“They talk so fast by they talk so true” as J.D. would say!
I’m currently working my way through the box set of Gilmore Girls and loving it! Coming towards the end of season 4 this evening there was an episode where a guy was listening to a love advice tape – the sort of thing that sounds like Oprah etc and most people would totally ignore, but there was this one quote that was actually pretty lovely:
Whose phone calls or visits are never unwanted or too long? Do you see her face?
Who would you most like to have in your life to ward off moments of loneliness? Do you see her face?
When you travel, who would make your travels more enjoyable? Do you see her face?
When you’re in pain, who would you most like to comfort you? Do you see her face?
When something wonderful happens in your life, a promotion at work, a successful refinancing, who do you want to share the news with? Do you see her face?
Whose face appears to you, my friend? Whose face?
A month ago I moved house – I’m sure the stress was nothing compared to those buying somewhere (I’m only renting in a house share) but it was an entirely stressful experience! The letting agency made everything about 50 times more difficult than it should be, cancelling appointments we were on our way to or being an hour late for ones we were already at, and far too many other things to list. It was definitely not an enjoyable time!
But now we’ve been here a month I think we’re settling in pretty well. And as is the way when you do something like this, everyone’s standard “how are you” question for me at the moment is “so how are you guys settling into the house?”.
To start with I had the same answer every time, it’s really lovely, a lot more modern and therefore warmer than the last place, nice and homely, but oh, it’s tiny. And it really is small, every room (other than the downstairs toilet of all things) really is quite little. Kitchen space is completely minimal, and in the smallest of the bedrooms, I only have a hanging rail as there’s no space for a proper wardrobe! (To give you an idea, the length of the room is the length of a single bed plus the width of the doorway, and the width is too narrow to fit a single bed lengthways – that’s the best way I can describe it!)
But a few days later it struck me. That tiny little bedroom, could well be the size of the house that my Compassion sponsored child lives in. And not just him, his parents and siblings too. The entire family could be living in a dirty space, the size of the space that I cram with my worldly rubbish and little old me. Who am I to complain? My room may be small, but I still have space for most of my things in there, it’s heated, water tight and clean. I also have a bathroom, kitchen and living room, with safe running water, electrical appliances, internet – so much more than my sponsored child has.
My tiny room is great, I have nothing to complain about.
So last Wednesday, I did a 5k jog (and actually jogged for over half the distance!) around the Tower of London! I ran with 2 wonderful friends, Nisha and Jamie, who agreed to come with me! And considering I haven’t exercised at all this year, I don’t think a time of 42 minutes 21 is all that bad! Of course, Jamie showed us all up by going on and doing 10k much faster, but still 🙂
Other than the rain, the exhaustion, the pain, it was a great day! We’re already overwhelmed by how much we’ve raised and how much people have supported us, but if you wanted to add to that, you can sponsor us here
And because everyone loves a good photo, I thought I’d share a few of them too 🙂
So we’re in the process of moving, which is the best way to motivate a clearout EVER!
I’ve already got rid of some kitcheny things, and as a house we are fast becoming Oxfam’s main supplier, but below are some things I’d love to either give to someone who could use them and enjoy them, and one thing (so far) that’s up ‘for sale’.
Ideally this would be people *I know* in Surrey or Romsey to avoid postage… yea, this blog post is only really aimed at people I know in real life – sorry!
For Sale
2 Man tent, made by Blacks, quite a few years old but well looked after. Only for sale as last year I bought a 3 man for a bit more space.
Giving away
Various music books:
Flute playalong with CD books? (I guess they’d also work with any other instrument in C at similar pitching eg violin?) I have Shrek 1&2, Beatles and Grease!
Violin Disney Movie Magic – no CD (again, most instruments in C should work?)
Abracadabra Violin 1&2 (starts at beginner level and works up a bit)
The Young Violinist’s Repertoire Book 1 Violin & Piano parts (little indication of level but all pieces are in 1st position)
Boot’s own brand hair straighteners (to give you an idea of quality, they were only £10 when they were new!)
…I’ll try to keep this updated as things get added/removed and repost it on facebook/twitter as appropriate
But one thing stood out to me, so many of the celebrities, on their VTs from the world poorest countries used this phrase: “It’s just not right”.
Last year Lenny Henry, Samantha Womack, Angela Rippon and Reggie Yates went and lived in the Kibera slums in Kenya, and the documentary was huge. I think it really brought it home to a lot of people what life is like for those who have to live like that on a day to day basis, and realised that we really need to do something about it.
So this year, Sport Relief seemed to have a much bolder attitude. In the past these sort of shows have sometimes felt a bit apologetic that they’ve had to interrupt the “fun” parts of the evenings with the VTs, but this year, with each video that they showed, they admitted that while it might be hard to watch, it’s something we need to see, to know what’s happening to people who are only seperated from us by geography.
A few years ago, I’d’ve been sat here sharing with you some of the funniest sketches and bits and pieces from the evening.
Today, I’d like to share with you some of the most powerful and challenging videos from the evening.
Most of these videos are about a named child. Not a statistic, a real person.
Definitely don’t feel obliged to watch them all, but I just thought I’d put up a selection.
There’s not a single one of these that isn’t moving, upsetting and challenging. So if you’re feeling fragile, just be warned…
Bernard
Philip with David Walliams
Christine with Miranda Hart
Florence with Miranda Hart
Benjamin with Lorraine Kelly
Jose with Lorraine Kelly
Vaccines with John Bishop
Kariatu (little bit of a guess at the spelling) with John Bishop
Catriona with JLS
Margaret with JLS
After one VT, I forget which one, Davina McCall was struggling to keep it together as she did the next link – I was impressed with how composed she was considering how upsetting I’d found it, but again, it was really good to see that these videos were affecting the presenters, not an inconvenience to the show, but the point of the whole thing. It’s a real problem.
