Judge not lest you be judged

We came third in the pub quiz last night! That's the best we've done for ages.

There is a picture round that always tends to let us down. We like to blame the poor quality of the images but, strangely enough, other teams seem to recognise people in spite of that. Last night I looked at the first photo and said, without hesitation, 'John Virgo.' 'Oh, yes, everyone said (except Mr Hurst who said it was a policeman called Martin), so we wrote that down.

It was Robert De Niro.

There was another one who I thought was either Bono or Osama bin Laden. (It wasn't.)

We would have won a third share of £120 for the Super Sevens - if we'd known who was the baddie in Collateral (Tom Cruise). And if we'd put the right answer down for the world record-holding fastest steam engine (Mallard).

Still a good evening.

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Younger son's latest plan to avoid finding a job - although, to be fair, and I like to be fair, he has tried ... a bit - is to set up his own business. This was, if you remember, my idea. I suggested we go into the garden clearing business. He has now expanded this idea to include odd jobs of all sorts and has dropped me in favour of his friend.

He now spends hours in his room working on his business plan (and I'm sure playing rugby on his computer is a valid part of his plan). He intends to get funding from ... someone, get a van and, well, do it.

'What about while you're waiting for funding to come through (it always takes ages)? Shouldn't you be looking for a job to keep you going?'

He just looks at me. I know what he's thinking: why? When I'm enjoying life, being fed and looked after, and coming and going as I please.

He will be all right. In the end. We've been through the worrying stages with the others and they've done all right. He'll be fine.

They plan to target, in the nicest possible way, old people who needs jobs doing. This is probably a good move in theory but will an old person employ someone who looks like Jimi Hendrix in white?

It annoys me that how people look can affect their opportunities in the job market, or anywhere else. Husband, who works for a company that only recently relaxed its No Beards rule, says it's understandable. The employee reflects the company's image. Huh.

A few years ago I was part of a school prayer support group. A number of Christian parents and teachers met on a regular basis to pray for the school.

For the last ten years or more, our church has had a team of young people volunteering with us for a year. They work in schools, in our youth cafe, and in clubs, meeting and befriending youngsters in their own culture. One year they came and joined the school prayer meeting to pray and introduce themselves and ask for an opportunity to do an assembly, lessons, clubs, whatever.

One of the teachers, the most senior, basically said, 'We can't let people who look like you do stand on stage in front of our pupils. With your piercings and long hair what sort of an example would you be setting?'

I wanted to shout, 'The example of Jesus.' They were giving up a year or more of their lives to serve the church and the young people they met; to have an effect, to be Jesus in their community. And this so-called-Christian man was judging them on how their looked instead of where their hearts were. I was so mad I was practically spitting. He wasn't going to change his mind and screaming at him would have done no good for the future. But I stopped going to the prayer group shortly after that.