Google bombs

I learnt many things over this last weekend. One of which, is that you should go to google, type in french military victories, and click "I'm feeling lucky". It's quite amusing. I won't tell you what happens as it will spoil the surprise !

In other news, this weekend is the Bristol Festival of Nature. You may remember me mentionning it about this time last year. It's a great event; great for a day out. Do go check out the website and this year's programme. I'm not sure whether I'll make it down this year, but I'm sure it will be good as always.

W3 weekend away

A couple of hours ago we got back from the W3 pastorate weekend away. I am quite exhausted, purely from the drive back I think (as I slept fairly well on the weekend) but it was an amazing weekend. It was quite unlike any other weekend away I've been on. I'm used to, when you go on a weekend away, everything being very regimented in terms of timings and packing as much in as possible. But it was really refreshing to have a weekend away which was just that, a weekend away; where it was really chilled, with a retreat-like feel, where we could just have fun hanging out with each other and with God (I almost didn't know what to do with myself at the beginning, but then it flew by so fast!) We did have so much fun. I couldn't possibly do justice in summing it up, but some of the highlights included the drives down and back, the beach on saturday afternoon, the French evening on sat (some amazing costumes - photos going up on facebook soon), the worship time this morning, the duck race in Porlock (very funny), and just hanging out with friends. Basically, it was all great.

I love W3 so much and am so glad I joined this year. It takes a little while to feel comfortable anywhere, and there are still so many people I don't know too well, but at the same time, W3 does contain some of my best friends at church. And what I love most about W3 is just that sense of being family. That's what it felt like this weekend - just hanging out with each other as family. It got me thinking about how, it's not just a case of how W3 'feels' like family. Actually, we ARE family. We're all part of the body of Christ; sons and daughters of Christ (the whole Church - in the widest sense, not just W3). So we ARE family. That is our identity, whether we accept it or not. It's just a case of how well do we live out of that new identity, showing that it is true. (Something I've been thinking about a lot, not just in terms of family. Cause that's what a lot of the Christian life seems to be about - we HAVE been given this new identity; it's learning to live out of that and to live believing that it's true.) It's difficult being family a lot of the time. We can annoy each other, have the potential to hurt each other more as we're so close. But when it works, it's amazing.

Another hard thing about family is leaving. When I go home for a bit to see my family and then leave again, I feel SO homesick. Like a big part of me has been torn out. I'm beginning to feel that maybe this year, W3 and generally Woodies has been beginning to also feel a bit more like a second family. My wider family. I'm scared that if I end up leaving Bristol at the end of this year, I'll feel homesick in the same way; like a big part of me has been torn out. For that reason I find it hard sometimes to let myself get close to people, when there isn't anything I want more really. But I do know that, as people have said to me, that family is family. I'll still be welcomed back when/if I stay/come back. And there is a wider family I'm part of now, which I'll always now be part of. And even if I do end up leaving Bristol, that won't stop be being a part of that amazing family, and God will find me another part of his family to start to belong to.

I think being family with one another is something we're all learning how to live out and something which we will be working out for the our whole lives. But personally, I think the start W3 has in this area isn't too bad :-D

computers, grrr...

Is it just me, or does anyone else hate applying for jobs ? I always feel so vulnerable. Ok, so I've just sent someone I've never met a letter, CV and application form e-mail trying to sum up everything I am and have ever 'achieved', in a worldly sense and why I'd be perfect for this job you're advertising. And it's not just that sense of vulnerability - I could cope with that if it wasn't just so annoyingly complicated ! It has just taken me, basically a whole afternoon and evening to try and apply for one job. My computer being annoying hasn't helped - I had to type out the covering letter three times before it let me save it and print without crashing (I was getting good at writing it by the end). Then, to top that off, I think I've finished then realise that I've just printed out my CV and covering letter with the wrong Bristol postcode on them, so I need to reprint, but my computer won't reopen them without crashing !!! And I still have to pack for the W3 weekend away. My Mullers assignment won't get done tonight now. Grrr.

