Hard hands.

The whole dish-washing thing didn’t come off. It had been a kind of last-minute attempt to replace a much better idea that fell through at the last minute. Yet I suspect you’re confused - I guess a bit of background is in order…

In one of my classes in college, the idea was put forward for a thing dubbed “A Better Day”, the idea being simply to attempt to make one day (today!) better than it otherwise would be for some of the people in the area around the college building. We had hoped to spend a morning in a local school armed with a video camera taking vox pops, but for various logistical reasons this was called off late last week, and we were kind of stuck.

Enter the dishes. While it sounded like a rather funky idea, we figured that few people would accept the offer of a couple of guys banging on their door wanting to do housework. Think about it - would you? :-)

So we went our separate ways and joined up with what other people were doing under the same banner. I ended up serving as roadie/tech for a few folks who were putting on a rock gig in a local church hall (which would also feature a bouncy castle and other cool things that youthworkers do love so), which meant a few hours spent lugging heavy gear around the place, and trying to track down a new PA as the one we had borrowed was just too quiet for such a big hall! (As it transpired, the hard bit of actually finding it was done by someone else - I just had to go and get.) This was eased when the bass player decided he wanted to play guitar for a few songs and I got to stand in for him. Four songs I’d never played before, picked up in a quick run-through beforehand, and then performed! FUN!

But by far the coolest part of the day was playing Giant Jenga with a seven year old (oh yeah, by the time I left, all the young people who had come were actually primary school kids - doesn’t detract at all: they had fun), who was average height for a seven year old. Which means that by the time the thing fell over, it was significantly taller than she was. One day I will be happy when I find a Jenga that I can play that will be taller than me…

A good day. “A Better Day”!