Remembering Jesus.

In our Christmas assembly we have been encouraging the children to think about why we celebrate Christmas, and that there is more excitement than food, decorations and presents. In one assembly someone randomly commented that when you are having your Christmas dinner the turkey may well be about the same size as a baby and so that can help us remember Jesus being born. We very much had to fight the laughter to be able to carry on.

The only time I take my foot out of my mouth is to put the other one in.

I was talking to some friends. One of them had a book in their hands. On the front it had one of those 'this is the best book ever' kind of quotes. The person who had said that was someone I had never heard of, so I made some kind of 'oh yes of course you know so and so, him, well if he says its good its worth a read' being all sarcastic. It turns out they did know so and so, one of them used to work with him. Doh!

Sparked partly by Gareth's blog and partly by cell group

Our vicar was talking about the old Pullman trilogy at cell group last night. He had had an email from a friend waffling about it. It was an interesting discussion as no one there had read any of the books or seen the film! Our general consensus was that we need to have knowledge of them before we can comment on them (despite desperate efforts on the vicars part to get us to comment). But I think that actually there is a good point in all that. There will be a lot of people (mostly Christians) who will be passing comment on the film (and books), who will be saying how awful it is that these things that are not of or for God should be allowed. And saying that we should not engage with them at all. However I think that it is important that we do watch the film/read the books so that we can talk intelligently about them. I know that there will be a lot of talk among children/young people about them. I would rather know what the children I am working with are talking about and be able to join in on their conversations than be ignorant about it.

Chip shop

My local chippie does very lovely chips. Their portions are also huge. Two large portions are almost too much for three adults and three children.

If anyone catches a glimpse of the lesser spotted Paul please can you let him know that I would quite like to speak to him. Thank you.

Tis the season to be blogging

Occurrences of blogging appear to be high both here and over Hayley vs Gareth. Walley is making occasional appearance, but the likely hood of sightings of Brown, Fox and Wale on the decrease.

Yesterday when I got home there was much heavy precipitation. The front of my flat has a little porch type bit. In it were two teenagers doing kissing. I wasn't sure whether best etiquette is to interrupt them, or to just sidle past and open my front door.

Making sweets

Last weekend I decided to have a try at making some sweets. I asked some friends if they wanted to come and help me. We decided to make fudge, honeycomb and coconut ice. We started with fudge. We looked at the recipes and found that we had all the necessary ingredients. This is always a bonus when you are going to make something.

Basically for fudge we had to put all the ingredients in a pan, boil it at a certain temperature and put it in a tin in the fridge. So we put all the ingredients on the pan and put it on the hob. We turned the hob on (if we hadn't turned it on there would've been no heat, and it wouldn't have boiled.) It took ages to come to the boil. When it did come to the boil it decided to boil and boil. Due to the silliness of an electric hob, 3 meant it didn't boil, 4 meant it over boiled, so i had to keep raising it off the hob and putting it back on. It wouldn't quite come up to temperature so we thought maybe it wasn't going to. The next step was to take it off the heat and beat it. We did this. At this point it was meant to turn a lovely fudgy colour. It didn't. We put it in the fridge anyway as thought that might do it some good. It didn't. So I thought well this really isn't fudge. So tried to heat it again. Unfortunately this did no good. It remained a wrong colour, texture and firmness. I now have some semi-fudge sat in a tin in my kitchen that I don't know what to do with. I can't put it down the sink as it's too thick, I can't put it in the bin coz it's too runny. With substances that are too thick for the sink and too runny for the bin I would normally put them down the toilet. But I am worried that the non-fudge may sit at the bottom of the pan and not flush away.

So fudge a disaster, move onto honeycomb. From the recipe looks like there is no way this can go wrong. This is another put the all the ingredients in the pan and heat recipe. So we put them in, and put them on the hob (and turn it on). We have to stir until the sugar dissolves, then not stir until it boils and changes colour. We dutifully do this. Next step, take it off the heat and stir in bicarbonate of soda. This we do. It is meant to bubble up. This does not happen. We put it on the baking sheet anyway, thinking that doing this may do something magical. It doesn't. We end up with some toffee like substance that is not very edible, and that is stuck to the baking parchment.

After this I wash up, as we are running out of cooking equipment and surface space.

Right so coconut ice. We get the required ingredients out. Put the condensed milk in the bowl. Stir in the icing sugar. Add the coconut, This is hard to stir in. Put half of it in the tin. Add some strawberry flavouring (which contains some red colouring.) Put this in tin also. Refrigerate.

