ineke.co.uk

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!

I was massively privileged this weekend to be able to cook for the lovely people of Bath CU. Each year a few graduates come back to help with the cooking, this year for 140 people!!
Just thought I’d share a few of the highlights!

• Singing washer uppers
  After each meal, 3 or 4 bedrooms were on rota to wash up and clean up the dining hall. Everyone was so helpful, and got it all done rather efficiently. But the most entertaining sqaud as it were, were easily the boys that did the washing up after Saturday lunchtime. To retain their manliness they decided to sing…. ok that doesn’t sound any more manly, but it was manly songs, so starting with Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, and carrying on from there, Jerusalem, Bread of Heaven, etc!
• Beat boxing shine Jesus shine
  No CU weekend away is complete without the Caberet, and this year did not disappoint! Proper funny compereing (seriuosly!) broke up acts such as Chucklevision, the Fletch Sketch, and CU Blind Date (that assured us that CU *is* a dating agency – didn’t work for me!) was a very special performance of Kum Bah Yah. This started with a verse of “Someones singing Lord” and then moved into “Someones beatboxing Lord” which included some rapping from Aaron, and a fantastic rendition of Shine Jesus Shine 😀 best song EVER!…. and closed with an acapella “O Lord Kum Bah Yah”. Stunning!
• Late night ceilidhing
  After the caberet finished around 11pm, we were told to meet back in half an hour with shoes on for a suprise, which was a Ceilidh. It made for a really brilliant evening, I really enjoyed myself and even though my feet hurt, it was great fun! Probably the most time I got to spend seeing people properly too!
• Stolen roast lunch
  Obviously most of my time there was spent in the kitchen. Saturday I was in there 7.30am-09.30am, 10.30am-2pm, 3.30pm-8.30pm, and on the Friday we didn’t finish clearing up until 11.30pm. So we really appreciated the food once we got to eat it!
  So for the roast dinner for Sunday lunch, I was less than impressed when we joined our table to find that all the food had been shared out between the 7 boys sat there, leaving none for us 3 from the kitchen! Fortunately there were a few spares left for seconds, so we ate them, and severely warned them if the same thing happened with dessert!!
• Familiarity and closeness
  I really valued the time I got to spend with people this weekend, it was SO good to see people I knew well, people who would instantly put an arm round me to say hi, and who I just know and love! I don’t really know anyone well enough for that around here really. There is just a closeness within Bath CU where we all saw so much of each other, not just in main meetings, and it was like being back with family this weekend. I got quite upset when I got on the train back, because who knows if/when I’ll see some of them again… not a nice thought.

I also didn’t realise how much I’d missed the city of Bath. When I walked out of the train station on Friday lunchtime, I just grinned, it was such a good feeling to just be back there. I was only there for an hour, so I’ll have to go again soon and have a slightly less stressful weekend and just enjoy it there… and hopefully see people again!

So in summary, amazing weekend, amazing people who I already miss massively, but such a blessing to have had that time! (Always good to end sounding soppy 🙂 )

Both on the same day too!

Wallace & Gromit Google Doodle

Sesame Street google doodle

So I’m now at my 10th week of work, and thought it might be time to say hello again!

Hang on, I’ve moved house since I last blogged, dear me, right, let’s start from the beginning!

I now live in a house in Guildford with 3 other people, and work in Weybridge. It’s a bit of a trek!

I tried various methods of getting to work, and I’m now cycling to Guildford train station in the morning, and then from Weybridge train station to work, then the same in reverse! Totals 5 miles a day in 4 10min slots, so sounds kinda healthy!

This means I bought a folding bike so they’d let me on the train. I had a puncture within 4 days, but since then it’s been fairly ok! …she says, let’s just wait until morning!

I’ve found a church here too, I go to Chertsey Street Baptist Church. The people are so friendly, every week someone else I don’t know introduces themselves!

Cycling there Sunday morning was more than interesting, I was neck to ankle in waterproofs, and still got soaked from the neck up and ankles down!

In other news, there was a mini tornado in Romsey today, that my dad wasn’t even aware of!

I seem to be reading the BBC website a lot more these days, which the links I post on facebook reflects!

Big news a week or two ago was that I built my own desk, which I was so proud of!

So yes, in summary, enjoying work, enjoying a bit more independence, and enjoying having a little money that’s not borrowed from the government!

And will try to blog here again before the new year!

In a couple of senses of the phrase!

1st
This summer I lose my uni web space, so this is what I am transferring to, you can see at the top there’s still pages for bible verses, quotes, etc! I’m really not sure how often this blog will get used, but it is the homepage, so for now I’ll leave this post sat here… see how often I update it!

2nd
Saturday I move home from Uni for good! (well, apart from 6 days in July when I’m here but with a suitcase, but this Saturday is the proper moving home time!

If I find the time I’ll import my old blogs here, it shouldn’t take long if I just sit down and do it, but it’s finding the time when I don’t have something more important like job applications to be doing!

Oh, and the good news of the day, I got a 2:2 in my degree 😀