After 7 months of being away I finally get around to writing on my blog...but I assure you I am not drifting from NZ even if my vowel sounds may be! I still continue to think of you all often, and especially at this time of the year as EasterCamp, holidays and the last great moments of summer pass by.
So what has occurred in the last 7 months?
After arriving back to Cambridge in late September the following few weeks were spent catching up with friends and having free meals. Following my sadness at leaving, I needed some molly-cottling, so I made sure I went to the families who could cook the best. The Taines (a Walker family friend) The Chaplins (they look after us scholars) and the Charkhams (my vicars' family) ranked very highly. Though I do not really go there for good food, as my mum would have had them believe, it was nice to be welcomed back by them. Michaelmas Term (first term) went by so quickly I'll just highlight those things that occurred.
-The New Zealand Studies Group I have found myself president of held it's first two talks. The first given by Jonathan Hunt about the independent mind of New Zealand. To make his point, he was an hour late, by which time half our patronage exercised their independent minds and left. However the talk itself was very good, and I learnt a lot, including the existence of a lucrative (NZ$19M) onion economy in South Auckland. The second given by Barbara Ewing (actress/author) was severely under-attended but thoroughly interesting; "Race Relations from a Pakeha Perspective, 1950s to present".
-Ross Noble stand-up comedy at the Cambridge Corn Exchange (the local venue, once a corn exchange, now a theatre)
-Two Besom projects (a Christian charity existing to spread the Good News through social action) over two Saturdays painting the inside of this guy Jojo's house. He was originally from Scotland, but has had a bit of a hard time from life: basically he was all alone, could barely walk, and is coming out of a period of drug dependence: so it was arranged for a team of us to go to his house and make it nicer for him, and spend a bit of time over a warm cuppa chatting. It was great times.
-My responsibilities as JCR Treasurer stepped up as I wrote the budget for the undergraduate body and eventually had it passed by all necessary parties. Since then I've been writing cheques and doing my share of the accounting. It's a pretty good lesson for future money management really. Start with somebody elses money...
-I went to Worship Central run by Holy Trinity Brompton Church. It was awesome! Basically a day of teaching and worship for worship leaders run by Tim Hughes and Al Gordon. Pete Greig (from 24/7 prayer) spoke as well. Such a great day and I went with a couple of my friends from Holy Trinity Cambridge. The day was on "the Father's Heart", and to say I learnt loads is an understatement. Ask me more if you're interested. Best of all though I happened to bump into a visiting Kiwi whilst there. Sam Harvey from Soul Survivor New Zealand (spoke at EasterCamp recently and also at the Windsor d:Camp in '07) was there looking around at how things were done, so it was good to catch up with an old friend and go out to the pub for a pint. One of my friends (a girl) who was with me was totally enraptured by him and now considers it her calling to go and work for Soul Survivor New Zealand.
-I continued with my youth group which grew in numbers from 4 to 11 such a blessing and answer to prayer. The kids really began to feel like they belonged and were becoming more comfortable around each other. We held a mince pies and mulled wine evening closer to Christmas for all the families and youth. The evening was really well attended. We could not have asked for God to have done more, so both Sarah (my co-leader, see later photos) and I were froathing (not mothing!) on that.
-I started leading a student group at church also. Quite possibly this is the highlight of my year. The group is so amazing, and the way the Freshers' integrated and really became part of the family...brilliant! My co-leader Clemmie is wonderful, but basically her and I just use the whole thing as an excuse to meet up for coffee.
-The classic events occurred: Laura (Adam's fiance) visited and we went out places. Bonfire night (which apparently is not really called Guy Fawkes cause that's the bad-guys name). Work. People's birthdays. Skype conversations. Concerts. Mulled Wine.
-The Douglas Myers and Girdlers' NZ scholars arranged to meet up for a formal, and again I seemed to be the one sorting this out. But it was a great night, we hosted the Doug Myers Scholars at Corpus, with NZ wine and general NZ banter. It was good to see Sam Coldicutt settled and doing well also.
-Corpus Drama Society did a rip off of the Sound of Music called the Sound of Corpus, which of course was the natural next step for me in my dramatic career. A total farce, the whole thing had two rehearsals and was the most fun I ever had on stage. It was about a fresher girl who found herself in a magical wonderland called Cambridge to study but ended up falling in love. I was the girls father before you start thinking I was the girl...
