What's on my mind...

I'm hoping that doing a short blog will inspire me to work on my talk a little bit more, perhaps putting down some of what is in my head will clear the cobwebs and get me writing.

This weekend I spent time in two places that I've never been to before. I was on the outskirts of North Swindon for a wedding and then to Silverstone for some racing.

On Saturday, we celebrated the marriage of Julie and Paul. Paul used to be the vicar at the church I work for now and Julie was a volunteer. They've been friend for a very long time, so we were all excited when they announced that they were going to get married.

Here's the wonderful couple



With Bridesmaid. I could've put up a photo of the aftermath of the confetti moment, but I know Julie would never forgive me! We spent time as a bunch of friends, chatting and catching up with people that we haven't seen for a long time. Very happy to see my old boss for a few minutes with her wonderful husband



I was at their wedding too! It's exciting that they are moving on and my old boss is going to be a vicar's wife soon! She's even learnt to make marmalade! :) Very happy for all four of them, it's exciting to see how things have changed and what has developed.

On Sunday we got up early, again, and heading two hours north to Silverstone. The journey there was interesting, the sat nav doing it's best to take us off the M1 too early, especially when there isn't much traffic around. We got to Silverstone and were instantly confused. It's a huge circuit, so finding a programme and getting some idea of what is going on was really hard. The staff were ok, but information about important things, like the pit walk and changes to the programme were hard to come by. It's different at Silverstone, because it's not owned by Motor Sport Vision, it's difficult to get my head around how different it can be. The other thing about Silverstone is that there's no cash point at the circuit (in a place that probably needs two or three.)

Any way, we had a really good day, sat in the sun, walking around and watching the BTCC races. Here's a video of Tom Chilton and the boys going round the bend at Maggotts.



Chris and I watched the highlights on Tuesday, only to hear Jason Plato complain all of the time! The less I say about it, the better. I'm still a bit annoyed about all of it really!

Still it was a good result for Team Aon over the weekend and Chris got some good photos. It was his first time with a media pass at a big event, and it was nice to have a conversation with him, whilst he was in the media centre and I was on the pit lane!

Here's a photo to prove that I was there



I love the races and I love that Chris has spent a summer doing somethig he loves. He has worked really hard recently, all of free, so here's hoping he gets some sort of recognition for it in the future. We're hopefully heading to the DTM on the Saturday again in a couple of weeks. More load cars and clever driving.

Other things are happening around me at the moment, some of which are exciting, but others are harder to take on board. There is a lot to do before term starts in a couple of weeks, I've got to get my head around what happened at Soul Survivor and how best to work with it. Seeing what God has put on the hearts of the young people and try to think about my own experiences. Lots of exciting conversations to happen.

There is a wet dog sat at my feet, looking at me, telling me to move on. So I will. There is more to come I promise!

I am still here!

I will blog about the weekend at some point, it's been a hetic one, and I've got some videos to show you too! Promise I will do it before this week is out.

Soul Survivor

Sadly, a lot of people faired better than me upon our return to Billericay. I have suffered for my faith this week, with a nose that's so full of gunk, I can't breathe through it and a stuffed sinus too. It's been painful, but is really insignificant compared to the work of my Creator and the freedom I find in His love.

There are things for us to work through, ideas, prayers to pray and hope. Dreaming big and gathering those around me who can really do wonderful things. We have to dream big, we have to change the world and start with love.

Waiting on God to send the Holy Spirit is something that scares a lot of people, but it is worthwhile, He healed a lot of people while we waited and even healed me! My knees have always suffered from camping and walking, but some of the youth group prayed ovver my knee and the pain went, it was really amazing!

If you want to have a look at the Soul Survivor website (and find the dates for next year) you can click here, if you want to have a look at the videos from God tv to see what it's like of an evening, have a look here.

I do recommend it, it's a 12,000 strong crowd. We witnessed over 500 people start their lives as Christians, and many many more taking a stand to change the world.

I got home, feeling slightly better than when I left the showground, hoping that everyone would turn up soon so I could go home and have a shower. I quickly did that and sent my wonderful boyfriend a couple of messages about how I missed him... little did he know that I would turn up on his doorstep to surprise him on his birthday. it had the desired effect... happy boyfriend!

