Recent Reflections

This weekend I took a brief visit back to Bournemouth, leaving London for a couple of days to visit the family and attend my friend's engagement party. I wouldn't normally head back so early into term, but it was a lovely opportunity to hang out with the mother and sister, and visit the coast. On Saturday we drove east to a local little market town called Lymington, and poked around in the stalls and shops. I bagged a bargain, and picked up a Hilary Mantel book for just a pound! and bought some beautiful prints of Dorset to remind me of home whilst at Uni.

Saturday evening was spent with friends celebrating the engagement of one of my oldest friends and her new fiancée  There was lots of pizza making, cake and charades. Very, very fun, and great to be together with people that aren't often in the same place at once.

Before I had to dash back to the City though, there was time for a quick trip over Hengistbury Head. Still one of my favourite places, with it's view over Bournemouth and Christchurch, the choppy sea, and the rows of beach huts. It is one of the things I miss most about living in East London where wide open spaces are hard to come by, and are inevitably surrounded by offices and ugly high-rise housing. 

Hengistbury Head, Bournemouth

I was fortunate enough to make a coach that got me back to London in time for church, which was just exceptional this week. The preach was all about stories - how our lives are stories, and yet we're invited to live a bigger story, a more exciting adventure, by becoming characters in God's story, in the great story of all the earth. Anything to do with literature is obviously going to get me from the start, but it was just the most beautiful look at the invitation God gives to his people to live as part of something that is so much bigger than any one individual. We were looking at a passage in the Gospels where Jesus calls the disciples, and I was blown away that he didn't offer them safety, or worldly security, but he did promise them adventure through a relationship with Him. 

The evening was finished off with some student training on working out what you want to do in life. Always helpful, and always needed. As a result, some friends and I grabbed some wine, some chocolate and our notebooks and went and chatted and dreamt about the lives we want to live. It was the best end to a lovely weekend. 

Wine and chocolate to inspire dreaming

And yet there was some incredibly sad news I heard over the past couple of days too. Not directly affecting me, but someone I'm very close to. And in amongst all my reflections on life, I've been faced with the unexpected, by the fact that life is not infinite, at least not in this world. And neither are we masters of it. 

In the face of all that, a quote from Lord of the Rings which was referenced in church on Sunday, has stuck with me. Our stories are always going to involve conflict, they would be very dull tales if they didn't, and yet in the face of conflict, there is hope; a promise of grace. 

“I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself! Is everything sad going to come untrue?” Samwise Gamgee speaking to Gandalf.

January. Ew.

It's getting towards the end of January, and though I've been doing rather a lot of writing, it has unfortunately not been for my blog. Woops. So I'm back. Feeling a little guilty. Please forgive me. 

Christmas and holidays feel like an ancient memory, what with being in the depths of the new year, full of ice and snow and slush, however, they were quite exciting - one of my oldest friends got engaged (yes, I have apparently become that old!!) and I got to spend lots of time running around the countryside with the family. 

My return to London was somewhat hindered by being unbearably ill, and suffering from the flu, which was an unwelcome start to term, but did allow me to watch an unnecessary number of Harry Potter films. I also had a number of evil deadlines that crept out of the woodwork and were a bit of a shock to the system. 

Still, it's been a good couple of weeks, with a couple of nights of dancing, baking, and a visit from friends to see the new Les Mis film, which, might I add, is wonderful. Take tissues. 

Highlights include a night of cocktails and boogying at The Foundation Bar in Covent Garden (a friend has just started organising events, and this was the first, which was huge amounts of fun!) and then an electro-swing night at The Book Club in Shoreditch, which is the home of hipsters and all things fun. I had a cocktail that involved lots of elderflower syrup. Om nom nom. 

Anyhow, here are some photos from the start of the year, and I promise to endeavour to write more often. 

(Last night I went to a writing workshop, and despite my busy schedule, I would love writing to be a bigger part of 2013 than 2012, and blogging seems to be a good way to do that.)

New Years Eve

Bournemouth on New Years Day

Sunset

House friends

Kahaila, a favourite coffee shop on Brick Lane.
Time with two of my best friends.

Electro-swing night at The Book Club

Snowy Street

Brunch at The Breakfast Club

Writing Workshop and Walk Along the Southbank.

