Welcome 2014!

Happy New Year everyone! I am sitting at home whilst the wind howls outside and the rain lashes against the windows. That has been our weather for the Christmas season. Dark and dismal. Thankfully it has not been a dark and dismal time.

First of all, I would like to apologise for my total lack of blogging over the last three months. I've had plenty to say but very little energy to say it. That, and sitting in front of the computer when you are constantly nauseous isn't as easy as you would think. However, I am not complaining, because it's all worth it.

I am pregnant again. Our baby is due in early June. The dating scan in November was definitely my highlight of 2013, to see our little baby wriggling around and waving away. To know that our baby was doing well and growing strong. We have since heard the heartbeat and for the past couple of weeks I have felt fleeting and exciting movements in my belly. We are so thankful to God for this amazing gift, and we pray each day that our baby will continue to grow strong and healthy.

2013 was not the greatest year. With the miscarriage, my husband's job rejections, and ongoing and ever increasing problems in our house, as well as difficulties being experienced by friends and family, it's been pretty difficult. I haven't always remained positive throughout it all but I never lost hope, and if nothing else 2013 has certainly been a year of hope.

There were highlights too, such as my brother-in-law's wedding in March, our holiday to Rome in June, my husband's graduation in July, becoming godparents in September, and me being awarded a permanent contract at work in November. There has always been really good stuff happening despite the bad, and sometimes it was easy to forget during the grief and the stress and the frustration. Even without those bigger things, there have always been family and friends, church, and projects to keep us occupied, involved, excited, and hopeful.

2014 is set to be an interesting year indeed. It will certainly be exciting, it will also be scary, and there is a lot that is unknown. We need to move house, my husband is still considering his career options in the field of scientific research, and above all we know a baby will change our lives forever. But is good and I remain hopeful. I have to acknowledge that I do worry and I do get scared, but I trust God and His goodness. Even when I don't feel like trusting Him any more because it hurts too much, that faith never dies, that flame never goes out. And that is why I look to 2014 with hope. Because of Him.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and I hope to blog more frequently again!

Some 2013 Highlights - the Colosseum, zebras at Port Lympne Wildlife Park, wigs in the pub on my birthday,
snowdrops at Strumpshaw Fen, fire buckets at the Bluebell Railway, flowers in the local park gardens,
snow at Lewes Casle, Dover Castle, 80s party!

Farewell 2012!

The wind is howling, the rain is pouring, and I've got a masquerade ball themed wedding reception to get ready for. So that must mean it's time to wrap up 2012 on my blog! Initially I didn't think I had anything to say, but on reflection a lot has happened in the past twelve months:

2012 was a good year for:

Babies - Seven babies have been born this year to friends, six girls and one boy. Some of the births were tough, others more straightforward, but thankfully each baby is thriving. I have met four of these babies and they are such treasures, each with their own beautiful personality. I have a very special soft spot for my best friend's daughter, who was born in June, and who I finally got to meet at the beginning of December. We don't live close, which I find difficult as I want to be there to help and support my friend whenever I can, especially now that she has a child. The weekend I spent with them was just wonderful. I definitely have a new friend in her gorgeous little girl, who in less than an hour was crawling from her mummy onto my lap and giggling and smiling at me.

Sport - The Olympics and the Paralympics 2012! These two events were fantastic, and it is true that they inspired (most of) the nation. Initially my husband and I had no interest, even ignoring the revered torch's passage through our own hometown. But it was impossible not to become caught up in Olympic fever, particularly as Team GB began to win an ever impressive haul of medals. We found ourselves scouring the website for tickets and ended up going to see the Men's Freestyle Wrestling at the ExCel Centre in London.
We found ourselves back there again in September for the Paralympics to watch the Women's Sitting Volleyball medal matches! Both were a great experience. We didn't get to cheer on Team GB at either event, but the atmosphere was such that you could root for anyone.
Memories have definitely been made. From being caught up in the euphoria at Hyde Park as Mo Farah won his second gold 2012, in the Men's 5000m, to sitting on the edge of my chair in the work tea room as my colleagues and I watched the Brownlee brothers achieve gold and bronze in the Men's Triathlon, to sitting at home catching up on the Gymnastics on iPlayer, and cheering Beth Tweddle on for winning bronze in the Women's Uneven Bars, to watching in awe the outstanding achievements of the Paralympians.
Will I feel the same about Rio 2016? I hope so, and seeing as Brazil has a piece of my heart, I think that I will definitely want to engage in the Games again.

But it's not just been the Olympics and Paralympics that we've enjoyed in the sporting world. My husband has taken up running more seriously than ever, and he ran in his first ever half-marathon in November. We both joined the gym in September, and are both enjoying our improved fitness. I have developed a special fondness for the rowing machine, but I am not convinced that I will be the next Helen Glover or Heather Stanning, as much as I admire them!

Photography - My photography has only marginally improved, despite having complete ownership of one the cameras now. My husband has both the patience and the technical understanding to have mastered the art much better than I. His wildlife photos are brilliant, and he captured the fireworks on Bonfire Night beautifully. He's become so good that he was commissioned to take the official photos for our friends' wedding in Switzerland, and the results are fantastic. He's definitely got a gift there, to add to his long list of other talents!

Travel - Our holiday to Paris and Amsterdam in October was a brilliant break for us both. We had a great time, learnt a lot, and ate lots of different foods. I found using public transport in another country to be less scary than I thought it would be, and my husband found the same to be true of attempting to speak another language. We then went on a day-trip to Switzerland for our friends' wedding in December - crazy but totally worth it! We haven't gone far or wide, but three countries in one year isn't bad!

Academia - Both of my brothers had their graduation ceremonies this year. Brother 1 graduated with a Distinction in MSc Environmental Management with GIS in February, and Brother 2 graduated with a First in BA (Hons) Creative Writing with English Literature in October. I was lucky enough to be present at both ceremonies, and really enjoyed celebrating with my family. My husband completed his MSc in Clinical Biochemistry in June, and finally received his breakdown of results in November, achieving a very well earned Merit overall. His graduation ceremony will probably be in the summer next year, when we will undoubtedly celebrate in style.


2012 was a bad year for:

Weather - 2012 has now been declared the wettest year on record in England, and I definitely believe it! Much of the country has had bad floods, some places through the summer, but many more this winter. The rain and wind have been prevalent through so much of the year, and in 2012 Blighty has lived up to its rainy reputation more than ever.

Garden - Of course, the aforementioned bad weather has had a negative impact on the garden. Every food item we've tried to grow has failed, except for our strawberries, which grew surprisingly well. It was also a bad year for orchards, and my parents' pear trees yielded hardly any fruit so there was no perry brewing for us this year. The only plant that has done well, apart from wretched weeds, is the dark pink cyclamen that we thought we had killed last year. It's a little speck of brightly coloured joy in our otherwise grey and gloomy (and weedy) garden.

Colds - I mean, seriously, three in the space of two months? Not to mention the rest throughout the year. Come on immune system, buck up!

From left column to right - windmill in Amsterdam, USA vs China Women's Sitting Volleyball , Christmas gingerbread cookies for family and friends, fireworks at Newick Bonfire Night, Humboldt penguin at Drusilla's Zoo, Poppy Half Marathon at Bexhill-on-Sea, our exciting badges for our tour of Dover Castle's secret nuclear war tunnel network, birdwatching in late May, flower in the park on our 2nd wedding anniversary.

What will 2013 hold?

Weddings - My brother-in-law is getting married in March, and my husband will be his best man. It will be very much a family affair with quite a small number of guests. The bride gave me sneak-peek at the dress, and the reception venue looks beautiful, so I think it will be very lovely indeed. One of my best friends has recently got engaged, two of my cousins were engaged this year, and a family friend got engaged at Christmas last year, so there are potentially more weddings for 2013, or maybe 2014 - lots to look forward to in any case!

