the jigsaw box

It's Novemeber and the library is busy!

2007-11-08T15:10:00.000Z

Yup it is November and the library is very busy. Not quite sure why Im here, as aren't libraries mean to be places where work is done? And in the past hour I have done no work, well that's not true, I've replied to a couple of emails and done my homework for my Computing class, which was commenting on one of my classmates photos on Flickr. Want to see a funny photo? Go to Flickr and have a look at the photo that Lins took of me for our class! Tis rather amusing, although not terribly unlike me! :)

I am in the library, and was meant to be doing reading for my dissertation, but I've had one of those 'feeling sorry for myself' days! Too little tea i feel! Anyways I'd best try and do a little bit of work before I head into town for Coffee, before ACTs prayer and a Retro Games Night! Should be good fun!

Extension!

2007-03-19T14:38:00.000Z

So i havent yet blogged about the building site that is my house! After a long long long time (like 4+ years!) they finally started on the extension to our house for my bro! They got rid of our garage base, the garage had already been taken, at the beginning of the summer, to Kings Cross on Aran! Then they started some digging, and put in our new front door! A proper front door not on the side of our house, so we had 2 front doors for a while, which was fun. Then they had lots of digging done, we had trenches worthy of any battlefield. What was even more fun was that we had a couple of drains that fed right into our trenches, so combined with all the rain water we had lovely swimming lanes, which were frequented by frogs or toads (i cant really tell the difference, and wasnt paying too much attention!) But now we have the foundations in, and then the sub walls, i dont know their technical name, but they're the walls that are on top of the foundations that you won't see. Now there's a wooden floor of some sort on top of that and the builder was out this morning inspecting it. It's gets quite exciting coming home to see what is new at the building site. And having to park the car on the corner instead of in the drive. There's lots of mud everywhere!

For some photos you can look at my dad's blog douglas creates a blog where he has a few pics of our wonderful back garden!

Not sure what else to blog about. Have been ill over the weekend! I think its basically due to lack of sleep last week! I had a lot of uni deadlines and was busy with CU stuff, so would leave the house at some point between 6:50 and 7:20 and then get home any time after 10! Tuesday was worst, I left the house at 6:50 and got home at 3:40 the next morning, was on toastie bar, so had a good excuse! The weeknd was spent in bed, i slept till 11:45 on Saturday! most of the weekend i was in bed, with a glass of cold orange juice or a mug of hot orange juice,except when I was at Newton Mearns and Morningside doing info evenings for Step Out missions with the Baptist Union. and then on Sunday when i was out for lunch and then back to my grans for Mother's day!
So now it is Monday, this week is looking a little quieter, but i need to get going with my studying for the exams that i have next week! And then get to the assignment writing! Woohoo!

But Spring Harvest is a week on Friday! I can't wait! Im really really excited! :D

Tired!

2007-03-07T21:39:00.000Z

Do you even have a day when you're on the go non stop, things don't quite go as planned, and at the end you think what have a i actually achieved today?, or what has it all been about?

The past kind of month and a half have been like that for me!

Ok so a quick run down of what's going on:

Uni: 2 exams before easter, 3 group presentations before easter (in which we have no time to meet as a group because we all have different classes!), 2 class tasks for before easter, a blog to update and possibly another class task, then 2 assignments for after Easter, a group poster presentation for way after easter (its at the end of May, but needs to be done now, before placement!), oh yeah and a 6 week placement which i would love to start writing lesson plans for now, but dont have time! Oh and the thing that i keep forgetting about - handing in my dissertation plan/topic to get approved!

CU: Being on committee this year has added an hours meeting each week, which so far have been great fun and i think we've managed to get all the things done that we need to! Iwas explaining to someone (poss Kirsty who is president this year) that so far my job of being vp has involved a lot of thinking, its like being a leader of a mission, its a lot of thinking about who has the keys, who will need the keys next, have i got tuesday mornings organised, are the small groups ok, did we remember to book the CC for next week, did i tell so-an-so about this or that! Lots of thinking! :) We're all [the committee] away this weekend for UCCF training with other committee people from all over Scotland! Twill b gr8!

Church: My church have been very supportive of me going on committee at CU and have kind of left me free to do that, so thats cut down on the number of things that im asked to do at church.

BUSY (baptist union of Scotland): Im on a task group for writing Kids Club material for this summer's missions! We've made huge progress and it's really coming together. Have a meeting in 2 weeks for that. Am also maybe helping at interviews and information evenings for StepOut missions in the middle of March, im really looking forward to that!
I think thats it at the moment! Lol, so not much! ;)

I keep coming across people who have read my blog (ok so i came across 3 recently that i didnt know!) so i thought id better update it! If you're reading this and are of the praying sort then prayers for sorting priorities would be much appreciated! Thanks!

Here's a random funny picture to finish off! It's Ailie and me in our hotel room at Deep Impact being 'Neds'.

Which reminds me, this year I've given up fizzy drinks for lent! I am seriously missing my Irn Bru! :( I can taste it in my mouth, and know that i cant have it! Hopefully giving up fizzy drinks will make me like them less, and therefore drink less of them after lent! Well, we'll see! Spk 2u soon!

I thought i'd leave you with a verse from the Bible!
"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom." Isaiah 40:28
Even if we're tired, God isn't and never will be! :D

It's bean a coffee kinda weekend!

2007-02-12T20:49:00.000Z

I am tired! It most probably has something to do with driving over 500 miles in 4 days!

It all started on Thursday! After being ratified as VP at CU, I left with Louise, Alison and Dave (who had just been ratified as treasurer). Ratified is such a funny word, sounds like an operation or something! Anyways the four of us left about half an hour into the CU AGM so that we could get to Perth for the Switchfoot concert! Which was brilliant, Perth Concert hall has a sprung floor, which was very nice when everybody was jumping around! After some excellent manouvers Louise and I were 3 from the front in the middle! Louise even got to shake Jon, the lead singers, hand! It was then a nice drive back down the A9 in a lot of fog! I eventually got hom at 2am!

Then came Friday, a 2 hour tutorial at 9, then PE was cancelled in the afternoon. At 3 i headed off again, this time to Dundee to stay the night with angela. We had dinner n caught up on each other's news and then went to DUCU (Dundee University Christian Union, incase you couldn't be bothered working it out!) and then to Tesco, don't you just love late night trips to Tesco, ah the hilarity! Saturday morning i had some breakfast and then dropped Angela off at a conference she was going to and headed up the road to Aberdeen! However on the way there a lorry had gone off the side of the road into a ditch and there was a crane there to pick it up, so our side of the road was closed and we all turned off at the junction to Fettercairn. And i was driving along thinking, I've only been to Aberdeen once, and i don't know how to get there now! :( But i just followed the car infront and we all went on a nice little detour at 50 on a (just about) single track road! Twas gr8 fun! I then got to Aberdeen and met Lorna, we had lunch and got a few bits and pieces and headed up to Peterhead!

You haven't experienced true driving until you've driven from Aberdeen to Peterhead, with no shelter from the North Sea and the wind pounding the side of your car! After arriving in P'head, I was taken out for coffee with all the Small females! aka Mrs Small, Lorna, Claire and Alison. Then we watched a film before Lorna, Claire and I went for a chinese with 4 others from their church. Then back to the house to watch the results of Dancing on ice, and Gareth (who was on my Step Out Plus team all summer, and who i hadnt seen since August) came round for a cup of tea! Then it was bed before getting up to go to church. After lunch and watching American Idol i went with the entire Small family (minus Stewart (their brother) who wasnt there) to see their new house, which isnt even finished yet, the interior walls went in last week. From there i headed back to Dundee to have dinner with Angela before driving the last 2 hours home to Glasgow! And that was my 500 miles!

Sorry that was such a boring post! I'll think of some funny stories to tell you next time!

My weekend was a great time of fellowship with friends from all over the place! :)
"And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. " Acts 2:42

Wow, long time no blog!

2007-02-07T16:38:00.000Z

Yeah, so I totally got out of the routine of blogging!

Ive been learning a lot about blogs recently! Did you know that there are a large number of primary schools using blogs to let the children give book reviews, share poetry, tell stories of teddies and all sorts of things!

Hmm, but this is my blog, not my 'reflective blog!'
So what's been happening, not an awful lot! Back into the swing of things at uni! The workload seems neverending at the moment! There's always reading of some sort to be done! But you will be amazed to hear that i have already read the 3 chapters for 2moro!

I was talking to Alastair and Louise the other day about me having not update my blog (theirs have been updated more recently than mine!) and i was saying that I wanted to have a little rant about people taking dogs on buses! I saw two different people, with two different dogs, on two differnt bus routes in one week! What is with that? Why would you take your dog on the bus? I just don't understand that! Lol!

On saturday I was at a training course for people thinking about running a course called 'Lost For Words' which gets Christians to look at evangelism and how they can do it more naturally. It was really interesting. One of the questions we were asked was 'what do people believe today?' There was answers like 'Its ok for you to believe that, but i'll believe this' or 'you can just pick and chose the bits that you like from the different religions'. I didn't say this answer, but I think it's pretty true of some of the students (and friends) i've spoken to at Toastie bar, I think people today believe that Hell is going to be a great place. I think they probably have the view that being a Christian is boring, therefore since Christians go to Heaven, Heaven must be boring, and if you don't go to Heaven, then you go to Hell, so Hell must be brilliant! But Im sorry, that's not the case, Hell is not fun, is not a party, rave or whatever else. It's a terrible place, the Bible describes it as everlasting punishment (matt 25:46), everlasting fire (matt 25:41), everlasting burnings (Isa 33:14), a furnace of fire (Matt 12:42, 50), a lake of fire (Rev 20:15), fire and brimstone (Rev 14:10), unquenchable fire (Matt 3:12) and a devouring fire (Isa 33:14). Sounds like a great place to me... Or not!!!

At small group our conversations quite often go on little tangents and we end up talking about Heaven. Here are some of the descriptions or ideas that we've had for Heaven:
An escalator to take you there
A disco ball
Rivers abundant with chocolate of no calorific value
Awesome!
and a personal favourite 'amazing to the power amazing!'

Jesus refers to Heaven as paradise (Luke 23:42) So in short Heaven is going to be amazing, Hell isn't!

Am off out to dinner now! Switchfoot are playing at Perth tomorrow night! Woohoo! Shall maybe blog about it later this week! ;)

You are God alone by Philips Craig and Dean

2007-01-10T17:26:00.000Z

You are not a god
Created by human hands
You are not a god
Dependant on any mortal man
You are not a god
In need of anything we can give
By Your plan, that’s just the way it is

You are God alone
From before time began
You were on Your throne
Your are God alone
And right now
In the good times and bad
You are on Your throne
You are God alone

You’re the only God
Whose power none can contend
You’re the only God
Whose name and praise will never end
You’re the only God
Who’s worthy of everything we can give
You are God
And that’s just the way it is

Unchangeable
Unshakable
Unstoppable
That’s what You are

You are God alone
From before time began
You were on Your throne
Your are God alone
And right now
In the good times and bad
You are on Your throne
You are God alone

Romania!

2006-10-13T15:52:00.000Z

Hey! So i know its been a few weeks since i went to Romania, but i thought that i'd write a little blurb here with some Photos! (nothing at all to do with the fact that i need to write my report/diary thingy tonight!)

For those that don't know what im on about, i was on a committee connected to our local Boy's Brigade company, fundraising money for a hospital in Craiova. This is the third time the company has raised money for this hospital. Each time the committee has been given the opportunity of personally delivering the equipment to the hospital. I decided that i would go to Romania as i thought that it would be an amazing experience.

Here are some photos and captions of my time there!

The hospital in Craiova where the equipment was for.

This sign is above the entrance to the department that received the Ultrasound scanner and ECG machine. It basically means ‘The emergency mobile service for resuscitation and …’ the last word has something to do with the fire brigade! The ‘SMURD’ ambulances are based in a fire station. SMURD is the equivalent of our A & E department.

This is one of the rooms in SMURD. The hospital has improved a lot over the past five years, however it still does not compare to the hospitals that we have here.

Whilst visiting the hospital we also got to see the neo-natal department, which we had given some equipment to last time, the emergency dental department and this ambulance.

The doctors that we visited were very hospitable and directed us to some of the best restaurants in Craiova. This picture was taken on our last night, when our group and some of the doctors and their families went out for dinner.

At the different restaurants that we went to we got the chance to try a whole load of Romanian delicacies. These included pollenta (which tasted like the smell of wet dog), chillies with sour cream (the cream didn’t make them any less spicy or hot), meatball soup (I’m still not quite sure what the meat was), cascavall pane (sort of like deep fried cheese) and my least favourite of all pork brains. I only tasted a very small bit and I will never ever eat brain again, I do not recommend it!

For one night of our trip we were taken to a chalet in the mountains. This gave us a chance to see some gorgeous countryside, but also to see some of the conditions that the poorer people in Romania lived in. Behind the tractor is a make shift shelter, that I assume was the house of those people.

In contrast to the poor lifestyles of some of the people, this is The Palace in Bucharest. It has the same number of floors below ground as it does above, and all the architects who worked on the palace were killed, as there are many secret rooms which the government did not want to be found.

2006-09-27T18:04:00.000Z

A photo as promised at the bit in the blog below that goes ***************

Back to uni today! what fun?! far too many big words and difficult concepts for me today! I mean what the heck does this question mean?

"Contrast the move towards integrated workiong with the broader shape of public services in recent years, noting the move towards a more competitive element and marketisation within public service provision. What tensions might exist here?"

Ah well, im off to visit my gran and then heading out to a free gig hosted by JHill CU! im all for the free stuff! hehehe! (dont know why this is italic?!)

Till the next blog, keep safe and dry!

2006-09-18T15:06:00.000Z

Do you ever have a couple of weeks, where you have nothing to do and then after they're done, you think wow those boring weeks, werent so boring and went in very quickly? Thats what the past few weeks have been like for me!

There was Angela's 21st in Dundee (photo on left!), Steven and Nicola's wedding (photo on Right!) and my mum and dad's 25th Wedding anniversary (photo in the middle, altho it was taken at S n N's wedding, but it was nicer than the ones that we have of their anniversary, plus i wore the same outfit anyway! lol!) (ok so the photo wont work! so look in the post above this one!!! *************)

Last week i decided that i would go and have a proper look round Kelvingrove Art Gallery. I've been once since its been re-opened but there's only so much you can see with a brother in a wheelchair and an 86 year old grandmother with a stick! So i get to the galleries, and its very busy and there were police about, i parked over at the Transport museum and headed over to Kelvingrove. I was going to walk along the front of the galleries, but 2 policemen told me i couldnt! I asked if i could get inside, afterall i only wanted to see the paintings! The policeman then turned and said 'oh if you want to see the Queen you'll need to go round the back'. The Queen, yes Queen Elizabeth the second, was visiting the gallery and therefore it was closed to the public. Having nothing to do, i wandered round the back and joined the other 200 people that were there, and out walks the Queen! It was a really weird experience, i wasnt expecting to see the queen, but there she was with Prince Philip, only about 10 feet away from me! The only bad thing was that i had forgotten to take my camera with me! But im almost certain you could see my little head bobbing up and down in the crowd, when there was film footage of the Queen unveiling the little plaque thingy, on the news!