While it is in the fridge I phone my father as he had just got back from Spain and was about to go to America (alright for some!) When on the phone the people I am cooking with tidy the kitchen a bit. In the process of tidying they find that instead of using bicarbonate of soda in the honeycomb we had used baking soda. This would explain the failure. We decided to try honeycomb again, this time with a different recipe and the right ingredients. We put the ingredients in the pan, put it on the turned on hob, stirred until the sugar melted, then didn't stir until it reached the required temperature as specified by the new recipe. We then took it off the heat, added vinegar and bicarbonate of soda, it fizzed up a little. We felt good about this. We put it in the tin lined with greased baking parchment. When it cooled, it had turned into honeycomb flavoured toffee. Not at all as it was meant to be, and not exactly tasty.

The coconut ice was nice.

Snow

We had snow yesterday! Real proper snow! It must have started when we were at church yesterday evening for upon departing at the end of the service the ground was enveloped in a thin white blanket and the cold white stuff was descending from the sky! citin if anything! Unfortunately this morning you wouldn't have know it had snowed. But it was fun while it lasted.

Green Wing

It turns out that I missed most of the second season of Green Wing. Thank the Lord for 4od is what I say. It has been quite a joy catching up on what I missed.

Feedback

We had a largish event at the weekend. I had done the planning and preparation for it, and was running the event itself. We are running the same event this weekend and next weekend in different locations. To be able to know what worked and what didn't in order to make any necessary changes for this and next weekend I asked the team what had worked really well and what could be improved. Other than 'the whole thing was good' no-one could come up with any positive things. However there were several areas for improvement. This left me feeling really dejected and wondering why we even bothered. On reflection, the areas for improvement were small, minor tweaks to be made. Having spoken to a couple of people it would appear that when these events have run in the past there has been little good to say and so little good has been said. The people that help have got used to this being the pattern and so struggle to comment on the positive. They have now told me the things that worked well. So now I don't feel quite so dejected. But I would encourage anyone who has to give feedback to anyone about anything to major on the positive. It is really gutting when people pick holes in something you have worked hard on.

Worship

I went to two different churches yesterday. One of them has just got a new projector and so are using it to show song words and liturgy. As it is all new the operator often put the wrong words up at the wrong time, and some of the songs had verses missing etc. One of the bits of liturgy was missing completely. The service leader told us we would all know it anyway. I didn't.

At the other church the worship leader must've wanted to get home quickly. I deduce this as every song was played at an almost unsingable speed. There was more than one occasion where we were asked to think about the words as we sung them. This is not easy when all your concentration has to go into fitting the words in very quickly.

Neither service had a proper sermon. It wasn't missed.

Man and Van 2

Either the stickers have been removed or the super stickered van is in fact a different van. I make this assumption as the van this week is back to its usual small stickers. In other news I remembered to put the bins out this week.

Donny Osmands Father Dies

That was the title of the article. It made me think, well surely the father of all Donny's siblings has died as well. It turns out that yes the father of all of them has died. But the article writer clearly thought it only significant that Donny had lost his father. Why are some people more important than others I wonder.

Last weekend

Last weekend was when I was at Dad's, and the brothers were there too. One exciting thing that happened was that me, brothers and cousin went to watch the mighty Ipswich Town. We used to have season tickets in the rather sedate Britannia Stand. The boys moved this season to the North Stand. This is where people do standing and singing throughout the game. I was a little bit worried about this as the place I have mostly watched football from was the sitting quietly and nicely Britannia. But Gareth, Paul and Steve promised me that it would be ok, that it would be just like watching an away game in standing and noise terms (which I quite enjoy) and that they would look after me. I did actually really enjoy it very much. The Town did winning by three goals to nil, and did some fairly good playing. Our keeper saved a penalty early on in the game. We sang one of my favourite Town songs (Edward Ebeneezer Jeremiah Brown for those of you that are interested). Paul did some amusing shouting (if you are going to hear what it was it will have to be from Gareth or Paul because they write things funnily, unlike my boring recounts). I enjoyed a nice half time pint. The toilets were quite pleasant. Ray gave us some Fruit Pastilles to share. This weekend we play the scum at their place. They are having a shockingly awful season.

After the game I had some lovely soup and dumplings, and then learnt how to make boxes out of old greetings cards.

Horsebox

Right so this weekend I was at my dads. It was a lovely weekend. I popped into holiday club at his church (where I actually spent most of my time playing with my friends 2 year old girl), I saw a college friend and his family, I had fun with some marvellous people such as Zo, Pinder, Kev, Leanne, Mrs Ruth, Gareth, Paul, Steve and Dave, I saw the town win (I might do so more blogging about this some other time), I went to church and was able to chat with a some lovely people. It was a rather lovely weekend.

