This morning Ella and I went unicycling with the husband of Mrs Hall who taught us chemistry and who took the opportunity to make sure we are using tin foil correctly which of course we are. For those of you not blessed with scientific wisdom, you need to put the shiny side on the inside. For those of you now wondering "tin foil has different sides?" you need to get more observant. We unicycled around the Humber Bridge Country Park which is a challenging place to unicycle but we had a great time. It was appropriate, because a couple of years ago we used our unicycles to get to the National Youth Sunday celebrations at St. Vincents. Unicycling and youth events should be connected.

We arrived at the Church hall of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Peter Chanel (known locally as "Marist" which once hillariously lead some Mormons to think I was telling them I was a Maoist). Micky and Nikki were already there organising things, we had a quick musical practice and very soon people started arriving. I had a brief chat with Richard Marsden and Sarah Holmes before Nicky stood on a chair and got everybody's attention.

As ever, we started with icebreaker games. Micky did a really good job at getting the kids organsied around a parachute and playing a game where they had to learn peoples names to win. He let it run just the right amount of time before quieting the kids down, explaining what was going to happen and then reading the gospel from todays mass which was to be the theme of the day. He was a real master of his art and the kids had fun when it was time to have fun and listened when it was time to listen. The reading, in case you missed mass this morning, was this one...

And the people stood by, watching; but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!" The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him vinegar, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews." One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

The kids (sorry, young people) split off in to four groups and each of the groups had two tasks to complete. Here's where it gets really interesting. The first task (provided by the live simply campaign) was to write on a "brick" (A4 Sheet) completing the sentence "I/We promise to live simply by...". We had scarcely sat at our table and the youths had filled in their sheets. "Recycling", "Not Wasting Water", "Turning off my TV and not leaving it on standby". Two things were clear, that they had done this before and that they are sick of it. They filled in the sheets, sighed, and asked what was next. The obvious answer was to draw skulls, knives and guns (for the boys) or flowers and fair trade symbols (for the girls).

So we practically began with the second task. To look at the gospel for the day and another reading. We had to read them, think about them and come up with something to share with the other groups. We got one of the kids to read the gospel again...

And the people stood by, watching; but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!" The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him vinegar, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews." One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

Then I asked a question, first I made sure they understood that the reading takes place during the crucifixtion (it's not obvious from the reading) and then I asked "If Jesus is the King of the Universe, why doesn't he get down off the cross, afterall, if he's the King of the Universe surely he can do that sort of thing".

I'm not going to claim they were enthusiastic. They wern't exactly fighting to answer, but their attitude was completely different. This was a question they hadn't all thought about before and the answer wasn't immediately obvious. One of them said "Because he had to die so our sins can be forgiven" and another said "How does dying forgive sins" The lady leading this group with me answered that the whole "how does him dying cause our sins to be forgiven" is one of the mysteries of the Christian faith (which is true). I suggested we take a look at our other reading and see if it gave us any clues...

For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. "For God has put all things in subjection under his feet." But when it says, "All things are put in subjection under him," it is plain that he is excepted who put all things under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under him, that God may be everything to every one.

As it was read aloud we reached the line "The last enemy to be destroyed is death" and one lad said "That's in Harry Potter!". Very observant. We also wrangled our way to the answer to the "why doesn't he get down off the cross" question. He had to die to destroy death by rising again. So then another lad says "If Jesus destroyed death why do we still die?". He might as well have said "Checkmate". How do you even begin to answer that question in a way that satisfies him (and older youth) without totally going over the heads of the younger kids. I said something about us not dying because when we die we live forever. It wasn't a good enough answer and he looked dissapointed.

The discussion hadn't been an amazing success but it had acheived something really straightforward, the kids had heard and understood the basic message that Jesus died so our sins can be forgiven and I think for some of them it was the first time they had really thought about that. They spend so long on ethical discussions about recycling.

Fr Stephen Maughan and Canon Micheal Loughlin entered the room about this time and did something that puts them, in my view, a step above all the other priests present. What they did was really simple, they sat down with the kids and talked to them about what they were doing. One of the boys in our group asked Fr Stephen about the readings. Fr Stephen recognised the reading "I preached on this this morning" so the kid asked him about the link to Live Simply "I didn't preach on live simply", replied Fr Stephen, "I preached on Christ the Universal King". Fr Stephen is spot on of course, the obvious message this Sunday is Christ the Universal King, not "Recycle more and don't waste water".