I really like this time of year! Glasgow is beginning to get busy again! There's students everywhere, and all 1500 students that have moved into halls at Strathclyde University now have their can of free 'Christian Beans!' A group of 10 to 15 of the Christian Union handed out the beans on Saturday as the students were moving in! The beans have labels detailing the CU events this week and have become infamous to halls students over the past few years!

Today, Monday, we had the first of our free lunches. Not many people came, so we headed out to the streets armed with trays of sandwiches and leaflets! I love just going about chatting to people and inviting them along to things! it was a good laugh! I even got to play a few games of pool this afternoon, normality is beginning to creep back in!

Im off to have some soup before going out again! hope ur good and settling into normality again!

Step Out Plus!

2006-09-04T17:56:00.000Z

As you may or may not know, over the summer i have been working for the Baptist Union doing missions involving children's and youth work throughout Scotland. It has taken me to places far and near: training in Edinburgh, Kirkintilloch and Falikirk and missions in Thurso, Leslie (Fife), Montrose, Inverness, Hopeman and Lossiemouth!

As part of the Step Out Plus programme i had to write a review, and i thought it would be the easiest way to let you know what i was up to! (Photos may follow later!) Enjoy!

Step Out Plus for me started as one of many things I could do over the summer. I met up with Gary (in Starbucks of course!) to have a chat about it, and decided that I would do it. It was one of those decisions that is great at the time, and then later on you think, ‘hang on a minute what have I actually let me self in for?’ I had let myself in for 3 weeks of training, 6 weeks of mission, 2 weeks of reviewing and only 1 week off all summer! And I would be spending all of that time with another 4 people, only one of which I had met before.
The weeks of training were great, not only because we did the ‘What Every Volunteer Youth Worker Should Know’ course or because it gave us a chance to practice sharing our testimonies, kids action songs and even some games, but because it helped the 5 of us get to know each other. From the beginning of training it was clear that God had very much had his hand in picking who would do Step Out Plus this summer, as we all got on well very quickly.

The highlight of Thurso for me was the Helix (Have Everlasting Life In Christ) youth service that we had on the Thursday evening. We asked one of the church members to speak and had the band play a few songs. We also had a drama and some silly games. It was a great way to build on our friendships with the youth and to spend time worshipping God with them. In Leslie we helped with some of the upfront stuff at the Pyramid Rock kids club. The most memorable part of this week would be getting a ‘makeover’ as part of the drama and then having the make up washed off by water pistol and skooshy cream!

Montrose was the first big challenge of the summer as we didn’t have Matt L as our leader, and we had 4 new team mates, it was also the first week of Space Raiders. Montrose went by more or less without any hitches. We spent our evenings in the park by the Skate Ramp chatting to the children and youth about Step Out and why we were actually in Montrose. I was lucky enough to be able to share my testimony with a couple of the girls that I was speaking to. Mission 4 was Inverness and this brought about a whole host of challenges for me due to being a co-leader as well as suffering from lack of sleep. The challenges ranged from trying to motivate a team who were down because of low numbers, to cooking meals, to trying to think of the best hiding spot for sardines!

After a week off, I headed up to Hopeman to be re-united with the Step Out Plus team. This was the first time in a number of years that the church had done a kids club, so I didn’t expect too many kids to turn up. Thankfully I was wrong and we started off with 19 kids coming along on the Monday morning, this number grew to about 24 as the week went on. Again we did the space raiders club with the children and they seemed to thoroughly enjoy it, including the Boing Song at least twice each day. We only did a kids club in Hopeman and had the afternoons and evenings to sit on the beach or watch films, or have a nap.

In our last week of mission in Lossiemouth, we were joined by 3 others full of energy and ideas, which was a big encouragement for us. On the Thursday Lily, one of the girls we were staying with asked Ailie and I to pray with her to become a Christian. So Lily, Ailie, Lily’s mum, another church member and I prayed together, 3 other children and youth also became Christians. Another highlight was making friendship bracelets with some of the youth and explaining to them the Gospel by colours, this got them going with lots of questions.

I think that the lesson God has taught me over the summer has been about relationships, making sure that my relationship is strong with Him, but also building friendships with my team mates. I’ve also learnt that the first step in sharing the Gospel is to make friends with those that we want to tell about God. Only when they are comfortable around us will they be willing to open up and ask questions and listen to the answers.

Don't worry, I'm still here!

2006-08-28T12:55:00.000Z

Hey!

Yes it has been a very very long time since i last posted! Sorry!
This is just a short post to tell you that I'm still alive and that at some point soon, I will write a longer blog about my Step Out Plus experiences over the summer!

Hope you're good, I'm off for some lunch! Yum!

Thurso!

2006-07-07T20:31:00.000Z

Well, hello to all my readers! (or to my dad! hehehe!)

This past week i have been in Thurso, doing the Light Factory kids club which was all based on Narnia. I hadn't quite realised how many paralells there were in the Narnia Story to the Bible. I just hope that the children understood what we were trying to get across, as some of the days had a lot of biblical teaching, which wasn't always clear.

In the evenings we've done some youth work. ON Monday night we had a BBQ down at the beach, it was a gorgeous evening (stayed tuned for some nice pics, but don't hold ur breath!) and we were able to play lots of games and enjoying some informal chatting around the bonfire. Many of the youth from the churches came, and we were also able to chat to some of the other 'unchurched' youth from Thurso. Tuesday and Wednesday nights were full of fun games, sometimes, mosttimes, the games were messy! Drip Drip Drop, as an alternate to duck duck goose, involving a cup of water! :D Thursday night took the form of a HELIX (Have everlasting Live in Christ) where we had a band made up of young people from around Thurso (the band were great!). We also played some fun games and Christine from Thurso Baptist spoke to us all about focussing on God, and incorporating the 'Five Languages of Love' into our relationship with God.

It has been a busy week, but it has gone well. However i can't help feeling that we could have done somethign more to reach out to the 'unchurched youth' in Thurso as none of them that we had spoken to on Monday evening came to any other meetings, but i wouldn't know what we could have done differently!

At the moment the team are having a nice relaxing chilling time, with cups of tea, empire biscuits and Happy Gilmour!

I hope ur well, keep in touch and let me know what you're up to!

"Dear brothers and sisters, I love you and long to see you, for you are my joy and the reward for my work. So please stay true to the Lord, my dear friends." Philippians 4:1

Time flies when you're having fun!

2006-06-27T07:21:00.000Z

Well, i've finished 2 weeks of training for Step Out Plus! It's been fun so far, we're working through 'What Every Volunteer Youth Worker Should Know' it looks at all aspects of youth work and youth ministry, including the five principles: Voluntary Participation, Informal Education, Enpowerment, Equality of Opportunity, Incarnation! (Woo, and that was by memory :D) Gary likes to test us just about every day on these and he won't let us each remember one, we have to try and remember them all!

We have also talked about the characteristics of memebers within a group, e.g. dominator, motivator, spectator, actor, gladiator, placator, orator, and terminator! (woo again listing by memory! After talking about the characteristics, we had to chose one and design a potato based on those characteristics! Above is a pic of each of us lying beside our potatoes! (l-r Noel, Me, Gareth, Daniel, Ailie and the potatoes l-r are spectator, actor, gladiator, orator and placator) and the potatoes do not neccessarily reflect the maker of them!

We had our final weekend off before the hard work really begins! i keep forgetting that the summer, children's and youth work, is not going to be easy, but in reality will be a huge challenge which will differ from week to week! but as a song says 'If God is on our side, who can be against us?' (the Bible also says that!:) ) Friday night was spent tidying up the burn beside the BB Hall! Twas a good laugh and we got a whole skip full of rubbish cleared from the burn and the surrounding area! (plus it was burgers or hot dogs all round afterwards, yum!) Saturday was spent watching my mum's Godson Peter (10) playing roller hockey, it was soo much fun, he scored a hatric in a game, including one where he managed to play his stick through the other 'netminder's' legs to push the puck over the line!

On Sunday morning Dad, Dave and Stuart headed off the the Royal Highland Show early, as D and D Clowns were back in action for 2 days only! well they were doing circus skills! Rosie, Mum, Pete, Rebecca and I went to church and then headed to the Highland Show! (oh yeah! i havent been well all weekend, slight fever, blocked sinuses and incredibly sore throat!) mum and i spent our afternoon wandering round the various banks to get our free 'high teas'. The RBS were the best, we got a cup of tea and a yummy scone with jam and cream! We also got freebies from some of the stands, like backed potatoes, crisps/biscuits and all sorts from Lidl. I even got to see my Mum's hidden strength!

Anyways, I'm off to Carronvale today for some residential training with the C of S summer mission team called Impact! IM still in my pjs, so should probably go and get ready!

For more details of Step Out Plus and what i'm actually doing for the summer check out the busy website!

"As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man. " Proverbs 27:19 "Remember the Lord in all that you do and He will give you success!" Proverbs 3:6

June is bursting out all over!

2006-06-13T22:07:00.000Z

Well hello there Chinas!

Yes June has sped by so far! what with the CU Ball and us all looking very dapper in our fancy frocks!

Then there was Sports day! Where Castlehill Baptist won the 18 and under netball tournament! (again pretty much thrashing all the other teams, but they didn't win by as big a margin as the Kirkintilloch under 25 team, we won one of our games 10 to 0!) oh yeah, i was a traitor for the day playing for the Kirkie under 25 team and helping them to victory! but here's the CBC winners!

Then there was my holiday and general 'taking time out of doing everything except relaxing and being a tourist' week in FUNdee (happy angela? i didn't call it Scumdee!) i'll post some gorgeous St Andy's photos at some point, but cameras are all mucked up at the moment! lol! Friday night was skiing at Xscape with the BB, again it was amazing and i managed to get into the swing (little ski joke there!) of things quickly and worked hard on perfecting my parallell turns! i even managed to go over a jump once or twice!

Frenzy was on Satuday and it was brilliant! I even drove through to Edinburgh, which was good fun! (and thanks to the guys who were driving the other cars for keeping me safe!) Favourites this year were Starfield and of course David Crowder (i think they were better last year, but still loved them!) Hillsong were alright, but i'd heard their talk before when i saw them last year in Dunfermline, that was slightly disappointing, but i think a great day was had by all! Bring on Frenzy 2007! (and hopefully Switchfoot in August! woo!)

Monday was trip 2 to Edinbugh, this time for Cat's 'surprise' party. 10 of us met up had a picnic in the rain in Princes Street Gardens, and then went for a walk in the sunshine. The sun did come out but it was extremely windy, so much so that it blew over an empty glass when we were sitting outside at The Hub, that was scary, so we moved inside! After a mad dash to the station for Gillian, Lins and Sharon to get the train back Cat, Allan, Ann, Russell and i sat and had a nice ice cream in Princes Street Gardens before i got the train back to Glasgow to have dinner with the family for Stuarts 23rd Bday!

After some ironing (whilst watching the Italy vs Ghana game!) i sat down properly for the first time since Thursday! but then i fell asleep and dad woke me up to tell me to go to bed!

Today was my first day of Step Out Plus training (and day 3 in Edinburgh)! I finally got to meet the whole team, i already knew noel, but i met Gareth, Ailie and Daniel today, they all seem really nice people and i think we will have a whole load of fun over the summer! as well as all the challenges that will face us along the way! I will maybe blog more about the training tomorrow night as right now i need tea and then a good sleep before day 4 in Edinburgh for more training.

Good night and God bless.

Those Summer Nights!

2006-06-02T14:29:00.000Z

It's Summer! well it's June, that counts as summer to me!

Lots of stuff has happened since i last blogged, i finished my second year of uni! Yay, am halfway through my degree! am just waiting on assignment results to come up on PEGASUS! Since i finished uni i have done a lot of shopping! and i mean a lot! i never thought i was this bad! but Debenhams had a sale, and sale is one of my favourite words! But i've enjoyed shopping with Fiona and Angela and trying very hard to make them not buy things! (Or not hehehe)

I shall leave you with a photo of a random event that actually happened ages ago, but that i have been meaning to post!

Small group night out!

Im back off to watch 'Super Sweet 16' on MTV its hilarious, those kids are sooo incredibly stuck up and don't understand the actual value of money or what it is like to actually have to work for money and not rely on mummy and daddy! makes good tv tho! hehehe!

Its the CU ball 2nite, a masquerade ball! i can't wait, everybody is going to be dressed to the nines -hav no idea what that means- but kilts have been hired, dresses (or accessories) have been bought, masks (hats and fairy wings?!) have been bought or made its just the waiting now!

Anyways, hope ur good, healthy and happy!

Encyclodictionalmanacapedia

2006-05-18T12:39:00.000Z

Hello! "Our God is an awesome God! He reigns from Heaven above with mercy power and love, Our God is an awesome God!"

In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, he didn't start off by saying how are you, (like all of my letters or text messages!), no he started by praising God and sharing what God had done! So i thought i would do that in my blog today!

Oh yeah the best encyclodictionalmanacapedia can be found at www.answers.com

Today is Thursday (5 more days to go! :D) i started off my day very early! I was at the bus stop for 10 to 7 this morning! You're impressed aren't you?! I then got the bus into town and met Cat and we went off to the exam prayer meeting at CU. Now we're at uni, another assignment handed in, yay! So we were sitting having lunch, i had bought the best donuts in the world (they are from ASDA, again no greetings at the door, the checkout female didnt even say hello or goodbye to me!) and Cat and i were having one each for lunch. Luckily we had finished them when the fire alarm went off. So everybody jumped up and ran out screaming FIRE! FIRE! well, no they didn't everybody sat there looking around at everyone else looking around, then one of the ladies who works in Woody's said that everybody should probably go outside. So then we ran out straight away screaming FIRE! FIRE! well, no we gathered our belongings, put our rubbish in the bin and walked outside! It amused me, but all is ok, the Fire Engine came and went and we were given the all clear!

Am now in the library surrounded by stressed students! I wish i had a camera, the faces are just magic! hehehe!

Ooh exciting news on the Ebay front! I won a set of alphabet matching cards last night! woo! am just waiting to see if i get the number fans tonight before i pay up! Im also waiting for another book which finishes tonight, so i'll let you know!

Yesterday was a very stressful day for us B. Ed. 2s, we had to do work for our 2000 word Exp Arts assignment (due in today) and our 2000 word 'Societal contexts of Professional Roles' assignment (due tomorrow). I decided at the beginning of the day, when i had no idea where to start my assignment for tomorrow that i would read one of the devotions that i get via email. It was about praying through tough times! So im going to leave you with a really cool verse which kept me going in my stressful day (and will keep me going in the next few days!)

"Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder." Romans 12:12 The Message

Ho Hum, Ho Hee, I'd like some tea!

2006-05-16T12:38:00.000Z

This is my final procrastination stint before i really get into my work! I've done 4 presentations and completed (and handed in) 2 assignments, i've only got 3 assignments to go and 1 week from now it will all be done and dusted! but its getting to this time next week thats the hard thing!

Bebo is evil! it has like a magnet on it or something and you can't just go onto it for a minute, u must stay on it and check up on other people's bebo things! grr!

