Those of you unlucky enough to follow me on Twitter will know that I have been angered recently by the response to the Suarez/Evra affair. If, at this stage, you have no idea what  I’m talking about then you’d be well advised to not bother reading the rest of this!

Let me be quite clear at the very beginning: I believe that what Suarez did was wrong and it is right that he is punished for what he did. I’m no lawyer, or profess to have any sort of legal brain, but I have read through the full FA report. The early pages make unpleasant reading for Liverpool fans (or Suarez supporters – and the two are not mutually inclusive groups).

But on reading further my initial sense of having been let down by someone who’s skill, attitude and enthusiasm for the game I had admired changed to one of injustice and anger.

Far better blogs than this one have been written on the inconsistencies surrounding the judgement and a quick search of the internet will find you many blogs both for and against the judgement. It is not the intention of this post to try and change anyone’s mind, or convince them that they are wrong.

The purpose of this post is to give a word of warning.

I like to think of myself as a mild-mannered 50 year old. I rarely get upset or angry, I try to be laid-back and laissez-faire but I have spent my whole working life dealing with injustices and I try not to let them go unchallenged.

Whether it is the right that is so often denied to children and young people to have their say about the future, or nobody taking a stand against a bullying army in Israel protecting those who are building illegal settlements from those whose land they have stolen I want to make my voice heard.

And so in this sad and morally bereft affair when I see one man being correctly (though excessively) punished and another protagonist not even being investigated my heart screams out “where is the justice?”

I believe that Luis Suarez was wrong and should apologise for any offence caused. It matters not whether he intended to cause offence or whether the ‘cultural differences’ were exaggerated. If I cause offence to someone else (showing the soles of my feet in Korea, not putting my knife and fork together on the plate in Belgium) I should apologise. So should Luis.

However, so should Patrice Evra. The report is quite clear (to my reading) that Evra started the incident, that he insulted Suarez yet he has not been charged by the FA and that, to me , is an injustice and one which allows Liverpool FC’s feeling of injustice to fester.

Liverpool FC are, of course, now in a no win situation. If they decide not to appeal they will get pilloried in the press (particularly I suspect by those twin icons of journalistic integrity The Daily Mail and The Mirror for the support shown by the club, its staff and players to Luis Suarez the Convicted Racist (despite the fact that both the FA Commission and Evra has said that Suarez is not a racist – but the gutter press have never allowed facts to get in the way of  a good headline, has it?)

If they DO appeal they will get pilloried in the press (particularly I suspect by those twin icons of journalistic integrity The Daily Mail and The Mirror) for not taking a stand against racism (a stand which LFC have been in the forefront of taking for many years)

And back to the word of warning I mentioned earlier. My utterances on Twitter regarding this debacle have introduced me to some strangers – some of whom have become ‘friends’ like Stephen (@mirrors90) a young ManUre fan with whom I share pleasant and, I hope, inoffensive banter. But this relationship seems to be the exception rather than the rule. The two clubs, and their supporters, are so at each others throats and so hate (and I use that word advisedly) each other that it is my profound fear that when the two clubs next meet (at Old Trafford in March) such will be the poisonous atmosphere that there will be significant violence and someone, maybe more than one person, will be seriously hurt.

Can this be avoided? Yes, I think it can – and it requires Suarez and Evra, together on a public stage, making sincere and personal apologies to each other and asking the two sets of fans to start respecting each other. Let’s face it, we’ll never LIKE each other but respect would be a good place to be.

Because if someone is seriously hurt, or worse, who is going to be able to take the moral high ground then?

Shakespeare had King Lear say:

Close pent-up guilts,
Rive your concealing continents, and cry
These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man
More sinn’d against than sinning.

I don’t believe that Suarez was MORE sinned against than sinning – but I believe he was equally sinnned against.

“Sorry”  may well be the hardest word but it’s not an impossible one. For all our sakes, Evra and Suarez need to say it.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,400 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 23 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

“I’d like to experience what it means to live in Israel/Palestine today …”

“I want an opportunity to deepen my faith and understanding ….”

A visit to the Holy Land provides opportunities and experiences that, as well as lasting a lifetime, can develop your understanding of faith.

