encounter sparks a well-known saying from Jesus: 'It is is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God' (Mark 10:25).

A few years (maybe decades?!) back, someone suggested that there was a gate in Jerusalem called 'The eye of the needle', so-named because it was very small. In this scenario, the picture therefore is of a camel squeezing through a narrow gap, probably under some duress from its owner. It's a nice idea, and helps us to feel a little more comfortable with Jesus' words.

As part of the Sport Relief coverage, BBC 1 aired a documentary on Sunday evening which covered the contribution made by comedian Eddie Izzard. In case you missed the story, Izzard (a stocky, un-athletic guy in his late forties) raised over £1m for Sport Relief by running around the UK. He completed a circuit from London via Wales, N Ireland and Scotland, a journey which amounted to running 43 marathons, in a schedule which allowed only a day off each week.

As someone who is relatively fit but finds it hard to get his head round running one marathon, this achievement is completely mind-blowing. Julia and I found ourselves saying over and over, as we watched: 'it's incredible'. And if the evidence had not been before our eyes, we would not have believed it.

Strangely enough, I bumped into Eddie Izzard in Soho (as you do) soon after he finished. He looked in pretty good shape (tanned and wearing a bright blue jump suit!). I wish I'd been switched on enough to say something meaningful - not that he seemed anxious to talk to anyone.

One of the great things about having evenings free is that I get to watch some of the TV programmes I would normally miss. Plus, some wise heads at the Beeb have realised that it's worth putting good stuff on more than once.

So last night, Joel and I watched a double bill of science programmes: 'Wonders of the solar system' (repeated from Sunday night) and 'Horizon' (we also finished watching 'Airplane 2' - but that's a different story!).

Both programmes were concerned with cosmology - the study of the universe. The first programme was all about the sun and its role within the universe; and Horizon looked at some recent theories regarding the nature and origins of the universe itself. At times, it all gets a bit mind-blowing, when we try to get our heads round vast distances and time frames.

There is a couplet in Kipling's famous poem which goes like this: 'If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster / And treat those two imposters just the same' . The poem begins with some familiar words 'If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs and blaming it on you'; and ends 'Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it / And - which is more - you'll be a man my son'. The writer outlines to his son the challenges he will face as he grows up, and urges him to respond positively, in order to get the best out of life and to be the best that he can be.

One of those challenges is how we deal with success and failure, perhaps especially challenging for us, as our culture tends to over-hype success and often refuses to admit failure.

I guess I first heard the name Nelson Mandela when the song by The Specials hit the charts in the early 80's. The chorus was simple but effective: 'Free Nelson Mandela' (although I still want to add the words 'with every purchase' - it's an interesting thought). Then of course there were the concerts and a wave of protest around the world. He had become an icon, a symbol of the struggle against racism, and against oppression in general. All of this culminated in the amazing scenes which surrounded his release from prison in 1990. He remains an iconic figure, hugely respected and revered. But in all honesty, until very recently, I knew very little about him.

A few years back, someone gave me a copy of his book 'Long walk to freedom'. It's a hefty tome - over 700 pages. A fact which has always deterred me from reading it. But with a trip to South Africa lined up, I figured it was now or never. So I am wading my way through it - around p550 now. I reckon it's longer than it needs to be - there is a lot of detail (names, places etc). But it's still a gripping account of Mandela's life as what he calls a 'freedom fighter'.