Musings of a Strawberry

Is anyone still here?

2009-06-07T15:58:00.006+01:00

If you're reading this, thank you! It's been one of those things... the longer I left it, the more important the topic of the new post needed to be, and it kinda escalated!

But, I have some time, so here are a few of the things that have happened recently!

In the past 6 or so weeks, I have attended the 10th, 11th and 12th weddings that I have attended since July 2005. A largely arbitrary starting point, but that was when I graduated and seems as good a start point as any!

#10: Fish & Helen

A wonderful afternoon. A beautiful wedding, very eco-friendly (just like the couple). There was a bring-&-share element to the (vegan) buffet. A great folk dance for the reception. Great fun!
Fish sang as part of his speech (really!).
And everyone was given a little ox-eye daisy in a pot to take home. Ours are growing happily in my garden and have flowered.

#11: The following weekend was Martin & Sarah's wedding blessing. (They were married in Sarah's church in the US last November, but because of visa issues, the blessing for UK friends & family was in May). Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the couple.

#12: And finally, Duncan (my cousin) and Sarah's wedding.

Again, a lovely day with lots of family and lots of catching up. A beautiful service and a fun afternoon (including a hog roast! - a first over the whole 12!)

I think that will do for now. I will try to post soon about yesterday, but now I have elsewhere to be. God bless!

Because I'm bored...

2009-01-10T22:07:00.003Z

And the oh-so-interesting Jenni and the indomitable Kristin and the lovely Heather did it. And I am a sheep like that.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity (depends what you mean)
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain.
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris (hoping to in a couple of months!)
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (learned to cross-stitch by myself)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France (see #12)
20. Slept on an overnight train (planned to, but it didn’t work out. Maybe soon) [correction - I did, for 2 nights, on a train from Jasper to Foleyet in Canada].
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse (well, 96% - it was close!)
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (how far back!?)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language (started to learn Japanese, but didn’t get far)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (see #6)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing (only on an indoor wall)
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David (The gallery was closed the day I was there for a staff strike!)
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant (well, bought a homeless guy takeaway anyway!)
44. Visited Africa
45 Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris (again, see #12)
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (we made a spoof of Scream at school, does that count?)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class (no, although I’ve sat & watched a fair few)
59. Visited Russia
60 Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets, or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a cheque (by mistake, of course – it was postdated and I forgot to transfer the money from my savings account in time).
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar (had the option – couldn’t bring myself to do it!)
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job (I was a very bad Chaplaincy cleaner!)
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London (probably, although I don’t actually remember for certain!)
77. Broken a bone (in my foot)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous (does Archbishop John Sentamu count?)
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

*Phew*

A few of giggles

2009-01-02T19:04:00.003Z

Here a few pictures of things that have made me giggle recently:

A picture from Palma, Mallorca:

My housemate gave me some European sweets for St.Nicholas' Day (Dec 6th). This was one of the things in the pack:

And finally, an excerpt from our local council magazine. (You'll know why it's included here, once you've spotted it!)

[click each image for a larger version]

Yes, I'm very immature.

Not so stationary...

2008-12-02T13:44:00.002Z

This weekend I renewed my Young Person's Railcard. Not so remarkable in itself, until I realised that this would be the 8th such railcard I have held... and that of the previous 7, they just so happen to have been renewed at 5 different stations!
2001/02: St.Albans
2002/03-2004/05: Reading
2005/06: Newport, Gwent (Wales)
2006/07: Scarborough
2007/08: York

So, this weekend, since we were in Macclesfield to visit Michael's parents, I decided to renew my railcard a day early and thus at yet another different station.

I couldn't begin to guess how many thousands of miles that short list of railcards covers! I wonder if, in those 7 years, I have travelled the equivalent of circumnavigating the Earth by rail (~24,000 miles). I may well have done!

Excusez-moi, monsieur?

2008-11-22T22:44:00.003Z

I don't know what we're doing wrong.

Sometimes, Michael and I go out for dinner. That, I believe, is not unusual.
We arrive. We are shown to a table and are given menus to peruse. Usually, then someone comes to ask us if we're ready, to which the answer is usually 'Can we please have a few more minutes?'. We subsequently order and receive appropriate courses in a timely fashion.
Then... and here's where the problem arises... nothing happens. We have clearly finished. Empty dessert dishes and coffee cups are cleared. And then the 'how do we get the bill' dance begins. There follows several minutes of trying to catch the eye of a waiter, putting a wallet/purse on the table, etc... and still no bill. Other tables receive their bills, pay and are off into the night. Not us. Eventually we end up practically grabbing the sleeve of a passing waiter to request the bill, at which point they seem totally surprised to see us still there and go to get it. It seems that eating a nice meal renders the pair of us utterly invisible.

I don't know what we're doing wrong. Any ideas?

Yellow ribbons

2008-11-11T18:26:00.002Z

On walking back from the station on Sunday night, I walked past a tree outside the Catholic church in the town centre. It was Remembrance Sunday and looking up, I saw what appeared to be a hundred or more yellow ribbons tied to the tree. It seemed an appropriate and beautiful thing to do on such a day.
Except, they weren't yellow ribbons. They were simply yellow leaves. Not one orange one, green one, red one, brown one. All bright yellow.
Walking beneath them, they almost seemed to be nature's way of mourning those who are gone, but not forgotten.

[I once again apologise for the gap in posts. I will try to catch up a little, but I make no promises!]

Ah, that's better...

2008-07-30T21:00:00.015+01:00

As of Monday evening, I now have internet access which works reliably (and for which I am paying!). It's nice to be back online. As someone recently said "How.did.I.ever.live.without.Google?!". My to-do list is seriously long, as there were so many things which I couldn't easily do without the internet - book train tickets, get pictures for kids activities, browse/research purchases, get new recipes, etc, etc. But now I am back and some of those things have got done.

In other news, Michael is away at the moment, has been for about 1½weeks, will be back in 1½weeks. Boohoo! *pout* Last week he was helping out at a church holiday club in his parents' parish, this week he's co-running the kids activities at a Christian family holiday thing (not exactly sure what that is *blush*), next week he's on a cathedral singing course in Ely.
And the week after that is the holiday club at St.Luke's. I seem to be somewhat managing the 3-5yo group, of whom there may be about 30. There are 4 or 5 other adults in that team, so it should be ok. I have so much prep still to do though!
Last weekend, I did get some of it done though. I need to make 4 large cutout figures of Bible characters (similar to the ones you get advertising DVD's sometimes). Well, adult size would be too big, so I asked if I could borrow 'Little Miss J' - my friend Susannah's little girl, who's 4yo. This was agreed and last Sunday at church, Susannah asked if I would like to come over for lunch and get the drawing done. I readily agreed, and to cut a long story short, the afternoon turned into a barbecue in their back garden with another couple of families and I didn't get home until just before 10pm! It was fantastic afternoon, sitting in the sunshine, watching Little Misses J & S and Babies S & E (Baby S is Little Miss J's little brother - E & S are both a little over 1yo), drinking Pimms and chatting. Very, very nice!

Oh, I got a new job! From next week, I will no longer be working in the X-ray office. I will be working in MRI. This time, it's a permanent position (as opposed to agency temping, which is what I've been doing for the past 10 months), with somewhat better pay (not hard!) and better holidays (even easier!). I'll be booking in patients, answering phone calls, making appointments, etc. I think I'm looking forward to it, although it's a little daunting.

Apart from that, I'm glad the weather has cooled off a little, and I'm looking forward to 'Greenbelt '08 - Rising Sun', where we're working in the Children's Festival (can you spot a theme yet?!)

I think that's all for now. I'll be back when I think of something else.

Internet Outtage

2008-07-26T10:13:00.002+01:00

I have now been without the internet at home for nearly 2 weeks, but I should be reconnected on Monday. My housemate moved out and took the connection, which was in her name, as she is fully entitled to do. So, I have spent a goodly amount of time this past fortnight getting a new BT line and a new broadband connection. Should be up on Monday.

At the moment, I'm piggy-backing on a neighbour's unsecured WiFi (don't know who). The signal is bad though and I have to sit very still or it kicks me off.

That's all for now, methinks. More interesting (maybe) update will follow.

The Prince and the Paw-Paw

2008-06-15T22:12:00.002+01:00

Tonight's Dinner:
Main course
Steak and chilli bean wrap with chunky guacamole and sour cream

Dessert

and

Both delicious. One less than a tenth of the price of the other!

Results

2008-05-28T21:54:00.001+01:00

The blood test came back "entirely normal and so no further action is needed". I think that's good!

I do however need a new inhaler to get my asthma back under control. Stupid rain/pollen!

Strawberries & Passionfruit

2008-05-26T12:13:00.001+01:00

I have started a new blog.

This one will continue to be for the fluffy/everyday stuff.

Over there will be where I talk about more serious stuff.

It's at http://wayofmicah.blogspot.com.

I don't like needles

2008-05-21T17:27:00.002+01:00

But that didn't stop a lady using one to pinch some of my blood this afternoon and taping a little bit of cotton wool taped to my arm... although I guess I did ask her to and she was a phlebotomist.

After several people in the past week have mentioned having issues with their thyroids, I thought I would look up what that meant. And the symptoms were rather familiar, so I concluded that I wouldn't lose anything by getting checked out and if I was right then it might explain why, among other things, I am *always* tired, even when I get a decent amount of sleep.
So, I was at the GP this afternoon (4:10pm). He said he thought it unlikely, but he sent me for a blood test anyway to check - for TSH, kidney, iron, potassium, sodium, liver and full blood count. I guess he thought while I was there we may as well look at lots of things to check those too. I had to go to the hospital for the blood draw, but they were open until 5 so I thought I may as well go tonight and then I'll get the results back sooner (about a week).

I'm not too worried. I've been tired for nearly as long as I can remember, so if it's simply that I don't get enough sleep then that hasn't changed, and if there's something wrong, it can be treated/fixed, etc.

And Stephanie... Here's how I did my favicon:

First I made a 16x16 pixel image. The maker I linked before is good for doing that.
Then I saved it as favicon.ico. I put mine in the images folder of the website, but you don't have to.
You then need to insert the following code into your Header section of the website:
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="images/favicon.ico" type="image/vnd.microsoft.icon">
<link rel="icon" href="images/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="images/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
where the green bit is the location of the picture.
I'm not totally sure how or why those work, but they do. I think you need them all because different browsers work in different ways.

Hope that helps.

Still Here

2008-04-30T18:07:00.002+01:00

I have once again left this blog abandoned for far too long! Life has been just a smidgeon hectic of late though!!

I last blogged just after getting back from St.Albans for Easter. Since then, I have spent a week in Mallorca with Michael's family, staying in a village called Fornalutx (near Soller, NW-ish of island). The week was lovely (~20'c for most of the week) and the house was amazing. (I've not got long, but I'll try to post pictures another time).

The following weekend, we went to Hob Green Hotel (kinda near Harrogate) to celebrate Michael's brother's 21st and his maternal grandad's 80th. I'd met some of them before, but some of them I hadn't. They're all really nice people and I had a fab weekend.

This weekend just gone, Mum, Dad & Tim were up visiting. Many yummy meals and a visit to the Minster were enjoyed by most (Michael & Tim went to watch Man Utd v. Chelsea in the pub instead of the Minster trip because they've done it before. A really, really wonderful, relaxing and silly weekend.

Oh, in other news, I doubt I will be working at the hospital for more than another week or so, as the films are being moved to off-site storage, so there won't be a job for me to do. I don't know what I will be doing next.

Life looks like it *might* be letting up a bit... we'll see.

(And Stephanie, I saw your message - I will post here about that, hopefully soon, too!)

Iconic Spring Clean

2008-03-27T20:13:00.005Z

I've been having a bit of a spring clean round here and have cleared out my Blogroll on the right. A number of dead links have gone and the still-alive-but-barely links have been moved to the bottom of the sidebar in their own list. I have also found a rather shiny new icon for the Updated indicator (found at http://www.iconarchive.com/).

Which reminds me - I had my first attempt at a bit of pixel art this week, trying to convert this:

into an icon to use as a favicon for the HRMC website.
I tried shrinking the file with FrontPage, but that produced this:

and then this:

Rather blurred and thus not so good.

So I tried this website and created this:

Which I'm quite pleased with. (Click icon for larger version).
To check how it looks in situ, go here.

Btw, I doubt there will be more updates for a week or so, as I am going away (Will tell you more when I get back...)

PS. And thanks to Michelle for bringing the Google translator to my attention - it can now be found towards the bottom of the sidebar. And apologies to her & Jim for the intermittent fault with the BitmapWorld graphic that keeps vanishing (or at least it does for me!). Can anyone else see a graphic link for it on the sidebar...?

Less-than-Multiple Choices

2008-03-19T20:29:00.002Z

On a slightly silly note...

Michael & I came up with a new term last night...

When answering multiple choice questions, it's frequently the case that there is at least one answer that it just could not be. I commented on this and came up with the following example:
Question: What colour is the sky?
A: Red
B: Yellow
C: Green
D: Blue
E: Parrot

This lead to the coining of the term 'the Parrot', meaning the option/answer that it just cannot be because it makes no sense at all.