On my way home I did have the misfortune to meet a rather blind (or maybe just not very good at doing looking) driver. It was on the A14. There had clearly been some big horsey event earlier in the day for there were many horseboxes traveling along the road (most of them the all in one kind of horse boxes, none of this inferior horse box trailer type thing attached to a car). Anyway one of them decided that pulling out into my lane while I was driving past them was a good idea. At first I thought he was just drifting slightly over the line. Then I realised that he was actually coming into my lane. Then I was aware that I had gone over the white line, over the cats eyes, and was in fact as close to the crash barrier as I would ever like to be thank you very much. For some reason I put my indicator on. I don't know why I didn't flash my lights or beep my horn, in my moment of panic my brain thought that indicating would be the best way to get the drivers attention. Thankfully the driver did realise just in time that i was there, and pulled back into his lane. It was all slightly hair raising!

When I got home I ate two crumpets, one with just butter, the other with butter and golden syrup.

Man and Van

The man who lives in the flat below me has a van. It is a white van that is used for work purposes. It is quite large, and parked outside my window when the man is not at work (or using it for social purposes). Until last week it had one sticker on each side with the name of the company he works for. This week it has stickers all over it, stating what the company does, phone number, website address (which doesn't exist btw), etc. This is just something that I have observed this week.

Things I have had trouble with since moving.

My ironing board
Virgin mobile
Storage heaters
Drying clothes
Buying the right amount of food
npower
Spiders.

4 of the above have been resolved.

I have just joined amazons rental thingy. I am a bit clueless about films. What would you recommend I watch? Bearing in mind that I don't like much swearing or fighting. I always find myself leaning towards chic flicks, but want to expand my film watching experience. So, suggestions please.......

Hot and Cold

I wake up and am really warm in my bed. I get out of bed and am cold. I have a shower, parts of me under the water are warm, parts of me not under the water are cold. I get out of the shower and wrap big fluffy towel around me, I am warm. I have to remove towel to get dressed, I am cold. I get dressed, I am warm. I set out to work, it is cold outside therefore I am cold. During the walk to work I get quite warm. I get into the office. I am warm when I get in after the walk in. The office is a very cold place, before long I am cold. If my internal thermometer worked properly I feel this would not all be so much of a problem.

my face

I have some strange swelling going on just below and in front of my left. It is painful when I touch it or when I chew. Any ideas what it could be?

Sellotape and String

Last night I was commissioned for my new role. We sung a song. I had to make some promises, the people there promised to support me, and we said a prayer. Then the ministers from the supporting churches came and said nice things to me, and gave me good advice and useful pieces of scripture. Then people did praying for me and the volunteer team and the work. And then people did the whole laying on of hands things. This was OK because there was no one with really sweaty hands, and no one who shook me as they prayed. Then we sang a song. I couldn't really sing it properly. That was because the song was Come on and Celebrate. We used to replace 'celebrate' in this song with 'sellotape' and 'sing' with 'string'. The day before I had been talking to someone about this. That person was there and we caught each others eye as the words went up on the screen. This made me want to do a giggle, and then I couldn't sing the song properly.

The songs that were chosen were chosen in a very interesting way. We sang the songs that the guitarist could play, and that the words were on OHT for. Strangely enough the songs were still kinda fitting.

On Sunday I will go to another new church. I'm not finding this nearly as daunting or hard as I thought I would. I am finding not pubbing afterward an evening service a bit tricky though coz I miss the good company that can be found there (not that all of it is good you understand, just a select few.)

A visitor

On Monday I was going to be a good girl and get up early and get on with things. So I got up at 8 (that is early if you live in my world) and went to the bathroom so I could have a shower. In my bath (which the shower is over) was the biggest spider I have ever seen outside of a zoo. It had crawled up the side and was nearly at the cold tap. I am really not a spiders biggest fan. I stood and watched it for a little while and it didn't move, but I could tell from how high it was that it could easily get out of the bath if it wanted to. Having watched it for some time to check it wasn't going to make a quick escape anytime soon I went to find out what I might have that I could use to ensure that I no longer had the biggest spider I have seen outside a zoo in my bath. I found a can of wasp and fly spray. 'Wasps, flies, spiders, they're all basically the same thing,' I thought. So I sprayed a little bit on said spider. It made it crawl a bit, but had no difference. I sprayed a bit more. The force of the spray knocked it down into the bath, but other than that made no difference. The biggest spider I have ever seen outside of a zoo started to climb back up the side of the bath. 'Not so good,' thinks I. So I spray it again, this time a bit of a longer spray. This knocks it into the bath and makes it a little harder to move its legs. So I give it a really good long spray. Spider is now near the plug hole, and struggling to move quite a bit. But after a minute or so it is crawling slightly again. So another big long spray. Spider can still move its two longest legs, but nothing else. So I go and watch some Friends on the telebox, checking on it every so often. Before long it appears to be moving no longer. I watch some more Friends. So now I have an apparently dead extremely large spider covered in fly spray next to the plug hole of my bath (with a shower over it). 'What to do?' I wonder, this thing cannot remain in my bath. I cannot be certain it is dead. I cannot go near for though it appears to be dead, it remains a spider and a rather large one at that. So I boil the kettle and wash it away with that. My thinking being if it was not dead hopefully that will finish it off, and by pouring a large amount of water it will hopefully wash it down the plughole. This it did. I then boiled another kettle and sent it down the plug hole just to be sure. From that moment on the plug has remained in the bath plug (apart from when I need to drain the bath) to ensure that no more spiders come up it.

