Two Thirds of the way there!

Another mile stone reached today. I'm now well on my way to being finished - here's the latest video



W're also well on our way to a very busy July... There's a holiday (at the end of the week) and a weekend away at Stubber's the week after, which I'm now an old hand at! My birthday and a special celebration party during the third weekend, by which point I will have finished my cycling, and then finally the run up to Falcon camp, and then actually Falcon camp, I'm not really going to be at church this month... but when I am it will hopefully be really exciting! We have got BBC Essex visiting church, so although I'll be at work really early on my birthday, I'll hopefully have an opportunity to hear the young families and young people on the radio!

Time to get on with work!

On this day

On this day, the 6th day of the 4th month of the year of our Lord 2010, something major happened... Her Royal Majesty received a request from Gordon Brown, Prime Minister, to dissolve Parliament on Monday 12th April, for a General Election to take place on Thursday 6th May.

So we now have a month to listen, look, discover what each party has to say for themselves, what their policies are and how they are going to change this country to be the best it can. and then make a decision and use our vote wisely.

Gordon Brown said to the country that he is 'just an ordinary man'.

David Cameron is calling this 'the most important election of the generation'.

Nick Clegg is saying that it 'will not be a traditional two-horse race'.

In the next four weeks, the country will be bombarded with 'we can do this, we can do that' and a little bit of 'you don't want them to be in charge of the country'.

It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks. I'm going to have to keep an eye out for the stuff that is coming through the door and what is in the newspapers.

We're called to a moral decision as Christians, which makes it harder.

In other news...my Aunt gave birth to Adam, 19 years ago today! The family is growing old and we're starting to figure out where we all fit.

What a disappointment

Essex County Council have been disappointing in the past... yes I know they gave me a job, paid my wage and still let me walk around their offices on occasion (if I was a terrorist...) but in the last 6 months since they employed someone to paint the town yellow and put up some restrictions (see March of this year), I have not seen one traffic enforcement officer (traffic warden in old money) in Billericay. The only day I saw a little yellow pouch on someones windscreen was the day they painted the lines.

Now look at what has happened



Complete disregard for the law and not a person in sight to tell them that they can't do it. Part of my would like to apply for a job to patrol my estate (say once a month) to see how much money I could earn from issuing parking tickets to parents who have decided to park in my road during the restrictions.

How much did the council spend on line painting and how are they recouping the money? What's the point of having the lines but not issuing the fines?

On other news, we've been preparing for harvest with the young people in the church...praying and painting



Come on Sunday to Christ Church to see what else we're doing... 10am!

Shaping the future

So I have had time to sit and think about various parts of my life over the last three weeks or so, and am blogging that the request of several people who think it is rude for me to leave you all waiting for the next installment. (I'm sure that blogging every day would serve me better as well, sorry everyone).

Firstly, before I reveal my thoughts, I'd promised to do something for someone very special. Well, it could probably be classed as a shameless plug, really, but I think, in my humble opinion that you should all click on the link below


http://www.chrisgurtonphotography.com/

Just because you know you want to spend some time looking at some amazing photographs! And possibly buying one that you really like.

Chris is really talented and I'm a very proud owner of two of his pictures.

This is one of my favourites



This is the original photo, but I've got a copy that's got my surname in place of the drivers surname, and it's framed, and hanging above my bed! I wish I had a Honda Civic, and I wish I could drive it properly!

Ta da, Chris, you're famous!

How do I know Chris? Well, glad you asked, we've been in a relationship for a month nearly, but it seems a lot longer, and I'm not shy about telling people that we met on match.com, I will recommend it to you. I was at an event that Chris was photographing last week and one of the mum's said 'We've probably got one of the fittest photographers in East Essex' - I can tell you that I didn't disagree with her!

So, I have thought more about being on a boat for a little shy of a week and will probably do it again. I had an amazing time, and had completely forgotten what it was like to be involved in the run up to and being on camp. I do love it lots and am grateful that the team Andy and Alice pulled together worked really hard and made camp lots of fun! Despite being constantly put down for my complete lack of skill when it comes to card shuffling and not knowing the first thing about boats, I think that Falcon is a unique camp and a great chance to work with young people full time. Again something I would highly recommend, if you like working with teens!

