Sunday 15th February
Up at 8 to be at church by 9.30am. Lewis was leading so I sang which was nice! The service was really good – William preaching on James 2: Don’t just sit there, do something! Chatted to a few people after the service and Lewis and I went to Tesco to buy lunch and took it round to Mum and Dad’s. We had Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato soup with Tiger bread and Apple Pie and Custard. Was nice to see Dad and catch up with Mum! Then back to Lewis’s to pack and for him to do something on his laptop. Round to Sarah’s just after 5. Maddie was most disappointed to see me when I walked through the door and was looking behind me saying ‘Lewis?’ who had gone to buy petrol. When he did come round she got excited… ‘Lewis! Cake!’ – her and Sarah had made him a birthday cake earlier and she wanted to eat it! Lewis also got a remote control helicopter from them…*sigh* boys and their toys! Sarah and Matt went out for dinner to celebrate their anniversary while Lewis and I babysat two very tired, incredibly cute and very well behaved girls! Left there at 10.50 when Sarah and Matt came back and Lewis drove me back to Billericay…was in bed at 11.57pm!
Saturday 14th February
Aaah Valentines Day. Commercial rubbish. Up at 8am, had bacon rolls for breakfast then went round to Mum and Dad’s to pinch some buckets then over to the Baptist Church for A2J’s fundraising car wash. This happened between 9.30am and 4pm, there were about 15 of us washing cars of anyone brave enough to let us!! It was really good fun and we raised £220 to go towards the fund for the Gathering which was fantastic. In our ‘Youth Leader Break’, Lewis, Wendy and I went to the new milkshake shop (a shakeaways rip off) and I had a Kinder Bueno milkshake mmm yummy. I also fulfilled a life long ambition – I had a pineapple burger from the burger van outside New Look, yay!!
Got back to Lewis’s at 4.30, time for a quick change and make ourselves look respectable before heading to Hockley, Southend to help out at Em’s Movie Night she was holding for the youth. Tastey boys ran the evening and it was really good! Included the Intro’s quiz, watched Step Up 2 and had a dance off! Got back about 10.45 after picking up some Chinese. I showered and got into my pjs, fell asleep on the sofa around midnight and stayed there!
Friday 13th February
Rach picked me up at 9am so nice bit of a lie in! I wore my wellies so my feet didn’t get wet in the snow and we went to David’s flat in Brentwood. Spent the morning drinking tea, ‘admiring’ his DVD collection and learning the rest of the Gospel Lesson. We had lunch and watched 2 episodes of Rainbow…was oh so good! They just don’t make Kid’s TV the same these days… How can you get cooler than Zippy, George and Bungle?! We then went over to the Barn to go over what we’d done, block a bit more and choreograph the dance routine…oh cheese upon cheese! Worked up a bit of a sweat! Left the barn about 4.30pm and David dropped me off at Shenfield station. Got the train back to Braintree and met Lewis at the church at 6pm. Ate sausage rolls and crisps upstairs in the ‘youth leaders lounge’ as we decided to call it, before going down at the end of K4J to set up for Youth Alpha. Then 8-9.30 was the introduction session. Went really well, had between 15 and 20 young people which was fantastic! I ending up singing while Eun-Jeong played keyboard for worship which was a bit scary but good fun! We got back to Lewis’s about 10.30 and I had a shower and got into my pj’s, we drank hot chocolate and ate eggy bread and then I went to bed!
Thursday 12th February
Alarm went off at 6.45…I was in a really deep sleep so it felt like the middle of the night! Diane picked me up at 8.05 – was a really cold walk to the bus stop this morning! Went into the office for the second Creative Arts/Evangelism Team meeting from 8.30am-11.30am. Lindsay ate 2.5 doughnuts. I had her other half and half a Belgian bun. Lots of interesting things were discussed, mainly about the possible structure of the theatre part of Viz-A-Viz from September…watch this space!
Then lovely Uncle Clive drove me to the Barn to meet David and Rachel and we spent until 4.45pm learning the next bit of the Gospel Lesson and blocking it and then rehearsing parts 1 and 2. I seem to be remembering everyone else’s lines for them which makes me look like a swot L. Rachel keeps picking on me!
Got home about 5.15 after returning a DVD and walking home IN THE SNOW!! Yay! Watched Neighbours – Bridget was forced to tell her mum she’s pregnant…what is she going to say?! Roast beef for dinner and mango sorbet for pudding…nice! This evening have been updating my blog, been on facebook, finished my essay, going to pack and then have a bath!