Frustration!

I have had a day with many frustrating moments today grr!

1. Being chucked out of Talybont whilst flyering for CU - although we were able to stand just outside and finish the job
2. My computer having the wrong version of publisher to open an e-mailed file
3. Having to queue for ages to get petrol - there are 2 till points in the shop but one was being used to count money while there is the longest queue ever how stupid can tescos be
4. The photo machine in Tescos hates me - went yesterday with a USB flash disk but they don't use them despite having a socket for them on the machine. Went today with a CD and the whole machine is broken argh!
5. Had to drive round Gabalfa roundabout twice because I couldn't get to the exit without going through another car
6. Saw a million yellow cars/minis when there was no one to punch - which would have let out my frustration from the previous 5 events

Smellon Quotes

Ah its great to be back in Cardiff, there is so much more laughter here than at home. Much of this recently has been generated by the strange things Smellon often says for example:

"I haven't touched many people's eyebrows" - good to know but watch out she is now on a mission to reverse this trend!


"It would be annoying to know everyone in the world" - not sure what all these people have done to Smellon but they have obviously offended her in some way.

"I don't know whether I am a man or a woman" - she gets confused easily obviously

And to Beckrum: "I don't like your face" - poor Beckrum what's so wrong with her face (well except the obvious ;) )

Family Day Out

My parents and I had a great day out today, we went to Thorpe Park. Yes my parents actually came with me to a theme park. My mum went on 4 rides but had 9 turns, dad went on 6 rides but had 11 turns and I went on 9 rides and had 16 turns so I think I got the best value for money. My favourite ride was Nemesis Inferno although the first time I went on I didn't have my head far enough back for the corkscrew bits so it wasn't so fun, especially as this was the first ride I went on so hadn't really worked myself up to going upside down. I am quite a chicken when it comes to rides but I was braver than normal today and tried some new ones. One Dad and I went on called tidal wave made me the wettest I've been in ages bearing in mind I went swimming yesterday. Perhaps the clue was in the name! We watched some of the scarier rides one called Stealth is new this year and looks horrific you accelerate from 0 to 80 in 2.3 seconds go up 205 feet then come down practically vertically. If you want to see I think there's pictures on the web www.thorpepark.co.uk Anyway we had fun and there was the added bonus of ribs for lunch yum!

Strange Post

Wo 2 posts in one day but felt I had to mention the letter I got today. It was about dustcarts! Can you believe that I actually got a whole letter about dustcarts! Like I care where they are going to be parked. Anyway just thought I'd share that strange event with you all.

Malawi Photos

For those that are interested most people have now posted their photos of Malawi on bubbleshare so if you would like to see them go to www.bubbleshare.com and search for CU Malawi Trip 06 and you should find them. Enjoy!

PS make sure you have a good amount of time as there are a lot to look at.

Bizarre Events

Well I think the best way to sum up the last few days would be bizarre but in a very good way! It all started when I arrived back in Cardiff to keep Beckrum company on Thursday. She has been sleeping in my room over the summer as its the best room in the house (yay) and she still insisted on sleeping in my bed even though I was there too, luckily she doesn't snore or kick or talk or anything! So that was bizare event 1. The next day was spent shopping for fancy dress costumes, which isn't so bizarre but it did mean that we bought an eyeball from one shop which is getting to the bizarre scale of things again (event 2). Anyway Saturday started off normal then Simon arrived to have a lift and things went weird - there was a lot of hair gel involved (event 3). We travelled down to Plymouth for Jamie's 21st birthday and walked through Yealmpton dressed as pirates - getting some very strange looks from the locals (event 4). The party was great! Though the bizare thing was seeing people for the first time after the summer dressed in costumes - it was a little tricky recognising some! Bev and Lizzie as nuns were fab and Liz, Becky and Elisa all looked very glam in their costumes (event 5). After the party we went to stay at Lizzie's house in her huge lounge as we had to get up early in the morning to go to Bath so couldn't stay at Jamie's. It's always weird going to Cardiff people's houses as they only belong in Cardiff so that was bizarre event 6. We were going to Bath for Matt Bater's baptism (see the fan club site) which was really good although the bizarre didn't stop as at his church was Sally Phillips who is an actress in Bridget Jones and Smack the Pony - Helen was quite star struck (event 7). On the way back to Cardiff I managed to overcome my fear of automatic toll gates which was a good thing. Event 8 occured when we spent the evening with Dan Jones at our house which just wouldn't have happened a few months ago but thanks to Malawi is now completely normal. Monday I think escaped bizarre moments, Beckrum and I managed to find the lost Malawi video tapes in Helen's room within about 3 minutes (one was on a shelf the other in her bag). Watching them made us miss Malawi all over again though. Tuesday was going back to London day. I left for the first time at 10:15am and got to Magor before I realised that I had left my Malaria pills at home so had to go all the way back for them. I then left for the 2nd time at 11:15 and made it home in a new record of 3 hours (I wasn't speeding honest!) I did have one scary moment when the petrol light came on in the car and I thought I was going to have the embarassment of running out on the motorway but the services came within 3 miles so it was all OK. Bizarre event 9 occured at the cricket yesterday we were sitting next to a group of business men who started chatting with my Dad and then managed to rope him into a speard bet thing of what Surrey's final score would be. Dad predicted 279 and we got 278 so he won £5! Unfortunately we went on to lose but the first half was exciting. Anyway that's what's happened in my life since Thursday. What a fun life I lead!

