On how life is

Summer Ball

2006-08-08T13:28:00.000+01:00

Following the success of the Christmas formal and the fact that women love to have an occasion to dress up, my friend Alison & I organised a summer ball at this posh hotel just outside of Wrexham. 45 of us turned up, all decked out in our best dresses and suits and had a wonderful evening of eating, socialising and dancing!

It was a wonderful evening and everyone of the women looked so beautiful in their dresses. We had pictures taken at the beginning of the evening so that we can remember the fun we had. Carl & I had a great evening and I'm looking forward to organising another one at some point. It's just an excuse to get really dressed up and have a chance to wear all those smart clothes that you have no other reason to wear at any other point!

Scotland

2006-07-23T21:03:00.000+01:00

Just returned from my first ever trip to Scotland. Yes, I have lived in the UK for most of my life (with the exception of the 5 years I was in Toronto) and never been north of Whitby. Shocking.

So I had the priviledge of accompanying my friends Ziz (who is from Scotland) and her boyfriend (now fiancee) Garan to experience the great north of the UK. Carl came with me too and we had an amazing week together. Whilst the rest of the country was complaining about the heat because of the heatwave that hit the UK, we were quite cool up in Dornoch (where we stayed). We stayed in a mobile home (or trailer to you canadians) which was a 2 minute walk across sand dunes to the beach and spent a lot of time just hanging out, either on the beach, in the village (where apparently Madonna got married) or in our accommodation.

We went to Inverness, John O'Groats (the most northerly point of the UK), went around a Scottish castle, visited a whiskey distillery and saw a waterfall where we saw the salmon jumping. Not bad for a 'relaxing' holiday!

Our friends Garan & Ziz got engaged during the holiday so it all turned into a bit of a celebration. Now I can cross Scotland off my 'must visit' list! Now all I have to do is go to Northern Ireland and I would have been to every country in the UK.

In 3 weeks I head off to the Lake District (another part of the country I have never been to) for our church holiday. One thing you can say - my life is never boring!

No place like home

2006-06-19T19:16:00.000+01:00

Just come back from a weekend away in Devon visiting my family and I took Carl to 'meet the parents'. Actually the main aim of the weekend was to get away and have a break from life, and it just happened that Devon seemed to be the nicest place to get away to.

And it was a perfect weekend - the sun was shining so I took Carl to the beach to show him what real beaches look like. I live about 45 minutes from the nearest beach in North Wales, which is Prestatyn, and the water looks brown and has lots of rubbish floating in it. Not very appealing to put your feet in - I think I would be worried about what I might catch! So I had to show Carl what the beaches are like in Devon so that he could see why I love the beach so much. I took him body boarding which was a lot of fun but the water was really cold. He got under straight away whilst I took about half an hour to get in slowly, before he came up to me and 'tripped' me up so I would actually get under - how nice of him.....!

It's true that they say there is no place like home. I feel like I have lots of places I call home, but I have to say Wrexham really does feel like my real home and I love coming back here after being away. I'm so glad that God bought me to Wrexham - I have to say that I have never regretted my decision to move here so am looking forward to what the future brings.

All good things come to an end

2006-05-29T18:07:00.000+01:00

It's my last afternoon in Canada and I'm sat at work! What a nice way to enjoy my last few hours! However, I've had a great time with my wonderful friends but am looking forward to returning to Wales tomorrow morning.
I finally went to TACF Central yesterday evening - it's the 'new' young adult church plant that started just after I left that I've been hearing about constantly - and it was so good. I had all my favourite Canadian people in one place! We went out for a drink & food afterwards (it was very interesting trying to organise like 20 people to one place!!) and I got to catch up with more people. The highlight of my evening was being asked for I.D. when I bought a drink. For a 29 year old that's quite impressive (the legal drinking age is 19 over here). I told the bar staff I was flattered!!!

Must go....got to eat!

The effects of too many late nights

2006-05-22T05:37:00.000+01:00

After working 16 hour days for 3 days in a row you can forgive people if they appear to be a bit weird. I mean, look at the following photos I took of the team in Abbotsford - and I have to work with these people....

Yeah, we're all a bit strange -but that's what happens when you lack sleep.....

On the road again

2006-05-15T05:56:00.000+01:00

After 3 flights and gaining an extra 8 hours in the past 3 days I've now arrived in British Colombia, Western Canada - Abbotsford to be precise. It's situated in the Rocky Mountains and we're staying at this amazing retreat centre with views of the mountains in the distance. It's like heaven....and I get paid to do this?!! I'd be mad to want to change jobs eh?!

