Is it just me or did everyone lose the whole of April? Nope, didn't think I'd be able to use that as an excuse for not blogging so, erm... sorry. I could claim I was doing DBEDA (the opposite of Blog Every Day in April) however that's a bit ridiculous and in reality I was just very very busy.
It seems like so much has happened since the last time I blogged and every time I think about writing a blog some other bit of important news pops up or I do something else that's awesome. However, it seems that fast approaching exams have halted my social life for a bit and surely April and May have had their fill of big news events so I'm just going to try and sum up a month or so worth of happenings in one blog post. I can't just ignore some things so here we go...
Let me start with where I spent the first week of the Easter holidays: the middle of nowhere. More specifically Heatree House in Manaton near Exeter where I spent a week with some of my Christian friends on a camp learning more about God, discussing common topics from a Christian viewpoint, having a lot of fun in boats, ice-skating, running about after or away from leaders, going for long walks and just generally being there for each other and having a good time. I think this year was possibly my favourite year so far. Even if I did end up in A&E on the last night. The week was just amazing and it was great to be reminded how much joy knowing Jesus can bring. The joy of being loved, the joy of belonging, the joy of security, the joy of having a purpose, the joy of the reward and the joy of the future. The gospel gives us so many reasons to be joyful and, despite our tendency to worry, it's so comforting to know God is in control.
What's that? You're not going to let me just pass over the fact that I was in A&E? Don't worry, it wasn't anything too serious. I just got impaled on a coat peg. Well, that's the short, rather exaggerated version. It started with a game called 'assassins'*. We were each given a name, location and a sticker which we were to put on the shoulder of named person in said location and thereby obtaining their name and location. Being the master assassin I am, I managed to survive to the last six or so at which point locations were removed. It was a sticker crazy free for all and being a master assassin, I took up lodge in the kitchen to keep an eye on my target who had washing up duties plus the kitchen was a no kill zone. However, my assassin had other plans. He decided to pick me up and carry me out of the kitchen as one does. Of course, I was hardly going to go down without a fight so a combination of his competitiveness, my stubbornness and the coat pegs located on the wall of the adjacent drying room led to a rather large gash on my back. Of course, me being me, I refused to let them take me to A&E until after the evening talk but by 2am I was snuggled back in bed trying not to roll on the bit of my back which was taped together with many steri-strips and layers of dressing!
Of course, a week of Easter Camp hasn't been the only thing to happen since I last blogged. I spent a day at Knole Park with three very awesome friends (a lot of deer jokes were said throughout the day...) a fun day being a nerd with Josh, a Saturday helping at the church fun day at which I was wrapped up in toilet paper by the kids and made cotton wool sheep with them, and an awesome Saturday at the Doctor Who experience with some of my favourite nerds (oh my goodness it was fantastic!) before being amazed at the National Theatre's production of Frankenstein.
Let me expand on last Saturday: after an early morning (well, early for a Saturday) I headed over to the train station to meet my friends on the train to London which contained a lot of Who related debate (what else do you think will happen when you put eight whovians in the same space?!) and then, after meeting up with two other friends we headed over to The Doctor Who Experience. We were so excited you couldn't keep half of us on the floor so you can imagine our reaction when the guy on the door said with a dead pan face "I'm sorry, we're not allowing anyone else in until one o'clock." Thank goodness he was joking and we were soon inside the world of Doctor Who. We were surrounded by objects from the various series (even some classic who stuff too) and the walk through bit was amazing. Stepping through a crack in time and space, entering an amalgamation between the library and the starship and riding in the TARDIS (the floor moved and everything!) I genuinely got so into the experience I got scared by the stone angel statues we passed at one point (don't stand at the back!) and they had a short bit of "proper 3D" film when it felt like the daleks were shooting at me directly and stone angels had their hands seemingly mere centimetres away from my face. We spent way too long absorbing it all in and got way over exited to take a picture in front of the TARDIS (Tenth's interior as well as Eleventh's exterior.) It was an amazing morning. We also had a bit of a Kristina Horner** moment when we saw some of the cute kids that had come dressed as the Doctor!
