So today at work I got an email from a colleague saying they’d found my blog on Compassion’s Blogroll.
I was pretty surprised. This is a personal blog, linked up with my personal email account – how on earth did they find me?! I’m not bothered by it at all, was just entirely curious!
It turns out a simple google search discovered my entry where I mentioned that I work for Compassion UK, and so I was bookmarked!
A simple reminder that nothing on the internet is as hidden as you assume it is!
So what with the long Easter weekend, and my brother Alan’s 20th birthday the Tuesday before, I decided to take Holy week off and head down south 🙂
Yesterday my brother and I did our bit for humanity and lost 470ml of blood for the first time. Seemed a nice thing for him to do on his birthday!
I was a little nervous, but knew they’d turn me down if I wasn’t healthy enough, so went in with a bit of confidence… the weirdest bit was probably feeling the warmth of the tube on my arm as it started, but other than that I didn’t feel anything!
Due to my history of slight panic attacks, I was a little lightheaded, and made the mistake of telling them this. It seems if you can’t confidently tell them you’re 100% A-OK then they have a procedure. They instantly put my bed flat, put a huge cushion thing under my feet, and the lady in charge came over and put a cool cloth on my face…. what a fuss – I was fine!! Nice to know they’re careful though I guess.
After plenty of squash and biscuits I headed back to the train station, to find that all trains to Romsey (just a 12minute journey away) were delayed “due to a vehicle hitting a bridge in the Romsey area”… again! Reminds me of that summer where I think 4 HGVs hit Greatbridge in a month? Though apparantly that bridge was clear this time, so we’re wondering if it was the bridge by Botley Road…. I’m sure this weeks Romsey Advertiser will reveal all…. it’s good to be home!
I knew that next month I start the long process of paying off my student loan.
I went on the student loans website, and used their calculator to work out what I will be paying back each month.
I put in my current debt of about £21,000 (for those of you who gasped, this is pretty standard for 3 years with the newish tuition fees) and my salary, and it came out with £57 a month for the next 300 months (25 years). This sounded pretty good until I read on…
After 25 years, the remaining balance of about £45,000 will be wiped. £45,000?! That’s double what I owe at the moment, even with paying £17,000 over those years. That’s a total debt of over TREBLE my initial borrowings…
There’s an option to voluntarily pay more back, but really, what is the point?!
Amusingly, what I borrowed to start with was about £19,000, which is closeish to what I’ll be paying back!
What a system ey?
I’ve been re-listening to my old Narnia audio books lately (and realising I still know them word for word!), but a few things have struck me while listening, and it struck me, can such respected literature have plot faults?
In The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, the second time Lucy goes into the wardrobe, she is followed a couple of minutes later by Edmund. Now we’re told that no matter how much time one spends in Narnia, it never takes up any of “our time”. Therefore, should Lucy not have come back out of the wardrobe before Edmund had the chance to get in? That could have changed the entire plot!
In Prince Caspian, Professor Kirk tells the children that they can’t get to Narnia the same way twice. However, in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Lucy goes through the wardrobe to Narnia no less than three times!
Also, whenever the children go back to “our world” they always end up in the clothes they were wearing when they went into Narnia, however, when they head back to Narnia, they don’t suddenly change clothes to whatever they were last wearing there!
On a completely different note, this is the first time I’ve listened to the Chronicles in Narnia in quite a long time (I’ve seen the films – not as good, and it’s a good while since I read the books too) and I’m just picking up so much more from them. They are fantastic as children’s books, but they just teach so much about God too! I bought a little book a couple of years back going into the biblical links in Narnia but I never got past The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe… I may well go back to it and see what else I’ve been missing!
I’m hoping I won’t find any more points to irritate me, so I’ll publish this post now, and hope that I don’t need to do a sequel!
So yesterday I was discussing with someone what system the country uses. The Americans see us as a pretty Metric place, and the Europeans see us as Imperial in comparison with themselves, so I thought I’d think through what I use more!
Any other forms of measurement I’ve missed?
In July 2005, shortly after the 7/7 attacks on the London Underground I went through a phrase of getting really quite down about the state of the world that we live in. How miserable it is, all the war, all the poverty, the way we’re gradually destroying it.
Talking about this with friends at the time, we discussed how we can at least appreciate that this world is only temporary. One day, we who have put our hope in Christ will go to a place infinitely better! This cheered me up massively, and I tried to keep this my focus each time something else happened in the world that was ready to plummet my attitude back down to the depths.
The last couple of weeks though I’ve needed to relearn this.
The Haiti stuff has hit me pretty hard. A place with SO much poverty, a place that was so poor before any of this happened, gets struck in such a way that some articles are saying they will take DECADES to recover. Part of the reason for this is the poverty that they were already in, that they couldn’t afford for strong enough buildings, for strong enough equipment to rescue those who were trapped. It’s most probable that had this event happened in the UK, US or any other developed (or whatever today’s PC term is) country, that the devastation would be nothing in comparison.
And because of this, I forgot all that I learnt four and a half years ago.
I think partly because I’m so much more involved in it this time, and seeing the pain that people are suffering, when while I have confidence in going somewhere better after this, who knows if these people know God.
