Today I went on a wander to try out some of the settings on my camera and the software I bought to accompany it. Not bad for a first attempt I thought!
The photos are a little big for the viewer 
but you can see them here.
Autumn in the village November 11, 2009
Yule-Thai’d & Red Cup Revels November 6, 2009
As I write, we are celebrating pseudo-Christmas here in our lovely house. Let me set the scene for you…. We are listening to Carols from Oxford on CD, we have winter green scented oil in the burner, we have ordered thai food (which I’ve never had before.) Later there will be crackers and homemade mince pies, and it’s all being washed down with Starbucks Christmas blend and some yummy mulled wine… happy times!! (pictures to follow).
Oh, and at the mo I am eating chocolate orange with popping candy… which is the most bizarre thing ever.
Tonight could be a metaphor for the whole week really. I have done a bit of work but a lot of revelling. This week has marked Red Cup day, which is when Starbucks launch their Christmas drinks range…
On Wednesday evening I went to a firework party with the guys from cell. Top marks for entertainment and ingenuity, for company and for nibbles 
I have been playing with the new software I bought for my mac. It means I can do all the graphic design and website creation stuff I need to for my course.
Oh and I have been getting to know Sirius, who is the new kitten living at our house. He is very lovely!
Travels & Significant Moments October 31, 2009
This week has been Reading Week. So I shall begin by admitting to having done no reading whatsoever… Three essays are looming so next week really must be the week of work. This week, however, has been the week of visiting friends and sharing in significant moments.
A lovely friend here offered me a free trip up to London, as she was heading that way anyway. I accepted, and last Saturday found us winding our way up towards our glorious capital, singing cheesy 90’s pop anthems and generally trying to wake ourselves up. I arrived and sought out the Wandsworth SA Fairtrade coffee-shop, a date that used to be one of my monthly highlights. Think bacon rolls, banana and walnut cake, and as many friends as you can fit into one building. It was lovely to stroll through the doors of church like it was the most normal thing in the world. Lovely, if a little strange.
The next few days passed in a whirl of friends, coffee shop visits and catching up. I went to church on the Sunday. I sat in the park for hours with a close friend. I ate surf & turf with two of my favourite people in the whole world. On Monday I popped into my old work and spent some time stuffing envelopes, just to help out and keep my hand in. Then I had lunch with my lovely ex-workmates. It was fab to see them all again. I went to Ikea, a favoured old haunt, and ate meatballs with more lovely people. On Tuesday night I took part in the church prayer walk… how I’ve missed those!
On Wednesday I travelled back here with my lovely friend, accompanied by the fantastic music of Take That. It had been nice to be away but it was great to be back, really great. I flung myself into more coffee meetings, cell group and just generally reacquainted myself with this place which I love so much.
Yesterday was a significant day, as Alan and the kids went to Giants Causeway to scatter Jo’s ashes. The grief and loss of it all seemed very real, as we thought about them, and the events of four months ago. I still really miss her. and then in another corner of the country, on a different beach, looking out across a different sea, myself and a friend marked loss and release in our own way, handing precious people over to God. So I think I feel a bit headwrecked after all of that, but still sure that God has all of these things in hand, and trusting him for the good plans he has for us.
Last night I headed to a half night of prayer at church. It probably sounds over-effusive, but I loved it. I miss the focussed intercession of prayernet in Wandsworth. I miss grappling with something and listening to God and feeding back. I miss creative prayer, but last night encouraged me and inspired me that, though in a different place, there is very definitely ‘prayer-stuff’ I can get my teeth into here, and God very definitely has things to say and do in this place. Hurrah for that!
Inspired… October 16, 2009
So, my course at uni is digital art, and so I spend a lot of time trawling the net for expressions of creativity expressed in digital form. I don’t really have an answer to the “What do you want to do when you graduate?” question, but I know it is something about creativity, healing, prayer… something that fuses together all of those things and helps people find freedom from different kinds of captivity.
Creativity has always energised, engaged me. Perhaps that’s what first got me into 24-7 prayer… the sense that my communication with God could be something tangible, expressive… something I splay across a page in bright paint, or form in my hands with wet clay. And one of the best things about this new, relaxed schedule I find myself enjoying, is that the creativity I simply didn’t have time for in London (or, I didn’t make time for…) is bursting out.
