Hello, it's Mrs. Murdoch here, Stuart's mum. It's been an unusual couple of weeks for us here in the Murdoch household. There was a picture of Stuart in the Troon herald last week, and lots of people have been phoning me up to congratulate me on my Brit Award winning eggs. I say it's not my doing at all, we just happen to have a Brit Award winning postman. I feel like I'm a bit of a celebrity myself, and spend an hour doing my hair and make up before heading down to the Co-op for Stuart's fish cakes. This week I've been reminded of the Bible parable, Hamish the Frog. I have typed it below, and hope you all read it carefully. Love, Mrs. Murdoch Hamish the Frog ================ Once upon a time there was a little frog called Hamish. Hamish was the pond hero because he could leap higher and further than all of the other frogs put together! In fact, he could even leap the whole pond in one single bound! One day a Kingfisher spotted Hamish leaping the pond and was astounded! "Gosh", he thought, "that's the most incredible sight I've ever seen! I know a lot of people that would like to see this. I wonder if Hamish would make a deal with me, that If I get lots of people to come and see him leap, we could charge them a pound each and split the money". The Kingfisher suggested the idea to Hamish. Hamish agreed, because he was skint, and didn't have anything better to do. The Kingfisher worked hard and gathered a huge crowd to see Hamish leap. The crowd were astounded, and happy to pay the pound charge. One member in the crowd, a little goldfish, had a great idea. "Kingfisher, Hamish is an amazing leaper to be sure. But it would be better if he had a wonderful obstacle to leap over, wouldn't it?". The Kingfisher agreed, so the little goldfish worked for three months solid making the bestest most lovliest obstacle any frog has ever leapt over . And the goldfish did it for nothing, because she wanted to, because she thought Hamish the frog was brilliant. The Kingfisher arranged another show, advertising the fact that Hamish was going to leap over the amazing obstacle the little goldfish had constructed. This time the Kingfisher decided to charge everybody two pounds. The crowd loved this show, and word spread of Hamish and the incredible obstacle all over the whole country. The next time that Hamish leapt over the obstacle the Kingfisher charged three pounds. And so on and so on until the Kingfisher was charging a ten pound spectator fee. And people paid it, because it was worth it. The little goldfish still paid her ten pounds like everyone else, even though it was her obstacle that was helping draw the crowds in. The goldfish did it because she wanted to, because she thought Hamish the frog was brilliant. And she was making a lot of friends as they went along, as was Hamish. One happy day Hamish won the Frog of the Year award for his leaping power. This meant that everyone in the world had heard of Hamish, and wanted to see him leaping over the obstacle. Some of the other frogs in the competition were jealous though, and said that Hamish only won because the obstacle was so grand. Which was partly true, but the award and the potential earnings that the Kingfisher could make blinded him to the fact. "Of course the obstacle had nothing to do with Hamish's success in the Frog of the Year competition", he said in a press release, "Hamish won because he is great". To prove the point that the obstacle had nothing to do with it, the Kingfisher put the little goldfishes obstacle in the bin, and made one himself. This upset the little goldfish very much, because he loved to see Hamish leap over it. And the sad fact is, the Kingfisher's obstacle wasn't as good as the little goldfishes. The people who had seen Hamish leaping over the old obstacle said to the Kingfisher, "Kingfisher, why don't you bring the goldfishes obstacle back and bin the new one, it's very nice but just not as good." Even Hamish asked the Kingfisher if he could leap over the old obstacle again. The Kingfisher didn't hear them though because new people were coming to see Hamish leap, who had never seen the old obstacle to know any better. He told the goldfish "you never made a difference to Hamish's success. Why don't you just get lost and stop annoying me". The Kingfisher was now charging people 20 pounds to see Hamish leap. And then a sad thing happened. As Hamish had become more and more successful the goldfish had been there. All the people who had become friends with Hamish had also become friends with the goldfish. They decided they wouldn't go and see Hamish leap anymore because they didn't want to pay the greedy Kingfisher money. Which was sad because it meant that Hamish didn't see any of his old friends who had supported him as his popularity grew. He began to feel lonely. Eventually Hamish got sick of leaping over the shoddy obstacle. "Kingfisher", he said ,"I've had enough. I won't leap over that shoddy obstacle for you anymore. You've taken the fun out of my leaping, and none of my old friends are here, so I'm off". But the Kingfisher didn't care anyway because he'd made a lot of money. "I never needed you anyway", he told Hamish. Hamish went back to leaping over the pond like he used to do, and lived happily ever after amongst his friends. No-one really cares what happened to the Kingfisher. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". WWW: http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+