Big, small, everchanging worlds...

Hello peeps,

Happy Halloween to you all. Hope you had a scary day! Tomorrow is the first of November and partly because I had a little epiphany the other morning whilst reading two other blogs in bed and partly because I don't like the whole one blog a month thing: I'm blogging!

Let me start with my epiphany: as I said, I was reading two blogs. Both are written by girls called Joy both of whom are doing amazing things to serve God and others where they are. To cut a long thought short, they two blogs just really made me realise that I had fallen in to the trap of having a very small world view.
My world is limited to Beauport, Argos and my house and my world view was the same. I read the news on a daily basis - I like current events and the they interest me, but my world view is so small!

Joy 1 as I'll call her here is doing the Soul 61 Programme with Soul Survivor and was getting really excited about getting an evangelism placement. I just thought wow, how (un)important is evangelism to me right now? She's also getting some seriously good training from that church which will reallly set her up for a good many paths!
Joy 2 also has a blog and she was reflecting on a film she has seen recently called The Help. These were her thoughts after watching it:
"In 50 years, when someone looks back at my generation, what will they see as unforgivable? Will they wonder what possessed us to use the limited resources on our planet so selfishly? Or will they ask how we could have merrily popped along to the supermarket to buy a bag of groceries grown by slaves? Or will it be something else – something I cannot see? Something I would even be foolish enough to argue in favour of? I want to be a prophet in my time, bringing to the fore the injustices we fail to see, the ones the World will one day look back in horror and ask “How could they have just let it happen?”"
and those thoughts impressed me a lot. What do I stand up for? What do I believe in? What injustices am I either endorsing or working to repeal? Challenging!

So those girls really made me stop and think, and also wonder, about my life. How worthy is it? I know, and remain convinced, that I am in the place God wants to me to be. However, he is not a puppeteer God, he gives us free reign to bring about His Kingdom however we like - using our gifts and talents. So I need to keep remembering some old advice: it is God's job to look inwards, it is ours to look upwards. Then when we see Him, to follow His gaze outwards.

Global events this year such as the death of Osama bin Laden and Col Gaddafi, are real moments in history and it made me think even more, how will those events and our actions - and those of the UN and NATO - be seen by the historians of the future?


Returning briefly to my little world, I just want to say, before I go any further, that I love my job at Beauport. The hours are long, holiday makers are demanding, owners moan and sometimes wrong decisions are made and injustices persist but the staff are lovely, there are a lot of laughs and the park is lovely. However it does take up a lot of my time, with Argos too I have nearly been doing a 50hr week sometimes and this doesn't leave time, energy or mental capacity for much else. Is that right or wrong I ask myself? I do have a family to support though....


Still, I had my strongest temptation yet the other day as I was checking my emails! I got an email from Disney with some truly amazing special offers and since it was approaching payday I really had a strong feeling that I would just book it and go for it. Then I wondered who I would go with....and then shelved the idea as I realised the answer was nobody.
That's why I haven't booked any travelling trips despite my real ambitions to see the world. Its no fun alone.


Nonetheless we persevere. Just as Beauport is quietening down, Argos has exploded in to manic business, to the point that I believe we won't have anything left in the whole countryto actually sell! The money in the bank is a welcome reward though, but the sense of it being a crying shame that I have no opportunity to use it is mounting.
Still I am fully aware that I will have no respite this side of Christmas, that's for sure!

At the moment I am on the brink of a plan to make cake. Serious cake. Here it is:
and I'm also plannning on making some glittery Poppy cupcakes too!

Right I think I've waffled enough for the time being! Do feel free to share any feedback with me as ever and let me know that I'm loved!!

Bye :-)

Lots of nice things (except the COLD!!)

Hello there all,

It's me again. Welcome to October the month of extremes in the nation's weather, amongst others!

Well we are now on the 7th and it does not feel in any way like it is X amount of days until certain things:

- 22 days until the end of season Halloween party (note to self: must design posters)
- 24 days until my contract finishes at Beauport...  :"-(
- 36 days until Mum and I travel to London to attend the annual Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall in the presence to HM The Queen.
- 37 days until the Festival of Remembrance at the White Rock Theatre (I design the programme and sell tickets each year)

Slightly further in the future; it is 18 weeks and 1 day until I go away (hopefully) with Ruth and her 'rents to Whitby for a week.
Beyond that, its less than 24 weeks until Mum and I head to Llandudno for the RBLWS Annual Conference (and some tourism).

This time tomorrow and 1240 miles away, the Malta Military Tatoo kicks off - one year we will get there! Also somewhere marginally warmer than it is in England right now!

Speaking of which: can you believe the weather we had in the last few days? Almost at the 30 C mark and then almost overnight the temperature drops by about 15 C!!! Not helpful, thank you.
Still I did meet the most beautiful handbag today - I really want one for myself! Let's see...

Here it is! The perfect completion to any winter outfit methinks :)

So we'll have to wait and see if I've been good enough to find favour with Santa this year eh? ;-)

I borrowed the Twilight series on DVD from Loz this week and have watched them through a couple of times now. Really love that series and really can't wait to see the new one come out at the cinema soon. Maybe Santa will bring me the boks too!!
I've also recently been reading a series by Jennifer Worth: social histories based around London's East End and the lives of nurses and midwives serving the people there. Tis really good!
Other DVDs I've watched recently: The King's Speech, Tron: Legacy and The Social Network.

Now, I'm glad to have seen all of these 3, but none had the big impact on me that I was expecting. So looking forward then to seeing; POTC:On Stranger Tides, The Smurfs Movie and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Narnia) amongst others.

Basically happy days - so long as you don't count being ridiculously busy; working a nearly 50hr week over 6 days, dealing with violently stressy holiday makers and random old people. England played Montenegro this evening and managed a draw (along witht he usual standard of appalling behaviour from Rooney!) and then we face France in the rugby in the morning. Hopefully that match will be played with a great deal more sportsmanship than the football (maybe a better result too???)
Coooome On ENGLAND!!

Right, I'll leave it there peeps. Much love :-)