-The Girdlers' made their way up to Cambridge to follow our progress. It was great to see them, and after the formalities were over it was nice to take the ties off and go out for a meal as friends. I am really loving the way this whole thing has taken on the shape of a family, and whenever the Girdlers come to visit, it is like the uncles are coming.
-HT had it's annual houseparty (a funny British way of camping. You can't go tenting cause you'll drown, so hold your church events in an old manor house and call it a party.) So much fun though - a definite rival for d:camp! It has go-karting...but I guess that's not really why.
-And of course, the wonderful Rachel Walker paid me a visit. It was great to see her face, and hear she was doing well. It would have been very close to her returning home so I was very honored she put in the miles to see me. It is always nice having her visit.
Holidays came around, and you will have noticed I did not make it back to New Zealand. After helping direct the children's nativity play (young people are classic - the archangel Gabriel was a 10 year old boy who didn't want to be an angel cause they're all instrument playing girls. After we convinced him that angels were warriors and that he could have a sword he agreed to read the lines.) I was off to Northern Ireland. Adam's family took me in and loved me as a son over Christmas (pretty much to the standard of being back home so I was nowhere near as home sick as I could have been thanks to their care.) I had such a great few weeks with them - so relaxing, fun and always good to be with Adam's and his family. Then something unseen in the history of Europe occurred. Mum came! On the 28th she arrived after spending Christmas at home she then brought it with her to me :) I tell you I was as excited as a little girl with a lollipop on Christmas morning who was just given a pony. I'll let the pictures tell that story (if Mum hasn't told you already), but to summarise. Mum came to Belfast, then we went to London for New Years, followed by Rome, Florence, Venice, Paris and finally Cambridge!
As soon as mum left, I was a few days into lectures so there was no time to settle down without her, just straight into things. I had actually missed two mock exams because of our return time from Paris, but that wasn't actually my fault because they were set 24 hours before I got back to Cambridge, and outside of full term, so I didn't have to do them in the end. Well done mum!
-Early in Lent Term the Watoto Ugandan Children's Choir came to HT to tell of what's being going on back in Uganda. That was very cool to say the least, and nice to see something that reminded me of Windsor back home.
-I continued on with leading the youth group with great anticipation. The were some strong 'words' and direction from God of where we really ought to be taking the group, so it is amazing to be able to look back on that term now and really see them as fulfilled. The term really culminated in us taking the guys on a night away in a Hostel we hired out in Great Yarmouth on the South Coast of England. We all met and took the train out - the train ride alone was the longest period of time these guys had spent together in one place, as youth group normally last 1 1/2 hours each week, so it was really good for them to make stronger friendships. We tried our best to keep them away from the lollies, but by the end a whole tub had been eating and they were bouncing off the walls a bit. I felt sorry for the other passengers really. At the hostel the guys went mental, especially once they found out they had full run of the place. We had themed the night "Love" and had two session of teaching, the first on loving God and the second on loving your neighbor. It was pretty daunting really, trying to get that across to a bunch of 11-14 year olds in two sessions totaling 3 hours. But in amongst all of the mayhem of youth work there were so many little blessings that confirmed they were getting it. I mean such leaps and bounds were had in this one night, as a group they actually worshipped together without worry of the person next to them, and were praying on top of each other it was so exciting. We played some beach games at night down on the beach, followed by (desugared) hot chocolate and bed. The next morning we had another session of teaching, to challenge them to think outside of themselves as people (loving our neighbors) and then headed to the beach for some cricket before returning home. I can't put up any pictures of our time for child protection reasons, but here is a picture of Sarah and I looking happy walking to the station.
-Pancake Day, some friends from my house and I all cooked some pancakes and had a race around market square with them. It was pretty silly, and the locals weren't too impressed to have people charging past flipping pancakes in frying pans, but it was a good laugh.
-Waitangi Day I was down in London with the Girdlers to celebrate with a feast and a service at the NZ Society's church. That was an event to be had: because of the renovations the Girdlers' are doing to the their hall, the feast was in the Armourers and Braziers hall down the road. Wall after wall was lined with swords, suits of armour and shields. There was even the suit of armour used by Queen Victoria's champion.