There have been some amazing videos on the news of those in Haiti singing praise to God even amidst this devastation, which is awesome, but so many out there don’t.
I think I need to relearn the lesson I learnt back in 2005, and learn another one on top of it. Not quite sure what it is yet, but I’m sure God will teach me in His timing…
I went back to work on Monday 4th January and within 2 days it was snowing! The Wednesday was a snow day, but as my housemates have the capability to work from home, I was just sat watching DVDs and stuff most of the day, and the next day we went back to work… although we got there late and left early – arrived late due to snow, left early due to getting home safely! This gave me a couple of weeks off my bike, which was nice, although it meant getting up a lot earlier to get a lift!
The blog takes a more serious note from here:
On Wednesday 13th there was a bit more snow, so as we all got to work a little late and all bothered and whinging, word had been breaking of a devastating earthquake in the Central American country of Haiti – the poorest country in the western hemisphere.
For those of you who don’t know, I work for a Christian child sponsorship charity called Compassion UK. This means that the last week and a half at work have been a)emotionally draining b)busy and hectic! [You can donate to our Haiti appeal here if you are a sponsor, or here if you are not! Equally, if you’d prefer to donate to somewhere more general there’s always the DEC].
The last 2 weeks I’ve been taking it pretty hard, reading every news article I can lay my hands on, and I think *I’ve* got it bad? These peoples lives have been RUINED… current stats are something like 200,000 estimated dead. 1.5million homeless. Horrifying things to even try to comprehend, and each day at work there’s been news or absence of news on our projects out there. Just to give you an idea of what we’ve got, there’s all the up to date info internationally here or from the UK site here.
Then I take a step back.
I’m complaining that my week has been hard, emotional, draining… these people have lost everything, not that they had barely anything to start with. I feel awful for moping, then I feel awful for feeling awful, then I feel awful for feeling awful for feeling awful, it’s a vicious circle!
The best I can do right now is pray and donate. It’s all any of us can do now… and I’d encourage you to do what you can in that.
So the last ten years has seen my ageing from 11-year-old starting secondary school, to 21-year-old, out of University and working in the big wide world! I thought I’d put a few bits and piece on paper to sum up the decade that saw the entirety of my teens pass by (and my parents survive it!).
Faith
Although I grew up in a church and a Christian family, this was the decade that I gave my life to Christ. This is really the biggest part of my decade – and life! It’s not been plain sailing, Jesus never promised us an easy life if we followed Him, but still, best thing I ever did!
Education
So 1999-2004 was spent at The Romsey School, which I must say, was the worst uniform I’ve had to put up with in my life!
However, the time wasn’t totally wasted! I have 11 GCSEs A*-C to show for my time there:
A* Maths
A Music
A Physics
A Chemistry
A Biology
A German
B Textiles
B Geography
B Art
B English Language
C English Literature
(That was a proper memory test right there!)
2004-2006 Was spent at Barton Peveril College, which I much preferred! A college of 2000 students over 2 year groups, no uniform, free periods, calling teachers by first names, and a great group of friends!
This wasn’t without exam results either, 4 A Levels for me here!
A Maths
A Further Maths
A Computing
B Physics
So all suitably geeky, and these days I suppose I should point out that this was before A* A Levels existed!
It’s amusing how each educational level gives you less qualifications, The University of Bath only gave me the one degree, but I think that’s enough! I was there from 2002-2009 and absolutely loved parts of it! Just for consistencies sake cos I’m weird, I got…
Lower Second Class Bachelor of Science in Mathematical Sciences
Or at least I think that’s what it was called properly! I do think 2:2 sounds a little nicer than Lower Second, but oh well 🙂
I met some amazing people at University, the Christian Union was probably the highlight here. With an average attendance of 150ish people it was virtually a ‘church from church’! Just felt like family. I miss them all a lot!
There’s far too many people and photos to put just one here, but if you’re reading this on facebook there should be all sorts around!
Work
So apart from a couple of summer jobs, my main Saturday/holiday work was at Oasis Christian Centre. Amazing place there!
Then this year, incase you missed it, I graduated from University and needed to find a proper job! I’ve found a great job at Compassion UK which is great! I am a database specialist, and so get to use my academic skills in a role than enables and works for a charity whose purpose is “releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name”, I feel massively privileged to be placed here!
So it’s Christmas Eve (though we’re not in the drunk tank!) and I thought I’d briefly tell you about the 2 Christmasses so far!
Christmas #1
Sunday was our House Christmas. So after the morning Carol Service at Chertsy Street I dashed off home to start helping with lunch 🙂
Around half 1 we were all pretty hungry, and knowing that lunch wouldn’t be for a LONG time yet, we had microwaved mince pies and homemade mulled wine, both of which were lovely!
We had put up the tree on Saturday, which had involved an argument as to what tinsel is made of, metal or plastic. My arguement was that it was plastic (which is correct!), but my reasoning was flawed. I said that it wasn’t sticking to radiators and that was why… ah well, I was right in the end!