I gave in this week, well it was another procrastination, and i joined Ebay. Which is fine and dandy, but i found a good price on a couple of books, so have bid on them, so now muct check every so often so that im not out bid! and its also trying to work out how to pay for things, and then whether or not to bid on the masquerade mask that is very nice! Grr! and they said that the internet would make life easier!

Nobody has come forward to offer to cut my hair for nothing, so i've booked an appointment at the hairdressers, another thing to add to my busy June schedule!

It is a little over 3 and a half weeks to Frenzy! and im getting excited! we (the royal we, meaning ppl who i have tickets for and other people planning on coming with me!) will need to get organised about cars and things! but that can wait for a little while!

was at CU this morning, tis always great to go in early and spend a bit of time in prayer and praising God, gets u sorted for the day! speaking of which, my day is going to be filled with writing 1000 words (hopefully!) on gender and social concepts and social contexts. (no i don't understand it either!) and of course i will be catching up on The Apprentice tonight, and watching Lost!

Happy studying, working, relaxing, stressing (delete as applicable!)

I have a theory!

2006-05-13T17:27:00.000Z

I have a theory that one day this nation will rise up and live out its belief that all men were created equal! (ok so i stole (ish) that from Martin Luther King Jnr (what a guy!) but really i think it should be: I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out its belief that God wants everybody to be equal but man gets in the way! (ah, got u thinking didn't i?)

OK, so i have a lot of theories on things, so i shall tell u some of them! :D

I have a theory that every female will be proposed to at least twice before they accept the guy that they marry! So far this is true of me, my mum, my gran, Lins, Katie (i think, i know she's def. been asked once!) and thats how far i have got with my investigation! now another interesting question would be is it the same for guys? do guys ask a girl (or different girls!) to marry them twice before they actually do it properly and the girl accepts? Any insights would be gratefully appreciated!

I have a theory that ASDA lie! well u know how u get the 'Happy greeters' at the door? well i have been into our local ASDA twice this week, both times the 'happy greeter' wasn't actually happy and once he didn't even greet me! I was shocked! and there was 8 people infront of me in the queue for a tandom, only 1 person on tandoms and about 5 standing talking doing nothing! It wouldn't happen at Tesco! (yeah, i probably could be biased, but i only have 5 shifts left at Tesco, before i leave! awww! they still havent got back to me about the letter i gave them and thats been 3 weeks! shocking!)

I have a theory that football has gone crazy! Lol, well first of all in the final of the Tennants Scottish Cup it was Hearts and Gretna (and as u guessed neither of them are Rangers or Celtic! there hasnt been a final since 1991 that Rangers or Celtic weren't in!) so in true assignment writing procrastination i watched the extra time and penalties of the Hearts/Gretna game, twas very exciting and well done to Hearts who won, and well done to Gretna for clapping Hearts, very sportsmanly. In the FA Cup final (Liverpool against West Ham) today it also went to extra time and penalties! well done to Liverpool there!

I have a theory that the next generation are going to be very anti-social! At the moment we all walk around with square shaped pockets (from our mobile phones) and headphones in, we don't take the time to talk to people! there's nothing more annoying than serving a customer who has earphones in, they cant hear what ur saying and end up shouting at u! simple solution people, take them out when ur at the checkout!

I have a theory that junk food tastes so good because its bad for you! (ok yes i stole that one too, do u know who i stole it from tho????)

I have a theory that it's easier to get work done when ur with people who aren't doing the same course as you! This is from my day of studying at the main campus library! twas very exciting, we worked all morning and then sat on the grass outside in the glorious sunshine for lunch! I was at a table with Fiona, Katie, Dave, Alison and Oonagh. Alison is diong pharmacy and the others are all doing something connected to Chemistry! It was funny they were all sitting with piles of notes, and i had the laptop, lots of bright books (And the TES!) with post it notes all over them and the wonderful '5-14 guide to Expressive Arts!' made me laugh anyways, and i got quite a lot done, i wrote 500 words on why art is important in the curriculum and started a power point presentation for Environmental Studies!

I have a theory that children are the best kind of people! hehehe, they are like sponges, they asorb sooooo much! there was a little girl at my checkout today and her mum was letting her play with the pin entry thing whilst she packed the bags. This girl was only about 15 months and she knew that she had to do something with the card and press the numbers! There's also little Peter from church who at 16th months when he had his big sisters crying doll on his knee, knew that he needed to give the doll its bottle and proceded to try and get the bottle in the dolls mouth! He's only a baby himself (altho getting sooo big now!) but he knew how to do that! I'll stop talking bout children coz i could tell u lots of stories and observations and bore u to death! lol!

I have a theory that 'God loves u and I love you and that's the way it should be' ok so thats not a theory but truth! remember it!

I have a theory that i should go and eat my dinner now before it gets cold! ttfn! :D

In the library, should be working! :D

2006-05-09T09:28:00.000Z

Well hello there, faithful readers!
Last time i blogged i told you all about the thunderstorm that we had on Thursday! Well, Friday was a gorgeous day, the sun was out, George Square and the Steps of the concert hall were packed with people enjoying the change in weather! I handed in assignment number 1, only 4 more to hand in (but i still have 3 of them to write, hmm) then had lunch at Pizza Hut! (which i still owe Sharon money for!) Was playing pool in the afternoon, i was so surprised that gamezone was open, it did have a dampish smell to it tho!

BB Inspection on Friday night, again i didn't have a seat, so sat on the floor beside stuart or infront of anna to take pictures! After the inspection some of the officers were going up to Massimos for a drink or two. Anna and i headed up first and got ourselves a cocktail, im really into cocktails, this time it was an orange and peach bellini! Others came, chatting was done then we left at 1 (that rhymes!) Tesco was xciting as usual on Saturday, infact i can't remember it at all! i didnt get my break until 10:45, which meant i only had an hour to work when i had finished my break!

Saturday night i was working at the Golf Club for a 40th Birthday. It was pretty hectic, there was 4 of us behind the bar. However i was able to realise a few things: first, working behind a bar is quite a 'touchy feely' job, or maybe it was just the guys i was working with, but if u needed something you would just kinda move the person out the way, and someone was constantly putting glasses away near your legs as you were preparing a drink! Second, i realised that drunk man can be very 'caring' shall we say! One guy put out his hand, so i thought he was going to shake my hand, but no he kissed the back of my hand and then started going up my arm, i was like eh no, and pulled my hand away! Thirdly i realised that i like the busyness of working behind a bar, you're just about always on the move with something to do and it gives your legs and arm muscles a great work out! Lastly i realised that the tips from working behind a bar can be very good! we each got £19.50 in tips and i think they took £25 from the total to buy drinks on their night out on sunday. plus i was personally give a £5 tip, which was again very kind of a guy who had had 'a little' (hehehe) to drink!

Sunday was church, and i was on Sunday School, with my primary 7s to S3s! It was good fun, we can talk for ages on really random things, but then when i get onto the more serious Bible Study, they all become as quiet as mice and don't want to say anything! Sunday afternoon was meant to be spent writing assignments, but i dont quite know what happened! but i did get stuff for my presentation done! Sunday night, church about The Da Vinci Code! twas very interesting, we watched a DVD discussing the fact that the Bible is not actually corrupted as Dan Brown suggests! Then onto a Romania Metting, which last for 3 hours!!! we didn't get home till 11! grr, but a lot of work was done stuffing envelopes and organising the football event, anyone own a bouncy castle that i could borrow??

I shall leave you with the children's memory/talk thingy so far! "The Lord's my Shepherd, I have everything i need, He makes me lie down in green pastures." Psalm 23:1-3

Thunder Bolts and Lightning very very Frightening!

2006-05-04T23:01:00.000Z

So, tonight was the first CU meal and fellowship during exam times! There was yummy food (thanks Katie!) and then there was a short 'Freshers Team' meeting, where those who wished to be involved had a get together and we discussed a few things! Lots to think and pray about!

As usual we (Alastair, Chris, Dougie, Erin and I) went to play some pool! I was actually playing quite well tonight, i was surprised at this, but nonetheless happy! Chris and Erin left quite early, but we continued playing! UNTIL (du du du!) A very strange thing happened, they had one half of the pool hall kinda closed off, well the lights weren't on, but this is not unusual. Then at about 9:40ish the security people came in and told us that we all had to leave, they would refund us and those who had student cards at the bar (to get pool queues and the white ball) would need to come back another time to get their card, but that we all had to leave immediately! So as we were walking out we noticed that there was water dripping (well it was more than dripping, but not quite pouring!) from the ceiling of the side where the pool tables weren't in use.

We went down the stairs and got to the door and found out that it was raining, but not just raining absolutely pouring with thunder and lightning (sheet and fork!) Lee on the door told us that if we were leaving then we better leave then because it was the lightest the rain had been in the last hour! (you'd think that would put off the smokers, but oh no they were huddled together under a sheltered bit so that they could have their 'fix') We ran for the car, n i was like, but is a car a safe place to be? am i going to be ok to drive home? is it going to be safe to drive home? I voiced these concerns and was reassured that a car was a safe place to be because of the faraday cage which stops the electricity from hurting you, and the rubber tyres would ground the lightning. The worst that would happen would be that the power in the car would go out! We headed to Alastairs flat for refuge, it was only 10pm! Whilst there i txt my dad n watched like 2 seconds of Futurama! My dad said i should leave then as it had died down and wasnt actually raining!

So i drove home in the thunder and lightning that was still going on! Believe me it is worse than driving in the snow! I was so scared and pretty freaked out! but i made it to Bearsden only having to go through 2 floods in the roads. I then headed to the BB hall to help set up for the inspection 2moro night. The burn had burst its banks and was running down the road that i had to cross! A couple got out of a car on the other side and he gave her a piggy back across the water, it was so sweet until they started laughing at me tip toeing through the water holding my trousers at me shins! On the way back across the river of a road i saw a dead mouse, aww but euh!

Wow, that was a long story for you! sorry! It wasn't meant to be! but now i shall bid you farewell, re-print my assignment put it altogether and head to bed! Be careful out there tomorrow if the weather is still bad! tc n Gb x

Today is just one step closer!

2006-05-03T16:00:00.000Z

Well, isn't it funny how life has a habit of being busy? or is it just me?!

Since i last wrote to you, we had our last Small Group, where we went bowling then to China Buffet King, and no prawn crackers and ice cream do not go! Our evening was then finished off with some pool playing! (as was Wednesday and Thursday evenings!) how come i can play about 10 hours of pool in 8 days and still suck so bad? At least you can't complain i make it boring!

Thursday was also the kind of last CU, we had a BBQ at the Halls! there was a good turn out by CU folk and by Halls folk and the sun stayed out! A group of us then went to play pool, hmm there seems to be a theme running here! I thought Thursday was going to be an earlyish night, but after pool playing i went back to Fiona's flat where we had a cup of tea and discussed everything under the sun! We came to the conclusion that life can be annoying and very complicated, but that God works in amazingly mysterious ways and blesses us abundantly!

I had a holiday from Tesco on Saturday, and what did i do? I washed cars of course! another end of the month car wash to raise funds! In the afternoon my mum, dad, bro and i all went to the new Xscape place at Braehead! Wow! it was soooo amazing! I'm not going to bore you with all the details, becoz u can use the link below! but it was certainly one amazing place!
http://www.xscape.co.uk/snow/braehead/?PHPSESSID=c58332ddb6e0ee6472057fb5618170b7 If anybody is up for some skiing, then please let me know! i can't wait to try it out! :D We had dinner in Chiquitos which was a mexican restaurant, slightly on the expensive side, but well worth it! yum!

Saturday night was spent at an EPIC music rehersal! our 2 rehersals definatley paid off as everybody felt really happy with Sunday evenings service! This was the first sunday where i've actully really enjoyed it and not worried to much about the music!

This week has been consumed by assignment writing! My assignment due on Friday is completed, am just adding appendices! Our presentation for tomorrow is getting there, there will be a lot of ad-libbing, but hey, your only young once!

Here are some quotes for you from the week!

'Some pens are too fat, some are too thin, just like children' A Strathclyde University Tutor!
'You can come and ask me about anything. Whether it's asking permission to use an exclamation mark or to read part of your essay.' My tutor who doesn't like Exclamation marks!
'You don't need to remember anything if you tell the truth!' Me, but i think someone else said it!
'Make your own kind of music even if nobody else sings along' Lost, which was amazing!

Word of the blog: amazing!

Verse for the blog: "We are a numerous people and the LORD has blessed us abundantly." Joshua 17:14

Party!

2006-04-28T13:57:00.000Z

View All
PARTY!!!
YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED...

GUEST OF HONOR: Jesus Christ

DATE: Every day. He's always around, so the date is flexible.

TIME: Whenever you're ready. Please don't be too late, though, or you'll miss out on all the fun.

PLACE: In your heart. He'll meet you there--you'll hear Him knock.

ATTIRE: Come as you are. Grubbies are okay as He'll be washing our clothes anyway. He said something about new white robes and crowns for everyone who stays till the last. TICKETS: Admission is free. He's already paid for everyone. He says you wouldn't have been able to afford it--it cost Him everything He had!

REFRESHMENTS: New wine, bread and a far-out drink He calls "living water." This will be followed by a supper that promises to be out of this world!!!

GIFT SUGGESTIONS: >Your heart. He's one of those people who already has everything else. He's very generous in return, though--just wait until you see what He has for you !

ENTERTAINMENT: Joy, Peace, Truth, Light, Life, Love, Real Happiness, Communion with God, Forgiveness, Miracles,BHealing,Power, Eternity in Paradise ...and much more! (All rated "G" so bring your family and friends)

RSVP: Very Important! He must know ahead, so He can reserve a spot for you at the table. Also, He's keeping a list of His friends for future reference. He calls it "The Lamb's Book of Life."

PARTY GIVEN BY: His Kids. (That's us!) Hope To See You There! Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory!For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.(Fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.) Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb! -Revelation 19:7-9

NOTICE: All of you who will be there-- Please share this Invitation with someone else

Easter Eggs and excitement

2006-04-23T13:16:00.000Z

Easter in our neck of the woods was very exciting! we had a group of 13 Americans come and visit us for the duration of Holy Week. We had great fun showing them the delights and wonders of Scotland. I stayed at my grans house for the week with my American sisters! Karen, Lori and Chrissy Jilek. (as pictured above, l-r Karen, Lori and Chrissy.) Their mum and dad were staying at my house with my parents and bro.

There was lots of late nights and lots of banter and card playing! I also managed to squeeze in... to a hole and a grave! hmm, dont worry, i worry about myself too! hehehe!

In a hole at St Andrew's Castle

Notice the boots of the man diagonally above me? poor guy!

back row l-r: Jim, Sue, Marnie, Paul, Ben and Scott. Middle row l - r: Chrissy, Emily, Jody and Pam. Front row l-r: Lori, Becky and Karen

After our American friends left on the Saturday my familiy headed up to Kirkcaldy for a nice relaxing weekend with the Frews! On Easter Monday they took us ice skating, which was soo much fun. Peter (10) is on the Kirkcaldy under 12s ice hockey team and Bex (7) has figure skating lessons, so they were both giving me tips on ice skating and they taught me how to do cross overs! yay! and i only wiped out once which was when the time was up and i must have mis calculated my steps to get off the ice and fell flat on my back side! it was rathe amusing!