So being back in Canada is great (although I wouldn't want to move back). I've gone on the subway, shopped at the Eaton Centre, eaten poutine, taken a trip to Port Credit, eaten at Pho Mi 99 - the Vietmaniese restaurant that was a regular for a lot of my friends when I lived in Toronto - been out for drink in Bloor West Village, drunk a Bellini at Milestones (the BEST cocktail in the world) and eaten at Swiss Chalet. And that was all in 3 days in Toronto!! I've got a whole week in Toronto when I've finished the conference in B.C. and my problem is I have too much to do and not enough time to do it in. Ohhhh how I miss Toronto sometimes and all the memories I have made there. But of course, I'm looking forward to returning to Wales....mainly because of a special someone who is waiting for me to return :)

Am sure I will write more in the next few days - it's going to be a busy week but as the weather here is gorgeous we're planning on having at least a couple hours a day sunbathing (but there is no pool here this time!). Hopefully I'll go back to the UK with a nice suntan!!

The adventure continues

2006-04-24T17:08:00.000+01:00

Rather than enjoying my hectic travelling schedule, I began to resent being away so much and kind of lost focus on why and what on earth I was doing it all for anyway. Not a good place to be I guess when you spend most weekends on the road, travelling to new and interesting (sometimes) places!

I used to love travelling, seeing it as an adventure and a break from the norm, so always wanted a job that would involve me travelling lots. So I have my dream job and all I can do now is complain! Something had to change. So I got time to re-focus on life last week, realising that if I had a job that meant I had to stay in the same place all the time I would quickly lose my sanity and crave the adventure of going to new places. So now, instead of seeing the travelling as 'oh no, not another 3 days away from home' I see it as another adventure, another challenge, another way to make the most of my life. And it works (for the most part)! I've just got back from a weekend away and although I did rush back home, I still enjoyed my time away and loved what I did. I got to speak at a youth event for around 50 youth. I enjoyed it - I had fun when I was speaking and that made all the difference.

So now, my next big adventure is on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean and then in fact to the other side of Canada to Abbotsford B.C. where I have never been before. But the best part is getting to see all my amazing friends in Toronto for a whole week. That's what I'm looking forward to!

The Perfect Man

2006-04-09T23:23:00.000+01:00

Wouldn't it be fun if you could create the 'perfect man'? I had this discussion with a friend of mine and was saying that what I'd really like to take different character traits and physique that I like from the guys that I know and make them into one perfect man. Simple eh? I wish. Have you ever met someone and thought "Um, there's something about them I like?" That's only happened on a few occasions to me, so it would be wonderful if I could combine all the amazing qualities I see in the guys that I know and make them into one perfect man.

The only problem I thought of was.....what would they think of me?!!!

Ummmm, just one of my random thoughts. I'm sure that this will now start a discussion on which parts would I take from which male friends. I'm waiting.......

Canada

2006-03-28T16:03:00.000+01:00

Yes it's true - in just over 6 weeks I'll be visiting the 2nd largest country in the world and seeing all my wonderful friends again! I know it's going to be very strange seeing everyone again because although it would only have been 9 months since I was last there, I know that many things would have changed, people will look different but everything will be familiar as well.

I had a friend around this morning and i was talking to her about how much I love being back in the UK. Why do I say that? Well, there are a few reasons:
1. I can eat decent chocolate ANY time I want to (as long as I have some in my cupboard that is!)
2. Spring is here....well almost.....and it's MARCH!!! - Yeah, I know that Spring comes the same time in canada too.....but the leaves are not on the trees in March are they?!
3. When I go to Canada everything is much cheaper :)
4. I love grocery shopping again!! We have so much more selection over here that I actually enjoy going shopping
5. British pubs....what more can I say? They just can't imitate them anywhere else in the world.
6. British Indian food - yum
7. The winters are so much shorter and less cold
8. People actually understand what I'm saying without asking me to repeat myself.

I'm sure I could come up with at least as many reasons why it's not so good to live here but I won't do that!! I think the main thing would be the cost of living is so much higher so I'm skint most of the time (another British word I think....), but that could also be that I've just bought a house and I'm finding it hard to resist buying all those little bits and pieces to make it look like mine! It's getting there slowly....

My car

2006-03-27T18:25:00.000+01:00

My car has gone to car heaven...or will be going very soon. It decided to break down on me outside my house which in one way was a good thing, but it meant that the AA (breakdown people, not Alcoholics Anonymous!) wouldn't come and rescue me unless I paid some big sum of money. The car itself would turn on and accelerate but it wouldn't move!! I tried everything but the car wouldn't shift. My friend (who will remain anonymous) asked me if I had taken the parking brake off - a typical male comment in my opinion. I got pretty mad at that comment. I might be daft sometimes but I would remember to do that!!

So my dilema was to either fix the car, or buy a new one. The miracle of it was that a friend of mine is selling her car and so I've agreed to buy it, as it's cheaper to buy hers than have mine fixed. So I have to say 'Goodbye' to my little red peugeot :( and hope that my next car will last me a little longer than this one!!

Why do cars cost so much money which you never make back? Mystery of life....

Embarrasing moment

2006-03-15T19:30:00.000Z

Ever have one of those moments where you know you've done something wrong but it's too late to do anything about it? I had one of those on Monday night. I was down in Hemel Hempstead (yeah, I know, I get around a bit...) and was staying at a hotel down there. It took me ages to find the car park and when I eventually found it, I saw a 'no entry' sign in the section that I was assuming that i go up. So I took the route right beside it and started driving up, thinking it was very strange that I was driving on the wrong side of the road (I thought I was back in Canada again).