I have been scribbling in notebooks, taking lots of photos, doodling on the corners of seminar notes. It is so refreshing to have space to think. One of the projects we are doing this term is to create a self portrait website from scratch – a task which I am really enjoying – rifling through old journals and pictures I drew when I was a kid and building a picture that hopefully communicates something, and something that will hopefully point to the amazing difference God has made in my life.
Anyway, I started this post to talk about a website I found… I guess if being at uni has reminded me of anything, it’s that there are a lot of people struggling and a lot of them have little or no support. They have noone to turn to. That breaks my heart and inspires me to pray for them, and for opportunities to reflect hope to them.
There is a ministry in Amercia called, To Write Love On Her Arms, which aims to help people find freedom from Self Injury, and other destructive behaviour patterns. I often look at their stuff and am inspired and challenged by the stories I read. I often follow links and links from there too, just to see where I end up.
This week I found a site called Heart Connection, which is like an online community where people can share their stories and get help, ask questions, get prayer etc. I know that forums can be really helpful, so I was intrigued. I kept following links, and eventually found this site:
http://www.heartsupport.com/getinvolved/visualedition/
It’s a space where people can submit pictures, photos artwork that reflects where they are on their journeys. It reminds me a bit of postsecret, where people send in an anonymous, artworked postcard of a secret they want to share. I went through a lot of different emotions, looking at the photos – joy and hope at the freedom some people were finding, a sense of urgency that there is so much pain and need out there, and sadness, I felt so stirred up by the honesty and rawness in some of the submissions. The picture above is just one example.
…The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners… (Isaiah 61:1)
Updates September 30, 2009
So much to say but with no logical order in which to frame it, hmm… I think I felt more confident blogging when I was telling exciting tales about my forays into the world of prayer, but is writing about freshers flu, myriad coffee meets, and the delights of library tours as worthy? I think so…
I love being a student. One of our first assignments is to create a self portrait website. We’ve been given a ‘blank page’ when it comes to layout, design, content – it can feature whatever we like (and as ever my imagination is far outrunning my technical expertise). How exactly do you get handwritten words to curl up off a journal page and project themselves onto blank walls? How do you make pages flick over as if caught by the wind? How do I make a bookcase slide forward on a click, revealing an Anne Frank-style secret room behind? These are the questions permeating my mind while I sip double shot lattes and wait for buses (which never run on time in the countryside, let me tell you!!).
My fellow students are an intriguing bunch. I love the variety and the colour and the spice they bring into my life. Gone is ’safe-christian world’ where most people I know have the same thoughts and beliefs and even goals as me. Welcome to the eclectic melee of different backgrounds, ideologies, life-experiences that is the educational establishment: The ‘athiestic corner’ that detest studying medieval morality plays – (“I don’t get why they’re all ’bout Jesus ‘n stuff”, winning quote of the week prize I think); the scraggled early-morning bunch gathered for morning office in the uni chapel (they all knew when to stand up and sit down though, and they definitely knew what a canticle was, unlike my good self…); the varying degrees of hangover observable during the progression of freshers week, overhearing conversations that intrigue, horrify cause ones mind to boggle… it all gives me much to muse over.
I’m also loving delving into new relationships, new forms of community. Wandsworth was great for that – like a jumper that fits you just right, and there may be holes in the elbows now but that kinda just adds to the charm. So coming here was a bit of a worry on that score. What if I just didn’t find that? What if here was some sort of relational black-hole? What if I just didn’t fit in? (and a thousand other thoughts and little insecurities that many freshers before me have thought I’m sure). And I have been homesick. I knew it was bad today when I found myself thinking about and missing the little raised up bit of pavement by the HSBC cashpoint in Wandsworth that I always used, and always made the effort to walk on even when I wasn’t using the cashpoint (not obsessive much….). Anyway…
I’ve been relieved to find out that my fears haven’t been realised. Here is different, but not bad different, it’s refreshing. In fact it’s been a bit of a social whirlwind… I’ve been to new cell groups (which I’ve loved, felt energised by, been prayed for at, felt at home in, ate yummy calzone in, and generally been able to be myself at…Woop!), I’ve sung in Handel’s Messiah (yes, really… it felt good to dust off those good ole top soprano notes that haven’t had much use for a while), I’ve been to a church prayer meeting, (and then joined them for coffee and a tea-cake afterwards in the most endearing little coffee-shop), I’ve sat in Macdonalds with some of my fellow-freshers (and tried not to feel out of place, being over 20 and not exactly revering the aforementioned fast-food option), oh – and I helped to set the cakes and biscuits out on a plate at church on Sunday evening (you know you fit in somewhere when you know where they keep cling film).