Running - My husband is running in the Brighton Half-Marathon in February, and the Beachy Head Marathon (the alleged hardest in the UK) in October. I will not be joining him, but I will be his most avid supporter. I will undoubtedly be running for the train every so often though...

Writing - I am now one of the official writers for the new church magazine, but more importantly I strongly hope that I can continue my fiction in 2013. I am missing it very much, and I know I need to make more time to write regularly.

I am sure there will be many more adventures, lots of stories, plenty of stress, intriguing developments, and an awful lot of tea drunk in 2013!

I wish you and yours a very blessed and Happy New Year!

Bayham Abbey

When I was younger my parents used to love taking my brothers and I out for the day to an English Heritage or National Trust property where we could spend quality time together as a family, learning about history, conservation, plants, or wildlife. My parents could also have some peace and quiet whilst my brothers and I ran around playing games in a safe yet adventurous environment.

One of their favourite places was Bayham Abbey, situated in the middle of nowhere on the Kent/Sussex border. The abbey was constructed in the 13th century, and is in ruins like the majority of abbeys and priories in England, thanks to Henry VIII. Despite being just a shell of its former self it was a brilliant place to explore. My brothers and I would make up all kinds of games, running between pillars, through doorways, and searching every nook and cranny for the best hiding places. The abbey is surrounded by beautiful countryside, so my parents would just sit back and relax, watching us play, absorbing the tranquillity.

It was this tranquillity that I was hankering after last weekend, when finally, amidst this wet spring, a sunny Saturday was upon us and it would have been criminal to stay indoors. My husband and I joined one of our friends with our picnic and we headed up to the abbey for some rest and relaxation.

It was just like I remembered, beautifully peaceful, and the perfect setting for forgetting life's stresses for a few hours.

We relaxed, chatted, soaked in the surroundings, and then ran around the ruins being very silly with our cameras. It was the best of both worlds.

I have very fond memories of many English Heritage and National Trust properties, but I love making new ones in them with my husband and friends.

PS. It was chillier than expected, so I tried out a new fashion - wrapping oneself in a picnic blanket - what do you think?

Photos my own.

From Ear Muffs to Soot Sprite!

I have a confession. I have a serious case of craft envy. I have many talented friends who are very good with their brains and their hands and create beautiful work. Some have their own businesses, others just make fab things for their homes, babies, friends etc. I look admiringly at their handiwork and long to make similar masterpieces myself. I want to be uber housewife, who in her spare time (what's that anyway???) creates pretty things that make others swoon with delight.

I have a problem with seeing through such dreams however. First of all I lack patience. I want to see my work come to fruition as soon as possible and preferably with little effort. Even when I do sit down and work on something painstakingly, I'm all fingers and thumbs. I'm lucky enough that I can sew buttons back onto clothes, but even they unstitch themselves within a matter of weeks *sigh*

One thing I do consistently try to make an effort with though are making cards for people. I like doing it, especially when I can reuse old cards, calendars, ribbons, and other materials - I actually have a whole chest of drawers full of exciting things to decorate cards with. Sometimes I am a little too ambitious and my final products usually look like they were made by an eight year old, but I try.

Mei with a Soot Sprite

This being the case, I was extra chuffed with the birthday card I made for my brother's girlfriend this week. When we were spring cleaning recently I found my black ear muffs which had broken at the end of winter and I just tossed into a corner of the living room, too angry to dispose of them properly at the time. When I found them on top of the magazine rack I declared to my husband that I could make a Soot Sprite birthday card for my brother's girlfriend with them. Soot Sprites feature in one of her favourite films, My Neighbour Totoro. She actually painted me an awesome picture of Totoro in a memory book created by my friends for my hen party, and she also painted me another awesome picture of Sophie and Calcifer from Howl's Moving Castle for my last birthday, so I knew I had to make something cool for her.

It was simple really. My husband detached one of the muffs from the headband, whilst I cut out two eyes from the scraps of a white sock that I had used to make my husband's stuffed owl a lab coat one day when I was bored... I then used a black pen to draw pupils on the sock eyes, and used glue dots to stick them to the muff. I then used several glue dots to stick the muff that was now a Soot Sprite onto the card. Unfortunately I had not been able to find any better glue for this, and not being naturally craft-minded I wasn't even sure what type would work best in the circumstances.

Anyway, for someone as ham-fisted as I am when it comes to delicate work, I was very chuffed with the result. He looks a little angry, and I haven't created anything on par with the Studio Ghibli themed crafts I've found online, but he's still very cute, if I may say so myself.

Ta da!

I presented it to my brother's girlfriend on Monday at a surprise birthday party organised by her sister, and thankfully she loved it, yey! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARA!

Picture from http://miyazakihayao.wikia.com/wiki/My_Neighbor_Totoro
Photo & card my own :D

The Tales That Timeline Tells

I recently changed my Facebook page to the new Timeline style because rumours were circulating that it would eventually be enforced upon all users and I wanted to get to grips with my privacy settings etc before that happened. As with all of Facebook's past changes, I've quickly got used to the new layout and resent it far less now then when I first saw it.

Anyway, this afternoon I was procrastinating, and I ended up trawling back through the past few years, casting my eye over my status updates of yore and revisiting a few old wall posts etc. I had a good laugh as many happy memories resurfaced, particularly of university days. My favourites were messages between my friends and I when we were on the verge of insanity due to massive workloads and impending deadlines, as well as bizarre references to Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, and other Classical figures who we blamed personally for our work related madness!

Looking back has given me a little snapshot into how much I've changed, not only since I first joined Facebook in 2006, but also since I left the council. For example, a number of my past statuses show just how desperately unhappy I was in my old job, and with my daily commute to London for my job before that. They also demonstrated just how unwell I had been. I have an archive's worth of status updates about feeling ill. I usually get at least one bad cold annually but according to my status updates, when I was in my old jobs I was unwell over and over again. My sickness record for work is fairly average, so each time I claimed to be 'ill' on Facebook I wasn't necessarily missing work and hiding under the duvet. I think there was a direct correlation between my unhappiness and how I was feeling physically, whether or not I was actually 'sick'.

So, even though I knew I had been struggling for a long time in my old job, the sheer volume of negative status updates relating to it did shock me a little. But on further reflection, I really was that miserable. It's just that now I have been moving past it, and a lot of the nasty feelings I associate with the old place are beginning to fade.

Thankfully I'm not too much like Eeyore, and all of the miserable or angry updates are counterbalanced by many happy or excited updates and other jolly material. And so this random record of my feelings at over the past few years has made me very reflective this afternoon.

I remember all too well how much I struggled with difficult housemates and a heavy workload during my MA. I remember how tired the London commute made me. I remember how bored I was in my previous two jobs. I remember how some mornings I did not believe it would be possible to leave the house and go to the office because I was so unhappy. I remember how many problems we had with our old flat.

I remember how stressed I was planning our wedding, but also how much fun it was. I remember the stress of my degrees, but also how fascinating I found the research and how I never really wanted my studies to end.

I remember how amazing my trips abroad have been. I remember how fantastic Muse were the three times I went to see them perform live. I remember all the silly jokes my friends and I shared that only we understood. I remember how beautiful all the weddings were that I have been to. I remember how much I missed my brothers when they were away at university and how I loved being home for the holidays.

Good or bad, I don't need Facebook to help me remember any of these things. But, like finding the diaries I wrote when I was younger, I think a little reread, a deliberate revisit to the thoughts and feelings of the time, does good for the soul. And today it has conjured up a whole wealth of different emotions in my heart.