Since then Ive been back at uni learning of all the things that i need to get done in the next month! I may not have any exams, but i have 5 assignments giving a combined total of 11,000 words to write! oh yeah and 2 presentations! but not to worry one month exactly from today and it will all be over!

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven' ... 'a time to weep and a time to laugh' ... 'a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.' Extracts from Ecclesiastes 3:1 - 8 entitled 'A Time For Everything' in the NIV translation.

As retro as a rubik's Cube!

2006-04-07T22:00:00.000Z

So on wednesday night i was out with angela! We went to Starbucks which was 'sooo good' (we said it in unision it was scary! hehehe!) and then we went to the cinema to see Failure to Launch, after that we had a little impromptu visit to Chris's flat, where angela got to meet Erin. Anyways, whilst we were there i was telling them that i was into retro things at the moment and produce my camera, that has a film in it! none of this digital stuff! (altho i love my digital camera, don't worry im not leaving it completely! i just need to find it again!) And i was telling them about my rediscovery of the Playstation! not a PS One, or a Playstation One, but the original square chunky Playstation! So yeah retro is me at the moment! hehehe! i bought 3 tshirts for £10 on Thursday and their labels say 'vintage' (Ok so they say Kylie Vintage, because i got them in the kids department! but they're size 13+ and i am 13+ its just 6 years + lol!)

Something else that made me feel kinda retro last weekend was little Bex (who is 7) letting me listen to her MP3 player, and to think i went shopping with my walkman listening to my Boyzone tapes. So she was flicking through the songs and i was like ooh that was Steps. Bex then turned to me and said 'Jilli how do you know Steps?' I was shocked, and explained that they came out when i was younger and i showed her their first CD and she was amazed!

This again has been one of those quiet weeks that has turned into one of the busyest out! But again i have enjoyed it and finally got to catch up with Euan (who i've known since i was a baby! he came to visit me in hospital when i was just born, he was only 7 weeks old at the time!) yeah so we met up and had lunch n caught up on everything, i also went round to Beckies and caught up with her too! I've found a favourite new hangout! Beanscene on Byres Road! Angela and i went there last Saturday for a catch up, and then on the Sunday evening our Post YF group went there again!

The last couple of days have been spent getting the house organised and baking things for our American vistors who arrive tomorrow!!! tis very exciting, but tension is high due to all the things that 'HAVE' to be done. I've just been asked if im doing something important at the computer because there are things that need to be done! I wanna go to bed, im working at 8 2moro, and im sleeping on the couch 2nite! but i cant go to bed because ironing is being done in the living room! Lol!

Have a great Palm Sunday and a blessed Holy Week.

'Most of the crowd spread their coats on the road ahead of Jesus, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. He was in the center of the procession, and the crowds all around him were shouting,
"Praise Godfor the Son of David! Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Praise God in highest heaven!" ' Matthew 21:8-9

The week that was!

2006-04-05T10:27:00.000Z

Hello there! Well, ive not blogged in a while and im sorry! its been one of those quiet weeks that has turned into utter mayhem! but it has been fun nevertheless! Instead of going through each of my days which would be really long and to be honest really boring, i shall tell you a few stories and give you a few quotes and maybe even a 'word of wisdom'!

Tuesday: "Don't buy a baby, buy a bass" (A bass as in a guitar, not a fish!) (oh and this is the word of wisdom i was telling you about! please take good note of it!)
Toastie Bar was good fun again on Tuesday night, and then Wednesday was Andrews actual birthday, so a cake was had a toastie bar (ok so it was some bits of cheese with a candle in it, but the thought was there!) With the new smoking ban here in Scotland, the students aren't allowed to smoke at the tables for toastie bad or on the steps up to the tables, so we had to ensure that smokers stayed at the bottom of the steps, we would of course take the toasties down to them! We were standing discussing this and how smokers have to be a certain distance away from the building entrance, when Heather said is it not 100 feet. This made me laugh a lot, n i was saying but then they wouldn't be able to smoke in Glasgow at all! so we were imagining all these smokers huddled under umbrellas in the middle of the field so that they could have their smoke!

On the way home from Toastie Bar, i went the back way from Bishopbriggs (i was dropping off Andrew, Heather and Dougie) through Torrance and Balmore, just as i had left Balmore, there was a deer in the middle of the road, i slammed on the breaks, but still hit the back leg hip bit of the deer. I got such a fright and was thinking 'Its 3:30 in the morning im in the middle of nowhere and nobody's about" this quickly turned to "Its 3:30 in the morning im in the middle of nowhere, i don't want to meet anybody!!!" The deer was ok, i drove past the spot and looked in to the ditch at the side of the road and it wasnt there, the car was also fine, no dents or blood! phew!

Thursday at CU was Gospel Dropping! Fiona, Erin and I were in a group going round the Garnet halls, we met a lot of people who said they didn't believe in God because they were a scientist, and Fiona and Erin would reply 'So are we, but we believe in God'. It was a fun and challenging experience. One of the doors we went to, a guy opened it and we explained why we were there, n he shut the door and shouted at us to 'Go to Hell'. Other people were more receptive, and we even got offered a beer in one guys flat!
After the Gospel drop 7 of us went to Pizza Hut for dinner. We had a very nice meal with lots of banter as always! then it came to pay and we were working out what each of us owed, and then i realised that they hadn't charged us for our drinks. I said this to everyone and that we better say something, then others started saying we shouldnt, and i was like but its stealing and they argued it wasnt stealing! but it was, because we would have been having something without paying for it! Andrew decided that we should take a vote on saying something to the waitress or not. Only 2 of us said we should, the other 5 said that we shouldnt! I was so shocked, we were all Christians and all know the commandment 'Do Not Steal', lol, i was really annoyed that they wouldn't let me go and say anything! I then argued that our waitress might have just forgotten to add it on, and then could lose her job or get disciplinary action because of it. I was finally allowed to go and say something! Our waitress thought it was very good of us to say something, and in the end didn't charge us for the drinks, but at least we said something! I slept very well that night! :D

There was then much pool playing, and i think i won all of the games that i played! (altho we were playing doubles, so i technically didn't win all by myself!) Friday was spent organising and getting ready for Mum's 50th doo! We had some family and old family friends round at ours on Friday night, there was 36 ppl there or something! My dad had told me to buy lots of food, so i did! and well em, we were left with 60 mini pizzas, 24 chocolate eclairs, 3 tubes of pringles, and 30 Mr Kipling slices and 16 Fondant Fancies. Im sure there's more as well, something to do with Breaded Mushrooms and 32 Gingerbread bunnies! ah well, it will keep for when we have 30 odd here on saturday night as a welcome meal for the Americans!

I'd better go and do some work! shall catch you up on the rest soon! happy Holidays! :D

God loved it anyway!

2006-03-27T15:08:00.000Z

So i got to Wednesday, and a lot of it was spent sleeping, and letter writing! and I finally filled in my form to get my proper driving licence! woohoo! no more green, just pink for me!

Thursday i didn't have anything planned, so i took the opportunity to do something on my 'to do before i die' list, which was to walk into Glasgow from Bearsden! I think its about 6 miles or so, but it was a gorgeous day and i had some 'drumming of support from local businesses in Bearsden for the Romania Project Golf Event' to do, so i did that on my way into town! For those of you who know the area i walked from Bearsden to Canniesburn Roundabout, then along the switchback to Anniesland (where i bought a sausage roll) and then to Jordanhill and then Partick (where i bought a packet of Carrots and a bottle of Orange Juice from MacDonalds!) and then along Dumbarton Road, then Sauchiehall Street. It took me 2 hours and 15 mins and was fantastic! so if you're ever bored you should try it sometime!

Thursday evening at CU was training for the Gospel Drops that we're doing this week. It was a really good session, Sean (our UCCF relay worker) did a couple of talky bits on what the Gospel is and why we shoudl be sharing it, and then we did some role play! In the role plays we had to tell our partner the Gospel, and they got to ask really difficult questions! (this was also reciprocated when we swapped roles!) then later on we had to join up with another pair and pretend that 2 of us were the students in the flat, 1 who was open to hearing it, and the other who was basicall rude! then the other 2 had to ask us questions and we again got to ask really difficult questions! It was a good laugh, and also very helpful discussing the answers to the difficult questions that we all know and don't really like to answer. After CU it was snack tea, and then off to the Union to play pool (oh yeah Chris, the pool tokens that were in my other bag, weren't actually, they were in the bag that i had with me! oops!!). There was a lot of very good pool playing, however none of it was mine, as i managed to jump the white ball over the blue ball that i wanted to hit and straight into a pocket. I also managed to whack myself in the mouth with the pool queue! yeah, the less said about my pool playing the better!

Friday was Uni! double tutorial on emergent literay in 2, 3 and 4 year olds! did you know that all babies are pre-programmed to babble? Then it was a 3 hour wait until our lecture! much card playing was done, and yeah we did get pretty bored! Gillian went home after the tutorial because on Thursday night in the off-licence where she works, they were held at knife point and made to hand over the money from the till, plus she got her bag and everything in it stolen! so she was going home to try and get some sleep, as she hadnt slept the night before!
Ooh Firday night was Andrew (Strong's) 21st ceilidh in Bishopbriggs! Twas good fun as always! and Jiggered were the ceilidh band of choice again! I have now been to 5 ceilidhs since September, 4 of which Jiggered played at!

Saturday Tesco (10 till 2 this week!) then i slept for a few hours in the afternoon, and then it was just Stuart and i watching random stuff on TV coz the parents were out for dinner! Then it was Sunday! i was on Sunday school, and we talked about serving God and got onto talking about the band and the music for that nights EPIC, so of the group would be playing and were worried that they's muck it up because they didn't know chords or beats etc.! but i was assuring them that it didn't matter if the music got mucked up because God would love it anyway! Then last night at EPIC i was leading the worship with Fiona (Shields) and it was all going fine until the last song 'Above All Powers'. For this song Alastair (muir) was to play a chord on the guitar and then Fiona and i were to start singing, on the right note at the right speed, we practiced this i think 3 times, only getting to sing 'Above all Powers' the first line of the song. Then during the service i dont actually think Fiona was ready to sing, and i came in on completely the wrong note, like it couldn't have been more wrong! so i laughed and said 'sorry that was really bad' expecting them to start again, but no they kept going and the verse was sooo low that no-one could sing it, and then the chorus was so high that no-one could sing it! It was embarassing but hilarious! and as i said to the kids, God loved it anyway!

I like your Bible!

2006-03-24T16:47:00.000Z

Tuesday started off in the morning (as most Tuesday do, i fear!) but for me it was a particularly early morning i woke up at 6:30 so that i could get the train into town to meet Cat and then go to CU, but yeah i missed the train and had to get the next one, but we stil met and went to CU!

CU prayer and Praise (8 till 9 in the Chaplaincy at Strathclyde Uni, hint hint!!) is such a great way to start off the day in the right frame of mind! From there it was a little banter and sitting about before i went to meet Gary (Smith, from the Baptist Union) to catch up and discuss the summer, so it looks like i could be doing Step Out Plus this summer, all summer, but will share more on that later in another blog! Then it was off to meet Cat again to go to uni.

We had a lecture on disability in schools, and then a tutorial on it, it was actually really interesting and made for some good discussion. From there it was back home for an hour or so for some dinner and then back into town for Small Group. We're nearing the end of our Pure course and tonight was all on marriage and singleness, again lots of good banter and bible studying. We ended the session by hearing some Christian chat up lines, (like the title of the blog!) i was going to say not all of them were very good, but i'll need to rephrase that to all of them were more or less rubbish! some were even extremely worrying like 'Oh you are cold, Ecclesiastes 4:11' (i'll leave you to look that one up, but im pretty sure it doesnt say somethign about killing everyone in the world so that God likes you best, does it Alastair?? or do i have the wrong translation?) but as Alison said that chat up line has just destroyed the whole teaching in the Pure course! if you want to read more chat up lines then you can here http://www.christcorner.com/jokes9-3.html It has been fun randomly coming out with some of them at other CU things this week, to the great confusion of other people who weren't there!

Anyways, after small group i went to help at the Toastie Bar that CU do outside the union. We started by making up all of the sandwiches ready to be toasted (ok so i came in when this was just about done!) then we spent some time prayer for the people we would meet and be talking to that night. And then it was down to make and hand out the toasties. It was really great to do this practical piece of service for God, and to see the confused faces when you say its free, because its a good way to show them God's love. It takes a lot of wisdom to talk to some of the students as they question and criticise what we as Christians believe. I didn't have too much of this to deal with on Tuesday, but it was really encouraging to hear Greig and Andrew talking to and responding to a couple of guys who were saying things just to wind them up and get a reaction out of them. Lol, i took a toastie down the stairs (like all of 7 steps maybe) to a guy who wasnt going to come and get one, n he wanted me to kiss him on the cheek. I was like eh no thanks its alright, but he kept persisting, so i said 'ok how bout i shake your hand instead' so he shook my hand and said that he respected me for sticking to what i believe. Twas a great and humbling experience, if you ever get the chance to do something like it then you should!

So much has happened this week, well so many exciting things have happened, but i shall blog some more tomorrow, i don't want to fill your head with too much all at once!! tara chucks! :D

8 Days a Week!

2006-03-22T13:39:00.000Z

Yeah so the title has week in it, which is what i was looking for, plus the Beatles are always good! :D

And it has actually been 8 days since ive written somthing! so since i last wrote to you all i have been to the Strathclyde University Dance Society (SUDS!) show. it was really good, definately put me in the mood for dancing, but i have refrained!

Thursday i slept late (woohoo!) and then did uni work all afternoon before going out to CU at night, Friday i handed in that uni work, after doing the bits that i didn't know i was meant to do! Then we had our first lecture in over a month, it was on emergent literacy in 2, 3 and 4 year olds. After the lecture it was into the union for a celebration of finishing placement and ST Patrick's Day. A couple of games of pool were played, cards were played, drinks were drunk (mainly Irn Bru for me! yum!) and much banter was had. The Strathclyde Students were out in force to celebrate the Day of St Pat, but i'm sorry you should only wear a 'Kiss Me I'm Irish' shirt if you are in fact Irish! Unlike the American who was wearing it and felt he had to come and talk to us whilst we were playing pool!

From the Union i headed to meet Alastair before we sauntered out to Dennistoun for more St Patrick's Day fun. Again much eating of sweets and chocolate was done and Irish card games. Anyone up for a game of Leprechaun? I wasn't working on Saturday morning, so Louise and Alison very kindly let me crash at theirs (and Katie very kindly, although i don't know if she knows it since she was away, let me sleep in her bed!) There was a lot of hilarity and other people singing like rubber ducks (i won't mention any names, at this point in time anyway!) before going to bed at 2:30.

Saturday morning was a first for me, i saw Dennistoun in daylight and actually walked through Dennistoun. It took me 1 hour and 25 minutes to get home from Dennistoun. But that included stopping to get a packet of crisps and some juice, being stopped by a guy from 'The Church of Jesus Christ for Latter Day Saints', pausing at the bus stop to ponder whether to wait for a bus or just get a train, buying a train ticket, buying a Yorkie bar (i don't care if the packet says its not for girls, sometimes i want to eat a Yorkie bar, and they're not going to stop me!), waiting to change trains at Westerton, walking home and being stopped by Alastair (from church) to organise a rehersal for EPIC music.

