week at home

leaving the Island

Isle of Man from the sky

Easter Day in Church

St Paul's

St Paul's from the bridge

One of the eggs from the Easter egg hunt in London

Lunch at GBK

Reasons not to live in community

Life in community is great most of the time but occasionally I think that it would be easier to live on my own. This has been in more obvious in the last couple of weeks

Illness - once one of us gets ill, very soon we all do. This time it all started with a cough, however this was no ordinary cough, it was a cough that belonged to our youngest house-member who is only 3 (and 3/4) and still learning the concept of covering her mouth when she coughs! This meant that within about 5 days half the house had come down with her cold. This again wouldn't have been too bad apart from her cold then morphed into Chicken-pox, something that had gone around her play group last month. She then had a bad allergic reaction to some off the medication she was on which was miss-diagnosed as potentially scarlet fever leading to five days of quarantine of the flat and therefore no access to a washing machine (this lead to some funny clothing choices by the end)! We are now all (basically) recovered and hoping that this was the last major illness of the winter

Hot Water - we live in a very old house, which has 10 showers and 21 people most of the time and only one hot water tank. Most of the time this is ok and everyone gets hot showers but every so often it doesn't workout so well. Last week the hot water system decided that it didn't want to play-ball any more and so we had a few days when only the earliest risers got hot water until someone was able to come and fix the system.

I do enjoy community, and I know how much I'll miss it when I leave, but I am looking forward to the day when I know my internet wont cut out on me when I'm on skype because someone else is streaming something, and I can guarantee a hot shower in the morning!

Crafting

I have always loved to sew, my mum taught me when I was very young, I'm still learning but here are a couple of my most recent ventures.

Sorry about the poor photo quality, I couldn't get it to not show my reflection. I started this about three years ago now, and its been sat in my room finished for about 6 months but I finally got round to getting it framed.

Last year for my birthday my housemates got me loads of fabric and a pretty box to keep it all in as I had been saying for ages that I wanted to make a patch-work quilt. It the took me about 8months to do all the cutting out (without a cutting board) but this is a picture of all the material spread out

I have started to sew it together and am about a quarter of the way through, I am determined that it will be finished by my next birthday though.
My next sewing project is to start on the "Lifepath" bags (for more info see last years post about Lifepath in June), I'm determined that I wont still be making them during the week this year!

Photos

Recently I've been playing around with some new editing software that I have, to try to make some of my pictures look a bit different. Here is some of what I have come up with

 This one was taken in one of the glens on the island, I haven't actually done anything with it, so am proud of how it turned out

Life...

It seems amazing doesn't it how life can seem to take over, that every so often you step back and realise how much time has passed and you didn't even notice. I watched a review of 2011's news the other day and was amazed at how much had happen in twelve short months, was it really only last year that the Japanese earthquake happened or that Bin Laden was killed, these events seem years ago in my mind, and thats the same with daily life. In January my parents moved from Cumbria to Essex, not a small move, and the first move since I had left home, was strange yet very normal the first time I went to the new house three months later. February brought promise of another year on the Isle of Man and the ability to stay with such an amazing organisation for just a bit longer. In March the first of my friends from university ventured over and I got to show them my new home, as again two worlds collided. April seemed to be the start of summer with countless bank holidays and amazing weather, the beach seemed the place to be. May was endless weekends away, mainly in the rain, but so much fun, who would of thought that a slip and slide in the rain would be a highlight of the year. June brought Lifepath and the Parish Walk, the week that seemed not to end, that we all loved and hated in equal measure. July was a time to say goodbye, but for many it was only for a while as only three of the team left for good. In August I returned to England, went to a friends wedding and caught up with the life I left behind when I graduated, I felt good to be back. In September I returned to the Island with full gusto, but soon learnt that my role would be very different this year, it was great to get to know this years team and become excited about what lies ahead. In October I returned to the classroom to start my MA, it had been less that 18months but it felt like a lifetime had passed. November was filled with the leadership course and residentials as well as planning for the Christmas service, the responsibility for which was given to Mary and I, no pressure for our first big event. December brought no snow this year, but the house was not low on Christmas spirit as everyone decorated glass jars for candles and made snowflakes to decorate the house, carol singing happened once again as did many Christmas parties.
I have had an amazing year and I am so fortunate to be in the job that I am, I can't wait to see what God will do this year through everything He throws my way