The idea was that I was arranging a team trip to the cinema to see Fame. One of those occasions where you mention it and everyone’s like ‘Yeah!!’ and then the excuses come in when it actually comes to it. (I’m totally usually one of those people!) So Saturday Me and Keel went to Chelmsford. It was crazy!! I forgot how much I hate town centres on a Saturday anyway, but there were loads of weird and wonderful things going on. Photos here: Street Diversions show a little bit of some of the things. There were some builders performing outside the old Woolworths which was quite good fun. So we wandered round a bit, I went to O2 to try and get my phone sorted, got a coffee from Costa (poor girl wasn’t having a good day!) and spent much of the afternoon in the park watching a sculpture which breathed fire and water! Went to see Fame at the cinema in the evening…hmmm. I was so excited, but actually left disappointed. I really enjoyed the film while it was happening…but when it finished I realised that nothing had actually happened, and they didn’t even do the song!

Sunday I went to LWCC again with Tricia, and really enjoyed it. They have custard creams at the end of the service…always a good thing! We had roast dinner and plum crumble…can’t remember the last time I had a roast and crumble, good times! By this point I had spent much of my time texting round people to try and organise some sort of gathering. So i headed off to Lake Meadows in Billericay, met Keel, Becca and Ben and we spent a couple of hours in the park. Ben climbed a tree…that was about the height of excitement. Then he went home and the three of us went for cranberry juice/J2O/Orange and Lemonade/Chips/Chocolate Fudge Cake/Pepsi/Coffee at Wetherspoons!

So overall I enjoyed my weekend. Now for rehearsals and preparations for Grantham. And we’re off bowling on Tuesday night.

www.85design.co.uk is now up and running. Very exciting!

Tags: Becca, Ben, Bowling, Chelmsford, Chocolate Fudge Cake, Costa, Custard Creams, Fame, Grantham, Keel, Lake Meadows, LWCC, Plum Crumble, Roast Dinner, Street Diversions, Woolworths

Lay in today!!!! But i was awake at 6.38…doh! Rachel picked me up at 8.55am and we picked up Ollie from his house and Ami from the station. Off we went to the Barn. Yes this truly is an amazing place in amazing grounds with lots of random statues. Inside are lots of very random and distracting pictures!

So there are 3 retreat days in a year where all of the Viz-a-Viz Ministries people meet. So this was the first time I met the 2nd years and the church based people. We started off with some Worship and then a kind of introduction to all the various ministries of Viz-A-Viz which was realy interesting, they do so much!! Found out plans for a youth event INSIDE chelmsford cathedral involving skate ramps! We had a time of prayer in twos, and later on walking around praying for all the various ministries and people. Lunch was at 1pm by which time everyone was starving and our stomachs were rumbling loudly, especially during the quiet times! Then the afternoon was a little education on ‘More To Life’, and we discussed a question, well I wrote all the notes while everyone else watched and talked about other things! We had a time of worship and communion and then Kathryn (who has done 2 years with Optimum, and is about to go off to Spurgeons college to train to be a baptist minister) spoke which was really good. The chairs were really squeaky which was especially awkward/amusing when everyone sat down ‘remaining in a state of worship’ *SQUEAK, SHUFFLE, CREAK*

Then a group of us (La Roche – Taste’s DJ, Matt – Taste’s Drummer, SammyJ (Gammy) – Taste’s Bassist, Keel – Taste’s Techie, Claire – Taste’s lead vocals, Rachel, Ollie, Ami and Jenni (second year optimum students), Dan – techie, Paul (not sure who he was!) and me) went bowling. It was fabulous fun, involved me getting laughed at, ridiculed and entirely surrounded by the taste boys who thought it was hilarious! Randomly you only give one shoe in when you get your bowling shoes…so of course there would be one who lost their one shoe they had to look after…Dan! I got two strikes in a row – my moment of glory but then it kinda went downhill, though i beat a few boys first time round

Came home and had chilli and rice. Settled down to watch Hollyoaks on E4+1…steph, what were you thinking?!?! Watched ‘Lost in Austen’ on ITV1 which was actually pretty good!

Bedtime now….

*1 Corinthians 3:5-9 ‘What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.’*

Tags: 1 Corinthians 3:5-9, Bowling, Lost In Austen, More To Life, Retreat, The Barn