Back in Kabale and on to Kampala

A hair-raising journey back to Kabale as expected. Sights en route: small children (3/4 years old), unaccompanied and carrying items back along the road (note to self – Joe!); people breaking rocks along the wayside; cows and goats being herded; 2 men pushing a bicycle with a jerry can up the hill.
The matatu dropped us off at the Post Office. Adrian enquired about Post Bus tickets. Fi and I went to Hot Loaf and bought supplies for the journey back again. Then off to find Amagara Café, where we came across the Irish girls again. They confirmed that the food was good, but took a while to arrive. They also said that they had used the internet. Looking into the Internet café, it appeared to be not too busy, but I wanted to get back to the hotel, so we walked back to the Post Office and supermarket, tried in vain to find a special hire, and so decided to trudge back up the hill to the White Horse Inn. Electricty was off in the hotel, so no chance to charge the camera (which was lasting very well despite the low battery display). After a change of clothes, we pottered back down the hill and into the Internet café which by this point, (as I should have expected) had a huge queue (argh! Frustrating!). So – we pottered around the African Crafts shop to see the sorts of things one can buy as souvenirs, then decided that we were really hungry and went back to Amagara to eat (having briefly considered the Little Ritz restaurant above Hot Loaf for a cup of tea). Still a queue for the internet so decided to just check as we finished our meal and otherwise leave it until Red Chilliies in Kampala. Most amusing menu in the Amagara Café – the ‘strapline’ for my ‘U.S. Burger’ read – ‘swallow your pride…’. Service was very slow but gave time to update diary and play ‘3s’ with Fi. Mooted going to the Sheraton in Kampala for a swim and a G+T on Sunday. Given the slowness of service, I decided to try the internet between dinner and pudding – it took half an hour to send one email via Gmail, but very good to have made contact.
Back at the White Horse Inn, DSTv was working, so I managed to see a little bit of the Italy-Portugal game in the Rugby World Cup. Channels kept switching though (perhaps controlled by reception). Went to bed at half seven and to sleep at half nine. Woke at about two/three o’clock thining that there was something nasty in my room and that Fi had recommended that we contact the Rwandan church to deal with that. Odd, really, as I wasn’t taking Lariam as an anti-malarial (although perhaps proof of why I should not). Woke again at about 4.45, so put the light on and waited until half five to get up. No hot water for a shower (must learn to take showers in the evening) so just packed up.
At 6.15am we left: Reception had left the sliding door slightly open to allow us to drop our keys back, but it was still very dark, so we used our torches to find our way to the gate, roused the gatekeeper (who was sleeping on three chairs, wrapped up in a coat and a blanket) who unlocked the padlock from the main gates to let us out. On the path exiting the White Horse (before we went down the hill to the Post Office) we suddenly heard footsteps behind us. Past us ran a youngish man – no lights, but wearing a fluorescent jacket. As we walked down the hill he ran back (up) past us.
We were the first people at the post office (6.30am) so sat down on the steps outside. A man in a uniform, with a rifle slung across his back arrived on his bicycle and said that we could get on the bus, so this time we managed to obtain a front seat (a wise decision, given the number of people we subsequently stopped to pick up – even before leaving Kabale there were people standing at the back).
Quite bemused that even in the mist, most Ugandan drivers do not seem to put their lights on. The reaction to oncoming traffic seems to be: flash the headlights, indicate right (to show where the edge of the vehicle is). 8.45am – almost every man on the bus gets off for a ‘short call’ as the local euphemism is. We’ve been going less than 2 hours!!!
Sights en route:
Obushera was the first PO stop, or perhaps Ntungama
We saw 20 people being herded towards the police station.
MTN slogan is ‘y’ello’ – which would explain why every fifth shop is painted bright yellow (an equal number are painted red for celnet).
Mbarara. We were offered socks, boiled eggs from street vendors as we sat on the bus.
Just past Mbarara. 11am, the bus was invaded by men with goat-on-a-stick. Small boy with 2 live, bound chickens. Chapatis, bananas (mgoya), iced water. Fi and A buy bananas.
11.15am off track again.
11.45am Kyazanga – we pass a matatu with a windscreen visor proclaiming ‘Bin Laden’. Nice.
Just past one of the toll stops/weighing bridges, there were stalls offering tilapia (fish) – 2 on a string. It seems that the approach is to tie the fish to your radiator grill to avoid it making the vehicle smell inside (and presumably also lightly cooks the fish as you travel).