So this last week I have been running head long into preparation for doing the talk at next weeks 10am service. I'm preaching on King Josiah, who, at the age of 8, found himself a king of a ruined country. A country that didn't believe in God, didn't know what the rules were, let alone follow them and was just plain messy... sound familiar? So my question for the week is what are you doing to change your world? King Josiah was just 26 when he started to rebuild the main temple in Jerusalem...kinda puts my generation to shame really! He turned a whole nation around and honoured God wholly... quite an example for the church to follow!

It's not all been work though. Chris took me out for my birthday shopping trip, and we spent lots of money on many wonderful things, plus I 'helped' him (stood and watched) with an event and met some of the young farmers in the area. I also spent time with some friends from school and my last job, when we celebrated another 25th birthday. As well as spending time with the ladies who help run shaken up, we went for a meal to celebrate the summer holidays and the work that has taken place over the last year. It was a lot of fun but a very busy day!

I also saw my sister before she heads off to Uganda for a couple of weeks, next Sunday. I spent 7 hours in my car the Saturday before, after getting stuck in traffic both ways! It was not fun, but made better by good music, good food and a proper chance to catch up!

I then spent a further three hours in my car the next day, as we had our annual trip to a theme park! Tough going, but well worth it. We managed to get on the Saw ride, which totally panicked me, but was so much fun by the time the ride came to a stop. Quite a lot better than oblivion! I was exhausted the following day as I sat down to review the last couple of months with my line manager and the head of my management committee.

In all my tiredness and excitement though, I am seriously happy right now. With my job and the other parts of life. I am eternally grateful for the church that let me do my first year out...which has lead to so many opportunities!

That's all I have to say for now! I have planning and writing to do this week, plus a couple of events that might happen, but I will write about that when the time comes!

Give us a break!

This is probably the final 30 mins I will get to myself for the next week or so, so I'm blogging! Having caught up with all my regular blogs, I realise that I'm falling behind on the news reporting side of things, so here's a miniture update before I have to leave in 20 mins!



Firstly, here is a picture of me, dressed in my finest for my birthday, which happened in the weekend just gone... I spent a lot of time with friends and family this year, which is not unusual, but more so than I can remember. I started my birthday celebrations nearly two weeks ago, so I was really raring for things to get going when my actual birthday came around. Unfortunately some of my plans were scuppered by 'flu sypmtoms, but hopefully I will be able to see those people soon (Get well soon Lou!)! I went for lunch with Heather on my actual birthday and then for cocktails with some others on Saturday evening. (I would really recommend the southern comfort based cocktail!) Mercifully, Sunday morning was spent painting with the children, in church, we're creating a stained glass window that reflects our Heroes and Heroines series over the summer... no-one pulled me up to the front to sing happy birthday... phew! I will post a photo when we're done!

SUnday afternoon saw the arrival of family and friends for a BBQ. We expected to feed 40 people, and I think we got about 30, but mostly in the form of boys who could eat for two, so most of the food disappeared really quickly. My thank you's go to every member of my immeadiate family and to Chris for all their support over the weekend - apparently a stressed Liz is funny! They all did an amazing job!

I received a really special present on Sunday... my engagement ring had been sent away by Heather and Helen, and was returned into my possession in the form of a necklace and a cross pendant. I will treasure it forever.

There are more things that I want to write about, like the week of work away from home that I am about to embark on, but I've run out of time! I will blog when I have thought about afore mentioned 'holiday' and see you in August!

It's been a while...

A lot has happened recently, so forgive the lack of blogging!

A couple of main things that have been keeping me from my online writing, namely Torchwood, Take That, Solid and my social life! Obviously that is not in any order of importance, it's entirely random, so I'm going to talk about them in a random order too!!

