From Under The Duvet..: May 2008

Friday, May 23, 2008

My Day

So I got a wee phone call at ten past seven from Jo – she wakes me up on Friday mornings. What would I do without Ms Jones?! And we (Jo, Annie, Al, Ana and I) headed to the prayer meeting which went well.

Then breakfast after the prayer meeting… always a lot of fun.

I then came back and had a nap. That kind of messed me about because when I woke up two hours later I thought it was a new day! Been having lots of dreams (or, rather, I’ve been remembering a lot of dreams recently) which is a bit weird…

Then I went into town to meet (Re)becca and we went to a milkshake place. When I say milkshake place I mean there may be one in heaven. Basically, you can get any milkshake flavour ever – think of all your favourite confectionary etc (oreo cookie, mars bar, love hearts, farley rusks(!), weetabix etc…) in a milkshake!

I got a malteaser one and they actually put the “flavour” (ie the chocolate or whatever) along with ice cream etc in a mixer. Utterly amazing…

There are fifty-seven options for milkshake (not including the ones you can mix up yourself!) so that’s less than £150. And if you had a loyalty card (buy nine, get one free) and spread it over the three years (or more) I may be here… That may not be too bad…

We wondered round town for a while and decided to get our hairs cut tomorrow (eek! I usually have to build myself up to that sort of nonsense but my hair is getting ridiculous). This will have been Rebecca and I’s fourth “date” in three days (dinner last night, milkshake and movie [later] today and hair tomorrow).

And we’ve decided to “right a wrong” in my life – that I’ve never really been to London! (Beyond Gatwick and going when I was a wee wee dote). We can go next week costing £16! And if we just dandered everywhere with a packed lunch we could do it rather cheaply!

I’ll definitely make it to London again at some point because I so want to go to Kew Gardens and go along the platform that’s in the tree canopy!

Then after briefly coming back here to have something to eat before heading out to see the latest Indiana Jones… It was a little bit unrealistic (but aren’t they all?) but my goodness… what a man! People say about Disney giving them unrealistic expectations about love but what man could live up to Dr Henry Jones Jr?

(I am joking… there may be someone who can live up to my estimation/expectation…)

Anyway, pretty tired. I’ve been watching some fascinating 4OD documentaries recently – 13 and Wanting More, In the Name of Jesus, Reverend Death and Jesus Camp. Maybe I’ll post some thoughts soon… or maybe I’ll post about a horrific hairdresser’s appointment. Who knows.

Labels: films, food, good days, p

Thursday, May 22, 2008

I’m not called Vicky… and another proposal

So today I had my exam and it hopefully went ok. Being in an exam room for three hours forty-five minutes nearly killed me but there we are.

I was enlisted to pick up the speaker (as in I go to the bottom of union steps and walk them to where the CU meeting is) tonight. Before I left I did what I was told to do last time I picked one up – I bought some water.

I was a little worried he couldn’t find the place as the minutes after the arranged time slowly ticked by but after a while he appeared – looking reasonably like his church website picture which is good since I decided identifying a speaker by being spirit-led might have disastrous consequences.

I said hello, shook his hand and exchanged names, and gave him the bottle of water. On the way to CU we got talking about what I did and what I will be doing this summer etc. A couple of minutes later we were at CU.

At start of his talk/just before the talk started he started saying how one thing he has learned in life is that it’s the small things that mattered and asked where the “Irish girl” who had met him was. He saw me and asked my name – which he heard as Vicky and I corrected him!

He went on to call me a charming Irish girl (you see, I am charming!) and how it’s doing the little things that counts.

I suck at the big things – I won’t change the world! I won’t save all the turtles on a beach. But I can do small things. I can spend 80p on a bottle of water (no, I didn’t steal it). I can spend a wee minute catching up with someone or praying for them. It’s the old you can’t change the world but you can for one person.