At 3.30pm we finally reached Kampala Post Office, having successfully bypassed the taxi park. A 5-10 minute walk down from the Post Office we found Nandos, or at least, the ice cream parlour next to it. The anticipated waffles and ice cream were not available, so we had cones and water and Krest Lemon, and then got a special hire back to Red Chillies. Fi bartered the man down from 20,000 USh to 10,000Ush. Driver happily chatted away to Fi about her previous trips to Uganda (and thus understood why she wouldn’t accept paying 20k). Same cottage as before in Red Chillies, which was nice, but headed straight for the internet. Compared to the slow connection in Amagara Café, Red Chillies Internet access (free, and relatively fast) was a joy. Dinner was good. To bed about half-past eight, waking at about 4 (loud dogs, muezzin etc.). Got up at about 8am, having drifted in and out of sleep.

Bushara Island, Lake Bunyonyi - II

19-21 September 2007
After dinner we went to sit next to the log fire and joined the student medics who were on a short break from their elective in Rwanda. Neither of them speak Rwandan or French (a moderate hindrance one might presume) but have been involved in all kinds of interesting procedures: post-mortems (where the Afrikaans doctor expressed surprise that they had actually cut the body open rather than just sticking a scalpel/other sharp object into the aorta and seeing if it comes out dry). They have fixed X-ray machines and antirefractors at their hospital and the other day an ultrasound machine (taking 6 people to lift) was brought to them from another hospital to see if they could fix it. The error message said ‘insert disk’. They asked the ultrasonographer if he had tried this and learned that he had not, as he did not feel qualified. They tried it. It worked – thus restoring to action a machine which had been out of action for 18 months!
Fi then enjoyed looking at lots of pictures of pus and unhealing keloid scar excisions etc. She got quite excited. Apparently all the cows in Rwanda have TB, so milk is always boiled. We (3) all had ginger beer (Stony), then walked back to Firefinch and Cisticola having ordered breakfast (lemon scones and fruit salad for me and Fi, bacon and sausage for Adrian, coffee for the two of them, passionfruit juice for me).

This morning I woke up at about 5am – too terrified of the dark/tent-ness to move in case something nasty got into bed with me. Fi wasn’t well in the night (too much garlic in the crayfish) so she and Adrian ended up playing monopoly. The dawn chorus was a little too loud for my taste.
My shower (first since the post bus) was bliss – outside, from a jerry can – but wonderful! Slightly odd to be showering outside (flipflops are the answer), but beautiful views from the shower over the lake. Went down and had breakfast outside Fi’s tent, mosicoil set alight, and quite looking forward to using the Internet later that day. Lemon scones were enormous and delicious.
At about 12 noon, we wandered up to the Swallows Restaurant to order lunch before going swimming at Jacana Dock (which Adrian discovered when he walked round the island while Fi and I were playing cards). Fi and Adrian went to find the rope swing. I finished the Crusader novel I was reading. Dreadful sub-Da Vinci code book – a waste of a morning even speed-reading it.
Lunch took a very long time to arrive, given that it was a straightforward request for 3 tomato sandwiches with cheese and bacon – Fi’s without tomato ;-).
Fi and I bought wraparound skirts from the little craft stall in the restaurant.
We had ordered cake for 5pm and dinner at 7pm – more crayfish (crayfish chowder, crayfish masala, stirfry crayfish and some pineapple fritters). Lady with the internet was supposed to turn up at lunch but didn’t. Frustrating.
Finished reading through Judges that afternoon.
Back at the restaurant, Fi enjoyed looking at some lovely pictures of pus being drained from a Rwandan’s back into a kidney dish. I took a quick peek, which confirmed my career choice of ‘not-being-a-doctor’. Spice cake turned out to be cinnamon cake – nice! – Decided that I must make it back in Blighty, along with chapattis. Made a start on ‘Desiring God’ (Piper).
Struggled to finish my dinner – crayfish chowder was good, but struggled through the chapatti. Barely touched the crayfish masala and found the pineapple fritters hilarious/overwhelming in equal measure. We had anticipated the proportion of pineapple:fritter to be in the region of 90:10, or even 95:5. However, it was more like 10:90. Imagine a scone the size of a man’s fist, with a small piece of pineapple in the centre. We had to give up and donated the ‘fritters’ to the med students.
After borrowing paraffin lamps from the restaurant, we took the 10 minute walk back to our tents and played Scattergories. Lots of mosis about.
Listened to Judges sermons to pass the time until a reasonably late point in the evening, but unfortunately it didn’t lead to me sleeping through the night.

