I got to the end of last week and thought ‘What did I do this week?’. I thought for a long time and literally my mind was blank. I couldn’t think what I had done, but I was busy all week! I guess nothing especially stands out but there were lots of good meetings and conversations. We had a great preparation meeting for our Christmas Event ‘More Than A Story’  and the training session with the guys went well (in my opinion!).

Friday night Keel and I travelled to Braintree (ugh A12 rush hour traffic) and made it home in time for a yummy roast cooked by my lovely mummy, then we headed to Braintree Arts Theatre for ‘The Journey’ by Teen Challenge. It followed the story of a drug addict and his journey to find God. There were great use of stage and visuals, and lots of songs. The production was interesting, I didn’t like all of it but glad I went! Stayed at Sarah’s on Friday night and woken up bright and early by two little girls..! Saturday afternoon was my housewarming party back in Billericay which was great. Went out in the evening with Emily, Paul, Dan and Jeni, was great to spend time with them and catch up. Sunday was church and a lazy afternoon catching up on X Factor!

This week is busy. I think that’s the running theme from now til Christmas!!

• Monday: Today was a couple of meetings and All About Abi rehearsals
• Tuesday: Some writing for Christmas, need to write an action plan for Abi rehearsals next week, have an Abi tech meeting, Simon is taking headshot pictures at some point (argh what to wear and how do I do my hair?!) as well as general admin bits and pieces.
• Wednesday: Rich is leading a Bible study in the morning, we’re teaching the guys some of the lessons that Taste will be doing in schools,and I have more rehearsal time with Jonny
• Thursday: We have a day at The Barn with Den who is now back from America. He’s doing a session giving an Overview of the Bible, which I’ve been in before and is brilliant! Then have another strategy meeting, then in the evening I am meeting my cousin Annette for dinner which I’m very much looking forward to, haven’t seen her in a long time.
• Friday: We are all heading to Witham to set up in a church. Taste will do some rehearsals and then go home, then a select few, making up a unique ‘Taste’ line up are rehearsing for a wedding they are playing the next day. The line up consists of Claire Parry, Jo Hobson, Luke Capon, Andy Clark and Andy Keel.

I’m currently reading through Romans and being massively challenged by that. This morning was Romans 12, quite a famous passage. There’s so much to take from it…here are some highlights for you, taken from the New Living Translation.

Verse 2: Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Verse 9-10: Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.

Verse 16: Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all!

Tags: All About Abi, Bible Study, More Than A Story, Romans 12, Taste, Teen Challenge, X Factor

Sunday was a sofa day. I thought I was better…but then i felt a bit more poorly. Lewis came to look after me, he brought me a goody bag of grapes, smoothie, Ribena (yay for cosy juice!) and chocolate for when i’m fully better! So I was better in that I had migrated from bed to sofa…but still couldn’t be upright for too long. Thank goodness for Sky +. Watched some of the Girls Aloud Show from the O2 and then on Comedy Central it’s Sofa Sunday, with Scrubs all day. I watched Scrubs from 1pm-6pm, and then they started to repeat the episodes…what’s that about! Then watched Saturday’s X Factor and then bed. Wasn’t really up for eating much although I knew I should have been.

10 and a half hours sleep is amazing. Straight through. So I had been told not to go into work but knew I would go nuts! So I watched Jeremy Kyle in the morning, got ready and went into work for 1pm. Despite the ‘What are you doing here?! Go home!’s I felt very welcome. 1pm-2pm: Lunch Break; 2pm-3pm: Staff Meeting; 3.15pm-4.45pm: Meeting with Dan over Coffee in the Bistro; 5pm: Hometime! A nice relaxing intro back! The evening I spent catching up on Neighbours and Home and Away and worked on ‘All About Abi’.

Now it’s Tuesday and we have much sickness in the team…please pray for us!!! Ben has Shingles and a Cold (which we have decided is flu, purely so we can say he has Flingles), Andy has been at the Doctors this morning with stomach pains, Claira has been signed off work for another month and I’m still recovering. We would muchly appreciate your prayers as we continue to rehearse!