I really hope I can be faithful in the small things of life… that I wouldn’t just want to see God glorified in the mission trips and mission weeks… but that I would seek to bring glory to Him in every aspect of life.

I used the above example to remind me that I can do it… so much of my life isn’t a testimony to God’s grace. And, to be honest, I was just doing something without even thinking about it – hopefully nicer things will become second nature than what currently feels natural!

Anyway, I mentioned yesterday that I made malteaser buns… I took them to CU because I was going to give some to Jo and Ana – and of course to the NI contingent who would truly appreciate them!

It’s amazing to see the number of guys who come and say hello because you have a tin with you. Male co-pres came over and asked me how I was for the second time that evening – blatently just looking for a malteaser bun. Apparently I need to make them all the time/at committee meetings.

I gave one to another guy who said “marry me and make these every day”.

This is my second proposal. Both have been conditional – on food! The first was conditional on cheesecake.

What is it with guys and food? I was told though that if I turn down many more proposals I may turn into Jane Austen and never get married. I then reconsidered my eyebrow raising response and conceded to not say no but certainly not say yes just in case I’m 102 and never married. You never know…

But you certainly don’t need to buy a hat just yet! Until I get an unconditional proposal (ok maybe an unconditional on food, anyway)… and I don’t think that’s going to happen tomorrow! (Even if it did happen last night in a dream… North Coast and everything!).

Labels: CU, faith, food, God, love, romance

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

A lovely day

Today I got up and went to creche. When I found out that as I said I might not make it they had arranged other people and I wasn't needed I headed into town where I bought a 2008/2009 academic diary from Paperchase (same as last year).

Is it scary that I think about needing this diary already? I was looking through my diary the other day and noticed it started to get busy when I was asked to be on committee.. now? Well, it's not that bad at the moment because exams are the main focus.
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I then came back and did laundry (and I mean three loads of laundry... I was rather clumsy with a cup of tea and had to wash my dressing gown, bedsheets and pillow including everything else - I was down to five t-shirts..).
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While that was all going I tidied my room, hoovered and cleaned a little and organised things.
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This evening I made malteaser buns which I'm rather excited about trying!
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I even had princess shaped spaghetti hoops and toast for dinner!
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It has been such a lovely day - I will have the reward from my work as I pull out clean clothes tomorrow to wear and snuggle into fresh sheets this evening and taste the malteaser buns. There's something so satisfying in making your wee part of the world clean and tidy..

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Exam tomorrow that can't really be revised for (skills based).. yesterday's was horrific but I still think I've passed (at least I'm hoping - if I haven't I'll have to cancel some rather expensive flights to the States... something I don't want to do!). If I pass these it'll only be because God did a miracle.. No point worrying at the moment about those I've already done! Worrying demeans God.. Tomorrow's and then 6th June! Woop. I'll know around the start of July how they went.
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Labels: exams, good days, worry

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Heaven and Hell

My current definition of Hell might be a back that is so sore you can't concentrate on any revision one day and end up just curling up and wishing it would go away and is so sore at other times you don't sleep at all one night and only sleep from 7-11 other "nights". Still, it reminds me that I'm far from perfect... and just how ungracious I can be when I'm tired and in pain! Apologies guys...
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"A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, "Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like."
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The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in.
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In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water.
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But the people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths. The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The Lord said, 'You have seen Hell.'
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They then went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.
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The holy man said, "I don’t understand."
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"It is simple" said the Lord, "In this place the people have learned to feed one another."
Author Unknown

Labels: bad days, God

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Recent Conversations...

Several things were decided tonight on the way home from CU…

Firstly, that me having five children isn’t terribly unimaginable. If a number six comes along though? I’m tricking Jo into signing adoption papers (an idea she had a nightmare about recently, it says nothing about who I’d actually trust any very hypothetical children to!).