After the group work was over we moved to the Church. The kids all got to light a candle (because that's what participation is all about, right?) and the "bricks" were stuck on the front of the altar. Then each group read out what they had got from the readings. Each group had a different second reading (only we had Harry Potter) so the results were quite different. Then Canon Loughlin exposed the blessed sacrament, some of the kids knelt of their own volition. Huge massive buckets of respect to Fr. John O'Gara who directed proceedings from behind and really made it what it was, which was beautiful. Big respect also to Canon Micheal for not dumbing down on the blessing and also to all the parents and helpers who ran groups. Every group had something good to say, nobody stood up and said "Let's recycle more". Thanks be to God.

After the mass, the kids got their party (also organised by Micky and Nicky - they are legends). The whole event was a great success.

...Who are you and what have you done with James? Where's the criticism? Oh wait, here it is...

What made today a success was the parents and helpers who came along and put in the effort. It would have been nice to see more priests actually hanging around and talking to the young people but I'm sure they have their excuses. These parents and helpers (myself included) are not professional youth workers, we need help and support from the wider Church. What we need are catechetical materials aimed at young people that explain the basics of Chrisitianity in a language secularised teenagers can understand. What we get are leaflets about "living simply" and the importance of recycling.

The problem I think is that Cafod are too good at what they do. Cafod are amazing at taking the message of social justice and living in solidarity with the poor and so they should be. It is their remit. I have nothing but good things to say about Cafod. The problem comes when people use the materials Cafod provide as catechetical materials. Cafod are not setting out to evangelise. The Catholic Youth Services should be. There needs to be a voice as loud as Cafod saying not "recycle and don't waste water" but "here are some reasons to believe God exists..."

Maybe CASE should get involved in youth work? Maybe the Catholic Youth Services should get involed in youth work? Failing that, it would be great if somebody somewhere with the requisite expertise would put together some decent materials and get them out. We need you guys.

It's been some time now since Canon Michael Loughlin approached me after a Faith Forum meeting and said simply: "James, you need to go to Durham". I was rather perplexed at the time. He said it in a manner that seemed to suggest a shadowy figure waiting there with an urgent message for me to go and collect at once, I wondered why I was to go an enquired as such. "Because it's a beautiful place" he replied. He went on to tell me a great many things I have since forgotten, including one thing I have not forgotten, there is some poetry by Caedmon to be seen.

Fast-forward a few months to the present day. Ben and Hannah are due to be married soon in Exeter. Ella and I are due to go... with Leona. There are hundreds of miles of driving to be done and between us we have driven to, um, York?

So! A practice run is in order. A days driving in the region of going to Exeter is required. We decided to go somewhere for the day, somewhere about half the distance of Exeter away. I know what you're thinking... Birmingham isn't the most scenic destination in the world. That's what we thought, but Durham, I had heard, is very nice.

We decided to leave early for maximum time at tuther end, the alarm went off at 6:30am and up we got. Of course, Leona happened and Ella happened and James happened and betwixt them all we left the house at about 8am. We were hoping to be up and out by seven (ha!). Our first port of call was Asda, we have been tyring of our CD collection and we decided to get some new ones for the journey. We picked up Employment by the Kaiser Chiefs and the best of Electric Light Orchestra. We were hoping to pick up one of those cassette with a wire on things that let you listen to your CD walkman in the car but Asda had none. No matter, we'll pick one up at some services somewhere.

The queue in Asda was the first sign of things going wrong. I spurned the longer queue for the shorter one and got stuck behind a woman who conversed with the checkout operator for aaaages. When I finally got through it we fuelled the car up for 93p at Asda. Asda has one of those automatic petrol stations where you pay by card at the pump, minimum spend £7. Five minutes later I had £6.89 worth of fuel in, the pump was nearly empty and took for-ever to get to £7. At this point I was fairly sure today was going to acheive 'one of those days' status. Finally, I was able to pull the car up to another pump and finish fuelling. By some miracle I remembered to reset the odometer as we left Asda so we would have a reasonable idea of how far we had travelled. We discussed topping up the oil but decided we were already running late so let's leave it. Five minutes later we were pulled up on the roadside topping up the oil.