Then when i got home it was a very quick wash and change before heading out to Asda to bag pack for BB, we raised almost £850 yay! Saturday night it was a night out with Rebekah to catch up, we had a nice(ish) meal in Papperinos and then went to see Final Destination 3, which made us jump sooooo much, im not actually sure how much of the film Rebekah saw! Sunday was church in the morning, EPIC practice in the afternoon, Church at night, me leading the Post YF group, then a meeting about the Wisconsinites coming to visit at Easter.

And, i will let you digest all of that before i tell you about my Tuesday! (i know i missed out Monday but it wasn't that exciting other than i bought a pair of brown boots in the Sale!)

Take Care and God Bless! x

Do i really look that young?

2006-03-15T16:15:00.000Z

WOOHOO! placement is finally over, i love teaching and being in the school, but its so stressful having to do all the paper work for my S.E.F (school experience file or silly excercise flop, well nobody refers to it as silly excercise flop, but i felt i should put something!)
My last day was fine, nothing too exciting! Look what a child wrote on the black board! (well, Jen the other student wrote it, does that count?!)

When i was waiting for a bus on my way home a man came and waited for a bus too. He started to talk to me, he was very polite and asked if he could smoke i said i didnt mind, but he stood outside anyway (thats what body language does, i may have said i dont mind, but my facial expression was a whole different story!) he then started telling me that he was drunk, and steamin' not that i had not already guessed this, he then reassured me by telling me that he never hits women! He even asked for one of the sweets that i was eating! I did a lot of smilng and nodding during our conversation as he told me how he had punched some guy last night for touching his daughter! lol, it made me laugh!

Then i decided to go to our local co-op and buy some Irn Bru (2 500ml bottles for £1.20) and then i saw the new Irn Bru 32 energy drink and thought id get some of that and try it. I then got a few other bits and pieces and went to the counter. When the woman was putting through the Irn Bru 32, she held it up and said 'Do you have any ID to prove that you're 16?' I didn't really think much of it and laughed saying do you need to be 16 to buy it? so i handed over my driving liscense and watched as the woman stood working out what age i was from my date of birth! YOU HAVE TO BE 17 TO GET A DRIVING LISCENSE!! it wasn't till i left the shop that it sunk in and i was deeply offended! i don't look like im 15 do i?

I then did a little quiz thingy that someone sent me from Bebo, an dit works out your age, and well apparently im 12! go to http://www.blogthings.com/whatagequiz/ and check it out!

I'm going to go and act old now and have a cup of tea and sit with my blanket round me! :D

I'm just too excited to sleep!

2006-03-12T01:43:00.000Z

Well it is snowing! and yes i am very excited!

I was at Anna's tonight have a right old girly movie fest with anna, katie and leanne! So when it came to leave i offered lifts home in the snow, but the car couldnt get up Katies hill, so she walked! hehehe, sorry Katie! I got Leanne home safely, and then on the way to my house, the car slid, it was extremely scary, it didnt slide too much, but it stopped my from breaking all the way home! I was even considering parking the car outside the Shield's House and walking home (which is just round the corner!) but i drove all the way!

When i got home i grabbed a hat, scarf, gloves and a camera and went back outside! It was amazing, i love the snow! i stood on the spot spinning round and round with my arms out in the air, and then i ran up the first part of the path beside my house and skipped back down! I did however draw the line before i made a snow angel, only because my trousers would have got very wet!

2 little ducks went swimming one day, over the hills and far away, mummy duck said quack quack quack quack, and only 1 little ducks came back. 1 little duck went swimming one day, over the hills and to Bearsden, it started to snow and so went quack as the snow lay on its back!

"He [God] does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,' Job 37:5-6

7, what a nice number!

2006-03-07T22:23:00.000Z

Today is the 7th of March, which is 6 months since i started working at Tesco and 4 months since i passed my driving test and 6 full days of school left and 7 weeks till i'll have been back at uni for a week! oh and 7 million things that i should have done by now!
7 is also probably the number of times that Cat and i have tried to contact each other today! hehehe!

i consider 7 to be my 'lucky number', well not so much a lucky number than a number i like, opposite sides of a dice add up to 7! however i do find it slightly odd that i like the number 7 because it is a prime number, and i find prime numbers icky! you can't share them at all!

I had to teach primary 4s about gravity today! yes GRAVITY! i only did chemistry and physics to second year and a standard grade in Biology, i don't know about gravity! I managed to bluff my way through it, even when the kids started asking 'if gravity pulls everything towards the centre of the earth how do planes stay in the sky?', 'how come th eplanets don't crash to the earth?', how come the starts move, but dont move?', 'do clouds move?' (to which i answered yes they move, if you lie on your back and look at the clouds the move) to which another child said 'i thought it was the earth that moved instead of the sky, and then i said the earth moves the sky moves everything moves! I really hope that i didn't muck up their knowledge on gravity, earth and space forever!

Was at CU tonight, for part 2 of the hardcore teaching week (i missed last nights meeting because of Tesco!), it was very good and interesing tonight all about 2 Peter 1:12-end of chapter. There were only 13 of us there (including the speaker!) and 2 people left for other things during it! The CU seems to be plagued with essays and illness at the moment! Dougie has broken his wrist after playing football for the CU team last night, Katie, Louise and Alastair were ill after being away all weekend at an exec. training thing. Since then Alastair has been in hospital and is now back down in Dumfries to get some of the best 'medicine!' ( a mum's TLC!)

Anyways, i'm off to bed, as am shattered! heheh, im going to buy a book tomorrow called 'A Busy Christian's Guide To Business' from reading an extract today, apparently i suffer from 'hurry sickness'! ah well, good night to one and all!

Who Am I?

2006-03-05T15:34:00.000Z

Before i go on i shall mention some of the things that i have neglected to mention in my last few posts! Scoltand beat England at rugby last weekend! 18 points to 12! Wayhey!!! it was fantastic! I passed my language and maths exams, and i passed my RME assignment! Just waiting on Science and technology, but they wont be for a bit yet because they're part of 'Environmental Studies' and we still have a trip to Mugdock Country Park and a presentation to do first!

8 days left of placement now! can't wait to have a long lie! BB concert after show party was at our house last night, they didn't leave till 2:30, then we were up at 9 for a Christening at 9:30!

Ok, so have you ever wondered at the number of people you are! or the number of things you are?!
Take myself for example,
I'm a daughter, I'm a sister, I'm a grandaughter, I'm a niece, I'm a cousin, I'm a (not so fairy) Godmother, I'm a Christian, I'm a baptist, I'm a student, I'm a teacher, I'm a student teacher, I'm a teenager, I'm a lady (woman, girl, of the female race!), I'm a Scot, I'm a British Citizen, I'm a driver, I'm a Tesco Employee, I'm a barmaid (i don't like that term, lol, i work behind a bar!), I'm a leader, I'm a member of Castlehill Baptist Church, I'm a member (now a fully paid member!) of Strathclyde CU, I'm a friend .... The list could go on for ages!!!! (the list was in no particular order btw! :) )

Right now, I'm tired! so am heading off to get a cup of tea, go to bed and fall asleep watching Sister Act! see you 'all or speak to you'all soon! hope you've had great weekends!

P.S anyone want to go to Berlin in July? Theres a big Christian 'get together' called 'Calling All Nations' in the Olympic stadium where the Football world cup final is being held! I think it would be really cool to go, so if your interested let me know!

Tea, Rolos and blogging!

2006-03-01T21:14:00.000Z

Well, i have had a fun evening so far! I have put out chairs at the BB hall for the concert (granted it wasnt just me, there was about 6 or 7 of us doing it), then i was assigned the role of mopping the ladies toilets floor. Why stop with that i thought, so i mopped the disabled toilet floor as well! And then my dad was sooo impressed by my mopping skills, that i was asked to mop the small hall floor as well! (its not really that small, well compared to the toilets its pretty big, but compared to the main hall, it is small!). BB concert this Thursday -Saturday, 7:30, £4 adults, £2 children, free if you speak to me before hand and agree to sell sweets! :D Plug over!

Have now swapped class at school, im with the primary 4 class now, and i'm finding it really challenging! On tuesday i was working with a group of 3 boys, and was sitting there thinking, how can 3 boys in primary 4, make me cry? Luckily i didn't cry, but i was pretty close to it! The boys have some learning and behaviour difficulties and were having a bad day, but it was very draining because they didn't want to work, argued back with me, compared me to the other student who had been with them, and of course i was much worse! Ah well, that's one of the joys of being a teacher!! Today i did animal riddles with them, and they were really good at coming up with their riddles (after they had criticised me on my handwriting on the board and the fact that they 'normally' do creative writing on a Friday!)

Ooh, i received my 'e-ticket' for my flights to Romania tonight and printed it out, so thats pretty exciting!

Yes, so now to marking and tea and rolos! mmm, i can't wait!

20 things you didn't know, that you didn't know about me!

2006-02-24T17:15:00.000Z

1. I can touch my nose with my tongue.
2. I have more than 50 t-shirts.
3. I sometimes talk in my sleep.
4. I was the only girl on the general knowledge quiz team in my primary 7 class.
5. I can play the clarinet (and recorder and keyboard)
6. I have only ever missed 1 university lecture or class, which was for my driving test.
7. I have been to 18 different theme parks, in 7 different countries.
8. I played hooker for our school's girls' rugby team.
9. I have water skiied round an island.
10. I was in a fashion show and had to wear hot pants whilst dancing to 'Sex Bomb' by Tom Jones.
11. I once added icing sugar to a cheese sauce to try and thicken it, then didn't tell the person who ate it, until it was all finished!
12. I have taught someone to ceilidh dance in George Square in Glasgow.
13. Until i was 15, i was goingto be an air hostess.
14. My favourite cities (so far!) are:~
European:~ Amsterdam
American:~ Chicago
Canadian:~ Montreal.
15. When i was 5 i blew out candles in a church and sang Happy Birthday.
16. I have to put Wine Gums in a certain order before I eat them. (yellow, orange, black, green then red, eating the red last of course! :D )
17. I have been swimming in a lake at Midnight in the moonlight.
18. I once sang ring-a-ring-a-roses (complete with actions) on a stage in front of 200 people. (i was 17 at the time!)
19. I can order a non smoking table for 11 in Italian.
20. I have sung on stage in the SECC and recorded a CD in a Glasgow recording Studio.

Good Morning Miss Annan!

2006-02-21T08:16:00.000Z

Before i go on, the title of this post is to be said in the true sing songy voice that children use in the classroom every morning to greet their teachers!

I feel that i am now officially a poor, struggling student! Last night at Tesco i worked on the checkouts for half of my shift, and then, oh yes, i stacked shelves! not just any shelves, but the dairy shelves, my hands were freezing! i then had to walk round the store with a big roll cage collecting all of the carboard! what fun i had!?!?!

On saturday just past i went to Clydebank to buy a new necklace and watch to replace the ones that were broken (the watch broke on thursday at the CU ceilidh, i was lost without a watch for a day and a half!) anyways i went to Clydebank shopping centre which happens to be the main shopping place that the kids in my class would go to. I was just dredding meeting one of them as i walked around in my very baggy dungarees and my big comfy Onaway hoody, as this would completely confuse them,to see a teacher in 'normal' clothes! but thank goodness i didnt see any of the children. HOWEVER, i now know somethign worse than a kid seeing me in 'normal' clothes, and that is seeing me in Tesco uniform stacking shelves and pulling roll cages about! One of the boys in my class was shopping in Tesco with his mum last night and saw me with my head inside the fridges putting out cheese! the poor kid must be so confused, to them im a teacher, so why would a teacher be working in Tesco?? hehehe!

On the subject of teachers, i really gotta go to school! My crit went well yesterday, my tutor was very pleased with all my work! so yay! (or as alastair would say hoorah!)

Verse for the blog:~ "Jesus Wept" John 11:35 (yes i know it's short, but tis one of my favourite verses!)

Ceilidh Arms!

2006-02-19T21:28:00.000Z

For my international readers a ceilidh is an amazing scottish party with lots and lots and lots of dancing! Ceilidh arms, are what you get after a ceilidh, you know that its been a good ceilidh when you have bruises on your arms and it huts to lift them in line with your shoulders. However the pain is nothing because of the fun you've had at the ceilidh!

Thursday night was the CU ceilidh and last night was the Romania fundraising ceilidh (looks like we'll have raised about £1200 from the ceilidh and someone gave an anonymous donation of £1000! so we're doing well so far with the fundraising!) Both ceilidhs were amazing fun, the CU ceilidh had a lot of international students. Its always fun to teach them the new dances and then also to watched them getting it completely wrong, but having a brilliant time anyway! There will soon be photos on the CU website, so you can check it out! (i'll put a link in for it sometime!)

I have my second crit tomorrow, and have sat all day infront of the computer desperately trying to work. But i am sooooo incredibly tired, didn't get home from my taxi duties until 3am last night! then up for church this morning! At about 8 o clock tonight, i had lost it and was just lying on my bed complaining to my mum, who was very patient and stood chatting to me and claming me down! I can happily say that i think i'm ready for it, if somethings not right im just going to plead ignorance! :D I also have to remember to wear a long sleeved top and not to push up the sleeves as it will reveal my bruised ceilidh arms, and i'd rather not have my tutor wondering if i'm being abused, or even worse finding out that i am still managing to have a social life whilst on placement! i know someone who was marked down for one of her crits, because the tutor found out that she had gone out for dinner!

I've added some more things to my 'to do before i die' list. They are:
* Be at the top of Ben Lomond for sunrise or sunset.
* See the Great Wall of China.
* Visit Amelia in Texas (if she'll have me! hehehe, she might decided to stop all contact with me after she stays here in August!)
* Learn how to transpose music into B flat for the clarinet.

I have started teaching myself about transposing music and have done the verse of 'All My Days' altho i can just about look at the normal music and play it as if i have already transposed it! So that's now just 6 things on my list to do the 4 above as well as using a power drill and doing a parachute jump. The other week i did get to hold a power drill and make it go round, but there was no bit on the end and i didn't get to drill through a bit of wood!

Verse for the blog:~ "You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever." Psalm 30:11-12

Sport, Sport and more Sport!

2006-02-14T15:51:00.000Z

What a brilliant time of year this is! Not only do we get the Winter Olympics, we also get The Six Nations (which may be better in my opinion!)

However, it is also a great annoyance, as i didn't get very much work done over the weekend, as i watched 3 rugby games (well 2 and a half, i slept through the first half of the England/Italy game!) and then i watched the Couples short figure skating in the olympics, as well as the qualifier for the Ski jump, and the Luge! On Sunday i watched the Scotland Wales rugby match, we played very well, and Wales shouldnt be too proud! I'm sure i watched some sort of olympics too! Then today, i watched the last two stones of the Womens curling! which we won, 5 stones to us and 4 to Switzerland!

I also realised that when the olympics (or another big sporting event!) is on, we pick up all this useful knowledge and say things that we normally would never say, well we do in my house anyways! Like i now know roughly how they score figure skating (its not out of 6 anymore, tis far more complicated!) i also find myself having conversations with Stuart (my bro) about how many stones we have in the curling, and the sweeping techniques of Rona and her crew! Makes me laugh anyways!