Let's start with Take That. I was going to dedicate a whole blog entry to the day I spent in London, with Kay, but I feel that it would be a little of an over kill, and really my effort would be lost on many of you! The concert was astonishing, it was a show, a performance. We thought about it a bit while we were waiting for the boys to appear on stage, and realised that it's 15 years since I last saw Take That on stage. I was 10 and it was at Earls Court. I don't remember the whole thing, but the bits I do remember are really vivid and this time it was no different, my emotions however were hugely different. I was surrounded by people who have shared a lot with me and after a long day, I just couldn't wait any longer. I'd brought the tickets 8 months ago, I'd spent 9 nervous minutes waiting for the website, the phone, everything, and when we got the tickets, I lost my voice from screaming so much... all that waiting to hear them live again got the better of me, and I still don't think I've really recovered yet.

The two hours that they were on stage was just so amazing, you can see that they really love performing. It was better than Girls Aloud and Boyzone put together, and I think now, every time they tour again, I will be there. Every time I turned on the radio, someone was talking about how good the concerts were and the hour Radio One gave to it last week made me cry again. I just hope that I don't have to wait 15 years to see them again. The only thing that would top that show, would be to meet them. Words can not really describe it...

What's next - Torchwood! If you haven't seen it, I would ask that you get iPlayer up and have a look. I really enjoyed it, though we got to the middle of the week and I started to complain that they were drawing the storyline out a little. But I watched the final episodes yesterday and am now wondering if Captain Jack will ever return to our screens! Here's hoping that he will do in the future. Russell T. Davis is so good at creating iconic characters, it would be a shame to see Captain Jack disappear, but I know that everything has it's season.

Solid was good this year, for my first year in charge, I've learnt a lot of lessons, I understand how it works now, what to do, what not to do, how to deal with some people, better than others. I gratefully adopted some young people over the weekend too, and I think spending time with them, chatting about difficult issues and talking though some theology, has been really good for all of us. It's a shame that some of them are moving to college in September! Still the future is rosy and their are already plans in my head for next year as to how we can get everyone involved!

Finally, a brief word on my social life...this weekend sees me turn 25 and I feel immensely blessed that I get to spend a lot of time with my friends and family chatting, eating and generally being surrounded by wonderful people! 2 of my best friends took me out for drinks last week to celebrate being 25, and being a youth worker for a year!

Yes, I've been Christ Church's youth outreach worker for a year now... maybe over the summer I'll do a review for you!

Weekend activities

I wanted to use the word frivolities, but then I checked the definition and realised that the weekend holds more weight that I could every imagine, and I haven't spent the weekend being silly in the slightest. So activities it is, because before 9 on a Monday, there is little in my brain, other than, when's the next time I can eat/sleep?

These activities were certainly important for all involved, it seems I have spent the weekend helping, in some form, to raise money for various projects, doing things from just attending, to organising and shopping.

Firstly, was shopping for the food for the Summer Party, with Heather, who has been great at not letting me panic and always had a back up plan! It doesn't take much money to feed 100 people, really, we did a basic BBQ for £30 this year and quickly sold out (two hours!)...a full report of the party will appear further down this blog.

Secondly was a Viz-a-Viz Ministries fundraiser. Liz and Katey, who I have known since they were 10/11, decided that the best way to raise some money towards the £1000 that Liz needs before September for her year out, was to put on a concert. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the publicity, but I did know that it was going to be loud and a lot of fun! The event was called Out of the Box.

So here's a quick band review for you...

First on were 'Adrenaline'



This is them, plus the girls who were leading us through the evening, they were singing living on a prayer. The lead singer is incredibly good, for such a young boy (I think they were all early secondary school children) he did amazingly well, firstly to get the crowd going and then vocally, they are all really talented and could go so far. They are on the Kings of Leon side of pop, they are covering songs and writing their own.

Time between the bands was filled with questions from 'The Box' for the audience to get to know the bands. Some of the answers were really funny, some were inappropriate for the audience.

Secondly was 'Was Broken', made up of slightly older people, these guys are lead by Katie, who I did my year out with and they are a Baptist Church members.



I love Katie's outfit! She looked and sounded so good, and their version of American Boy went down a storm! These guys are also writing their own songs, and they are very good, despite that it seems they are only doing it for fun.

