Well last time I changed the colour. So I thought I'd keep the theme of 'change' and go with a new font. My oh my things are getting pretty crazy! I just got in from work. It's good to be able to say that! I can't be accused of being lazy anymore. I spent all morning working the Lottery machine. I feel slightly guilty for encouraging people to gamble and smoke. For instance, if we hadn't been working this morning, no one would have been able to waste money on that machine that I could now work with my eyes closed. One guy came in and spent £30 on the lottery - every week I think! What a waste! He could spend that on much better things, like alcoh...oops I mean...never mind, it's just not worth it. But aside from having slightly painful legs from standing for 4 hours straight, its not bad. And I'm earning money. My dad asked me if I'd sneaked a couple chocolate bars into my bag while no one was looking. Thankfully I understand my dads sense of humour so I knew he was kidding, so I just said 'no.' He said 'oh Suzanne, you should be getting the perks of having a job.' To which I replied 'I am, I'm getting payed.' Thats perky enough for me!

Well, 2 weeks till Dan comes home. Thats my brother, hes in South Africa working at an AIDS orphange/childrens home and has been there 7 months. I saw him about 2 months ago but nonoe of my family or friends has. Just me. I feel quite privilidged. I would feel slightly more privilidged if someone had paid my way there. But thanks to my fab brother, I didn't pay hardly anything while I was there coz he's just so kind! (I hope Dan that you'll buy me a drink when you get back since I'm being so nice now. A pint of guiness will do nicely! Thanks, you're mint :-) ) Anyway enough about him. You know what I did just before? Slightly stupid, but my excuse is its been a really long week. When I was writing AIDS orphanage/childrens home, I actually wrote AIDS orphange/slash childrens home. Ok, so its more stupid than 'slightly stupid.' But it has been a LONG week. I've been getting my music coursework finished this week and so on Thursday I spent about 8 hours doing my coursework, 6 of those at school and 2 at home. I left school finally at about 6pm. And on Friday I spent 5 hours in the music department finishing it off. as well as having other lessons and doing a choir concert in the evening. And thankfully now it's finished! Well I just have to record them. But that won't take too long.

Don't you hate it when you're typing and you accidently hit the 'insert' key on your keyboard so it starts deleting what you've written if you try to add anything into where you've already typed? I did it just now, and I did it yesterday while doing my coursework, which was slightly frustrating! So anyway, I've just got 2 months left of this whole school thing and then I'll be done. My goodness how beautiful will that be! Must be off now, to give away my Dubai-ish money (to get English money in return hopefully!) and to clean Church. What fun Saturdays have turned into...

They wanted me!

I kind of got hired today! Meaning that I'm on trial for 2 weeks and then if they want me and I want them, I'll properly have a job. It's just at a rubbish little newsagent in Monkseaton, where I live (typical that I'm moving to a house 3 miles away from it just as I get a job which is 10 minutes walk from my current house), but they are the only people so far who have offered me anything, so I'm going with it! Unfortunatly, seen as I'm not 18 yet, I don't qualify for minimum wage. But I'll still make a fair bit, and it'll go towards my gap year. Which is a great thing!Hopefully I'll still be able to do all my summer plans...the wedding in Wales, Prague, London, camping with my family, I'd love to do Soul Survivor or something but thats very doubtful coz I'm already doing too much! But for now I don't care about that. I'll worry about that when I know for definite if I have to job! So for now I just have to worry about not making huge mistakes like losing the bloke laods of money on the cash point or lottery machine!

I thought I'd try a new font colour...you know, live a little, be a little adventurous and crazy! Or something like that. What d'ya think?

Speaking of my gap year (well it was vauely mentioned before) I'm meeting Richard, who is the Dad of the orphanage I'm looking at in Colombia, tonight I think. Which is fab! So we'll see how it goes. This place, Childrens Vision International in Bogota seems so right and really like God has shown me this place and He wants me to go there for my 6 months. So I'm praying that tonight will go well. If not, I'll end up working in Tesco or somewhere for the whole year which is not quite the 'service' I want to give back to God!