-I have taken the opportunity to go to Zambia this Summer on a mission with my church. It's pretty exciting, I'm not gonna lie, but it did mean that I was constantly filling out massive grant application forms all term (and still am). It is a massive time drain, but the rewards are slowly coming in, and it will SO be worth it in the summer when we actually go. It's in partnership with Tearfund and the Jubilee Centre in Zambia. We'll be based in the north in Ndola, running HIV/AIDS youth action clubs, helping disperse food, spending the day with a Zambian family, teaching in schools, and visiting the sick to pray with them (among other things). After the 17 days we'll be doing that, some of us are staying on to travel. Not quite sure where yet, if you've any suggestions I'd love to hear them! All in all I'll be out there for a month. SO EXCITED!
-I've been looking around for places to do a summer studentship and have got my first real lead this weekend. it'll be looking at primary drug design for TB, but nothing is for certain yet. (It's with one of the labs whose head is a world leader in HIV research so mega-keen to meet him!) Searching for that has taken up the other major chunk of my free time this term (outside of work) so it's been really hectic. (Hence no blog during that time :( ) There is a lot to apply for cause I'll need funding for this also, so there's more applications too. I guess the one great thing I've noticed is that there really are ways to do something, and people who will help you to do them, if only you spend the time to look and ask for help.
-More food with friends. More church. More work. More time at the pub (not a cafe but I am becoming accustomed to a nice warm ale in winter). Less sleep. More clubbing.
-Saturday nights we've taking to having a whole house meal where someone cooks and everyone chips in £2 or so. It's really nice to sit down all together and share a meal. A of course liking food I'm always one for a meal.
-The 2nd years around Cambridge have started a prayer, worship, fellowship, "community" night which has been the most influential and challenging thing in my life this past term. There's so much to share from these times, but I won't in this 'short' blog, ask me if you're interested in finding out more. I will say though, committing to dynamic community is a great thing!
-Our new college bar opened, always big news. As did the library. After 5 years in construction it was about time really. There were 3 separate occasions where burial sites were found so construction was halted. I guess with nearly a thousand years of history you're bound to unearth something. They're great though. Nobody else really likes them because they're really modern, but they remind me of an Albany cafe so I'm loving it.
-The NZ Society held another talk by a New Zealander who is Senior Tutor and Law Fellow at Brasenose College in Oxford. For some reason I cannot remember his name, but it was a very interesting talk on the evolving relationship between judges and politicians in New Zealand. Something I knew nothing about, and still don't really, but it made sense at the time.
-Three of my youth group girls got confirmed this term so it was nice to be invited to that.
-Dara O'Briain, an irish comedian came to the corn exchange, so to support Adam (and because the guys is hilarious) I went along to see that. There's always something on at night too. If you want to go see a play, just go see one. A choir or orchestra will normally be performing 4 of 7 nights a week. It's awesome.
-The kiwis had a return formal swap, so this time the Douglas Myers hosted us at Gonville & Caius college. Stephen Hawkings didn't show up, but his massive self-portrait couldn't really be missed.
-We had our halfway hall. I'm not actually halfway yet cause I'm four years, but for those whose degrees are 3 years, this meal represented halfway through their lives in Cambridge.
-It snowed on Easter Sunday! I love snow...
So term finished and Easter came. I helped out at HT with the children's program during that time, and left only last Wednesday to go to Northern Ireland to stay with Adam for a bit. On the Tuesday before I met up with some friends from HT in London just to hang out. It was so great to get away and just be silly.
After leaving Adam on Sunday, I'm now on the train from Stoke in the north having stayed with another friend, Jonny, for a few days. He took me up to the Peaks District where we went cycling and walking. Man it was nice to see some hills and mountains again. I also nipped over to Wolverhampton where my girlfriend Sally is studying sign language. Long story there so you'll have to ask for more info, but it's going well thanks...I'm now on my way back to Cambridge to really get down to some study because in 2 months (which sounds like ages but will pass in the wink of an eye, especially with the work to be done) I have EXAMS!