Miss Map

I have found a young person who appears to have internally digested a map. She can tell me exactly how to get to wherever I want to go. Both the easy 'your thick and this is easy but a bit long' route and the 'if you can handle it this is the slightly more complicated but but it is shorter' route. She has marked off the local churches and supermarkets on my paper road map. Has told me how to get to cinema, bowling place, library, great Chinese takeaway, great Indian takeaway, swimming pool, sports centre, everything! Today she was my satnav to get me to Dunelm to do exciting blind and bin buying. She was just like a satnav (and I don't even think she'dve got cross with me if I'd gone wrong like Nora does). I am in awe of her supreme knowledge of roads!

Right OK then

It appears to have been a little while since I last blogged. That is mostly because I have been in Wales with some children and have been doing moving. Wales with children was lots and lots of fun. Although I chickened out of the big ride at the theme park we went to. I did however never chicken out of doing swimming in the sea. Moving has been great. Dad hired a big van with a tail lift, that was very exciting. We even went to Ikea in it. I am now trying to find homes for all of my things in my flat. I keep on thinking I am doing well, and then I find another box with things that I shoved in because I didn't know where they should live. They will all find homes eventually I am sure. My bed, bedside table, sofa bed and drying rack that came from the Swedish people are all rather good. The bed is very comfy, the bed side table very useful (it even has a shelf!), the sofa bed rather fab (it has movable arms, so you can have arms anywhere along the sofa), and the drying rack is brilliant (does folding out in various combinations to give you different amounts of drying space!)

Today I found my way to Tesco's (to take my card for recycling) and to B&Q (for a bath mat, multi plug thingy and some storage boxes). My hallway is full of mostly useful things, most of which I can reach. My bedroom is pretty sorted (I even have two draws dedicated to stationery items). The living room is slowly getting there, but that is taking time. The kitchen needs a freezer and a tidy up, but is fairly sorted. The bathroom is sorted. I've not put out any nick naks or photos or such like yet, I thought they could wait until more things had homes, and then I would know what space in which to put such things. This is incredibly dull and full of parenthesis, i do apologise. I shall try and do something interesting this week, and then maybe my next post will be interesting.

Things I could have blogged about but haven't

- getting ready to move
- new job
- new flat
- doing painting
- finding good deals
- changing address with companies and such like
- return of Gareth/Hayley blogging (although only been Gareth blogging so far)
- tour of Ipswich on the get wet bus
- start of the football season (tomorrow I tell you, TOMORROW!)
- doing my last Sunday School in Ipswich
- getting lots of 2for1 vouchers for Alton Towers
- going on a children's camp next week
- eating tasty rolls and soup
- buying an iron
- Amy's birthday meal
- Kev's beard
- Crug's hair cut

Sunburn

On Tuesday I went to Southwold. It was a very sunny day, but also was quite windy. I didn't put any suncream on my face, coz my moisturiser has sun protection in it. About 2 o'clock in the afternoon I thought, oo I should put some suncream on. So I put some on my arms (all the way to the top), and my friend put some on the back of my neck. I was wearing a rather large circular necklace. I now have a fair bit of red just below my neck. And a larger white circle in the middle of it. I am finding this very amusing (which is good, because otherwise I think I would find it very sore!) Right now off to the kitchen to make it look all spick and span.

Well

Thank you to people who did replying/blogging, it was lovely having something to read.

I have been on holiday for the last week. That would be the reason I have not blogged for some number of days. We went to North Norfolk (Armstrong's know how to live!) The weather was varied (I'm British, I have to talk about the weather.) We went to a sea life centre. The otters being fed and the penguins being fed and the baby crabs and rays were the best bits of that. We went on a boat and saw some seals. The boat and the seals were the best bits of that. We saw Ben and Leanne for a bit as they happened to be on holiday in the same area. The Ben and the Leanne were the best bits of that. Dad had his birthday. The birthday meal was the best bit of that. We went to a beach (three times!) Watching the sunset was the best bit of that. Me and Paul took a jaunt to a local town. The chips we ate that no one else knows about was the best bit of that. I read lots and lots of books, and made some cards, and won at monopoly. Reading and making crafts and winning were the best bits of that. I had some Waggle Dance and Bishop's Finger and Ruddles Rhubarb. The Waggle Dance was the best bit of that.

