Sunday 25th January
Got up about 9.20, showered, dressed, packed and had breakfast. Then at 11am we had a time of worship/reflection/prayer all together for about an hour and a half, just thinking about God and who he is and words to describe him and then writing our own Psalms/Love letters to God. Then for lunch we piled all the food we had into the table and ate! Beans on toast, cereal, crisps, cake, rice pudding…still had to bring loads with us though! Then left for Port Glasgow about 1.45pm. One stop for fuel and another stop at a nice pub for a drink. Got to Port Glasgow about 5pm, had a meeting with Martin (the Scripture Union guy we’re working with this week) about the week and setting up etc. Then off to our hosts for the evening. I’m by myself, staying with the McStays, a lovely family! Morag’s the mum then there’s Michaela who is 11, Shona who is 14 and Kirsten who is 18. We had a gorgeous lasagne and chips and then chatted for a bit, got my laptop set up on Wifi so I’ve been catching up on facebook! The girls had put a Galaxy Ripple in my room, yay! It’s now 9.45, up about 5.30am tomorrow so better get some sleep. Going to ring Lewis first though as I have the luxury of phone signal and haven’t spoken to him in a week!
Saturday 24th January
Day off!!! Lie in day YAY!!! Got up about 10.20pm, had a long shower and got ready really slowly, just because I could! It was lovely! The team cooked a big full English, I didn’t had any but it smelt really good! By the time we had finished and cleared up it was about 1pm. We had a quick game of Take Two and then La Roche, Keel, Matt, Ollie and I went into Newton Stewart to see Madagascar 2…it was brilliant!!! Very funny!! The cinema was a one screen (we think also a theatre) that shows 2 films a day. It was really comfy though! Then we came back to base and am now typing up some of my blog and trying not to be tempted by all the cakes and things on the table! We were all planning to go out for dinner, but finances, illness and general opinion meant that Andy, Joy, Claire and Rachel went out for dinner while the rest of us drove into town and got Indian or Chinese takeaway and came back to base. I had a Chicken Chow Mein and bamboo shoots and water chestnuts. We all ate round the table and then La Roche and Keel had set up the projector and speakers in the little lounge so we had our own cinema! We watched the film ‘21’ (me snuggled up with my duvet), it was really good! A kind of Ocean’s Eleven type film – to do with counting cards in Blackjack and winning lots of money in Vegas! Joy made some more of her wonderful hot chocolate. The boys then decided to watch ‘Hitman’, a 15 rating with two guns on the front cover of the DVD. Hmmm…think perhaps I won’t watch that! Left them to it but couldn’t find my phone so went back in there twice (they had to pause so it didn’t scare me) but still couldn’t find it so Claire went in and found it for me. I think they were getting annoyed with me! Bedtime now, its 11.45. Claire rescued me from a killer spider above my bed – I did have to hold the cup and paper while she got down from the bunk bed – the spider moved and everything *shudder*. So last night’s sleep here.
Friday 23rd January
Had that Friday feeling. Hard to get out of bed this morning. In for 8.25 to get ready and soundcheck etc.
Last day in Douglas Ewart went like this:
9.05: Taste did an RE lesson for S1’s
9.50: Envizage did an ‘Abi’ lesson with a group of S2’s.
10.45: Breaktime
11.00: Joint RE lesson for S3’s where Envizage performed Big Ears and College of Knowledge.
11.55: Taste did an music lesson for some S2’s.
12.50: Lunchtime – went down to the canteen and has roast beef, veg and gravy….mmm. Went back to the hall and there were loads of people in there just chatting to us which was cool.
1.30: Envizage did an ‘Abi’ lesson for S5’s who really enjoyed it and it was very hard to keep a straight face!
2.25: Last lesson – a joint RE lesson for S2s where Envizage did Gnome and Customs.
We packed down in and were out by 4.50…pretty good going! The boys enjoyed playing with the trolleys, especially the one that went down steps.
Went to the Cinnamon Café for dinner – Haggis Lasagne and salad followed by Caramel Shortbread Ice Cream. Not convinced by Haggis yet, didn’t really eat it!
Then went back to base for a chat about plans for the weekend. Joy found Lindsay’s Barn key in her pocket so decided to text her to apologise. We constructed the text by going round the room and saying one word each. The story went along the lines of finding a sausage in her pocket, Jesus in her cup and juggling underwear and rolling pastry with 12 disciples. Hmmm…we could all tell it was the end of the week!
Then we went into Wigtown for their youth group. Played Table Tennis and chatted with the kids. Then the plan was we performed Street Tuff, however I got to the second line and my voice gave way so I couldn’t carry on an walked off. So David and Rachel did it instead. Was very frustrating!! We played Uno and ate scones and jam and then went back about 10pm. Went to bed about 11pm.