A more 'real life' example might be a TV phone-in with the question: "For the Benefit of... who?" was a song by the Beatles? A: Mr Kite, B: Mr Jones, C: Mr Blobby. (In case you missed it, C is the Parrot!).

A bloom by any other epithet (aka Language 1)

2008-03-19T19:25:00.008Z

England is a single country, right? Where everyone speaks the same language, yeah? Not so much!
Since moving 'oop North' about 18 months ago, there have been a number of occasions where I have felt like I am speaking a whole other language to those around me.

The first and most obvious perhaps is the area of Dialect. I have learnt a surprising number of new words in the past year or so. Do you know what the following mean (answers will be given later)?

Nithered
Pack-up
Sand shoes (I have come across 4 different terms for these!)
Bread cake
Riggweltered
Canny
more to come

And similarly, in my various dealings with American English, there have been a number of words that I have had to look up, often resulting in an outburst of "Oh! It's one of those!" when the item turned out to be something I knew very well, but not by that name. Such as:

Skillet
Ground meat
Shredded cheese
Rutabega
Thrift store
Duplex
Jumper (US)
Biscuit (US)
Sausage (US)
Baseboard

Look-alikes 2

2008-03-15T18:28:00.004Z

For part 1, see here.
Watching the rugby just now, I was struck by how much the French Manager, Jo Maso, looks like celebrity tapdancer, Lionel Blair:

And just to let those few who still visit here know... there are about 4 posts in the pipeline (including 3 'themed' ones!). However, unlike Michelle, Jenni or Kate/Cakes seem to, I struggle with writing anything coherent and thus these things take a lot of mulling-over-whilst-filing-Xrays. I'm working on it, though!

Chilli is the Spice of Life

2008-02-21T13:31:00.000Z

About 2 weeks ago, something happened to me that does not happen very often but is serious when it does... I ran out of chilli powder! Now, I know that several of you who read this blog know about me and my chilli con carne.
For those who don't know, chilli con carne is my 'trademark' recipe. Now, I'm not saying that it is a very good recipe or that it is particularly delicious. It is simply a recipe that I know how to do very well, is cheap, very flexible and I can cook & serve it in less than half an hour. I try to always have the ingredients to serve 4 in the house to cook at short notice, although that doesn't always work out.
So, the other week, I was making chilli for tea. I was part way through and well beyond the point of no return, when I added the all-important chilli powder... and a very light dusting came out - and that was it! I looked at the tub and it was indeed empty! I was amazed firstly that I had managed to use a whole jar up, and secondly that I hadn't noticed that it was getting so low. I managed to make up for it with alternatives, but still!

So, I hear you wondering (possibly so quietly that even you can't hear it), what is this amazing recipe? Well, Marie once asked me what goes into chilli and I said that you needed: minced beef, some sort of beans and something spicy as a minimum. However, here is the slightly more advanced version...

Serves 4 hungry people (easily feeds 5) - can be doubled/trebled/halved as needed, ~100g meat per person.

You will need:

500g/1lb minced beef/ground beef
(I use lean/low-fat because it comes out less greasy and more tasty)
1 medium onion, chopped
a small amount of flavourless oil, eg. vegetable.
1 bell pepper, chopped (any colour, though I think red looks best)

1 clove of garlic, crushed/chopped very finely (optional)
1 can (~400g) kidney beans in chilli sauce (in brine works, but doesn't taste as good)

1 can chopped tomatoes
Tomato puree
1 beef oxo (stock) cube
Chilli seeds in oil (comes in a small jar or a tube, usually in spice aisle)

and of course... Mild chilli powder (using mild gives more control over the strength)

A big wok or frying pan to cook it in!

What you have to do:

Heat the oil in the pan over a medium heat (I usually put a tiny piece of onion in - when it starts to sizzle it's ready). Fry onion and garlic with 1tsp of chilli powder, until soft (2-3 mins).
Add beef and fry until brown, stirring frequently.
Sprinkle oxo cube over meat, add a good squirt of tomato puree (1-2 tsp), a good sprinkling of chilli powder (maybe 2tsp) and about 1 tsp of chilli-in-oil and stir in. Taste and add more powder/chillis as desired.
Add beans and tinned tomatoes and stir in. Heat for a few minutes, until hot through. Add chopped pepper, stir in and simmer for a few minutes.
Serve with rice (or pasta). Also good with sour cream or grated/shredded cheese on top. Nachos work well with it too.

There you go. Enjoy!

Lent

2008-02-14T19:56:00.000Z

Ok, well, this is a little late, as we are now over a week into Lent.
In an attempt to become a more reliable blogger, however, I am going to write about it anyway.
This year, I have become more aware of Lent than I have in previous years. That may be connected to attending a 'higher' church this year (full bells & smells). Last Wednesday, we attended an Ashing Service. This was a normal communion service (except it was Wednesday) but it also included the vicar/priest putting ashes on our foreheads in the sign of the cross. This was to remind us that 'from dust you came and to dust you shall return' and as an outward sign of inward penitence/repentence (I think!).
The church is running a series of weekly Lent talks entitled 'Walk the Walk', focussing on different aspects of the Christian journey. This week's was by Margaret Sentamu (wife of John, Archbishop of York... the one who cut up his dog collar in protest against Mugabe). She spoke on 'Excess Baggage' and on the things that are holding us back from a fuller walk with God/Jesus. Her main quotation was 'Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives us something to do, but doesn't get us anywhere'.

In terms of what I've given up for lent... I have given up chewing my fingernails and have taken up having a proper breakfast everyday. So far, it's going well.

I have a couple of other posts planned... Watch this Space!

Temporary outtage

2008-01-25T18:00:00.000Z

Well, as you can see, I didn't get those pictures taken. Sorry! I did get essentially all my Christmas shopping done that day though.

The Christmas break was good. For once, I had managed to book my ticket early enough that it was significantly cheaper to go 1st class than I was expecting it to be to standard class, so I treated myself (although it was actually a Rail Replacement bus after about half way!).
Christmas Day was spent at home with 8 of us round the table and was very nice. Lots of silly games and quizzes, as well as much enjoyment of giving and unwrapping.
Boxing Day was at Nan's house for tea with 12 adults and 2 tinies. Here's Nan with her most recent (5th) great-grandchild. She's 81 in this pic, but she turned 82 last week. Jonathan is 4 months here.

I then spent a few days at home before travelling 250 miles north to the Lake District for the New Year.
As last year, we did something of a whistle-stop tour, taking in Kendal, Threlkeld, Keswick, Derwentwater, Coniston and Ambleside, before dropping in to visit Michael's mum's Godmother in Grange-over-Sands on the way back home. All apart from Threlkeld were in YHA hostels and were all excellent. If you haven't stayed in one for a long time or haven't ever, then I would recommend them.

Highlights:

Seeing a real, live, wild Red Squirrel on the birdfeeder outside while having breakfast at Derwentwater YHA.

(No, I didn't take the picture - it came from Wikipedia).
Feeding crackers to several quite brave chaffinches before our walk on Jan 2nd. They came within 5 feet of us, but then would realise it and scoot off. They did come back though.
Getting to the top of Latrigg on Jan 1st and managing to see the views of Keswick just before the mists came down.

Lowlights (is that a word?):

Not managing to take any decent pictures from the top of Latrigg before the mists came down:
Sliding a short distance down Latrigg on my behind in the mud.
Realising (as we were getting off the once-an-hour train from Kendal to Oxenholme) that we had left a bag of walking boots on the back seat of the car when we dropped it back at the hire-car place. We then had to wait 20 minutes or so for the train to go back, walk back to the car place, collect the bag and then sit back on the station platform in the pouring rain for the train to come back and once again get to Oxenholme. Thankfully, the tickets we had for the rest of the journey were still valid and we actually travelled on a nicer train (albeit probably a lot more crowded!).

In other news:
My 24th birthday was 9th Jan, which I celebrated with a lovely meal out with Michael and my brother, Tim. We went to the Punch Bowl on Stonegate (not to be confused with the Wetherspoon's on Blossom St, also called the Punch Bowl!), which is a really lovely pub/restaurant. Not too pricey with decent-sized, delicious, quite simple meals. We then came home via the Three-legged Mare (aka Wonky Donkey) where we got ID'd. Harumph.

Since then, not a lot has happened, although on Friday I did have my first sick day off from work/school in nearly 8 years. I managed half an hour, before concluding that I really wasn't well and came home again, suffering toothache and severe nausea. I spent most of Friday in bed feeling sorry for myself (Michael came over to my house and looked after me, which was nice). By Friday night, I was still in a lot of pain, so Michael suggested I call NHS Direct to find a dentist who was open on Saturdays. They were very helpful and this morning I had an appointment with a very nice dentist (yes, really!) who told me I had an infection under my gum where my wisdom tooth is coming through, so I'm now on amoxycillin 3 times a day for the next few days.

Work at the hospital continues. I screwed up on the closing date for a job I really wanted, but at least I now have a good personal statement prepared and have updated my CV, so when I find something else it won't take as long to fill in the forms.

I think that's all for now. Once again, I'll try to be more prompt with my next update!

The sights, the sounds...

2007-12-15T10:51:00.000Z

For the time being, I'm still working at the hospital (well, not right now, because it's Saturday...) and it's getting slowly more interesting as I'm shown how to do things other than filing. Still not overly brain-taxing though.

Other than work, we seem to have very effectively filled up our evenings, including 2 pub quizzes a week - one at 'the Three-Legged Mare' (aka the Wonky Donkey)... which we won last week and came second this week... and the other at 'The 'ole in t'Wall', where the third member of our team asked if he could join us a few weeks ago and we have been a team ever since!
Also, we have been going to the 4-part choir at church and performed on Wednesday at the York FC Carol Service (where John Sentamu was preaching) and that went well. Next Sunday is the St.Luke's Carol Service and on Christmas Eve, there is a Crib Service with Christingles, but I won't be there for that one, as I'm going home! (woo!).

In other news, Michael and I spent last weekend in S.London with his paternal grandparents. I also met several of his aunts, uncles, cousins, a great-aunt and several of his grandparents neighbours and other acquaintances, who were all very nice and welcoming, but there were, well, quite a lot of them!
We also went to see Mary Poppins on stage at the Prince Edward Theatre. The show was amaaaaazin! Aside from the amazing singing and truly astonishing dance routines (not a tap out of place when the chimney sweeps are dancing on the roof), the set was spectacular. A typical Cameron Macintosh, with bit of set sliding on and off sideways, up and down... and I still don't really know how they did the 'taking-stuff-out-of-a-bag-that's-clearly-too-small' scene!
I did have a stinky cold for that weekend too (my third in 3 weeks), but it seems to have gone now. Woo!

Also, finally, I have finished the website for my home church (Hatfield Road Methodist Church), and it can be found at http://www.hatfieldroadmc.greenisp.org/. If anyone finds anything wrong with it, please do let me know - I'm aware of several typos, but I haven't got as far as fixing them yet.

Anyway, I really ought to go, as I need to do all my Christmas shopping today! Not so good.

(And, Cakes, I haven't forgotten the pictures - I will tidy up when I get back from shopping, take pictures and post them, or at least that's the plan!)

Pastures new

2007-09-09T13:01:00.000+01:00

Well, having finished in Scarborough and spending the summer crossing the country repeatedly. Greenbelt was FANTASTIC! I will try and blog on that soon.
Anyway, the big news is that I have a new place to live. I'm moving in the next couple of weeks to a room in a 3-bed house in York. (email for address, if you want it). I don't quite have a job yet, but I am working on finding a temping position, learning to drive and then taking it from there.

Will try to blog again soon!

My past month...

2007-07-16T21:44:00.000+01:00

Well, I did pass my PGCE. So I'm now a qualified teacher. Yeep! That's a little bit scary. And before you ask, no, I don't have a job yet. If anyone knows of a school near York wanting an Infant Teacher, please let me know. ;-)

Other than that, I've spent the past month covering across significant distances across the country, largely by train. Between June 29th and July 28th, I will have travelled 2,167.9 miles (according to Google Maps).

This includes Dave & Marie's wedding (pic taken at CU Ball last year),

Chris & Rebecca's Wedding

Dave & Zoe's Wedding
(Don't have any pictures)
Tim's graduation
(Don't have any pictures)

Also, I will be helping at holiday clubs in Macclesfield and York, as well as attending Sam & Rosie's Wedding.

I have got to learn to drive!

2007-06-27T18:55:00.000+01:00

Just to say that, barring throwing a child out of a window or something,...

I HAVE PASSED MY PGCE!!!

Where did May go?

2007-06-02T12:48:00.000+01:00

Last time I looked, it was April. May has disappeared and now it's June. Yeep!

Well, this week was half term and I've done a fair bit of work and a reasonable amount of sleeping. It's been rather nice. I've written half term plans, weekly evaluations for the past three weeks (backdated - shhh!). I've been shopping a few times. And tried to figure out where I have to be when at the end of June and throughout July. It is a complicated process, including finishing school placement, going to 4 weddings in 4 different places in the space of 5 weekends, helping out at a holiday club in Macclesfield for a week, plus perhaps finding a job and maybe even a flat. Oh, and eating/sleeping/etc, might feature in there somewhere. Maybe.