Keep warm amigos, love xx

The High Life

Yesterday I met up with an old friend for a bit of a catch up, and to walk his dalmatian. Obviously. 

Being the shortest day of the year and all, it was getting dark rather early so we decided to give our usual Purbecks trip a miss, and go local, rather than braving the hills and the rain. Unfortunately, we made a bit of a mistake (possibly my bad choices) and went for a wander in some local fields that surround the river Stour.  Needless to say everything was a bit muddy, and by the time my boots were sunk, we decided it was time to abandon ship, and so headed to the beach which was much less squelchy. 

Throop Mill

Squelchy Fields

Charlie the Dalmation

Flooding River

 We topped the evening off with an incredibly civilised dinner (made entirely from the reduced section of Tesco) including Crab Salad, Coffee Martinis and Ben and Jerry's

Crab and Salad. Om nom nom.

Coffee Martinis. Oh yes.

New Festive Flavours!

I can wholeheartedly recommend. 

All in all a very fun, very Christmassy day.

PS - This is my new favourite website - it recommends drinks based on your music choices! I can't think why I didn't come up with such an idea. It's called Drinkify. 

Truth for the Shortest Day of the Year

None upon Earth I Desire Beside Thee

How tedious and tasteless the hours,

When Jesus no longer I see!

Sweet prospects, sweet birds, and sweet flow’rs,

Have lost all their sweetness to me.

The mid-summer sun shines but dim,

The fields strive in vain to look gay;

But when I am happy in Him,

December’s as pleasant as May.

His name yields the richest perfume,

And sweeter than music His voice;

His presence disperses my gloom,

And makes all within me rejoice:

I should, were He always thus nigh,

Have nothing to wish or to fear;

No mortal so happy as I,

My summer would last all the year.

Content with beholding His face,

My all to His pleasure resigned,

No changes of season or place

Would make any change in my mind.

While blessed with a sense of His love,

A palace a toy would appear;

And prisons would palaces prove,

If Jesus would dwell with me there.

Dear Lord, if indeed I am Thine,

If Thou art my sun and my song;

Say, why do I languish and pine,

And why are my winters so long?

O drive these dark clouds from my sky,

Thy soul-cheering presence restore;

Or take me unto Thee on high,

Where winter and clouds are no more.

Christmas Festivities

The past few weeks have been a blur of essays, reading, notes, scraps of paper and slightly stressful trips to the library, so needless to say, I have been more than a little bit thrilled that Uni is finished for first term, and I have nothing but Christmas plans for the next few weeks.

I have returned to Bournemouth, and the joys of the South Coast, but so far it's only rained, and with my family at work and school and most of my friends from home still away, today has been a little dull. Still, Christmas films and mulled wine will be occurring this evening, so I definitely can't complain. 

The past weekend was full of Christmas excitement, firstly with a trip to the cinema to see The Hobbit, which I can safely say I have been waiting for, for probably close to ten years. It was a bit of a childhood dream, and as such I think I need to go see it again. It was full of quotes from the book, and there was an abundance of dwarves, so it was definitely an evening well spent. We also attempted to behave like dwarves in the toilets...

Dwarfish Friends

Saturday saw an early Christmas day with my housemates, with a trip to Borough Market to educate one of my friends on the joys of running around trying all the delicious, but expensive food for free. Being a week and a half before Christmas, the market was at it's best, but also it's busiest so we had to elbow our way through crowds to try Christmas pudding, and all the cheeses and olive oils you could ever want. Totally worth it though. We even popped into Southwark Cathedral which was looking especially beautiful with all of the decorations, including some foliage around a statue of Shakespeare. Go check it out. 

Housemates round the Tree

In the evening we made about a hundred biscuits, prior to cooking the best roast dinner in existence. With chicken stuffed with lemons and fresh rosemary, potatoes cooked with garlic, flour and sea salt, and real stuffing, we were all incredibly proud of our cooking accomplishments. We even had a guest, so we managed to get an actual photo of all of us ready to stuff our faces! 

Hungry for a Feast

We finished the evening off with biscuit decorating and Miracle on 34th Street, the perfect end to a very festive day. As a house, we're all rather busy and so often don't see very much of one another, so it felt like quite a treat to spend a whole weekend together. Sunday morning I had a friend over for brunch, and then we took a long walk around Victoria Park in an attempt to deal with our cravings for countryside. It wasn't quite the same, but still impressive. 

