You Are A Lady! Not Toad of Toad Hall!

Friends!
As you'll note from the blog title, I am thoroughly enjoying Downton Abbey as mentioned last week. Maggie Smith is a flipping genius, I heart her character so much haha. 
This week has been a strange one, I can't believe a week has gone by already. I started working part time for KHPR this week, it's been good to have things to do for most of the day, I've done lots of phoning around and typing up meeting notes and all that jazz. We went to a meeting on Wednesday and the people had their dogs just milling about in the office. It was rad.

Now before you get too deep into this post I must issue a warning - my phone is useless and sadly will not allow me to send some of the hilarious pictures I have taken for this week's post. So I'm afraid this week's offering is rather text-heavy. I hope your imaginations will suffice. 

Anyhoo, this weekend I'm off to my dad's with the boy - we're teaming up to watch the first episodes of Strictly. Not that I'm a slave to tv or anything. My dad has a pool at his house. Yes, an actual pool. A hole in the ground full of water. It's pretty exciting, although I've never actually been in it. Because it's such incredible ridiculous weather, I anticipate some pool-action later haha. They have two dogs too, and one of them got over-excited and jumped in once, but then was really overwhelmed about its decision and didn't know what to do with itself, just flapping about in the water.

Oh my days, I was just listening to some Rhianna (lol) while I was writing this and she was getting very distracting, shouting about being the only girl in the world. Goodness me, her voice is terribly grating at times. She's off now, back in your box Rhian. 

ONE. 
Number one this week is the mighty Pin. She has been such a character this week. Sadly I have been unable to take many pictures of her caught in the act of her cheeky ways but yesterday she was running about, getting all upset about the lack of water in her bowl. I washed the bowl out, made it all nice, ran the tap to make the water nice and cold and then she just sniffed it and went away. I found her upstairs drinking from the toilet. And then when I removed her, I found her moments later drinking from the taps. She is incorrigible. But look at her little face, who can deny that she is a king. 

TWO.
I mentioned last week that I was starting to read a book called The State of Africa - I'm not that far into it yet but oh my days, it is so good. It's a history of independence and it's so so interesting. I don't really know that much about the colonies and carving up of Africa and having been to Zim twice, it's fascinating to read about how they got to where they are now. It's quite statistic-heavy in places which I always find hard to get my head around properly, to understand the implications of the numbers and there are a lot of names of different leaders to try to remember but it's really enjoyable so far. Everyone should read it. 

Look here. You could buy it.

THREE.
Now I wasn't quite sure how to include this but I have decided it has to have its own little section because it's something that I think will be cheering. My great mate Katie is in America at the moment, pretending to be an American, but we're actually hearing now that her British accent is giving her away somewhat. Also, the total lack of proper chocolate and X Factor is proving to be rather more of an issue than she had previously anticipated. So this is a little section for her to say HELLO and WE MISS YOU and we can't wait to see you again when you come home. And we think you should just come home right now and we can all win the lottery and buy a big house and all live in it together and watch Downton Abbey every day and eat loads of crisps and dip. Don't be sad, everything will work out just hunky-dory. And here's a very old, funny picture for you to enjoy and reminisce over. 

FOUR.
The Onion is one of my favouritest websites ever. It is super hilarious and cutting and satirical and lol-worthy. I spent most of yesterday afternoon reading through all the hilarious short news stories. Here are a few for your enjoyment. 
Otherwise Savvy Woman Duped By Mascara Makers Again
Bill Gates Spends $56 Million On Amazon In One Night
New Apple CEO Tim Cook: "I'm Thinking Printers"
Family Requests Privacy During This Unbelievably Awesome Time


FIVE. 
And finally. WE GOT TICKETS TO SEE BRAND NEW. 
That is all. 
Enjoy them.

Friends Made Of Fruit #2

Aloha!
How are we all at this end of this week?  I trust everyone is high on life. I have had a mental week; I can hardly believe I'm attempting this blog post, my brain is so addled with fatigue. 
I spent the week getting up at 6.30am, working 7-12 at the cafe, then childminding three under-5s from 2-7. I'm surprised I'm not dead. 
Did anyone know that small children are a total nightmare? I mean like...individually, they are wonderful but all together....there are no words. They also think things that aren't funny are funny for ages. 
"the other day, she laughed for, like, an hour, at a cup"

Anyway, the week's over and I'm excited for the weekend. I'm spending all of tomorrow with my friends JJ and Jess and then seeing my uni housemates on Sunday in Reading. I am SO looking forward to seeing everyone.