Of course, for the afternoon we had to grow up from being 8 back up to being adults as we watched Frankenstein that afternoon. It was a stunning performance (if you ignore the amounts of flesh revealed at times) and I could quite happily return and just watch the set changes. The stage had a circular rotating platform that raised and lowered and set seemed to appear almost out of nowhere!
The past month has also been full of rather large events in the news. Starting with what has been rather overshadowed by more recent events: the death of Elizabeth Sladen. Despite being too old, I watched Sarah Jane Adventures as obsessively as the Doctor Who episodes and Sarah Jane was one of the best companions. It was such a shock to hear that she had died of cancer and I guess I'm just adding my bit to say she will be greatly missed in the world of Who.
Of course the event that consumed England towards the end of April (and a lot of the time before) was the royal wedding. Unlike my friend Beth who took it upon herself to knit the happy couple (although I believe she may not have finished in time!) I didn't really get into the wedding and didn't even really watch much of it. I know it was meant to be a big occasion however I regret to inform you that I wasn't feeling particularly patriotic and just watched some of the highlights on YouTube afterwards!
Nevertheless, the world soon forgot the happy royal couple anyway. America in particular have been celebrating the death of Osama Bin Laden - a news story that has dominated the whole week and seemingly even overshadowed the referendum in England too.*** I can understand how people are happy that someone who has been such a large figure in the world of terrorism is no longer a threat or how this could be a turning point however it just doesn't seem right to celebrate anyone's death. Even if said person was behind the death of so many others, it feels like we're stooping to their lows if we celebrate their death. Furthermore, surely celebrations are likely to aggravate things? Has nobody learnt from the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand?****
I hope this blog has sufficiently caught you up with the goings on of Hannah and seen as exams are fast approaching, I'm sure there will be a number of procrastination or stress-filled blogs in the coming weeks however, for now, I shall love you and leave you my dear readers. DFTBA!
*We didn't say that to the triage nurse. Her story was along the lines of "I was mucking about with a friend" which was very loosely the case!
**Kristina Horner being a member of ALL CAPS known as italktosnakes online who always manages to find cute kids dressed up as nerdy characters at various conventions and other places and apparently has the desire to kidnap them occasionally in the least creepy way possible obviously.
***I voted for the first time today! It was sort of odd but where I live we only had two candidates for the local election so at least I didn't have too many candidates to worry about!
****I know it's not really the same but I can't help seeing some similarities.
As a thing, I'm going to end my posts with "two truths, one lie" for the foreseeable future. Try to guess which one is the lie and leave it in the comments and I'll tell you the answer in my next blog post!
1) Whilst attending a maths challenge when I was in junior school which involved collecting and handing in your answers at a table separate from your teams table, I tripped over my own feet in my eagerness to hand in an answer and landed on my face in front of everyone and then started crying to make matter even worse!
2) I once got bit by a donkey when I was much younger and for quite a while thought that two of the freckles on my arm were caused by said bite!
3) When I was in infants school, I was put in a flashcard group with older kids and I was so scared of asking to go to the toilet that I ended up wetting myself!
On Tuesday, I ventured into Central London for the first time since I've moved. After lunch, I hopped onto the tube to meet my friends near Tower Bridge for an afternoon of excitement.
First, there were some awesome gorillas, and then we went on to the clockmaker's museum. I have to admit that I wasn't expecting much. I was expecting to get bored pretty quickly but actually it was really interesting. There were so many different types of clock with weird and wonderful mechanisms and clocks of different shapes, sizes, styles, purposes (you know, besides telling the time) and it wasn't just a room full of clocks. Well, it was, but it was better than that! Although, I did manage to freak myself out a little when I realised the loud ticking could easily be hiding numerous clockwork monsters from Doctor Who....
After the others had a McDonalds and I ate my rather squashed packed lunch (Note to self: leave a bit longer when making a packed lunch, Mum's not around to do it any more, plus a lunch box would be helpful...) we rushed off to catch Tower Bridge being lifted up. We stood on London Bridge, looking down the Thames towards Tower Bridge and managed to see most of it.
Arthur Darvil was lovely. He came back to talk to us after saying goodbye to his friends (and having a cigarette :( ) despite the fact that he was in a rush. He was so happy to sign our programs, answer our questions and he was happy to shake my hand. (A good firm handshake but not as good as Josh's. If Josh's is 10/10, Arthur was about an 8.7)