Victoria Park and The City

The weekend was topped off with not only a bit of Harry Potter, but an amazing Carol service at church. Over 1,000 people went to the two carol services, and Christchurch pulled off an incredible evening. I was proud to be part of it all. 

Choir and Band, with some fake snow too.

With so much going on I wasn't too prepared for an evening of interfaith workshops and discussion on Monday night, but it turned out to be a great evening of catching up with people I met in September, and discovering more about what people think. We finished the evening with a rather heated three person rant about feminism on the tube on the way home. I fear we might have been filmed. We probably were a bit of a sight. 

Tonight I'm looking forward to relaxing with some old friends. 

As much as I like time to chill out, I definitely need lots of sociable time, and a day of watching Homeland by myself was possibly not the most productive use of my time. 

I shall update you on more Christmas happenings soon! Much love x

Friends and Things

Considering some of my oldest, bestest friends now live in London, we still don't see each other enough for my liking. My wonderful friend Sarah came and hung out for the evening tonight though. She's a bit beautiful. I rustled up some fajitas, she brought pudding and we scoffed food and watched Love Never Dies. There was a lot of banter. 

I'm a bit of a people person, and the friends I have from school, are some of my favourite people in the world. We've survived most of them doing degrees, moving towns and houses, and more recently getting pregnant and things, but it still saddens me that we don't all live in the same place and spend every day together. Don't get me wrong, we're all stubborn enough that I think we'd kill each other surprisingly quickly if we lived together, but I miss seeing their faces and laughing hysterically at absolutely nothing. 

 Some of them are meeting up this weekend but I'm in Kent so can't go so I am excited about Christmas and seeing them all together, in the same place at the same time. It has been TOO LONG. This C.S. Lewis quote always makes me think of them. Our friendship is based on mutual geekiness, a love of all things strange, and a willingness to let-the-crazy-out. I love them a lot.

Rain, Rain Go Away

This past week my wonderful american friend has been visiting London, so lots of time this weekend was spent grabbing a couple of hours with her, whilst balancing work and other things. 

Saturday was a great day. I spent a really chilled morning hanging out at home, organising (one of my favourite things) and sorting things out. Then headed over to The National Gallery to do some work. Now, possibly not the best place to visit on a rainy Saturday afternoon when you can't move for tourists, and the floor is so wet from the torrential rain that you fear falling over and breaking your head on marble, but definitely worth a trip. 

The National Gallery is a bit of a favourite place, possibly because it's based in Trafalgar Square, possibly because there is the most amazing view across the square, Nelson's column, and Parliament, all in perfect line of sight. Oh, and because the art is amazing. Saturday I spent time focussing on the Impressionist rooms, as I've got to write an essay relating them to DH Lawrence...as you do. Still, I was rather impressed, some of the paintings were astoundingly beautiful, and not what I was expecting at all. My housemates and I bought some postcards then retired to a coffee shop to do some reading, some writing, and thoroughly bask in the feeling of being cultured Londoners. Sort of. 

Trafalgar Square in the rain.

This weekend also saw the opening of Winter Wonderland, the epic, glittery fair and market that sprawls over Hyde Park for about six weeks around Christmas. It may have been November, it may have been a stormy night, and we may have somehow managed to get lost, and forget to take cash with us, but we had a great time. It was SO festive. I mean, I love Christmas, so I'm a little biased, but the lights, and the smells of mulled wine and roasted chestnuts was all a little wonderful. I shall be going again, mainly because I'm desperate to check out the Feris wheel. Yes, I am a big child. 

Winter Wonderland Festivities

Feris Wheel!

Sunday I was back at Christchurch, after being in Bournemouth last weekend. It's crazy how much I miss church when I'm not there, and so it was great to catch up with people and get to spend time with Jesus. That's really been the highlight of this weekend. 

Today it is once again...raining. I feel like we should all evolve to have flippers and fins at this rate, but still, a Lindt advent calendar arrived in the post(!!!!!!!!) and I don't have lectures today, so my main jobs involves reading Virginia Woolf for tomorrow. Oh the delights of an English student. So instead of procrastination, I should probably return to her. Not a particularly exciting prospect, I must confess. I shall keep you posted. 

Much love amigos. x