Happy Valentines to you all! Hope you have a fun filled day (with or without a special someone! ;D )

"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love will last forever." 1 Corinthians 12:4- 8

Nothing of Value!?

2006-02-12T22:45:00.000Z

So i sat here reading Louise's blog (link on the right hand side!) about helping with the homeless ministry that her church does and it got me thinking! I realised that i have done nothing of great value at all this weekend, not that it hasnt been fun, i've just not had one of those 'wow' moments or 'the penny dropped moments' or done anything to really help somebody other than myself! I guess at the moment I'm fed up with placement, ive been there for just over 3 weeks now, and still have another 4 and a half to go! There's so much work to be done for it! I guess i'm just completely tired out physically, mentally, spiritually, But it is just one of the stages that come on the rollercoaster of life and soon i will be heading up the next steep slope!

Now i come to think of it i did kinda have a 'ah ha' moment! I was watching 'Dangerous Minds' a great film about a teacher and i was thinking that everything i see i think of it from a teacher's point of view. I now can't watch a film with a teacher in it without analysing what they're doing and deciding if they're a good teacher or not! (example, Jack Black in School Of Rock, was a good teacher because he appealed to the things that the children were specifically interested in! if you need more detail ask, coz there's lots! lol, im such a weird person!) Yeah, so realising that i see everything as a teacher, made me think that i should try and see everything from a Christian point of view. Instead of just looking at what i've done, actually looking at what things i can do to be more Christian, to live a better Christian Life. I shouldn't get bogged down with placement stuff, because it's where i'm meant to be and i should feel priviledged to be there at all!

Wow, blogging certainly sorts things out in your head! Altho it also shatters my dream of being in bed before 11pm! (i do have 2 minutes to make it, but i need to make a cup of tea, get a biscuit, get into my pjs etc etc etc! and now only a minute left to do it!)

ah well nevermind! "He [the Lord] makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul." Psalm 23:2-3

Something a little less than witty!

2006-02-10T23:10:00.000Z

This has been a busy week for a great number of people!

Some highlights: Sunday:~ Scotland 20 - France 16! yay come on the scottish boys! (and they did play brilliantly, same again this week would be great!)
Monday:~ Children were semi well behaved considering it was a monday!

Tuesday:~ Small group, always fun! More of the Pure course, and again it was higly interesting!(there was a scarily high proportion of committee members there tho! had to be on my best behaviour! ok so there was 6 out of a possible 15 committee members at the time! thats all changed but look at Thursday!)

Wednesday:~ I went to see Titanic in the Theatre Royal, it was so sad, i had to wipe the tears away from my eyes! twas really good except for the white sheet coming down, i think it was meant to symbolise the iceberg, but it was actually just stupid!

Thursday:~ Last day with kids in school for almost a week! CU AGM, where the new committee were officially accepted and started their roles! due to some lack of communication there was no food organised, so alison and Louise kindly offered their flat for a big bunch of people to take carry out food to! anther very fun night full of great banter. I had the car and was playing taxi driver again, i think that i should be the official CU taxi driver, 3 quarters of the new committee have been in my car at some point, some more than others, ahem alastair! (sorry bad cough there! :D)

Friday:~ Inservice day in school, with teachers who didn't ask if Jen and i wanted something from Gregs, as the sheet wasnt passed round to us. So we went out for lunch and were almost late for the afternoon meeting, after about 45 minutes in that meeting we were told we could leave because it was school calander business which didn't really concern us!

And tonight was at Boys' Brigade and again more good banter, well how can it be bad banter when you have to talk them into wearing dresses, hehehe!

Ooh i also went to see Chicken Little today! It is fantastic, i was laughing out loud and clapping (yes i was and am still slightly embarassed about that!) but it was soooo funny and (pathetic child alert) i really really want a cuddly chicken Little, he's so cute! Plus i decided since lots of the characters names rhyme, so my name is now going to be 'super silly jilli'! to go with my new Super J tshirt!

Quote for the blog:~ "Everyone in the world lives in one of two tents: content or discontent" J. John. Which tent do you live in?

My way or the Highway!

2006-02-03T16:36:00.000Z

Should i start this blog off with a question? or should i say what's on my mind? (add a cello here, to add a sad impression)

Don't you absolutely hate the first day of a cold? well today was the first day of my current cold, and it's really really not a happy experience when you're trying to teach and be all happy in school! Oh yeah, and apparently when it's non uniform day the teacher's dress down too, was very nice of people to tell me! i think i was just about the only teacher who wasn't in jeans today, no i was dressed up smartly as usual!

Wanna hear a funny story? Today the teacher was asking the children which Roald Dahl book they would like to listen to, when she held up Charlie and The Chocolate Factory one boy said, 'no that's the old one!' which slightly confused me, but the next comment by another boy helped me understand! the next boy, referring to the book said 'i hope that's not the one with Johnny Depp!' how can you mix up a book and a film?

i was at CU last night and it was a 'guys and girls night'. It was so much fun! Gary (the current president, since the committee changes next Thursday!) gave a little talk and then we split into guys and girls, the girls of course got to each chocolate! In the groups we discussed a couple of Bible passges and then we had to write 'Hey brother...' and then say some positive things about the guys, like how they protect us or don't let us wallow in our problems. we also had to do slightly more negative things like when guys take lead when they don't have a clue, but feel they have to because they're male. At the same time the guys were doing the same thing about the girls. Twas funny, coz then the leaders of the group swapped and each group got to hear what the other group had said! The guys had thanked us for having genuine friendships with them and asked us to not talk to them during football on tv as they won't hear anything we say! They also commented on the fact that we can take anything they say and get a totally different meaning from it! We also talked about how we can encourage each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. I think it a very fun and informative evening was had by all.

Then Dougie, Alastair, Fiona and i went and played some pool. (a little aside here, i beat Alastair at pool! yay!!!) the guys did their bit by making sure that we fully understood what they were meaning when they said something, well alastair would just say 'oh i better not say that incase you take it the wrong way', how was i meant to take 'you hip hop freak' in the wrong way??? Lol! it was a good night anyway, and it was great to be a student again and not have to worry about looking all smart and having to put on a fake smile all the time!

Verse for the blog:~ "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3:12 - 14

Should I end this blog off with a question?

Ready for a SHORT blog?

2006-02-01T23:34:00.000Z

I discovered last night a brilliant way of saving paper whilst printing and re-printing things for my S.E.F, print double sided! i can't believe it took me so long to work that out!

On the laminator/Ipod front - i'm not going to buy an Ipod, just more cheap Tesco batteries for my MP3 player! and my mum bought the house an A3 laminator today for only £25! a bargain or what, i just need to think of something to laminate, hmm, i might make snap cards on volcanoes for the kids! hmm, leave it with me! :D

Our Pure course started at small group last night, we looked at Genesis and the roles of men and women, twas very interesting and good banter all round!

I shall leave you with some of the differences between men and women from the Pure book:
* Women smell nice, men smell.
* Women usually usually aren't very good at reading maps but men don't stop and ask for directions.
* Women think shoes are interesting; men think shoes are functional.
* Men are task oriented; women are relationship oriented.
* Men get straight to the point; women spend hours talking about it and still don't know!
* Men are more logical.
* Women have different coloured pens!

Here it comes... A Beautiful Collision

2006-01-30T23:18:00.000Z

The name of the Blog is from a David Crowder Band song from their new album called A Collision! Wanna hear a funny story? well read it anyway! on saturday night (actually it was pretty early Sunday morning!) i was giving Alastair, Oonagh and Fiona a lift home, when we got in the car Alastair asked if we could have 'A Collision', i felt it would only be fair to ask the others, so i said to Oonagh and fiona 'would it be ok if we had a collision'. Alastair and i were of course meaning the DCB cd, but i wonder what the others thought! hehehe!

So in this blog, i'm going to have a bit of a moan (am just looking for sympathy, but don't feel you need to give me any! i probably don't deserve it!) but then i'll end on a nice high note!

So my moan is that at the moment I'm working 40+ hours a week as a teacher. I'm in school everyday from about 8:30 until 3:30 and then at least an hours worth of work each night at home. Which is fine, i don't really mind it (even though a lot of it is a waste of time, i have to do it to pass my course!) but on top of my 40+ hours i work part time at Tesco! So i do about 50 hours of work a week!

Away from the moan now, moan ended! Saturday night was a Games night at Katie and Alisons flat (Louise's flat too, but she wasnt there!) so there was about 25 - 30 people there playing some really random games! For example i came second in giant snakes and ladders, my team came first in Cranium, Alastair and I won a game of Monopoly (see Alastairs blog for all the brilliant details of our game! :D ), then i came first or second at a card game called Bum (or bung or something!). There was also other card games, twister, scategories and goodness knows what else! It was a gr8 nite which ended at 3:30am when i think i finally fell asleep.

Tonight was another shift at Tesco, which wasn't too bad, other than two different customers called me 'darling'. grr i'm not their darling, im not anybody's darling! lol! the other thing that scares and annoys me is when customers refer to me by name e.g. 'Thanks Jillian' or 'Do you think you'll still be working here when you're 65 Jillian?' In my opinion the name badge is for the team leaders and managers, so that they can pretend to know exactly who you are by calling you by name, when of course they have absolutely no idea who you are!

And so it is off to bed to watch Babe, I'm doing listening lessons on Babe. I was looking for a picture of the front cover of the video, so typed 'Babe' into a google image search. Very Bad Idea! It doesn't come up with a picture of a cute little sheep dog pig, not that i stayed on the results long enough to find out! now that's a lesson to learn at home and not in a classroom full of kids!!

The service i was at last night was on the Good Samaritan and i shall leave you with a thought that i got from the sermon, for you to think about as well!
We shouldn't ask ourselves 'Who is my neighbour?', but 'who can i be a neighbour to?'

"It is books that are a key to the wide world; if you can't do anything else, read all that you can."

2006-01-28T12:58:00.002Z

The title is a quote by an author called Jane Hamilton. (please note i haven't read any of her books, i just like the quote!) or how about this quote from Sir John Harrington "Books give not wisdome where none was before, but where some is, there reading makes it more."

I thought i would recommend some books for you all to read, they are all books that i have read within the past couple of years.

A couple of 'girly' ones first, not that guys can't read them, but it probably doesnt interest many guys!

"Redeeming Love" by Francine Rivers. This book is based on the book of Hosea in the Bible and is the story of a girl who had a trouble childhood and was sold into prostitution at a very young age. When Michael Hosea meets 'Angel', God tells him that she is to be his wife. The story then continues with Michael loving Angel no matter what she does, or how hard her heart is. It is a remarkable love story not only about the love that Michael has for Angel, but the neverending, incomprehendable love that God has for each one of us!

"The Atonement Child" by Francine Rivers. This is the fictional story of a girl called Dynah, who has a great life - she's a Christian with a Christian Fiance who loves her, she's doing well at university, has great friends, family and job. One night she gets raped, the rest of the story goes on to look at how Dynah and everyone around her copes with what has happened. I thouroughly enjoyed this book and found it hard to put down, my mum read it within 24 hours (she didn't get out of bed until she had finished it!)

Now a couple of books for guys and gals!

"Boy meets Girl" by Joshua Harris. This is one of those Christian life books. I can take or leave Christian life books, (and more often than not leave them, especially ones like this! lol!) but this book was being passed round our youth group a few years ago. "Its an honest, romantic and refreshingly biblical look at relationships" (taken from the back cover). It was an easy enjoyable read, not too 'lovey dovey'. A lot of stuff i agreed with, other stuff i didnt and just laughed at (his rules on 'conduct during a relationship' were quite amusing!). a good book nonetheless.

"Jim Elliot: One Great Purpose" by Janet & Geoff Benge. This was another of those 'really hard to put down books!' It told the story of the Missionary Jim Elliot and his work in Ecuador. In the blurb about the book on YWAMs (the publishers!) website it said the book was for ages 10 and up! which explains why it didn't go into too much detail about his last days and what his wife and the other missionaries wives went through.

I'm now beginning to read "The Screwtape Letters" by C. S. Lewis, i don't think it looks particularly interesting, but it's meant to be a really good book, so here's hoping! I'm also going to order "Through Gates of Splendour" by Elisabeth Elliot, which goes into more detail about her and her husband's lives. (Her husband being Jim Elliot). I have own the last 3 books that i mentioned, so if you want to borrow one, then let me know!

I shall end on an extract from the Boy Meets Girl book:
"In his commentry on Genesis, Matthew Henry explained it [the story Eve] beautifully: 'Eve was not taken out of Adams' head to top him, neither out of his feet to be trampled by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected by him and near his heart to be loved by him".

Got that Friday feeling!

2006-01-27T17:24:00.000Z

I've done it, i've survived a full week at school! I'll tell you some of the high and low points of the week.

It started pretty low, tried group work with th class, lets just say it was a 'nightmare'. Ever have one of those days where you just want to cry, well Wednesday was it! I had been out late the night before (but, yay, it was CU small group!!) and its never good to teach whilst tired! Actually my lesson went ok, i got the children to write a diary as if they had experienced an earthquake. Some of them were excellent about how they fainted, or how they had to go to another country and at the airport reporters kept asking them questions! Thursday was made much better with the comments of one of the girls. She said 'Miss Annan, are you married?' and i said 'no' and she went 'aww' sympathising for me because i was not married. Then she asked if i lived with somebody, or who did i live with. So i told her i lived with my mum and dad and big brother, then she told me that she was glad i didn't live alone because that would be sad! Don't you just love kids!

Ooh, today i had my crit! Twas soooo horrible, i really didn't like it! The first i saw of my tutors was when they walked into the class at 1.15. I had the children on my own from 1 till about 2.20. My tutors sat in the corner and looked through my file, pulled out sheets made notes, showed things to each other. I didn't know whether it was a good thing or not! But, don't worry i have survived and got satisfactory in all of the sections. In my chat with them afterwards they gave me a few action points to look at, so all is good! :)

ok, so here's some pointers to look for to see if you are stressed. (all of which were experienced by me this week!)

you know your stressed when:
* you buy Irn Bru, take it for your lunch, forget about it and not drink it!
* you make yourself bread and butter sandwiches for lunch!
* go to the shop to buy comfort food (popcorn!) and then not eat it!
* ask and then offer to get somebody something (a Mars Bar for my Bro) and then completely forget about it until you walk back in the drive!
* you give a child into trouble using the wrong name!
* you forget that you're not at school, and start using your teacher voice with other members of your family!
* you fill yet another blog with useless rubbish which nobody really cares about!

One day i will write a blog with real meaning, and everybody will say 'she knows what she's talking about!' so keep a look out for it!

Verse for blog:~ " O my people, listen to my teaching. Open your ears to what I am saying" Psalm 78:1 (NLT) hehehe! honestly, im not big headed! :D

No calories on Fridays!