I look back on those bad times, remembering every ounce of misery, and know that I have moved on and that I have emerged a stronger person.

I look back on those good times, remembering every ounce of joy, and smile with fondness and am thankful that I had those experiences.

My Facebook statuses and old wall posts remind me of the conversations I have with old friends when we are feeling nostalgic. We reminisce, we, laugh, we congratulate or encourage each other on coming through the other side of whatever life has thrown at us. We bring back lots of memories, the good, the bad, and the hilarious. Although looking through the old Facebook stuff isn't the same as chatting with a friend, this afternoon has had a similar effect.

I sit here, in my desk chair, the sun beginning to set, and I feel content. All too often I dwell on the past and think about how I wish things had been different a lot of the time. But this half-hour of procrastination on Facebook has once again reminded me that I've had some pretty fantastic times in the past six years, and that although I've been through a lot emotionally I am a stronger person because of it. I needed that reminder today, and so I am grateful that Timeline gave me that little look back.

So that was November 2011!

I am on a little bit of a high because last night I succeeded in submitting 50,000+ words of a novel to NaNoWriMo, just in time to win! I am very happy to reach the landmark, and whilst I lived up to my old university habits of doing the majority of the work at the last minute, I am really pleased to discover that I am capable of writing a novel. It's given me the confidence I need to get to work on my other projects, once I've figured out which to do first!

So NaNoWriMo was a continuous theme throughout an incredibly busy month. It's been great for me to be so occupied because it's helped me fight SAD a lot better. Now it's December and the big run-up to Christmas begins - more to keep me occupied!

But before I celebrate the arrival of December fully, I decided to have a look back at some of my favourite events from this very busy November.

A Day of Bangs, Booms and Celebrations - I have already described Bonfire Night in one of my earlier posts. What I didn't mention then was that before all of the festivities began we took both of my brothers out for lunch to celebrate the youngest turning 21, and the other achieving a distinction in his MSc as well as getting a new job as a GIS technician! I am one very proud big sister. Then we had an evening full of fireworks, friends, and food, a brilliant day.

What-ho old chap!

A Wedding - One of my closest friends from university got married on the second weekend of the month. The wedding was beautiful. The couple had chosen a vintage theme so all the guests were dressed in very glamourous 20s-50s attire. The hotel for the reception was grand, and art-deco in style, which fitted the occasion perfectly. In the evening we all played with sparklers outside before hitting the dance floor and whirling each other around like crazy until the early hours. Quite a few of my old friends were there, and as the ceremony was held at my old university church, the day brought back lots of memories.

Calves on one of the farms

A Trip Down Memory Lane - Speaking of memories, on a gorgeous sunny day my husband and I walked from our home across the South Downs Way to one of my old homes. It was about 11 miles of walking through farmland, along old routes that I had hiked through at night as a scout, and then finally down the long country lane that I used to cycle along as a teenager, before hitting suburbia once more. I showed my husband my old house, where I spent most of my childhood, and then we wandered to the tiny shopping centre where we discovered the old greasy spoon cafe was still running strong - so we stopped for much needed, and very cheap, mugs of tea and a chocolate nut sundae. We felt very healthy and relaxed. A great way to spend a Saturday.

That's me with Nemo on my head!

A Fancy Dress Party - Yet more memories were shared on this occasion. My old Classical Society friends from university always host fantastic fancy dress parties. We Classicists are all a little bit mad and have good imaginations, so you can always guarantee some pretty awesome costumes. This party was themed N for November, and we all had to come as something beginning with N. I came as November 5th - the idea was appreciated, but was perhaps a little too abstract! Anyway, we also had Napoleon, a Night Elf, a Neanderthal, a Nerd, Nigella Lawson, and Noel Edmonds amongst other things! My favourite was Nemo - one of my friends made a papier mache Nemo that he wore on his head! It was a brilliant night of catching up on all times and sharing funny stories, as well as taking many photos of Nemo wearing silly hats etc.

In other November news, my husband grew a rather dashing moustache for Movember, to help raise awareness of prostate cancer. The Fairtrade Christmas Campaign at church was launched successfully. And of course, there was NaNoWriMo! I thoroughly enjoyed creating my characters and knitting their adventure together. I'd had a few vague ideas about this story before I began writing, but as I wrote different characters kept wandering into my head, bizarre turns of event would just happen, and the whole thing became a lot more dramatic than originally intended. It has been great fun!

So goodbye November, for the first time in years you were a great month! Hello December!

Bonfire Night - It's What We Do Best

I live in the town that has the biggest Bonfire Night celebrations in the world (considering it is a UK-wide celebration, I guess that's not really difficult...)

Bonfire Night is THE event of the year in Lewes. It's an important event for a great percentage of the rest of Sussex too (particularly the best eastern half). Numerous towns and villages put on their own Bonfire Nights throughout October and November. I talked about this a couple of years ago in this post: Bonfires, Bollards, Bankers and Bangers!

With Lewes being the heart of Bonfire, rarely an evening goes past in these two months without a few loud bangs heard here and there. Bangers, or rookies as they are fondly known, are let off sporadically, usually outside the town's pubs. It's like any noise you get used to; late autumn wouldn't be the same in Lewes without these occasional distant booms (sometimes accompanied by raucous laughter if you happen to be near where they are let off).

Anyway, to the event itself. It's a crazy evening and it's a lot of fun. It's a celebration for the town, in particular for the Bonfire Societies themselves, of which there are six. Visitors are welcome although generally discouraged due to high volumes of crowds - this year the crowds exceeded 60,000. However, the celebrations would go on with or without the visitors or even the bystanding townsfolk (such as myself).

However, I feel that when you live here there's really no avoiding it. I'm not the biggest fan of loud noises, but I am a big fan of sparkling prettiness. And at the end of the day, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. To be honest, I always have a good time, even though I don't like the rookies.

We usually have a few friends round to our house for food and drink, and then depending on our mood will head out to watch the processions, and then watch the fireworks back at home.

This year my husband set about making quite a spread. He baked cheesy Bonfire bread and also cooked up sausages, baked potatoes, and beans that were spiced up with tabasco and JD! Together we made an extremely calorific chocolate pudding to be served with marshmallows and cream, post fireworks. We were also very pleased to serve both our home-brewed beer and pear cider, which everyone really enjoyed - yes we enjoyed brewing the perry so much that we tried our hand at beer, and it's turned out rather well. You can read about all this and other tasty adventures on hubby's new food blog *proud wife beams accordingly*

We had a number of small processions go past our house. One of my friends, who is a professional photographer, was constantly dashing in and out to attempt to get some good photos. He must have taken hundreds, although he believes he only got one or two good ones. The processions are indeed quite difficult to capture well on camera, due to movement and the effect of the flaming torches against the dark of the night, but if you do manage to get a good shot, then boy will it be a good shot!

A group of us went up to the top of the High Street to watch the United Procession, which is the best of all. It goes right through the centre of town, with five of the six Societies taking part. Each has a number of other town and village Societies accompanying them, as well as local bands or from further afield, such as an awesome band from one of our twin towns, Waldshut in Germany. During this procession the Bonfire Societies will pull their tableaux through. These are usually related to current affairs. This year we saw South Street pulling through Harry Potter standing in front of Hogwarts with Voldemort creeping up behind him, Commercial Square present David Cameron putting Britain through the wringer, Borough dragging along a Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club seagull relaxing on top of the team's new Amex Stadium, Southover yanking the 'Pig' Society whilst continuously lighting sodium flares (which are bright pink and blinding!), and Waterloo brought us Rebekah Brooks riding on top of Rupert Murdoch as a dinosaur. These are all spectacular works of art that are later blown to smithereens in the most awesome of firework displays.