I think I like the second week in a new place better than the first. Last week I was sorely tempted to buy a T-Shirt with “I am Vicki, I am a student at…, I am studying…, I used to live in London” etc on. At times it felt daunting to have to introduce myself all the time, and even just the intensity of finding the rooms where our lectures were, understanding the groups and abbreviations, remembering student IDs and IT passwords and the like. There were times when I wanted to stay in and just not have to face another round of introductions. But this week I feel more resolute. This morning I dared to venture to the chapel, this morning I remembered the names of some of my classmates, this morning I didn’t have to extricate my much-folded campus map from its cosy home in my rucksack – it’s all becoming a little more intuitive. It feels a bit like there is the space to enjoy some of this now, to remember how much I love this place, to get excited about what God is doing here, to actually think about what I can contribute and what I want to build into my rhythm of life in this season. To pick a picture analogy, I guess it feels like the cement in the foundations has solidified enough to support me putting some metal beams in place – to begin building a framework of life and community and celebration and stillness and discipline and accountability and freedom and grace that will hopefully typify and give structure and stability to these next few years.
Thursdays are my busiest day lecture-wise, and then I have a weekend of showing much-beloved friends around my new locality to look forward to. I can’t wait to see them – to drink coffee with them, to show them my soon-to-be-familiar-but-as-yet-still-new haunts, to blow raspberries on their tummies and bounce them on my knee, to talk about pterodactyls and diggers and to wander round shops comparing fabric remnants (they represent a selection of ages, you understand). I love it that the life and loves I enjoyed in Wandsworth and over the past five years do not end because I am here, but I get to experience new depths to them, as the distance makes me appreciate them even more.
Will hopefully post some photos post-weekend. Hurrah for exciting new chapters eh!
Everything they tell you about Freshers week is true September 23, 2009
Uni started on Monday, with a bunch of us, awkward with nervousness, waiting outside a classroom. Inside they blinded us with technical terms and room numbers, but we each made a friend or two I think.
Today was the first real lecture. We had to practise logging into macs, (and very spangly they were too) and then identify our favourite colours, music, food, and place, as well as significant events in our lives and memories etc. The point of this was to create a sort-of self portrait… apparently these things define us. Apparently by subscribing to social networking sites we are just adopting the “denim-boiler-suit mold of uniformity”, and in the process eliminating segments of our identities (there’s a phrase to throw into the next pro vs anti-facebook debate I find myself embroigled in).
So our first assignment is to create a digital, on-line self portrait in the form of a website. My mind was working overtime with thoughts and creative ways of presenting it and quite how definite I felt about my self-portrait not including what favour crisps I enjoy… I can’t wait to get started.
My lecturer also raised an interesting point by suggesting ‘the devil’ when my polish classmate was having trouble thinking up his favourite fictional character. I was a little incensed – why would anyone pick that as their favourite? And… fictional?!?! I think not!
Anyway… after our lecture was done we were exposed full-tilt to the extremities of freshers fair. I kinda had this mental image of a sedate line of tables, with people sat on chairs with polite clipboards offering entry to the lacrosse society etc. What I found myself immersed in was a full-scale sensory assault – loud pumping music, people on all sides touting their wares (“Free Pizza”, “S Club 7 Reunion night tickets” “Insure your computers” “Excuse me have you thought about joining amnesty?”), enough paper and leaflets being shoved into ones hands to forest a small area of South America, and a lot of meandering, overwhelmed freshers herded into a very small space.
I managed to dodge the very enthusiastic karate club members, secure a yummy bit of pizza, collect a lot of free pens and several free T-shirts, and get out with my life and sanity still intact – result!!
