28:18

I've had a good time this last week.
The youth work (which I went to in the evenings) was generally good, as were the morning seminars and especially the worship. It always amazes me how you don't realise that actually you really need a whole 'God week', so to speak, until you get there.
There were some not-so-brilliant parts, but then there always are. We had a Kiwi lady called Cindy who led worship often, and which was very different! She was good once you got used to her style, though.
It was fun to catch up with everyone as well; whole afternoons of wandering around being bored :) There were late night bonfires for the youth which was very fun one night, the other nights we got there too late so were about half a mile away from the fire!
Also nice to see the Clarkes again - sorry about the soft toys Sarah!!!
I'm not going to write loads now because I've had a headache all day so don't want to spend ages at the computer, and because I need to sort stuff out since we're going away again to Cornwall tomorrow. I also need to write book reviews for Henry Box which I haven't done yet, actually have only read one book list book so far, so that needs doing!
Hopefully I'll be able to post while we're away and keep in touch with everyone. Y11s please let me know how results are! How scary will that be?!
Anyway, have to go turn over our awning now, we're trying to dry it out!
xxx

1066 Country

Hooray! The internet works properly on Dad's laptop!! Now I can reach civilisation from the farthest reaches of the earth :D
We've had a really nice few days holiday here, mainly looking at the history, etc.We're camping about 10 miles from Battle, which is where the Battle of Hastings took place. Imaginative name, isn't it?!
Anyway, we went and looked round the site which was fun, and you get these audio phone sets which take you round. You can choose your perspective - either Harold Godwinnson's wife (who you wouldn't think knew much really, and who didn't seem to on the tape either!), or a Saxon peasant knight (who died in the battle...hmm...talking from heaven?), or a Norman knight. Who was the only one with anything decent to say, even if his French accent sounded more Irish than anything else!
Yesterday we went to Dover Castle, which I found very interesting. There's an audio visual 'Castle Under Siege' thing about Henry II, a 'Preparation for the King' thing about Henry VIII and some Secret Wartime Tunnels, used in WWII, where they masterminded the whole Dunkirk rescue and had the biggest switchboard thing in the country. So that was fun! Only I couldn't help noticing that our tour guide for the tunnels looked extremely bored, and when there was a recording playing he was reciting it word for word - it was quite amusing!
We also found an amusement arcade which Benj decided he loved and kept on dragging us back to again and again. It has 2p machines which have those little ornaments but on this one they do actually fall off with the 2ps, so it was good. Oh, and Dad managed to get a whole zoo out of the boxes things (Thomases - remember the one in Looe? It was like that!). It was fun, but now we have a million soft toys just hanging around the van!
Anyway I should probably go have breakfast because we're moving on the Ashburnham (sp?) today, for 28:18. Dad has a team meeting today so we're going a day early - that's good though, because we can choose a nice pitch!
And I'll see people again on Saturday! Hooray!

Summer Swinging Along!

Well, have had a nice couple of days here!
Yesterday I didn't do anything except learn to play my really cool wind instrument I bought in China. I don't know what it's called! I could post a picture actually, but I can't be bothered at present, so it might come later.
Talking of cameras (well almost talking of cameras), we got a new camera yesterday! It's a newer version of our older one, which had broken, and (this is the really funky part) it came free with one of those printers which you place the camera on then you get a photo straight away! How cool is that?!
So today there was church; I was on creche which is always good fun. And today, major achievement, I managed to feed Naomi Townsend without getting food everywhere! She wasn't even wearing a bib, either! Seriously, for me that is a very big deal; it's hard enough me trying to keep myself clean when I eat let alone me trying to keep babies clean :)
After church I went round to Steve Hipwell's house for a barbecue - it had been meant as a 'meet the new church leadership team' lunch but no one could make it, so Steve just invited his friends instead. It was cool because my friend Lizzie got to come along, and she only knew me before so it was nice for her to get to meet other Oxford folk as well. She's only been coming to OCC for a short while, so doesn't know many people yet. And I found out today that when she was younger (she used to live at Eton because her dad taught Physics) she managed to shove Prince William out of her way at their 4th June regata thingy, push Prince Harry into a gungy thing for a charity event, AND she used to do ballet with Princess Beatrice who she said was horrible and they used to fight each week. Pretty impressive record!
Oh, and really random point here, the Hipwells had this absolutely gorgeous toffee and pecan roulard, it was soooo nice! But probably so bad for me. O well.
Anyway, after that I had to come home and pack because we're going off on holiday somewhere random tomorrow - I think it's Sussex but I could be wrong. Have just managed to persuade Dad that I really do need the amount of clothes I've put in the van!
But after that we're off to 28:18, our church camp this year, and yes I do agree the title's stupid! So probably no blogging from me for another couple of weeks - have a fun summer everyone!!

Benj is Back!