So that is me in a rather large nutshell. Well done if you are still reading. I apologise once again for the extreme slackness in updating you all. Please know I am well, and that I hope you are also. I do think of everyone often, but I guess I am keeping my head down so I don't feel like I am missing you all too much. If you can find some time to get in touch, please do (also if you can forgive me for my laziness) cause I would be very interested to hear how you are. Alternatively we could arrange a Skype call if you have Skype; we could even make it a coffee date ;)
And the final question..when am I next home? To be honest I don't know. It could be as soon as Christmas or as late as August '09 but I'm still trying to figure that one out. You will see me sometime between those very broad dates though. I really look forward to it.
For now, God Bless, and best of luck with the transition into winter :P
Blake x
The whole Houseparty
EXCITEMENT at the races
-And of course, the wonderful Rachel Walker paid me a visit. It was great to see her face, and hear she was doing well. It would have been very close to her returning home so I was very honored she put in the miles to see me. It is always nice having her visit.
Holidays came around, and you will have noticed I did not make it back to New Zealand. After helping direct the children's nativity play (young people are classic - the archangel Gabriel was a 10 year old boy who didn't want to be an angel cause they're all instrument playing girls. After we convinced him that angels were warriors and that he could have a sword he agreed to read the lines.) I was off to Northern Ireland. Adam's family took me in and loved me as a son over Christmas (pretty much to the standard of being back home so I was nowhere near as home sick as I could have been thanks to their care.) I had such a great few weeks with them - so relaxing, fun and always good to be with Adam's and his family. Then something unseen in the history of Europe occurred. Mum came! On the 28th she arrived after spending Christmas at home she then brought it with her to me :) I tell you I was as excited as a little girl with a lollipop on Christmas morning who was just given a pony. I'll let the pictures tell that story (if Mum hasn't told you already), but to summarise. Mum came to Belfast, then we went to London for New Years, followed by Rome, Florence, Venice, Paris and finally Cambridge!
Belfast
Mum and I at the Giants Causeway, North Coast, Northern Ireland
Adam and Laura at the Giants Causeway
The wonderful Gordon Family (l-r): Noel, Emma, Adam, Ben, Linda, Mum and Me
London
outside We Will Rock You on the West End - New Years Eve
New Years mayhem at Waterloo Bridge, so much for a quiet stroll along the Thames!
Mums favorite place: the Underground
Westminster Abbey
Up the London Eye
One for Trent...
Keeping it artistic in front of the London Eye
We met up with a familiar face. It's great for mum to have coffee buddies all over the world.
The NZ Memorial
One for Brody...
Rome
Some nice Italian students who helped us get from the airport to the train station. Probably the only nice Italians we met, but then we don't speak Italian.
No guesses for what this is...
Entrance of the Colosseum
Arch of Constantine (a few handy photo stitches used there)
Mum and I at the Roman Forum (Terrace of the Quadrigas in the background)
Our favorite piece of art in all Europe
Local cuisine courtesy of Cafe Bernini
View of the Colosseum from the Terrace of the Quadrigas
The Pantheon
Post at the Vatican
Breakfast in the convent where we stayed. "Suore di Santa Elisbaetta"
The dining hall of the convent
Inside the Cupola of the Vatican
Inside St. Peter's Cathedral - the Vatican
St. Peter's Square - Vatican City
The Colosseum with two very funny looking people
Florence
Inside "Duomo" - the largest domed Cathedral in the world.
Santa Maria Novella Train Station
A common sight of lights lining one of the many shopping streets
Mum with a replica of the David (we did see the real one, photos weren't allowed though.)
A typical Italian restaurant.
Venice
The mouth of the Grand Canal
The Grand Canal
I think they got their sports wrong.
Gelato and a view of the lights on the canal in the evening. Could you want more?
The Grand Canal in the evening.
Saint Mark's Square (San Marco - all signs point here, none actually get you there though)
Another view of the Grand Canal
Mum with L'Academie behind and the Grand Canal to the left
A beautiful hidden chapel on the island of Murano (where the glass comes from)
On Murano Island
Paris
Galeries LaFayette! Blasphemously more beautiful than many of the churches we visited
:)
Mum on a stunner of a day at Champs du Mars - the park facing the Eiffel Tower. We had just finished our breakfast of Croissant, Cheese, Pain au Chocolat and Coffee. Well worth it!