The next few weeks are going to be busy. I will tell you about them as they happen. (notice I say 'you' in that last sentence, that is so that whoever is reading thinks that this is written just for them to read, and therefore feel it brings them that bit more warmth and joy.)

Smiles

So I am thinking I need something to make me do a smile. I know what I think, I will read my friends blogs, then I will smile.

Leanne - not blogged for ages.
Mark - don't understand the jokes (this may be because they are not funny, or because they are not intended as jokes they are just stories or suchlike, and I just don't understand Mark.)
Phil - not done blogging for like over a week. Maybe he is not feeling well. It is not always a funny blog, but it is usually blogged on more.
Kev - not blogged for so long he maybe doesn't exist anymore (because of course if you do not exist on a blog you do not exist IRL.)
Neil - not blogged in like a month. And there I was thinking now he has done all his work maybe he will be funny now. Apparently no.
Paul - blogged a song that I have heard him sing and go on about so much it is not so fun as a blog.
Gareth - blog does not exist.
Hayley - blog does not exist (not that is makes much difference, it's not like she blogged).

So really I am thinking, still no smiling to be done.

Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Adrian
Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Jill
Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Ann
Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birth day dear Mrs Basset
Happy Birthday to you.

It would seem today is a good day for birthdays!

Apparently this is fun

Type in your name followed by needs, and blog the first ten answers that come up.

Ruth needs hugs.

Ruth needs a husband

Ruth needs to be cleaned

Ruth needs to seek a different profession because she just doesn't have that hunger anymore

Ruth needs money

Ruth needs a short course in label-reading

Ruth needs help with typing, filing, answering phones, copying, and other administrative tasks

Ruth needs money

Ruth needs to photograph things or use her own "clip art" collection

Ruth needs to meet with Chris to go over the songs before Chris and Charlie go into the studio


Righto, well I'm glad we've cleared that up and now we all know what Ruth needs. Wasn't that fun.

I passed!!

I passed my course! With merit! Got much more for my dissertation than I thought I would. It's graduation next weekend, I am looking forward to that very much. It will be lovely to see college friends again.

I went to a wedding yesterday. The wedding was very lovely indeed. Afterwards it did some raining. The church was 15 minutes away from the car park. I got rather soaked through. I found it amusing. Some other wet people didn't seem to be amused by being wet. We had high tea. I've never had that before. It could also have been called small tea.

Limbo

Life feels a bit limbo like at the mo. People are starting to take over bits of my job. I don't have a new job to go to. I want to be packing and such like but until I have a new job I have no reason to pack. I am trying to make sure friendships with people I want to keep in contact with when I am not so in Ipswich are deep enough to keep going when I am not here. I am trying not to act like there are friendships I'm not that bothered about so people don't think I'm being rude. I am hoping that this week I will find out if I have interviews for a couple of jobs I have applied for. I also need to fill in a couple more application forms I have. I have already started missing some things and people, even though I am still here, and still seeing them. I think it is the knowing that I will miss them that makes me already miss them.

I get my final college results tomorrow, the ones that say if I have passed the course or not. I am hoping that it will not be or not.

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow.

Yesterday I went for a run. I am meant to be practising running to be ready to do the Race for Life. Yesterdays run was bad. I just don't do running, my mind doesn't do it, my body doesn't do it, so it has been hard work the whole way through, however I did think I was getting somewhere. My current run is nearly 2 miles, I have to run a bit walk a bit coz I'm not fit enough to run lots. So anyway yesterdays run, my legs felt like lead and didn't want to pick up from the ground, I felt like I was running uphill the whole time despite the whole run being flat, and then I nearly hyper-ventilate. This does sometimes happen when I run, I blame it all on a very bad running experience when I was in year 8. So yes, I feel wholly unconfident about doing the whole Race for Life. I have to be able to run some of it coz walking three miles is a doddle so I can't ask people to sponsor me if I don't run it. Bleurgh.

Today I am getting ready for Sizewell at the weekend, and for youth group tonight. I love youth group, but it has been 6 months since I last led it (coz I've had too much of other work). These leaves me feeling a little bit trepidacious - only a little bit mind.

Tomorrow I get the day with Paul - woohoo!!!! nuf sed.

I don't like half-term. I need routine.

The Wiggles on This Morning. Bonus.

My head has turned into part of a game show.

I don't know why but just recently in my head, when I am waiting for something to happen I find myself thinking 'come on down' - said in a real cheesy happy game show way. (I think this phrase is from The Price is Right.) It happens a bit like this, need heat in the car, turn it on, while waiting for it to get hot my head is thinking, 'hot air, come on down!' Waiting for the toast to pop up my head thinks, 'toast, come on down!' Waiting for traffic lights to turn green my head thinks, 'green light, come on down!' I think you get the idea. At first it amused me, it is getting slightly annoying now.

Woohoo!