After years of not being bothered, my brother Benj has set up a new blog - you can look at it here. He assures me it's not finished yet, so we'll call it a work in progress!
Other news - went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory yesterday, mainly just so that I could meet up with friends I hadn't seen in while (well OK, 3 weeks, but it felt like years (miss you already Harri!)), but I was actually really surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Johnny Depp is as usual fantastic, and Freddie Highmore who plays Charlie is also brilliant as usual. I feel sorry for the one guy who had to play all of the Oompa-Loompas though!
Also went back into Oxford today to buy presents for the Gills and Andy Armitage who led our China trip. We were going to get Tim Gill a joke book, as in China he and Andy both regaled us with millions of puns and 'I got a new job today' jokes - know the ones? But anyway, in the end we got him a 'Practical jokes on her' kit because he's always so mean to Barb! For whom, incidentally, we bought a Chinese cookery book. We bought Andy a book on Extreme Ironing, just for the sake of it and because it seems like the sort of thing he'd like, but seriously it's so weird! Really funny, but really weird.
I'm absolutely shattered today because my body clock got merged somewhere to half Chinese-half English time, which means I'm waking up at 5 each day and falling asleep at about 9. Hmm. Our house is really boring at 5am, I can't make any noise so there's nothing to do!
Anyway, I'm going to get off the computer now so that Benj can fiddle round on his blog a bit more :)

Home Sweet Home

I came home to a piece of toast with Marmite :)
My time in China has been absolutely amazing!
I don't think I can possibly recount all that has happened on here - or at least, if I did it would take so long that no one would be reading by the end, so there's absolutely no point.
I shall, therefore, recap some of the highlights of my trip, and shall hopefully stay succinct enough to keep interests:
First of all we travelled to Xi'an, a humongous city quite a long way from Beijing (I'm afraid that's all I know on the Geography front!). We arrived on the Tuesday evening and on Wednesday Dave and Susie Bickford (friends working in China) gave us 'culture and orientation' lessons, just so that we knew what we were up against!
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday mornings we ran a summer school for about 20 Chinese students, most aging 12 to 16. Each of us students (we were called 'Oxford teachers' - how cool is that?) had 3 Chinese students in a little group with whom we did activities and talked, to improve their English. All of the students had English names which they'd chosen themselves, because that was easier than us trying to say their Chinese names correctly. The best names were a couple of girls called Mickey after Mickey Mouse, Candy, Snowy, David Beckham, two Magic Johnsons and my personal favourite, Lorry. He was a really nice guy and probably the student we got closest to, but it was funny because we all thought his name was Laurie until half way through the week!
In the afternoons the students would come round to our rooms and we'd play games and things, just so that they had to speak more English. We taught them Uno, which was interesting, but they all loved it in the end!
We also wondered round Xi'an in the afternoons, went shopping etc, and did the same in the evenings, usually until 10 or 11ish. We'd then sit and chat for about an hour and a half, so we only had about 6 hours sleep each night, but we didn't get that tired - well I didn't anyway!
We spent a lot of time with other Westerners who were working out there, namely Steve Onn, an English student; Natalie, an Irish girl planning to go into childcare; and Shannon, an American doing the same thing. It got quite confusing with two Steves out there, which is why we had to use both surnames the whole time!
We also visited the Terracotta Warriors, which are amazing, and an orphanage run by Christians. It's just devastating to see so many children who have been rejected or abandoned, because of their sex or because they weren't deemed good enough. Lots of the children had cleft palates, which is so easily and cheaply reversible, and it breaks my heart to think that they can be so unwanted because of such a small and fixable problem. Barb Gill, who was one of our leaders, is a nurse so got to go into their dying room. She said that the worst thing was there was no reason for most of them to be dying.
After we'd been in Xi'an we travelled to Beijing on the sleeper train. That was really fun. All us students had a good chance to talk over everything, including how well we were getting on, so I think people were better friends after that! We got bored at one point and someone had turned most of the lights off, so Amy and I were making up an absolutely terrible, completely unfreaky ghost story which was scaring the heck out of Hannah because we kept grabbing her foot at random points. But then we got to the culmination of our story and both jumped up screaming simultaneously, which was hilarious because Hannah, Steve and D all jumped about a mile and looked really freaked :D We hadn't thought we'd scare anyone, we were just taking the mick, which was the funniest part.
In Beijing we toured all the famous attractions and did other touristy things as well. It was all really fun, and we had a really nice guide called David, but we were on the go the whole time and it was vaguely annoying because we had to do what the company said the whole time. I think perhaps my main problem was embarrassment as we had to follow a blue flag around, since I always mock that sort of tour group, but there we go! Everywhere was so beautiful, it was amazing; we just did quite a lot of walking, especially in humid, 40 degrees heat!
I honestly did have an amazing time and really enjoy myself, and hopefully we managed to make a small difference to some people's lives as well. We visited a slum area and it's incredible to realise once again just how much I have and how privileged I really am. I'm so grateful that I had this opportunity and I really want to go back again now! Maybe I'll join a future team as a leader, that would be fun! I'd like to learn Chinese as well now, I have about twenty phrases in my vocabulary, including, most bizarrely, the Chinese for watchamacallit :)