A few of our friends went off to one of the fire sites, but the rest of us went home to watch two of the fantastic displays from the top room of our house. We had a perfect view and sat there, sipping tea (or home brew), "oohing" and "aahing" at all the appropriate places. The fireworks seem to just get better every year. It is a privilege to have them on our doorstep (although please not literally on our doorstep, thanks!)

Once everyone was back at ours we consumed the chocolate pudding and chatted into the small hours as rookies continued to boom and the Waldshut band serenaded us with some seriously rocking tunes in the distance...

As always we had a great evening. I always feel trepidation at the impending approach of Bonfire Night. I'm often excited but also a little anxious. This is because there are a few morons, who are nothing to do with the official event, who throw fireworks in the crowd and behave like idiots. They are the people that bother me. Thankfully, they are few and far between. The evening is always great fun, it brightens up November, and it's a big part of our culture in this part of Sussex. If we ever move away, I know I shall miss it very much...yes, probably even the occasional exploding of bangers throughout October and November...

Photos my own.

Saying Goodbye II

It's been two years and two months since I left my first proper real-life adult job. And on Friday I left my second.

This goodbye was bittersweet. I have made the right decision to leave, there is absolutely no doubt about it. I intend to write another post on my reasons why. The day was joyful, strange and manic! Here are some recollections of the day:

The night before I had been baking cakes - vanilla cupcakes with choc fudge icing, mini banana breads, and chocolate cornflake cakes (I foolishly burnt my signature chocolate flapjacks, much to my great distress!) - ready to treat my colleagues to the sweet delights once more.

In the morning I placed all the cakes in different tins and boxes and then put them in a large hessian Waitrose bag, and put it by the door ready to take to work. I finished getting ready, only just remembering to pick up the Waitrose bag, and off I went.

I arrived at the office to find a pink helium balloon in the shape of a star tied to my chair, with a farewell message written in silver glitter. It had a charming little bell to weigh it down, which made me jingle like a cat's collar whenever I moved.

The balloon is still bobbing away in the living room at home

Once my boss arrived I was sent on a brief mission across the road to purchase the best sausage rolls in the whole world ever from the local butcher's for a team breakfast. When I got back a set of presents in blue polka-dot wrapping paper were sitting on my desk, along with a card. There were some really lovely messages in the card, some of real thanks for all the work I'd done, which made me smile. The presents were a lovely little notebook and pen for my writing, and a cookie jar with cookie cutters and heart-shaped silicon cupcake cases to encourage me in my baking adventures!

My cute card from my colleagues

So, the morning rolled on. Presents opened, sausage rolls scoffed, post delivered, and it was time to put out the cakes and invite colleagues from across four floors to come and gorge themselves. That's when I discovered that rather than bring the cakes from home, I had brought back all my stuff that I had cleared from my desk and locker the day before! I'd put them in the same style of Waitrose hessian bag!!! Amazingly my boss let me go home to switch bags and I made it there and back in 20 minutes, which was impressive because we are experiencing a heatwave at the moment, and hot weather always slows me down!

The cakes were duly gobbled after that little fiasco, and then I had a 2 hour lunch break in the pub over the road, celebrating with a few old colleagues as well as my team, and some of the Environment and Road Safety chaps who I have worked closest with over the last two years. We sat basking in the glorious sunshine, eating delicious food and chatting about all kinds of things. I really will miss working with those people in particular, so I was glad they came and joined me for a drink.

I then spent the afternoon running around like a headless chicken, ensuring all was neat and tidy, and that I'd made things clear and easy for the newbie and for my colleague who will be covering my core tasks until said newbie arrives.

Before I knew it, it was gone 5. Apparently it is unacceptable to work past that time on your last day, especially when your last day is a Friday...and pay day...and dress down day... Then my boss insisted on taking me for a drink, as she hadn't bought one for me earlier, so I agreed.

I had a quick drink with her and a few colleagues we bumped into at the pub, and then I made my way home, my pink star balloon bobbing behind me, sprinkling glitter all over me every time it bounced off my head.

I had expected to skip out of that place, overjoyed, and thrilled. I didn't. I am thrilled about leaving, I really am. But it hasn't sunk in yet. It feels so surreal, and in my head I still think I'm going back there. I still feel that I have something to do. And a little bit of me is mourning the only piece of work I actually enjoyed doing there - GIS work on historical mapping for the archaeologists - something I wasn't paid to do, that someone of my pay scale is assumed not to be capable of doing, something that I had to engineer and tie in with council policy to be allowed to do it, and then for only one morning a week. This work reminded me that I am capable of so much more than lousy admin, which I was never truly cut out to do anyway, being rubbish at filing and all... I had intellectually stimulating conversations with the archaeologists, and of course we had shared interests. When I did research work for them I felt like I was doing something useful, I was using my brain, and it was like studying, which deep down I do miss. Quite a lot actually.

I will be looking for part-time jobs in the future where I can do something similar, but for now I am going onto something else.

So, I do feel a bit melancholy about that. The current financial climate is just not a good time to work in local government, the promotion opportunities are few and far between, and lots of specialist work is being cut, sometimes completely. I had to get out. There was no question about it.

I know that my time working at the council has been a valuable life experience, not good most of the time, but I have learnt from it, and I hope that it has made me stronger.

I definitely made the right decision to leave, and a little sadness aside, I do not regret it.

Photos my own.

The Welcome Back Party

Last night our house group (Bible study group) travelled up to the airport to welcome two of our members back to the UK. They have just returned from mission overseas for the past five months, and we decided to surprise them as they came through the arrivals gate.

They were expecting only our house group leaders to meet them, so the rest of us hid behind a (hardly sufficient) pillar and awaited a signal from our leaders. It was so funny - as soon as their flight number displayed 'Baggage in Hall' we ran into position. Having chosen a rather tall and narrow object to hide behind we formed a long line - it looked like we were all being very British about queueing to order coffee or something from the pillar, and seemed to offer much amusement to other people waiting for loved ones. We stood giggling there for about 15 minutes, and almost got into a fight with a member of staff driving a buggy through who complained about the way we were all standing... But there was no time to argue because our leaders had run forward to greet our friends and that was the cue for the rest of us to jump out and run to them as well. They looked bewildered and very, very happy as we all hugged them until they could hardly breathe!

Once we'd all had a chance to exchange greetings and let them get their breath back, some of the lads hauled their luggage off to one of the cars whilst we all made our way to one of the cafes for tea and a catch-up. They have had an awesome experience, and it was great to hear some of that and what God has been showing them and where He is leading them to next. It was also just brilliant to see them again - within minutes it felt like they'd been away for hardly any time at all.

Our leader joked that we better not let the church leadership team we were having a welcome party up at the airport instead of serious Bible study that night. But you know what, God revels in our joy too, and being there for each other is part of what being in Christian fellowship is all about. I have no doubt that He was laughing as much as we were while we hid behind that pillar and I have no doubt that His heart welled with joy as much as ours did when we saw them coming through the gate.

And what can I say - road trips on a school night rock!

So Very Special

Further to my post on Love I think our wedding day summed it all up perfectly - God, family, friends, and love all there on that significant day in our lives. We didn't want the day to end. It really was so very special.




Photos by Jess Foreman, our wedding photographer

Love

This could be seen as the cop-out post. But I don't feel well and want to get this post written so I can return to normal blogging!

Basically, the my last 4 entries: Friends, God, Weddings, and Family all speak of Love and show Love. And so I would just be repeating myself.

So, without meaning to sound too much like Hugh Grant in Love Actually - here's to Love in all it's many forms! Without it life would be meaningless. It is the only thing that sustains through thick and thin. It constantly breathes hope. It makes this life so very worth living.

