We're all going on a...

... summer holiday!

Woohoo, the youth holiday is on Saturday!!! I'm just hoping that the crap weather will go by the time we go :-s

Went to see Birmingham City play footy last night and even a person like me who doesn't know much about football can say that they were crap! (sorry to anyone who comes from or supports Birmingham!) We had really good seats it was just a shame that they didn't even score once (they lost 3-0!!!)

Going to Cardiff tonight to do some leaflet handing out stuff for Emily and wife. Should be really cool to see them and their new home city.

Even though I know the youth holiday is in like 3 days I am sooo unprepared. I don't think I have anything I need but not to worry, my style is always last minute!

Caving experience

I can now put caving on my list of things I've done (I don’t actually have a list by the way, but I could start one I suppose). Just got back and it was very cool.

First off the instructor man kept confusing me at the beginning. At first I swear he said we had to take off our pants. I was assuming he wasn’t chatting in American language and literally meant underwear so I was thinking ‘what?!’ but luckily it turned out we didn’t have to take off our underwear just our trousers and we had to put on these inner suits and then another suit on top of that, not forgetting the helmet, belt and attractive wellies! It was typical, me and Nami were the only girls there (apart from the lady instructor) and we both got the crappy old suits and the boys got ones that looked brand new! To make things worse mine had two holes in the outer suit, so when I was in the cave even more water was coming through!

I realised that I was fortunate when it came to caving because I’m a tiny person so I found it easier getting through the tight spaces. We got to points where there were mini rivers running through and I got absolutely soaked! It wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be though, bit of excitement for the day!

Off to Adam’s BBQ in a bit so will probably see most of you there!

results!!! :-s

So yesterday was results day. I hadn’t been thinking about it at all summer, I manage to block things out of my mind if I don’t want to remember them! I wasn’t actually nervous until I arrived at the front doors and saw everyone else!

The results turned out good (for me anyway!). Last year I’d had a really bad year of sixth form and ended up with two D’s and two E’s!!! This year, even though I’d started up completely different subjects (from maths to English- how different can you get?!) I got a B in media studies, C in English language/literature and D in… RE which I thought I would fail because exam was solid and we didn’t do any coursework!

Big congratulations to everyone else that got their results too (Nami, Alicea and Babz- even though she doesn’t know them yet!)

I learned how to play poker yesterday too. I've never played it before, it always sounded so complicated (and it is) but I won!!!! Woohoo! Don’t think id be as risk-taking as I was if it was with real money though!

Gemm... no wait.. Emma

The title of this may make you think that this is about people getting my name wrong. Well it's not although people do get confused (mainly at work as there is another girl called Emma).

This is about a family I used to live in the same street as. In my old street there were some very, lets say different characters who lived there. My family, I would like to add, were one of the normal ones- 'The Norms'!!! Although some of you may disagree with that!

Anyway, there was this one family who had about 6 kids! My mum bumped into the mum and one of the daughters the other day and told me this really funny conversation that she had with them:

(The follwing conversation should be imagined in a very Bristolian accent, Vicky Pollard style)

Sue (the mum): Yeh, well Donna (her eldest daughter), she's got 3 children now, Tom, Gemma and Emma

Lisa (the daughter): Gemma and Emma, how stupid is that!

Sue: Well there is a reason for it Lisa! When Gemma was born, Grandad kept calling her Emma.
(Has a very serious look)
So when the second girl was born Donna called her Emma, then at least he'll get one of the names right!

I mean can you imagine knowing two sisters with almost the same name!!! This might not sound funny to you but trust me, if you knew the family you would find it hilarious!

Soul Survivor baby!!!

Hi guys!!!!

I'm back from Soul Survivor and I'm knackered!!!! I had to go to work first thing this morning so I couldn't even get a lie-in to catch up on all the lost sleep I've had! We didn’t get to sleep till 2.30-3am every night! Basically it was soooo cool! You all have to go next year!

Before we even left it looked like the girls (me, Char, Nami and Sam) were going to be staying in a 2-man tent!!! I blame this on Daza as he said his tent was a 6-man tent but then it turned out to be a little kids Tweenie tent! Anyway, fortunately Adam at the last minute (true Sanctuary style!) bought a 4-man tent in the morning!

Anyway, so Soul Survivor- it was amazing! There were about 8500 people there, maybe even more and all these people gathered together in a massive big top tent in the mornings and evenings for praise and worship and teaching sessions. The praise and worship was really cool. Tim Hughes led most of it but some days we had Delirious and also Hillsong United were there who were really good! Most of the time it felt like you were in a concert though because there were just so many people and whenever we got to the stage where you’re just quiet and getting deeper into worship, somebody always had to clap and cheer which was a bit annoying.

There was so much going on that it always felt as though whatever you did you’d be missing out on something! There were loads of different areas where you could hang out when seminars weren’t going on. There was one place called the ‘Underground’ where it was all urban music and people like 29th Chapter were there. There was also somewhere called ‘Lift’ which was like a skate park, which was sooo cool! There was a balcony where you could watch the skaters from above.

