If you are a preacher from Texas I bear sad news. The end of the world has not happened here in the England although it will be difficult to tell in parts of Manchester. The pastor in question said there would be hell on earth until October
21st when God would finally pull the plug on the world. That will come as some relief to those already living a hell on earth. Yes Southampton has been around for a jolly long time!

There are places in this world that really are Hell on Earth and I am sure many of you could name half a dozen. Let us spare a moment to ponder these and how we can act to improve them......


I had completely forgotten the world was to end today. The fact I had forgotten this brought to mind the times when I really thought the world as we knew it was about to end.

1) 1979 when the news broke of the failed bid to release the embassy hostages in Iran. I remember walking to school the next morning, it was a dark and grey morning and I couldn't help feeling it wouldn't look like this much longer. I was only 13!

2) 1990 and watching footage of scud missiles landing in Israel - just how long before Israel got stuck in - and then what?

Let's hear it for Patriot missiles

Just as a footnote I heard a story on TV that the last time a major city was bombarded with ballistic missiles (London 1944) more people were killed by falling masonary after an explosion than by the explosion itself. The V2 would bury itself about 30 feet into the ground before it had a chance to detonate and would chuck out an enourmous amount of dirt and leave a filthy great crater behind. It was the falling clods of earth that did all the damage.

Anyhoo!

3)1986 England vs. Argentina and that famous "hand of God" incident. It was a good 10 years before I could bring myself to watch replays of that goal.

4) Any time we lose to Australia at anything.

Unfortunatley I started this blog late last night and have come back to it this morning. I now can't remember where I was going with it so that seems a good point to halt for now