In other news, my old laptop has been gradually going senile over the past couple of months and finally got to the point where it would not reliably charge or indeed stay on, it was getting slower by the day and various other features were falling by the wayside. So, I used some of my TDA bursary and bought myself a shiny new one (Dell Inspiron 640m). After a few hiccups, it has arrived and I've just about installed everything that I need at the moment. It's very shiny and light. It's also got Windows Vista, which is proving fun now I've got used to it. Still need to get a few things (photos, music, etc) off the old one, but I'll do that when I've received the replacement for the faulty (2 month old) power cable that I've sent back, when the old laptop might stay on for more than 10 minutes. When I've done that, I will set about 'refurbishing' it so that it's in a fit state to pass on. :o)

Anyway, ought to get back to work. Lesson plans don't write themselves, ya know. Nor do formative assessment records, schemes of work, task analyses, ...

I'm hiding...

2007-05-14T19:34:00.000+01:00

from my lesson plans! (I've got 2 to write for tomorrow, plus 4 to write evaluations for from Friday and today).

I've been on placement for a week now. It seems to be going well. I've got used to the class, learned their names, and mostly figured out what happens when. There are only 21 of them, which is nice, although a couple of them are quite capable of making it feel like a fair few more than that!
I've taught a few activities this past week, including teaching Year 1 (age 5-6) to subtract by counting back and to recognise & name 3-D shapes from pictures, plus teaching the whole class about symmetry and how to use the shift key and space bar when typing.

This past week or so, the theme has been Minibeasts... Creepy-crawlies or bugs to most people. Thus, we've been learning all about bees, snails, worms, beetles, ladybirds and goodness knows what else. Tomorrow, as a special treat, I'm going to be taking in my housemate's giant African land snails (~6-8 inches long!) to show them.
Last week, we went on a minibeast hunt in the playground and came back with 3 ladybirds, 6 snails, a dead bee, 3 slugs, 2 worms and 4,000 woodlice (ok, that might be a slight exaggeration, but they're slow and easy to catch!). The children were unable to catch the pigeon or the crow!

The week before (May 4th), I wrote 4 essays in a week (2 x 2,000 and 2 x 1,000) which in total amounted to 6,140 words. I was rather proud of myself for that, although it might have been a good idea to have started a little earlier. Never mind, it'll be a while before I have to write another one, if ever. Maybe if/when I do a Masters?

Anyway, my lesson plans are calling... Will post soon.

Check this out...?

2007-04-19T21:35:00.000+01:00

Life has generally been ok for the past few weeks. I had a good break over Easter, including a day in Reading including visiting the Chaplaincy (of course), followed by a couple of days when Michael, Chris & Rebecca came to visit St.Albans and 'did' a City Tour that I got from the Tourist Information office for free. It was really good, incorporating St.Peter's church, the Clock Tower, the Abbey, Verulamium Park, the Watermill, Fishpool Street and then back into the centre. The weather was perfect for us. After the tour, we then came back home and had tea & cake in the new garden room, which was very fun and really rather twee too. They also came to both the Maundy Thursday Communion and also the Good Friday Reflection, which was lovely too.

Since then, I've not done a whole lot of anything remarkable. Went for a curry at the Spice Hut with Mum, Dad & Tim last Thursday and had my first ever biriani.
Came back to Scarborough on the train last weekend. It was busy, but quite an easy run.

This week's been ok. I've been in lectures everyday. Some of them have been interesting and a few have been useful.

Next week, I go into my next placement school for visits (Hilderthorpe Infants, Bridlington). Until Tuesday, I was under the impression that I would have a Year 1 class (age 5-6yrs), but on phoning the school the three of us who are going to that school discovered that we actually have mixed Year 1/2 classes (ie. age 5-7yrs in each class)! Not that it really makes much of a difference, but it would have been nice to know. I have 'Pink' class (all the classes are named as colours).

This weekend, Chris & Michael are coming to visit. Chris is staying with Michael tonight, and then they're both heading over here tomorrow night. We're going to Whitby on Saturday, including a Kate Rusby concert, which I'm really quite looking forward to. :o)
As part of this, though, I decided I really ought to get some food in to feed them, so after lectures, I walked down to Tesco (a mile or two). I did lots of shopping, buying packed lunch things for next week, as well as dinner for tomorrow night. I decidd to treat the guys and selected a bottle of Thatcher's Katy, plus a bottle of local ale (forgot the name). When I got to the till, however, the woman asked for ID. Well, I don't have any. She wouldn't believe me (citing 'company policy'). So, no ale/cider for me. That might be a good thing in some ways thought, because I then realised quite home much I'd bought. I had my backpack, but it still had in it everything from college, so I put a few things in there, but also 4 carrier bags. Which I had to get to the bus stop. The bags had better ideas, and the bottom of one of the bags started to split and a bottle of squash made a solid attempt at a bit for freedom (failed). God bless the angel who walked past and offered me her carrier bag (which I declined, but only because I'd got to the bus stop). I got it all home and have been trying to do some work ever since. Getting there, but very slowly. Should get some more reading done, before I go to bed soon-ish.

Generally, life is ok though. God bless. /Out/

Whatcha lookin' at?

2007-04-17T17:36:00.000+01:00

I was just looking at the list of things that people were searching for when they ended up here looking at my blog.

Here are a few of the things that led here:

story books enid blytons collection for 6 or 7 class
nick baines+easter friday
strawberry font
Nativity-cross-stitch
sally bridgstock
jibe productions
"jibe productions"
Nocturnal animals Lesson plans
bill bryson notes from a small island car petrol station commentary about
bridgstock
presentation it's not grim up north

Now, some of those make sense, but some of them are really quite odd!

Anyway, I'd better get on with something more constructive now...

Train to the King's Cross

2007-03-31T23:48:00.000+01:00

Here is the story of the end of term and my trip home for Easter:

On the last day of term (Friday), I handed in my essay on behaviour management. As of Thursday morning, I had written about 1,200 words. By 4am on Friday, I had written 4,100. However, there were birdies singing when I went to bed!

That weekend, Michael came to visit. Sunday afternoon, we headed back to Michael's in York to begin my journey home for Easter.

Monday was Michael's 23rd birthday. However, he wasn't very well, so it was sort of postponed until Tuesday.
So, on Tuesday, we went to see Amazing Grace and really enjoyed it. We then went home and had steak, saute potatoes and roast butternut squash for dinner, before heading out to meet a friend of his from Macc at the pub. A good time was had by all.

On Wednesday afternoon, I headed to the station to go home to St.Albans. I caught the train to King's Cross (although I was getting off at Stevenage), sitting opposite a middle-aged man with a very nice Dell mini-laptop.
We got talking. He asked me where I was going, and told me that he was a barrister and was on his way back from Middlesbrough, having won a court adjournment because his witnesses couldn't agree on their story.
At this point, I was doing number/word puzzles based on the DaVinci Code. (the relevance of this will become clear).
At one point, he asked me if I was going on holiday this year. I said that I was going to the Greenbelt festival. He'd never heard of it and it took a little bit of time to establish that 'Christian Arts' was not a person ("Christian as in the faith, not the name").
He told me he used to go to church when he was younger, but hadn't been in a long time. I suggested that he go for Easter and (to my surprise) he agreed that that was a good idea!

He then noticed the DaVinci Code puzzles, and asked me what I thought of the book. I confessed I'd not read it but that I'd like to. He told me I should. Having established that I was a Christian, he asked me why I thought that the Catholic church/the Vatican/Opus Dei had put so much effort into countering the DaVinci Code. I said I thought it was because the issue was very important and that the church believed that they had the truth and that potentially people's souls were at stake.
The conversation rapidly progressed on to why I believed what I do, what evidence there is for any of it (made slightly complicated by the fact that he wouldn't accept the Bible as evidence), what 'truth' is, and a whole bunch of other questions. I focussed on the resurrection, and did my best, but I was tired and only had an hour. Plus, he was a lawyer!! Anyway, in the end, I gave him my email address. On 1st May (approx one month from the conversation) he will re-ask his question on what evidence there is for Christianity and why I believe it, and he wants a reply.

And then Dad picked me up at Stevenage station and drove me home.
Not much has happened since.

Brief Encounter

2007-03-29T18:16:00.000+01:00

I have several posts planned, but I only have very limited 'net access.

I'm back in St.Albans now.

Will post in more detail soon, possibly including:

Finishing that essay

The Northern Lights trilogy that I just finished reading

The guy on the train yesterday that I ended up discussing Christianity with for over an hour

Also, I haven't forgotten about the Nick Baines post I promised long ago. To date, the time has not shown itself...

Stitch and time...

2007-03-22T16:22:00.000Z

Just a quick check in regarding the world of me...

I am in the process of writing a 4,000 word essay. It currently stands at 1,519 words, but it's starting to flow, so that's good.
Title is:
“A teacher or practitioner will be a more effective manager of children’s behaviour if s/he demonstrates and promotes positive values, attitudes and behaviour underpinned by theories”
Discuss with regard to observations & experiences from teaching practice as well as theories/literature.

Not the most inspiring topic ever, but it's getting there.

Oh, it's due in at 3pm tomorrow! :oS

In other news, I had a mole removed from my arm this afternoon, so I now have 2 stitches and a rather large plaster on my arm. It's quite sore/tender, but not too bad really. I've never had stitches before. :o)

Also, I'm planning on being in Reading on Wednesday 4th April (just under 2 weeks away) with Michael, Chris & Rebecca... so if anyone fancies meeting up for a Shakeaway & a trip to the Chappy, drop me a comment/email and we'll see what we can arrange.

Better get on... this essay won't write itself, more's the pity!

Biscit out of contact

2007-03-21T18:41:00.000Z

Quick message, whilst attempting to write this wretched essay...

For those of you who still have my biscit email account on record... Biscit has gone bust so that address is now defunct.

My email address is now sally [dot] bridgstock [at] googlemail [dot] com.

/Out/.

Geeks of the World Unite!

2007-03-05T17:51:00.000Z

I've given in to my geek urges.

I've bought MS FrontPage, which is software to write HTML and make webpages. So, at some point, when I have some spare time (ROFL!) I will be creating a Brooms of Destruction webpage. I've started it, but it'll take a bit of time to get it sorted. If there's anything you think should go on it, let me know via email or by comments box.

Also, my blogroll is working again, so the updated blogs jump to the top. :o)

Ok, geekiness can be suppressed again.

I do like to be beside the Seaside!

2007-02-25T17:50:00.000Z

Well, I'm back in Scarborough now. After 5 weeks in Hull, apart from half term, I've finished that placement. I PASSED IT! Woo! I got a 'satisfactory', which is just fine by me. (The scale is 'Very Good', 'Good', 'Satisfactory', 'Fail'). My tutor said I should be able to get it up to a 'Good' on my next placement.

I'm gonna miss the kids there, I think. Some of those kids have it sooo tough. I'm guessing that most of the people who are reading this took it for granted when they were at school that they would go wearing an approximately clean uniform, that they'd get some tea/dinner when they got home, etc. Some of the kids I was working with don't have that luxury. I was in the nursery, meaning the kids weren't in uniform. Some of them had maybe 2-3 outfits and regularly came in with several days work of grime/food/muck down the front. They were nearly all wonderful kids though and a joy to deal with, generally.

Half term was fun, although it did involve 3 return trips to York, as I went for both weekends and also for Valentine's, as we didn't have lectures Wednesday/Thursday. (We did Mon/Tue/Fri!). Michael went down with 'flu on the Wednesday though, so that wasn't great. I've managed to avoid getting it myself though, which is good.

This week coming, I have Monday as a 'Study Day', which is nice. Other than that, I'm back in lectures for the next 4 weeks, until Easter.

Right, ought to get on with stuff...
God bless!

Where am I now?

2007-01-28T17:13:00.000Z

Taking time out from writing lesson plans and evaluations to update you on what's been happening in the past month or so!

Christmas day we went to church in the morning, Nan & Uncle Brian came to ours for lunch and then we all went over to Auntie Sue's for tea and silly games.

Over New Year, Michael & I went up to the Lake District for a few days, visiting Bowness, Windermere & Grasmere. New Year's Eve went joined Michael's parents & some of their friends from Uni, at a hostel (apparently completely in the middle of nowhere!) and then spent a reasonable amount of New Year's Day walking/climbing up to Red Tarn (part way up Helvellyn) ... in the hail, which was just lovely.
January 2nd, we explored Grasmere, visiting Dove Cottage which was the home of William Wordsworth and his family for a significant amount of his life. We also found the 'Jumble Room', which was just wonderful, so if you're ever in Grasmere, do check it out.
I then went home and spent a couple of lovely days attempting to work.

Since then, I've come back to Scarborough, written an essay, moved to Hull, written countless session plans (ok, about 13), taught those sessions, ... etc.

Anyway, I'm being picked up in half an hour to go back to Hull, so I'd better get myself packed, etc.
(I'll be out of contact online for 2 weeks... will check emails when I can).

From Hull...

2007-01-18T15:10:00.000Z

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year & all that jazz!

Sorry for the break in transmission. I will update on Christmas & New Year escapades at some point, but for the time being... I'm in Hull for the time being on teaching placement, and will have very limited computer time. Indeed, I'm writing this from the class computer...
I got my Child Study assignment (4,000 words on the value and purpose of observing children in class) handed in on time, although it did involve working until 4:30am the night before it was due in (which was last Friday). I then moved temporarily to Hull on Sunday and started placement on Monday. ie. I'm knackered!

