Well, our first University project is now well underway, with a whole four days remaining to complete it. It has moved around so much in the last few days but I hope and pray that we have now settled on a crazy idea

The brief was to take the people on our table and form a ‘tribe’. We had to find a common ground to represent this tribe and then represent this visually to the rest of the group.

Our common grounds were: Music, photography, comedy, we all go to Uni and we all like to go out for a drink with some friends but not go wild. Our first idea was to take the drink idea, represent ourselves by the symbol of the glass that we drink from and make coasters incorporating our favourite colours, ingredients of each person etc.

As this project moved around, we decided that it was boring. I commented that it all felt a bit predictably prim and proper, like a 1950′s black and white photograph. Then it clicked… Someone came out with the phrase “Things aren’t always what they seem…” and then we realised that this is our common ground – we are all dark horses! We realised that everyone probagbly has something funny that they do, but when discussing, since we have only known each other for a week, we all say very safe things.

So we decided to make jack-in-the-boxes, where on the outside of the box you see normal ‘safe’ photos of each person, but when you open it, something normal pops out with a strange twist. For example, I am going to be dressed in a little pink dress, but riding my skateboard. This is to represent that we all have more in us than would first appear.

We are then putting on a presentation which will confuse people, so they will walk into a blacked out room with strange music playing and a funny smell. There will be phrases on a screen such as “things aren’t always what they seem”, “dark horse”, “Still waters run deep” etc. Then a presentation will cut in (we are all hidden in the cupboard) and you will hear our voices speaking about how our tribe got to this point. It is dark and you are listening rather than watching us because we are a tribe who are not ‘really’ seen.

After this I will skate out of the cupboard, Anna will bellydance (I had a prize blonde moment by saying it would be HILARIOUS if someone dressed as a bellydancer, then she told me she actually did it!!!), etc. We will then tell people to look inside the boxes on their tables and the jacks will pop out! It is all great fun.

This post speaks for itself…

Psalm 103
A psalm of David.

1
Praise the LORD, I tell myself;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.

2
Praise the LORD, I tell myself,
and never forget the good things he does for me.

3
He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.

4
He ransoms me from death
and surrounds me with love and tender mercies.

5
He fills my life with good things.
My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!

6
The LORD gives righteousness
and justice to all who are treated unfairly.

7
He revealed his character to Moses
and his deeds to the people of Israel.

8
The LORD is merciful and gracious;
he is slow to get angry and full of unfailing love.

9
He will not constantly accuse us,
nor remain angry forever.

10
He has not punished us for all our sins,
nor does he deal with us as we deserve.

11
For his unfailing love toward those who fear him
is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.

12
He has removed our rebellious acts
as far away from us as the east is from the west.

13
The LORD is like a father to his children,
tender and compassionate to those who fear him.

14
For he understands how weak we are;
he knows we are only dust.

15
Our days on earth are like grass;
like wildflowers, we bloom and die.

16
The wind blows, and we are gone–
as though we had never been here.

17
But the love of the LORD remains forever
with those who fear him.
His salvation extends to the children’s children

18 of those who are faithful to his covenant,
of those who obey his commandments!

19
The LORD has made the heavens his throne;
from there he rules over everything.

20
Praise the LORD, you angels of his,
you mighty creatures who carry out his plans,
listening for each of his commands.

21
Yes, praise the LORD, you armies of angels
who serve him and do his will!

22
Praise the LORD, everything he has created,
everywhere in his kingdom.
As for me–I, too, will praise the LORD.

The general public…. One of the Lord’s most amusing inventions. Picture the scene: There are signs all up and down our road (which is all of five buildings long!) saying “No parking Wednesday 27th September”. Not quite sure how this can be misunderstood. However, look at the aforementioned silver Escort!! Teehee. The natural reaction of Kealie bros (resurfacers) of course was not to ask the police who own the car, get in touch etc, nope! Why not just tarmac around it?!!

I had literally just popped inside from taking that photo when I look out to see dim public member number two, my Tesco man. He comes to the door and says “hey I see they’ve been re-surfacing!! Came in really handy for parking!!” I just looked helpless.

Sparkle is unusual… She doesn’t sleep like most cats. I enclose some examples of her classic poses and the ways in which she likes to chill out.

This morning will not be a peaceful morning, as I sit here trying to do some research for uni… ‘KielyPave’ (no doubt named after some bloke’s double-barrelled girlfriend!!) are outside the flat, waiting to perform some ‘minor asphalt works’. I am intrigued… My computer desk is right by the window, so it is slightly unnerving having Bob the builder (pictured above) staring down at me from the great height of his truck! (There are about 3 trucks in total) Twinkle is currently staring him out, which is quite amusing…

As if this wasn’t enough to disturb a peaceful morning, we have “Dixons” the decorators in our hallway/stairs/landings re-painting and apparently putting in a new carpet! Of course, being a classic blonde, I forgot that they were right outside my door yesterday when I had one of those peculiar moments where something totally random comes over you and you burst forth into hairbrush-style song whilst rocking round the lounge gettng ready to go out. Unfortunately, (for some reason unknown), the song that I had fixed in my head was “FAT BOTTOMED GIRLS” by Queen!! So there I was doing my best Freddie Mercury impersonation, when I heard the front door slam and strange voices outside :-S

Later on one of the painters scared the life out of me when I got home by standing freakishly on the stairs, watching me masacre my shins trying to get my bike in through our heavy front door. I said “hello!” in a cheery voice and he responded in his best Eeyore kind of voice; “It’s a work of art getting in here”. I didn’t know whether to tell him to cheer up (it’s only a front door?!) or thank him sarcastically for helping me, but I settled with “Hmmm…” and escaping through my door very quickly.