Revd. Brian Jolly (Altrincham United Reformed Church) and Leo Roberts (CYDO) are leading a small group (20 members) on a 12-day visit to the Holy Land from 23rd August 2012 to 3rd September 2012. Places are strictly limited and will be allocated on a ‘first come; first served’ basis.

We will not only be visiting the Gospel sites (starting in Bethlehem, visiting Nazareth, then Galilee before spending time in jerusalem) but will also have the opportunity to meet with members of local faith communities – Christian, Muslim and Jewish. Hearing their stories and learning a little of their lives will inform us about the Holy Land and help us to begin to understand what it means to live in the Holy Land today.

The cost of the trip, including flights, accommodation (twin rooms, en-suite) on a half-board basis) and all internal transport is £1375.

For further information, or to get an application pack, please get in touch

Thursday, 23^rd August

Meet at Manchester Airport 0700, departing on flight LS907 at 10.00.

Arrive Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv

at 17.15. Transfer to Bethlehem.

Dinner and overnight in Bethlehem, at The Bethlehem Hotel

Friday 24^th August  Jerusalem/Bethlehem orientation

Today we travel around Bethlehem and Jerusalem to get our bearings. In the morning we travel east from Bethlehem into the desert to Herodion, the summer palace and burial place of King Herod. Later we travel a short distance to the north to circle the Old City of Jerusalem, stopping for lunch and spectacular views from Mount Scopus and the Mount of Olives (to the east), and the Haas Promenade (to the south).

Dinner and overnight in Bethlehem, at The Bethlehem Hotel

Saturday 25^th August 

In and around Bethlehem

This morning we visit Dheisheh Refugee Camp, to hear from residents about the history of the camp and life today. Later we view the Separation Barrier and hear from other residents of Bethlehem about living under occupation. After lunch we visit the Shepherd’s Fields in the village of Beit Sahour, to the east of Jerusalem Bethlehem, before walking through Bethlehem Old City to the Church of the Nativity.

Today includes a meeting with  Jack Giacaman and his family, and a visit to their olive wood factory & shop.

Dinner and overnight in Bethlehem, at The Bethlehem Hotel

 Sunday 26^th August 

Bethlehem & Jericho

We join the Lutheran congregation at Bethlehem Christmas Church for morning worship, and afterwards visit the Lutheran International Centre of Bethlehem.

In the afternoon we transfer from Bethlehem to the desert oasis of Jericho, situated at the lowest point on the earth’s surface. We visit Tel Jericho and view the hills of Jordan to the east, before arriving at Jericho Resort Hotel.

Dinner and overnight at Jericho Resort Hotel

Monday 27^th August 

Beside the Dead Sea

An early morning start to drive south along the western shore of the Dead Sea to Masada, King Herod’s Winter Palace. After an audio-visual presentation explaining the history of Masada, we ascend the mountain by cable car to tour the archaeological excavations and enjoy spectacular views of the Dead Sea.

Late morning and early afternoon provide opportunity to experience the facilities of the Dead Sea Spa at Ein Gedi (including Dead Sea mud, the Dead Sea, mineral & fresh water pools). Later in the afternoon we return to Jericho, stopping en route to visit the archaeological excavations at Qumran, the 1^st century desert centre for the Essene Community, where the Dead Sea scrolls were written.

Dinner and overnight at Jericho Resort Hotel

Tuesday 28^th August 

The Jordan Valley and Nazareth

Today we travel north along the Jordan Valley to Nazareth to visit Mary’s Well, the Basilica of the Annunciation and Nazareth village before making our way to Kibbutz Ma Agan, situated on the south eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Dinner and overnight at

Kibbutz Ma Agan, Sea of Galilee

Wednesday 29^th August 

The Sea of Galilee

Today is spent beside the Sea of Galilee, and includes visits to Kursi, Bethsaida,  Capernaum, Mensa Christi, Tabgha and the Mount of Beatitudes, and a boat ride.

Dinner and overnight at

Kibbutz Ma Agan, Sea of Galilee

Thursday 30^th August

The Mediterranean Coast

This morning we head west to the Mediterranean coast, for a morning visit to Caeserea Maritima. In the afternoon we make our way up to the Holy City of Jerusalem.