Anyhoo, I'd better go. :o)

God bless!

Broken Links Link

2006-12-20T17:58:00.000Z

Apologies - My BlogRoll has developed a glitch in the past few days, which means that the ** (updated) marks are not appearing.
I've changed it, so that the updated blogs move to the top of the list, but it's not working at the moment. I don't have done all I can, but it seems to be an issue with BlogRoll itself.
(Blogs that do not have Weblogs enabled - Xanga, MySpace & LiveJournal - are now listed separately further down).

God bless!

EDIT:
The mystery seems to have been solved here. The culprit? Splogging!

Coast to Carols

2006-12-17T21:50:00.000Z

This last week has been fairly busy as these things go...

Wednesday, my alarm went off at 5:45am, as I was being picked up to go visit my new school (46 miles away) at 6:30! Not nice. We'd left about 2 hours to do a journey that AA Route Planner said would take 1hr15. Should've been fine, right? Wrong. A combination of unfamiliar roads, the dark and me thinking that 'Take the 3rd exit at the roundabout' means 'Turn left', meant that we were about 20 mins late. Didn't seem to be too much of a problem in the end though. :o)
I met my new class. I'm in the Nursery class ["Foundation 1"], meaning 3 & 4 year olds, which should be quite fun. The kids are lively and I can see it being a definite enlightening experience. Generally, I'm quite looking forward to it, though. :o)

Since then, I've been catching up on sleep (a little bit), cleaning some of the house for the end of term, packing my life into containers for the 13th consecutive end-of-term, and lugging it on and off of trains.
I came home yesterday with a medium-size trolley case, holdall, laptop and backpack - I somehow managed to arrange things so that I had a spare hand for my ticket! Took the train to York, had an extended lunch-break there with Michael, and then caught a train to Stevenage where M&D picked me up (which was nice of them!).

Today has been the Christingle service this morning and Carol service tonight. For those of you who don't know what a Christingle is, it looks like this:

and all the bits represent different things...
The Orange is the World, the Red ribbon is Jesus' blood and the candle is the 'Light of the World'. The rest depends on who you ask... the four points are the 4 seasons or the 4 compass points and the sweets/raisins represent the Fruits of the Spirit or God's gifts to us (harvest). This site gives a bit more about the history. So in my church, all the children go out and make one and then they process back in with them lit later in the service... yes, we do indeed have 20-30 children stand close together holding lit candles! Nerve-wracking, but a really beautiful sight nevertheless.

Really need to go present shopping this week, as I've bought half a present so far, out of the 8 or so I have to buy. Hmm.

Oh well, nothing much else to say, so I think I'll go back to the jigsaw that I've been working on for about 2 years and see if I can get any more done. :o)

/out/

Update on my world...

2006-12-08T12:57:00.001Z

Just to say I passed my essay with 61%

And I have somewhere confirmed to live when I'm on placement next term in Hull.

Yay!

Feeling Out of Placement

2006-12-04T22:22:00.000Z

Is it really almost a month since I last posted?! Wow, it seems less than that.

Since then, I have taught 35-ish lessons (planned & evaluated), written 3 weekly evaluations... oh, this is boring. Basically, I now have a file that is nearly 2 inches thick, full of paper.
And I am tired!

I finished placement last Thursday, and had a tutorial with my supervisor, before catching a train to York to see Michael. Friday night, we cooked Corned Beef Hash, which was delicious and I'm not sure I've had since I was about 8. *yum!*
Saturday, we went to see 'Pipe Dreams' by the Riding Lights Theatre Company. They are a Christian group and the play/performance was all about the privatisation of water and some of the underhand things that different companies around the world are doing with regard to water supplies. It was very good and enjoyable.
Then we went to Evensong at York Minster and dinner at Gert & Henry's. So all in all, a lovely day.

The weekend before, Chris came up to North Yorkshire to visit us, which was very nice indeed. Friday night he stayed with Michael and then on Saturday, I joined them in the morning and we spent the day attempting to Christmas shop in York. Now, I didn't know until I was on the train there, but it was St.Nick's market that weekend, which basically meant, you could not move in the main street faster than a casual crawl. It was sooo busy! Managed to get most of what we were looking for, and I also found a wonderful shop that sells teaching resources ("I am not a teaching geek, I am not a teaching geek,...") but I think it was magic because when I tried to find it again, I couldn't. :o(
Saturday night, C & M came back to mine where I cooked steak & chips for them and a good eating & singing time was had by all.
Sunday was church (where C & M are now famous for being loud, good singers!) followed by a walk down to the beach, homecooked Thai Green curry and then they headed into town and then back to York/Reading, while I did more planning.
All in all, a good weekend!

Oh, I've found out where my next placement is...
Newington Primary, in Hull! I'm going to have to move there, as it's ~45 miles and it's impossible to get there by public transport for 8:30am from here. The OfStEd report (Oct 2006)describes it as "This average-sized primary school serves an area of social deprivation in Hull. A high proportion of pupils leave or enter the school part way through their education. The percentage of pupils claiming free school meals is much higher than average. When children enter the Nursery, their skills level is well below that usually seen. There is a higher proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities than in most schools.
Most pupils come from White British backgrounds and the school caters for a small number of traveller children. A few pupils of Eastern European heritage are at an early stage of learning English as an additional language. The school has experienced some staffing turbulence in recent years. At the time of the inspection, an acting headteacher and acting deputy headteacher were in post."
I'm in the Foundation Stage (Nursery & Reception). Should be fun. :o)

Anyway, less than 2 weeks until I go home for Christmas. Can't wait! However, for now I have plenty to do, so I'd better go.

God bless! xxx

An afternoon in the life of a Reception class teacher

2006-11-09T19:46:00.000Z

The following all happened this afternoon, during a cut 'n' stick activity:

A child had lost their worksheet
Several children decided to see what Pritt sticks smell like
A number of children spontaneously started singing 'Baa Baa, Black Sheep'
A child had 2 worksheets (see no.1)
A child sneezed (big time!) and then just dropped the tissue open on the table
A child was talking animatedly while holding scissors
and finally, a child was eating the leftover paper.

Now, just to clarify, these are not things that are unique to this school/class, nor are they common occurrences here. However, today there must have been something in the water...!

Right, off to write more plans/evaluations/observations...

Submissive Play

2006-11-05T21:21:00.000Z

Ok, well, since I last posted I have slept (a bit), eaten (a reasonable amount), gone to lectures (quite a lot) and written an essay (every other available minute!).

The essay was on the status and value of play in education. A topic which, until about 2 weeks ago, I knew precious little about. However, I had to write 4,000 words on it, so I needed to find out something. So I read. A lot! (& please can someone thank Denise for lending me all those books - they were a God-send... probably literally!). And stuck in many post-its in a teetering pile of books. And wrote, and quoted, and paraphrased, and summarised. And FINISHED!!
Thus, on Friday, I submitted my first ever essay, which stood at 4,353 words by the end (we could be 10% either way).

And yes, I did say my first ever essay - even my final project was only ~4,800! I did a BSc, which seems to put me very much in the minority on this course. I know of a couple of others who did Business, Environmental Sciences or Food Sciences. However, in general, most people seem to have English or Early Childhood Studies (or similar) degrees. Hence why we are being set 4,000 word essays (marked at Masters level), but being taught how to multiply fractions. Oh well.

Anyway, Michael's been down this weekend, but we've spent most of the time writing lesson plans & sorting out folders of observation proformas, as we're both on placement this week. I'm in school for the next 4 weeks, and he's in this week & then one day a week until Christmas.
I'm a little nervous about going on placement, as it means I have to actually teach. Yes, I know, I know, that is what I'm here for... but I'm still rather nervous about being in front of 26 kids and teaching them something they've never done before. Well, there's something quite exciting about that too, but definitely scary! This week, we're teaching them about nocturnal animals, reinforcing the concepts of '1 more' and '1 less' and on Wednesday, I'm introducing '/r/' (i.e. the sound made by 'r', as in 'rabbit').

So, I'd better go and hunt for some pictures of nocturnal animals and have a think about how to explain 'nocturnal' to 3 & 4 year olds! Hope all is well in the rest of the world.

God bless!

Update of the Month

2006-10-24T20:47:00.000+01:00

Well, I've been here a month and things seem to be going well. Life has been absurdly busy and the course is frantic, but I'm getting the hang of it.

The timetable for most days is 9:00am-4:15pm, with two 15mins breaks and 45mins for lunch. Mondays & Fridays are mostly Core Curriculum - Mondays are English (am) & Science (pm), and Fridays is Maths (am) & Early Years Education (pm). The other 3 days are mostly random, but are usually sessions on teaching techniques (planning, assessment, observation, etc), on assignments or on other subject areas (ICT, PE, RE, History, Geography, Art, Drama, etc).

I have been on a few placement visit days so far. The school is nice. Really small though (a class for every 2 year groups), which is taking a bit of getting used to. The whole school only has 4 classes! As I said before, the school is Roman Catholic, which is really nice. The children say prayers first thing in the morning, just before hometime and also say grace all together in the dinner hall at lunchtime. Have you ever been in a class, and a 4yr old child comes up to you and announces "We're playing 'Going to church'."? The whole ethos in the school is lovely and the older children (Yr5/6) look after the younger children really well. The placement is paired and my partner is called Sarah (one of 6 Sarahs out of 60 students on the PGCE course) and she's also a Christian - Pentecostal (at home)/Baptist (here) - which has been really nice too.

So far, on placement we've observed several lessons, as well as working with some of the kids. We also had to carry out a task for science, trying to find out the children's understanding of what constitutes a "living thing". We made a set of cards with a selection of pictures on them - cat, dog, bird, tree, flower, baby, rock, table, coat, bed, ... - and asked them to place them in two hoops, depending on whether it was alive or not alive. This led to a few interesting comments...

Tables are living because they have legs.
Kettles are living because they need water (& make noises)
Babies eat, drink... and have dummies.

We have to plan a story session and also a music & a PE session each, plus a detailed observation/study of one child. Those don't sound too daunting at the moment.

Apart from lectures & placement, I haven't been up to much, tbh. I've seen Michael most weekends, which has been nice. 2 weeks ago & this weekend just gone, I went to see him in York, and the weekend in between he came here to Scarborough. It's been lovely to see him so often and it's helped provide a good break in what is a pretty frantic course. This weekend he's singing in Derby Cathedral instead, though, with Northern Cathedral Singers, and I'm staying in Scarborough and writing an essay. I have a 4,000 word essay on the importance of play in education for next Friday (3rd Nov) - oh joy! A bit nervous about that, but it should be fine... I think. :oS

So... I'm exhausted, but enjoying myself. Earlier today I wasn't feeling too well and I think I'm going down with something, but I'm feeling much better now. I'll be going to bed shortly, though, and I'm pretty glad I've got most of tomorrow off - I only have to be in between 9 & 11am. :o)
I'll try to update a little more often... God bless!

PS. I tried to update this last night, but it wouldn't publish.

It ain't grim up north!

2006-09-27T19:48:00.000+01:00

Well, I'm here!
After ~5.5hrs on the road, including a stop for coffee & a lovely lunch at The Poacher's Barn pub in Osgodby, we got to my new house.

My new housemates (Kirsty, Kaye & Amy) are lovely and friendly. There's a lot of pink/sparkly stuff around, but I can cope with that!
The house is nice too, with lots of space. The kitchen's got loads of cupboards, but the freezer's pretty small, which could cause a few problems, but so far it's been ok.
At the moment, I'm sitting in the armchair by the window...

I've had a few issues with the "accent-barrier" so far, but I've met lots of nice people on my course and everyone's very friendly. In some ways, this place seems like another country/planet

I spent Saturday evening getting unpacked, etc. and on the Sunday, Michael came over and we went for a very nice (& cheap!) carvery lunch in the Leeds Hotel to celebrate 6 months together and then went for an exploratory wander around Scarborough.

Since then, I've been on campus everyday. Monday was intro lectures, etc. in the morning and registration in the afternoon (1.5 hours in the queue!). Tuesday was introduction to placement procedures & admin stuff, plus an ICT (computers) induction, followed by an introduction to the play workshop that we're now doing until Fri morning. It's a group presentation based on/following on from the book "Bear's Adventure". I'm working on an activity book as a follow on activity, with textured pages, lift-the-flap bits and velcro stick-on bits! I've spent the afternoon cutting out shapes and painting simple pictures of beach stuff (red bucket, green spade, purple ball, yellow sun, blue towel...). So, yeah, so far it's been loads of fun.

I start on placement on Nov 8th, although I have a few visits before. I found out today that my first placement is in St George's RC Primary. On a direct bus route from the stop that I can virtually reach whilst still touching our front gate! Not bad. :o)

Anyway, I ought to go to get some dinner. Kirsty & Amy are going to Scarborough Fair tonight (yes, really!), and I might go with them. I do have to be on campus at 9am again though... Not sure. Mince & beans on jacket potato for tea. :o)

Hope all is going well in the rest of the world!

Off to the seaside...

