The makings of a happy carrot

Skippy is a very happy carrot indeed. The reason why responds to the name of Luke! I am currently in a state of nauseating bliss and loving every minute of it!Having had a long...No wait sorry- a very long conversation on Friday night and by long I mean around about 4 hours, My mate Luke and I decided that actually we really quite like each other so now we are the latest CU couple casualty. I think Deborah is despairing of the endless phone calls and text messages. (well- if we're going to be really nauseating, we've got to do it properly!) I get the strong impression that she really wants to say eewwwwwwwwwww yuck! But this far she has been quite restrained.
Since Friday, I have met his family and they are really lovely. I don't do things by halves- by his family I mean, mum dad, brother, granddad, aunts and cousins. I think his family think I'm really keen. I just like to look at it as getting it over and done with. Having said that though, his family are really lovely. That and his mum got out the baby photos! Luke ofcourse was really appreciative of that one. They were rather disappointingly thin on the ground on embarrassing stories. They weren't able to tell me anything Luke hadn't already told me, with the exception of one story which I couldn't possibly repeat!
Having survived the family, we got round to having our first date yesterday. Before we started seeing eachother, I wouldn't have had Luke down as a soppy one. He took me to see Pooh's heffalump movie- tre cool. True to form, I got very excited every time I saw Eeyore. I then spent the next couple of hours trying and failing miserably to prize out of Luke where we were going for dinner. Now this is the really slushy bit- sick bags at the ready- He took me for a dinner cruise along the Thames- very swanky! I think I spent the first half hour going' oh my Goodness- I can't believe you've done this!'. We then proceeded to try and suss out what all the glasses were for. This was one of those dinners where you get so many sets of cutlery that you don't know what to do with. Again, I wouldn't have had Luke down as such a romantic. I don't think he'll be able to live this down fro quite a while. I did try and tell him that I would have been perfectly happy with a bag of chips from the chip van at waterloo but hey! He said he wanted to give me an eveing that I'd always remember and I don't think I will be forgetting it in a hurry.
Best thing of all- he bought me a bag of haribo. Alas- I am easily pleased!

Thumper is not a clever bunny rabbit!

Yesterday's events of great hilarity saw me being rechristened thumper as a result of the dregs of my tea masala and me managing to get chili in my eye. Oh what a smart cookie I am for that one. I don't think I've ever been in so much pain. I made myself a lovely stirfry for dinner and put a nice green chili in it it was really yummy. I forgot to wash my hands though and rubbed my eye, ran round the house screaming and then held the shower head over my eye. Then decided that having to kneel on the bathroom floor in what was probably the most uncomfortable position ever was not the way forward and besides that, I really wanted to eat the rest of my dinner so I then spent the next 20 minutes with an ice-cube wrapped in a tissue over my eye. Oh what fun.
I'm loving this glorious sunny weather. It feels like summer again. For some reason, the sun shine put me in such a good mood that I wanted to get my college work done so I spent the afternoon reading Owen Chadwick's Religion in the Victorian era, volume 1 (a must for every insomniac) whilst watching the rugby. Which was nice.
I do however still need to write an essay for Monday. I am so behind in my college work now. Personally I like to blame my lea for getting me suspended but hey.

The health plan

I keep on telling myself (and my housemates) that I'm going to watch what I eat and am going to go running round Kennington park every week. Since I moved in, I have been running once. So the active part is going well. As for the eating part- I'd like to draw your attention to my previous post. Yes- I really did eat an entire strudel but it was good. Just had a conversation on messenger with my mate Stu. Bit odd. Haven't seen or spoken to him in ages. Its funny how friendships fade with time. We used to get on really well and I saw him almost every day when I was working in Cambridge but now I hardly see him. I could name so many people I know like that. People who you think of and wonder how they're getting on quite often but never get around to ringing them. Then you get to the akward point where you feel as though you've left it too long so you don't speak to them. If I were to go through my mobile and look at my address book, there will be people on it whop I haven't spoken to in months, years even. There's even some people who I can't even remember who they are. Why do I leave things so long.
I keep telling myself I need to be fitter, healthier, more organised, I take notice for a couple of days and then go back to bad habbits. Must do some college work.hmmmmmmmmm...

Quote of the Week

I was so depressed I ate a whole strudel.

I'll never say life is dull again!