2006-01-22T22:58:00.000Z

Yes according to the latest chat in the staffroom, there are no calories in chocolates or any other food items on a Friday! Which leads me on to apologise (in advanced!) for all my weird and hyper (or depressed!) words and behaviour in the next 7/8 weeks! I'm on placement and it takes it out of u completely! there is so much bloomin paper work to be done! so yes i apologise for any weird behaviour (even more out of the ordinary for me!) in the next few weeks! I can't believe that i repeated the same thing twice within like 3 sentences! repeating myself in the spce of a few sentences is something that i would never believe myself to do!

ooh, what to blog about today! hmm, i was at Catalyst tonight, a youth event on the south side of Glasgow, it was at Newton Mearns Baptist tonight! and i had to drive there, on the motorway! There was 5 of us in the car, 3 who don't drive and the other person who can drive hasnt driven on the motorway, and i don't think has driven since she passed her test. But, i think i am coming round to liking the idea of driving on the motorway, it was a very quick route!

Im sure there were so many things that i was going to complain about, but i cant remember them! i'm in that 'im so tired that my brain hurts' mood! ooh i remembered what else my gran complained about! she complained that i had bought first class stamps instead of second class stamps! wot is with that?? lol! I like first class stamps! they're gold, n 30p is such a nice round number! (i also like the colour blue tho, and the thought of saving money is always good! even if it is just 9p!) Ooh talking about saving money, i bought a new skirt! it's long and black and cord! and it cost me an astonishing £3.50! yay go Tesco!

I have 2 favours to ask you all!
1. please be on the look out for Malteaser ice cream! i'd really like some and Tesco and Sainsbury's didnt have any! (i need it for to relieve the stress lol! during standard grades and highers when i was ill with stress it was Lucozade and black jacks that got me through! i'm not that bad tho, but would really like Malteaser ice cream! i might have to resort to malteaser ice cream lollys!

2. Come to a ceilidh! 18th February, feel good about spending money and having a good time coz the money is for a great cause! a hospital in Craiova! (yes i am going to pester you as much as i can until u buy a ticket! :D and they say im innocent moahahahaha!)

I remembered an exciting bit of news! I beat Chris at pool! In the first 3 games that we played, i won the first two and then in the third game i potted the black! those of you who have seen me play pool, and who have also seen Chris play pool, will know how truely amazing that is! and i think i only hit the white ball off the table once, which is always good!

Bed is calling! Need sleep to get energy to face a whole week in school! with my tutor visit on Friday! please pray for me on Friday! its when my tutor (in my case, tutors!) come and watch me teach and then tell me where im going wrong, and where im going right! its apparently a really scary thing and this is my first crit ever, so prayers would be much appreciated! thanks! :)

Verse for the blog:~ "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. " Hebrews 12:1-3 (NIV) these verses were talked about briefly tonight at Catalyst, and i love them! so keep on keeping on!

A Wake Up Call

2006-01-17T19:41:00.000Z

I was watching the Scottish News tonight, which i don't normally watch. Anyway there was a report on about a girl who had been abducted from a bus stop in Glasgow on Saturday night and then dropped off there again on Sunday morning. You can see the article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4621944.stm or at http://scotlandtoday.scottishtv.co.uk/content/default.asp?page=s1_1_1&newsid=10165
I have waited by myself at that bus stop quite a few times later on at night. In the links there are photos of the street, Cathedral Street, which is where Strathclyde University buildings and Halls of Residences are. In the photos the bus stop is on the right hand side. The Strathclyde CU meet in a building which is just out of picture on the left, and the Strathclyde Union is a little further along on the right hand side. It was really scary (for my mum as well as me!) to watch the report because we both knew that i had waited for buses there on a number of occasions!

In the comments section for the previous post i mentioned that i was no longer going to buy an Ipod. Instead i am going to buy an A3 laminator, which will come in very useful for teaching materials! and will save up the money to go to Romania in September with the 1st Bearsden Boy's Brigade Romania Project, of which i am a committee member. This is our third Project to raise money for a hospital in Craiova. we do lots of fundraising activities including a Ceilidh coming up on the 18th of February, 7 for 7:30 start at Kessington Hall in Bearsden. Adult tickets £10, Student tickets £8, school aged children tickets £ 6, toddlers free! For more info. speak to me or wait until i pester you about coming along to the ceilidh! I fought hard to get student prices, and your tickets includes a 'light buffet supper' and a live ceilidh band. There will also be an auction and a raffle, and remember it is a fundraising ceilidh! :D Plug over!

Well, with that aside, it's back to forward planning! I couldnt find any good ideas on the internet, so i have made up my own worksheet on the Earth's Layers.

Verse for the blog:~ "You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah" Psalm 32:7 (NIV)

Peace with You

2006-01-17T14:07:00.000Z

Peace with you is the name of the Ten Shekel Shirt song i'm listening to at the moment! It's a nice quiet calming song, tis good.

Don't you just love grandparents?! my mum's parents died before i was born, and my dad's dad died 10 years ago, so i've just got my grandma (my dad's mum)! So yesterday i decided to go in and pay her a visit, say hello, see how she was getting on, ok so i forgot my house key and wanted to borrow hers, but was more than happy to sit and chat awhile over a cup of tea! but then it got onto the concerns that only grandparents can have for their grandchildren, 'you should really eat something more substantial for breakfast, its the most important meal of the day you know', and 'oh dear, you should get more sleep at night, i always try to get up at the same time every day, 8am. Then i got to defend myself, by explaining that i was most likely out of the house at 8am when she got up! (if im at uni, then i meet Cat at Anniesland at 8ish, and i start work on saturdays at 8!). Then it got onto eat 5 pieces of fruit and veg a day, and eating a fish 'because its very good for you, you should try and eat it once a week', and as you all know form 'food glorious food' i can't stand fish, and wont eat it even if it is good for me! and then it got onto the 'why do you want to buy an Ipod, you should be saving all your money to buy a house or a car or something!'
I find in these situations if you nod, smile and agree, then you usually get by without too much fuss! It made me laugh and it does my gran good to 'sort out the world'!

yeah, so most exciting news for me is that i'm probably going to buy myself an Ipod! so if anybody has one, or knows about them, or has some piece of advice about which one to get then your help would be much appreciated! ta chucks!

Ooh, i've finished all my uni work at the moment, 2 exams and 2 assignments done and dusted (until the results come out! :) ). Now im just about to start my forward planning for the lessons im going to teach on placement! I'm going to be doing 8 lessons on listening focussed on Babe (as in the pig!) and 16 lessons on Volcanoes! so by tomorrow night you can ask me anything you want about volcanoes and i should be able to answer it!

Happy 'ditch your New Years resolutions day' by the way! Hope you're managing to keep your resolutions! :D

Verse for the blog:~ "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. " John 14:27 (NIV)

What a week!

2006-01-13T23:09:00.000Z

As I'm sure many of you know, it has been exam week for me! Out of the past 9 days i have spent at least part of 7 of them in the Library studying! I had my language exam on Tuesday we had to write 2 essays from a choice of 3 subjects. Would anybody like to know about Creative Writing or Structuring Talking and Listening Tasks? :) The thing i really like about essay writing exams is that you can show off everything you've learned from all of your studying, hopefully i was was 'showing off' the correct stuff! Thursday was the maths exam, i opened the paper, looked at question 1 and was like, oh dear!

"In a village there are 3 straight streets which may or may not cross each other. If there are traffic lights at every junction, what is the greatest number of traffic lights that could be needed? What about 4 streets, 5 streets?"

It's taken from the 5-14 National Guidelines, and is a problem that primary 7s would normally get. I think it was the exam pressure that made me think 'i have absolutely no idea what the question is asking me never mind answering it!' Lots of people (i won't name any names!) think that Primary Teaching is an easy course and that our maths exams will be really easy, yes we do get some primary maths like the problem above, but we also get questions like this one:

"Explain what is meant by the 'principle of transitivity' and why transitivity is important in learning to measure."

We also needed to know things like Pascal's trainagle, prime numbers (and easy ways to find them!), conservation of mass, 2 different meanings for a fraction, M.A.B. material and how to use it to demonstrate numbers to one decimal place. Ok, so im just putting those things in because they're things that most people won't know, and i can pretend to be all knowledgeable! :)

This morning i attended the funeral of Joan, her son Jonathan was one of the boys who had been at the camp that i went to with the Boy's Brigade company during the summer in Wisconsin. I had worked with Joan on some fundraising events and on costumes for the BB Concert. She was diagnosed with leukemia a few years ago, at the beginning of last year she was told that she had 6 months to live. She kept setting herself targets and was able to celebrate her 50th birthday in December, sadly she died last week. This was the first funeral i had been to, and it really made me realise how insignificant my problems are. It also confirmed to me one of the worst feelings in the world, knowing or seeing that somebody is upset or hurt and you can't do anything about it. It's a horrible feeling, i hate seeing people upset, it makes me upset, it was really hard to see Jonathan coming into the church this morning, i cant even begin to imagine what he's going through, but with time and prayers he will get through the greif and be able to remember all the great times that he spent with his mum.

Verse for the blog:~ "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. " John 14:1-3 (NIV)

A kick in the right direction!

2006-01-09T23:16:00.000Z

So i had a really busy weekend! i worked sat morning and sunday afternoon at Tesco, worked saturday night (8pm till 1am) at the golf club, i went to church twice on Sunday, both services were about Narnia and similarities to the Bible! twas really interesting! on saturday afternoon my aunt Helene, Uncle Jim, and my cousins Daniel and Craig were round! It was really really good to catch up with them! and i hate to say it, but my cousins have grown up so much (which is bad for me to say since im only like 4 and 7 years older than them!)

Monday was back to Studying (and a shift at Tesco!) before i started to study this morning in the library, i thought 'i have a bible in my bag, i'll read a psalm, but which psalm should i read?' One of the books that i had out of the library had the number 428.07 on it, so i decided to read psalm 28! when i turned to it, this is the psalm i found! (and also doubles as my verse for the blog!)

Psalm 28 A Prayer for Troubled Times
1 To you I call, O LORD my Rock; do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I shall be like those who have gone down to the pit.

2 Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands towards your Most Holy Place.
3Do not drag me away with the wicked, with those who do evil, who speak cordially with their neighbours but harbour malice in their hearts.

4 Repay them for their deeds and for their evil work; repay them for what their hands have done and bring back upon them what they deserve.

5 Since they show no regard for the works of the LORD and what his hands have done, he will tear them down and never build them up again.

6Praise be to the LORD, for he has heard my cry for mercy.
7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

8The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
9 Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them for ever

I read the title 'A Prayer for Troubled Times' and laughed, will my exams really be that bad? course not, coz (another little singsong!) 'God is on our side, who can be against us? thought mountains may fall and the skies will crumble, there ain't nothing gonna stand in our way!' (The lyrics are from Chris Tomlin's song 'God is on our Side'.)

I'm going to leave you with with the last verse from the song.

Come on down to the riverside
Wash it all away
Leave behind your troubled mind
For an uncloudy day
Nothing's gonna separate us from the Father's love
I can't help but celebrate
'Cause we're not alone

Food, Glorious Food!

2006-01-06T15:17:00.000Z

Food! For some reason being a Christian and food goes together, there is rarely a gathering of Christians without food! after all it does say in the Bible 'Man shall not live by Bread alone!' (and yes i know im completely taking that out of context, and that it really means that we've got to live every day following Jesus and living by what his word says!)

Apparently i have some weird eating habbits! I don't eat orange smarties, they taste different to the other ones (the difference in taste is only with the British Smarties, the American Smarties there is no difference in taste!) If im eating a packet of Wine Gums, i have to put them in order of how i want to eat them! (even in the cinema!) the order is yellow, orange, black, green and then red, with red being eaten last! I've also got into the habbit of dipping crisps into soup! Plain crisps and tomato soup is really good, as is cheesy Quavers dipped in tomato soup. I don't eat meat off the bone, i don't like handling raw meat (even if it is in a bag and im putting it through the checkout at Tesco!) and i dont like fish at all (except tuna!) The smell of fish makes me feel sick! I love vegetables! and would sometimes (most times!) rather have more veggies than pudding! Good example of this was at Scoughall during the summer, where i had a bowl of carrots instead of trifle! (oh yeah i dont like trifle!)

I only drink flavoured coffees, guess what? Starbucks have stopped doing their Christmas flavoured lattes, and i never got to have my Egnog latte! :( maybe next year! I never really drink normal coffee, only because tea is normally on offer as well! I can drink tea anytime anywhere! hmmm (i have a cup beside me at the moment!)

Im trying to think of weird food things that my friends do! Salt on anything is weird, there's enough salt in food already. Chris eats Ham and marmalade sandwiches. Sharon had a nice crusty roll with a Galaxy Caramel in it! Then there's all the guys (im not going to try and name you all, coz theres a lot of you!) who have had Mars Bar toasties at toastie Bar!

Ooh which reminds me, i used to have three things on my 'to do before i die' list. They were:
1. Jump out a plane, with a parachute on!
2. Use a power drill to drill a hole through somethign!
and 3. eat a deep fried mars bar.

In September this year (i think it was after the joint CU Synergie event during Freshers week!) Rebekah and i went and got Deep Fried Mars Bars! lets just say, been there done that, really dont need to do it again in a hurry! I'll need to add somethign else onto my list! any suggestions?

Verse for the blog:~ "Locusts of all varieties, crickets, bald locusts, and grasshoppers. All these may be eaten. " Leviticus 11:22 (New Living Translation) so all those Bush tucker Trials on I'm a Celebrity get me out of here, are from the Bible? I dont think i'll add eating those to my list of things to do before i die! yuck!!

Wow, it's 2006! time flies!

2006-01-04T20:28:00.000Z

Just for you Amelia, i have taken time out of very important studying and assignment writing to come and write a new blog! I hope you're happy! lol, im only joking, its been a while since i filled your lives with happiness!

I was just thinking that a heck of a lot happens in a year, far too much to write here, and i dont really do the whole looking back thing! i like to look forward, in anticipation, nervousness and excitment wondering what will happen in the year(s) ahead. (ooh just thought of my 'verse for the blog! check it out at the bottom!)

So i decided to stay home for New Year, the first time ever. I've spent every single new year since i was 2 with the same group of people, so it was quite strange not being with them. But i had great fun anyways (and they didn't miss me too much!)

so my Hogmany started off at Tesco, working. Then i had a lovely lunch with my Gran, then a shopping trip to Tesco with Angela, for clothes and the party essentials, namely Irn Bru and Haribo! After taking ages to get ready Angela and I, all dolled up got onto a bus, we must have been a sight for the Neds at the back of the bus! We got the bus and went to Chris' flat and then headed off to Johnnys flat. Much chatter and socialising was done at Johnnys as people arrived. Just after 11, the 10 of us headed to Byres Road to find a pub to welcome in the New Year. After trying a few pubs and Ashton Lane (which was a sold out ticketed event! grr!) we ended up in Booly Mardy's, its a cocktail bar just off Byres road. A round of Cocktails was bought as we awaited the Bells. at 10 to midnight they turned off the music and turned up the TV so that we could all hear Jackie Bird on the BBC. With the bells came many hugs and kisses, and not just from the people that we knew but from the slightly tipsy well wishers in the bar with us!

After a while in the bar, we went to Shane's friends party. This was a very random affair with lots of happy people that we didn't know. We had a nice time in the disco room before we headed back to Johnny's flat. I didn't know how many shops were open at that time of the night. We stopped in a newsagents at about 2:30 for chocolate, and then it was the long walk back to the flat, and i had on my high heels, and chris wouldnt give me a piggy back! twas shocking. Once back at the flat it was munching and giggling as we tried to play articulate. 5 o clock came and went, and we decided we should sleep!

