Sunday – MTC Sawbridgeworth

Got up at 10.30am…ah bliss! Slowly got ready, cooked myself fried egg and beans on toast, added a new page to my blog and was then picked up at 12.45pm. Picked up the van from the office and Rachel, Ollie and myself travelled to Sawbridgeworth, listening to Christmas songs and singing at the tops of our voices (Me and Rachel, Ollie just shakes his head in dismay). We got to the church just before 2pm and was greeted by a guy who looked at our van and said ‘wow, you got a load of guys in the back there?’ to which Rachel replies ‘I wish!’ and then hastily feels she has to explain herself ‘erm, to help us unload all the equipment…’ Haha, funniest moment!!
We met Dan and David there and spent the afternoon setting up, working around the pews and immovable lecturn, but wasn’t all that bad. We had a nice little room and our own loo backstage…going up in the world! Dinner was a chicken casserole, bread and blueberries and cream.
Show started at 7pm and went very well. Not as many mistakes as the previous night which was good! Backstage during the show we had many an interesting conversation including the best way of going to the loo as quietly as possible…
After the show we chatted to the people there, mainly from the church itself but heard some really encouraging stories of people who had brought friends/relatives and were interested by it, or it had slightly changed their perceptions of Christians!
Packed down and started loading at 10.40. I was chief shouter outer of the order in which things needed to be loaded, tis great fun bossing the boys about!
Got back to the office about 12pm, nice crunchy frosty leaves to jump on, Rachel’s car to de-ice and a slightly unnerving moment when she found a pair of gloves on her front seat which didn’t belong to any of us…but then Ollie realised they were his!
Home by 12.20, jumped into bed and couldn’t sleep because I was cold, so i suppose got to sleep about 1.15am!

Monday

Alarm went off at 8.10am, snoozed it til 8.30am and then got up, got ready, left the house at 9.30am and the trains worked perfectly and i was in Chelmsford by 10.10am! Did some Christmas shopping, met Lewis about 10.50, we had coffee and then spent a few hours Christmas shopping – including eating a Marks and Sparks Christmas Sandwich (pretty good, but not as good as the Sainsbury ones me and Lois used to have whilst Christmas shopping for Superdrug makeup. aah, those were the days!) Left Chelmsford at 3.40pm, back at Bob and Julies just after 5pm, watched Neighbours (so predictable, yet shocking at the same time!!), had dinner (Gammon, veg and jacket potato mmmm and a raspberry/chocolate/creamy cakey thing) and watched Love Actually. Ahhh feel christmassy and warm and slushy inside!

Tags: Chelmsford, Christmas Sandwich, Christmas Shopping, Frosty Leaves, Gloves, Love Actually, Neighbours, Sawbridgeworth

Friday

Well Friday was a long day of working hard. From 9.30am-11.30am. Phew. Then i got the train back to Braintree! Had hot dogs and cheese at Lewis’s (how many people now fancy hot dogs?!) and then sat down quietly for the afternoon while Lewis worked. I did some Christmas shopping online, well more browsing and working out than buying!

Then went to K4J, had fun there. Did a reflection story on the paralysed man being lowered through the roof which went fairly well, they were a bit chatty though! Then we had A2J which Aaron led, talking about depression, suicide and emotions. We split into boys and girls at one point – girls talked about periods, which made all the boys giggle when we had to feedback! We played the After Eight (or in our case Tesco Value After Dinner Mint) game where you place one on your forehead and have to get it into your mouth without using your hands. i.e. wiggling your face. Hilarious to watch. Lewis won, surprise surprise, despite me trying to sabotage his attepmts!! Was a good night, got back about half 11 in the end.

