The wonders of Keswick

Well hello there from the wilds and beauty of the Lake District!

This is a quick blog just to update in a vague way all of the stuff that has happened since I got here last Saturday!

So its now Tuesday of Wk 2-time really flies!! Allow me to summarise briefly what some of the highlights have been:
0Seeing all of the team again and spending a woderful week in their company

0Spending a week hanging out with awesome kids twice a day, getting to make friends with them, teach them from God's Word, do crafts with them and just generally sing and dance through each day!

0Leading a girl to faith in Christ. We had a talk one evening on "How do I become a Christian?" to which many children responded and got to talk and pray with one. :-)

0Being surrounded by the beauty of Creation and so many of God's people in one place is such an encouragement and I really look forward to it.

0Being able to see more of the awesome town of Keswick; the shops, the sights, the churches etc is great because I often regret not getting to see all that by the end of Wk 1

0Climbing Castlehead with Ruth and being able to look down over the whole of Derwentwater, which was an awesome view and totally breath taking!!

So, they are some of the highlights so far: right now I'm eating my second chocolate-covered chocolate skewer of the week and have just had my 3rd smoothie of the week!
We just had a big old meet up in Fitz Park of Wk 1 team who have stayed for Wk2 as "punters"! There was; me & Ruth, Esther & Katie, Becky, Helen B, Rose, Hannah, Ben, Jam & Ems (with Amelia), Harri, Zippy, Ellie and we were joined by Johnnny who is team for a second week! What a lovely afternoon!

The other major thing is the weather!!! It's been so hot, the tops of my shoulders got burnt when we were climbing!! We are so very lucky to have this brilliant weather to enjoy all that Keswick has to offer: the lake, the mountains, the parks etc!

Well I only have 15 mins of internet here, so I ought to head off. I'll probs do another blog when I get home (although I'm back to work on Monday) and add lots of pics hopefully!

Until then, have a great day. I hope it's a sunny one!

Departure in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.....

Hello peeps, I'm blogging on the move, how great is that? As my location suggests I'm at my dear friend Ruth's house and we travel up to Keswick this morning!

Am I ready? Yes, after a few travelling blips yesterday, I got here and all is well with life right now.

So, you may ask, how was the journey yesterday? Weelll it went fine eventually but there were a few issues shall we say. I'll give you a lil teaser for now: trees falling on the train line, cancelled trains, falling off of the tube, trains with missing drivers and signal failure!

Right Ruth needs to teach me how to use her shower and then we can proceed to a mammoth packing session of the car, followed by proceeding up the M6 in the POURING RAIN!!

On that note, the forecast for Keswick can be surmised in one word: RAIN!

Right that's it for now. Wish me a fun 2 weeks in the Lakes!

Loveage.

Summer of joy :-)

I feel like I have to blog because I feel that I need to keep up with updates and that I've read so many great ones from various themes and I continue to do so fervently, that I owe it to myself and everyone reading to do a quality blog entry.

Right now there are a few things occuring in life - as there always are so I ought to get on with the show!!

Today is the last day of June, so now we're officially over half way through the year! Wow. We had a mentally hot day last week, where everyone pretty much melted but that was a rarity amongst a month of torrential showers and cold weather. Now we're in a warm spell and the days just seem to melt away. Its a mere 15 days until Keswick and I'm well up for it!!

We had the Planning Day in London on Saturday and it was wonderful to see all of the familiar faces and hear people's news and also meet new team members (that always makes me feel a little bit old, as they're all 18ish)! I also love getting to grips with a bit of the Bible and its nice to work with it in a child-friendly way, so its nice and simple in my mind!
I've been planning and organising my little bit of the craft over the last couple of days and I'm looking forward to designing my cave with actual stone being rolled away (courtesy of the very-hard-to-find butterfly/split pins).

Some of the highlights of Keswick for me:
Sleeping in the dorm with all the other girls; late night chats, deciding what to wear each day and doing everything as a group.
Sense of community: everyone eating together and working together, having team meetings and prayer meetings, going out into town-there's always someone to go with!
The town of Keswick: wherever you go you can see majestic mountains, lots of cute tearooms and unique shops, great features and attractions and of course the Convention!