Went to sleep at 10.45, woke at 2.30 and again at 6.30 or so. Dawn chorus in full song once more. A bird with an enormous wingspan seemed to be in the shower – I could hear it flapping its wings. Shower arrived at 8am. Getting back from the shower I discovered flip flops under the bed (I had been borrowing Fi’s – she also discovered some under her bed). Packed up and waited for breakfast to arrive. Planned the rest of the day – up for lunch, motorboat back to the mainland, Adrian to buy tickets for the Post Bus, me and Fi to go to the Hot Loaf to buy provisions for the journey back up to Kampala, investigate the Amagara Café (for food in the evening), then special hire to the White Horse Inn (pathetic basungu that we are), then walk down to Voice of Kigezi so that I could use the Internet (at last), and then walk back through Kabale, perhaps popping into the market. Fi and Adrian decided to puddle a dugout round the island before lunch, so I sat up in the restaurant reading Ugandan supplements from Sunday papers (most recent copy available dated August 2007). Lady behind the reception humming ‘Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer’, which made me smile.
We checked out, and were pleasantly surprised to note that they had not charged me the single supplement, so our stay came to $270 with 30,000 USh for extras (a figure which we think was made up – but is basically about £10). Current surplus (for lo, I am an accountant, and thus must play with spreadsheets even on holiday) of 250,000 USh.
The boat came at 1.35pm with profuse apologies from the motorboat driver for being late (most amusing – clearly trained for msungu clients as we had only requested him to arrive at 1.30pm). Really nice journey across the lake – lots of dugouts coming back from the mainland (it became apparent that it was market day). The matatu driver was waiting for us (altho’ it was 1.50pm, rather than 2pm as booked – eek!).

Raspberry and white chocolate cheesecake

I have been told I need to blog this for future reference/wider enjoyment.
Here goes (taken from BBC Good Food in April 2003 and tweaked a bit).

Makes 8 ramekins (and 1 ramekin is quite enough for anyone)

100g/4oz plain digestive biscuits
50g/2oz butter, melted
200g proper white chocolate (e.g. Green and Black's)
142ml double cream
125g full-fat soft cheese - e.g. Philadelphia
125g mascarpone [Edit 15/5/09 - creme fraiche works as well, and is a lighter taste]
Raspberries

1. Bash up the biscuits (food processor/in a plastic bag with a rolling pin), stir in melted butter and spread across ramekins, pressing down with the back of a spoon to make the layer firm. Place in fridge until needed.
2. Mix together (beat) the cream, cheese and mascarpone.
3. Melt the white chocolate in a bain-marie / bowl over simmering water. Let the chocolate cool slightly.
4. Tip the chocolate into the cream/cheese/mascarpone and stir in.
5. Add the raspberries (n.b. if you are using frozen raspberries, don't put them straight into the white chocolate - makes it go lumpy and frozen again.
6. Spread mixture amongst ramekins, and smooth with back of spoon.
7. Place in fridge for 3 hours/overnight.

Weekend

A good, if a little stressful weekend.
Friday evening started with steak and oysters and shopping for Saturday dinner in Waitrose. Steak was beautiful (rare for me, blue for T). Oysters were a new experience and although not unpleasant, not sure that I will be repeating soon (quite faffy to eat).
Saturday started with 10 hours sleep (bliss!) then bacon sandwich and into town to Westminster to join the rally to mark the 40th Anniversary of the 1967 Abortion Act. Quite disturbing to see how few people were there - only c.300. Given the number of big churches in London alone, there should have been many, many more. Need to think about how to raise profile amongst the people I know. It takes so little time to write to an MP, sign a petition etc.
Back from Westminster to the flat to start making cheesecake (see separate post for recipe) and T starting to prepare the lasagne. All going v.well until about half six when momentary lapse in concentration led to a nasty deep cut in a finger, a call to my sister which determined that I did need to take T to A+E. We diverted dinner guests to a nearby pub, as they hadn't yet arrived. A+E was actually very good: they
have a minor injuries unit, so only took an hour to sort T's finger out and then we were back home by half eight to welcome guests and enjoy the rest of the evening.
Sunday - up on time for church and for breakfast before church, but then decided to skip the morning service as T not feeling well, so back home for copious cups of tea, and regular doses of food (made chorizo in red wine, roast peppers and roast squash for lunch) and sleep. Then into church for evening service (I got to play with the bookstall - hurrah), back to T's for pizza, then home.