(I have just had a Brummie asphalt worker knock on the door and say “Sorry to bother you love, but is that your silver Escort?”) *sigh* All I asm supposed to be doing this morning is waiting for a Tesco delivery (lazy I know, but I don’t have the car and I did have a voucher!!) and researching the design of beer mats!! Yes, uni is going well (if a bit of a struggle health-wise) and our first assignment is to make our table into a “tribe” that can be represented visually. It is all very confusing, but we have decided to give ourselves a different drinks glass each, to represent ourselves and make coasters that interlock like jigsaw pieces. On the back it has a cocktail recipe to make each person (2 parts creativity to 3 parts music or whatever!!) So this is all quite fun.

Today is our first wedding anniversary!! We got up at leisure and trundled off to Waitrose for breakfast…Mmmmmmm…. breakfast panini!! It was such nice weather that we could eat it outside by the water featurey things that appear to trickle down into the car park(? curious…) After breakfast/brunch we looked at the gadgets and the toys and then went off to Cotswold Farm Park!!

It was so much fun, as neither of us have been for years. We were blatently the oldest people there without kids (given away by the fact that the hand-washing sinks are about knee height!!) but we still had to buy the classic paper bag full of goat food and go into the ‘touch barn’ to stroke the rabbits!! I was slightly shocked when I opened the goat food bag only to find that they’d probably just given us a paper bag full of animal poo, it looked disgusting!!

The goats liked the food, I liked the goats (although they are a little bit slimey when they eat the food…) and I also wanted to buy a quail, as they are sweet!! I tried to convince JT that we could have a small coop in the garden (which he would get to build!!) and eat quails eggs for every meal! Sadly he wasn’t convinced…

We then met a bull called “Oscar”, lots more goats and a sheep with hilarious teeth!! It is quite unnerving when you come face to face with an animal that looks vaguely familiar, as if it could have been modelled on somebody you know?! The Lord has a fantastic sense of humour… There were quite a few animals like this.

We went to the gift shop and JT spent a while playing with one of those toys which is like a sheep on a platform where you press the base and it collapses, then release it and it stands up again. He managed to make it do a funny dance which kept me entertained for ages!

We went to the cafe and I got a children’s lunch box as it was far more exciting than the grown up sandwiches and I was still fairly full of breakfast panini! After this we drove into Bourton so that JT could go to the train shop and exhibition, which was really cool.

Now we are back at home as JT is on sound at the 7pm Trinity service. We may even get some special dinner for afterwards It has been a very exciting day and I love JT very much.

Tomorrow (Sunday), JT and I celebrate our very 1st wedding anniversary!! Ahhhhh… It is very exciting being married!! JT is the gorgeous-est husband ever I am very blessed, as I don’t quite know how he puts up with me! Sure wish we were off to Florida tomorrow!! Here are some pics…. xxx

Well, I have now completed my first week of big school and am just about still alive. It has been good bt also really hard for me, given that my health rapidly takes a dive in new and stressful situations. Loads of people have said “It’s not stressful, it’s fun!!” which in some respects is true. Unfortunately my body doesn’t usually work with my mind, it just plays its own game. So far I have had to walk out of one meeting 15 minutes before the end and miss two non-compulsory meetings. However, I did go to the first meeting, two social events and to have my photo taken. The more familiar I get with the surroundings, the easier (I pray) it will get. The disability officers are really nice and I know that they will try to help as much as they can.

I have made some new friends which is nice and I think I will really enjoy it in time. Very worried about Monday, which is the first official day of work. It could be a long day (we don’t have timetables yet) and after a week of light socialising and meetings I feel like the photo above!! Still, it might be good to actually get going and know where I am at.

Still, first impressions are good and it is a very friendly place. Being an art college, there are lots of people with very funny hair and funny clothes. They also have unique sets of piercings and many have tattoos in interesting places. My class all look fairly normal, but hey I’m sure the Kingdom of God will be equally as diverse, possibly minus the drugs and shot addiction. People seem almost offended when I tell them that I am not going ‘out’ tonight (which means getting hammered and staying out until 5am), but it’s ok, I’m used to being the butt of that kind of incredulous-ness (new word there I think!). What is there to prove by getting drunk? I just want to be a friend to people and you don’t need to fire shots down your gullet to do that!!

I have to apologise to anyone who thougt that I might be about to write something deep here… Alack, alas, no. I just wanted to share something that gave me a fright the other day. Now I know that God is with us everywhere we go and watches everything that we do, but imagine my surprise as I sat doing my eBay listings one day and, losing my concentration momentarily my eyes drifted over to the wall to see the following image!! Whilst I am not a sucker for finding the virgin Mary in my breakfast toast, or discovering St Peter in the toothpaste, I was quite disturbed to find the ‘holy ghost’ sitting on the wall, apparently preaching!! The good Lord Himself had come to tell me something perhaps?!? Ohoh..

Anyway to cut a short story long, turns out that Sparkle had knocked Action Figure Jesus (with wheels for gliding ‘walk on water’ action!) off the top of my desk onto my scanner,and he was happily preaching to a naked Barbie (eBay… don’t ask!!) on my desk. It kind of reminds me of the story that ends with “He who has never sinned may cast the first stone”… Herein lies a sermon I am sure, but if I attempted it at this time of night I would fail miserably!

Here is my wacko brother Tim, demonstrating what cabin crew do in their spare time…!! Check out his blog for details and a curious comment about an evil banana…

If you read this, then please send a cheery text to JT who is suffering from a nasty cold He has gone through 1.5 boxes of tissues today and probably a young tree’s worth by bed time. Give him some love – (I will of course )