Today and tomorrow I am spending lots of time sorting stuff out at church, and throwing useless stuff away. This is one of my favourite things to do. I love de-cluttering. Woohoo!!!!

Baby Got Back - Gilbert and Sullivan Style

Some salted nuts, sir?

DaSteve says:
did u see euro?
DaSteve says:
of the vision varity
moose says:
yes i saw most of it. I am quite upset by it
DaSteve says:
why? cos we got not many points?
moose says:
yes, and we werent that bad, and the winning one was awful
moose says:
i think i might write to tony bliar
DaSteve says:
really?!!
moose says:
yes it is all his fault for going to war with iraq
DaSteve says:
do you really think? or are you just messing about?!!
DaSteve says:
I think it's just all the old east europe countries that now split just voting for each other
moose says:
no i am very serious. I think the splitting countries thing doesnt help either
DaSteve says:
not sure eurovision is a reason for not making bad waring it up decisions
moose says:
oh yes i think it is. It is all to do with moral of the country and having other people like us
DaSteve says:
other european countries like each other more than us anyway though!! Although most of the europeans I met in their own coutry seem to like uk-ers
moose says:
well that is good to know, I was getting a bit worried that most of europe (malta excluded) did not like us, and that was making me a bit sad
DaSteve says:
no they do like us, just like each other more!
moose says:
well that is a slight relief.
DaSteve says:
like do you prefer welsh or scotish people to french or greeks?
moose says:
yes!
DaSteve says:
exactly!
DaSteve says:
i think being at one side of europe, on a seperate island doesn't help either
DaSteve says:
also we are the best in europe!
moose says:
no it probably doesnt
moose says:
yes indeed!
moose says:
for next year we need to split the UK down, Clare D suggested England, Scotland, Northern Island, Wales, Isle of white, Isle of Man, Isle of Dogs, Gurnsey, Jursey and Clacton
moose says:
then we can all vote for each other!
DaSteve says:
even smaller!

London

I went to London yesterday with Zoe coz it was her birthday. We met up with Mark Walley for lunch, and went to a pub that did pies. They were rather fantastic pies, I think it must pay to specialise in one area of food. Over lunch Mark told us how he had persuaded Alice to go out with him on a first date, and then how he had to persuade her to be his girlfriend. It amused me!

We also went to the Tate Modern. There is some bizarre stuff in there. I want to know how you become an artist and get your work on display and be paid lots of money for it, I could easily have done some of the stuff in there. There was one that was 11 larger sheets of glass all stood in front of each other. Another that was a large canvas painted grey, the same shade all over. Another was a urinal, signed by the artist using a different name. Actually it was an exact replica of a urinal coz the real piece was in another art gallery, and so the artist had commissioned someone to replicate it. They could just have gone to B & Q and bought a new one really. There was also some very lovely stuff in there that was rather lovely to see!

My weekend

I had a lovely weekend. I got to catch up with all people I hadn't seen since before Christmas. I spent some lovely time with my friends children. They are the closest thing I have to having my own children, and so it is always lovely to see them and get to play games with them, read to them, play silly word games with them, watch TV with them, get them their tea, laugh with them, get them ready in the morning, tell them off, have them come in to say hi to me in the morning, wake up to hear them playing etc. Very very lovely.

I also got to catch up with a couple that became Christians just over four years ago. I was fairly involved with their journey to faith, and so whenever I catch up with them we always have quite in depth chats. God is doing some amazing stuff in their lives. It is always great to have them ask questions about the Bible and such like. They are also very caring. After speaking to them I always come away knowing God better, and having a greater understanding of how he works, his care for his people and his love for us. I really needed that this weekend.

I also went to a big 40th birthday party. It was a fun party, good to catch up with people, make some new friends, and have a little dance. I did find it quite strange though. There were lots and lots of couples there. And I really really noticed my singleness. There was an amount of pain in that. one day eh, one day.

You never know if you are really lucky, maybe one day Paul will blog. Or Gareth. Or Hayley. Or Kev. OK so pigs might fly.

just to let you know

- I have finished my dissertation. Just waiting for last proof reader to proof read, and then printing commences. By the end of the day it will all be done.

- I am going to enjoy a lovely weekend away seeing some friends I've not seen since before Christmas.

- I dyed my hair last night, just a temporary dye, so if you do not see me soon you will notice no difference.

- The BBC are probably not going to be showing neighbours anymore. Boooooooo to the BBC.

- I am doing the race for life. This involves doing running. Ruth doesn't do running. Please sponsor me. This is my race for life sponsorship page.

well

I have been layered, feathered, thinned and trimmed, and even those who knew it was happening haven't noticed any difference! I am hoping now that the curly mop will look good straight as I have an exciting party to go to next Saturday, and I like to wear my party hair to a party!!