I'll let you know how it all goes when I know! Until home, (one or two of you might know what I mean by that!) God Bless x x x

This is the 'young people' who went away with my church to the Lake District. That's Matthew in the back being awkward... 

This is me hugging (it doesn't happen too often!) my fab sister Michelle. If we look slightly windswept, its because we'd been hiking for about 2 hours. 

Well I wrote out a whole post this afternoon and then lost it. I seem to remember I started out saying that I was thankful for technology because of all the communication I am able to have with all my gorgeous friends! However, now I dont like it. I still like the communication though. And my friends are still gorgeous. I can't remember hardly any of what I was saying so this will be short I reckon!

But it does amaze me how lucky I am to be in such regular contact with so many people. I've got friends in England, America, Holland, India, South Africa, Kosova, PNG who I've been able to keep in contact with by the wonders of technology (when the friggin thing works!) And I've been in contact with a lot of these people since I was about 13. How many 13 year olds get to keep their friends till they're 17 and onward? It does make me wonder why I want to continue putting myself into situations where I have to say goodbye. It hurts. Why would I want to hurt myself? I've spent the last 5 years loving too many people in too many places. And I've often thought and wished that all these people could be in one place, and that place would be a mixture several loved places. I hope you follow! But I guess if God gave us everything we wanted and we had it all, what would we have to trust him about? If we knew that God would give us everything on silver platter when we asked for it, we wouldn't need to ask and trust him to provide. So that's what I'm trying to do. Trust God that He will provide the oppurtunity to see them again! It's been so awesome, if not slightly surreal, to have my PNG friends 'integrated' with my England friends as they meet. I'm just glad I don't live 100 years ago. Or more. Because I'd have hardly any contact with anyone! I'd have 1 lot of friends, apart from the letter that would arrive every 6 months or so. So I can complain all I want about missing my friends, but I've got it so much better than a lot of poeple! So anyway, this was gonna be short. I haven't quite mastered the art yet of writing in short. Hmmm....

Anyway, I'm hoping to get a more recent picture of me up soon so you can all look at my pretty face. I have several very un-posed photos of me (I think I'm the only one who went to the Lakes who could manage to not pose, despite what I got accused of!) and so when I get them scanned in to a computer (something I can't do here due to lack of working scanner) you can see a more recent me. See ya later!

Just a few updates

I was just looking over my previous posts and realised I'd mentioned a few things which, thanks-be-to-God, have got sorted! Or are definetly on their way to being sorted.

First, our house that we put up for sale. Within 3 days of it being on the market, some people came round to view the house (this was the first lot of people who came). The next morning, they put an offer in for the full asking price. 6 days after that, we put an offer in on a house that is 2 minutes walk away from Church (exactly where we want it) and that was accepted. So that all went fast. Now its just waiting for all the solicitor-type stuff to get sorted! But hopefully within the next month we'll get moved.

Secondly is my gap year. I think I've (finally) found the place God wants me to go. Its an orphanage in Bogata, Colombia, called Children's Vision International and it is home to 103 street kids. It is completely Christian run and looks awesome. I wont be by myself either! In fact, it looks as though I wont be by myself at all hardly during the whole 6 months, except when I'm dreaming! So soon hopefully I'll be in the process of applying.

I think they were the 2 main things that needed up-dating. If I think of anything else, I'll just make a new post. Anyway, I've been off school the last 2 days with a virus of some kind, I'm nackered and bored out of my mind. And this writing business is stressing me out because I cant type properly today. So I'm gonna go! See ya x x x

The time of year is upon me again

When I think of the saying: 'the time of year is upon us again', I would like to be able to think of good, happy, maybe exciting things...Christmas, my birthday, summer, Easter...however, this 'time of year that is most definetly upon me now' is the time of exams. I have officially started revision, I officially have a lot less life than I did, say, last week! Such a drag! And this is the 3rd year in a row that I've come off my Easter holidays, gone back to school and feel that pressure definetly on me, to do my reivison, to do ALL my homework, I'm sure you all know how it goes! Thankfully I get a break next year, what a blissful year that will be! And then to uni...where who knows how many 'that time of year' stresses I'll get. Anyway, enough complaining about exams and stuff. Plenty of time for that.