Thursday 22nd January
Gig night tonight! Nice long lie in, didn’t get into school til 8.55! The day went something like this:
9.05: Envizage did a drama workshop type lesson for the group we saw yesterday while Taste moved the tech stuff back and soundchecked.
9.50: Taste did a Music lesson for a group of S2’s
10.45: Breaktime
11.00: Taste did an RE lesson for a group of S3/4s
11.55: Envizage did an Abi lesson for a group of S5s. Turns out they had already seen us, but wanted to see it again so we did the play and then had a discussion after.
12.50: Lunchtime – went to the canteen and had a pork and apple baguette and potato wedges, yum!
1.30 – 5pm: Putting up some more lights, putting up the Check It Out stand and merchandise stand, rehearsing, sorting out props, sound checking etc – just generally getting everything ready for the gig.
5pm: Dinner – Fish/Battered Sausage and chips, Pizza, Cake, generally unhealthy yummy stuff! We then noticed one of the lights didn’t have a safety chain on it so Keel went and found the ladder and put a safety chain on. We then waited til he had gone and put the ladder back and sat down before telling him he hadn’t put it round the bar. Then followed a series of attempts to put it back without using a ladder – Keel on Matt’s shoulders, Sammy J with a broom handle, Joy gaffering a pair of pliers to the end to make it easier…in the end we did it, but Ollie went up the ladder anyway to reposition the light!
5.45pm: Rehearsing the James Bond Intro, then getting changed, hair straightened (the boys), makeup etc and meeting to pray with some of the helpers from the local churches at 6.30pm.
Doors opened at 6.50pm and a load of kids poured through the doors. We had about 200 people there which was fantastic! We did a ‘new’ sketch called Customs which went down really well and was really good fun to perform!
Lots of Check It Out tracts were taken which is brilliant and we signed lots of photos! Gig finished at 9pm, we left after clearing up at about 9.40pm, got back and ate lots of cake and other sugary foods and Joy made the most amazing Hot Chocolate out of milk and chocolate spread….just what we all needed! Took a while to sleep as the adrenalin (and sugar) was still pumping!
Wednesday 21st January
Same start time today. Had Rice Krispies and Toast with Strawberry Jam for breakfast. We got into school about 8.15, Taste set up and soundchecked their acoustic stuff. We soundchecked and I told the story of waking up this morning with puffy gunky eyes, and remembered I had been crying in my sleep, nice!
The day then went something like this:
9.05: Joint lesson with Taste for a few Learning Centre Pupils, Taste did an acoustic song, Envizage did ‘What’s It Worth’.
9.50: Envizage did an ‘Abi’ lesson with a group of S2’s. I jumped off the stage during Jerry and at that moment realised I wouldn’t be able to get back up, so had to stay down on the floor until it was time to go, then walk along the front of the stage to the steps. Won’t be doing that again!
10.45: Breaktime
11.00: Envizage did ‘Abi’ for another group of S5’s. As I came back on stage at the end to wrap up one of the girls said ‘Ooh she smiles!’
11.55: Taste did an music lesson for some S1’s.
12.50: Lunchtime – went down to the canteen and got some Chinese pork and rice and went and sat with a couple of girls called Amber and Alanah, Rach came over and joined us and then loads of girls came over and we were chatting which was really nice! Mainly about dead pets but even so, it was good just to chat with them and most of them are planning to come to the concert tomorrow which is fantastic! A few people came into the hall and then all of a sudden, Sammy J walked in followed by about 100 students! It was a kind of Pied Piper of Hamlin moment, very amusing!
1.30: Envizage did a drama lesson for a group of S4s. One of the groups spent a long time carefully choreographing the fight scene in the Good Samaritan – brilliant!
2.25: No lessons last period – we had to move all the tech equipment into a cupboard, we did an all hands on deck lift and shuffle – good work! We then went to the video conference room for a debrief and sang happy birthday to Rosie and ate cake. We planned the gig tomorrow night too.
Went to the café for dinner – chicken in a creamy sauce with Pilau Rice. I then had a cup of tea – a little teapot, cup and saucer and a jug of milk, I felt so grown up!
We went back to the Faith Mission Centre and had a bit of Recharge led by Rach – looking at the story of the Israelites defeating the Amalekites. We then spent some time praying for the students at Douglas Ewart and for the gig tomorrow night.
Now relaxing and going to have a game of Scene It in a while!
Tuesday 20th January
Alarm went off at the much more respectable time of 7am and we set off at 8am. Had a few little bits to sort out, then soundchecked and today went something like this:
9.05: Taste did an RE lesson for S2 while Envizage had a group of S4’s for Drama
9.50: Envizage had a group of S1’s for ‘Abi’ – Taste went off to do some rehearsals
10.45: Breaktime
11.00: Envizage did ‘Abi’ for another group of S1’s – One girl told Abi to stop being like Tracy Beaker – first time that comparison has come up!