We finally left Hull at 8:30am, it had taken 30minutes to buy two CDs and some petrol. We were on our way. I was driving to begin with and Ella sat to my left with a notebook writing down all the things we had forgotten so we will remember them when we go to Exeter. Time passed, as it does, the A63 turned in to the M62 and I managed to spot the junction with the A1 and avoid accidentally going to Manchester. Before you (or Ella, as it happened) could say "do you think we still have time to go to Richmond?" I took the turning and headed for Richmond.

Richmond is farther from the A1(M) than it looks on the map, but we got there in the end. We plunged in to a maze of narrow badly labeled streets, we headed down a one way street (in the correct direction) only to meet a 'give way to oncoming traffic' sign. At the bottom end of the street no entry signs were conspicuously absent. We couldn't see the castle anywhere (the houses on either side being mere feet away) and we found ourselves driving alongside the river swale and then drove up a steep hill and around a one way system several times. Parking was 'Disc Zone' whatever that means and Ella got very stressed, were were all ready to shake the dust from our feet when we spotted a short stay car park and dove in. 50p for an hour. With no intention of being in Richmond more than 30 minutes we paid and walked up hill towards the castle which we had finally managed to spot.

Once your are out of the car and on foot Richmond is a lovely place, little winding streets lead through to the market square which is teeming with old ladies tottering around buying fruit and veg and the like. You climb the hill to the Castle and once you are there it's, well, it's Norman.

The Normans have a great way of building. None of your flying buttress malarkey. The keep at Richmond castle is amazing, there's a reason it's lasted since the 12th century. It has walls 11 feet thick, it's 100 feet high. They hadn't invented clever perspective in those days, when you visit Italy they have buildings designed to look bigger than they are through clever use of geometric designs that get smaller as you go up. There are no tricks in Norman architecture, it looks big because it is big. They didn't know how else to do it.

Our visit to Richmond Castle was a flying one, we climbed the keep, we saw the Robin Hood tower and Scollands Hall, we popped in to the chapel (inside the Robin Hood Tower). Religion was not a top priority in Richmond Castle, the chapel is tiny. This photo of Ella at the top of the keep shows how chunky everything is.

Our run around the castle complete we headed down to the car, passing the hilariously named 'Loin King' (they sell burgers) on the way. We also noticed that Richmond has custom dustbins with 'Richmond' written on them. If they can afford such frivolity perhaps they could invest in some signs that say "if you are here to see the castle please drive this way and park here". Then people would know.

We got back in the car and continued toward 'A1(M) THE NORTH Scotch Corner'. It wasn't long before we beheld the sign for Durham. We followed it. Here began the next mistake. Ella's maiden name is Haswell. Near Durham is a village by the name of Haswell. Our mission was to visit it. Unfortunately (and this is difficult to explain) James got it in to his head that the way to Haswell was to take exit of the A1 to Durham, drive through Durham and then find the legendary Haswell on the other side. After we had traversed Durham we realised our mistake. Haswell is on the opposite side of the A1 to Durham, back through Durham we went, back to the A1 and all the way over the other side to, well, Ella took over here. James and his memory had gotten tiresome so Ella resorted to reading a map and telling him where to go. It worked really well, Ella can read maps when she tries and we made it. Boldly going where Ella's Dad had failed to find before.

The villiage of Haswell near Durham is a funny place, it's got that faded splendor thing going on more usually associated with seaside towns. We found the Haswell Pharmacy, the Haswell Post Office, a poster inviting us to "come along to our Haswell fun days". We saw a memorial to the men of Haswell who died in the great war. We even saw a Haswell SureStart center. There's a pub called Oddfellows that had a decidedly odd fellow in it and we decided to steer clear (especially what with the baby and all).

After Haswell we headed back in to Durham proper to finally see the Cathedral. We wern't sure where to park and eventually we parked in 'Riverside' car park for £5 for 3+ hours. Ella carefully loaded the pram with everything we need while James carefully locked the car door...