Am feeling better now, apart from the left-over cough (sounds worse than it is now) and feeling of being drained of energy - which staying up til midnight applying for a job I probably won't even get doesn't help ! So what am I doing writing this you might ask ? I don't know. Perhaps giving my computer some time to decide it would like to be nice to me again ?! (I can hope anyway). I'd better crack on anyway. I just hope I can get SOME sleep on the W3 weekend away. Lol.

Vern strikes again...

I've not been wonderfully well (again!) the last couple of days. Vern has been creeping up on me gradually during the last week, but he finally got me about thursday evening. The reference (as a few of you might be aware) is to a blog post Rhys made a few months ago, when he was ill. I completely agree with what he said (apart from the bit about the whiskey), especially the bit about the "bin resembling a snow-capped Himalayan mountain from all the tissues" - that is how mine does look at the moment ! He puts it much more eloquently than I ever could.

I'm already a lot better than I was on thursday evening and friday - I even slept well last night and have been hungry at meal times again today ! And I'm sure it will pass completely in a few more days (I hope.) It's just so annoying. I don't like taking time off and cancelling things, as I feel like I'm letting people down. And I'm not much good at resting either - there's only so many films one can take in a weekend before you wish you could just get back to doing 'normal' things again. It would be ok if I could use this time I have productively, say doing some of the reading I have to do for my next theology assignment (which is now going to probably be in late) or applying for jobs, but I can't concentrate. I guess if I could, then I wouldn't be ill or be able to justify time off :-D

I also try and put what I'm going through into perspective, and think of how this will pass soon, some of my flatmates have also had similar things recently, and that it's absolutely nothing in compared with what some people experience every day of their lives! Yet, somehow that perspective is nigh impossible to hold onto when you can't breath without really concentrating and your head and ears feel like they are about to explode ! Well, I just hope that Vern doesn't stick around to get any of my other flatmates, especially during this exam season.



p.s. On a more cheery note, The New Root were truly amazing on monday !!! Thankfully I wasn't ill earlier in the week and so was able to go to the gig ! Do check out some of my photos in my public facebook album . (They're not great pictures, but will give you an idea.)

New Root gig TOMORROW (monday) @ the croft

I know most of you who read this know already, but in case any of you don't...The New Root are playing tomorrow night (as flyer above - I now have a scanner so can do clever things like putting flyers up on my blog!) They are an awesome band musically and great people too :-) It should be a really fun night, so do come down if you're around. Bands are on from 9, New Root playing second (out of the three) just after 9.30.


p.s. I didn't watch the main bit of it, but I caught the results, and was fairly pleased to see that last night Serbia actually won (despite all the political voting). It's been a good few years since I actually correctly predicted who would win. Wow !

Oh dear !

A slightly lighter post than my last one :-) It's another Eurovision final this saturday. Held in Finland, after getting distracted from work and looking through some of the acts (as shown on the BBC news website) I can see that it promises to be an interesting evening. Acts ranging from dance, to 'typical eurovision', to heavy rock and songs about vampires ! But have you seen the UK entry ? Honestly, go and watch the music video on their myspace. So funny (intentionally?) - I think (unless I am drastically mistaken) that the UK are due for another year of low points. The band has many similarities in my mind with Steps, not that it's entirely a terrible song completely, fairly catchy etc, but it's just so unoriginal - and it seems to be a balance between originality, so a song sticks out, and the kind of songs people always like that win (last year as an exception, where 'originality' did win it). I hate using the word cheesy, but if it applied anywhere, it would be here. The music video is so funny - the bit which finally cracked me up was where the whole plane starts bopping in time with the beat (go have a look). Well, we shall see what happens on sat. As we know, anything can happen at Eurovision. Personally, I quite like the entry from Serbia (no 3 in the BBC article) and I hope it gets through to the final and does really well (semi-finals tonight). And, much as I love the Swiss, I really hope that Switzerland do really badly (although, knowing Eurovision I doubt it unfortunately.)

In other news, I turned 22 last saturday ! (Hoorah!) I had a lovely restful weekend at home and am really grateful to everyone who sent me texts/facebook messages and cards etc. I have such amazing friends ! :-)