2006-09-22T17:04:00.000+01:00

I've been on school placement for the past 2.5 weeks, shadowing teachers at Wheatfields Infant School. I've spent time in Reception, Year 1 & Year 2 (ages 4-7), plus an afternoon in the nursery. It's been a bit stressful and hard work, but I've really enjoyed it and I do think I've made the right choice doing this course/job. There have been cute moments ("It's ok 'A', I'll look after you" - said by 4yr-old when child was crying when his mum left), difficult/frustrating moments (6yr-old having a tantrum and refusing to do anything), amusing moments (tail is now spelt 'tayow' and one child had visited Scarborough when she went on holiday to Devon!?), rewarding moments (child 'getting' adding for the first time) and times when I've felt really good about something that's happened (I've given out 2 stickers over my time there to kids who'd been working reeeally hard - and they looked so proud). :o)

But now I'm done. Tomorrow morning, I (once again!) have to pack my life into boxes, load it all into the car and move it all into a new place. I've posted pictures of my room already. I have 3 housemates; all girls and all education undergrads (I think). I'm feeling quite nervous, but it should be ok. And I should get to see Michael on Sunday, for the first time in a month (woot!). :o)
The house has wireless broadband, so I should be online some of the time, but I'm in lectures 9am-4:15pm every day, and when I'm on placement I'll be busy even more. I'll try and keep this updated quite regularly, and i'll try to put some things on Hat Mitre when I can.

My stuff needs to be in the car between 8:30 & 9:00 tomorrow morning, so we can be in Scarborough for lunch. M&D have arranged to hire a car so that they can both come up and see where I'm going to be, etc, as I couldn't get all my stuff in either of their cars and still have 3 seats available. And on that note, I better go and start packing!

/out/

Filing & Teaching Practice

2006-09-11T19:58:00.000+01:00

Last week, I spent an absurd amount of time attempting to sort out my bedroom as it was starting to overflow with stuff that I'd just never got around to throwing away. I've filled a crate & a binbag with paper & other rubbish respectively. Included in that is my 2002 UCAS directory and June 2003 bus timetables!
I've rejigged my room a bit, and I even found my desk! :o) The main prompt for this was that I had never really unpacked after moving back from Reading and given how small my room is going to be this year, I need to work out exactly what I need and not take any extra! So far, it seems to be going well. :o)

Since Thursday, I've been on teacher shadowing placement at my old primary school, as I have to have 10 days experience in Foundation Stage & Key Stage 1. I've been in Reception in the mornings (nearly 5 years old), but they go home around lunchtimes, so I've been in Year 1's in the afternoons. I've supervised painting, ICT (computers), playdough, numeracy and several other things too. And it's been a lot of fun and I'm really rather looking forward to starting my course now. Plus, Michael's & Chris' pre-course placements seem to be going well too, so all is good there as well. Woot! :o)

What a Belter!!

2006-09-01T13:56:00.000+01:00

Greenbelt was fantastic! There were so many events and talks and seminars - most of them good, many of them thought provoking, almost all made you glad to be a Christian!
This year's Festival had the theme of 'Redemption Songs' and a lot of the talks, etc had slavery/freedom at their core.

Among the events I went to:
Sounds of Salvation - Ska Mass (Communion in the Sung Eucharist 'tradition', but ska music, rather than classical!)
Martyn Joseph - Rock, including the superb "Liberal Backslider" song.
Jibe Productions - Dark comedy/satire. Didn't really enjoy this. If you like 'League of Gentlemen', you'd enjoy this.

Jim Wallis & Stephen Timms MP - "You say tomato..." Panel discussion on UK/US politics with refreshingly little heckling and one questioner who asked a stupid/unfair question actually got boo'ed!
Nick Baines (Bishop of Croydon) - "God on our side?" - Talk about who is being prophetic/in touch with the Spirit... those who are keeping things 'traditional' or those who are being 'progressive'. Also a lot about the use of language. [hoping to blog on this at HatMitre]
Greenbelt Folk Club. Open mic, lots of fun, even if it was rather noisy because the sign-up for the speed-dating was in the same venue! :o)
Courtney Pine - Jazz. Didn't stay. Not my thang.
Taize Service - very beautiful and reflective.

Communion Service - 10,000 people sharing bread and wine together. The service had a theme of 'Redemption Songs' including prayers for the 20 million men, women & children who are slaves or, euphamistically, bonded-labourers in the world today (5 times as many as when slavery was abolished in Britain 200 years ago).
Cathy Burton - soft rock, very good. Might even buy her album (making it the first Christian album I own...)
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain - fantastic fun, great songs, silly 'tricks'... just superb!
John Bell - "Whatever happened to heaven?" Reclaiming the image of heaven from 'God sitting on a cloud' and 'children skipping through pastures with Jesus' or even 'a reward for those whose lives are rubbish now' to something that's more relevant, useful... and true!
"Amazing Grace" - Trailer for the film of the story of William Wilberforce and the abolition of the slave trade in Britain. Looks excellent. Released next March (2007) to coincide with the 200th Anniversary of the passing of The Abolition Act.
Muyiwa & Riversongz - Gospel worship music. Soooo much fun, and awesome to see that many middle-aged white people jumping up and down, singing gospel with their arms in the air!! :o)
mayBe - reflective session looking at the Magnificat. Not entirely my thing, but others seemed to enjoy it.

Jim Wallis - "A moral response to terrorism". How to approach terrorism without bombing the heck out of people or ignoring it. Looking at tackling it from the root causes.
Clive Stafford-Smith & Nick Yarris- "Innocence and the death penalty in the USA". Clive is a lawyer who represents people on death row in America, and also in Guantanamo Bay. Nick spent 8,057days (1981-2004) on death row in Pennsylvania before finally being proved innocent... please read his story!
Rudo Kwaramba - Living in the Margins, looking at enabling disabled people both here and in developing countries.
Dave Tomlinson - "Gut Level Religion" on Psalm 23 (The Lord is my shepherd...)
John Bell - "God bless Adam & Steve?" on the issue of whether pastors should bless gay couples who have got a civil partnership (the UK does NOT have gay marriage). Also looking at what Biblical backing there is for 'traditional' Christian attitudes to homosexuality/heterosexuality, especially compared with other 'issues' (women in leadership, telling lies, slavery, greed...) [HatMitre might get something on this too].
Naima Bouteldja - Representations of Muslims & Islam in the media - looking at stereotypes and how Muslims are seen as Muslims first, and individuals second. (eg. "John is agressive because he's poor... Ahmed is agressive because he's a Muslim).
Muyiwa & Riversongz (again!)

And in addition to that, spent a lot of time in the Tiny Tea Tent (£1/mug!), including lunch with the Laynesmiths.

So, all-in-all, an excellent weekend, despite it being incredibly cold (and uncomfortable) overnight. Next year, I'm taking an airbed! And yes, if I can, I will be there next year. Anyone care to join me? :o)

Carrying Camping...

2006-08-24T23:45:00.000+01:00

Well, I've managed to pack my life (or at least what I need until Tuesday) into the biggest rucksack I've ever seen, because this weekend I'm off to the Greenbelt Festival! :o)

The boots are there as a size comparison (size 6), plus they are also new and I'm rather pleased with them. They also claim to be "Rabbit" coloured, or so the box would have you believe!

Anyway, I need to get some sleep as I got 4 hours last night (3:10-7:10am) and I have to be up at 7:30am tomorrow to get to , and for the next 4 nights I'm sleeping in a tent.

Sweet dreams!

Magical Mystery Tour

2006-08-21T22:48:00.000+01:00

Well, after Bish's post about where he's been this summer and my comment about all the places I'd been, I thought I'd work out my mileage (ignoring within town travels)...

And it looks like it's 1935miles! (plus another 200miles for Greenbelt next weekend).

Also, Chris & Rebecca have asked me to be maid-of-honor/chief bridesmaid in their wedding next July (07/07/07!), in North Baddesley. I've never been a bridesmaid before, so I'm rather excited.

A little concerned though, cos the week before is Dave & Marie's wedding (in Reading) and I'm going to that too (Michael's an usher). And in the week in between, I'm being observed for my final placement. That's going to involve a LOT of travelling and rather a lot of stress! And a lot of fun, of course!!

Long time, no see

2006-08-15T14:21:00.000+01:00

This weekend, I headed up to Solihull for Rachel & Olly's wedding. Sadly, I have no photos to show, as I ended up without my camera for the majority of the day. One of the best men took our overnight bags to put somewhere safe & out of the way, and it wasn't until about 10 minutes later that I realised my camera was in there. So, thus, I have no pictures of that.
Overnight, Michael & I stayed over where he did his gap year in Quinton and went to St.Boniface Church on Sunday. They were very friendly and the service was really good.
Michael's parents (& Richard) then picked us up from there and dropped me in Banbury, on their way to dropping Michael & Richard in Salisbury for a choral singing course. I then caught the train back to St.Albans, which was an incredibly easy journey, with trains arriving as I got the platform at just about every point. I might be heading to Salisbury towards to end of the week if I can find anywhere to stay.

For the past 2 days, we've had some friends staying from Cheshire. They (Rosemary, Kathryn & Nicola) have stayed at ours for a few days over the summer most years for about the last fifteen! We spent most of the time talking, playing games and not much else. :o) They had my room, so I had a folding bed on the lounge, which set me thinking of all the places I've stayed over this past term (I took the start of the summer term as an arbitrary start point). I came up with 12 different beds, and that doesn't include the multitude of trains I've fallen asleep on!

And on the subject of bedrooms, I have a place to stay in Scarborough. :o) The room is very small, but since I can't take much with me, and will have to come back on the train usually, it should be fine.

I think that'll do for now.

Sorry, could you repeat that?!

2006-08-04T15:15:00.000+01:00

Ok, I have gathered up all the little bits of paper that have been kicking around my room with quotes written on them and have presented them here for your entertainment:

Michael: I've got some working batteries - they just don't work.

Dave M: Who? Who? Who? Do I have to turn into an owl? Who!?
Michael: Twit.

Steve C: There's only 4 of my aunt.

Fish: I've found a lot of girls that are less feminist than me.

Fish: I'd better leave - I have an urge to tape bananas in unusual places.

Marie: Aw, we're not having sex on Monday?

Helen: Duck-squid monsters don't have fur - they have squid!

Marie: I don't like being massacred.

Tim C: Do I look like I'm wearing twins?

Dave Burton: Being a vicar is like being socially neutered.

Tim C: I think my cheekbones are starting to bleed.

Tim C: My banana is multifunctional.
Steve L-W: I wish mine was.

Michael: Oh, I was thinking wasn't I... I forgot!

Schoolchild in motorway services: Joe, stop biting each other.

And my personal favourites of this batch...

Chris F.: I've not been there here, although I have been there somewhere else.

Steve C: She was my best friend in Year 1, but I've never met her.

Dad: You could have ground the coffee, milked a cow and got goat's milk! (!?)

Ok, what have I been up to lately...?

2006-08-02T14:00:00.000+01:00

Well, life hasn't been dull certainly!

First was Alex & Ryoko's wedding on July 15th:

A lovely day and the most amazing international buffet ever!

That Sunday, Michael & I went to the Christchurch Parish Barbecue. Really nice people and everyone had brought strawberries... That was a lot of strawberries!!

On the Monday, we headed up to Michael's house in Macclesfield. Slightly confusing train journey - I kept falling asleep and the train was delayed, and every time I woke up there seemed to be an hour left. We did get there in the end though. :o)
Chris & Rebecca joined us on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we walked into Macclesfield and went book & food shopping. On the Thursday, we went to Tatton Park and once we'd negotiated the RHS Flower Show stuff, which we hadn't twigged was happening, we went round the mansion, had a picnic and an icecream. :o)

On the Friday, we went for a walk/ramble/hike.

We climbed Shutlingsloe and then walked through Macclesfield Forest and around Macclefield Reservoir. (About halfway through the penultimate paragraph we deviated and walked round the resevoir as well). I tried to make a map of our walk, but could get it to work.

Saturday, we took Chris & Rebecca back to Knutsford (where Tatton Park was) to meet friends who were taking them yet further north for more holiday. Other than that, not a lot happened.
Sunday, went to a Godly Play 'Story-telling Service' on the Good Samaritan, plus the normal morning service, where I ended up sitting behind someone who grew up in Harpenden and went to St.Albans Girls School. Small world...

The mornings of the second week I was there, we (Michael, me & Michael's brother Richard) helped out a local church Holiday Club for primary school age kids, helping out specifically with the under-6's. The holiday club ("Time Lords Academy"- TLA) had a Dr.Who theme and I was dreaming about daleks for a few days. But it was a lot of fun, despite the slight accent barrier, especially when bubbles/bah-bbles/bouh-bbles came to be involved...! :o) Lots of silliness and fun activities, plus Bible stories too (Jonah, Daniel, Joseph & Nehemiah). We missed the last morning though, as I had to go home because Michael was flying to Switzerland to climb a glacier for his dad's 50th birthday!? He gets back tonight.
So, I caught the train home to the Abbey station and flaked out for the weekend, before heading back to Reading to collect the rest of my stuff and give back my keys, etc. So I have now 'officially' left Reading. Kinda mixed feelings. I'm gonna miss it, and the people, but I'm looking forward to Scarborough too. :o)

So, yeah, that's it. I've also finished the nativity cross-stitch scene I was doing and also read 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' and most of 'The Handmaid's Tale', but those posts can wait for another time. :o)

Caption Competition

2006-07-31T19:25:00.000+01:00

Hi,

I am now back in St.Albans after a 3 month absence - having been via Reading, York, Scarborough, Birmingham, Macclesfield, Buxton & Knutsford. (details will follow soon).