Then we had a break, for tea and cake...a ploy to raise more money and a chance to catch up with some of the young people who had made it to the gig. Half an hour later and we were ushered back to our seats for the second half.

The third act for the night was 'Platform Location' - which is a band, but the other band members couldn't make it, so it was just a singer and his guitar... I didn't catch his name... but here he is anyway.



Again, he was brilliantly musically, I don't know where Katey and Liz found these people - but they found a couple of gems.

Fourthly was 'Name is Renown'

(just for real time effect - I have just pressed play and am now listening to La Roux's debut album for the second time - it's good!)

The were the 'heaviest' band of the night.



Again really good musically. All their own songs, which had a really good structure (I've heard some amature bands like this that have difficulties with this), but the balance on the sound wasn't quite right, so the voice was a little lost, shame really, because I would've loved to hear what they were singing about!

Finally, 'Showerhead', a mishmash of all the bands across the night and a really good way of ending the concert.

Here's their best shot (ANTM for you there - culturally relevant or what!?!)



They really enjoyed themselves. We had about 10 minutes of thank you from the girls, you never quite realise how much work goes into one of these events - you certainly can't do it on your own!

So that was Saturday....and now for Sunday (we're almost there folks - because I'm getting cramp in my left hand!)

Sunday started with a couple of hours in the office for me and then to Praise in The Park. I was volunteered to do a notice for the Summer party, and as I love a challenge I gave it the nod, and spoke to the relevant people before the service. I wasn't us on the trailer for very long, but came back shaking so much! I didn't sit down for another hour - I couldn't. I get such a kick from being in front of people, nervous energy has the same effect as an espresso! To see a better review - and a picture, head over to my Dad's blog for a look.

Then I headed back to church to wait for the Bouncy Castle to arrive. We started setting up at 2 and opened the doors at 3 for the party of the season. Two bouncy Castles, one big BBQ, face painting, cake, ice cream, cards and games. It was busy, and all in aid of Christ Church's link school in Kenya. We raised £100 after expenses. I am chuffed! We can help a school buy more books, or pay for their electricity! Thank you to everyone who help out, organised and worked really hard on the day!

We headed to the pub for a celebratory drink and then I went home. I thought it would be quite relaxing, but we managed to find ourselves watching last nights Top Gear. About 5/10 mins in - when the gang are talking about car insurance in the offices, you can see The Stig, behind Richard Hammond, photocopying his face, obviously he's got his racing helmet on, it was just something that made me laugh...The whole episode did, the adverts do, Top Gear has definitely got it's sense of humour back...they even 'killed' Richard Hammond at one point!

I have loved this weekend very much. It has been fulfilling, tiring and a lot of fun. I'm hoping that the summer will continue in a similar vain!

One some slightly more selfish notes...

I'm getting a NEW CAR! Saturday morning was spent talking to the lovely man at Essex Ford, so the monies are being sorted out and the car will be mine by the the time we head to SOLID, hopefully!

My best friend is back in the country after a week away, and I can tell you that I am grateful just knowing that I can call her again if I need to!

The end of this week will be another huge high - after 8 months and a week of waiting, Take That will be graced with our presence on Saturday evening... I am sooooo excited. We are right at the very back of Wembley Stadium...but I will still take photos!

Under Canvas

This week I have been mainly living in a Tent...

Ok, so that's not strictly true, but the week has been punctuated by being under canvas, at the Bishops House, listening to everything he has to say and speaking to people from various parts of the diocese about their projects and where they feel youth work is going.

The Bishop is totally at home with everyone, through all the ages, and of varying importance, it's great to see him answering questions with a story rather than a one word answer (though that makes it difficult to keep answers short!). This is the man that put his back out at the beginning of the week and thought that he wouldn't be able to be at any of the events... faithfully, he was at every one, chatting and sharing, seriously or not, his life and why he puts on these events. His wife is wonderful too, you can see their partnership and how grateful they both are for all the people in the diocese!

The funniest picture by far of the weekend has to be this though...