BUT NOW......ON WITH THE SHOW. 

ONE. 
Number One is currently Number One in my life (besides Jesus, who is closely followed by Matt). It is something which I have been waiting on for months, pining, fondly reminiscing with myself over good times spent together, wistfully gazing into the future wondering what time has in store for us. 
I am, of course, referring to the return of the wondrous Downton Abbey. 
What a program. WHAT A PROGRAM. In revelation of true snobbery, I am actually super surprised at ITV's ability to produce something that does not involve idiot members of the public or ridiculous animals. The 2nd series is set in World War One, and I'm sensing there may be a great loss of a major character at some point. One episode in, I am delighted at Downton's ability to still be great without being predictable or repetitive. I literally can't get enough. I'm spending all day tomorrow with JJ and Jess watching the entire first series from end to end. There will be duvets and biscuits involved. Bet you're jel. 
Here are some videos of said wonder to entertain you.  You should also definitely watch the Comic Relief version; it's hilare. Ooh I'm getting all emotional watching this promo.
 



TWO. 
Number Two this week is also televisually based. I have spent all my evenings this week watching re-runs of Miranda. I also may have bought the first series on DVD. Y'know, with all the money I've got lying around. 
Miranda is everything that's right with the world. I fully recognise why people don't like it though, as I didn't like it when I first watched it. I was like...'why are you speaking into the camera....why is a tall woman falling over funny?' and then I realised that a tall woman falling over is hilarious. What convinced me of its genius however, is that her mother is my mother. I mean....it's like watching my mother on television. If you have never met my mother but really want to, watch Miranda. Although...my mother isn't that old, or that desperate for me to get married. And she dresses in a disturbingly fashionable manner, unlike Miranda's mother. But in all other respects, they are the same. Watch it now, thank me later.
 


THREE. 
Oh dear, I'm realising too late that most sections this week are about moving images projected from a small box in the corner of my sitting room. Started watching Grey's Anatomy this week. It's flipping ace. I love it, although Meredith's voice is well weird. And she acts kinda weird sometimes. I'm only a few eps in but I've only heard good things about it. I'm excited for watching more. 

FOUR. 
Finished a book this week. I can't remember if I've mentioned it on here before but I'll give you a mini-mini-review anyway. A Week In December by Sebastian Faulks follows seven people over seven days in the week before Christmas 2007. Some of the characters are super predictable and dull (hello disillusioned suicide bomber), and others are super interesting (hello greedy city banker). I love reading books that are heavy on the stream of consciousness as opposed to reams of dialogue or physical descriptions. Because of the range of characters, you get such a broad spectrum of ideologies and opinions and it's so fascinating to think about the way that some people think. There is quite a lot of financial detail in the city banker chapters which I admit did confuse me at times but having learnt a little more about the current economic situation, I was able to understand a little more what was going on. You should read it, I really enjoyed it. Next book: The State of Africa, a non-fiction about...well...Africa. Duh. 


FIVE.
Section Five is dedicated to somebody wonderful. 
Matthew Withers, would you please stand up. 
Thank you for always being yourself, thank you for making me laugh. 
Happy birthday, you are beautiful and I love you. 

Peace out friends, be good. 

Friends Made Of Fruit

Salutations!


This is not a real post.
I am all over the place this week, working at the cafe (they reeled me in again) and childminding for a family at church.


One of the children fell over yesterday and bit its lip. There was blood. I was completely unhelpful and useless and busied myself with pointless tasks to avoid looking at the wound. 


Anyhoo, I'll be back in a few days with a lovely long post with pictures and anecdotes, videos and jokes. I've been watching far too much Miranda this week; my thoughts are starting to sound like her voice. 


Until then, enjoy this picture of me trying to feed Pin with a spoon. 

Working 9-5, What A Way To Make A Living

Friends, countrymen, followers. Apologies for the late post, this past week has been a bit crazed.
Firstly though, I must share some great news with you - I have finally been employed, and by two different people. It's not completely ideal as both jobs are part time so it looks like I still have to stay living at home for a while longer (groan) but it's very exciting to have two new prospects.  Prospect One is working as PR Assistant for KHPR, which sounds very coooool but what it actually means is going with my mother to meetings and making sure she does what she says she'll do, answering the phone at home in my pyjamas, and opening all the post. I'm trying to make her buy an iPad though. For the business. Obviously. Prospect Two is to do with developing some ideas for my church, which I think will be very exciting. So yes, success on the temporary employment front. 


