I’d like to introduce you to a long term personal friend of mine who knows me almost as well as I know myself

Her name is Ananda and she writes sonnets (the Shakespeare kinda thing) about love, God, relationships and life in general. Ananda will be sharing her work on the diary and is looking for constructive criticism and comments.

Ananda is a sanskrit word that means Bliss and Joy

I’m not a fan of religion. I’m really not. So when I walked out of a train station and was handed a leaflet about an event in Harrow called Jesus Festival I looked at it and didn’t giving much thought but as I waited for the bus something told me to look again and I noticed that it was a four day event that started in 30 minutes. I decided to take a look.

The speaker for the first two days was Rev George Izunwa from Nigeria and he is a very powerful and passionate speaker. What I loved most about his talk was the fact he focused on the Lords Prayer and in particular spoke about the Kingdom of Heaven being within us and not something we have to wait to get into!

He also said we shouldnt attend church hoping for a miracle because we are the miracle workers and spent alot of time making us understand that as the Sons of God we are the people who are here to share the teachings of Jesus Christ.

I loved the fact that this wasn’t about making people feel like the church is in charge and we need to know our place. It was about understanding that the power is within us and all we need to do is ask, believe and act (what most personal development books try to tell us!)

He told a story where he asked a young man something and the man’s response was “God Willing” but he said “never mind whether Gods willing are you willing to get want?” Saying God Willing puts the power outside of our hands and what Rev Izunwa was saying is that we have the power if we are willing enough to go for what we want and believe that when we ask it will be given to us.

Anyways, for an anti religious (I dislike all the rules of religion) gal like myself it was an interesting two days.

Tonight  I got to meet Rev Izunwa (another person who thought Dominica was Dominican Republic – I will spend my life putting people right!!!) and I was a little scared being there in front of him, like he could see what was going on in my head, heart and life. Just as I was leaving he said he wanted to pray with me and he held my hand and said a prayer asking for direction for me (and boy do I need it!)

Over the next two days Evang. Moses Omoviye will be speaking who started spreading the word of God when he was six years old!

The event is being held at Goodnews Ministries International, 8-10 Marlborough Hill, Harrow Central (opposite the civic center)

I was half way through watching EastEnders and suddenly decided that I hate watching that program and wanted to turn over so I handed the remote to my daughter who turned it onto Dispatches on channel 4.

This weeks show was called

Dispatches: How The Banks Never Lose

The program focused on the banks and more importantly the huge commission payouts given to Investment Bankers…

One million pounds…..

let me just write that again…..

One million pounds…..

And you won’t believe the payouts the CEOs receive because their £975,000 or more yearly salary isn’t enough.

And in times of recession and credit crunches like we are experiencing now how do they make up the shortfall from the income that has come in (because the risks these investment bankers have taken don’t always pay off) and the huge number of “bonuses” they need to pay out?

They take a little interest off saving accounts, they add a little more to bank charges and they put a little on the interest rate. So while the investment bankers are buying a porsche with cash we are losing money on our savings and paying more on our mortgage.

Here’s a video I found on another Dispatches program that focused on Banks and how they bet your money. It explains the risk the banks took to make short term profits in the USA and how Europe and the UK decided to take their own piece of the pie!

As always its the general consumer that pays for this mess – that’s you and I – but there is an alternative in the shape of credit unions.

If you want to know what a credit union is here’ something from Wikipedia – CREDIT UNION

Credit unions are a great alternative. Run and managed by members they are usually cheaper to borrow from and charge less than banks plus they have a community development value system attached to them.

I’m looking to see if there is one in West London. Here’s a list I found from doing a search

Of course if you are feeling the credit pinch (and I know I am) then changing to a credit union wont really help you right now. Instead its important to assess what help you need and get it because its been predicted that we may have another 12 months of this!

What makes me angry is the fact that these investment bankers get to keep their commissions even if they took a risk on something that went bad. They keep their million and we get more added on to our mortgage. The worst of it is now that house prices are low they can use their million pound bonus to buy up property (because now is the best time to invest) and wait for that property to increase in value so they make more money.

It was the banks greed that has caused this current credit crunch….. Its just incredible! Six figure incomes and bonuses for causing the credit crunch…. I definitely didn’t choose the right career!

You can watch the rest of the videos here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EnxVnxGI44&feature=related

The joys of single motherhood means that even when you are sick life must go on so I went out shopping for school clothes today with my youngest. I’ve been recovering from a bad cold since Thursday and today I have the sweats…. the cold is finally leaving me and I am sweating it out!

So anytime we were in a shop and I warmed up the sweat would start pouring down my face and if I walked any distance at all it just poured even harder. British Home Stores, Clarks shoe shop, Primarks (I know… but I just needed a red tshirt for P.E. so it seemed like the best place to go!) I spent all day covered in perspiration… not nice!