p.s. 1) Antiques Roadshow !!!

Having said I'd sign out, there are a couple more things I just wanted to mention, which I think deserve their own posts ! 1) The antiques Roadshow was in Bristol today ! (In the Wills Memorial Building.) So, as it's not everyday you get to see the BBC filming, this afternoon I went down with a friend to have a poke around. It was quite fun seeing all the lights and cameras, and queues of people waiting to see the experts. Also fun to see all the Memorabilia on sale - they had everything you could want, from rubbers to postcards you could get signed to tea towels and of course, the Antiques Roadshow book ! Anyway, do look out for the show on sunday afternoons. Apparently it's being broadcast fairly soon as it's the last programme of the current series. Would be quite fun to watch, and I might even be in the background of a shot somewhere ! So, if anyone hears when it's on, do let me know !

Bath and other things

As it always is, these two weeks (last week and this) before the end of term are proving manic. So many things going on, and too much to do with too little time to do it in. Good things, just lots of them :-) But in the midst of that busyness, I've had a lovely couple of days this weekend. On saturday we went on a flat outing to the Bath Christmas market. It was fun to wander round, and great to hear the brass band playing and see all the Christmas decorations...we then came back and had our Christmas flat meal - lots of food, a secret santa, then lots of clearing up and a bit jamming session at the end :-)

Sunday (yesterday)...in the morning service several of my friends got baptised, which was really exciting! I was also asked to sing in the worship band, which I enjoyed - recently people have been getting me to sing more and more, and it's great. Singing at the front is never something I thought I could do. But I've always loved singing, and I love the fact that I can give that gift God's given me back to Him, and use it to help other people to worship Him too. It's really amazing ! (And I do feel ever so slightly less terrified singing on stage now than I did, so I can focus on worshipping more than on just hitting the right notes !) Then we had a reception and lunch for all friends and family of those who were baptised. Then a friend who was visiting Bristol for the weekend came round, we had a bit of a jam, then went to the Christ Church carol service together. Day was finished off with an amazing pizza (I highly recommend Pizza Provencal in Clifton), a bit more of a jam, then watching forest gump on tv with flatmates. All in all a good weekend.

And so...monday morning again. Ready to face another busy week ? Well, not really. But I'm sure it will be a good week. Just need to try to be sensible about fitting in enough sleep somewhere there ! :-)

(Bath Abbey, with one of the stalls of the Christmas market in front.)

Mehh...

Humpf. Have just downloaded Internet Explorer 7 by mistake, and I don't like it !! :-( The font is weird, and I keep going down to the taskbar to open my other webpages, forgetting that they're now tabs instead (obviously window's alternative to firefox). Also, I can't find the same options that I use - I don't know anymore how to change the privacy settings, save as favourites, or generally change any browser options. I guess I'll probably get used to it after a while of fiddling...I just don't like change :-P

In other news...I really enjoyed the pub lunch and walk with W3 on sunday afternoon. (For some photos see the w3 blog ). It was very very muddy on the walk and I only just got back in time for being on duty by the skin of my teeth (well, I was a few minutes late, but Lois will have to forgive me) but it was great to feel like being family together. I sat with a few W3 people on sunday night too. Really feel like I'm starting to get to know a few people :-)

Also, Livesoc last night went ok. I was quite critical of my performance (as I guess a performer always is) and knew I could have sung better, but I had some very positive comments from people, so apparently it was ok :-) And I enjoyed the rest of the evening too, a couple of non-livesoc good friends came along and I sat with them. The headlining band (Bizali) were awesome :-)

What a way to wake up !

I was woken up this morning by a strange golden light at my window and the sounds of what sounded like hail on my window ! I dragged myself out of bed, and sure enough, I could see hail stones running down my window. That in itself was amazing, but what was even more amazing was that out of the corner of my eye I saw an amazing rainbow, just settled over some of the houses ! I managed to capture it on camera (getting quite wet in the process) just before it disappeared and the sky became almost cloudless and bright blue; you'd never have known what had just happened; I would never have known if I hadn't just looked at that moment.



I've had an odd few weeks: first of all with a flu-like thing knocking me out quite substantially for a few weeks, then being lifted out of that, but then this week having such an extremely busy week that I get to the end of the week and feel I've had hardly a moment to catch my breath and just be. But in the midst of all that, God still manages to catch my attention in quite an amazing way, and stop me for a minute in the midst of all that. I have a very busy (but exciting) weekend, and am already quite tired, but I know that God is with me. And I will have to make a bit more time in my only slightly less busy week next week to be still and to rest.

Fireworks !!!

Yaaay !!! Fireworks are so pretty ! (I'm quite pleased with how my photos came out actually). Had a really good evening. A friend came round at 5.30, we had supper then walked up to the fireworks. I did actually meet several people I knew (even in that huge crowd!) I also managed to meet up with W3 pastorate people (the pastorate at Woodies which I've just started going to), and walked back with them, and sat with them while they all ate curry. Was very cool. I also always think it's so amazing, just that sheer number of people walking back down Whiteladies Road after the fireworks on the Downs. It must be one of the few events in the year where the whole of Bristol seems to come together. Amazing.