Don't you hate it when something good reminds of you something good, so you dont like it? I'm purposely trying to be as vague as possible here, because certian parties involved in this might be reading and I don't want them to know! So my most sincere appologies. Say, for example, you have a place you used to go with someone who was special, you enjoyed the place for it being it and for the company involved, and then you don't have that person anymore so you don't like the place. Or a tv show that you used to watch with somone who was special, and now you don't have that person, so you don't like the tv show because it reminds you of when things were good? These are all hypothetical situations, I'm not gonna comment on what my actual situation is! I found a quote that I really like so I'm going to share it. "O soul, He only who created you can satisfy you. If you ask for anything else, it is your misfortune, for He alone who created you in His image can satisfy you." -St. Augustine. I think that's my problem. I look for too much to satisfy me. I have on-going battles with God and myself for not being in situations I would have liked to find myself in. I need to get back to the *simple* 'let God satisfy me' and then maybe I'll be satisfied with every situation and every person I get given. Tough though, isn't it? It's just a matter of praying. I need to learn that more. To come to God with everything, thank God for everything, know that God is in control of everything. Of course I know and believe all this, its just engraving it into myself that is the hard part!

Stress!!!!

So I know I only posted yesterday and that was a really long one. So I'll make this shorter. I'm just stressing a bit! The kids next door are SO noisy, and are outside screaming their heads off while I'm inside trying to do A2 biology coursework that is due in tomorrow. And the sun is blinding me, because the blinds over the window wont go where I want them to and the very bright sun is peeking through them just enough to distract me!

Why do some parents let their kids be quite so noisy and horrible? I saw a really heart-warming thing today. I was sat on the metro and on the seats in front of me was a mum with her 2 little girls. A lot of parents I see would be bitchy and telling their kids off for not-a-lot, so kids scream and grow up to be horrible disturbed people. A bit stereotypical of me, I know, but we'll move on from that. This mum was sat playing 'I spy with my little eye' with her kids, and they seemed such sweet kids. It was such a nice change to see a parent being nice to her children!

I went job hunting today. Oh what fun. I traipsed around North Shields (about 4 miles from home where I'm moving to soon) and around Whitley Bay (1 mile from home) going around the shops, many saying that they didn't have any vacancies, and some taking a CV or giving me an application form or phone number. Hopefully it'll work out and I'll be working soon. Because I have a lot to raise money for, namely my gap year (which I'm not sure what its gonna be but I know I'll need a lot of money for it!) But I also want to be able to go down south to see some friends after my exams, and I'll need money for that. The problem is, I want to do far too much this summer for the amount of time I'll get off. But thats something to work out in the future! For now I just need a job and to pass my exams. Which wont get done if I keep writing here. So back to biology for me.

Please pray for me - I need as much of it as possible to be able to get the results I need (BBC) for my 1st choice uni - Lancaster to study music. And I have no inspiration. That always seems to be the problem though. Although I think I have even less time round because I did so much revision for my last exam and got a 34/90 for it - not a pass. So I'm resitting it, alongside doing all my other exams. Stress!!!!

Hope you've got a couple hours...

As I prophesised in my last post, I am very nackered at the end of my holidays. Not entirely my fault though - more the tres funny and interesting motorbiking diaries of Ewan McGreggor and Charlie Boorman, 'Long Way Round'. And we had to finish watching them before Phil went home, so it ended up being a bit of a late night, and unfortunatly an early morning due to Church - 5 hours sleep is enough, right?

It's been a pretty full week. Phil arrived on Sunday, nice to see him again! He met some of my crazy friends and then we went to the pub. Late night no.1!