Weddings

This weekend is our Stag/Hen Weekend. The men are off paintballing all day, and mine is a surprise, organised by my bridesmaids, up in London. I'm looking forward to an afternoon and evening out with some of my favourite girls, and knowing my bridesmaids it will be good fun and a good laugh and as far removed from any dodgy-ness as possible, which means I am excited and not filled with dread!

As we are at the point of the Stag/Hen Weekend our wedding really is very close now. We are both very excited, maybe a teeny bit stressed as we finish all the details, but definitely looking forward to married life, starting with a good celebration with our Lord, families, and closest friends.

I have blogged about a couple of weddings. We have now been to a further two, both this month, both very different, both equally beautiful in their own ways, and both reflective of the personalities and characters of the different couples. It is such a joy to know people can have a special day that they really enjoy. It is great that we have so many different friends and family members who all have different tastes, so no one wedding is the same.

The first wedding is I ever went to was when I was 3. I was one of the bridesmaids, and it was for my uncle. I remember having fun at the reception, being allowed to stay up way past my usual bedtime. I also loved my peach frilly puff-sleeved dress, ballet pumps, and circlet of peach roses that I wore on my head (my fashion tastes have generally improved since then, but it was the 80s!) All I remember about the wedding ceremony was being tired of standing for so long (which probably wasn't that long at all!) Later on we attended a couple of simple registry office weddings of my dad's work colleagues, which I was fairly bored at as well - I didn't have the greatest attention span! Then, when I was 12, my dad's cousin got married - they had a blessing in the church, and then the reception was held at Hampton Court Palace, in a special private function room. I remember it being wonderful fun - my cousins and I getting lost in the palace maze, a clown entertaining our special children's table, eating delicious food, and dancing the night away to a live jazz band, as well as telling my younger cousins ghost stories outside when it got dark!

But, it wasn't until I was 21, when I was invited to my first wedding independently of my parents, of a couple from church at university, that I really came to understand weddings and what marriage means,. This particular wedding was the day after the last day of university. It was swelteringly hot, and me and one of my very good friends made it into the church just before the bride was to walk down the aisle, thanks to having been caught by a level-crossing going down! The service was incredible, and it was the first time I had been to a wedding where I focused all my attention on the vows being said, the words of the address, the lyrics of the songs that were played and sung. From then on I have come to appreciate the ceremony of all of the weddings I have been to, be it church or civil ceremony. It is the symbol of the couple's love as they make their vows, the meaning of those vows, the celebration of their uniting and coming together. I am an old romantic, admittedly, but when you are close to someone, or they are part of your family (blood or otherwise), you're right there with them, rooting for them, and pledging your support for them.

I have nothing especially profound to say now, other than I LOVE weddings!

Friends

I guess the challenge with this short series of blog entries is to write them without allowing them to become too cliched, cheesy, or schmaltzy. I will just write what I can and write it honestly, and we'll see what I can come up with.

The first topic is Friends, at present my most frequently used Label.

Friends is an interesting topic. I will tell you a story from my youth (which really isn't that long ago, even kind of ongoing). I had a lot of friends when I was a child. I was confident, related to other people with ease, and was generally kind, inviting and accommodating. Then I started secondary school and the era of puberty soon followed, and life changed a lot. Boys, often my closest friends, were to be seen as something different. The desire for popularity soon became fervently strong, and I failed miserably to achieve it.

Secondary school was an immensely tough environment. I made a tight-knit group of girlfriends in Year 7, but by Year 8 the growing pains were beginning to show, and by Year 9 full-blown bitchiness had taken centre stage, culminating in a huge row and split in the friendship group. As that summer term drew to a close, things settled down, we all made up, and the prospect of starting our GCSE classes and getting to know others in our school year group, presented a bright and rosy future before us, as we determined to pursue popularity together. Now, our little group had never been part of the 'cool' crowd - a crowd divided into two main groups, the Townies and the Crusties (in more modern terms the Chavs and the Skaters/Stoners), names and coolness bestowed upon them due to nothing more than the brands they wore - Adidas and Nike etc for the Townies, Quiksilver and Animal etc for the Crusties. So, we joined ranks with several other small friendship groups (male and female alike) that were not part of that crowd either, and we soon developed a third group, a force to be reckoned with, though never quite 'cool' enough. The problem with this new large group that I found myself in (and I'm sure this was probably true of the Townies and the Crusties), was that it was really a big clique, brimming with exclusivity, with a few of us hovering on the outside, desperate to be a part of the centre. I never got to be part of that centre. I was occasionally an object of cruel jokes, more frequently forgotten about, and fairly often stood at the receiving end of the bitchiness from the girls of the inner circle, one of whom had been part of my initial group of sweet, geeky and fun girls in Year 7.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing - whoo cliche! - but it is so true. I still look back on that period of my life with a twinge of pain for my depressed 15 year old self, but maturity and experience have also helped me see that the bitchy girls were very insecure, and created a mask of superiority to hide behind. That doesn't excuse their behaviour, but it's helpful to understand what drove them, and I am now in a position to forgive them, even though my inner teenager still aches.

Sixth Form was a revelation. Our secondary school group was split between three different colleges, which I believe was a healthy change for all of us. In my first year of Sixth Form I was still striving for popularity, hoping to break in with a different group of cool people. But by the second year I had made, and was still making, a few close, reliable, and wonderful friends, some of whom didn't know each other, so there was no formation of a large and terrifying clique. By the Summer of Love (that blissful long summer between A-Levels and starting university) I was enjoying real, meaningful friendships with a number of people, something I had only been able to dream about when secondary school ended. One of these friendships was with my fiance, and little did I know where that would eventually lead (another story for another time!)

University was quite similar in many ways. However, there were some who brought boarding school and thus their immature behaviour along with them. And frustratingly, and perhaps most hurtful of all, was my familiar hovering position in the outer circle of the student clique at the church I attended, the place where I had least expected exclusive friendship groups to develop. That is a whole other story in itself, and the point here is where I have got to now and what I have realised over these past few years about friendship.

Friendship blossoms not from shared interests (although that is usually a good starting point) but through a willingness to make sacrifices for each other. To give that extra bit of time when it's needed, to make the reason you do things together be about bringing them happiness, not gratifying yourself. It is about total acceptance of each other, whatever your circumstances. It is about laughing at random things that other people just don't find funny. It's about having deep and earnest conversations about the meaning of life, whether over tea and biscuits, or getting a little tipsy over a shared bottle of wine. It is about seeing something and smiling because it reminds you of them. And, it about the times when you haven't seen each other for ages, but when you start talking it's like one of you has just come back into the room after a quick toilet break.

Popularity is nothing. It is impossible to be liked by everyone, even more so to make people like you, and if you try then you will spread yourself too thin and you won't be any good to anyone.

My secondary school years were painful, yet throughout those times my family had a whole set of great friends, including my childhood best friend, that constantly reminded me that there were wonderful people who loved me just for being me. I have such a fantastic and eclectic bunch of friends now, all different ages, and from many walks of life. I made my closest friends at college, with a couple at university, I still have great family friends, a brilliant church family, and a stellar immediate family. And I am finally learning that I've made friends the best way all along - remaining away from the clique epicentre, as difficult as I found it at the time, has kept me down to earth and made me better for it :)

A Wonderful Winter Wedding

It was crisp and cold, bitterly cold in fact. The kind of cold that pierces your bones. The sun was bright and the sky a brilliant blue. "Tell your friends they're mad for getting married in January!" my auntie said. Mad? I think not. This is the second January wedding we have been to, having gone along to one last year. We even considered having a winter wedding ourselves but things worked out a little differently to how we had expected. My visions of wearing a long, flowing Medieval inspired gown with dripping ivory sleeves were swapped for somewhat different ideas...better ones in fact ;)

But back to the story I am telling. After an interesting car journey which involved a crucial part of motorway being closed and being forced through the irritating one-way system of a historical Surrey town, we arrived safely in Oxfordshire at my auntie's idyllic little home in the middle of nowhere. Partly thanks to TomTom, and partly thanks to my map-reading skills :D

After changing in her warm little abode into our finest clothes, we headed into Oxford, where we spent a couple of hours with a friend who is studying Architecture at Oxford Brooks, sipping coffee (of course it was tea in my case), examining his newly purchased OS maps of the area, and putting the world to rights. Then it was off for a brisk walk along the river, baring the freezing winds because we had that beautiful winter sun beaming on our faces. Our friend left us at the church as he headed off to work on an assignment.