...James quietly wondered to himself why the dashboard lights were still on when the door was locked. Then it dawned. The keys were still in the ignition. Bummer. I had locked us out of the car, if 'one of those days' status was ever in doubt it was now confirmed. We phoned the AA (Ella is a member) and they said they could be up to two hours. Two hours! I had officially ruined our day in Durham. No Cathedral visit for us! I would have stayed with the car while Ella went to have fun but Ella is the AA member with the AA card so she had to be with the car. Here, James puts a brave face on it. I am crying inside.

I went for a wander and found a very nice man in The Gates shopping centre who said he might know a man who might be able to open the car. He went to find said man but unfortunately our car is too modern and not one of the ones he can do. Ella said we should console ourselves with food so I took a wander down and got some Chicken Royale meals from Burger King. I saw a girl with high heels on get her heel stuck in a cobble stone which was a very funny sight indeed. The AA man came sooner than expected and opened the car in no time with two plastic wedges and a length of bendy wire. It was disturbingly easy. We were finally free to go and spend the day in Durham, after all, it was only 3:30pm, the day was just beginning.

We (finally) left the car park and as we crossed the bridge over the river Wear we got our first glimpse of the Cathedral high above the water. Anybody whose been to Exeter should recognise the trademark Norman towers.

We climbed a hill through the streets of Durham to the Cathedral and it was well worth it. Durham Cathedral is also Norman and is awesome. The two towers at the western end are very similar to the Norman towers of Exeter Cathedral (and are just as awesome). Inside, Normans demonstrate their remarkable ability to, for want of a better phrase, make things as they are. The huge stone pillars ooze huge stone pillar-ness. The arches are Arches. Did I mention the huge stone columns. Overhead, one of the oldest extant wholly stone roofs in europe floats effortlessly on pre-gothic gothic arches.

It get's better, behind the high altar in the east end of the Cathedral lays St. Cuthbert's tomb. St. Cuthbert is the St. Patrick of the North. People from Yorkshire should drink beer every St. Cuthbert's day. Not only that, but at the other end lays St. Bede. The only English Doctor of the Church. A formidable pair. We prayed before each tomb before taking a walk in the cloister.

The cloister is the bit you should all recognise from the first two Harry Potter films. It's the place where Malfoy calls Hermionie a Mudblood. It's hard to imagine it as a film set when you are there but it has that quality all cloisters share.. you want one. Leona was getting tetchy so we took her for a change and Ella fed her while we had a cup of tea in the refectory. We had a look in the bookstore where we found a book with the title "Catholic and Loving it!", Ella wanted a badge for her collection so we popped to the gift shop and picked one up.

Unfortunately by now it was time to head back. We missed the Treasures of Cuthbert exhibition because it closed at 4:30pm. We had a quick peek at Durham Castle (and I mean quick) and then headed back to the car. On the way back to the car we resumed the mission to find a cassette adaptor for playing the CD walkman through the car stero. No chance. We even ventured in to Waitrose which failed us entirely on the adaptor but we bought some very exciting Durham Brewery Beer in several flavours: St. Cuthbert, Cloister, Evensong, Benediction and Temptation. Temptation is 10% and I don't hold out much hope for the taste.

Ella did the driving home, we stopped in several services on route to see if they had the cassette adaptor but to no avail. We listened to Classic FM instead, Leona sleeps to it. Eventually we reached Sainsburys in Hessle just close to where I work. They sold me the adaptor I required along with a single yellow pepper and a copy of Love.Angel.Music.Baby by Gwen Stefani. I hopped in the car and excitedly plugged in the CD player. As we only had time for on song we decided to start with Electric Light Orchestra. Final Insult: The CD Player was broken and wouldn't work. All our adapter hunting was for naught.

To sum up though, we had a fab time travelling 300 miles which is the distance to Exeter so we know we can make the wedding. We saw an awesome Norman Castle and Cathedral and we had an adventure (especially when locked out of the car). Ella saw the (allegedly) family estate and a good time was had by all.

We never did see any poetry by Caedmon though... people, you need to go to Durham.