However, to keep you happy in the meantime, I thought I'd post this picture for you that I took at Alex & Ryoko's wedding.

Captions on a postcards/comment box, etc. :o)

Munchkin Marathon

2006-07-13T19:51:00.000+01:00

On Monday 'morning', Steve & I headed for Birmingham to join Reg to celebrate his joining us in being 22. We got there about teatime, and after tea decided to play 'Super Munchkin'.

This is an excellent card game, which I discovered a couple of weeks ago when Tim C brought it over to play. To cut a long story slightly shorter, I went to bed about midnight and Reg & Steve apparently stopped playing at about 4am (having lost count of how many games they'd played).

The following morning, we got up, had brunch & decided to play again, to pass the time until Michael arrived 'about lunchtime', before going into town. He got there about 3pm, and didn't want to go straight out again, so we played another round (yes, really!). By this time, we'd all got the hang of it, and had figured out all sorts of ways of stopping people winning, so that particular round lasted until nearly 6pm, (with a short intermission for Reg to open his cards & presents), by which time it was dinner. Over dinner, we had conversation which seemed to be an antidote to Munchkin, about the situations in Israel/Palestine and Darfur/Sudan.

After dinner, we then played 'Scattergories' (Town, River, Country, Whatsit) briefly before heading off to the cinema "Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest...

Well, I think that was the one of the very silliest films I have ever seen. Superb fun, but it involved a selection of highly improbable rolling objects and some really quite ridiculous combinating of various nautical stories (Davy Jones, the Kraken, the Flying Dutchman...).

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed it. The 'dual/trial' is hilarious, as is much of the film. However, the thing that (very nearly) spoiled it was that the CGI doesn't match up to the standard of the first. The underwater scenes in the original genuinely took my breath away the first time I saw them. Now, the CGI in the new one is still good - Davy Jones' crew are excellent and actually quite believable (within the scope of the film!).

But... the Kraken just looks like it's been stuck on. Plus, I just don't buy what Elizabeth does at the end (will not 'spoil' it).
All in all, those 2 things are a real shame, because as I said the film is otherwise very, very good and a good giggle. :o) And the final moments (before & after the credits) are just surreal!

After the film, we went home & played *another* game of Super Munchkin, before going to bed. Finally, we got up, had breakfast, played Scattergories (Michael somehow managed to play the whole round with the wrong letter...) & drove home by almost the right route. :o)

I'm sure that's more information than you probably ever wanted, but I'm bored and watching TV, so there! :oP

2006-07-13T15:35:00.000+01:00

Coming Soon...
What happened in Birmingham...
And a review of "Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest".

Coming a bit later than that...
A summary/review of my year and my thoughts on leaving the Chaplaincy (& Reading!)

Long time, no blog

2006-07-08T00:19:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the long delay in transmission... Not much has been happening, and yet I still seem to have no time. Odd.

So, in the past month I have:

Been on the Chaplaincy Centre End of Year Retreat - A very interesting and useful day on 'Taking Stock & Looking Forward'. The morning involved looking over the past 4 years and looking at what we were thankful for and what we want to put over into God's hands and leave behind. In the afternoon, we were 'looking forward' and had to write a letter to ourselves that will be posted to us 1 year from now. Quite difficult to work out what to write and I'm sure that it'll make interesting reading when I get it back!

Consumed far too much barbecue food - Including Heather's birthday BBQ, the Chaplaincy end of year BBQ & the Small World Cafe BBQ & Barn Dance (all within 24 hours); Alex's birthday BBQ (which included arriving at the usually deserted Thames Valley Park, to find the Reading Regatta going on with about 2,000 boats and canoes, so we all had to transfer to King's Meadow instead - Thank God for mobile phones!); Henrick's farewell BBQ... to date, I think that's it. But I will start to look like a hotdog before long, if I keep this up!

Been to Helen's "Pirates, Vegetables & Cows' Party - just a few of us, as most people were away that weekend, but a good time was had by all. Plus, we watched a lot of Dangermouse! :o)

Helped organise the SWC Weekend Away - Between a few of us (Rich, Annie, Michael & me) we organised a weekend to the Isle of Wight. Sadly, though, it didn't happen, as we only had 1 international student sign up. So, despite being on the team for 3.5 years, I've still never been on an int'l weekend away.

Had Chris & Rebecca come and stay - they were here for about a week. Originally for music making, Chris' PGCE interview & generally seeing people before everyone goes their separate ways. Well, the last one happened, and some of the first, and the second one happened but not in that week. :o) All in all, a good week though.

Attended Reg's surprise birthday party - He was totally shocked, which was great. And Fish provided a legendary (fairtrade, vegan, still warm!) chocolate & strawberry cake.

Attended Michael's graduation - After a lot of stress over Easter, it was far from certain that he'd make it to the end. But he did, and he got a well-deserved 2.i, so he'll be at York St.John next year for a PGCE (Upper Primary). :o) (Rumour has it, he got 68% on his dissertation!)
I also met his parents at the graduation, and they seem very nice. And are very good at making picnics. :o)

So, I think that's my life in a nutshell for the past few weeks. My foot's still sore too. It's been nearly 6 weeks, so it should be better. I may well go see the GP next week, when I get back from Reg's birthday bash in Birmingham, if it's still sore then. I should have gone sooner, but as I said, I don't really know where the past 4 weeks have gone!

In terms of the summer, when I think about everything I have to do and all the different places I have to be, I just want to curl up in a little ball and hide until July 2007. However, I can't do that, so I'll just have to get through the intermittent franticness that this summer is going to be! Oh well.

Best foot first, right?

2006-06-05T14:46:00.000+01:00

Update on the foot situation:

On Friday I got a letter and phonecall from the A&E department at the Royal Berks (where I went on Monday) telling me that they'd reviewed my x-rays and that they would like to re-examine me... uh-oh... Well, it turns out, I have indeed broken the bone. I have cracked (but not split) the end of my 5th metatarsal in my left foot.

They said I don't have to have it cast, but I can if I want. They wouldn't let me have crutches without getting it cast though. So, in actual fact, it hasn't made any difference, except that I have to be even more careful, and can't wear high heels, dance or anything much at all that requires moving from place to place.

On a happier note, Saturday was Julie's wedding, which was a lot of fun and the whole event was lovely. I hope to post some photos at some point, when I've uploaded them off my camera. :o)

Other than that, business as usual.

God bless!

Trouble's a foot

2006-05-30T12:46:00.000+01:00

Well, I ended up in A&E last night getting my foot x-rayed to find out how badly I'd damaged it. Thankfully, it's just bruised/sprained.

"What did you do?", I hear you ask (well, perhaps!).
Quite simple. I tried to walk. Trouble is, I'd been sitting sort-of cross-legged in the big squishy chair in our lounge, and hadn't noticed that my left leg had gone to sleep. Thus, when I got up to get some dinner and tried to stand on it, it kind-of dragged behind me, and I ended up standing on the top of my foot instead. There was a loud 'crack', and I was on the floor attempting not to blackout. I soon felt fine, but it was still quite painful, so Steve sorted me out an icepack (frozen sweetcorn in a teatowel). After a few hours of this, I was persuaded by Michael & Marie to go and get it x-rayed though, as it was swollen and didn't look quite right, but as I said, it's not broken. Thankfully, for a Bank Holiday, A&E wasn't too busy so we (Marie & I) were only there about an hour and a half.

I have to keep it elevated and not use it too much. (Hmm, not so good for the world's worst patient!). It just hurts to walk on it generally, and it's bruised, but it should be fine soon.

God bless!

Yes, I am!

2006-05-28T17:02:00.000+01:00

Just a quick update to say that I got my place at Scarborough and start there on 25th September. Went up there for an induction/pre-course day last Tuesday where they gave me an astonishing amount of paper (6" thick?), all of which I'm meant to read at least once.

eep.

Met lots of nice people though, so it should be all fine.

Other than that, not much to report. Currently attempting to update the 'Local Churches' booklet for the next batch of Freshers, including a map and a short description of each church. Sounded like a good idea before - but it's taking longer than expected!

Book stall in the Chaplaincy Library on Tuesday (12-2), Communion at London Road campus on Wednesday (1:05) and Chaplaincy Social 'Beer & Cake II' at Mark's on Friday (from 5:30pm).

Other than that, just need to sort out Greenbelt things, and read all that stuff for the autumn.

Anyway, hope you're all well. God bless!

24601

2006-04-21T20:54:00.000+01:00

Ok, in a blatant bit of plagiarism, I have copied this from Tim's blog. A bit of fun for those of you wrestling with revision, etc. And indeed for those of you who aren't too!

Put the answers to the following questions in my comments box:
1. Who are you?
2. Have we ever met?
3. Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it.
4. Describe me in one word.
5. What reminds you of me?
6. If you could give me anything, what would it be?
7. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?
8. Are you going to put this on your weblog and see what I say about you?
9. What do you love like a fat kid loves cake?
10. What makes you come back here?

Woo! 2 blog updates in 1 day. Aren't you lucky! :o)

Am I going to Scarborough fair?

2006-04-21T20:49:00.000+01:00

Well, the answer to that has got a little clearer. I have the date for my interview - Tuesday 9th May. A bit scary, but at the same time, I'm glad that I've got this far.

They've sent me a leaflet thing, all about 'Creativity' which I have to read and I'll have to do some "written tasks" with it when I get there. There will also be group and individual interviews.
All a bit daunting, but I'll give it my best.

The more I think about it, the more I really want to go there! :o)

Yorkshire (and proud!)

2006-04-12T23:49:00.000+01:00

Just a quick one to say that I have been offered an interview for Scarborough's Primary PGCE course. (details)
I don't know when yet - I'll update again in a couple of days when I know more... :o)

Major Decisions

2006-04-07T20:58:00.000+01:00

Given that I've graduated, this is probably a bit silly, but still kinda encouraging that it thinks I made the right decision.

Let me know what you get...

What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3)

You scored as Mathematics. You should be a Math major! Like Pythagoras, you are analytical, rational, and when are always ready to tackle the problem head-on!

Mathematics

100%

Psychology

100%

Linguistics

83%

Sociology

75%

Chemistry

75%

Philosophy

75%

English

67%

Journalism

67%

Engineering

67%

Anthropology

50%

Biology

42%

Theater

42%

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Submission II

2006-04-03T23:43:00.000+01:00

To update on the situation for next year, this afternoon I re-submitted my form to the GTTR for teacher training next year

This time it's winging its way to Scarborough, for a course in Lower Primary teaching. (Well, the Scarborough campus of the University of Hull).

Sweeping to Victory...

2006-04-03T15:09:00.000+01:00

Well, there you are - the results of the Baby Laynesmith Sweepstakes...

Matthew Simon Reuben Laynesmith was born on 28th March, weighing 8lb 3oz.

So, David & Tim get a Divine bar each for being closest on weight and date respectively. Plus, well done to Helen, Steve, David, Liz & Tim who all guessed correctly the baby would be a boy.

Quick getaway...

2006-03-27T22:35:00.000+01:00

My brother, Tim, & a friend are doing a 'Jailbreak' event this Friday/Saturday in aid of Oxfam...
"This Friday, a housemate and I are taking part in a charity 'Jailbreak' event at the university. We are one of many teams that starts at our Union on Friday at midday, and has to get as far away as possible in 24 hours - without spending any money on transport - so by blagging journeys from taxi firms, bus companies, train stations and... airports.
Now here's the new exciting part - I need sponsorship. The charity is Oxfam. Sponsorship can be done simply as a straight pledge, or as a "per mile" incentive. Although I will warn you people have reached Tokyo, Hawaii & San Francisco before, and while we don't hold out much hope of that, nothing's impossible - so you may want to put a cap on that sort of pledge!
If you're interested in sponsoring however much or however little, I need a response ASAP, with your address & postcode and pledge/incentive. If you pay taxes you can choose to include Gift Aid so that Oxfam can claim back the tax you've paid on your donations (28p for every £1)."

So, if you would like to sponsor him, drop me an email and I'll pass on your details to him.

(PS. Prayers/thoughts for their safety would be appreciated too).

Quick Update...

2006-03-12T19:57:00.000Z

Just a quick one to let people know a little of what's going on in my not-very-interesting world just now...

I got back a letter on Friday saying that Leicester don't want me. (Roehampton already said that the course was full). So, I'm not sure what's going to happen next year, but I know that God has a plan. I just wish he'd tell me!

I've got a new phone contract and will soon have a new handset too. I will be back with O2 online, but my number's coming with me, so that won't change.

Finally, I have decided to not go to Word Alive this year, for various reasons. I hope everyone who is going has an amazing time though!

I think that's all that I wanted to say for now...

God bless!

PS. I think I will be in St.Albans from the 18th/19th March for about a week, and then again from about the 4th-18th April.

Submission

2006-02-14T22:48:00.000Z

Hi,

Just a quick one to say that I just submitted my GTTR form.