Also I have written 3,000 words. Just another 6,000 to go and three days to do it in. I'm wondering if I should feel more stressed/worried than I do.

Hair

Today I am having my haircut. It is some time since I last had it cut, and the last time it was cut Paul did it for me so that I did not have to give non-existent money to a hairdresser. Today I have some existent money so I am going to the hairdresser. I will have to explain to them that it was last cut by my brother, and that is why it does not look like it has been cut by a hairdresser for some time (it is in fact 6 months since a hairdresser has been near my hair). My hairdresser would notice this. A normal human eye would not. I like having my hair cut.

Horace Bushnell

When talking about children taking communion said:

'What is the use of a fold, if the lambs are to be kept outside till it is seen whether they can stand the weather'

Happy Happy Paul

Happy Birthday.

Happy St. Georges Day.

Paul blog more.

This morning

I woke up with pins and needles in my left foot. They faded after about half an hour. Now they are back again.

While I was away after Easter the idiom 'the birds and the bees' struck me as being an odd one. Why do we use it? It really doesn't make sense.

Paul and Steve are coming home for the weekend. That will be wonderful and delightful. Grandma is staying for the weekend. On Sunday Town play Norwich. On Monday it is Steve's birthday.

If I do not post much/am not around much/appear tired, distracted or grumpy - it is because I have a huge deadline looming. However when this deadline comes, my course is finished. Whoop!

Breakfast

Sometimes I go through phases when i try to eat less bread. All I ever used to eat for breakfast was toast, because I don't really like cereal other than cornflakes. Just after Christmas I worked out I really needed to lose a bit of weight. So I decided to cut down on the amount of bread I ate, and to try to not snack so much. This meant I had to work out what to have for breakfast that wasn't toast, and wasn't cereal. So I started to have porridge. I don't like porridge either, but after a few weeks I began to be able to tolerate it. I found that having porridge for breakfast meant I snacked less, coz it filled me up more. Since then I have also found out that I actually like mini wheat's, mini wheat's with raisins in and bran flakes. So sometimes I now have cereal. And very occasionally I have a hot cross bun (although my love for hot cross buns does mean that 'a' can also read 'several').

This is me at the moment.

Hold me close and go away
Please visit me and please don't stay
Talk to me but please don't speak
I need you NOW - come back next week.

Emotions muddled, needs unknown
To be with others or on my own?
To scream out loud? To rant and shout?
Or hide away and push you out?

I smile at you - 'She's not that bad'
I shout at you - 'She's going mad'
I speak to you - 'What do I say?'
I show my tears - 'Quick walk away'

It's not catching, the grief I feel
I can't pretend that it's not real
I carry on as best I know
But this pain inside just won't go.

So true friends, please, accept the lot
I shout, I cry, I lose the plot
I don't know what I need today
So hold me close and go away.

Hello

We are now back. I am tired. I shall post more properly over the weekend. Hello.

Busy

Well yes, I haven't blogged since Monday. But then again I assume from people commenting that it must be only Leanne that is reading the blog anyway, and I have communicated with her in one way or another, or seen her, everyday since Monday, so I don't suppose my lack of blog matters much really.

This week I have been very busy. Apart from Wednesday afternoon, when I had a sleep because I had a headache so bad I couldn't see straight. So I suppose that does actually mean I was busy, but just a different kind of busy.

On tomorrow me and Paul and Kev and Gareth are going to Spring Harvest. There is a chance that I will be very tired, a bit worn out, and maybe quite grumpy. I say this now so that the boys have a chance to remember to be ever so nice to Ruth so that greater grumpiness does not ensue.

That is all.

I'll see you when we get there.

Tonight has been my hardest night of lent. I have given up watching soaps (and day time TV) for the period of lent. On a normal Monday evening when I am having a night in (doesn't seem to happen much at the mo) I would watch Neighbours, get tea ready, watch Hollyoaks followed by Emmerdale, followed by Corrie, followed by Eastenders, then back over to channel 3 for second Corrie of the evening. This would take me from half five through to 9. And would be generally fairly enjoyable. However this evening I can't do this. Paul kindly unplugged my TV and turned it to face the wall so that if I started to get tempted to turn it on I would think twice, and I'm glad he has. I can't go downstairs at the mo in case I get a bit tempted to turn the TV on. I know some of you will be thinking 'but there are other things on the TV', well yes there are, but this evening they are rubbish, so if I turn the TV on to watch them I will undoubtedly end up flicking over to a soap. It is strange, until now I've not really missed watching them, and yet I could waste hours watching them! So now I am working out what else to do with my evening. I have done unloading and reloading the dishwasher. I have done emailing some people saying gissa job. I have done tipping water all over Gareth. I have nearly done blogging. I need to do putting clean washing away and putting dirty washing on. I might do exercise biking (although my legs do ache a bit at the mo). I think I might write to a friend, it will be a bit novel to put pen to paper. I want to try and read more of the book I currently reading coz it's at a really interesting part now. Oh and I am currently doing listening to Humphery Littleton and weird jazz at the moment. It is strange though, having said how I miss soaps this evening, I am thinking of giving them up for longer. I think this is because generally I haven't missed them that much, and I know how much time I waste watching them. Ho Hum.