Dinner and overnight at the

Notre Dame Centre, Jerusalem

Friday 31^st August

The Old City of Jerusalem

Today begins with visits to the Church of the Pater Noster and Dominus Flevit on the Mount of Olives, and the Garden of Gethsemane. Later we cross the Kidron Valley to enter the Old City of Jerusalem and walk the Via Dolorosa (the Way of Sorrows) to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Other visits inside the Old City include The Church of St Anne, the pools of Bethesda, St James’ Armenian Cathedral and the Western Wall.

Dinner and overnight at

Notre Dame Centre, Jerusalem

 Saturday 1^st September  -  The Temple Mount, Bethany and West Jerusalem

This morning begins with a visit to Harem-esh-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) to view the Al Aqsa Mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock. Later we visit Bethany, the home village of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

Ain the afternoon we visit the memorial to the Holocaust (Yad Vashem) and an extensive model of 1^st century Jerusalem at the Israel Museum.

Dinner and overnight at Notre Dame Centre, Jerusalem

Sunday 2^nd September  - Jerusalem/Hebron

This morning we worship with the Palestinian congregation at St George’s Anglican Cathedral in East Jerusalem

In the afternoon, we will visit Hebron with a member of the Israel Committee Against House Demolitions to visit the Tombs of the Patriarchs and meet with the Christian Peacemaker Team.

Dinner and overnight at Notre Dame Centre, Jerusalem

Monday 3^rd September

Emmaus …. and home

This morning we will visit one of the 4 traditional sites of Emmaus where we will celebrate Communion to end our visit, before transferring to Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv.

Depart Tel Aviv on flight LS908, arriving in Manchester at 22.00

Sybil has been just over 6 months in the making in the workshop of Dave White and he has produced a beauty.

She is different from my other guitars in so many ways – the two most obvious are that she is a 12 fretter and those frets are multi scaled.

So, just so that you can see, what she looks like, here’s a pic

Oh, sorry … She’s in bed.

With their donated money in my wallet, I walked up Jaffa St (guitar shop closed) and into Ben Yehuda St to its intersection with King George St to the second shop I had been told about.

Through the security barriers and down the stairs led me to my destination. With my 2 (non-guitarist) colleagues looking on, I then played every acoustic they had (apart from the Martins which were a teeny bit above my budget!)

Eventually, I settled on a Washburn D10S as the “main” guitar and a lovely, but cheap, Cort AD880. These will be added to at camp by a cheap, but not very nasty, nylon string guitar in blue (!)

Then the bargaining begins. The two guitars alone use up my budget but I want gig bags, spare strings, plectrums (plectri?), capos… well I ended up with all of those plus a joyo tuner and a string winder I even got a free set up on the Washburn to lower the action a bit.

To be fair, the guitars picked themselves but it took an hour or so because the shop was air-conditioned and, outside, it was 32 degrees!

I hope my friends in the forum are happy with my choices…

Oh, and then we went to Papa Andrea’s for lunch

I’d be happy with some roots to the Emerald Isle (as much as I’d be happy with a link to Scotland and Wales) because I love the music that comes from there so much.

There’s one particular musician whose music moves me. Considered by many to be Ireland’s national composer, Turlough O’Carolan was a blind (aren’t many of the best musicians blind? There’s hope for me yet!) harpist who lived from 1670 – 1738. Well, according to Wikipedia he did!

His melodies are sublime, his harmonies hit heights and move souls … he was not bad at what he did! And he had a few things in common with me:

1. He was short sighted (well, actually he was blind but let’s not quibble)

2. He wasn’t much to look at (if the contemporary pictures are to believed) 

3. He wasn’t much of a singer (based on the fact that he mostly wrote tunes, rather than songs)

Trouble is, a harp has many more strings than a guitar so, surely, the music won’t transpose.  Well, fortunately, good music is good music and, whilst it doesn’t transfer directly from harp to guitar, there are people who are able to interpret an O’Carolan tune well enough to keep respectful to the original whilst altering it to suit their own instrument and style.

One such person is Keith Chesterton. I’ve never met Keith – though I know a bit about him… he;’s a retired dentist, he plays guitar in his church worship group, he is generous with his time and money, and he is a great guitar player. His arrangement of the O’Carolan tune “Eleanor Plunkett” is both an inspiration to me to sit down and do some serious work in practicing, and an aspiration – to be able to play with such soul!

