(Started yesterday on site!)

Tonight is a mental party night on the third floor of a multistorey car park. All the technical equipment has been hired in and they’ve been setting up since half 8. We arrived at 11 but not much for us to do yet, just watch. They hired a van simply to drive from the bottom of the car park to the third floor. There’s various areas being set up: graffiti area with car bonnets in it, life size inflatable table football, a course set out for little cars and some crazy bike things, the stage is at a diagonal in the middle with four towers at the back with moving head lights on top and plasma screens mounted on them, there are LED par cans everywhere, strip lights across the pillars and various other T-bars and uplights. A smoke machine will be set up too. The evening starts at 5 where the kids have the opportunity to climb a climbing wall to get into the 3rd floor. Then there will be workshops, presentations, the next installment of the daily drama (which is in German so I don’t have a clue what the storyline is!!), Taste are doing 4 acoustic songs and then at 9pm is the ‘Disco’ with La Roche djing for an hour or so. Keel is very excited to be doing lights, i’ll be running visuals and lights when Keel isn’t around and Joy will be doing sound. They’re just putting the climbing wall in…it’s basically a big sheet with climbing rock things attached to it that they’ve dropped over the edge! Back in the base they’ve been filling a couple of hundred helium balloons on strings to bring over. I’m sat in the tech area writing this on my iPod and then I’ll post it later tonight. It’s so exciting to be part of this, it’s gonna be awesome!

Well add a few barrels of fire, some hot dogs and about 300young people and you might begin to imagine what happened last night! The event was fantastic, the set up looked perfect and people seemed to be having a really good time! It all ended with an hour dj set from La Roche with Keel and Ben doing amazing things with lights and smoke. It was all hands on deck to pack everything down and several loads into the van and out again at The Lighthouse but it was all done in an hour and a half. Means we have resetting to do this afternoon to be ready for tonights session and Taste gig!

We have been having lots of fun in Germany!

Friday we were in a school taking some lessons; Saturday was setting up the venue, The Lighthouse; Sunday was church, pancakes for lunch, soundchecks at The Lighthouse and then out for a Bavarian Beer! The boys had litre glasses, I had 0.3l glass! It wasn’t that bad!

Yesterday the week began. Every night this week there is a programme from 7-9 then Friday night La Roche is djing a set on the third floor of a multistorey car park next door that the kids can climb up to! Its all really well done, the venue looks amazing! It was packed last night and got very hot and sticky! I’m running visuals and also doing a bit on the lights whch is good fun!

Heading into Herne town centre now, will try and write some more soon!

We have just come back from a weekend in Becca’s home town of Crowthorne (near Wokingham)! We travelled across over lunchtime on Friday and arrived at St John The Baptist Churchat 2pm to be met by the Ceaser family. We cleared out some of the pews, unloaded in the rain and set up in the beautiful but rather cold church! Excited to have the space to rear project so suspended the screen, with black either side…it looked really nice when all done! Battered sausage and chips for dinner followed by a meeting where everyone was in a slightly silly mood! Gig was 7.30pm-9.30pm and 100+ people came which we and the local churches were delighted with! We changed the plan slightly to accomodate the higher numbers of non-church young people than had been expected…what a great problem to have! Packed down and loaded the van and dispersed to our hosts. I was staying with a couple called Ian and Sue who looked after me very well! In bed just after half 11!

Saturday we went to Crowthorne Baptist Church, Becca’s home church where her Dad is the minister. They had shifted the orientation of the chairs to give us maximum space to set up in. We worked out logistics and started unloading whilst Andy and I blacked out the back. We started a relaxed set up and then had to leave to go to Finchampstead for a meeting at 1pm about Spring Harvest(we are part of the Distinctive 11-14s venue at Minehead Week 2). We met at a gorgeous house and had lunch and then spent the afternoon discussing ideas! Then back to the church to finish setting up, then round to Becca’s for dinner and relax in front of the Wii! Back to hosts for a fairly early night.

Sunday we were at church for 9.30 to soundcheck and prepare for the service…we were told we could do what we liked so had to warn everyone it might be a little different to their normal Sunday service! We had some worship songs, performed ‘What’s It Worth’, Becca shared her testimony and Joy took the congregation through the story of Zaccheus…literally everyone involved acting the story out and being given Chewits by Zaccheus! Tea and coffee after the service, pack down and then dinner in the back hall: Chicken Stew and Profiteroles! Everyone helped us load and we left just after 2pm, leaving Ben, Jack and Becca behind, they are staying for the next couple of days and coming back to Essex on Tuesday. So we had lots of room in the back of the van and travelled almost comfortably!

Got 2 days off now and need to recharge the batteries a bit! Have been feeling quite tired this weekend so need to take it a bit easy. Will be going to see Billy though!!

Having not had internet for 2 weeks I haven’t been able to update…sorry everyone! It was quite nice though to be away from technology for a while!

We got back at 4.35am and I’m pretty shattered so will update at another point! Just wanted to let you know that I haven’t forgotten! We had a pretty awesome 2 weeks and there’s lots to share!

Unfortunately now Andy, Keel, Jack and Ben have been struck down with a vomiting bug so please pray for their quick recovery!

Sarah (my sister) hasn’t had her baby yet (due 31st Jan)…will let you know when he/she arrives!!

We did an alternative Halloween event at Gorleston Baptist Church working with Unite Norfolk. The wonderful Matt Williamson of last year’s Taste fame was part of the organisation of it…really good to see him, although still doesn’t look right without the hair! We set up one end of the hall and Unite set up the other end, hanging black material around the entire room – looked quite good!!
The evening consisted of extreme games run by Unite, 2 sets from Taste and Diversion running a game and performing ‘What’s It Worth’.
The games that Unite did were horrendous!! One involved a paddling pool filled with porridge, pieces of carrot and sweets and the kids had to get the carrot and sweets out with their mouths – that one was called Vomit Spit. Another was a large sheet of plastic on the floor covered in ketchup, mustard, mushy peas and relish and the kids had to push a fish across it using only their nose. They had protective suits on, but the zip didn’t work and the ketchup etc soaked through onto their clothes. The smell of the fish was disgusting and that and a combination of eating far too many sweets meant I felt very sick!! I was almost speechless as I was trying to present!
It was a good night, lots of fun although didn’t get home til 2.30am!