Please bbe patient, haven’t had access to the internet for 10days and so have a lot to write! I shall update as and when I can!

Today was awesome!

Even more of a lie in today, not having to be at Mackie til 8am! Started the day with an S4 Assembly (ABT) then:

8.50-9.43: RME for S1 – The Watch and What’s It Worth – with my ‘amazing facts’ link
10.30-11.30 – Presentation for P7 – About 200 children from the local primary schools came for an introduction to Mackie to reassure them about moving up to high school which was lots of fun – they played Family Fortunes guessing what was the most common thing people thought they were going to miss about Primary School (friends and teachers being the top two!) Then we did some songs and ABT, College of Knowledge and Whats It Worth.
12.37-1.27: Lunch – spicy chicken panini and just chatting to some of the young people
1.27-2.22: Presentation for S4 – The Watch and College of Knowledge
2.22-3.15: Presentation for S3 – The Watch and What’s It Worth

Then we got everything sorted for the concert, setting up stands, putting up more lights and exciting things like that. We soundchecked and then had a really good, ungreasy battered sausage and chips and chatted about tomorrow. Then Taste rehearsed their intro for the gig which was FANTASTIC!!!! Kicked off with the new James Bond theme, red lights, smoke machine….looked great! We got together and prayed at 6.45 and before we knew it, it was 7.20 and time to open doors!

The gig went really well and loads of people came which was really cool. They all got very excited and seemed to love it! Taste did 8 songs and we did ABT, Harry Bow, Street Tuff and a new sketch called Colander involving getting someone up who thought they were perfect, putting a contraption on their head wihhc was going to show on the screen everything they had ever done, said or thought. Then on the screen were prompts for the audience to act horrified. It works really well!

The at the end loads of young people descended on our stand to pick up tracts and information about the youth alpha starting at the school. Really encouraging and great to chat to people! One girl, Lucy said to me ‘It’s this kind of stuff that makes me want to become a Christian’…fantastic!!! We spoke to her after the gig and hopefully will tomorrow as well.

Now it’s time to wind down and sleep but i’m still buzzing!!!!

So i shall start this blog with a hello to a disappointed fan of my blog. Stuart, I am deeply sorry for not having mentioned that Mackie Academy is 17 miles south of where Lewis was born: yes the same Lewis that appears on many of my blogs. I hope I have resolved this matter adequately and you are no longer disappointed. I am enjoying Scotland very much, although the people to speak funny here!

So this morning was pretty much identical to yesterday…snuggled up til 6.50am. We picked up the two Sams and got to Mackie at 7.45. We made drinks and then went to the staff prayer meeting (quadrupling the numbers!). Rachel and i ducked out early (with permission!) to sound check. We had assembly at 8.40, ABT, then it went something like this:

8.50-9.43: Presentation for S3 – The Watch and What’s It Worth
9.43-10.36: Presentation for S3 – The Watch (Rachel dropped the watch on stage) and What’s It Worth
10.36-10.51: Break – drinks and I had a Yum Yum which is like a rectangular doughnut with icing on top…yummy (see what I did there?!)
10.51-11.44: Presentation for S4 – The Watch and College Of Knowledge
11.44-12.37:Presentation for S4 – The Watch and College Of Knowledge
12.37-1.27: Lunch and mini Gig
1.27-2.22: RME for S2: The Watch (Rachel dropped the watch again) and What’s It Worth – and I did my first big link on stage talking about how we are all unique and amazing…i’m going to tell you some amazing facts now to wow all your friends with:

• Your body is made of 10trillion cells each containing 2metres of DNA
• By the time you’ve read this sentence, 50,000 of your cells will have died and been replaced by new ones
• Your skin contains 45miles of nerves
• If you put all your blood vessels end to end, they would reach a distance of 100,000 miles, that’s 4times round the world
• Your brain contains 100billion nerve cells and 1 quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) connections

I find it all pretty mind blowing!!

Then our last lesson didn’t happen so we went back to The Boat House and I had a ginger beer

Then we went to St Bridget’s Church and had our Recharge and debrief on the stage in the hall while some small people in karate suits ran around being shouted at. Then we had dinner: chicken in paprika and rice and the most amazing pudding. Choice of trifle, key lime pie or this apple and blackberry cake/crumble thing. I went for the latter and it was incredible! Like a layer of cake, with fruit on top and crumble on top of that and it was hot and just yummy. I had two bits just because it was so nice! Then was coffee and shortbread and now I am totally stuffed!

Spoke to Sarah and Maddie on the phone, Maddie sang me Old Macdonald and called Daddy a pig. She says that I’m in ‘otland’ and its ‘COLD’…aww i miss her! Now Rachel, Rosalyn and I are all sat in the lounge on our laptops (ah the joys of modern communication), in front of a lovely log fire (closest I’ll get to a bonfire tonight), with Rosie the cat doing the rounds of each of our laps. Fairly early night tonight I think, its going to be a long, but hopefully very good day tomorrow as we have our big gig in the evening that we have been promoting all week!

No fireworks though, i’m sad

Lie in this morning, yay! Was about to get up and heard Rachel go in the shower so snuggled back under the covers for 10 more minutes! We left at 7.30 so it was light and I got to see the horses and the church and the wood and its very pretty and not at all scary in the light! We picked up La Roche and Sammy J (again via my navigation) and got to Mackie Academy at 7.45. Tidied up backstage, soundchecked and then assembly was at 8.40. We performed Amazing But True to S2 (in Scotland their year groups are half a year older so S1 = older yr 7s, younger yr 8s, S2, older yr 8s, younger yr 9s etc up to S6), then the rest of the day went something like this:

8.50-9.43: RME (Religious Moral Education) for S1 – The Watch and What’s It Worth
9.43-10.36: RME for S2 – The Watch and What’s It Worth
10.36-10.51: Break time
10.51-11.44: Presentation to S1 – All About Abi (Lesson started 20mins late so we didn’t get to do Trasha )
11.44-11.37: Free period – Cake and Happy Birthday to Claire!
12.37-1.27: Lunch – Ham and Cheese Panini and a mini Taste Gig
1.27-2.22: Presentation to S2 – All About Abi (Another late start so no Trasha)

Then we were free! Packed up and headed back to the sea! Went to a little Cafe called The Boat House which had the icicle lights inside and other fairy lights and was very pretty. I had a hot chocolate with marshmallows which was very yummy, although it wasn’t quite hot enough to melt the marshmallows. We sang Happy Birthday to Claire again and then went and explored the harbour. We walked along the wall and the Tastey boys posed on the top wall. (Mum you would have hated it and told me not to walk along it, heehee!) Then we went to a church and had our Recharge session and Debrief, then the church provided us with dinner: Homemade Tomato Soup, a very cheesey lasagne and salad, and apple tart and custard, followed by tea in a cup and saucer with a very difficult handle to hold! 

I am now back at Rosalyns and am outraged that Scottish BBC1 doesn’t show Holby City!!! Along Came Polly is on at 9, trying to work out whether to watch it or get an early night. Hmmm.

Oooh if you want to see video of Rachel Parachuting go to: www.vizaviz.org/chtcjump.htm