Saturday

Lazy morning, Lewis made yummy egg and bacon rolls for Brunch and Wendy’s friends came over for a bit. We went into town in the afternoon to get some bits, i witnessed a bit of an argument in New Look, the police came in and everything! Then went back and did some present wrapping then went round to Sarah’s for dinner and after bathing and dressing Maddie and Emi, Sarah and Matt went out and left me in charge! Us 3 girls had cuddles on the sofa and then after some persuasion and eventually getting into bed with Maddie and her getting me in a headlock and shouting ‘NO’ everytime I tried to get out, Maddie went to sleep. Then I fed Emi and put her to bed and had a nice evening by myself drinking hot chocolate, watching some episodes of Hollyoaks and X Factor (Do I even need to comment on Britney’s performance?! Shocking. And Ruth probably shouldn’t have gone.) and trying to work out what the limited edition mystery Revels flavour is. Having tasted several but not being able to work it out I have to look up on the internet. Strawberry. Really?! How unimaginative and un-strawberry tasting. Silly. Then Emi screamed so brought her down to wind her and have some sleepy snuggles. Then Lewis came back from his Camp meeting (metting about camp, not….yeh.) and then Sarah and Matt came back and i relayed all the evenings events and then went back to get some sleep!

Sunday

Got up and ironed Lewis’s shirt (hear that Mum, I IRONED!!!! and burnt my thumb in the process), had Frosties for breakfast and went to Church for 9.30am. Church was good,I went up into Sunday School with Maddie and we made a star decoration for the Christmas Tree. Chatted to some people after Church and then went back to Lewis’s for Wendy’s stew and treacle pudding and custard mmmmmm. Then went round to Sarah’s and picked Maddie up with the intent to go swimming but there was a gala on, so we went to Starbucks for coffee and biscuits, walked round Freeport looking at the lights and then drove to the park where we played in the dark and Lewis got stuck on the slide. Funny. We then went back to Sarah’s and watched the George Yard Firework display from the kitchen window – Maddie was not nearly as impressed as we were – then back to church for 5.30pm for the evening service. Chatted to a few different people after the service then Lewis took me back to Billericay (via McDonalds – they’ve stopped donig Bacon Cheeseburger’s at the Braintree one….WHAT!!!! But we did somehow end up with an extra cheeseburger!).

Monday

Picked up at 8.40 by Rachel and we went to the office. COLD. I finally printed my newsletters yay!!! Then the internet went down so we went shopping. For props. Spent £18 on chocolate coins! (Come to a show – we give out chocolate coins!) Went back and it was lunchtime and i spent the afternoon folding my newsletter, writing names and notes and envelopes and sticknig stamps.

Then in the evening I went to Ignite, Sawyer’s Women’s ministry meeting, met some lovely people, drank mulled wine (non-alcoholic for me!), ate nibbles and sang some songs round the piano (that bit was slightly cringey but funny!!). Got home after 10 and went to bed!

Tuesday

Got up at 8.40, got a text from Rachel saying she’d pick me up at 12.35. So…what to do with my morning! I finished off allllll my newsletters and then went into town to post them. Bought some effervescent echinacea (Mum you must be so proud of me) to ward off the bugs which are lurking in the back of my head. Got back and had some carrot and coriander soup with Julie and then Rachel picked me up. We went to the Barn and met David, then from 1pm-3.30pm we went through the sketches with Ollie doing sound cues. Then we packed up and went home. Spent the rest of the day (with a brief interlude for dinner) preparing and finalising stuff for the worship session on Wednesday, watching Holby City (what IS Jac upto?!), dissecting Holby City on the phone to Mum and then having Sarah ring me to complain that Mum was too busy talking to me to talk to her. That’s because i’m the favourite daughter…..haha.

Tags: After Eight Game, Babysitting, Bacon Cheesburger, Britney, Carrot and Coriander Soup, Chocolate Coins, Christmas Shopping, Cold, Dark, Echinacea, Egg and Bacon Rolls, Fireworks, Holby City, Hot Dogs, Ignite, Ironing, K4J, Mulled Wine, Newsletter, Park, Periods, Police, Revels