Monday we got up early to go to the Lake District for 4 days with my church. A 2 hour car journey, which somehow I managed to sit in the front seat and let 3 big lads squash in the back! Lucky me. This journey was the start of rudness and crudness that filled the rest of the week...what less could we expect? And being the only girl (over 16) I spent a lot of time becoming immune to the ways of young men. Got to the Lake District around lunch time. Went for a walk up a mountain through a forest (with the 4 lads I was *lucky* enough to spend the week with). This consisted of playing on the swings, having some completely un-posed photos taken (yeah right!) and 2 of said lads half stripping off in the middle of the forest...nothing to worry about there...too much! We did get some rather strange photos though. (I will put in right here that this was a CHURCH holiday, they are actually nice, good Christian boys :-) ) We got to the manor (yes I am rather cultured and classy when I want to be!) where we were gonna be staying and after unpacking the masses of cheese and ham from the car and finding our rooms, we went up to the games room and played a game of table tennis which started out as a nice, gentle 'hitting a little plastic ball across the table' but ended in a 'just slam the damn thing anywhere, try and dodge it as it flys towards your face and try to hit it in the most awkward direction for your opponent and avoid the game of pool that is going on in the same room.' Good fun, I must say! Then we played some games of Cheat, a nice Christian card game. Until, that is, someone accidently instead of just saying 'cheat' turns and swears VERY loudly at you accidently (said again for emphasis). Tea time, didn't eat much, did the dishes (and the floor washing due to someone very rudely throwing bubbles in my face, so I retaliated and it ended in, well, tears, you might say! Then had devotions led by my father on one of the Psalms but I dont remember which one, it was good I know that much! And then sat around chatting and drinking hot chocolate. Late night no.2!

Got up before 8 next morning, had breakfast, made my lunch, got dressed, then while hanging around waiting for the days trip to begin we found Twister, so me Phil and James started playing. Very painful, but it was all worth it because I had the satisfaction of winning. Go me! Eventually we set of on our walk which ended up being a 6 mile walk around a lake. A very beautiful lake, but non-the-less, a lake. It was pretty much just big and wet and tiring for us poor folk to walk around. We found the elusive bog (a documentary was started on this journey about the bogs of the world. The type that dont flush, that is.) and eventually got the even more elusive ferry. We knew it was there somewhere, but it took us about 4 hours to find it! A wonderful day. Went back to the manor, played cards, read, ate tea, had devotions, had a prayer meeting and then me and the lads watched some Norman Wisdom. Never seen it before, didn't quite know what to expect, but it was pretty funny. "Right right left left right left left sandwhiches for lunch!" (Only to be understood if you've seen it, ofcourse!) Then eventually to bed...late night no.3! I think I should actually be calling these early mornings rather than late nights...

This is getting pretty long isn't it?! Well no fear, theres just another 5 days or so to go! Although it got slightly less eventful after Wednesday. Which is next, by the way, in case you got lost along the way.