11.55: Taste did an music lesson for S1
12.50: Sandwiches for lunch then at 1pm we had our lunchtime concert which was attended by about half the school – about 350 young people! Was incredible to see so many of them! First performance of ‘Amazing But True’ as David and Laura!!
1.30: Taste and Envizage did a joint RE lesson with ‘Big Ears’ (including guest appearance of Abi) and the all new ‘College of Knowledge’ with the Stratislovarian Doctor Eun. And a Q&A session in which I was able to share why I’m doing what I do – brilliant!
2.25: Envizage did ‘Abi’ for a group of S6’s.
3.20: Finish – pack away laptops and microphones and cover everything in blue material.
Had a debrief meeting in the library, which was encouraging to hear good stories and see how much more positive the teachers and students were. We felt like the barrier had been broken through which was great!
Then went for dinner – very excited to see a ‘Laura’s’ van parked outside the Cinnamon Café!
Tuna Mayo Jacket Potatoes and salad for dinner and I had a very sweet hot chocolate after!
The back to the youth hostel to pray and prepare for a prayer meeting later on. In that preparation time we played Jenga with the very silly rule that once you’ve touched a piece you are committed to pulling it out. I was second person to go and I pulled it down! Then 7.30pm was a prayer meeting with some people from the local churches. It was really encouraging to see their willingness to support us, and also for us to be able to share with them positive stories!
I feel better healthwise today (apart from my throat which is still sore and I had a bit of a coughing fit in and after College of Knowledge – not fun!) which helped with enthusiasm!
Monday 19th January
Alarm went off at 5.45….thats early! Got ready in the cold and had breakfast shivering. We left for Douglas Ewart school at 6.45, arriving at 7am, but not being able to get in for about 20mins, meaning unload and set up was pretty manic! The day then looked something a bit like this:
9.05: Taste did a music lesson for S2
9.50: Envizage did All About Abi and a very short Jerry Spring Onion
10.45: Breaktime
11.00: Taste did a music lesson and Envizage did a Drama lesson for S5
11.55: Taste did an RE lesson for S3
12.50: Lunch – Macaroni cheese and green beans mmmm!
1.30: Taste did an RE lesson and Envizage did a Drama lesson for S1
2.25: Taste did an RE lesson for S3
3.20: Finish – pack away laptops and microphones and cover everything in blue material.
We then had a debrief meeting in the video conferencing room. Then went to the Cinnamon Café for dinner. It’s a Christian Bookshop with a café (opposite a shop called ‘Laura’s’ – yay!!) We had a look round the bookshop bit – found ‘More To Life’ by Dennis Pethers on sale…reduced to £4! Very exciting! Dinner was Beef and Haggis pie with neeps and tatties, and then raspberry ice cream. Yes, I ate Haggis. I can’t work out if I liked it or if I didn’t because I knew what it was. We then came back to the youth hostel and finished our meeting, prayed, and then spent the rest of the evening relaxing. Getting excited because it snowed powdery snow, some people played scrabble, Keel was soldering a lead, Matt and Sammy J were playing the accordion, David went for a run, I am typing up the last few days. Just found out that where we are now, we are closer to Belfast than Glasgow! I’ve got stomach ache….blame it on the Haggis. It’s now 8.50, I’m going to have a shower and then go and read in bed! (We all fell asleep before anyone turned the light out, we were that tired!)
Generally we found it quite tough today, I think the fact I didn’t feel well really didn’t help, but there just seemed to be a barrier between us an the kids – not much response or enthusiasm from them.
Sunday 18th January.
Alarm went off at 6.50…ugh. Reluctantly rolled out of my warm snuggley bed into the coldness of my room, got ready and Rach picked me up at 7.40am. Drove to the office and met everyone there. Linfords replacement is an Iveco Daily (christened by Matt as Tess….as in Tess Daly). So we drove up to Scotland, with three breaks – Corley Services, Lancaster Services and a random pub called The Grapes, about an hour from our final destination in Wigtown, near Dumfries. Had dinner at the Baptist church at 5.30pm, then went to the Parish Church for their evening service in which we were involved. Taste did an acoustic song and we did What’s It Worth and David and Rachel did a sketch called ‘Who Cares’. The service was an opportunity for the people there to see us, the team going into the local school for whom lots of them had contributed food, money and bedding! We got to the Faith Mission Centre, just outside Newton Stewart about 9pm, the youth hostel where all of us except Joy and Andy are staying. All the boys are in one room, David in another and Rachel, Claire and Me in another. Us girls had four showers between us which means we get to have one each all week, bliss! So I had a nice hot shower and went to bed! The bunk beds are quite low, I decided it was a good idea for me to take a top one in case I randomly sit up in the night like I sometimes do and knock myself out!