My friendship with the bride to be came about due to a spoonful of serendipity. My bus was late on the day of my first A-Level English class, and when I got there, unable to breathe from the running, there was one seat left, next to a pretty girl with a short wavy brown bob and glasses. I sat down, and once we were set work, I introduced myself to her. From then on we naturally gravitated towards each other in our English lessons, and soon developed a great friendship through our shared love of Shakespeare and our shared dislike of our teachers vague use of the word, "vague"! As usual university and mission trips abroad came and went, but although we saw each other a lot less, we stayed firmly in touch, praying for each other, sending letters, Facebook messages etc. She met her fiance at university, and last August they got engaged. Lots of excitement. We met up at the end of December to catch up, but with both of our heads full of wedding planning that dominated our conversation for a good hour at least.

The church was beautifully decorated - for an ex-warehouse friends and family of bride and groom had done a stunning job, with pretty drapes, ribbons at the end of chairs, lanterns along the aisle, fairly lights and ivy decorating a pretty arch for the newlyweds to sit beneath. When the bride entered, looking so incredibly beautiful, I don't think my face has fought so much between smiling and crying. It was a moment of pure joy, and the whole day followed in that form. There really is something so very special about seeing someone you love make those all important vows with the love of their life, watching them make a commitment before God, surrendering themselves completely to Him and His will for their life together.

The day was filled with wonderful memories: God, white, sunshine, cold, cake, purple, hearts, prayers, silver, social justice*, fairy lights, ivy, blue, fun, joy, wonder, beauty. Many happy things.

With our wedding now only a few months away it was inevitable that our thoughts would turn to that now and then. There was no stealing of ideas, but there was the spine-tingling realisation that it would be us getting married soon. It brought on excitement and joy for us both, in anticipation of the vows we will be making before God, our family and friends. We've been looking forward to it for so long and now it is a lot closer, with February set to be the month of manic planning and the fine-tuning of details (with a few obligatory things left to the last minute, of course!)

It would have been rude to dwell on thoughts of our own wedding for too long, however, and we were absorbed into the fun, laughter, and pure joy around us. Our friends are right where God wants to be, and this beautiful day was just the start of that next chapter in the exciting plans He has for them. It wasn't just a celebration of what they have in their love of each other, but a celebration of the things to come. And we are there to support them every step of the way. Congratulations to them both!

*this is key to what the bride and groom do in their work, and was a key component of the day.

Wedding Stress!

I am not that stressed about our wedding. Things are going reasonably well. We've got a lot already organised, but there are many things still to do. We need to order materials to make our invitations and orders of service, and then arrange a little "party" of friends and family to help us actually make them! I still need to sort out the flowers. My fiance still needs to sort out his suit. The bridal and bridesmaid accessories and shoes need to be sorted out. And the decorations for the reception venue, the menu for the dinner, and the drinks for the day also need to be organised. Oh, and the music for the reception. And favours need to be sorted. So there is still plenty to do. But look back over that list, figure out what we must have done already, and I don't think we're doing too badly. We have time to arrange these further details, and in many ways that's what they are: details.

The time I get stressed is when I make the mistake of comparing our wedding plans with those of other people's. A girl I knew from church at university got engaged just before Christmas. She and her fiance are getting married a month and a half after us. They, admittedly, will have had less time than us to organise things by the time it gets to their wedding. However, the frightening level of things already done has scared me somewhat. Thanks to the joy that is Facebook, and the regular updates, I have learnt just how much has been sorted - that, and she has a blog detailing it all. They've sorted out the bridesmaids' accessories already, I mean ARGH!!! Two of my best friends are also getting married this year. One the end of this month, and the other in mid-May. Thankfully, their wedding "stress" has been more on par with mine. One friend has managed to get an incredible amount done in time for the end of January - but then she had to! Another friend is on roughly a similar wavelength to me, we've got about similar amounts sorted, so I feel calmer when I chat to her. The girl I knew from university isn't a close friend, but we have a lot of mutual friends, and as I mentioned Facebook and blogs, you are able to hear a lot through the grapevine! I am happy for her and her fiance, and good for them having a short engagement. Ours is beginning to feel like a lifetime! - although there are very good reasons for that, which I shall detail in a further blog post. It's just, I can't deal with the uber organisation of another person when I am so disorganised myself!

The other frightening things, that send a chill down my spine, are bridal magazines. I had declared that I wouldn't read any - I mean, they're virtually a fiver each, and mostly full of adverts, and weddings are quite expensive enough thank you very much! But my mum's god-daughter, who is getting married at the beginning of May, gave her a load to give to me, which someone had previously given her. I wasn't horrified at now having bridal magazines in my possession, as I wanted some ideas for hairstyles, particularly for the bridesmaids, and all of these magazines seem to have hair specials! That, and they are all from 2004-2007, so I could ignore a lot of the articles. However, I have ended up reading some of the articles, partly out of curiosity, and they have just done more to scare me. According to the mags I should have started my bridal beauty regime 18 months before - uh-oh, we won't have even been engaged for that long! The list of things I should have done, and we should include, and what I should look like goes on and on... I should have stuck to my guns, and only looked at the pictures instead - the hair pictures have been helpful, and I'm grateful to my mum's god-daughter for giving me the magazines for that reason. Also, some of the real-life wedding stories have been inspirational, and can be quite a fun read. It's the advice pages that scare me out of my wits!

So, I have to be more realistic about things. About us. About our style. And how we're on the right track. We're doing things at our pace. We thrive on doing things at the last minute. It's how we both work. And it's how both achieved our highest marks at university - leaving it until the night and morning before! I'm not saying that we'll leave key wedding details until then - there is no way either sets of parents would allow it! But there are some things we'll probably only manage to finalise about two weeks before. But those things will be all the better for it. Because that's us, and that's how we do things. I know that the wedding we went to in June last year, our friends had left a few things that society would consider to be a little bit late in the day. But their wedding was fantastic so what difference did it make? In fact, it was probably better for being left to the last minute :D Then there is the wedding of some friends from university that I went to in Wales in August 2008. Arriving the Friday before with three of my good friends, we relaxed and enjoyed some food, and then suddenly we were whirled into the kitchen to stick the orders of service together, the NIGHT BEFORE! But they all came together - it helped us to bond with some of the other guests, who had also been called in to help, and on the day itself there was no way anyone could tell that the orders of service had only been matter of hours earlier.

The wedding industry is like some giant churning machine that threatens to crush you if you dare have one white frill out of place. I don't like it, and there are various things I have deliberately avoided because of it. For example, I have ordered my dress online. It will be custom made to fit my body specifications. I could not bear the thought of trawling round bridal shops trying on wedding dresses. As a result the designer of my dress is an incredibly personable woman, who has been very helpful and very enthusiastic, which is a great encouragement. The other thing that is helping us is that we're getting married at our church, so we know the rector well and we're friends of members of the band. This has helped immensely, because the whole thing is a lot more personal. The company in charge of our reception venue and catering are very professional, and they are used to doing weddings - perhaps they are the closest we've come to the 'wedding machine', but thankfully, as they are a local company who know the community well, they have a good idea of the kinds of things people like (like serving the local brew at the bar, and ensuring that local produce is on the menu), and they are very flexible. So really I haven't needed to become a victim of the wedding industry, because we have been developing clear ideas of what we want all along.