A picture of the Bishop eating ice cream!

Not something you see every day. I have been assured by his wife that he has eaten very well this week!

The food was amazing and the company was great. Two of the church's young people joined me and we served drinks for most of the evening.

It was great to see a lot of Billericay people there as well.

If you ever get invited to a do by a Bishop, I suggest you go to it! You (hopefully) won't be disappointed... I will be taking a full quota in two years for the next one.

This weekend has been really busy for me personally.

I spent the whole of Saturday at a planning meeting for a holiday camp during the summer, which was a lot of fun, an opportunity to make new friends and talk about what we're going to do for three days with twenty young people and one boat!

Being away all day Saturday meant that I missed the event of the year in my home church.


My contribution* to the afternoon event for my sister. She has now reached her target of £11,000, way before she even sets foot in an airport to go to Uganda. We are hugely thankful to everyone who has given to her and for her presence at the weekend.

On Sunday, I went on my first ever church walk, which was great. Spending time with family, young people and friends. We headed to Remus Horse Sanctuary, Buttesbury. It's not that far from where we started, but it was through fields that held horses, over stiles and through quite a lot of mud. I am the sort of person who doesn't do that countryside really well, I don't own a pair of wellies, or a set of waterproofs, so I was laughed at for much of the way for holding up my jeans, I'm also suffering from being outdoors for most of the day this morning, my hayfever is the worst it's been for a long time.

But when the world looks like this...

How can you refuse?

The rain held off until the evening and the horse sanctuary was packed, even though it had been really wet in the morning.

So on with another week of planning and thinking into the next academic year, plus finishing off this term.

*This chalk board and artist are available for free to anyone who needs a temporary sign...

In and Out

My time with the youth workers/schools workers, both full-time and volunteer and Bishop David was amazing. I'm slowly getting to know all the people in the area. We now are very fortunate to have 3 full time area workers, all of whom are brilliant at what they do and are very encouraging as a team.

We're also blessed with having a Bishop who is passionate about young people and their leaders, asking us what he can do to support us, to grow our ministries and make them sustainable.

From these kind of meetings, the youth strategy was created and there are various other things that have come from time together in a forum, particularly a strong feeling that what we are doing is growing church in so many different ways. We're pulled together to help each other, to share ideas, and to be empowered to go out and develop those ideas. Rachel (DYO Colchester) was saying that sometimes we can feel like we're in a dead end, but coming to others in a similar work situation (this is a C of E setting and we're all youth workers) helps us to figure out a solution and opportunity for growing church.

Opportunities not problems.
Once I've digested it a bit more, I'll write out the day in full!

I decided that as we were in Chelmsford I'd take the opportunity to jump on a bus and see what the journey is like, now I've spent almost a year away from that sort of commute. It hasn't changed, other than I clearly got on one of the newer buses on the way home, there still wasn't much space for me to sit comfortably, despite my rather short legs. Still the journey, not having to wonder about where I was heading until after I got off the bus, gave me time to start re-reading my favourite novel



If you've never read this book and you're a fan of a complex endearing love story, I'd suggest that you either click on the photo (and hope it takes you to Amazon) or pop to W H Smiths - or any decent bookstore and buy it soon. The two main characters are well written and draw you in immediately. The author has a way with words that has left me wanting more, she's releasing another novel in October, so I may buy that. IMDb.com tells me the movie is to be released in August, so we'll see how well that does, I had no expectations when I first picked up the book, but I've read it so many times that I can't help but wonder what the movie will focus on, how they will deal with the time traveling and what the characters will be like.

Still haven't seen Star Trek or Wolverine... I may spend my day off in the cinema if the weather is awful!

An update

As today is a day off...it's an ideal time to blog.

I've been very keen on the progress of the building for the 2012 Olympics... you can see it happening in front of your eyes when ever your travel into London from Essex.

I find many things fascinating and when you can see progress, there's that added 'ooo, that's what they're doing' factor - considering I spent the whole of 2007 and 2008 saying it wouldn't happen and we'd have the same problems as Athens and the price of the whole thing just keeps getting higher, I'm really impressed with a lot of the design and the rate that it's going up.