Palais Royal: The Louvre. Funny long story cut short, we bumped into Kirstie Gray and her family outside, totally by random! I couldn't believe it, such a small world we live in. I think Kirstie has the photographic evidence. It was lovely to see her.
The Rue Cler markets. We stayed on this street and the grocers were irresistible.
Notre Dame at dusk
Jardin des Tuleries (I think is how it's spelt, Louise will correct me if I'm wrong for sure)
Mum on a suitable backdrop of authentic Monet at L'Orangerie Museum
My favorite view of the Paris Skyline from Place de la Concorde
Champs Elysees on a freezing evening. A beautiful street to stroll up!
A little bit of Parisian art on my part
Cambridge
In front of St. John's college
Looking formal before Formal Hall
In front of Corpus carrying the final shop before mum left. It was so nice having her there. You always see everyone else with their parents come and go and fix everything and make life seem lovely again - so it was great to have that happen to me.
As soon as mum left, I was a few days into lectures so there was no time to settle down without her, just straight into things. I had actually missed two mock exams because of our return time from Paris, but that wasn't actually my fault because they were set 24 hours before I got back to Cambridge, and outside of full term, so I didn't have to do them in the end. Well done mum!
-Early in Lent Term the Watoto Ugandan Children's Choir came to HT to tell of what's being going on back in Uganda. That was very cool to say the least, and nice to see something that reminded me of Windsor back home.
-I continued on with leading the youth group with great anticipation. The were some strong 'words' and direction from God of where we really ought to be taking the group, so it is amazing to be able to look back on that term now and really see them as fulfilled. The term really culminated in us taking the guys on a night away in a Hostel we hired out in Great Yarmouth on the South Coast of England. We all met and took the train out - the train ride alone was the longest period of time these guys had spent together in one place, as youth group normally last 1 1/2 hours each week, so it was really good for them to make stronger friendships. We tried our best to keep them away from the lollies, but by the end a whole tub had been eating and they were bouncing off the walls a bit. I felt sorry for the other passengers really. At the hostel the guys went mental, especially once they found out they had full run of the place. We had themed the night "Love" and had two session of teaching, the first on loving God and the second on loving your neighbor. It was pretty daunting really, trying to get that across to a bunch of 11-14 year olds in two sessions totaling 3 hours. But in amongst all of the mayhem of youth work there were so many little blessings that confirmed they were getting it. I mean such leaps and bounds were had in this one night, as a group they actually worshipped together without worry of the person next to them, and were praying on top of each other it was so exciting. We played some beach games at night down on the beach, followed by (desugared) hot chocolate and bed. The next morning we had another session of teaching, to challenge them to think outside of themselves as people (loving our neighbors) and then headed to the beach for some cricket before returning home. I can't put up any pictures of our time for child protection reasons, but here is a picture of Sarah and I looking happy walking to the station.
-Pancake Day, some friends from my house and I all cooked some pancakes and had a race around market square with them. It was pretty silly, and the locals weren't too impressed to have people charging past flipping pancakes in frying pans, but it was a good laugh.
-Waitangi Day I was down in London with the Girdlers to celebrate with a feast and a service at the NZ Society's church. That was an event to be had: because of the renovations the Girdlers' are doing to the their hall, the feast was in the Armourers and Braziers hall down the road. Wall after wall was lined with swords, suits of armour and shields. There was even the suit of armour used by Queen Victoria's champion.
-I have taken the opportunity to go to Zambia this Summer on a mission with my church. It's pretty exciting, I'm not gonna lie, but it did mean that I was constantly filling out massive grant application forms all term (and still am). It is a massive time drain, but the rewards are slowly coming in, and it will SO be worth it in the summer when we actually go. It's in partnership with Tearfund and the Jubilee Centre in Zambia. We'll be based in the north in Ndola, running HIV/AIDS youth action clubs, helping disperse food, spending the day with a Zambian family, teaching in schools, and visiting the sick to pray with them (among other things). After the 17 days we'll be doing that, some of us are staying on to travel. Not quite sure where yet, if you've any suggestions I'd love to hear them! All in all I'll be out there for a month. SO EXCITED!