My fiance is still fine about it all. What I need to do is take a step back, stop comparing our wedding plans to other people's, and to enjoy this process. It's the marriage itself that we are most looking forward to, we just want a great party to seal our union. We'll be doing it our way, and that's the way to do it. The wedding industry can back off, because although we have to dip and dive into it for a few necessities, we can generally ignore it and its pushy ideas.

Here's not to wedding stress, but to wedding joy, for all the right reasons!

Snow Days

We've had a lot of snow in the UK recently. In February last year it started snowing on the first Sunday afternoon of the month, and didn't stop until about the same time the next day. My boyfriend and I walked slowly to the train station in the morning and we weren't surprised to find there were no trains running to London whatsoever. So we enjoyed a warm drink in the station cafe, and then slowly made our way home via the Priory ruins where we ran around in the snow where no one else had yet trod. It was so much fun. We climbed up The Mound and had a fantastic panoramic view of the Downs beyond, and the castle rising out of the white covered roofs of the town. It was breathtakingly beautiful, and picture postcard perfect. It was the most snow I had seen in my life, and enjoying the freedom of our Snow Day we excitedly made our way back home with the hope of buying a sledge.

As we walked through the town centre we saw a queue of about 20 or so people forming outside the sport shop, and they only had 2 sledges for sale! Sensing a scramble would occur we tried Argos, who had foolishly brought out their Spring/Summer catalogue, and therefore had nothing useful for the wintry weather whatsoever. So then it was onto Homebase where we purchased the largest bakest trays we could find...

Then it was back home for hot chocolate with marshmallows and cream, mmm! Our housemates were both at home too. Housemate 1 unfortunately had to work from home, but that didn't stop him from coming upstairs, giggling like crazy, and joining me in small room at the top of the house where we had an excellent view of our back yard (I call it a yard because it is completely paved, and so doesn't really count as a garden). Meanwhile my boyfriend had lured Housemate 2 into the yard, and Housemate 1 and I sent a massive snowball down the roof, which narrowly missed his head, but caused enough of a mess to start a huge snowball fight between us and them. Both my boyfriend and Housemate 2 had impressive aims and got quite a lot of snow inside the house as a result!

After that my boyfriend, Housemate 2, and I trudged up the hill to get to a suitable sledging spot. And this is where the baking trays came into use! Sledging down them was so much fun, and they worked surprisingly well! We did get covered in a lot of snow, but it was worth it. We then wandered for a while, enjoying the incredible views, and then we headed home, just before which we had another brief snowball fight, this time with some mechanics from a local car garage, who had made it into work but had nothing to do. They had built a huge wall of snow to shield themselves, and they began pelting snowballs at us (all meant in good fun). The baking trays became very useful shields however! Then it was back into the warmth for soup and crusty bread, and a chilled afternoon of gaming.

This December just gone, and now this January too we have experienced a fair amount of snow. In our area we've not had has much as we had in February, but the conditions have been far more treacherous this time, with the pavements becoming sheets of ice. It has made simple walks to church, work, and the shops become major expeditions, and a lesson has been learnt in making sure we leave the house in plenty of time.

I haven't been able to enjoy the December and January snow like I did last February, as I don't get Snow Days. That's because as I live in the same town as my office I have no excuse. I have had some challenging walks up the hill but I've been one of the few people who has made it in. So the snow, whilst it still looks beautiful, just hasn't been anywhere near as exciting as it was in February. I am worried that my plans for this weekend will be squashed by further snowfall and icy conditions, which will quite probably bring the trains to a standstill. It will be a shame if I have to miss my friend's hen party in Reading, and I'm also meant to be meeting another friend in London beforehand. It may will be that I can get there, but will I be able to get home again afterwards? I'm just looking to the skies, and keeping an eye on the weather forecast!

Although the snow is a nuisance and it drives a lot of people crazy, and yes it does change various plans, I still love it. Yesterday I was off work ill, and it was lovely sitting wrapped up bed under the quilts, watching the snow fall outside. The Downs are directly opposite, and there is a sheer hill face that is covered in trees. Watching the snow fall on that does wonders for the imagination of a daydreamer. The views towards the Downs from my office are stunning too - it's a beautiful view whatever the time of year, but today when more snow began to fall, we all stopped just to watch the amazing scene before us. So even if my weekend plans fall through, and even though I still have to work when so many other people are out building snowmen, I will still sit back and enjoy the snow, and let it work it's magic on me...

To finish, here are some photos from February 2009's Snow Day:

August

Well July ended with my mostly being sick after my wisdom teeth operation, thanks to the cocktail of painkillers and antibiotics I had to take *grumble* But during that time my left cheek de-swelled and I began to look less and less like Popeye, phew!

And then I started my new job in local government! It's been a very interesting and quite exciting time, and I'm learning a lot. Of course, I get to do a lot of boring jobs, but also there's a lot of fun and challenging stuff.

Other exciting developments were two of my closest girlfriends getting engaged to their respective men in the same weekend! I am very happy for couples, and 2010 is already looking to be rather full of weddings, huzzah!

Speaking of weddings, we popped into the evening reception of another of my old sixth-form friends, on a balmy evening towards the end of the month. Probably the shortest amount of time I've ever spent at a wedding, as whilst I knew the bride, and we'd been good friends at college, we felt a bit lost. The bride looked stunning in her outfit, and it was wonderful to see her again, as it's been a couple of years, and it looked like they had had a fantastic day. But we had rocked up after seeing my youngest brother perform spectacularly as Bagheera in his local youth drama society's open-air production of 'The Jungle Book'. Despite the frequent interference of wasps at the picnic (they were so determined to get drunk on our wine!), it was a jolly good show! So we turned up at this reception looking a bit like we'd just had a tumble in the hay bales of some random stable on the way there - although we were smart(ish) we had been lolling on the grass, sipping wine, while enjoying the show under the afternoon sun, and then we had traipsed through a couple of miles of country lanes to get the wedding reception. Still, that's kind of how late summer days should be. An amateur open-air play, getting lost in our Sunday best down isolated country lanes, and then awkwardly drinking coffee in the corner of a marquee at a wedding where we hardly know anyone, and then disappearing, giggling, into the night, to jaunt back down an unlit road to the parents' house for a cup of tea... *sigh* You can tell we're getting old can't you? Just can't handle our nights out like we could in our youth can we? ;)

Saying Goodbye

I left my job today. It was very strange indeed. I'm moving on to something new in my home town which means I can now walk to work - the long commute is over, hoorah! I'm really looking forward to starting my new job, getting different experience, and having 3 hours a day back!

I had been so eager to leave my job. I was working for an international development and humanitarian aid charity, one of the bigger ones. It is a place of passion and inspiration, and so much of the work they do is fantastic. After eighteen months I had begun to tire of my role though. There wasn't much scope for me to move up in the organisation as I was lacking in a lot of the key skills such as fluency in another language. Whilst I could have taken evening classes to improve this the long commute was taking its toll and I found myself too worn out, with a number of other commitments already, that it was out of the question. My health was affected by the long hours and travelling, which I found to be very stressful. This was coupled with the fact that I was itching to try something a bit more challenging intellectually. I had plenty of challenges in the role, just none that required my degree-level research and reporting skills. That is something which my new job will provide some scope for, and I am looking forward to trying something new.