This year for the first time I'm looking forward to actually being a conventioner as I'm staying, with Ruth, for Wk 2. Should be great to be able to attend the main meetings, the seminars, the young people's programme and to see more of the town and the wonderful Lake District!
Derwentwater, about a 10 minute walk from where we stay, is an absolutely beautiful lake and it is a fantastic - and semi-traditional - way to start the Convention, to go and see the Lake. Here's a picture of it:

So that's Keswick....now to the wonderful world of Beauport Park! There've been some highs and lows over the past couple of weeks and, not that you're really that interested in that, so I'll give you a little taster....
O A romantic interest
O A "I'd never work with her again - and I'm 100% serious" episode
O Family troubles far away
O New staff
O A few nights at the bar and a lot of gossip
O Mistakes to be corrected, dark moods to be appeased, rumours to be quashed, jobs to be done, office politics to manouvre and friendships to deepen and so much more besides :-)

Right now I'm watching The Choir that Rocks and I love the idea of Rock Choir, wish we had one near to me cos I love to sing and with no audition required it would be absolutely awesome. Its a shame that they seem to have completely missed out the county of East Sussex when deciding locations! Should they reconsider in the future, then watch this space....maybe I'll suggest it!! It would be so great to have it in Hastings or even in Eastbourne or just anywhere near me!!!

Today was just a normal day at work, but it was given a very nice silver lining by the fact that I got paid 3 times over the course of the last 3 days. Get in!

Linked to that is the sense of infinite possibility (can be likend to the feeling that Harry Potter has when he drinks the Felix Felicis) that you feel when you see your bank balance the day after payday. I just feel impulsively drawn to booking a travelling trip; I have the money, I'll most likely have the time (especially with the off season in the winter) and now I have to find someone to go with / somewhere to go and just a plan in general.
I've got to do something before I turn 24!

So what are you all up to??? Lovely people whom I'm lucky enough to call my friends - and you know who you are - I wish the very best summer ever!! I'll probably be back with a pre-Keswick (aka crazy, manic, pre-departure/preparation) blog for 2 weeks away (one of which will be in a tent)!

Here's to July!

Taxies home in the rain and buying tickets for the train!

Hello people! Hope you're all well and haven't got colds bought on by the ridiculous weather we are currently enduring. I keep sitting there shivering and sniffing and thinking any day now I'm going to come down with a cold - or worse, the flu - in June. So far, luckily, I remain healthy despite the draughty caravan I work in.

Since I last blogged Mum and I have been to the Forces Festival in Amesbury and despite the bad weather and the car breaking down between Salisbury and Southampton, managed to enjoy the weekend. Here's a picture of the Human Pyramid perfomed by the Royal Signals motorcycle stunt display team The White Helmets.

So I am glorying today in a day off of work. Yes, that's right, an entire day off. Happy times. I do feel I need it after the events of Friday, Sunday and Tuesday.

So I went to work on Friday 9am - 6pm as is the usual for a Friday. I stayed for a drink after work, also not unusual. Except, I couldn't get away! Drinks kept flowing and we all kept drinking them and then at 11pm (knowing I had to the same hours the next day) I thought it would be a good idea to head home. The guys had promised me a taxi home - at their expense - if I stayed, so I did. So I got a nice warm, dry taxi the 0.4miles and 3mins to my house from work. Aren't they nice!?!? It was absolutely heaving down in the way that it can do only in the middle of summer - reminded me a bit of our Dubrovnik downpour, just without the danger of being swept in to the sea!!

So I was back in work the next day bright-eyed and bushy tailed. Sunday, on the other hand, was the day I felt the effects of Friday. That was not a good day. Enough said about that, the better.

So I'm back in work tomorrow, not sure if I'll stay for a drink though. We'll have to see...

I've also bought my tickets for the train for Keswick. A day return to London with my Young Persons (which runs out 3 days afterwards), a single to Stoke and then a single from Penrith all the way home. Lovely. That little lot cost me £105. This year we also have to have new tshirts and we have the option of hoodies for Kids Team. So I've just ordered a new polo shirt and a hoodie...now to see what they actually look like!!