Anyway...what's all this rubbish about me spending less time on the internet :-P But I had actually better go get some sleep now, especially as I'm only just starting to recover from being a bit ill ! So goodnight for now, and I hope everyone else had good bonfire night saturday evenings too :-)

More shameless toilet humour

One more post, to leave you with before I really do go. Some of you may remember the first post with this title "Shameless Toilet Humour"on Jammin's blog. Well, this is a follow up...kinda...I saw this sign in the Ladies Toilet in a service station on the way to Bristol yesterday, and just had to take a picture. Unlike the pic on Jammin's blog, I really did take this one, and I think this campaign was deliberate, lol. Enjoy !!!

Bristol Festival of Nature

I've had an interesting day today. I was down at the Bristol Festival of Nature all day. It was really amazing - this time around, all the stalls and everything were outside and filled millenium square ! It was gorgeous weather, walking around in the sun all day did make me quite hot though (lucky I had my hat, sunglasses and some water!) There were so many things to see and do. I met a lot of nice people at the various things I went to, and I bought some very nice tomatos and chocolate brownies from the real food market. I also went to several different talks - one by Adam Hart-Davis (amazing speaker!), one which was a preview of something coming on tele in August showing the story of how Philippa Forrester and her husband found an abandoned otter and hand reared it so it could go back to the wild, another talk about the use of music in natural history films (amazing).

But the thing which I think struck me most was the Weeeman (see picture below). This is a sculpture which is comprised of 3.3 tonnes of electrical waste (e.g. toasters, irons, computers...) - the amount of this kind of waste that ONE PERSON will send to landfill sites during their life. It has quite an impact when you see it. There is currently a new piece of EU legislation, the 'waste electrical and electronic equipment' directive, aka the WEEE directive which will force manufacturers to become responsible for what happens to their products at the end of their lives, thereby hoping to reduce the amount of this weee which is sent to landfill. It was interesting going to another talk, or more like an interview actually, with Paul Bonomini, the guy who designed the sculpture. He told us that despite our government saying that the environment is top of the agenda, actually it is only the UK and Malta who are currently (out of Europe) not implimenting this WEEE directive. (Here I get onto ground I must tread carefully on, as nothing is as black and white as it may appear of course, but a lot of the reason for this is apparently industry fighting hard against it). The sculpture was mainly designed to make people think, and to cause a stir/increase awareness; also to make this issue accessible to people. He has quite a privilidged position of being a designer who is in contact with industry, and there is the opportunity to use art to make these kinds of messages heard. He told us that industry is actually making progress along the route of recycling more etc, but that there is still a very long way to go, and that more pressure from the public is needed. And of course, although industry does have a big responsibility, as he said, we do all need to take individual responsibility too.

I also liked what was said about how Martin Luther King didn't stand up and say 'I have a nightmare'. That so much about the environment at the moment is negative. But what we need to be doing is to be giving people a vision which they can work towards, and be positive towards the environment !

Anyway, enough of me ranting...especially cause I'm not really doing the day justice. But do go and have a look at the website of Weeeman, as it'll have a much better explanation than I just tried to give, and if you get a chance to go down to the harbourside, do go and have a look at the sculpture as it'll be there til 19th June.

I'm old(er)

Well, I'm now officially 21 ! (As of about 9.09am this morning). I have to say, I don't feel 21, in fact I don't feel any different from yesterday. (I think I'm actually still stuck with thinking I'm about 16 - I now have to think hard before I answer any questions from people who ask me how old I am !!) But then, I think that's probably always going to be true !

I had some time off this morning, and went shopping with Mum. Will have tonight off too, and tomorrow evening we're going to the theatre. But for just now, I have about 4 hours or so in which to get some more revision done...back to ABC transporters, woo !!

p.s. I hope everyone's enjoying the AMAZING weather !!! (Makes me wish I'd brought some of my summer skirts back home with me !)

p.p.s. I haven't opened many presents yet, but Mum, Dad and Al did get me a REALLY cool helium balloon (haven't had a helium balloon for a long time !) See the photo for yourself :-)

My housemates are amazing !

(It was maybe just as well I didn't get to go to the Louisiana gig tonight). After Vicki 'subtly lured me' downstairs at about 10, I found that they'd made me this amazing cake, and blown up lots of balloons, and got me some presents, and made me a really cool card (with a tail on it - not many people can say they have a 21st birthday card with a pink tail on it, lol.) Was so cool. Completely unexpected, but amazing. We then remained downstairs for the next few hours and they proceeded to introduce me to this programme called Lost - which a few of you may have heard about recently ;-) It's very weird...but strangely addictive too. I had resisted throughout series 1, but I may have to give in to series 2 - especially if it's going to continue being a house event, which is quite fun really. However, not really what I need during exams - another TV programme to get addicted to ! Now to get some sleep, before getting the train home tomorrow morning, so I can have another 21st birthday on my proper birthday on friday :-)

Amusing sign

This made me laugh this evening, so I thought I'd share it with you all:



I took it from this site. Some very amusing photos. In other news, my head got to the point at about 6 this evening where it felt like it was going to explode with all the information in it ! I had a couple of hours break to cook and eat supper, but I think I'll now have to stop for the day now and get some sleep and come back fresh tomorrow. Too much to learn in 2 weeks. Am going home again on wednesday for about a week which will be good.