Here she is!! A lot of you have been asking whether or not my Gran really says ‘street’ phrases… See for yourself! Heehee…

Transcript: easy now – me is chillin’ with ma illest homies in ma crib in cheltenham masseeeve. Bim bim bimmer – don’t steal my zimmer!

I received this phone picture yesterday from my sister-in-law of her two dogs Cracker and Boss – they are very funny!! Whilst they look fast asleep here, when they are awake, they live at about 100MPH! Very cute…

Now this post is going to make me feel incredibly middle-aged, however I feel the need to write it. Yesterday I took a trip to the land of Tibbles, Oxenton, which is a very pretty little village out in the sticks wherrrrre theyyy eat muddd and celebrate manurrrrrrre. Well, something like that. I arrived a little ahead of Helen, Hannah and Ruth, so stood outside for a while.

It was then that I noticed something strange, or rather, a lack of something, making it strange! My ears felt as though a little sound module (like the mechanism for a musical birthday card) containing noises such as ambulance sirens (every 10-20 minutes), cars (constantly), front doors banging and flat dwellers’ noise (constantly), snippets of strange conversations passing the window (periodically), technological buzzings (constantly), the red helicopter (at least once a day), chav stereos (too often) etc etc had ben removed from my ears!

I get so used to this fuzzy mulch that they call ‘noise’ that I don’t so much notice the noise, only the lack of it when it is not there. This place was beautifully silent and I heard a sound that I had not heard for a long long time. Birds singing. Not just one, but lots of different birds with different tunes. Being slightly musically minded, I appreciate birdsong, because it is always tuneful (apart from maybe seagulls!), always harmonious and always beautiful. You could write a whole symphony based on copying their sound!

It made me think of why Jesus retreated to the quiet places. When the world is full of noise it is little wonder that we cannot hear God’s voice clearly. You can be sitting in our flat waiting for a divine revelation which ends up as something like this: “Lord, what would you say to that person right now?” ………………..”SCREEEEEEEECHHHHHHHHHHHHH I like, big, BUTTS and I cannot lie….” …. “er, no, sorry Lord, misheard you there I think… Any insight?” *drunken neighbour trips over the stairs and slams his door* This is the point where if you could adopt that MSN emoticon face that looks like this :-S then you would.

The silence was like drinking cold water on a boiling hot day, it was life-giving! I realised that I need to get somewhere quiet to spend some time with God. It is no wonder that Helen is so good at this. I believe Art Garfunkel wrote ‘the sound of silence’… It is hard to describe!

Shock horror!! We’ve received a GAS BILL!!! First one since last May… NPower have finally sorted our account (extortionate as it is) and billed us, but only since November! What do I do? I have tried so many times, I have been honest, I have told them exactly when we moved in and the meter readings at that time and they have still got it wrong. Muppets. No sign of an electricity bill yet but we are holding our breath…

Sorry all, I am having a bad day so far… I managed Uni yesterday but this morning my tummy is playing up so I can’t go in (will hopefully go for this afternoon’s tutorial). Now I have a new note taker who left an irritated message on my answer phone this morning saying that she wasn’t supposed to go to my lectures if I wasn’t there. I emailed my disability officer to explain that my so-called ‘disability’ is unseen and that I am perfectly capable of writing my own notes if I am well and in attendance. However if I cannot be there, I need someone to do that for me, it is the whole point of having a note taker at all!

I am beginning to learn how it must feel to spend your life in a wheelchair and have people treat you like you are a toddler/stupid/incapable of doing anything. Hmmm… Rant over!

Other than that, life is sweet… The news in brief:

My Mum is getting confirmed!! All irritation about all of the above goes out the window!! Came as a surprise to me (that is how the Lord works sometimes) but I have been praying for nearly ten years for something like this to happen so very excited.

Tim is in Cheltenham and tomorrow we are taking the legendary G-ma for a trip to the new Sainsbury’s as she is desperate to go! Bless her, it is like the highlight of her week! I hope she isn’t disappointed.

I have a new project at Uni which requires looking at three generations of my family, which should be a lot of fun.

Twinkle is having her stitches out tonight and her collar taken off.

We are off to the lovely Chris and Aline’s for dinner later – people are being very kind and feeding us lots at the moment!

Valentine’s day was fun JT cooked me a yummy dinner and we watched Notting Hill (CLASSIC film!) At lunch time we had heart-shaped biscuits and in the morning we got pressies!!

I was very pleased to note earlier that amazon are stocking a very good range of Alessi products. This company is one of my favorites design-wise as their products make your smile! If I was really rich I may even kit out the house with them… Then there’s always eBay…!

Here is JP stutting his stuff in a dance-off… He is first up

Monty has a rave…

We had a crazy day at Uni today topped off by a bit of fun exploring a double-decker bus! This is Fab, Annie and myself having collected our bag of ‘interesting’ freebies!

Someone at Uni kindly left this out in the rain today on the floor (of course!) It amused me so I took a photo.

Check out George’s blog for some VERY VERY exciting news!! I am not sure what they have been up to but it looks as though a stork may have paid a visit We are so so chuffed for you guys and will do whatever we can to help – just shout! Lots of big cuddles!! xxx