Sunday morning after a cup of tea in Johnnys flat, Chris, Angela, Fiona and i started walking back to Chris flat, so he could give us a lift home! Guess What? Starbucks was open, woohoo. i've still not had my eggnog latte yet, maybe tomorrow!

Later on in the day i headed to Lenzie to have a steak pie dinner with my gran, my uncle Hamish, my auntie Christine, and the Calders (who are my aunts sisters family, but are no relation to me, as in its my dads brothers wifes sister and family! did u understand that?) The meal was soo good and i was completely stuffed after it! :)

I'm going to leave this blog here, as i will be writing a more random blog at some point in the next few days. The random blog will mull over the important things in life, so watch this space!

Verse for the blog:~ "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 (New International Version) A brilliant 'January' verse i think, well a brilliant verse all year round, but maybe especially at the start of a new year with so many new opportunities and challenges ahead of us! little song for ya now, 'When the road is rough and steep (what d'ya do?) Keep your eyes upon Jesus!'

Schließlich schneit es

2005-12-29T20:06:00.000Z

Yup! finally it is snowing, and what's even better, it seems to be staying around at the moment!

Well, a lot has happened since my last blog, the main thing being Christmas! It was a jolly time going to church, eating a big meal of turkey and all the trimmings, including bread sauce (you have to have bread sauce with turkey!) and then it was the tradition of watching the Queen's speech and all the other Christmas 'junk' on the telly. I love it, it's the one day of the year where i don't feel guilty watching tv and not working. For my Christmas I got presents worthy for any granny! I got a blanket, a dressing gown, socks and slippers. Don't worry i love them all, and actually asked for a blanket, it's brilliant especially now with all the cold snow!

I know that alastair (who's blog you can access from the right!) thinks that the week between Christmas and New Year is a weird time of year, but i love it anyway! In my opinion the main purpose for it is to meet up with lots and lots of friends and family, and once again this year i have not been disappointed. Leftovers at the Forbes on Boxing Day, Dinner with the family at the Golf Club (where i work, which was a little weird!) on the 27th and then yesterday!

Yesterday was a great day, it was another mini camp reunion! I picked angela up at 10ish (big emphasis on the ish!) and we parked the car at Kelvinbridge and got the underground into town to do some shopping. At 12 we met up with Dougie and Stuart (who had come all the way from Edinburgh!) and had lunch. Then we sat about and tried to decide what to do, Loch Lomond was decided and we headed back to the car. However we never got to Loch Lomond, we stopped at Angela's and then my house to laugh, i mean look at camp photos. By the time we left it was too late to go to Loch Lomond so we head to Mugdock Country Park for a walk. A walk round a pond, in the pitch black with ice on the ground, and people jumping out on you and tickling you, maybe not the most sensible of idea, but still great fun. From Mugdock it was time to head into town for some dinner. We went to Pizza Hut and Chris and John joined us. We were in Pizza Hut for almost 3 hours, much pizza was had and much slagging was done! Then it was to the bowling alley, where once again there was more slagging and laughing at people, all in good jest (i hope!)

When we took Stuart back to the station to get the train to Edinburgh, i was trying to park the car really quickly and well reversed into a bin on the pavement, i have no idea how i did not see it. But yes i scratched the side of the car, having looked at it this morning and using TCut (whatever that is!) my dad found that the paintwork isnt actually scratched, but there is a slight dent in the door. It was a very sobering experience, but it could have been much worse, still not an experience that i'd like to repeat!

Today was spent studying, or at least trying to! Then i had a shift at the Golf Club (my hands still smell of beer, yuck!) and thats when it started snowing! Twas quite scary having to drive home in the snow, but i did enjoy it. I didn't go faster than 20 mph all the way home. Now im off to wrap up warm and go for a walk to deliver a Birthday Card!

Stay Warm, Wrap up and have a brilliant Hogmany and New Year! Here's to 2006, may God bless you all richly during the year ahead.

Verse for the Blog:~ "Come now, let us argue this out," says the LORD. "No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can remove it. I can make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you as white as wool. " Isaiah 1:18 (New Living Translation) What an amzing verse, think about it, our sin makes us dark, but God can make us as clean as freshly fallen snow. Pretty cool!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Goodnight! :)

2005-12-24T23:36:00.000Z

So It's Christmas eve and i've just finished my wrapping! im more in the Christmasy mood now! was at a carol service tonight, and then spent some time with some very old friends, the Campbells! Euan is my very oldest friend, he came to visit me in hospital when i was born (he was only 7 weeks old!) so it was great to catch up with all of them!

My little moan, it was going to be a big moan, but it's Christmas! Tights! the price of tights, i bought 3 pair of tights yesterday and they cost me a total of £9.50!!! and and, what is sooo incredibly annoying is that when i was putting on a pair tonight, which cost me £3.50, i put my finger through it! so annoying, but in the great scheme of things its not! and now after my moan, im going to raise my hat to all you scottish guys! I wore my kilt to church tonight, and found that it was an incredibly itchy garment to wear! so to all the guys who wear them on a regular basis, i raise my hat!

Anyways, am off to watch the watchnight service on TV with the rest of the family! Hope you all have a brilliant Christmas day tomorrow!

luv, hugs and blessings in abundance to you all!
Jilli
x tc n Gb x

Verse for the Blog:~ "While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." Luke 2:6-7 (New International Version). This year remember the true meaning of CHRISTmas!

He's Back!!

2005-12-22T23:10:00.000Z

Well, hes been a long time coming, we've all missed him dearly! It just wasnt the same without him, we kept arranging to meet him and he wasnt there! But don't fear he is back from his trip to Edinburgh! Yup Donald Dewar is back in Glasgow. check out http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5047117.html# for the full story!

I have now completed my Christmas Shopping! No more run ins with mad Christmas shoppers. I've spent the last few days socialising and cathing up with some friends! Tuesday i went up (or across to be more accurate!) to East Calder to stay at Cat's house and go to their youth groups Kangaroo Meal (progressive meal, grub crawl etc etc etc). It was great fun and i got to meet lots of people that i had heard of. Wednesday i slept late at Cat's house, and she didnt even wake me up! After lunch we did some uni work, there's always a downside to Christmas Holidays! and then i got the train back to Glasgow to meet Angela 'my partner in Crime and secret keeper'.

I now know the real feeling of being a student as Angela and i sat in The Counting House, counting our money and realising that we didn't have anywhere near enough! So it was a trips out to the Cash Machine for us! We went to see The Family Stone, it was such a good film! One minute you're in absolute hysterics and the next minute you're almost in tears coz its so sad, and then theres those cringe worthy moments where you don't even look at the screen!

Today was last minute shopping and then lunch with Beckie, (another trip from the restaurant to the bank machines!!) we had a good old natter and caught up on everything thats happened since she's been back in Edinburgh for uni! And then after that it was to Starbucks to meet up with Noel, and once again a good natter was had, and we sorted the world out... almost! And then (wow i've been busy!) some of the youth group people from my church were round for a 'Christmas gathering' where there was much hilarity and game playing.

During one of my many natters, i found out that im apparently using this blog all wrong! Im not meant to tell you what i've been up to, but just to talk about stuff, or moan about stuff! So... I'm going to tell you all about my Starbucks experience the past 2 days!
When i go to Starbucks (or Costa, or Beanscene, or Cafe Nero, or Tim Hortons (yay! Timmys!!)) i normally just get a vanilla latte. However as it is the christmas season i thought i'd try one of their Christmas blends! So yesterday i had a Gingerbread Latte, which really surprised me as it tasted exactly the same as gingerbread. Then today i had a Toffee Nut latte, i wasnt too sure about this one as i don't know what a toffee nut is, but it was actually alright! and i quite enjoyed both of them, however i dont think i'll be sad to go back to my normal Vanilla Lattes! Tomorrow i think i'll try the Egnog latte, don't know what egnog is but im up for trying anything!

Verse for the Blog:~ "But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people" Luke 2:10 the angel said this to the Shepherds when they were told about the Birth of Jesus. Did you know that it says 'Don't be afraid' 366 times on the Bible! That's one for every day of the year including leap years! what an awesome promise!

The things that make Christmas's memorable!

2005-12-22T00:21:00.000Z

Many a time a card comes through the door at Christmas and i think to myself, 'that's lovely of them to send us a card, but who on earth are they?!' and then it turns out to be someone that my mum or dad knew at school or from the distant past, who you've never met, or met when you were knee high to a grasshopper and yet they know almost everything about you!

The other good thing is Christmas letters! These come in all shapes and sizes, so far this year we've only had one from 'the dog'. Was reading one today and it was saying how their son (who im thinking is about 15/16) had aquired two guinea pigs ... and his first girlfriend! The poor guy, now everybody and their aunt knows. Hmm, i wonder if thats what my parents do? send out a secret Christmas letter so that all these unknown (to me) people find out whats happening. I may slag off Christmas Letters but i do enjoy reading them and finding out what old friends are up to and seeing the names that have been added (or taken away) from the signings at the bottom of the Christmas Cards.

I shocked my parents tonight by telling them, no asking them, what they would think if i didnt go away with the usual crowd this New Year! They said it was fine, but their faces spoke differently! I'll keep you updated! I'm off to wrap some Christmas Presents before sleeping! :)

Verse for the Blog:~ "They entered the house where the child and his mother, Mary, were, and they fell down before him and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. " Matthew 2:11 (New Living Translation)
Gifts were given on the first Christmas, so remember to give a gift this Christmas! Think of Mary's face having given birth to her son, the Son of God, in a smelly old stable, and then being given these royal gifts! Don't you love the faces of your friends and family as they open a gift and are thankful for it (either that or confused and working out why you gave them it! thats why i always explain the weird gifts that i give!)

7 more sleeps!

2005-12-18T15:29:00.000Z

Time for another post i think! where did i leave off last time...
Wednesday, uni was alraight, our tutor had a big (HUGE) tin of Celebrations! Then there was the carol service, which was great fun. Downstairs was full and i had to sit upstairs because we couldn't find a parking space! so i was looking over the church and could only see 1 other Strathclyde CU person there! but, don't worry there were plenty more sitting at the back! there was a really good turn out by all of the CU's and the Mince pies were very good!

Thursday, em finished my big essay bit for my assignment and my Big task small task bit. yay! Then i wrapped Christmas presents for my gran, then it was more shopping before the CU party! The CU party was very jolly! again lots of music (not all Christmas, anyone else remember 'Five'?) and lots of food (how come Christian parties always have food?! not that im complaining! :) ) ooh there was also the 'Prize Stocking' i won a packet of funny orange sweets! Chatting went on late into the night and early the next day!
By the time i drove home it was 1:30am, and then i sat and wrapped my Secret Santa Present for Friday!

Friday, i handed in my Technology assignment! woohoo! and went to a really really really boring optional maths class. So wished we hadnt gone! But then it was to Pizza Hut to exchange Secret Santa presents with the uni girls! I got a book of card games, a pen, some bath stuff and knee high socks that are stripey black and sparkly purple! (i love knee high socks, especially stripey ones!) Friday night was more Present wrapping (im doing some present wrapping to raise money for the Romania project that im helping the local BB Company with!).

Saturday, Tesco 8 till 12, it was extremely busy, not too many stressed customers tho! Then it was to see Narnia in the cinema with the Post Youth Fellowship group. It was a good film, but i thought it was a bit long and was getting restless! (the Birthday Party of 16 little kids weren't really getting restless but i was!) Saturday night i helped with transport for the Youth Fellowship Christmas night out, and got to go bowling with them! twas great fun! After watching the finals of Strictly Come Dancing and X Factor, i went to another Christmas bash for a bit basically to pick the rest of my family up, but it was fun to catch up with all the people and i got to hold little Gail who's 8 weeks old! whilst i was rocking her, i thought that i would fall asleep quicker than she would!

and Then came Sunday. Twas the sunday school service this morning! and they did great, mainly because i was back stage keeping them right! (well... at least trying to look as thought i knew what i was meant to be doing!) they're all gr8 kids and they didnt need me at all!

so hope u're all ready for Christmas, im not! early mornings this week for shopping in Glasgow me thinks!

Verse for this blog:~ "I came so they might have life, a great full life. " John 10:10 (New Life Version) Enjoy the Festive season whilst you can!

So, its 12 days to Christmas and my true love gave me nothing!

2005-12-14T00:12:00.000Z

So its Tuesday a total of 2 days since i last blogged! I can see myself being a very regular blogger, but don't really want to bore you all (all em, 2 of you maybe!) with my silly ramblings!

Well, it is 12 days to Christmas, and i did put my true love gave me nothing, but (big deep theology alert!) to be honest, since my true love is Jesus, then he gave me everything! wow, that certainly beats a partridge and a pear tree! and as the great song says:~"What's a Partridge? What's a Pear tree? I don't know so please don't ask me, but i can be those are terrible gifts to get!"

So to my day today, classes were alright at uni. I helped hand out mince pies and leaflets with the JHill CU. The leaflets werer for the Carol Service, Wednesday 14th Decemeber 2005, Tron Church on Buchanan Street at 7pm, free mince pies and hot chocolate! Singing by fairy light, instead of candlelight (afterall this is the 21st centuary!) hope to see you there!! :)

The lecture i had this afternoon was about asylum seekers and refugees, and it was sooo interesting! you know how in Britain we put electronic tagging on criminals, mainly sex offenders and murders, well did you know that there are 75 asylum seekers in Scotland that have electronic tags simply because they applied for refugee status. It's not fair, why should they be treated in that way? they are first and foremost people, human beings!

Im in the mood for a moan, traffic! argh! well not really, but it was rather annoying that it took me over an hour to get from Jordanhill into the centre of town, when it's normally about 20 mins! there was an accident on the M8 and the Expressway was blocked!

Away from the moaning, Christmas shopping was followed by a 'gathering' at Alison and Louise's flat (it's Katie's flat too, but she wasnt there!) where we sat and chatted on listened to ooh so much Christmas Music and ate ooh so much food!

ok, so here are my counts for the day:~
stalling the car= 5
seeing foxes on the way home=4
cups of tea=2 so far and one to come!
Number of Sudoku puzzles=2
Words for assignment to be handed in on Friday=0

And so to bed...

Verse for the Blog:~"It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones." Psalm 127:2 (NLT version) theres a verse for all those students out there who are desperately trying to finish assignments before Christmas! so 2moro night for you're rest, come to the carol service! :)

So yeah, how did this happen?

2005-12-11T15:46:00.000Z

I always wondered if i should start a blog... and now i have (only because i was tricked into it, i couldnt make a comment on someone elses blog unless i joined!)

I shall start off with how today has gone! i didn't get in until 4am this morning, because i was helping at the Strathclyde Christian Union Toastie Bar. It was great fun, and a really practical way to show God's love. I then got 5 hours sleep before getting up and going to Finlay Memorial for church. Karen had invited me to meet her parents, which i did! Then i came home, and right now i should be doing my technology assignment, but the magnetic force on my computer has dragged me here once again!

Hope you'all are having a great day, and here's to the beginning of a long happy life of blogging!

Verse for the blog: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9