So, Wednesday. What an eventful day! Started out fairly normally, no twister or anything, just the usual routine of getting ready, and then we set off for Grizedale Forest. About an hours drive away from the manor. Fairly straight forward. This walk involved (no prizes for guessing correctly...) a forest, and a mountain. And a very strong wind. And a funny shaped round wooden thing. And a christmas tree. But we'll get to that soon! The walk started and went up. And then the path turned into a river. There was definite movement of water down our path, and there was a fair bit of water so it was a river. And we walked up it. Thankgoodness for waterproof shoes! This continued for a while. We took a break on a wall somewhere as the path leveled off a bit, took some photos (not too much posing, atleast not on my behalf!) and then we started off again walking. Found a bench which coinsided with some rather disturbing conversations from the lovely lads I was with. Then we got hungry so walked into a forest and ate lunch in it, for no particular reason other than it was there. So, carrying on, we found the top of the mountain which is where the really really strong winds came in. I, being quite a light-weight person (in non-alcoholic terms) was nearly blown off the top of said mountain. So I was kind of hanging on for dear life. To the cairn on the top by the way, not the actual mountain. After some photos and a short video on Phils camera, we set off towards the rather random funny shaped round wooden thing. It was big and carved and there seemed no reason for it. So i sat in it. Which was quite comfy until someone decided to sit on me. Then it was kind of hard to be comfy as I was being pushed off and was holding onto Andy, who was sat on me. So I'll cut this short because theres still so much more to tell for this day. We kept walking, took more footage of bogs (big bog, little bog and streamy bog...dammit Andy!), found a decorated Christmas tree (covered in baubles which I dont have one of in my bedroom...) and then found the end of the walk. Which we were dissapointed with, but it turned out to be really good thing. Lets see how quick I can tell this part. We sat in the cafe, my mum came and talked with us, went outside and slipped on some wet mud, cracked her head off a wooden post, was possibly knocked unconscious, some guy came and found us in the cafe, we ran outside, me Phil James and my Dad went to A and E with mum for several hours and entertained ourselves in the childrens play area. And in Tesco. Or Asda. Dont remember which. Doesn't matter! Mum was ok, nothing broken, no concussion (supposedly). Eventually got back to the manor, had fish and chips, had a Barn Dance (Scottish dancing, great fun, nice and sweaty after) and then went and played pool. Again, more disturbing conversatons and smells coming from my lovely lads. Eventually, after being on that flippng black ball for about half an hour, the other team potted it and we could go to bed at about 1am. Late night (early morning) no.4!

Thursday - get up, pack up, clean up, head out door. Took photos of us lot outside the manor (guns at the ready...we all originally lined up like for a firing squad) and then headed off. Went to a place called Watendlath. Found Gollum again (he is a sneaky devil), took some rather funny videos of Andy and Matthew, and then had lunch and hot chocolate (or ice-cream if you were crazy because it was freezing!!!) and then headed home. Slept a bit, played a very energetic (ha!) version of the yellow car game, then got back to Matthews house and learnt all about Chavs. If you dont know what a chav is you'll have to come visit and I'll point them out, or buy the book...I'm not about to explain! Got home, unpacked a bit, made some tea (so stressful!) and then Michael came round and we did something but I really dont remember what. Then everyone either left or went to bed and me and Phil stayed up and watched CSI and Vicar of Dibley. Hilarious. Laughed a lot. Late night no.5!

Friday - got to sleep in a bit. Then proceeded to do nothing all day. Until about 6pm when we (me and Phil) went for a walk to the beach. So cold. Went and got some chips for tea. Lovely. Went home, went to pub, had a few drink, had a lot of laughs, got home and watched the previously mentioned 'Long Way Round' episode no.1. Never laughed so much in my life. Not sure if it was the company, the immense lack of sleep or the alcohol or a combination of the lot, but I managed to fall off the settee. Not sure how I managed it. Eventually stumbled upstairs and collapsed asleep. Late night no.6!

Saturday was again filled with not-a-lot. Watched some more Long Way Round. Phil played squash with Michael and another friend, I cleaned church (a tres small part time job, I'm not just nice!) Got chinese food. Went out in the evening to Matthews house, watched the video from the hols and had a lorra laughs. Went home, drank some beer and watched the remaining 4 episodes of Long Way Round. That was a very late night. That is the afore-mentioned 5 hours sleep comes into it! We were both practically dead on our feet, but both managed to stay awake throughout the whole thing, until about 2:30am, and both managed to get up at 8am for Church this morning. I think we're insane. Very late night, and last night, no.7.

Sunday - as already mentioned, got up early, went to Church, came home and ate lunch, went to train station, Phil got on train, I didn't. To put it briefly! Attempted some homework. Managed a bit. Went to Bible Study at church. Watched some of AirForce1 but got fed up even though its a good film. Came here and wrote this. The end. Almost...

p.s. Hope you've enjoyed reading it, hope you managed it, hop you dont mind that you might not have understood all of it, due to not being there and me being a bit too lazy to explain all the jokes. Ta raa!