Despite this, I have left the a place that has actually done a lot for me. It was my first real job after leaving university. I'd done a load of part-time work during my studies, but this job was my entry into the working world. It was an incredibly enlightening and eye-opening experience. I got the opportunity to understand how an international development organisation works behind the scenes at every level. On a daily basis I was in contact with the people who put this work into action and also with those who were offering us valuable support, either financially or through campaigns etc. I also got to encounter all the different office stereotypes - the good and bad - the ones who other people warn you about ;)

And so, actually, although I was excited to be going, I realised this was the end of an era for me. I have made some good friends - two lovely women who I worked on our staff conference with - we became "ladies who lunch". I was part of a lunchtime prayer group that met once a week, I had a friend who described himself as a "discoverer of shadow artists" and once he found out I write fiction we became firm friends :) And I also had a great team - they were only 5 of us, and despite the occasional bad day for any one of us, we all got on really well. I know I was lucky to have such a team, and I don't know if I will find one like that again. I didn't realise that I made any impact at all at the organisation until it came to my leaving... The prayer group surprised me with a card signed by them all and a Bible. My lunching ladies, one of whom was also leaving, surprised me with a filofax because of my hectic life at the moment! My shadow artist friend threw a small leaving tea for me, with an enormous creamy chocolate cake. And my team surprised me today with a lunchtime party in the office and lots of gifts - they had made a special effort to get me fair trade and ethically sourced presents, some of them as joint engagement gifts for me and my fiance. I was so touched by the effort they had made. I know when people leave somewhere they do get a lot of attention, cake and presents are common, but even so, I felt like I had received far more than I deserved, and I hadn't been expecting any of it. I didn't cry over any of the gestures, but it did emphasise for me how blessed I have been over the last almost two years I've been working there. For all the ups and downs I have a lot to be thankful for - this was something I believed I needed to see before I left, and the last two weeks, as I prepared to leave, highlighted this for me more than ever. Hindsight is wonderful thing - I need to remember that more during the rubbish times.

So, it's not "goodbye" it's "see you later". I have lots of happy memories, and I know that I've also gained a lot of valuable experience - both work and life wise - that I would now be lacking if it hadn't been for this job and the people I have met through it. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. As with everything that's happened to me in my life so far, this is further proof :)

An Inspiration

On Saturday I went to the wedding of my childhood best friend. It was fantastic. I've been to quite a few weddings now - the further I've got into my twenties the thicker and faster the invitations have come, as friends pair up and seal their union in marriage.

I love weddings. They are always such beautiful, joyful events, but especially when it is the marriage of someone you know well, someone you share many memories with. That is what it was like for me on Saturday. My childhood best friend is nine days younger than me, we were born in the same hospital, and used to live just around the corner from each other. When we were still babies our families moved, mine a bit further south to the coast, and hers a bit further north to the centre of the county. Despite this our families remained good friends, and many a Sunday was spent together. When we reached our late teens we grew apart, our lives being led in different directions. Nevertheless, our mums have "kept up to date" with each other, and as such we had something of a reunion last summer, both families together. It was on this occasion that my childhood best friend and her boyfriend announced to us their engagement, and so it was with great pleasure that my family, my fiance, and I attended their awesome wedding this weekend just gone.

The wedding was so special because it was that of my childhood best friend, but also because she and her husband are so clearly made for each other. Their love is obvious for all to see, and this was reflected in their big day. Family and close friends were in attendance, and every last touch to the wedding was amazing. Why? Because they had done everything themselves, with the help of special (and very talented) people, mainly family. Everything was hand-made from recycled and/or organic materials, from the bridal dresses to the placemats, from the bunting to the flowers, I could go on  And it all looked absolutely beautiful. Every last touch was organic or recycled, so completely ethical, at the same time reflecting the lifestyle of the bride and groom so completely. It really was magical.

The reception venue was the next amazing thing. The groom's grandparents live in a wonderful house in the countryside, with fantastic landscaped gardens that they open up in the summer for visitors to raise money for charity. These gardens were perfect for adventure, games, and just taking a wander around after a very filling but absolutely delicious organic lunch - in fact running round parts of the garden was essential to make room for the equally delicious organic buffet that was served in the evening!

We couldn't have asked for a more special day. The marriage of my childhood best friend to the love of her life that was all about their love and their values. There was no conforming to the norm. Yes there were plenty of traditions - they were married in a church, there were bridesmaids and a best man, there were speeches at the reception, there was a cake (with lots of yummy cupcakes!) etc, but the day was still uniquely their own.

We left completely inspired. We won't be copying their wedding, but it has encouraged us more than ever to be conscious of our choices for our big day, and also to ensure we don't lose sight of what the wedding day is really all about. There will be plenty of traditional elements in ours too, but like our friends, we want the day to be a true reflection of what matters in our lives.

Tower Bridge

So continuing my theme of historical buildings as part of this blog (maybe I should set up a specific historical sites blog and work on my travel-writing skills? *shrug*)...this time I am talking about a bridge, possibly one of the prettiest bridges that there is in the world.

On Saturday we battled our way through crowds of blue and white painted Gillingham supporters on the underground to get to my best friend and her husband for lunch in central London. It was a humid, overcast day, but after lunch we decided to do something touristy that might give us some respite from the heat. We headed up to Tower Bridge, none of us ever having gone up it before. It's one of those great London monuments I take completely for-granted. I've always liked the look of it. I was impressed when, in my first year at university, I was at a cocktail party aboard the Dixie Queen for the James Bond Appreciation Society, and the bridge lifted to let us through. I found it highly amusing when I was a teenager walking along it to get to HMS Belfast with my scout troop when I heard an excited American tourist loudly exclaim, "Wow! So this is Tower Bridge!" And when my old uni housemate and I took our Canadian friend to see the Tower of London, I got lots of pretty pictures of the bridge, taken from the tower battlements. But no, perhaps in true British resident style, I hadn't actually been up one of the towers itself, and neither had my companions.

So, we climbed the many stairs to the top - not the most sensible of choices on a particularly hot day when our water was in short supply - at least it was cool in the tower. The galleries were worth the climb (except the freaky barrel organ music playing the background - I mean seriously, what is that about?). The views up and down the Thames were stunning - Canary Wharf on the one side; St Paul's Cathedral, HMS Belfast, City Hall, and the London Eye on the other. We stayed there for some time, practising our panoramic photography skills, and enjoying the cool breeze that drifted in through the open windows. I must say, much of the exhibitions on the history of the bridge and its construction, on bridges around the world, and on the bridge hydraulics etc were lost on us, although my fiance indulged in the sciencey stuff. Sorry to say I let down the history side of things, but personally I was more taken with the view :)

We descended from the opposing tower to the one we had climbed - don't ask me which is which, I have no sense of left or right, or north, south, east, and west :P I am good with directions though, go figure! I digress... So, we then followed the exciting blue line along the pavement to the engine rooms, which were vaguely fascinating. At least, my fiance and my friend's husband seemed pretty interested in all the old equipment. My friend and I were disappointed with the lack of hands-on displays and toys to mess around with - the Science Museum it ain't, bah! Although there was some hands-on stuff right at the end, hooray! And to be fair, it is a fairly small museum.

It was then on to Mr Whippy ice-cream cone complete with flake by the river! This was a new novelty for me, as having grown up on the coast and near forests, I always associate Mr Whippys with those places. It's just not a London thing. Ah well, it was fun to be a London tourist for a couple of hours. We then reverted to the less touristy activity of a drink in the OXO Tower, looking across the river, and watching the world go by. I guess it's technically still spring, but hooray for beautiful summer afteroons spent with best friends :D As much as the city generally stresses me out on this occasion I couldn't have felt more relaxed.