Haven't posted in ages- whoopsie!!!
What an eventful week I had last week. On Thursday I got home from college, knowing that my suspension over tuition fees was imminent to receive two letters. I open the first one which was from my lea saying that they were going to be paying my tuition fees- result. I thought 'hoorah!' I can take it tomorrow so I wont get suspended. Then I opened the next letter- 'you have been suspended in accordance with college regulation 2:2:3:whatever! NoT good! So I had to run into college on Friday- my day off- to sort it all out. Apparently as its my lea that have messed up, the suspension wont be going on my permanent record. Praise God it didn't stop me from going to any lectures. Technically I shouldn't have gone in on Thursday but I didn't know I'd been suspended.
I've finally got round to taking Clive round to the laptop doctors to get fixed. The discovery that Clive was still under guarantee was a nice happy one. Unfortunately the lovely people at John Lewis said that it would take 3-6 weeks to make Clive all better again. Fortunately the people at John Lewis (did I mention that they are lovely?!) have lent me a temporary laptop to use SO I can get m,y essays done-whoohoo!
So there I was with Mr Temporary laptop, blissfully unaware that it didn't have a floppy drive. I don't have a printer and It wouldn't let me save on to CD and I don't have one of those sticky things either- not that a sticky thing would do much good because the collage computers are so archaic that they don't have sticky thing sockets. In the end I had to install the internet and sign up for a free internet trial so I could e-mail my essay to myself so I could print it off in college!
So the state of play at the moment is this- I have laptop, I can work all hours of the night if my heart desires, I'm now writing the Nth overdue essay (I lost count a long time ago) And I've lost my ID card-bother!!!
On the plus side, I had a CU leadership training weekend last weekend which was fab. We were looking at the book of 2 Timothy. Fantastic book- if you haven't read it- you must! I found it really encouraging to look at a church leader who was really young, was about to loose his personal friend and mentor, was scared, was losing people from the church left right and centre, was ridiculed and feeling really timid and felt like giving up. How many times in my life do I feel like that. I used to thing that all the guys in the bible were ok- they were really sorted and as the years went on we just gradually messed things up. Then I actually read the bible- these guys make the same mistakes we do, mess up just as frequently and yet God used them to do amazing things. I'm not a natural born leader, I know that but I know that God has called me to be the CU prayer secretary. Not because I'm some super spiritual and amazing intercessor but because I am a real person who has real issue and through those things God can really work in my life and shine through. Through my weaknesses God can do his thing and achieve amazing things.
Wherever I'm at and whatever I'm doing, I can always come to God in prayer although I don't always when I need to (I'm working on it) I am a very busy person due to the fact that I'm drowning in a see of essays. In by business something gets pushed aside. That something should be TV or something like that but more often than not It's my quiet times that get pushed aside. In the grand scheme of things, that should be the last thing I push aside- there is nothing more important that spending time with God trough reading the Bible and to come to the Almighty in prayer. That should be the last thing that should be pushed to one side. There is nothing more important, especially when you are busy than to slow down for a bit and come into God's presence and to rest in him for a while.
I feel that as Prayer sec I have got so much to learn but right now I am really aware of God working with me and through me. 7 months ago I would never have prayer out loud. I'm now leading prayer meetings and trying to encourage the CU to pray. I feel that God's going to do amazing things but he can only do those things if I take the time to let him.

Pigs really do fly

I went for a run on Thursday- hurrah! I think both my housemates were quite supprised but miracles do happen- I went running. I am still aching because I didn't warm up properly- should really learn how to do that. I'm sat in the college computer room trying to type up an essay on the colloquy of Marburg (just smile and knod) although I managed to bring all my notes with me except the ones I actually needed-whoops! Ah well, any whoo I like to think of it as a test of memory- see how much I can remember. Unfortunately I can only remember enough to write about 500 words so Mr essay is going have to wait until tomorrow to be finished. I'm going to go home and have a nice cup of tea.

On a spiritual note- yes I'm going to get all deep now! I've been reading through Judges at the moment- as you do- thought it would be interesting and I can't help thinking that on one level it's a metaphor of my life. Judges follows the Israelites and tells us how basically they completely ignore God, mess up pretty spectacularly and then Get to a point where they actually think- hold on a minute- whoopsie! God, please help us because we're completely useless and we need you desperately. Then God appoints a judge, and then all is well for about 40 years. I do that so often. Despite being a Christian for what- 7 years or so, I still keep on trying to do things in my own strength, failing miserably then crying out- 'Lord help me' and then everything is rosy. Then I go back to trying to deal with things in my own strength. I had one of those moments the other day when this situation came up and my first instinct was to run away. I prayed about it and as I was praying I had this song called he is Yahweh stuck in my head. There's this one line in it which goes- 'The great I AM, he is Yahweh'. I just got this really strong sense that God was trying to say to me 'The Great I AM, I am Yahweh. I am able and I will help you. That kind of blew me away. It still amazes me that no matter how many times I screw up, God still wants me, has plans for me and delights in me. All I can really say is wow. Maybe kow I noticed this pattern in me, I can go on and do something about it. God is amazing.

Back to the grind stone

Alas- I survived the merriment of Christmas to return to yet another year of hope fulfilling new years resolutions that I will inevitably break.
I feel refreshed to have had time off but still have ended up with just as much work to do. My efforts of writing lots of essays were thowted by the inconveniently timed death of my beloved laptop. I was trying to type up my essay on Friday. I have been having problem's recently with the laptop's battery- in that is doesn't seem to work anymore. AC power still seemed to surfice until it just died on me. I thought that maybe taking the battery out and putting it back in again might help- don't know why, I'm not technologically minded, it just seemed like a good idea at the time. As I took the battery out I could hear something rattling about inside it. I though 'this is not a good sign'. I then tilted the laptop on its side and out of the place where you put the battery in, a little, tiny screw fell out and I thought to myself 'this is definitely not a good sign!'
I had to resist the urge to go and hunt down our screwdrivers to opened up my laptop and replace the screw but decided that my insurance probably wouldn't cover acts of stupidity. I now have to take my laptop somewhere to be repaired and be charged extortionate amounts of money which I do not have for the prevailed. Yay!

I've decided that I'm going to start running again. Something I've always said I'm going to do and am still telling myself that I'm going to do it and eventually I actually will do it! I am ridiculously unfit. It would be nice to turn up to a lecture without feeling like I've just run the London marathon because I'm running late and have to run up 6 flights of stairs! Alternatively I could just turn up on time but it really doesn't seem to make a difference how early I wake up, I inevitably still will end up running late. No- really must start running, I promised Deborah I would, and it would be kind of nice to look half decent at KT'S wedding. Hmmm, may go running later this afternoon....Well... Lets not go crazy. I do still need to go to tesco's! And get my laptop fixed, failing that- find a scrap metal merchant. Anyone know any?