First choice is Roehampton University to teach Lower Primary, specialising in Mathematics.
Second choice is University of Leicester to do Lower Primary.

Other than that, there isn't much happening around here at the moment, although next week is Hope 2006 week (Mission week to us old-timers) so that will probably be pretty hectic.

Christian Action & Thought's going well too. Kentish is coming this week to talk about HIV/AIDS and what can be done, which should be good.

Hope all is well with everyone,

God bless!

Nearly there...

2006-01-08T23:55:00.000Z

Hi,
Not much going on around here, but just thought I'd put in a random entry...

Today I got up for church, which was great. (I even managed to get there on time!). The service was Covenant and Communion. The covenant service is a specifically Methodist thing. It is the first main service of the year (usually) and is a chance to come back to God and rededicate ourselves to Him for the coming year. The most well known part of this service, and the most beautiful, is the Covenant Prayer:

I am no longer my own but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing, put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you or laid aside for you,
exalted for you or brought low for you;
let me be full, let me be empty,
let me have all things, let me have nothing;
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.

And now, glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours.
So be it.
And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

Last year, I had this pinned to the wall above my desk. I may well do the same this year, actually. It was a good and constant reminder of what is important in life and where our priorities should lie.

Also, in the process of hunting out that text, I came across this which I thought a few of you might find interesting. Now, even though I am a Methodist, I don't necessarily agree with everything this says - but in general, it's quite close. :o)

Well, after church, I went for lunch at the George with friends from church. Lunch was lovely, as was the company. :o)

This afternoon was spent not doing much, finishing my unpacking and trying to persuade MSN that I really was online, despite it's determined efforts to declare me otherwise.

Then this evening, Mum, Dad & Tim came down to go out for dinner, as it's my birthday tomorrow. We went to the Waterfall Indian Restaurant. It was delicious and a good time was had by all, I think. Also, they brought my presents from home, so I opened them while they were here - but I'm saving my cards for tomorrow.
The first present from my parents was a Wok, which is great as my old one was, well, no longer non-stick (and probably no longer fit to be called a wok!).
From my brother, I got the 'new' Kanye West album (Late Registration), which I'm listening to now and definitely enjoying... :o)
Well, the last present was a mystery. It was big, heavy, square and had handles. Unwrapped it looked like this:

But opened, it looked like this! :

It was a food parcel of really nice stuff! All sorts of jars of pasta sauce, cans of soup, Nando's sauces, biscuits, tupperware pots, pasta, basmati rice, soy sauce, milkshake syrup... There's so much stuff in there and it's all my favourites. :o) I love it! Plus the box is great too. Maybe I'll get around to decorating it or something at some point. That'd be fun! :o)

Well, I think that's it for tonight.
God bless!

I beg your pardon!?

2006-01-07T19:38:00.000Z

Since Steve L-W has stopped recording quotes that he didn't witness personally, I have chosed to take up the baton...

Andrew Waugh: We're trying to calculate the muzzle-velocity of a potato.

Dad: (holding up a coat) Is this anyone's or is it someone else's?

Tim C: Argh! I'm a 12-year-old girl!

Chris: Ros has been eating tablecloths again.
Ryoko: Is she still very ill?

Tim C: I was just trying to de-cheese my knee.

Patrick: True love is good, I suppose.

Tim C: There are elements of megalomania within the CU exec.

Tim C: Ooh, an organic nightdress. Woot!

Sal: Where's the bin? Oh, it's on the toilet. Of course.

Sal: Where's Ceryn actually gone?
Tim C: The library to print out, oh, naked people!

Tim C: I'm not a good Fran.

Oh, and one of my personal favourites, from Freshers Week 2004...

Nick: I'm a vegan.
Sal: Oh, you might get on well with Fish then.
Nick: You what!?

Self-Improvement

2006-01-03T02:46:00.000Z

The other day, whilst Christmas shopping, I saw this book in WHSmiths and it really tickled me.

"Yay! Now I can read my own mind..." (!?)

Look-alikes

2006-01-01T23:08:00.000Z

Just a quick one...
I was just watching the BBC News and was struck how much the newsreader (Peter Sissons) looks like the Ukranian president (Viktor Yushenko).

Happy Hogmanay!

2006-01-01T00:34:00.000Z

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wishing you and yours
many blessings and much happiness
in 2006!

Seven times seven is forty-nine...

2005-12-27T23:23:00.000Z

Things to do before i die:
1. Have kids
2. Be first to tell someone about Christ
3. Learn to speak Japanese
4. Qualify as a teacher
5. Write a book
6. Learn to drive
7. Learn sign language

Things i cannot do:
1. Wink my right eye
2. See without my glasses/contact lenses
3. Be tall
4. Knit
5. Read Arabic
6. Solve differential equations
7. Sit still

Things i say most often:
1. Sorry.
2. I don't know.
3. It's over there *points in direction of requested object*
4. Ooh, I'd love a coffee...
5. Cool.
6. Well...
7. Hang on...

Seven Books i Love:
1. Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson
2. Anything by Robin Hobb
3. Hollowtree House - Enid Blyton
4. The Lost Message of Jesus - Steve Chalke
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. Messy Spirituality - Mike Yaconelli
7. The Bartimaeus Trilogy - Jonathan Stroud (his parents & sister go to my church!)

Seven movies i can watch over and over:
1. The Truman Show
2. Monsters Inc.
3. Mona Lisa Smile
4. West Side Story
5. Forrest Gump
6. The Great Escape
7. School of Rock

Seven things I got for Christmas:
1. Divine Chocolate
2. Grow-Your-Own Spices
3. Jewel in the Crown - Fairport Convention (CD)
4. Teach yourself Japanese - Beginner's edition (book)
5. PDA - HP iPaq 2200
6. A frame for my map cross-stitch
7. Book of very random and yet very interesting lists.

Seven people to do this next:
1. Chris F
2. James
3. Hannah
4. Aaron
5. Beth
6. Tim C
7. Erm, some more people need to get blogs ...

A long-delayed update

2005-12-18T22:46:00.000Z

I guess you want/deserve an explanation of why it’s been so long since I last updated this. This entry will not be easy to write and may well be quite long, but please bear with me.
This term has been very eventful for me. Despite the fact that I have been in Reading, as I have been for the past 3 years, I have started a new job and my role has changed a lot. I am no longer a student, yet I am surrounded by students at all times. My role is now more pastoral and responsible than before, which has caused me to grow up a lot, very rapidly. I have also had to become more self-reliant and confident – something that I never dreamed possible.
This change has led me to re-evaluate everything in my life. As most of you know, I have been with James for slightly over 5 years. Various events this term have made me wonder whether our relationship is still what it had been or whether, to an extent, we had grown apart and were not ‘right for each other’ anymore. There have been a few issues between us for a while. I still care about him deeply, but I’m not sure whether that is enough and I’m not sure I’m ready to make decisions about marriage (yes, I know I’ve been a little delayed in realising this!). So, James and I are now ‘on a break’ for the time being, until March, when we will come back and see where we are. We are remaining friends throughout, however (we’re going for coffee on Tuesday). I’m still a little bewildered at the moment, but I think we are doing the right thing.
That has been the main thing that has been going on in my life and because I wasn’t sure what was going on, I didn’t have anything I could write.Now that I’ve explained that one, I may be able to post about other stuff. Some time this week (I hope), I will update about what has been happening in the Chaplaincy this term, but for now, that will have to do.

Age-confusion...

2005-10-02T16:53:00.000+01:00

This is really an extension to the previous post, but I just wanted to share a few things that have happened today...

Firstly I got asked if I was the daughter of the guy who I ended up sitting next to in church this morning (he had a son in the beaver-scouts ...), then I was asked whether the toddler I had just tripped over/walked round was mine and finally I got ID'ed buying cider in Asda. I should go and catch a bus just to see whether I can get child fare... :o)

New Beginnings

2005-10-02T13:37:00.000+01:00

Well, I've been told off for not posting on here often enough, so here's a post-Freshers' Week update.

I've now been back in Reading 2 weeks. The first week was pretty ok, just getting settled in and finding my feet in my new job as Chaplaincy Assistant. This basically means being a spare pair of hands in the Chaplaincy, helping the new Chaplain (Mark) and also starting a new group on campus for Christian students who don't feel catered for by the existing groups (i.e. Christian Union and CathSoc). This may take the form of a 'Focus' type group. I'm also involved in admin, etc. in the Chappy when Susie (the secretary) isn't in.

Last weekend I went to visit James in Newport. The journey there was so much easier than the one to Northampton ever was. He's got a nice place - lodging on the top floor of private house with his own bedroom, lounge and bathroom. All newly done up, so it's pretty comfy. He seems to have settled in well. :o)
We spent the weekend exploring Newport really, and went to the wackiest service I have ever been to (& I've been to a fair few!). All in all, a good weekend. :o)

This week has been Freshers' Week and (school productions excepted) was one of the most busy weeks of my life! For 2 weeks now, I have been trying to get some teatowels printed with an advert for the Chaplaincy on to give to Freshers. Various hiccups have meant that they won't arrive until this week. Oh well, we gave out loads of delicious Fairtrade cookies (thanks Sabine!). Aside from the teatowel saga, early in the week wasn't too bad. However, a long discussion with Michael and Mark on Tuesday afternoon about conversion and what that means, meant that I was in the building for 10.5 hours straight, ie. 8am-6:30pm! Was good fun though and good to get the debating skills back up to scratch after they have gone a bit rusty over the summer.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were Freshers' Fayre. I was on the stall on and off for all 3 days. We had lots of people come past and around 60 signed up for Chaplaincy info or took details of local churches, etc, which is great. :o)
Wednesday night was the most amazing night I think I have ever seen, however. I was going to stop going to Small World Cafe this year, as I have graduated. SWC is a free weekly cafe run on Wednesday evening on campus for international students, with a presentation on an aspect of British life and an basic optional Bible study. So, as I said, I wasn't planning on going, but was still on campus when people arrived in the Chappy to start sorting out the food (this week was a free ploughman's-style meal), so I thought I'd help out and go along. Well... basically, we took the food over and set up the room for the Internationals who were arriving at 7:30pm. I was still setting up the food and drink at the side of the room at 7:30. When I turned around at about 7:35, I was greeted with the sight of virtually every seat in the room filled and people still pouring in. When every seat was full, there were still 30 people literally queuing in the corridor! We had catered for 60, because we normally get around 50 students at the start of term meal, with that figure dropping to more like 20 over the term. Well, we were faced with lots of people and nowhere to put them so the wonderful porter (Thanks Andy!) went looking for more chairs. At some point someone remembered about Fire Regs, so we couldn't cram any more people in, so we put 3 tables out in the foyer/corridor! During the grace before the meal, I took the opportunity to do a head-count while everyone was standing still. I counted 110 internationals and 9 team! Awesome!!
The truly amazing part was that although we had catered for 60-70, no-one (apart from the team) went hungry! Genuinely miraculous. God does provide and he will bless us if we rely on him!

Also, at C.U. on Thursday, there were around 130 people. I was there to 'apprentice' Dan for the Powerpoint controls (for lyrics). He did a good job, given the circumstances. :o)
Yesterday was the CU/Chaplaincy Joint 'Walk to Sonning & Barbecue' (a village just up the canal). I chose not to go on the walk, but went to the Chaplaincy to set up the barbecue so there was hot food when they got back. All went according to plan and there was plenty of food. :o) Then spent a little while playing "Frisbee-Piggy-In-The-Middle" with Michael, Tim C, Tido, Dan and a couple of Freshers whose names I forgot to ask. Oops. We did that till it got too dark and we (me, Dave M, Marie, Tido & Michael) then cleared up and decided to wander down to BoB (Wetherspoons - Back of Beyond) for a quick drink, etc. We would have stayed at the Chappy, but then I would technically have been working (no fun!).
This morning I went to Trinity Church and came back via Asda. I went in to get some lunch, bread & milk, but I decided to treat myself and got a pack of Merrydown Cider (yum!). I then got ID'd at the checkout and had to persuade the guy (who was almost certainly younger than me) that a credit card would do, as I haven't replaced my driving license since it was stolen last Easter. A little humiliating though.

Anyway, that's what's been happening in the world of me. I will try to keep this updated a little more regularly. :o)

Feeling Peaky...