The choice and selection of clubs and societies really were overwhelming, and everyone had that perma-smiley, slightly artificial “yes come and join our club because it really is the best of them all and it will change your life” type sales pitch. I also felt sorry for the people who’ll be data-entrying all the hundreds of email addresses they collected…
I feel like a proper fresher though now, having navigated my way through the excitement and intrigue of that. (although my classmate was bemused today by my avoidance of the pirate pub crawl night, and the school disco party on Friday).
So all is well on the whole. And heres to exciting times ahead!!
Leaving Shenanigans! September 17, 2009
I left Wandsworth today. There’s a weird sentence to type. I think my heads in too much of a fuzz to comment much, except to say that I am thankful for all that has been, and excited – so excited about all that is to come.
In the mean time, some photees from my last weeks at Wandsworth:
Ruth made me an amazing starbucks cake (the medium sized cup was entirely edible!)
Caz made me a beautiful chocolate and raspberry cake:
There was a lovely party, with speeches:
Mandy came too, which was lovely (and then she helped me drive stuff many miles)… woop for her!
More soon… must unpack!
Leaving Party September 8, 2009
On Friday night I celebrated my imminent Wandsworthian departure with a band of loyal and noble compatriats. Lovely people from all walks of my life came along – from work, from Wandsworth, from the town I grew up… it was so great to see everyone and to share with everyone and just to celebrate an incredible five years.
Top moments had to be Laurence winning pass the parcel, gaining colour-changing kids bubble bath and a Hannah Montana flashing key ring, Boyzone and Steps singing out party anthems, and the cake to top all cakes (in fact there were multiple marvellous cakes). Ruth’s was a tribute to my slight obsession with all things Starbucks – it was iced green and white and had a large paper cup filled with penny sweets, a smaller china espresso cup which again had sweets in, and then, most awesome of all, another cup made wholly out of icing, complete with buttercream latte and icing steam rising from the cup. It was incredible and I was speechless.
We had a ‘Vicki-quiz’, where the contestents battled their way through ten multiple choice questions, there were party rings and jelly dinosaurs, and then some short speeches. I was wearing a black dress with teal spots on – it was lovely and I loved being all dolled up.
The best bit for me was the chance to see people I love and care about and who have all been such an important part of my life over the past five years, and longer in some cases. I was touched that they would drive miles to help me celebrate and to spend time hanging out in Wandsworth. I was blessed by cards and presents and little encouragements that I will keep with me for a long time.
This week is my last at work, and then Sunday is my last at church… and then? All change
Changing Times August 31, 2009
Things have been exciting in my world recently… A whirlwind of change and preparation and goodbyes and hellos and anticipation.
Yesterday I preached what will be my last sermon at Wandsworth Boiler Room… so that’s weird. Most of my stuff is packed up and has gone, and I am currently ensconced on a comfy mattress on my friends floor for a couple of weeks.
I am really looking forward to the phase ahead. Uni will be great and doing and arts and design based course will be a new challenge. Being in a new city and making new friends will be great too, although I’ve already made some great pals there.
There will be some sad days in the next few weeks – cakes at work to say goodbye, my leaving-do, driving out of Wandsworth that last time. Today we spent some time building party bags, which I really enjoyed, even in the poigancy of it all.
I’ve also been running around desperately meeting everybody for ‘last coffees’ and last catch ups before I head off, so that has been lovely too. I have some fantastic friends here who inspire and encourage me lots.
I know that God will be travelling with me in this new season, and I am excited to find out all the things he has in store. So it’s a watch this space sort of thing!
A short break August 25, 2009
I’ve been away for a few days now just taking stock and recovering some energy after the mayhem of the past few weeks. It has been lovely to have a change of scenery and to really be able to relax.
I really haven’t done very much – lots of knitting (my scarf is growing exponentially), jewellery making and reading Famous Five novels… it has been fab.
I’m staying in the countryside, and have loved how many stars I can see at night, and the novelty of being woken by cocks crowing – lovely!
Today I went to this beach:
It was very pretty. I had fish and chips in a little cafe, ate ice cream and walked along the shingle. Bliss!!