So with all that, you'd think it was certain that I could actually be on team wouldn't you? Well not so fast!! The Keswick office had a few problems when it came to checking my reference and then I heard no more after a brief phone call with them. So I emailed Tom and basically asked if I was on Team or not. He said I could be, but we HAD to clarify somethings IMMEDIATELY, all surrounding my church attendance and spiritual life.
Basicaly that was very scary and I was like "what do I say, what do I do, argh, oh no..." etc etc. Then I decided that to save confusion, assumptions and all other issues I would just write the whole story down from start to end and email Tom the whole thing. So it was about 2.5 pages of A4 buuuut now Tom has read it, he understands me and my situation entirely. Obviously he has to check and make sure because we have access to young people and are charged with their care and spiritual education during Keswick. I'm glad now that I was honest, that Tom knows the whole story, that I can go to Keswick and that I trusted in God to sort the whole thing out!!

We have exactly one month until I get on the train and head for Stoke to overnight with Ruth and head up to Keswick the next day. Well excited! The Training Day in London is in 9 days time and I'm looking forward to seeing as many people as I can there. Its also nice that we kind of get the big catch up out of the way so that we can also focus when we arrive, on getting ready for the Convention.
I'm even more excited to stay for Wk2 and attend the convention as a conventioner, as I'll get to partake in everything. Happy times ahead.

As I draw this short entry to a close, I'd like to acknowledge how awesome God is: in whatever ways He chooses to act and that has been apparent very much so over this past couple of months. I am reminded that He knows the Big Picture of my life, not me, so to leave the worrying to Him is clearly the best thing to do.

Well I'll leave it there for now. Have a happy weekend.

40 days and 40 nights

Or so it feels!

That's what I'm facing in terms of continuous activity and lack of down days from now on. So I had a day off from work on Saturday, now I have solid work until Bank Holiday Weekend and then from the 31st May through to the 20something of June is again solid work, so you may be thinking that the next 6 weeks are looking very bleak. Well let me expand your horizons on these matters....

Bank Holiday Weekend will be busy, but I won't be in work!! We are off to the Forces Festival in Amesbury, Wiltshire - travelling down there (via Southampton) on the Saturday and then attending the Festival all day (and night) on Sunday and then travelling back on the Sunday. In between these rather clean cut arrangements, we are - as I said above - popping in to Soton where I'd like to have a decent look around Ikea, with the hope of actually finding a display/shelving unit for my room.

We may get to see some other places/people, but it won't be a very long sojourn as it'll be something like a 3 hour journey each way without the added delays of Bank Holiday traffic (oh joy!).

I do love the idea of these little road trips! One I'm particularly looking forward to is the trip to Llandudno we have arranged for next year. I've never been to Wales before and we're planning on taking slightly scenic routes for both legs of the journey to fully be able to appreciate the journey and the National Park so close by. Mum and I are going to the 2012 National Conference of the Royal British Legion Women's Section.
I'm already very excited about the prospect of going on the cable car and seeing Snowdonia National Park and just going to and seeing somewhere completely different. Tis very exciting :-)

The other recent excitement is that the Eurovision Song Contest (aka Annual Europe-Wide Comedey Episode) happened at the weekend. Who would you have thought would win? Probably not a country most people have never heard of, fewer could locate and fewer still could spell: Azerbaijan. So see you all in Baku next year!!
The funniest thing has to be the Moldovans and in particular their choice of head gear and of course Jedward in general!
I am very proud of us geting 100 points and coming in 11th place and then getting points from so many different countries and not just the usual people voting for each other.

So yes...here I go in to my pretty much 40 days (odd) of solid work and flitting back and forth between 3 different places and roles. I'm really looking forward to the variety; something that can sometimes be the best and worst thing, especially when you get in to a routine and build a rapport with the people you work alongside and then have to head off somewhere else for 3 days.

Still, I know it won't totally kill me and therefore it is worth it, to - for once in my life - actually have a decent amount of money in the bank.
YAY!

So I suppose I ought to head off to bed as I'm in for my first day of invigilating tomorrow and also have to go to the Post Office for work.

I shall finish by quoting Dryden:

"Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He who can call today his own;
He who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today"

Hope you're all seizing the day too! Lovings.

The job centre returns to haunt me...

Hello m'lovelies!

Happy Spring! Now we've had May Bank Holiday, I feel that its officially spring and summer is firmly on the way.