2005-09-11T01:34:00.000+01:00

Well, James & I finally managed to get a holiday this year and headed off the Peak District for a few days, via Northampton to pick up some of James' stuff from a mate's house and play Vampyre (RPG) with them. Pretty good fun, although the game took a little longer than expected and we didn't get to bed until gone 6am! Next day set out up the M1 to Grangemill and after a series of misunderstandings found our B&B which was called the Hollybush Inn, Grangemill (not The Grange Mill, Matlock, as previously understood!). Following day (Monday) took a car tour around Matlock and the surrounding area. Took far too many pictures, as James got a new 4megapixel digital camera for his birthday 2 weeks ago. Found a lovely (ruined) 16th century house to wander round though (I've forgotten the name now tho!).
Stayed in Hathersage that night and then went to an Owl & Otter Sanctuary in Chapel-en-le-Frith. Again, had a little bit of fun finding it - even with GPS, we never have a terribly good time navigating. :#) The otters were cool, and we even had a squirrel come and join us when we were having lunch. Then it panicked and ran up the window, but it got out fine. :o)
Stayed in Matlock that night. Truly lovely B&B! If anyone ever needs anywhere to stay there, I truly recommend Ellen House (37 Snitterton Road). Really, really nice. Great attention to detail and a fantastic breakfast! :o)
Wednesday, went to Alton Towers! I'd never been to a real theme park before, so was keen to go. I went on every 'major' ride except Submission (spinny round upside-down thing) because it looked horrendous and the spinny rollercoaster (whose name's escaped me) because the queue was too long and we wanted to go home. The longest we queued for anything was 30 mins (for Rita, Queen of Speed - 0-100mph in 2 seconds!). Other than that, we pretty much walked straight on, or waited no more than a single load of people. Fantastic idea to go once the schools had gone back! Had a great day, although it took a couple of days for my head to recover, having smacked it against the head restraint on 'the Corkscrew'. Left Alton Towers at about 4:30 and drove home, hoping to find petrol for less than 96p/litre. I don't think we managed it, although I saw it for 93.9p/L earlier. :-S

Ooh, other exciting thing - Commit random acts of literacy! Read & Release at http://www.bookcrossing.com/friend/ichigo84

'Real' Update coming soon...

2005-08-13T03:03:00.000+01:00

I've not been busy, in the traditional sense - I've just barely been home. We are having building work done, so I've been doing my best to be out when I can be. Hence, I've not been around to post.
I've been helping James clear out his room. His room here is pretty small and his room in Northampton was vast. Hence, he has collected more stuff than he can store. So... last week we took 16 black bags of rubbish to the dump, plus a stereo and a tv that don't work!
I have also been pondering several topics of discussion - one of them based on an article I found whilst clearing up. When I can find a way of posting/hosting the article, I will comment on it. Without it, however, it would make little sense! :-)

Right - to bed! (it's well past stupid o'clock!)

God Bless!

Two Very Different Wars

2005-07-24T21:01:00.001+01:00

I've been largely thinking about only two things for the past day or so and felt I ought to share these. This post will probably slightly less light-hearted than previous posts have been.

Firstly, last night I went to see 'War of the Worlds'. I cannot say I enjoyed it. At least, I enjoyed small parts of it. I was slightly concerned before I went into that I would find it overly unpleasant and uncomfortable. However, I was under the impression that it would be ok, as it is a 12A - had it been a 15, I would have been much less likely to have gone in. This method, however, did me no good. Of course I expected it to be a thriller (UCI said it "Contains sustained menace, threat and moderate horror"). However, I did not expect it to be of the level that it was. I will not go into details, so as not to spoil it for those who do wish to see it (although I will if people would like me to). Around half way through I felt sick and extremely uncomfortable. Had it not been that James was there and enjoying it, and that I felt I needed to see the end to 'recover', I would have left.
Now, don't get me wrong, I am not objecting to the film. Not at all. It was well made, faithful to the original and Dakota Fanning ('Rachel') was fantastic! However, I am appalled by the certificate it has been given. By the new certification rules, any child over the age of 5 can see this film as long as they are accompanied by a 'responsible' adult. I am 21 and I found this film horrendous in places. IMHO, it should have been a cert.15.
Ok. Rant over.

My second topic is to do with the events in London over the past two weeks. I live near London, I am on a 20minute direct trainline to King's Cross, I crossed London by train (for Ros' wedding) on the first weekend between the events... and I am not scared. I am not worried, I am not particularly bothered by it at all. I don't know why not. Perhaps I am totally mad. St.Albans has been bombed in the past (in 1991, by the IRA). I have regularly used trains and tube, especially in the last couple of years, as it is the easiest way for me to travel from Reading to St.Albans.
These attacks have made little to no difference to the way I behave, the way I travel, the way I behave, anything. I am not more wary, I am not nervous around Muslims (I have met a number of people who are - and argued with them about it accordingly). Am I crazy? Am I abnormal? Or are there others out there who feel the same? Everyone I have spoken to have said things like "Are you sure should be using the tube?" or "All this stuff on the news is really scarey, isn't it?". And always, my answers are 'yes' and 'no' respectively. Am I the only one?

Swimming and Pottering

2005-07-22T17:08:00.000+01:00

Wednesday and yesterday I spent the afternoon looking after 2 kids - same two as the other day. The oldest was on a Christian holiday camp, so I just had the littler two - Dan (9) and Tasha (6). On Wednesday I took them swimming. I was planning on just watching but apparently they are not allowed in the pool without direct supervision under the age of 8. Therefore I had to get hold of my swimming stuff from home (luckily my mum had come home from work early) and join them in the pool. Oh well, it was quite a lot of fun, actually. We also fed the ducks and had icecreams.
Thursday we watched Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets, and also went to the park. Not a bad way to earn some money, even if they were being infuriating on Thursday. I think they were a bit shy before, but they've got used to me now - and hence have started being cheeky and exasperating!

Oh well, James & I are getting there with the Half-Blood Prince too - I think we're about half way through. It's starting to get interesting now. :o) He's making progress with his new Space Marine squads/army. 1000pts so far.

Right, tonight Dad's doing curry for dinner and James is staying over because Sam and Rosie are coming here at 4:30am to drop off his car at mine, before catching a train to Luton to catch a plane to Sweden, and James has offered to give them a lift to the station. It made sense when Sam rang last night, anyway! :o)

Not sre of plans for the weekend yet.

God Bless!

Rites of passage

2005-07-19T17:23:00.000+01:00

Had a mixture of eventful and uneventful days over the past week.

Last Thursday was James' graduation. The day went amazingly smoothly and his parents did manage to get there (was looking touch-and-go). A good time was had by all, and I think we bought nearly all of the graduation merchandise stuff possible!

Saturday was Ros' wedding. Took me slightly longer to get there than I had anticipated, so I got to the church only 5 minutes before it started. Ros looked amazing and the service was good (apart from the slight scariness of the address). I wasn't invited to the reception, so me and several others went to a pub up the road to drink to the happy couple before heading home. I then headed to Clapham Junction station with Chris. To cut a long and fairly boring story short... owing to a trackside at Cricklewood, the Thameslink line was closed indefinitely north of City Thameslink, so I had to go to Watford and then catch the Abbey flier. This was made all the more entertaining by the fact that I had to be in Rushden for 8:30pm to surprise my dad. He'd spent the afternoon driving a Caterham 7 at Silverstone and then my uncle had arranged a meal for several of us in Rushden afterwards. My dad had assumed that because I was going to the wedding I wouldn't be there and we didn't bother to correct him. :o) So, I finally got to St Albans at 19:02, where James picked me up and headed to Rushden (having persuaded the Sat.Nav. that Rushden was not where it said it was!). Made it at 8:25 and a highly enjoyable evening was had by all. We headed back to St.Albans and got back just after midnight. James stayed over in our spare room, as his sister's boyfriend, Dom, was staying in his room. We read the first chapter of Harry Potter and then went to bed.

Sunday we both went to my church (Hatfield Road Methodist Church, St.Albans) and then went back to his house for a barbecue and for me to meet Dom. He's at Warwick with Hannah. He seemed nice enough. After dinner, they had a huge waterfight, but I've never been a fan of getting wet, so I stayed inside and tackled a super-sudoku instead. Spent the afternoon reading Harry Potter (or Happy Routes, as my phone calls it) and then walked home when James went to meet a couple of his colleagues who had agreed to go to the evening service with him at his church.

The last couple of days have been wholly less exciting. I'm off to James' for dinner tonight, so I ought to get my stuff together, as he's picking me up shortly.

God bless!

Children & Chips

2005-07-12T22:43:00.000+01:00

Spent most of today looking after 3 kids. I played charades, hide'n'seek, made fruit juice lollies, went to the park, went to the shop to buy icecream, watched a little CBBC and supervised the paddling pool. What an afternoon! Got a little closer to paying for what I bought on Saturday, anyway. :o)

Was planning on going to James' for dinner, but he ended up working til 10pm, so that wasn't to be. So I had fish'n'chips for dinner and then spent the evening doing nothing much.

No plans for tomorrow...

What a week!

2005-07-11T19:55:00.000+01:00

Wow, just thinking over the last week, I've realised quite how eventful it has been! Last Saturday was Live8 and I moved out of Reading and the wonderful 65 Donnington Gdns. Monday I got my percentage results.
Wednesday was the Olympic bid success.
Thursday was the London bombing - not really sure what to say about that one. All the people I know who commute through King's X are all ok, which is a relief.
Friday was graduation - a slightly stressful/hectic day in some respects, but was enjoyed by all as far as I am aware. I will post some pictures here just as soon as I figure out how! :o)
Saturday went into town for some things and spent far too much money. I'd not been into town for no real reason by myself in ages and my finances suffered for it.
Sunday, my Nan & uncle came up for the afternoon for my Dad's 50th... and today is my Dad's 50th birthday. He has significantly increased his CD (& DVD) collection and gained several bottles of nice red wine... he might need some help with that - I hope. :->
Spent today reccying a place for a church away weekend in 2008. The place was lovely -Hothorpe Hall in Northamptonshire http://www.hothorpe.co.uk.

So, all in all, an eventful start to the holidays! Tomorrow, I'm childminding 3 children (aged 11, 9 & 6) for the afternoon and then Thursday is James' graduation. Phew!

Pictures and Prayers

2005-07-11T01:19:00.000+01:00

Firstly, due to popular demand, I have changed my photo to suit recent events.

Secondly, I simply wanted to share a part of a prayer from this morning's service.

"We thank you, Father, for sending Jesus to show us you love us.
For his companionship, death and resurrection we give thanks." Rev Michael Giles

Any thoughts?

All Change...

2005-07-06T23:19:00.000+01:00

I seem to have had an accidental post-Uni revamp. I've ordered some new glasses (my contact lens prescription got changed too), got a new hair cut and bought some new shoes.

My hair is now chin length(!), much as it was when I started Uni, but it got cut very little on a student budget - wanted it short for graduation though, so I didn't need it tied back. I like it, although they seem to have used conditioner that smells of soy sauce! Also, having worn the same pair of blue suede shoes for almost a year (yes, I've heard the jokes before!) I thought I ought to get some new ones and also needed some for Friday (graduation). I now have some red canvas shoes and some beige suede shoes.
:-)

Was at the pub quiz tonight with my parents , as James was working til 8. We came 3rd - prizes only available for 1st and 2nd - grr. The only question I got uniquely was to identify a series of names as being from 'The Tweenies'. :#) [Jake, Bella, Milo, Fizz]

No plans for tomorrow - may well go to see Bugsy Malone at my old school. Should be a lot of fun. Was in it myself, when they did it last time - I was in Year 9, I think.

God bless,
Sal

Blue Skies & Smooth Trails...

2005-07-02T00:29:00.000+01:00

It's come to the time of year that means many 'goodbyes' for anyone involved in education. Tomorrow, I move out of this house and am forced to part ways with several people I care about very much. I just want to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed being at Reading. I have made many, many true and wonderful friends here. You guys have made me feel special and so cared about, and I hope and pray that I have achieved the same in return. I hope to see people soon - at Ros & Dave's wedding, if nothing else, for many of you!

I'm sorry this is rather melancholy - I've feeling a little bewildered by everything - it hit about an hour ago that this really is it. And I have done no packing yet. Guess I ought to be up early tomorrow... better get some shut-eye. God bless!

Feedback

2005-06-30T13:31:00.000+01:00

Well, the party was a success, I think. :-) There was a strange part when there were hungry people and loads of food, but the barbecueing (sp?) just stopped. A bit odd. Oh well, not to worry.

This house has been a little chaotic in the past few days as Chris & Fish (plus Steve C., Dave M., Reg and me) have been putting together a CD in the hope of selling it before the end of term - probably at the C.U. meeting tonight. It sounds pretty good, and I would know - it's been playing almost all hours of the day and night all week! :o) There have been people here til gone 3am the past three nights, I think. I also got to sing a solo on it, plus a few bursts of backing singing, which was lots of fun. All the music on the CD is 'original', largely written by Fish & Chris - many are parodies, but there aren't any straight covers. :o)

Tonight's going to be something of an end of an era for me - I've been producing the song words for C.U. meetings for around 5 terms now, and tonight will be my last. I'm handing over to Dan who I'm sure will be very good at it. :o) (story of how I came to know Dan will follow shortly, when I don't have lunch burning downstairs!!)

Roastings & Coolings

2005-06-26T22:13:00.000+01:00

Achievement of the day - successfully produced a roast dinner for 4. Roast beef, roast potatoes, yorkshire puddings (frozen - my only 'cheat'), gravy, sweetcorn, peas & carrots. Followed by Icecream. :-)

Btw, on Tuesday night, our house is having a 'house-cooling' party (like a house-warming, but the other end of the year!). Feel free to come, although some form of RSVP would be good. :-)

7:30pm til late - Bring £1, a hat and drink. Hope to see lots of people there.

(If you don't know the address, contact one of us - Sam, Sal, Chris or Steve)

The Strawberry has landed

2005-06-26T19:37:00.000+01:00

Well... I've entered the world of the Blog...

Have been meaning to do this for a while.
Gotta go do the dinner now, but watch this space. :-)