One morning me and char went to a girl’s only session and I could actually skate in a straight line and even turn corners! The next morning I went again and got a bit more adventurous and had a go on a mini ramp. I was doing well but for a split second lost it and fell right on my hip- it KILLS!!!!

Everyday there was a dance workshop and it was very good. The dancer guy was amazing and we might be able to get him to teach at our dance group, which would be cool!

There was a market place where they had loads of stalls and poor Lisa had to be there for practically most of the day! There were different cafes, which did the best cakes! One with comfy cushions (although it was always too packed to actually get a comfy cushion!) and one with live music (which was also packed out). There was another tent which was called ‘Mr Boogies’ where there was a disco full of cheesy music- soooo much fun!!!! AND, there was another place where they had gigs on every night. I went to see Hillsong United one night who were really really good, worth waiting to get in for!

So as you can see there was LOADS going on! I've probably missed loads out but there you go!

Good times

Sunday- Last night I went out with a few of my friends from my old school Colston’s. I haven’t seen them for months, I think the last time I saw them was Christmas! We’re all quite different people and into different things but we all get on really well.

My friend Liz has started working at her local pub in Kingswood so we all met up there. It wasn’t the best night to catch up because it was karaoke so we could hardly hear ourselves think! It was really cool to just see them and reminisce on old times at Colston’s.

Catching up with them made me think about how I treat my friendships. Even though I love all my friends from church to bits, I feel that I should spend more time with my unsaved friends, because at the end of the day, they’re the ones who wont be going to heaven and need somebody to tell them that.

Today- I nearly overslept this morning, which wasn’t good! Luckily my mum always seems to be aware if I'm not out of bed when I should be and woke me up which gave me about 20minutes to get ready! BIG rush!!!!

Had to go to the dentist today and in Maria's defence- dentists are not evil!!!! In fact mine is actually really cool. He has a little garden outside his room where he grows tomatoes and he also has the coolest thing of all… a jukebox!!! Being the sad family that we are we all went in together and as I was waiting for my turn the dentist said ‘why don’t you pick a song Gemma’ so I got to pick a selection of songs mainly from the 60’s and 70’s- it was so groovy- just like this colour pattern!!!

Lozza without hair...

My brother Andy is known for making some really random comments and last night he again said something which made us all laugh!

We were talking about Lozza's hair (Tom keeps nagging her to change the style!) and my brother decided to say 'You should go bald'.

So I just thought I'd release bald Lozza onto my blog- Loz, I don't think you should take my brother's advice...

The adventures of working at John Lewis

Well, I'd already written this blog earlier and then in my blonde moment I accidentally deleted it- how annoying!!!

So another Saturday is over and whilst I have been slaving away at work, all you lucky people have been enjoying your freedom (at least I hope).

Bit of a weird morning. I got to work at about 8am (one hour before the shop opens), said my hellos and then went off to do a little job (a price change in case you’re interested in specifics!)- all by myself!

Then about 10 minutes into it a man’s voice over the speaker thingy says something about a fire evacuation and then there was just this really annoying continuous beeping. The man’s voice said to exit from the nearest fire escape- I didn’t know where the nearest fire escape was, I mean how am I meant to know where one is after working there for one and a half years?! I was all by myself and seriously did not have a clue what to do.

I ended up just following everyone else and trying to find a face I knew, which in the end I did. If it were a real fire, how helpful would I be! Leading the customers to safety- what a joke!!!

Highlight from day at work- getting locked in cash office by myself (surrounded by thousands of pounds in cash- they must really trust me!) which meant I could put the radio on whilst I worked because the other lady (who doesn’t like listening to music) was on training! Sad I know, but true.

Photo!

This post doesn't actually have much of a purpose, I just wanted to add a photo!

As I don't have a digital camera, I thought I'd use a photo that my friend Alicea sent me! So thanks Alicea for sending the photos!!!

Funny Friends!!!

I was surprised at how little my friends Nami and Sam knew about computers!

Basically I was helping them set up a Hotmail account and MSN Messenger. Here's just a couple of the funny conversations...

1)
Nami: How do you get that picture?

Gem: What picture?

Nami: The one you've got

Gem: You click on 'change display picture'!!!

Nami: Oh... How do I add that person?

Gem: *sighs* you click on 'add contact'... It's not rocket science!!!

2)
Sam: Ooo, what's that?

Gem: It's a blog

Sam: What's that?

Gem: It's like a diary type thing, you can write anything, feelings, stories etc.

Sam: Oh, can I have one?

Gem: Yeh sure, we need to set you up an email address first

Sam: what's an email?

Gem: It's when you send mail over the internet Sam! (expecting her to then ask what the internet is!!) Maybe a blog is a bit too advanced for you at the moment Sam!