july you have crept up on me.

Since when was it July?! oh my word its crazy how time flies..and a little bit scary..actually ALOT scary..only 3 more weeks left of my work with Gillingham Youth For Christ..oh my word. And as much as I'm looking forward to Greece I don't want to wish my time here away in order for my holiday to get here sooner...So many things Im looking forward to this month. And so many I'm not. But I think the looking forward to's outweigh the rest.



These things I am looking forward to:

End of Year Bash. which is for all the YFC volunteers in London. 3 days of livin' the dream in the capital city. Hopefully we'll do some exploring, culture, and just general hanging out with nice people. There's a themed night one of the nights..Westend..and weve got to dress formal..might need to save my pennies and go shopping for something nice.

Camden Market. I haven't scheduled it in but it IS GOING TO happen. I cannot leave England having not done possibly the coolest thing in Britain. So many vintage stalls, up and coming fashion designers and loads of culture and different ethnicities. AMAZING. i must put it in my diary soon. MUST.

Westend Theatre Trip. Hopefully we'll be taking some of our girlies from drop in to a westend theatre production of 'Wicked' in a theatre in London just outside Victoria Staion. I hope we can do it. I really want to see a show and I know the girls would love it.

The huge Number of Drop ins that are stretched before me. I do 4 a week in the evenings and LOVE every one of them. The older kids are truly something else and I love them so much. I'm going to make the most of it while I can.

My long weekend. This starts tomorrow and I have no idea how I'm going to spend it. Im thinking maybe London. Or Camden. I dont know but I want to use the small number of pennies I have to go and do something exciting.

My host mums birthday. Which is this Saturday. She's turning 30 and is having a themed party 'Underground theme' so you have to go dressed up creatively as one of the names of the London Underground. I'm still undecided as to what Im going to go as. Olympia maybe? And make a toga out of a sheet. Then Sunday we're going to have lunch at a posh restaurant in London near London Bridge. Ooh La La it should be nice.

Greece. Me and Bee are going to a Greek Island called Corfu on July the 27th. Even though our flight is ridiculously early it will be amazing. 7 days of sun and sea and culture. I cannot wait.

Alpha away weekend. We're doing youth alpha at the moment with some of the kids from our evening drop ins and I love it. They're a bunch of rascals and are so noisy but God is totally working on them. So we're gunna do an away day where we just have fun with them, play games and do some intense sessions on what Jesus has done for them. It will be epic.



This is what my July holds. and I know it will hold so much more aswell. Amazing. Cannot wait to see how it all unfolds.

today yesterday and everything in between.

So one good thing about my host family being away is that I can blowdry my hair at any time of the day or night and not worry about waking them...Now this may seem like a small pleasure to you but to me this is a treat.
And I'm taking full advantage of having baths at 1 in the morning and tidying my room and the house at crazy times..No need to be quiet because no one is home apart from me. The silence is weird though. No 3 year old alfie tearing around the house begging me to play with him or making me watch silly kids television programs (which secretly are quite entertaining). Its been nice being home alone just chilling and doing whatever the heck I want but it will be nice having a populated house again on Thursday...And Ive totally scored in the cooking department..literally have only cooked for myself less than half the nights that theyve been away..oh my! Ive been invited round to peoples for dinner and everything..amazing what pity does for people lol

Today has been such a wonderful day..Like really nice..First of all the weather was amazing!! like so hot..(sorry to all you new zealanders who are having the coldest winter in all records)..
We played football down at the cage in a community with some of the kids that come to our drop ins and live there...and seeing as Dave (our resident football fanatic) was out of action due to a sore shoulder I was encouraged to step up and make my football skills known..or not..theres me with all these young people who play football every day of their lives..All I could do was run after them and occasionally put the odd elbow in to let me get the ball..haha And then there was the issue of me being goalie..let me just tell you a quick story from the last time i was a goalie in football back at school..I literally stood there and cried until half time in goal coz I didnt want to do it..and that was in year 13..oh the shame.. so today I braved my fear and had footballs hurtling at me at all kinds of speed.. literally I have purple bruises all over my legs from using my body to get in the way of the goal..and my knee is seriously got a dent in it..oh my word. But it was so fun and so good to be doing something that the kids love and making an effort.

Then round to Dave and Lauries for dinner..while Dave cooked, me and Laurie did a clubland workout video (after we jibbed off going to the gym coz it was too hot)..This was hilarious..all manner of tight outfits on the video and gyrating to trance music..too funny and we just collapsed in giggles on the floor..I dont know how much toning it did for us..haha And I got introduced to the UK series 'the inbetweeners'..seriously amazing..just so cringy about these kids who are trying to become popular in a high school and its just so funny and awkard in so many places..amazing..the only setback is the swearing and one guy who is literally just so full of hormones and goes after anything that walks haha check it out. funny.