In other news, I watched the final episode of Sex and the City this week, having watched all 6 series in utter bewilderment. I really enjoyed watching it, mainly coz it was so utterly removed from any vague semblance of my life but some aspects of it were very bizarre haha. I cried a lot in the last episode though, it was super emotional. Good job SJP. 


And with that, it's on to this week's Top Five, woooooooo!


ONE. 
Last Thursday, I went with Great Mates Jess and JJ to a pottery painting place in Bath. IT. WAS. AWESOME. 
We got to choose what thing we wanted to paint, there was a little plate on each table to show you what each colour would turn out like, there were books for inspiration, oh my days it was just so so fun. It was also super chilled, we had nice little talks about lots of things but then got onto talking about 9/11 conspiracy theories haha. Also, the one day we choose to go, our old maths teacher just had to be there too. It was awk-ward. But we had very polite chats about university and being unemployed. We're going to go and collect our finished cups today, it's terribly exciting. Here's a picture of them post-painting, pre-firing. Mine's the stripy one. JJ's is on the right, she painted those flowers FREE HAND. She made Jess and me look rubbish haha.

TWO.
This week, I also had the pleasure of returning to Exeter for the first time post-graduation, to have a bit of an explore with my friend Rosie, who is a fresher this year. It was a bit mental, it looks so so different. The whole of campus is being developed which means pretty much everything as I knew it has gone. Apart from the cafe I used to work in, that's still there! and looks the same! Hooray! I'm afraid I didn't take any pictures so you'll just have to use your imaginations. ALSO for any Exeter-goers reading this, the Ram is completely different. Nothing about it is the same. I can't even describe to you how different it is. I was spinning out all over the place. I miss the weird outdoor/indoor vibe. 


THREE. 
On Sunday, Matt and I, plus a whole load of our grown up friends, went to Southampton to film a music video for Luke Leighfield. It was such a fun day and we got to see loads of great people that we hadn't seen for ages, including the wondrous Mr and Dr Price. It was a bit mental for Matt though, he played a soul band gig the night before, drove to Southampton that night, got 3 hours sleep, then got up to set his drums up on the beach HAHA. I just casually rocked up in the afternoon, did my bit, had a load of fun, and went home again. Super fun. Sadly, again, I didn't take any photos but you can go HERE and see the wrap photo. You should defo have a look. 


FOUR.
In keeping with tradition, Do Nothing For Two Minutes is a lovely page upon which I stumbled through StumbleUpon. It's very relaxing. But also, you don't realise how long 2 minutes is when you're sitting in front of your computer not doing anything. 


FIVE.
I realise this has been an incredibly wordy post, I'm sorry. I will try to take more pictures for the next one. Soz friends. I'll finish with two great videos so you don't feel too hard done by. One is the incredible Simon's Cat, literally my favourite videos of all time. And the other is one that my Great Mate Katie showed me, hahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa it is so weird and great. 



Til next time. Be good. 

An African Adventure

Greetings, one and all. 
It's been a right old two weeks! I returned to the Mothership last Friday after 24 hours of travel. The travel was horrid, the trip was not. 
I'm not really sure where to begin. There's almost too much to tell, and you obviously don't want to be bored out of your tiny minds with long paragraphs and lame photos. I will definitely not be including multiple photos of landscapes - what is it with people and their holiday landscape photos? Or photos of stuff with no people in?  That's great for the holidayer to reminisce over. On their computer. Alone. Preferably at night. But I do not care for pictures with no people in. Unless it's of something that is obviously incredible, like a big building or a funny animal. So yes, I will put a whole bunch of pictures up but will limit the landscapes to a mere 2 or 3. Just so you can be like "ooh that's nice" but THAT'S. IT. 


I'm going to stick with the whole Top Five thing, I don't want to unsettle you all with too much change. As usual, these are in no particular order. You'll realise that when you see the last one (oooh, suspense!)