Secondly… oh, this one involves a back story. I was in a charity shop on Monday on my meandering back from exams (and trying to escape The Heat) and was just browsing (and escaping The Heat). The old dear, bless her heart, in charge of the shop felt the need to come over to me.

An aside - let me say how annoying it is for sales people to come over completely uninvited and give an opinion!

So she came over and told me they had just put out some white trousers “in your size” – I couldn’t see any white trousers in my size so asked where they were (note – old lady groups could very well be paramilitary organisations, be very careful…). She walked around the size 18, size 16 clothes dismissing them as “not your size”. And the first place she looked for the white trousers was size 12… and then she found them… in the size 14 section.

Well, apparently most university first years gain 15 lbs but I haven’t gained a pound since I did my GCSEs. And I assure you, my size is a lot lot littler than a size 12!

Anyway… it was decided that the old lady was blind but that my “fat sounding voice” misled her! That would be another Jo quote…

It was also decided that if you look at Jane Austen etc the worst characters are generally speaking the worrisome mothers. Among us one mother seems to be ok with things, another still asks if there are actually boys in Cardiff and another has firmly decided that the daughter is On The Shelf, at 19.

And apparently Jane Austen would turn in her grave at my thought of a relatively cute way (I have little in means of comparison) to start a relationship. Simply change your relationship status to “in a relationship with x” then, before you being in a relationship with x appears on the site she must confirm. Simple, to the point and avoids any sticky sort of embarrassing conversation.

Although you could argue that surely if you wanted to be in a relationship with someone you should be mature enough to actually have a conversation about it… I think it would be a little bit sweet and as I’m largely attracted to silly guys who aren’t always the most vocal maybe it would work?

And hitting “reject” to the “In a relationship” question would be much preferable to finding the millions of excuses necessary for the guys who live out the definition of persistence who just can’t get the message. The message being that it’s not that you’re always busy, you’d happily make time for him if you really wanted to, but you will always be busy for him.

Speaking of persistent things… there was a cockroach in the kitchen today. Oh the Animal Ark story that never was (Animal Ark being that series of books, you know Puppies in the Pantry, Kittens in the Kitchen, Labradors on the Lawn etc).

And after emailing my wonderful NI ministers on the topic of baptism and Baptists, and then mentioned the cockroaches in passing I got the reply: “They are shy little creatures that only come out at night, they like moisture and dark corners. They congregate in small groups and can be hard to get rid of........baptists that is.”

James or Marty guys? Who do you think it was? ;-)

It’s still ridiculously hot here, I’m a third of the way through the exams and utterly relying on God and his miraculous power…

Labels: church, CU, exams, romance, tongue in cheek...

Sunday, May 11, 2008

I have a dream...

Well, last night I had a dream in which I found out I was pregnant with my fifth child. The only other thing I remember about said dream? Shouting a lot at my husband!

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Stats exam tomorrow... I think I've figured out that I've already got at least 50% in this module (with an assignment handed in a couple of weeks ago worth 14% as well) and tomorrow is only worth 24% of the module. So I think I'm ok! Feeling ok about Wednesday's exam too but utterly terrified about Saturday and Monday exams!
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In other news, it's really rather hot here! 26 degrees in fact! At church this morning all the windows were open and people were still fanning themselves. Weird for Wales! There was also the cutest baby sitting perpendicular (oo, big word) to me and he was so adorable!
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(Explaining the perpendicular part: in Highfields there are two rows of pews down each side facing inwards, as well as a number of tiered seats at the back of the church, then in the middle there are just rows of chairs so it's rather flexible!).
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These are my favourite flowers in the world...
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This is what my summer looks like:
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Labels: dreams, exams, summer

Saturday, May 10, 2008

God, save the church from us...

Often I’ll have a little blog post in my head for a day or so (I get my "best" ideas in bed before I doze off) and as I wrote this one in my head I said “I guess if I’m wrong I’ll await the lightening bolts.” Well, I’m sitting here in a thunderstorm as the rain pours and lightening flashes and thunder rolls… Maybe I should take the warning? Maybe not…

Do you ever sit in a group of people and someone (or, even worse, you) says something and there’s just a pause as people go… “Did they, did they really just say that?” Utter embarrassment ensues.