We've spent time doing the things that he loves, mainly various forms of golf (though none of them proper) and watching the A-Team and eating. I have enjoyed myself, despite the illness of the year knocking me out in the afternoons at the moment. Today I am writing through it, though I may fall asleep before dinner gets called.

Tomorrow we celebrate the wedding of two good friends, who have taken their time to get to this place, but we are all happy - firstly that the groom is recovered enough and that they have stuck together for so long.

Sunday is race day for everyone - we're heading to the BTCC, so were praying for sun and a good couple of races to get the drivers and spectators going. Chris got a media pass for the weekend, so we're both super excited that he will get to stand amongst the drivers (most of whom he has met) for two days.

I need to defrag my computer and sleep!

Off to Soul Survivor

This time, I must remember to change my voicemail so that people know I am on holiday (of sorts).

Staying in a field of five days (the long-winded way of saying 'I'm going camping') is going to be really interesting for me, I've done it before, but with Scouts, which is once again another experience that I can add to the list of things that I have done in my long life. This is different, we are in a field that has portable showers and toilets. With a lot of other people. I know that when there is a shower available I would really like to have one before I start my day, but I think that everyone will be having showers in the morning, so I may have to default to a time that is unusual, but at least I will be clean.

I will do a full write up of the Soul Survivor experience when I get back.

I've finished The Time Travellers Wife, finally, it's not like it was hanging over me, I just knew what was coming and didn't really want to partake in it, knowing how it would make me feel, I still cried and cried at Henry and Claire's story, i think I always will - it is tough knowing that, but at the same time, I have another outlet for the stress and the worry that I come across at certain points of my life.

So now I am reading the sequel to Man and Boy which is another book that I will hold on to in my life. If you haven't read any Tony Parsons, I would recommend you give him a try, if you like real life fiction, he's very good. Dysfunctional families and characters that somehow find their way in the world, very heart warming. I have an even longer relationship with his books. But that's another story.

The really good news is that my best friend is engaged! I'm waiting for a picture of the ring - but here's a picture of us in the mean time



We were celebrating Take That Day - the greatest day of my life! I love Kay very much and I wish her many blessings as she prepares for married life!

Posting videos to blog

In a response to a comment on 'Funsies' - posting a video to a blog isn't difficult at all.

In the post create window, you can hit the last icon on the bar directly above the place where you write your script, and if you have a video file you can post it directly to your blog. If you have youtube videos you can post them by creating the url for the video and pasting that into the script window.

It's that simple - the only problem I have found is that the youtube videos are a little big sometimes, so you can fiddle with the height, but you have to be in the Edit HTML tab to do so.

It can take a little bit of time, but once you've done it once, you can do it again and again.

I use my phone and my digital camera to make videos.

I hope that helps... if not, have a look at blogger help and they might be a bit better - although possibly use more jargon.

Funsies

I just had to share this with you. We don't normally have a games night, but when we do, it gets funny and competitive, due to the nature of the people I spend my time with! This is a video of some of my best friends playing Just Dance on the Wii.

Helen, the shortest of them all, gets a little bit excited by Just Dance and to be honest, pulling faces and dancing to make evryone laugh!

I love my friends and the things that we do together, I don't see them as much as I would like, we're all really busy so it's becoming harder to meet.

I think the video explains it all!

Looking forward

Everyone keeps saying I look tired. It's not really a surprise to me... I am tired, probably more than I'm letting on really.

I'm praising God that I got an opportunity to sit on my own this morning for most of the service, I know I haven't really been to church during July so to be there this morning felt a little strange! It was a good atmosphere though, Mandy and co led really well for the sung part and Warner did an excellent job too. Dad spoke on greed and what it does to us.

Chris is at a race almost every weekend from now until late September, so I will be spending my weekends mostly on my own, when I'm not with friends or family. It's really exciting for him, this time last year he was tentative about spending the time doing it, but now he's writing for thecheckeredflag.co.uk I will be spending my week nights with him, rather than weekends. With the little bit of spare time he has, he's using it doing something he really loves, so although I don't see him, I'm happy that he's getting so much out of it.

Here's to some thinking time over the next couple of days, before the final push to SS...