Total Church: Why Gospel?

'Churches can also polarize beween intellectualism (what you think is what matters) or emotionalism (what you feel is what matters). In some churches issues of the hear and emotions have become functionally asent. We acknowledge their importance, but they feature little in our lives. Some of us just do not like to talk bout our relationship with the Lord in emotive terms. But we need look no further than the Psalms to see how important emotion is in true faith.' (p29)

To sum up
The gospel is a word so the churhc must be word-centred (p31)
The gospel is a missionary word so the church must be mission-centred (p32)

Implications
'So being gospel-centred means being both word-centred and being mission-centred. The church exists both through the gospel and for the gospel.'(p32)

'We sometimes ask people to imagine they are part to imagine they are part of a church planting team in a cross-cultural situation in some other part of the world: What criteria would you use to decide where to live? How would you approch secular employment? What standard of living would you expect as pioneer missionaries? What would you spend your time doing? What opportunities would you be looking for? What would your prayers be like? What would you be trying to do with your new friends? What kind of team would you want around you? How would you conduct your meetings together?
We find it easier to be radical in our thinking when we transplant ourselves outside our current situation. But we are as much missionaries here and now as we would be if we were part of a cross-cultural team in another part of the world. Mission is central to us whereever we are. These are the kind of questions we should be asking wherever we are

Books: Total Church - Tim Chester and Steve Timmis

Now that I have got over my uncomfortableness (is that a word?) about writing in books, I'm finding it much easier to read books critically (as I can now write exclamation marks in the margin!). I can also annotate comments next to paragraphs which are particularly interesting.
One of the first books to be subjecting to my scribblings is "Total Church - a radical reshaping around gospel and community" by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis.

The blurb on the back is as follows:
"Total Churchpleads for two key principles for church and mission. First, the gospel as content: being word-centred (for the gospel is truth) and being mission-centred (for the gospel is truth to be proclaimed). Secondly, the community as context: sharing our lives as Christians and offering a place of belonging to unbelievers.

The authors apply these principles to church planting, evangelism, apologetics, social involvement, leadership, discipleship, pastoral care, world mission and notions of sccuess. They critique current trends within the church: emerging church movements are strong on community but weak on truth, while conservative evangelicalism is strong on truth but weak on community. Their call is a call for the best of both"

Abortion - Times article

Brutal truth of DIY abortion - India Knight in the Times

Testing Times: Stop!

Sermon notes from this morning - really good, and excellent service (lots of Psalm-singing). Really useful as well, as we are just beginning to study Judges in Central Focus, and so it was helpful to go back a little in Israel's history and understand the 'backstory'.

This is about coming so close, but being so far from glory. About the agony of loss. About the rewards of perserverance for those who never stop believing. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Numbers 13-14

Research (13:1-33)
Gathering Intelligence
Spies are sent out into Canaan to gather intelligence. They report back that it is a land of milk and honey - BUT - the people are strong, the cities fortified and large.

Minority Report - Caleb reports back and is v.positive - 'we should go up at once! we are well able etc.'

Majority Report - the other spies persuade the people that they are not able. The people of Canaan are stronger. Spin the news - v32b - land devours its inhabitants, 'we are like grasshoppers'.

Response (14:1-10)
The people panic
Focussing on God's enemies, rather than God's power.
The faithful preach
Do not rebel, do not fear - 'they are bread for us' - 'their protection is removed'.
Danger of making people big and God small

We are so often immobilised in our spiritual lives due to fear of what pressing on with Jesus might mean (oh, so very true).