Sometimes I wonder if God is sitting up “there” on a beanbag (I’m pretty sure there are bean bags in heaven, I can’t quote a verse or anything but… you know… I look forward to meeting that woman who cracked that jar of perfume to anoint Jesus and hanging out on some beanbags) watching us.

And He sees some of us and thinks “no… don’t do it… don’t say that… oh pants. did they really just say that?!” Like we tell people God has told us that we have to break up with them or that God has said that we shouldn’t do something (both can be valid, I’m talking about times when we say it’s God when we just don’t want to do something). And let’s not start on the topic of wars in the name of God.

I think sometimes God is sitting up there cringing at times with a Will Smith-esque “oh no they didn’t… oh they actually did…” commentary.

I think God would have something to say to all of us in church. Something like…

“That single mum you look down on and gossip about the shabbiness of her house? She is an amazing witness for me in her work place and actually trusts and depends on me to pay her bills. And I have a mansion prepared for her.”

“Those kids who you tell off for skateboarding on church ground? Do you have any idea who they will become if you accept and love them? I do… give it a go! By the way… there’s a skating park up here for them…”

I’d be quite shocked if I heard, “That old woman you roll your eyes at? She prays for you.” And I really need to work on my stereotypes!

I worry sometimes that God’ll actually take us up on some of those things we tell Him in those promising prayers… And I’m utterly terrified He’ll take one line of the most famous prayer in the world for real. “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

God, please don’t forgive me in the same way I forgive others… I suck at forgiveness! Instead the line should probably be “Help me forgive others in the astounding way you forgive me, help me to love others the way you love them…”

“The whisper cries out for God to save the church from us Christians and breathe new life into the ageing body.”

Shane Claiborne
The Irresistible Revolution

(A book I am utterly devouring at the moment, even if I should be revising. Seriously, stop reading this blog, go to Amazon, hit purchase or borrow it!)

Labels: church, faith, God, love

Friday, May 09, 2008

A Cynical Look at Lyrics...

Tonight Patrick, my 19 year old non gay gay best friend (he knows I call him this, it’s ok) came out with: “I think people get to a point were they're past their peak and have to realise they’ll never get married and I think I’m fast approaching that point”

What utter nonsense! But much banter was had as we chatted and we talked about some lyrics as I revealed what they really mean…

Aerosmith “Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”

“I could stay awake just to hear you breathing”

Really means… You snore so loudly I can’t sleep

“Watch you smile while you are sleeping”

When you’re awake you only nag...

“While you’re far away dreaming
I could spend my life in this sweet surrender”

She’s far away and it’s sweet?! What a great relationship.

“I don’t want to miss one smile
I don’t want to miss one kiss”

Note how he doesn’t say “I don’t want to miss one sight of your morning hair” or “I don’t want to miss you when you have the flu”

Any other cynics out there want to join in?

Labels: cynical, romance

Monday, May 05, 2008

Committee Goes to Tenby

So, committee went to Tenby. It was a fantastic weekend – we planned lots and bonded lots too. It was my second UK train trip (Coleraine to Belfast was my first last summer!) and that caused some disbelief!

There was the train there, fish and chips on the beach that night and prayer. The next morning… no one got up at 6am to go and swim. After breakfast we had a meeting. Break. Meeting. Lunch on the incredibly sunny beach! Then we had free time – some went to the beach to swim! I went with some of the girls to get food for dinner etc and then we went to the beach!

Another bit of a meeting and then dinner. After dinner (we had it around 8, I think) we went down to the beach and hung out. We then came back to sit around, sing and tell some rather amazing stories. One was hilarious and lasted 8 minutes! So amazing though.