The arguement on Sunday was over a song which I can’t remember for the life of me, but while I claimed that it was the Jackson 5 singing, Jay insisted it was Hanson… this time he was right!
Lunch was incredible. Between us we consumed: an entire chicken, a tray of roasted potatos parsnips and carrots, 24 pigs in blankets, a tray of sausagemeat stuffing, some cranberry sauce, and that’s all i remember for now! We had an apple strudel in the oven, but none of us could face it after! So once we could move again we did secret santa presents, that we all seemed pleased with, I got some nice warm gloves.
Headed off to church again in the evening for a lovely candle lit service, so all in all it was a great house Christmas!!
Christmas #2
Tuesday was Christmas at work 🙂 So in the morning, we had communion at prayers, and then Santa arrived!! He doled out all the secret santa presents, so I got some lovely fruity toiletries, even some bath pearls that i haven’t had since I was little! ….that truly remained secret though!
We left at 4 due to weather/people needing to go home to get spouses, and so headed to someones house for a little while to get ready and stuff, and then went to a lovely hotel for dinner 🙂
Unfortunately, my lovely colleagues had misled me as to the size of the portions. I had been informed that they were rather small, so I ordered soup for a starter. It turned out that the portions were rather large. So after my lovely soup, I was pretty full! I ate about a sixth of my dinner, and maybe a third of the Christmas pudding… woops!
Lovely time though!
Stayed at Sue’s that night since I had no way to get back to Guildford, and got a train back in the morning before heading to lovely Romsey!
Today we did a tour of some Clewers, which is always fun, and had the other side of the family over this evening, which includes some little ones, which was great! Midnight service tonight to lead into Christmas proper.
For now we just watch some good Christmas TV and admire the sculpture my brother created from Duplo that was out for the little ones early!
Merry Christmas and Happy and Peaceful New Year to you all!!
I obviously need big things to happen to blog, but at least it means I’m not drowning you in dull day-to-day nonsense like I used to!
So this last weekend I popped over to Bath again. Leaving bright and early Friday morning I popped into Guildford then off to the Westcountry 🙂 After choking on a hot chocolate at Reading station (yes people gave me looks!) I got to Bath around lunchtime and met Jenni for lunch. This was a very good lunch indeed – Hot Christmas Pudding Shakeaway – HIGHLY recommended! After she went off to buy the contents of Sainsburys to feed a LOT of people I went off and became a tourist 🙂 Lots of photos to be found on facebook!
Around 3 I had the fantastic idea of walking up Bathwick hill. That was a sarcastic fantastic.
Bathwick Hill is about a mile of constant uphill. I only attempted it twice my entire time at uni, but thought why not! Fortunately I bumped into Jayne halfway up and had a chat and a breather!
Once on campus I met up with Ben for a drink (another hot chocolate – I’d had so much that day that I couldn’t even finish it!) and popped over to the Doctors …really must register in Guildford soon!
Had a pizza for tea with Tash – I miss student prices!! it was good pizza too, we sat on a bench in the dark by the lake!
That evening we had a bit of culture, we went to see Aaron in Twelfth Night. I remembered studying it at school, but not much about it. As the play went on I recognised bits and it all got a bit more familiar, but Shakespeare is hard work on the brain on a Friday night! We all came out of it feeling pretty snobbish and proud of ourselves for being cultured though 🙂
This was followed by a trip to the pub since it was Aarons birthday, and we met Dr John Stark as he had become that day! All a bit celebratory! At half 12 they kicked all us sober Christians out, but the house I was staying at was only over the road, so we went across and chatted there til about half 2… I really don’t know when I last did that, I miss it! That night I slept on a sofa bed that is more comfortable than my bed here, that was kind of sad, but lovely!
Saturday was Gemmas birthday, so we went to Cribbs Causeway in Bristol for IceSkating and dinner, all good fun, though by this point I’d mislaid a glove somewhere 😦
We got a bus back to Bristol Parkway train station, and then the aim was to get a train to either Temple Meads or straight to Bath… so of course we ended up on one to Birmingham New St…. the first stop is Cheltenham Spa, which is halfway there, so that was a fun excursion!
I slept on Lauras floor that night. It’s very strange being guest of someone you used to live with, it’s hard to know how guestlike to be!
Sunday morning at Hay Hill was an all age nativity FANCY DRESS service – fantastic! we had Marys, Josephs, Shepherds, Animals and Angels. Some people had really gone to town on their outfits! I just had a blue scarf on my head as Mary!
After a manic 48 hours or so I realised I had no plans for lunch or the afternoon, so after texting a couple of people I headed to The Whole Bagel for lunch 🙂 and sat on a bench and listened to all the buskers who’d turned out for the day, including a guy murdering Pachelbel’s Canon on his violin, accompanied by drums and an electric guitar… and a load of Cheerleaders singing carols at the top of their lungs!
I spent a good couple of hours that afternoon in Cafe Nero with Ruth which was lovely, and saw Rachel for a bit too 🙂
Killed my last couple of hours back at Pulteney Terrace where I spent Friday night, and learnt the dream game – can’t decide if I love it or find it weird!
Then I got a train back to Guildford and went to bed
The End!
ineke.co.uk 