Reaction (14:11-38)
Disinheritance threatened
God would disinherit - look back - only Joshua and Caleb remain from the generations in the wilderness who refused to go in.
Prayer for God's glory
v17 - appeal to God's character as revealed in Exodus 34.
Moses recognises that God must be just.
The final straw
All the grumblers - vv36-37. 10 spies die (the majority report). v29 - all your numbernumber who have grumbled against me will die in the wilderness. Look back at Numbers 1 - a great nation then - all died in the wilderness.
The faithful few


Today if you hear his voice ....
No loss is so gut-wrenching or permanent as losingout on heaven. Do not surrender to the flesh and devil.

40 years since the 1967 Abortion Act

40 years since the passing of the 1967 Abortion Act.

The Human Tissues and Embryos Bill is expected to come before Parliament later in 2007 and appears to propose a very worrying extension to the current arrangements for IVF/cloning etc.

Excerpts from the EN article:

"On Saturday, October 27 (the 40th anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act), there will be a rally in Parliament Square, London, at 2pm, followed by a march through London and an ecumenical service of remembrance, repentance and healing at Westminster Cathedral, with a video link to the piazza outside.
....
No less than 6.6 million babies — a tenth of the present population of the UK — have died from abortion since 1967. Now there’s going to be another opportunity to vote on the issue. It’s important that the Christian church isn’t asleep this time."

Let me know if you would like to come with me.

Bushara Island, Lake Bunyonyi

Benon drove us from Rwasesi into Kabale and insisted on finding us a special hire himself. He was unfortunately unsuccessful, and also found that his car was no longer starting. After an hour or so of speaking to mechanics and calling his garage at the other end of Kabale, we decided to walk down to the Highland Business Centre and pick up a special hire from there (in the meantime, we popped into the supermarket to buy some water and heard Moloko on the radio and noted that the supermarket was run by some Ugandan Asians - felt a tiny bit like being back home. Fi says that some of the Ugandan Asians who left under Amin have since returned).

On the way down to the Highland, we passed the Little Ritz Restaurant, and the Hot Loaf Bakery (both of which were haunts of Fi's when she lived in Uganda). The Highland used to have internet access, so I was quite hopeful of being able to make contact with the nearest and dearest, but it was not to be. 15 minute drive in a minibus (just the three of us) up to Bunyonyi, passing people breaking rocks by the roadside, washing clothes and drying on bushes. The road up to Bunyonyi is very steep, and due to the (typical) state of the roads (i.e. full of potholes), meaning that the journey was a little hairy at times (as the road fell away to the side). Frequent and urgent prayer seemed to get us through though. At the top of the hill was a little sign saying 'humps' (which seemed a little superfluous by that stage...). There is also a small petrol station (a development since 2003/4 says Fi).

At the top of the hill the driver stopped to enable us to take photos of Lake Bunyonyi. Another couple of minutes took us to Bushara Island Camp jetty and we had a choice of a motorboat (with canopy) or dugout canoe (hollowed out tree trunk) to take us across. We chose (wisely) the motorboat) given the weight of our baggage and arranged to meet the special hire driver on the Friday at 2pm (not really believing that he would be there). It took about 10 minutes to go across the lake to Bushara. Looking over the water to the mainland we could see the bright red jumpers of schoolchildren and Friesian (obviously posh over there) cows grazing on the hillside alongside the ubiquitous Ankole. We offloaded at the jetty and walked up a long steep hill (actually not that far, but with backpacks and at that altitude - not fun) to get to the Swallows Restaurant (a circular, reed-covered, open-sided area with about 30-40 seats. We sat down for a Krest Lemon and perused the menu (which was a mixture of Ugandan and msungu food). We tried to stifle our laughter as a group of 3 Irish girls declared "42 items" when handing over their washing to the receptionist (doubting that we had 42 items between us) and then were asked to itemise them. Still no internet access (although technically available), but with an indication that it would be available the next day. We then took another tiring 10 minute walk down to Fireeater and Cisticola 'luxury safari tents' (read - two large single beds inside a safari tent, under a reed roof, with a verandah and wash basin and a separate long drop [WITH SEAT!] and shower) which were on the opposite side of the island.
Unfortunately, no mosi nets supplied here, or any obvious points to which one could attach the mosi nets we brought with us, so Adrian and I set about trying to string one up. Not the world's most stylish attempt, but reasonably functional.

Uganda - Kabale and Rwasesi

We left the White Horse at a reasonable hour and walked down the hill to the main road in Kabale (see picture below) having left a quantity of washing at the hotel to collect after our trips to Rwasesi and Lake Bunyonyi.