ONE.
The whole point of going to Zim was to run Arise, Shine Zimbabwe! which is a children's conference (sounds lame, but think action songs, running about, team games, veggie tales, craft) at a church in the capital, Harare. It ran from 9-1 each day and in the afternoons we did fun tourist stuff.
ASZ! was run by our team, helped by a whole load of local sunday school leaders. The children were split into two teams for a bit of friendly competition haha. 
It was absolutely brilliant. Exhausting though, and we went to bed at 8.30 every night haha, but it was really really enjoyable. The church in Africa is humbling and inspiring; their faith is stronger than anyone's I've ever met before and I found their emphasis on family spoke volumes to me. They were so grateful to have us, but we were grateful to be received; I was so aware this week of the presence of God - it was incredible. 

Room at the church in which we did the conference

Selection of games in which teams competed against each other

RED. TEAM. 

First morning. 

Prayer hands

Children at Prayer Mountain

Playing ladders!

Team Fwends

TEAM. 

TWO.
We did lots of super fun things in the afternoons after the conference, including going to Snakeworld, the Lion and Cheetah Park, visiting a children's home, going to a craft place, and hanging out at the Timba's house where we stayed. It was bant. 

View from house - landscape number one

They're going to get married one day. 

We're not going to get married, we're just bezzie matezz

Children's Home

Snakeworld

THIS CHEETAH LOOKS THE SAME AS PIN. THEIR FACES ARE THE SAME. FOR A MINUTE I THOUGHT IT WAS PIN AND WAS LIKE "PIN, HOW DID YOU GET HERE?"  

Night view from inside my room. Landscape number two. 

Hanging out in mine and emil-y's room. Joel quizzed us on categories of our choice and we got Dairy Milk as a prize.

THREE. 
After the conference was over, we went to Chengeta Safari Lodge for 2 days, which we did last year. We were supposed to go to Victoria Falls but Air Zimbabwe were on strike. Joel and Emily actually did end up going instead of staying for the 2nd day at Chengeta, but more on that later. We did a game drive and saw loads of giraffes which was SO AMAZING. We saw a buffalo, loads of impala, some zebras!! and we also went to meet the elephants - the same one I rode last year. But we didn't ride them this year. We just looked at them. On the second day we canoed up a dam; the water was INCREDIBLE, totally flat and reflected everything so perfectly. We got out at one point and walked up a dried up river. Team Member Greg decided it'd be fun to swim in a massive rock pool and as he readied himself, he asked our guide if it was safe, to which he responded, "I have no idea, I don't even know how deep it is. There could be crocs". Greg jumped in. 

Entering Chengeta

GAME. DRIVE. 

YES. THAT IS A GIRAFFE. AN ACTUAL GIRAFFE. SMILING FOR THE CAMERA. 

FOUR.
Now, this section is reserved for some very exciting news. The trip as a whole was wonderful, albeit very challenging and very hard work. Not being able to go to Vic Falls was disappointing but I'm super broke so I wasn't too devastated as it would've been quite expensive. Howevs, Joel was pretty keen to take Em to see the Falls so they decided to fly down to SA and fly back up to Vic Falls. Turns out it's because HE WAS GOING TO PROPOSE AND THEY ARE NOW ENGAGED, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Literally the greatest possible ending to the trip and the most exciting thing that has happened to me this year (apart from Sarah and Tom's wedding). It is so so great, I cried when they told me, and I cried later when I heard more detail about the proposal moment haha. Oh my DAYS, it is just the most wonderful and exciting thing. We had five hours to kill at Johannesburg airport so we heard all about it, drank champagne and Em and I bought wedding magazines and read them on the plane, much to Joel and his dad's bemusement haha. 

Stoopid window behind ruined this incredible moment.

FIVE. 
Anything I put now will be a massive anti-climax. All I can really say is that I was so blessed to be able to go back to Zimbabwe, it was absolutely unforgettable, and I hope I am able to go again next year. I also hope I remember every single day how fortunate we are, and learn to trust God the way the Zimbabwean church does. 


Peace out. 

Zimbabwe 1, England 0

YES, the rumours are true, I am back in the country. The mammoth tasks of my post-zim laundry and unpacking have been tackled, and it's now on to finding me some form of employment. 
Watch this space for exciting anecdotes involving huge spiders, an incredibly amusing African pastor, one great team leader and Matipa, the funniest child of all time, who behaved like an old woman and had a laugh that no words can describe. 


And I suppose I could share some photos too. Here's one to keep you going.

Keep those beady eyes peeled.