So, this weekend I’m at the URC Learning and Resource Centre in the Lake District for a course. I’m taking my guitar and, in the quiet moments (and there must be some!) I’m going to try and work this out.

Wish me luck!

I have learned, at some cost, that unless you have a really good case then guitars and airlines don’t mix. I am extremely wary about taking my ‘good’ guitars on planes – well, I just don’t do it any more!

S0 I was faced with something of a quandary with regards to this summer’s Kids and Youth camps in Israel/Palestine. Music can be an important part of these camps, singing songs and hymns – learning them as well as teaching them – music provides a bond and a focus. It can calm down and it can energise and excite and I really wanted to take a guitar with me this year.

But what would be best? A travel guitar can sometimes fit in the overhead locker which means it can be taken as hand luggage on some airlines which would mean I could look after it, or maybe I should get a cheap guitar with a good flight case?

Naturally I turned to the Forum for advice and started a new thread explaining my quandary.

As expected, I received lots of useful advice and tips and then one member, out of the blue, suggested a new type of forum project – a “let’s pledge money so that Leo can get a guitar which he can leave over in Jerusalem with Jerusalem Arc for future camps and leaders to make use of” project.

I was really touched. I thought I might get enough to get a cheapo guitar and a good case, or maybe buy one over there (which would mean I could get a better guitar as it wouldn’t need a flight case.)

You need to know that most of these people have never met me. I know some of them through passing on the Traveller or Taran guitars on their roadtrips and, of course Dave White is building me my 50th birthday present guitar but most don’t know me from Adam. And have no links with religion, church or faith – but do have a belief that music can help kids and young people express themselves, and a strong desire to share their love of music.

So, 24 hours after the ‘project’ was suggested, I have pledges totalling more than £450! A bit of research into guitar shops in Israel suggest that, far from leaving Jerusalem Arc with one guitar – I’ll be able to leave them with at least 2 (and strings, capos, straps …)

What do these folk want in return? Nothing, absolutely nothing. “A few pictures would be nice – maybe a recording”

Stunning.

The milk of human kindness does not run dry. Occasionally, in places where you don’t really expect it to, it overflows.

Many, many thanks, folks. you’ve asked to remain anonymous, but you know who you are.

UPDATE: I have now got a total of £600, plus some strings and a humidifier

Many Junior Church staff tell me that, having worked voluntarily for many years, they’re ready to take a break but, if they do, the Junior Church will close because there’s no-one to take over from them. And it’s not just Junioor Church staff, it’s Pilots Officers, Uniformed Organisation leaders and voluntary youth leaders, too.

Surely, if work with children and young people is such a high priority, volunteers would be forthcoming to fill the roles vacated by the good and faithful servants as they take a rest? And, if those volunteers are not forthcoming, then maybe the church should re-assess what its priorities really are …

Can we work out where a church’s priorities lie in purely monetary terms?

I received an advert yesterday for a church in Geneva which has 2 posts currently being advertised:

1.  A Youth Minister – 25hours per week, payment CHF 20,000 per annum

2.  A Director of Music -20 hours per week, payment CHF 34,000 per annum

I wonder where THEIR priorities lie?

I’m delighted to say that Luthier Dave White, having assembled and assessed all the pieces of wood and other materials for the guitar which he is building for me, has made a start. In three months’ time (or thereabouts) Sybil Iúr will be ready but, whilst the build goes on, Dave has promised to document the building process on his website.

From bits of wood to a hand-crafted musical instrument … watch the process as it unfolds here

and just look at the beauty of the Venetian cutaway already

And building a guitar isn’t just about glueing some bits of wood together and adding strings. It’s about bending wood to the right shape, individually siting and shaving the support struts on both the back and the inside top to make sure that they are placed not just where they can add strength to the build but also where they will bring out the best of the tonewoods on which they are sited. For that you don’t just need tools, you need artistry and a 6th sense.

Dave reckons it’ll take about 3 months to complete my Sybil Iúr which should give her a few weeks to ‘breathe’ before being handed over.

The thing is, all guitars start off as a collection of bits of wood and other stuff. In three months’ time, Dave will have crafted me a guitar. This is what he’s starting with:

Good luck Dave!