We also played mafia… I was guilty the first two rounds and found out… we continued to play and the last game, lead by one of the evangelism secretaries, was hilarious. Dave introduced the idea that he may not have even given out the scrabble tile indicating you were the mafia but that he, the narrator, was killing people off. At the end of the game there were two people left alive but Dave refused to say who the mafia was. He didn’t realise that since I, the detective, was killed off in the first round I had had my eyes open and knew. Playing along, I didn’t say who was mafia.. which then led to the male co-pres and treasurer trying to get it out of me. Both failed and it was remarkably easy to escape.

On Sunday morning, after going to bed around 2am, again no one got up at 6am to swim! In fact by 8.30am, the time arranged for breakfast, none of the guys were up. This lead to four girls, complete with banging saucepans with utensils, sang “Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory”. The boys were somewhat less impressed… And apparently silent treatment was discussed. Turns out, some of the boys are really not morning people… However all was forgotten over the singing of many disney and other musical songs over breakfast.

Sunday was spent relaxing – singing, praying and a bible study. We then headed back to Cardiff which, thanks to some electrical fault on the line involved switching trains when we didn’t expect it. But it was all good – much banter was had and many funny stories were told – a broom story (for the third time that weekend!) and many funny school prank stories (laxatives in the toilet system, getting a cow onto the roof of the school, alarm clocks hidden all over the school, including in ceiling tiles..).

It was a great weekend with awesome weather, lots of bonding and talking and a lot of planning! I’m so excited about what this next year holds… God is so good!

Photos are on facebook for all you that way inclined…

Oh, and my parents completed the marathon today - in 15 minutes more than my best time! So my "record" is safe.. for now..

Labels: committee, CU, friends, good times, holidays

Thursday, May 01, 2008

It all worked out

So, Tuesday was awful. I tend to have a day as awful as Tuesday was about twice a year. It starts off that everything sucks and then it becomes everything sucks (in my head, there's a difference between those two things).
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And it was raining. I know that my mood should not depend on the weather. Especially when you spend eight months of the year in Cardiff Wales (and much of the other four months in Ireland!) but you do. When it is raining the tiniest thing seems worse. When it's sunny (like today) you can tolerate a lot more. I remember one of the first truely sunny days here after a lot of miserable ones - people were visibly skipping about the place!
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Anyway...
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So, the emails arrived. The room booking issue was not sorted exactly but worked around. I have one lecture left this year (what a terrifying thought). Revision.. ok, let's ignore revision. And.. my camera arrived! A beautiful wee Pentax Optio S10! Before the weekend.
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And yesterday was the joint prayer meeting which I organised. It involved getting people from the five CUs in Cardiff in one place so we could pray together - for one another and our city. And it went well! There were over twenty-five there (which may not seem a lot given that five CUs were represented but firstly some CUs have numbers of around fifteen and secondly it's more than have attended some in the past!).
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Although, I have a confession to make... I'm going to put it down to nerves but I said "let's just pray". I know. My very own pet hate. But I couldn't stop there - I realised what I'd done and said "oh no! I can't believe I said just" which very few people would have understood. But.. yeah. Male Co-pres said it went well (as he punched me on the shoulder) as did several others.
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And this weekend I'm off to Tenby on the committee weekend away! I have the schedule for the weekend - we've quite a lot of stuff to organise! As I read the schedule Friday night sounds good and then I got to Saturday - the first item on that was "6am - early morning swim" (Tenby appears to be the Portrush of Wales or something so when it says swim it means in the sea. The Irish Sea.) I was pretty sure it was a misprint or something. But, no, reading on through the document and there it was again, "6am - early morning swim", on Sunday! I'm assured it's optional.
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Hope you all have a lovely wee weekend! Although I'm hoping for good weather in Tenby more! The forecast does not look good... Having said that Cardiff a rain forecast today and the sun is splitting the trees...

Labels: good days, my week