Moving back to the Big Smoke

On Saturday I'm moving back to London, after a summer away from it, and back to my studies as a second year Philosophy and Theology student. I am so looking forward to going back after being home for almost 4 months. Now I am moving on from living at home or surrounded by people in student halls and now am actually going to be living independently in my own flat in the city. Well, not quite my own, with my two flat mates Andrew and Christina who are going to be wonderful flat mates and hopefully we're going to have some really good times living together. I have slowly been gathering my things together for the move and it's only when you start packing on this scale that one realises how much junk I actually have, but I still stand on the notion that a girl can not have too many shoes, for I have found some that I had forgotten existed. Which is great, it's like getting a surprise new pair of shoes when you know you're going to like them.
I'm going to have to definitely get better at cooking now I'm having to cook for myself, I lived in catered halls last year. I haven't really done much cooking and so I fear it's going to be a job of trial and error until I manage to get it right! We'll have to see.

The Blood Donor...

Yesterday I had nothing to do and nowhere to go but then I got a phone call from my good friend Robbie. This was at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and I only learnt afterwards that he had only been in the country two hours as he had come back from the Balearic Islands that morning. He wanted me to go with him to go and give blood. I was not too keen on the thought even though in the back of my mind I new it was obviously an amazing thing to do, it saves lives. We got to the hall where the donations were taking place and still I really wasn't sure. Robbie was filling in his forms and reading the information, and I was the one feeling nervous even though I hadn't decided to do anything yet. Robbie kept trying to persuade me to get a form and fill it in to give but I still was being a real chicken. Robbie was called up and I watched as the blood started draining from his arm. I then thought of what my mum would say if I got home and said I'd been to the blood donor hall and not actually done it. I could sense that from the very start I knew that I would feel guilty if I left the hall without doing anything, so whilst Robbie wasn't looking I went and got a form to sign up. I felt so much better for making the decision and felt less nervous than I had sitting with him. I had my pint of water they gave me and I felt better, though I can't lie, there were a few butterflies going round my stomach. My name was called and I 'man-up' came to mind so I just went for it. I was asked all the questions and my blood was tested for iron levels by the nurse squeezing blood out of my finger with a "sorry if I'm hurting you" as she squeezed her hardest to get a massive blob on my finger. Then the tourniquet came out and fastened to my arm to see what my veins were like. The nurse looked at me, poking at my veins like there was no tomorrow. Then the worrying "just a minute" came from her lips as she stood up and called over a different nurse. "It's a bit touch and go" I heard and the chicken in me rose up again, was it too late to back out? Robbie had now seen that I had changed my mind and had been grinning away but I knew that at this moment he would have known that behind that little screen I would be freaking out. The nurse came and prodded me again as my arm was slowly turning purple from the tourniquet. "That's a gorgeous vein" she remarked. I wasn't sure if this was a compliment and so kept my mouth shut and just smiled. She asked me my age and I told her I was 19, she seemed surprised, I have such a baby face and look very young. This was the final decision. "Maybe if you wait for a couple of years your veins will have matured. So we won't do it today." Matured?? I didn't know that veins had stages of maturity! Obviously mine were still in the teenage years like me and weren't wide enough. After all that and getting over my chicken fears of getting blood donated. I was rejected. For having thin veins. How disappointing. But at least I had got over myself. I filled in the forms. The feeling of disappointment was far better than guilt and the walk home was for better that way, even if Robbie complained about his arm just to rub it in that I hadn't actually got to donate blood. So in time, in a couple of years, then I can add giving blood to my list of firsts. Until then.

Start by looking back

This past summer has been one of the longest holidays I've had but one of great holidays, many firsts and of many (which I say I will never have because I promise myself I'll fill them with many exciting things) many bored days.
The highlight of my holiday was at the very beginning and so set the standards for the rest of the summer. On June 3rd my parents, my brother Andrew and I had arrived at Heathrow Airport after travelling down from Lancashire the day before and staying with my great aunt for the night. We were flying out to Chicago America and then getting a connecting flight down to St Louis where we would meet up with my brother Mark, his fiancee Dani and her Mother, Robin. We were going for a week for one of the most important days of Mark and Dani's lives, they were getting married. It was a very interesting week, we had never met Dani's family face to face before and we would be staying with her grandparents Jackie and Dave. They were such lovely people and it was fantastic meeting them and getting to know them. The weather over there was like nothing I had ever experienced before, another first, sitting in 100 degrees F heat just waiting for the next air conditioned building we could step into. Dani and Robin had the entire week planned out for us and we had a fantastic time being tourists and hanging out with the family, though the heat was even unusually hot for them and it was hard to stay outside for long without looking for an air conditioned building to step into. An exciting first was that I got to have a go on a motor scooter which was brilliant. The big day came along on the Wednesday. It was a very, very hot day but it was a beautiful occasion. More firsts. I signed as a witness to the wedding. I got to go into an American courtroom. I had a sister-in-law and a whole new branch to my family. I had toasted ravioli. On the Thursday we went to the City Museum which is the best museum I have ever been to, it was more like a playground, it was amazing. It was the first time I had ever been on a ten storey slide, on a Ferris wheel that was 12 floors off the ground, got a bruise from landing so hard on my backside on a slide. However the week had to come to an end and for the first time I had to say goodbye to my brother without knowing when I would see him again.

The rest of the time I spent about 3 weeks in tents at the christian festivals New Wine, Soul Survivor and Momentum where I had a really great time with wonderful people. I learnt so much about myself, my friends, God, about my faith and that actually, I could do things I previously believed that I couldn't. It was the first time I had worked at New Wine, I had been a steward, I had someone tell me I could actually moon walk, even if I only did it the once and wouldn't do it again in case it was a fluke.

It's been a great time to spend with my friends from home after being at university away from them for a year. Though now September has rolled around again the excitement of starting a new year back in London is drawing me in and I can't wait to be back to start busy city life all over again.

The first post

This is the first post of many, hopefully. We'll have to see whether I actually have anything interesting to say or if I will just be talking to myself in blog form.
September seems to be the month for starting new things, so here goes.