-I've been looking around for places to do a summer studentship and have got my first real lead this weekend. it'll be looking at primary drug design for TB, but nothing is for certain yet. (It's with one of the labs whose head is a world leader in HIV research so mega-keen to meet him!) Searching for that has taken up the other major chunk of my free time this term (outside of work) so it's been really hectic. (Hence no blog during that time :( ) There is a lot to apply for cause I'll need funding for this also, so there's more applications too. I guess the one great thing I've noticed is that there really are ways to do something, and people who will help you to do them, if only you spend the time to look and ask for help.
-More food with friends. More church. More work. More time at the pub (not a cafe but I am becoming accustomed to a nice warm ale in winter). Less sleep. More clubbing.
Out at the Cindies (a local club)
-Saturday nights we've taking to having a whole house meal where someone cooks and everyone chips in £2 or so. It's really nice to sit down all together and share a meal. A of course liking food I'm always one for a meal.
-The 2nd years around Cambridge have started a prayer, worship, fellowship, "community" night which has been the most influential and challenging thing in my life this past term. There's so much to share from these times, but I won't in this 'short' blog, ask me if you're interested in finding out more. I will say though, committing to dynamic community is a great thing!
-Our new college bar opened, always big news. As did the library. After 5 years in construction it was about time really. There were 3 separate occasions where burial sites were found so construction was halted. I guess with nearly a thousand years of history you're bound to unearth something. They're great though. Nobody else really likes them because they're really modern, but they remind me of an Albany cafe so I'm loving it.
-The NZ Society held another talk by a New Zealander who is Senior Tutor and Law Fellow at Brasenose College in Oxford. For some reason I cannot remember his name, but it was a very interesting talk on the evolving relationship between judges and politicians in New Zealand. Something I knew nothing about, and still don't really, but it made sense at the time.
-Three of my youth group girls got confirmed this term so it was nice to be invited to that.
-Dara O'Briain, an irish comedian came to the corn exchange, so to support Adam (and because the guys is hilarious) I went along to see that. There's always something on at night too. If you want to go see a play, just go see one. A choir or orchestra will normally be performing 4 of 7 nights a week. It's awesome.
-The kiwis had a return formal swap, so this time the Douglas Myers hosted us at Gonville & Caius college. Stephen Hawkings didn't show up, but his massive self-portrait couldn't really be missed.
-We had our halfway hall. I'm not actually halfway yet cause I'm four years, but for those whose degrees are 3 years, this meal represented halfway through their lives in Cambridge.
The whole year, looking somewhat annoyed at the photographer
Me, Jan (the lovely Tutorial office lady), Jonny, a DoS (I have no idea who actually :S) and Anna after hall. Anna's face is like that because we had to bring one thing that represents us in Cambridge to the dinner. See below photo...
Rebecca (she says hi to all you NZers she met when she was over), Anna and Luiseach
-It snowed on Easter Sunday! I love snow...
My house in the snow, that's my room on the bottom floor, right bay window
St. Bene'ts garden
Hi...
Kings Bridge over the Cam River
Kings College
Holy Trinity in the Snow
So term finished and Easter came. I helped out at HT with the children's program during that time, and left only last Wednesday to go to Northern Ireland to stay with Adam for a bit. On the Tuesday before I met up with some friends from HT in London just to hang out. It was so great to get away and just be silly.
James, Rachael, Elaine, Sian and I in Leicester Square
Sian, Elaine and I on the underground
The time in Northern Ireland was also good just to get out of Cambridge really, and be taken into the wonderful Gordon home where I've really become one of the family.
Stepping Stones at Tallymore Forest. The wettest walk I've been on in my life. Waterproof, Jacket, Jumper, Shirt and still wet to the bone.
Chris Cupples and I. Chris is another Northern Irish friend of mine getting married next summer. He's a bit of a legend actually.
Manifold Valley in the Peaks District
The Manifold Valley
Jonny and I up at Thor's Cave with the valley flowing out behind.
Sally and I.
And the final question..when am I next home? To be honest I don't know. It could be as soon as Christmas or as late as August '09 but I'm still trying to figure that one out. You will see me sometime between those very broad dates though. I really look forward to it.
For now, God Bless, and best of luck with the transition into winter :P
Blake x
