Run Away Success

My blog seems to have become my forum for reporting my weekend antics. Well this weekend was a good one too, although I did so much that I missed out on sleep and rest. Foolish.
Friday and Saturday saw me 'on tour' with Beccehamians Ladies rugby team. I had intended it just to be a good day and night out in Bristol with the girls returning on Saturday whilst the girls battles it out in the pitch against St Mary's Old Boys Ladies. Two of us came back on Saturday so our fixtures sec decided to move kick off to 11.45 am. To add a bit of fun and frolics to the proceedings backs and forwards swapped and I nervously donned a number 12. Seeing little Lou, our scrum half, drowned by my usual number 4 was hilarious and I'm not sure second row was the best cure for her hangover. Anyway the game was poor but the oppo shared their players which enabled us to make a good break up the field, the ball went to Kate and then to me metres out from the line. With every ounce of strength and energy I stretched to SCORE MY FIRST TRY! Wicked. I can retire complete!
Sunday was an entirely different day. I dragged my sorry self out of bed at 7 am - a time unknown for the Lord's day of rest - and onto a train bound for Victoria. I joined my lil Sis and her colleagues from Leukaemia Care at Peter Runge House off The Mall to be their volunteer for the day during the Flora London Marathon. It was an exciting and exhausting day - and I didn't even run 26.2 miles. It was great to be part of an event like that. My job was mainly to stand in the rain for 4 hours, waving the Leukaemia Care banner and encouraging people who ran for us to come to the party. It was cold and damp but also amazingly uplifting to see all these people who've raised so much money for good causes. All but twelve of Leukaemia Care's runners finished, and there are pictures on their website I'm afraid to say it might have inspired me - not to run a marathon, God really didn't design me for that, but 5K - that's not so far..............!

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

Happy Easter everyone. I has such a good Easter weekend. It was the right mix of all the things I wanted it to be. I think that the full realisation of what Easter means has not yet permeated my fallible human mind. The Easter message is the lynch pin of my faith. That empty tomb to the left is such an important symbol along with the empty cross. Christ is Risen, He is alive, I follow a living God.
I love Easter. I think I love it more than Christmas. I had such a good time worshipping God, hearing teaching, sharing with James and seeing friends.
I went to Maundy Thursday evening service and I am so glad I did. I felt a tangible sense of the Holy Spirit. The sermon was good, it used The Book of God which is the bible as a novel. It was amazing to hear the story of Jesus washing his disciples feet as a story. My imagination ran wild and it felt so real. Sharing communion on the night that remembers the last supper is such a poignant event. I loved it.
Friday morning saw James and I bums on pews at 9.15 am. Loads of families and a sermon about brokenness, which included the vicar covered in egg! There were lots of people to talk to after and I started to get some of that belonging feeling back.
We decided to go to our normal evening service on Sunday. Again an excellent celebration of Easter , with communion and a strong sermon. The chocolate eggs were gratefully received afterwards!
One of the things I enjoyed most was bundling into our local pub with 22 other Christians to do the most difficult pub quiz in the world. We split into three teams and all did fairly badly, the team with Peter G did best but that's because he's the only one old enough to remember pre decimalisation! It was awesome to see so many young believers together being church and celebrating that Our God Reigns! Amen! H xx
p.s. There's more about the empty tomb and other symbols in a really good book called Signs of the Times

Is it just me....?

Or is everyone else grown up?
James and I went to Cardiff this weekend. It was a nice chance to get away from the day to day, and we stayed in a hotel which always adds to the holiday feeling. It had fabulous views over Cardiff to the sea.
We spent a lot of our time visiting our various friends who have remained in and around Cardiff after university. The experience was lovely, but it did make me feel a bit old!
The first people we visited were one of James' housemates, his partner and their four month old daughter. They seem really well, and they have family support in Bristol. However it was just bizarre seeing him carrying his beautiful girl - I'd never put him in the father role, although he's clearly a doting dad.
Then we saw another of James' friends who lives in a luxury serviced apartment block - weird, like living in a hotel. Again very grown up!
Then we saw my friends Shelly and Andy who have bought a sweet two bedroom in the Cardiff suburbs, and have a fluffy ball of a cat to make it home. Finally we saw Beckie and Pete who've been married just over eighteen months and own a house in The Valleys. They all seem happy, and nothing between us has changed but talking about laying carpets, re-wiring and laminate floors was a world removed from my own.
Partly it made me want to settle - and James and I had a long conversation about what we might do once we're married and where we might think about settling. Things are still so uncertain at the moment - no job news - that thinking about the future seems a bit like a pipe dream, but its a dream I want to turn to reality. H x

Wish you were here?

create your own visited countries map

This is fun - You can get a map of all the countries in the world you have visited. What a lot of travelling I still have to do.
Have already got itchy feet, as James and I discussed our future on Saturday over lunch at the Celtic Cauldron. Watch this space!
H x

Spring Pleasures

Today I feel like I have caught up with life. Good things have happened and the spring sunshine has brightened my mood.
I have a bridesmaid's dress. It's lovely. It's from Monsoon. There was a bit of stress associated with it but Adam, the sales assistant who answered my call at Monsoon in the Trafford Centre, Manchester, is a star!
I had a wonderful weekend with my oldest friend Milla. It was good to be girlie and talk weddings, mainly hers, a bit mine. It was good to chat, and eat and enjoy each other's company.
I read at church on Sunday night and got compliments. It was good. It wasn't a particularly well know passage and I had been worried I wouldn't quite get it right. But I did.
I enjoyed home group - we've decided to go away for a weekend. They're a lovely bunch and it will be good to spend some time just being together.
I won a prize! Only a free beauty treatment but still......
I worked hard today on facilitating a staff meeting session about our business plan and again it went well, despite the clock stopping!
And now I'm off to Rachel's for my prayer triplet meeting with her and Kat. Kat's off to Uganda in a week for five months with Oasis. I am also especially proud because I chose prayer triplet over a rugby meeting because it was in my diary first. I said no!
yours, a smiling Hannah x