I've now been in my new job just under 3 weeks although I have actually lost track of the time and am happy to report that all is well and going well. People are nice, friendly and helpful; there are lots of new and interesting things afoot at the Park and I'm managing to do my job without any major disasters.

Currently I'm working 5 full days up there and then Sundays at Argos. We are frantically attempting to recruit another member of staff because I have invigilating coming up from mid-May all the way through June and will only be able to do my contract days.
So at the mo...we're recruiting and have an ad in the JobCentre(!) and have already begun to have responses. So it just remains to be seen who will be the new member of the team...?
Anyway, this overtime has meant that Tuesday and Wednesday I'm running the office all by myself. Now this sounds and IS reasonably scary, but its one of the best ways to learn the ropes...be thrown in at the deep end and either sink or swim. I'm pleased to say that aside from a few minor glitches, I'm primarily swimming.

I have to say that one of the major componants in my being happy there is the people who I'm working alongside. They are warm, welcoming, helpful and there have been a lot of laughs along the way too.
So alas - in addition to the money coming in - I have a lot to be thankful for.

Yes...payday at the end of last month was very nice indeed. Now I'm only looking ahead to the summer - one that will be extremely busy but wonderfully fun too. I won't be able to stop for a moment, but it'll be a great experience. I'm about to book my train tickets for the Keswick Training Day at the end of June and then, so Ruth informs me, its a mere 11 weeks until Keswick!! :-)
A mere 108 days until Momentum too! Charlotte and I are still attempting to meet up before we actually spend almost a week together in a tent, in a field, in Shepton Mallet.

Today is a special day because for Ruth and my Dad, its their birthday! So Happy Birthday to them! Just under a week to go until Tom's birthday too and Sarah and I have managed to coordinate our efforts slightly, so it'll be a nice suprise for him and his living room when he opens them!

In other news we've been preparing for the tombola season to get under way for the RBL. I bought about 40 odd prizes from Argos last week and that cost less than £30 - we were short of them and since I can't give of my time, I decided to get some prizes for them. It also helps Argos to clear out some old stock and have a decent number of units going out > universal :-)

So I'm content for the time being to say the very least. It'll be between me and the new person to see who is kept on over the quieter, winter season but there is a long time to go between then and now and I intend to enjoy working and earning this summer.

All that remains for me to say is thank you for reading my blog, for caring about my new job, for listening to my rants about work and for generally being lovely friends.
:-D

New places and unfamiliar faces

I need to record all of the events that have happened this week as its very significant for my life.

13/04/11

This was the last day of my placement. Sad times. We finished all of the hand over operations and I stayed until home time to say goodbye to everyone. My replacement will have started now, so I wonder how he's doing??
My 11.5 weeks there were really special to me and has made me able to do the job I am doing today. Without realising it, I had fallen in to a lil bit of a rut, almost being content to be unemployed.
Whilst I was on my placement though I got a real sense of job pride and of the significance of being able to serve others by doing seemingly small things. I only hope I was able to be an encouragement to them in some way too.

Now, I am glad to share the news...I have a new job!! as of 14/04/11

So I now officially work for Park Holidays at Beauport Holiday Park on The Ridge, St Leonards on Sea! I'm doing three full days a week there and my basic role is to welcome all the holiday makers and provide them with all the details they need to start their holiday smoothly. Additionally, I provide the usual admin support around the office. This involves using the park's online booking system and liasing with others around the park to solve problems.

You can see the place where I work here: http://www.parkholidaysuk.com/uk-holiday-parks-caravan-holidays-breaks/east-sussex/beauport

Today was only my second day, so everything is still strange and new for me, but everyone is extremely nice, so I feel it should all begin to slot in nicely in a few weeks time. I mean it took me 3 months to really settle in to my placement and to feel like I belonged there and to realise I would miss it. Of course when you consider how long I've been at Argos too, its no wonder this feels like a big change!!

My "office" is half of a static caravan (shared with the sales team) and I also get to drive a golf buggy around the site, which is scary/dangerous/fun/crazy all at once!!

I shall report more on this exciting new development as and when I get taught new stuff and find out more - or indeed make a big mistake that causes mass-meltdown!

Thanks to all of you lovely people who have sent me congratulations and asked me how its all going. Your support, as ever, is soooo awesome and I love you all :-)