Adrian went off to Stanbic Bank to change travellers cheques (a process which took the best part of an hour, as each cheque needed to be individually photocopied, money counted twice by hand and twice by machine, all under the supervision of a second teller), Fi and I went to find postcards.

As we were in the Post Office, Joram (a friend of one of Fi's Uganda friends) happened to be passing and popped in (a pleasantly random occurrence).
Benon arrived in his car, saw that changing traveller's cheques was taking quite some time and went off to collect Trust, Brave and Pearl from Kabale Primary School where they are boarding. When they came back, we all piled into the back of the car and went to Rwasesi (about 22km away).

Passing along the road we stopped to buy some vegetables from roadside stalls. We also passed the site of a coach crash. Apparently 2 people died as the coach came off the road (travelling too fast in the dark at 5am it seems). Dangers on the road are marked out by placing branches in the road as markers.

The next day and a half in Rwasesi was really special. Lots of sitting on the verandah, watching the world go by (and the world going by watching us). A very nice location to read some of the books which I had brought with me, or scribble over my printouts of Judges.

Benon, Judith and family were extremely hospitable - enormous quantities of food at regular (and slightly too frequent?) intervals - main meals included matoke, spaghetti, rice, Irish (i.e. normal, as opposed to sweet) potatoes, chicken, 'soup' (chicken stock-ish), cauliflower and courgettes, pineapple for afters. Breakfast and breaks comprised chapattis, omelettes, home-made popcorn, bananas, roast groundnuts.
The children were very happy to be at home and enjoyed the food a lot (normally posho and beans/rice and beans every day). Main meals were rounded off with a small drop of (lethal!) Cypriot Altar wine. Lots of Ugandan tea and chai (kind of hot milk with tea leaves). I even managed a couple of cups of weak black tea. Hot water and hot milk stored in thermos flasks and brought to the table as required.

Benon and Judith have a very posh house by local standards - they have electric lighting, a landline telephone (mobiles far more common in Africa apparently), a courtyard out the back leading to the kitchen (wood fires), and the long drop (two - one for adults and one for children) which has a concrete floor, and a couple of bricks on which to stand. Water is not too far away - about 200m, and is used very carefully. Thus, a real treat to have jerry cans of hot and cool water with which to wash in the morning. The house has a very clever irrigation system which channels all the waste water from the kitchen / wash room / rainwater round the house and down into the field where they grow their food.

On Weds, due to the recent rain, Benon decided that a trip to Kamuronko (where Fi worked in 2000) was not feasible as the road would be too slippy/muddy (a very, very steep hill), so instead, we walked into Rwasesi village to look at the church. As we walked up the hill, we passed a couple of young children at the water tap ("How-are-you?" "I-am-fine.How-are-you?" - much giggling). After visiting the church we stopped off at the Primary School to visit the headmaster and sign the visitor's book. The headmaster's office is decorated with lots of (mostly) handmade posters (the dangers of AIDS/school leaving exam results going back to 1970/photos of all the school children with their roll numbers - looking slightly like criminal mugshots). The school year starts in January, so Trust (currently in P6) is about to take her final exams in Kabale PS, which will determine how good a school she can get into. She may need to travel as far as Mbarara (2 hours drive) to go to a good school.

(Poster in the room outside the headmaster's office: No smoking, drinking alcohol, x, y, z, sex abuse or telling lies allowed in this school. Not sure whether to be disturbed or amused by the order. Probably a little of both).

After dinner on Tuesday, the children treated us to a display of singing and Bakiga dancing. Video of one of the songs below (the dancing is currently too large a file size to upload - will try to tweak)

Why am I a Christian?

Those of you who know me (even slightly) will know that brevity is not high on my list of natural abilities. I can also take more than a reasonable length of time to get to the point.

Helpfully, not everyone is like me (God, in His wisdom, grants us many different gifts) - some of those not like me have put together short website presentations of the good news of Jesus -

God's Plan and

Two Ways to Live.

Please do take the time to read.

I would be really interested to know what you think of them, whether you are someone who would consider themselves to be a Christian (in which case, what do you think of the outlines - helpful or not?) or not (in which case, what is your reaction to points as made?).

Those of you who know who I am, will know my email address.....