I’d really encourage you to donate to Sport Relief. Just because they raised a record total that doesn’t mean it’s enough. Just because we are winning the battle against poverty it does not mean that the fight is over – there’s a long way to go!
The other thing I’d like to give you as an option if you don’t like to give and not know exactly where your money is going, then maybe consider sponsoring a child with Compassion UK. I’m not speaking as a member of staff here, but as a sponsor – I’m building a personal relationship with my sponsored kids, and getting to know them and hearing what the money does – incredible!
Last weekend I was at my parents and mum had dug out a whole load of my old primary school work for me to go through and decide what was worth keeping and recycle the rest.
I spent most of the Saturday reading through science, history and geography stuff from junior school, and found some of it really interesting, it was like reading it for the first time!
Which begs the question my mum asked – what’s the point in teaching those things at school? Who honestly remembers all the facts they learn about the Romans or the names of the muscles or different settlement types?
There’s obviously value in methods and processes like maths and English, things that are life skills. But random facts – was that really worth the effort they put in?!
It was interesting to read it all, don’t get me wrong, but I barely remembered any of it! Maybe it’s just me…
Do you remember those things you learnt at school?
I help out at a kids club at church, and last week, the guy due to do games this week said to me that he was away this week and would I mind doing it.
I have real difficulty saying no here. If he’d said would I like to, I probably would have said no, but he asked if I minded. Big mistake.
So, this week came around, I had a couple of game ideas in my head, people at work had helped with some ideas and I thought I might just about manage it.
I got down to kids club, sat with them through the craft, then went to the kitchen while they had drinks. By this point I’d realised how scared I was getting. I was too scared to even talk to them. My game ideas were falling apart due to not being right for their age, not having the right number of kids, not having the right equipment, and generally, just having boring ideas.
Someone came up to me and asked if I was ok and what my plans were, and quite frankly, I fell apart.
I’m a wuss and I’m sorry.
They told me it wasn’t a problem, someone else could do it, and I spent the rest of the evening with the older group which actually went really well.
But. How much easier would it have been for everyone, (particularly the wonderful people who stood in for me) if I had said no the week before and maybe caused inconvenience for someone, but at least would have given them 7 days to prepare rather than 7 seconds.
Pathetic isn’t it? But I think I learnt a lesson tonight.
As I left work today I was suddenly overwhelmed by how many things I’m happy and grateful about, even just over the space of this afternoon
Today was brilliantly sunny, and even though I didn’t get to go out in it, just the knowledge that this is the beginning of the end of winter is enough to make me happy – summer is on it’s way!
I work with some incredible people, and was reminded of this massively today as we prepare for one of them to go off and have a baby
I had to take my coat of driving home due to the weather and forgot how freeing that feels
I’ve rarely been more busy at work but actually it feels good!
I left work a little late after helping clear up from the baby shower and finishing some bits off, and yet it was still light! didn’t even need headlights on initially
I have a free evening!
I have great friends at work who agree that payday is definitely a good enough reason to eat out tomorrow
I wore a skirt today, and while it looks like something my mum would wear, it was fun 🙂
For lunch I ate just meat, crisps, a strawberry and three pieces of cake. Oh, and a mini egg later.
I’m aware there’s nothing there about a roof over my head, food on the table or God’s incredible love, mainly because today it was just so many little specific things that stood out to me that I thought it’d be fun to share 🙂
People who know me will be aware I can bit a bit of a habitual whinger, so hopefully this makes a change 🙂
Do you see how sunshine lifts my mood a little drastically?
What random things are making you happy right now?
I guess graduation was a pretty good day, the day I got my silver Duke of Edinburgh award was a bit special (especially when my leader announced the the whole church that no one had thought I’d ever even manage bronze!) and the day I passed my driving test was a proud one too. However, one of my proudest moments is definitely less ‘substantial’ as it were, but equally real! …We played a game with the kids at church tonight that reminded me of it!
I’m a bit of a giggler. When I was in my early-mid teens I giggled and squealed in a generally annoying way for most of the time (some may say that nothings changed). Utterly no self control when it came to laughter.
At one of our youth weekends away around that time, we played a game. Everyone sat in a big circle with one person stood in the middle. That person had to go up to anyone in the circle and say “If you really love me honey, then please, just smile”, that person then had to reply “I really love you honey but I just can’t smile”. All. Without. Laughing.
I know what you’re thinking, absolutely no way Ineke would manage that, and normally, I’d totally agree with you. But get this: I did it.
Picked yourself off the floor? Good! A girl said the line to me, and I replied, completely straight faced. The gasp that went round the room was shocking. I think it’s that gasp I’m most proud of. Completely destroyed peoples assumptions about me there!
Could you manage that game?! What crazy little things in your life are you proud of that aren’t so run of the mill?
A few weeks ago I was giving my housemate Arianne the highlights of my Tesco trip, as you do, which included a little anecdote about how I’d bought a couple of 4 packs of 4 finger kitkats, but when I’d rung them up at the self service checkout, they were listed on the receipts as packs of 5.
Arianne then told me just how boring that story was 🙂
Since then, we have started to use the phrase “as boring as the KitKat story” fairly often…
“Did I tell you about such and such? It’s probably as boring as the KitKat story”
“That was as boring as the KitKat story wasn’t it?”
So yea, my aim is to never be as boring as that! But at least I can now laugh it off when I’m boring by referring to the KitKat story!
Do you have a boring story to share?! (Someone suggested to me a story where they left sellotape in the garden overnight. Full stop.) Do you have any bizarre phrases like that that have become common to you?
ineke.co.uk 