Shopping

Today I went shopping with Paul in town and bought some lovely things. Paul is about the best person to go shopping with because he helped me make lots of decisions and was quite patient. Although I would like to point out that Gareth is actually very good when it comes to making clothes choices, in fact maybe the best. That is all.

Gissa a job? Yes? Yes!

On my way to work

This morning on my way to work I saw
- a car moving on its own down a driveway towards Colchester Road. There were two men trying to stop it. One was trying to find something to grip onto on the back of the car - like that was going to do anything. The other was quite sensibly trying to open the drivers door so he could use the appropriate controls inside the car to stop it.
- A man in an electric buggy doing a three point turn.
- A police car pull over so that a flashy light ambulance could overtake it.
- A man running very fast. He looked like he was planning on running quite some way. If he kept running that fast for some way I would be very impressed.

Then I got to work, and nothing interesting has happened.

I would just like to clarify

My cousins child is my first cousin once removed. My parents cousins children are my second cousins. I just wanted to clarify this and point out that I was right.

Team Armstrong

This is no longer Ruth's blog.

This is now the offical Team Armstrong blog.

Deal with it.

Paul

Paul is home now. Hooray!! He should be here for a whole four weeks. This is a very exciting thing.

If you get the chance try and tune in to BBC2 on Thursday at 7pm to watch My Life as a Child. They have given children video cameras, and they film bits of their lives and keep a kind of video diary. Very worth a watch.

Saw Kev in Tesco's today. Was so excited I forgot to not speak to him.

Kev has failed

Kev has not blogged enough this week. He will have a quiet ten years. What a good job Jesus loves him.

I spent most of today at CYM on a training thing. It was very good and I had lots of fun - mostly thanks to Gareth and Phil. Oh and they helped me with the long words I didn't understand. Hurrah for Phil and Gareth!

Paul comes home tomorrow. This is a very good thing. I have not seen him for quite some time now, and I miss him lots. Steve will also be home over the weekend, and we are all going to the Wards for dinner on Sunday. That will be very lovely.

Owls

Why did the Owl not go courting in the rain?

Because it was too wet to woo.

Last night

Yesterday in the evening something very funny happened. It was funny enough to make me smile about it still now. The thing is it happened at children's club, and so involved children. This means I won't post it on here. Instead I will leave some space, and you can think of something funny yourself and laugh at that.










Boy, how we laughed!

Also last night I learnt how to make gift bags, you know like those ones you buy in shops and put gifts in to give people. Only now I don't need to buy them anymore (they really are quite expensive you know), I can just make them. I love learning new things.

Less like scars - Sara Groves and Nate Sabin

It's been a hard year but I'm climbing out of the rubble. These lessons are hard healing changes are subtle. But every day it's less like tearing more like building, less like captive more like willing, less like breakdown more like surrender, less like haunting more like remember. And I feel you are here, and you're picking up the pieces. Forever faithful. It seemed out of my hands, a bad situation. But you are able. And in your hands the pain and hurt look less like scars and more like character, less like prison ore like my room, less like a casket more like a womb, less like dying more like transcending, less like fear, less like an ending. And I feel you are here, and you're picking up the pieces. Forever faithful. It seemed out of my hands, a bad situation. But you are able. And in your hands the pain and hurt look less like scars. Just a little while ago I couldn't feel the power or the hope. I couldn't cope, I couldn't feel a thing. Just a little while back I was desperate, broken, laid out, hoping you would come. And I need you and I want you here and I feel you. And I know you are here and you're picking up the pieces. Forever faithful. It seemed out of my hands, a bad bad situation. But you are able and in your hands the pain and hurt look less like scars and in your hands the pain and the hurt look less like scars and in your hands the pain and hurt look less like scars and more like character.

This week I am

- Preparing for some things.
- Having some meetings.
- Eagerly awaiting the return of my wonderful brother for his Easter holiday.
- Over cooking cakes.
- Playing games.
- Not speaking to Kev for 10 years if he does not blog at least 5 times this week.
- Sorting out rotas and other such fun stuff.
- Getting excited about Spring Harvest.
- Doing praying - especially for friends who are needing it at the moment.
- Wondering if meeting a real pirate would be exciting or actually scary.
- Thinking about doing tidying so I can remember what colour the carpet is.
- Being crafty.
- Teaching children about Jesus.
- Looking for a job.
- Having hayfever.