So from February to now this is how things have changed



I sometimes wish I could get closer, have a look at how big it really is, but for now, every time I go into London for the next three years, you'll get an unofficial updates on the building progress.

why was I in London? Well I have a very good friend who works as a nanny in Clapham and we decided to all meet up at the science museum and have lunch/some fun together! I really enjoy the going to 'hands on places' (who doesn't) and it's free, so all the better, we saw some really cool things - they have two F1 McLarens and this



It's a tiny bit of dry ice on water... they scoot around an create a really cool cloud effect! I got a little bit excited by it all!

We said goodbye to my friend and the little girl she looks after (the cutest one year old on the planet) and headed to Westfield - I've been there before and I do love shopping very much, it's the largest covered shopping area in Europe, and a very well kept secret by Londoners! I've got some summer clothes to wear and still can't find a tunic from H and M that I'm looking for!

Tomorrow, I'm off to Chelmsford to spend some time with youth workers and the bishop!

Time to watch football and find something to drink!

You know you're getting old when....

...You go to a family party to celebrate the 18th birthday of someone who you still think should be 15!

Adam, who is referred to, quite rightly, as the youngest cousin, on my Dad's side of the family, turns 18 today, but for family tradition, we always celebrate occassions such as this on a Sunday afternoon/evening. So yesterday, we piled over to Hadleigh to wish him many happy returns and pull out al the old stories, of when we were children and life didn't include mortages, exams and university choices. It makes us happy for a brief moment (and especially happy to note that the eldest of us will be turning 30 in the next three years!) and then we go back to real life... The family bubble is amazing, we can go from opening our doors to loads of boys, to having a roast on a Thursday lunch time, to gently (though sometimes it hits below the belt) humouring each other over food and beer (and this time cake!)

Here's the whipper snapper of the group

That's 'Happy Birthday' in lights for those of you who are struggling with my photo taking abilities (they were brought with the thought that at Christmas he was dressed like a Christmas tree!). His girlfriend is sat next to him.

And this is the cake that helped us to celebrate in the only way we know how (eating lots and singing really loudly!)


That cake topper has glasses, black hair, a black outfit and the coolest drawing of a skull and cross bones I've seen for a very long time! It was created in foam by my Aunt's colleague (who isn't a profession cake maker, but a teacher). The comptuer has a mouse and a key board, plus all the wires you need! It's not edible, but still, I love it!

So Happy 18th Birthday Adam! Enjoy it and we'll see you in the pub some time soon!

Watching the work...

Particularly the men who have invaded my high street and made getting the bus in the morning a mini nightmare...This morning reached new proportions of silliness because they have decided to move into the road and traffic light it! As if the high street wasn't bad enough already, they've put temporary lights straight after a set of permanent ones! Funny to watch, nightmare to drive through, something I have to walk past every day...yes they have moved the bus stop, so no shelter over our heads if its raining, and from where I stand I can not see the board for the estimated arrival time of the bus, because its obscured by (wait for it) the original bus stop! Yet it gets funnier (sarcastic mood tonight!) they put the traffic lights up at 8am this morning, not the busiest time, but not the quietest either...it made my bus late and will back up the traffic for the duration of their stay...

But they are employed by Essex County Council...so I can't say much else, seeing my department name before I even get into work hurts a little!

Moving on...driving is going well, reversing around a corner will start in my first hour and a half lesson on wednesday...I'm steadily improving and I'm starting to push towards getting ready for my test (I do just want to drive on my own right now, I could do with taking some time out) , which means my dear Dad is going to have to spend more time sat next to me in the car.
They want to centralise the test centre to a ridiculous site in Basildon, which no-one is happy about, so I want to get my test done in Brentwood before that happens!

Bacvk to work...

For the very last time...

I'm blogging from Stoke Gifford, because as of tomorrow I will be back in Essex, I am trying so hard not to cry. I've said a lot of my goodbyes today and yet none of it seems real.

But still I have to go and I do so with a smile on my face. It's been a brilliant year!