Carrying Camping...

Well, I've managed to pack my life (or at least what I need until Tuesday) into the biggest rucksack I've ever seen, because this weekend I'm off to the Greenbelt Festival! :o)



The boots are there as a size comparison (size 6), plus they are also new and I'm rather pleased with them. They also claim to be "Rabbit" coloured, or so the box would have you believe!



Anyway, I need to get some sleep as I got 4 hours last night (3:10-7:10am) and I have to be up at 7:30am tomorrow to get to , and for the next 4 nights I'm sleeping in a tent.

Sweet dreams!

Magical Mystery Tour

Well, after Bish's post about where he's been this summer and my comment about all the places I'd been, I thought I'd work out my mileage (ignoring within town travels)...

And it looks like it's 1935miles! (plus another 200miles for Greenbelt next weekend).



Also, Chris & Rebecca have asked me to be maid-of-honor/chief bridesmaid in their wedding next July (07/07/07!), in North Baddesley. I've never been a bridesmaid before, so I'm rather excited.

A little concerned though, cos the week before is Dave & Marie's wedding (in Reading) and I'm going to that too (Michael's an usher). And in the week in between, I'm being observed for my final placement. That's going to involve a LOT of travelling and rather a lot of stress! And a lot of fun, of course!!

Long time, no see

This weekend, I headed up to Solihull for Rachel & Olly's wedding. Sadly, I have no photos to show, as I ended up without my camera for the majority of the day. One of the best men took our overnight bags to put somewhere safe & out of the way, and it wasn't until about 10 minutes later that I realised my camera was in there. So, thus, I have no pictures of that.
Overnight, Michael & I stayed over where he did his gap year in Quinton and went to St.Boniface Church on Sunday. They were very friendly and the service was really good.
Michael's parents (& Richard) then picked us up from there and dropped me in Banbury, on their way to dropping Michael & Richard in Salisbury for a choral singing course. I then caught the train back to St.Albans, which was an incredibly easy journey, with trains arriving as I got the platform at just about every point. I might be heading to Salisbury towards to end of the week if I can find anywhere to stay.

For the past 2 days, we've had some friends staying from Cheshire. They (Rosemary, Kathryn & Nicola) have stayed at ours for a few days over the summer most years for about the last fifteen! We spent most of the time talking, playing games and not much else. :o) They had my room, so I had a folding bed on the lounge, which set me thinking of all the places I've stayed over this past term (I took the start of the summer term as an arbitrary start point). I came up with 12 different beds, and that doesn't include the multitude of trains I've fallen asleep on!

And on the subject of bedrooms, I have a place to stay in Scarborough. :o) The room is very small, but since I can't take much with me, and will have to come back on the train usually, it should be fine.







I think that'll do for now.

Sorry, could you repeat that?!

Ok, I have gathered up all the little bits of paper that have been kicking around my room with quotes written on them and have presented them here for your entertainment:

Michael: I've got some working batteries - they just don't work.

Dave M: Who? Who? Who? Do I have to turn into an owl? Who!?
Michael: Twit.

Steve C: There's only 4 of my aunt.

Fish: I've found a lot of girls that are less feminist than me.

Fish: I'd better leave - I have an urge to tape bananas in unusual places.

Marie: Aw, we're not having sex on Monday?

Helen: Duck-squid monsters don't have fur - they have squid!

Marie: I don't like being massacred.

Tim C: Do I look like I'm wearing twins?

Dave Burton: Being a vicar is like being socially neutered.

Tim C: I think my cheekbones are starting to bleed.

Tim C: My banana is multifunctional.
Steve L-W: I wish mine was.

Michael: Oh, I was thinking wasn't I... I forgot!

Schoolchild in motorway services: Joe, stop biting each other.

And my personal favourites of this batch...

Chris F.: I've not been there here, although I have been there somewhere else.

Steve C: She was my best friend in Year 1, but I've never met her.

Dad: You could have ground the coffee, milked a cow and got goat's milk! (!?)

Ok, what have I been up to lately...?

Well, life hasn't been dull certainly!

First was Alex & Ryoko's wedding on July 15th:



A lovely day and the most amazing international buffet ever!

That Sunday, Michael & I went to the Christchurch Parish Barbecue. Really nice people and everyone had brought strawberries... That was a lot of strawberries!!

On the Monday, we headed up to Michael's house in Macclesfield. Slightly confusing train journey - I kept falling asleep and the train was delayed, and every time I woke up there seemed to be an hour left. We did get there in the end though. :o)
Chris & Rebecca joined us on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we walked into Macclesfield and went book & food shopping. On the Thursday, we went to Tatton Park and once we'd negotiated the RHS Flower Show stuff, which we hadn't twigged was happening, we went round the mansion, had a picnic and an icecream. :o)

On the Friday, we went for a walk/ramble/hike.

We climbed Shutlingsloe and then walked through Macclesfield Forest and around Macclefield Reservoir. (About halfway through the penultimate paragraph we deviated and walked round the resevoir as well). I tried to make a map of our walk, but could get it to work.

Saturday, we took Chris & Rebecca back to Knutsford (where Tatton Park was) to meet friends who were taking them yet further north for more holiday. Other than that, not a lot happened.
Sunday, went to a Godly Play 'Story-telling Service' on the Good Samaritan, plus the normal morning service, where I ended up sitting behind someone who grew up in Harpenden and went to St.Albans Girls School. Small world...

The mornings of the second week I was there, we (Michael, me & Michael's brother Richard) helped out a local church Holiday Club for primary school age kids, helping out specifically with the under-6's. The holiday club ("Time Lords Academy"- TLA) had a Dr.Who theme and I was dreaming about daleks for a few days. But it was a lot of fun, despite the slight accent barrier, especially when bubbles/bah-bbles/bouh-bbles came to be involved...! :o) Lots of silliness and fun activities, plus Bible stories too (Jonah, Daniel, Joseph & Nehemiah). We missed the last morning though, as I had to go home because Michael was flying to Switzerland to climb a glacier for his dad's 50th birthday!? He gets back tonight.
So, I caught the train home to the Abbey station and flaked out for the weekend, before heading back to Reading to collect the rest of my stuff and give back my keys, etc. So I have now 'officially' left Reading. Kinda mixed feelings. I'm gonna miss it, and the people, but I'm looking forward to Scarborough too. :o)

So, yeah, that's it. I've also finished the nativity cross-stitch scene I was doing and also read 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' and most of 'The Handmaid's Tale', but those posts can wait for another time. :o)