Today has just been lovely. work. friends. football. love it.

oh james.

One of the opening acts. A band from Australia. The bow on her head was epic.

encore.

his amazing band.

beautiful.

It was amazing. truly.

Vagabond was an opening act. too cool.

tambourine time.

Kirsty and me. It rained.

these few days.

The past week my attitude has been awful. Complaining all the time, being distant from the kids, just not really caring. And I hated it. I dont want my last 4 weeks at work to be like that. 4 weeks is such a long time and I can totally make a difference in that time, get to know the kids even better and just love them even more. I realised on Friday it was because I think subconciously I know that I'm leaving soon and I know how hard it will be so I think itll just be easier to detach now. But I so dont want that. Because I want to leave the kids with an even better relationship than a few weeks ago. I love them all and I wanna put all my effort into being there for them, getting to know them more and just serving God with all I can. After some much needed Jesus time I realised that right now I need to live for the here and now, not think about coming home, but seeing each day as a new opportunity and making the most of it. And not relying on my own strength but totally relying on God. I'm still learning and growing.
These next weeks are going to be amazing I know it.

Yesterday I had such a wonderful day. I took an amazing young girl I work with for lunch. Mcdonalds it just had to be. Then mooched around the chops in Chatham for a bit.
And then for James Morrison with Kirstie, Ruby and Cheryl. We took the train to canterbury and after a few delays we cued up outside the cricket grounds where it was being held. It was such a nice day. Rainy at times but that was just an excuse for hilarious green ponchos. And the support acts were amazing!! A band called Vagabond played (who I'd walked past earlier on the way to the portaloo and decided they must be in a band coz they looked way too cool) and just made me want to dance. And a girl from australia who had the largest amount of style ive ever seen. Look 'em up on myspace or something. AMAZING. James Morrison played loads of songs and was epic. PERFECT. and the sun even made an appearance. haha

This week holds just the normal for me. But I'm going to try and make the most of each day.

alfie.

Today after work I came home and there was alfie eating a melon. It was too cute.

Alfie is three years old and wakes up really early but is such a joy to live with and tells the most hilarious stories and says the funniest things. The other day he likened his singing voice to that of Joss stone. It was hilarious.

I got to say prayers with him the other night and he taught me a lesson on how to pray. He used the word 'bum' and 'smelly bottom' alot and waved his hands around in some kind of dance move action when he said the word amen. Too cute.

I'm going to miss him LOADS when I come home. Maybe not so much the tantrums though.

I like countryside.

Today is Sunday..Fathers day in England to be exact..and I'm so hoping its not Fathers day in New Zealand too because I haven't given my dad any special recognition at all..and if it is I shall just blame the time difference for the confusion haha or maybe use the excuse that I don't want to celebrate it while I'm in another country so I'm waiting till I get home to give him a huge fathers day surprise? or tell the truth haha we'll see what happens.

Today has been so lovely though..Helped with a group of young people at my church called 'Pathfinders' (loving the cheesy Christian name)..By helping I don't mean having to do anything that actually involves me putting effort in..The definition of helping in this context involves me sitting on a comfortable chair and generally chatting to the well behaved polite Christian kids and occasionally having to contribute to useful conversation that is happening with the other leaders..haha it's quite nice.

Then I left early (just another definition of how hard I work on this haha) and went for lunch with my host family and marthas stepmum, dad and sister in this quaint little town. The drive there was beautiful. Through little lanes and roads with trees making an archway over them, old houses with fields..oh was such a change from the scenery of Gillingham. And the place we went for lunch (apart from the fact we had to wait like an hour for our food) was so cute..It's a place called Cafe Rouge and its a dinky french restaurant with amazing food and music that makes you feel like youre in paris somewhere..LOVELY..Although its always awkward trying to order things off the menu that are blatantly french..It usually starts with me making a really poor attempt (usually in a low voice so noone can hear what an ass I sound like) at pronouncing the french word then ends with me just stabbing my finger at the menu so the waiter can see what I am ordering..awkward. But such a nice place.
Followed by a trip to Martha's dads house which is the converted stables of an old manor house..which is HUGE..like literally the manor house is on the same property and is literally like an old english manor but so beautiful..so beautiful. Strawberries and cream (very english) and then the drive back home through the amazing countryside. PERFECT.
Such a lovely day and I am SO blessed to have a host family that just include me in their outings and make me feel so at home. yes thankyou.

Another thing I want to do before I come home that I need to add to my list is take a day trip to France. My host family have said we need to book a date in July for us all to go to the French coast..Oh my word I am so blessed. SO FLIPPIN' BLESSED.
Oh and exciting news. My host mum, Martha is pregnant..YAY. so cool. But on Tuesday theyre going away on holiday to cornwall, on the seaside, for like 1o days..so I will have to fend for myself. we'll see how that goes. Miss Independant.

This weekend has been lovely.