MALAWI

Well one word to sum up the trip would be WOW! I'm not really sure which bits to blog about as to do everything would take ages. So I'll just try and give you some highlights.

1. The team - I love all you guys (guys being the generic term for boys and girls just to clarify). For those that don't know there were 16 of us mostly from Cardiff Christian Union, 8 boys and 8 girls. And yes we did sink to the depths of trying to pair each other off on the coach back to the airport - Laura's reaction to being paired with Sam being the funniest: "NOOOOO anyone but him!". We all got to know each other so well with no notable arguments at all! Unless you count physical fights?!
2. Malawians - Such lovely people, so friendly and generous. Some even walked 100km to come to the things we were doing. They really are an inspriation.
3. Vik and Sue - absolute LEGENDS! They are the people that own Fisherman's Rest where we stayed and they were helping us the whole time, having helped Sam organise the trip. Without them we'd have been stuffed (hmm I never use that phrase oh well).
4. Nsema - not a highlight by any means but interesting. The nsema wasn't too bad but nsema porridge was awful. We only had to eat this once at Bangula (an orphanage) but the kids there get it everyday for breakfast. It did mean that the best meal we had was doughnuts and tea when we were expecting porridge again.
5. Bangula - we spent 2 nights here. It's an orphanage run by Pam and Will who come from America and Canada. They have 105 children over 20 of whom are under 1. They are absolutly amazing people! This was the roughest part of the trip in terms of accomadation, food and washing etc. But it was a humbling experience as the kids there don't get to go back to Fisherman's rest after 3 days and jump into a pool! We taught them some songs which they were still singing as we left, told them bible stories, cuddled babies and played games. This is where I spent my birthday - one I will never forget!
6. Our holiday - we got some time off of mission things and went to a game park and Lake Malawi, both beautiful places. We saw some amazing animals and thanks to Janet learnt a lot of plant names especially ones that had pretty pink flowers! We saw hippos, crocodiles, monkeys, a variety of antelope, warthogs, elephants, eagles, vulchers, storks and lots of other birds. We even ran over a crocodile which wasn't so good as we got quite wet, the driver of the boat said he'd never done that before but that the odd adventure is always fun! Hmm I don't think Berni would agree with him as she jumped halfway across the boat. We (well half of us) got up to see the sunrise at Lake Malawi which was amazing.
7. Swimming - in pools and the Lake (hopefully don't have Bilharsia now). Had my first proper dunking fight: me, Janet and Helen against Josh and Pete - we lost terribly but it was fun.
8. Bruises - am pretty much covered in them now, my worst one occuring during the dunking fight and the others mostly caused by Pete as well. I will cause him pain at some point!
9. Kids - we did a lot of children's mission things in various places. Playing games (not the easiest thing in scoring sun), singing, doing dramas, and teaching. The kids are fantastic, they will run after the trucks as you arrive and wave whenever they see white people. It was great to enable them to have some fun and show them that God loves them.
10. Chicheri prison - we walked in, were cornered by around 500 prisoners and managed to sing our way out!
11. God is good - all the time! We have all learnt a lot about God over the past 2 weeks and all been challenged and inspired in different ways.

So there you have a very brief summary of 11 highlights of Malawi, no doubt others will be blogging about the trip soon. There will also be photos posted on the internet - between us there's probably over 1000 so have fun looking at them. But now I guess I should probably go and get dressed.