Tags: 10.5 Hours Sleep, All About Abi, Bistro, Chocolate, Comedy Central, Cosy Juice, Flingles, Girls Aloud, Grapes, Home and Away, Jeremy Kyle, Neighbours, Prayer, Ribena, Scrubs, Sky+, Sofa, X Factor

Saturday

Had a lie in, yay! Then slowly got myself ready and packed and Julie kindly drove me to Shenfield. Renewed my young persons railcard (it’s gone up to £24!!! shocking) and got myself a homeward bound ticket. Arrived at Freeport at 11.45 where my chauffeur driven chariot awaited (Lewis in Yo-Yo Stanley) and we went home to see Mum who hasn’t been very well and gave her some flowers (not from me, I could have pretended that they were and I was a really nice daughter but that would have been lying which is bad.  Julie bought some roses for mum which was very nice of her!) and stayed for a little bit. Then we went to Tesco and bumped into Phil and Carol (criticising my choice of clothes as always!), bought some food and then went back to the penthouse suite at Balmoral Court. We cooked omlettes (Lewis cooking, me instructing) and then spent the afternoon being lazy, watching TV, wrapping some Christmas presents (oh how organised am I?!). Then we decided to go and get a film out so went to Blockbuster and spent aaaaaaaaages in there but there really wasn’t anything, and then we asked the nice man if they had any Prince Caspian’s returned which they did so we got that! We then went back and had some meatballs and pasta and watched the film, then watched X Factor and the results on fast forward, then it was about 1am so went to bed!

Sunday

SNOW!!!!! Aaah how exciting!!! We had to drive to Basildon (via Sarah’s to lend them Prince Caspian, borrow a pair of boots and Maddie and Emi were in matching clothes – SO cute!) in the snow which was fun, got there a bit late so Rachel and Ollie had pretty much loaded. We then all got into the Fun Bus and drove to Kilburn. We thought we were going to be an hour early, but ended up being 4minutes early due to the craziness of driving in  London and dodgy directions! We were performing at the Gospel Tabernacle Church which is the downstairs of a Methodist Church so after initial confusion, we sorted out where we were going, unloaded and set up. The Youth Service (actually all age, about 70 people, about 20 were children and youth) started at 2.30 and we did Abi, then they did some worship and a story, then we did Trasha and it was great fun! The kids really got into it and at the end gave Abi some really good advice – the best being from a little girl called Stephanie, who was about 4, who said ‘She should pray.’ Aww!! We stayed around for some food and then packed down which was quite crazy with all the kids trying to help! We left at 6.20, got back to the office just before 8 and was back at home at 9. I think Lewis enjoyed being on the road with us, his comment to me being ‘You were better than I thought.’ Cheers. Stayed at home Sunday night, so nice to be back in my own bed with Twinkle, my furry cat hot water bottle!!!

Monday

Got up about 9, i think I’m getting old – the whole ‘got to make the most of the day’ thing. Hmmm. Got ready and did some bits at home then Me and Mum went round to Sarah’s. Maddie was poorly had a bad cough which was giving her a really deep voice and she wasn’t happy. Quite cuddly though! We had lunch and then Me and Sarah took a buggy each and went into town so that Maddie could have a sleep in her buggy. Cold!!! And Me and Sarah had our matching coats on so we proper looked like sisters! Met Lewis in town and sent him to Tesco to get biscuits and then we went home and he drove round. We had marylandcookies, chocolate fingers AND big cookies filled with chocolate. Mmmm. We left about 5.15 after Sarah wiped Maddie’s nose with my scarf, nice, took Mum home and then went back to the Penthouse. Had a lasagne and then people began descending for Stephen’s 16th birthday. 17 of us went to Go Banana’s in Colchester and we had great fun! I found 4 flags in the first game, we played a relay race, was hilarious watching Tom and Lewis fly round, we had lots of free time where the boys were pelting each other with ball pool balls. then there was a blindfold game which I watched and was very funny! It finished at 9.20 and we went to McDonalds for food, mmm bacon cheeseburger! We then drove back, dropped people home and then Lewis dropped me back in Billericay. I was in bed at 12.04, so close to my target of midnight!!

Tags: Abi, Bed, Christmas Presents, Cookies, Emi, Go Bananas, Home, Kilburn, Maddie, Omlettes, Prince Caspian, Snow, X Factor