And that feeling came upon me....I'm driving up the exit ramp of the car park!! Ok, not to panic. I got to the top, just to make sure I was correct, and sure enough, over the lane divider I saw the ticket machine for the entry, and right in front of me was the exit barrier.
So I decide that what I would do is just reverse down the slip road. Simple - if the route wasn't one of those twisty, turny kind of roads. Impossible to reverse down them!!
So I decide I'll got back to the top (luckily it was after 10pm when this was happening, so there was no one around!) and try to turn my car around so that I can drive down properly. Slight problem, there is no where to turn.
And then a security guard came to the rescue. Someone had been watching me on CCTV (aghhhhh, I was being WATCHED!!!) and ended up lifting the exit barrier for me, letting me turn around and drive down and the go up the correct way.

I was so embarressed that I:
(a) had even gone up the wrong way in the first place (I mean, how can you mistake the entry and exit roads??) and
(b) That someone had witnessed my mistake!! I hope that the BBC don't take CCTV footage from the security company to make documentary's about people who drive up the wrong way at car parks....because I'll be on there. The scary thing was that the guy on the other end of the walkie talkie (in the office) was saying "Tell the lady to blah blah blah". My first instinct was "How does he know it was a woman driving?? It's dark!" Was he assuming that just because someone makes a stupid mistake that it was a woman? Or am I just paranoid?

Anyway, that has to go down as one of my most embaressing moments, which I'm sure isn't as bad as most other people's but it was for me because it was witnessed by others!! Oh well...at least I got out alive and without damaging my car.

Snow!

2006-03-12T19:12:00.000Z

For the 2nd time in 2 weeks we've had snow here in Wales! Now to those of you in Toronto this might not seem exciting, but to those of us in Wales it's the highlight of the winter. The funny thing is that the whole country comes to standstill when it snows here. They close airports, tell people not to go outside unless it's really necessary, and certainly you don't drive or go to work! It's a pity that it snowed on a Sunday really, as you don't get the benefit of an extra day off work.

I went to lunch at some friends house and after we'd eaten we went outside and made a snowman - a very evil looking snowman, as you can tell from the picture below:

We're all praying for more snow so that we all get a day off work tomorrow! I'm enjoying not having to go out as it's given me more time to decorate my house....something that I have been meaning to do for a while but not found time. Now I have no excuse!

Friends

2006-02-28T22:27:00.000Z

I got to meet up with some amazing people last Thursday - yes, finally got to visit Lee & Sarah who live about 45 minutes away, and also got to see Bethany & Mark whilst Bethany was visiting the UK. It was soooooo good to see some friends from Toronto here in the UK! First of many I hope (even though Sarah & Lee actually live in Wales).

Bethany gave me a long update on all the comings and goings in Toronto and it made me miss everyone so much. So if you know Bethany you can be sure that she told me ALL about you!! Ha ha, hope you're not scared....lol.

But even though I miss my friends in Toronto, I have been given some amazing friends over here in North Wales, so it makes it easier to feel settled here. Everyone has been so accepting of me - I don't know why though, it's not like I can bribe them with English chocolate anymore.....I tried it with American chocolate last week and I had no takers!! That's the problem over here, once you've tasted the best you don't want anything else.

It's good to have friends who understand you, who can laugh with you, cry with you and put up with your little quirky ways - I know I have many of them (quirky ways that is!)! Sometimes all I need to do it just to have a good laugh with good friends. It's like it puts all the wrongs in the world and your life into rights! Laughter definitely is medicine for the soul.....

Stuck in Virginia Beach

2006-02-20T01:13:00.000Z

So after an exhausting conference I was looking forward to getting on my flight and heading home to rest. No such luck. I go to the airport to find that they have decided to cancel my flight to Atlanta, which means I miss my connection to Manchester.

Ok, no problem - just find me something else that can get me home by tomorrow. So they find me a flight via London to Manchester but the problem is, the next flight to Atlanta is running 2 hours behind schedule, which again means I would miss the connecting flight to London.

So I'm writing this from a hotel in Virginia Beach where I am spending the night at Delta Airlines expense, waiting to get a flight tomorrow to Atlanta and then on to Manchester, of course relying on Delta airlines not cancelling that flight too.

See, sometimes things in my life never go according to my plan. I wanted to get home, get sleeping and get back into my routine, but I guess God has other plans and sometimes I don't know why he lets silly little things like cancelled flights happen, but sometimes I think he just likes to mess our plans up so that we know He's still in control.

Having now been forced to rest (this hotel is in the middle of nowhere) and be on my own (everyone else's flights were fine!!) for the evening I guess I'm learning the importance of being still & just relaxing sometimes. I'm not the best person at staying still.

Luckily my friend Niki drove me to the airport, so we hung out for the afternoon - finally finding a shopping mall after 3 hours of searching (just in time for it to close 10 minutes later!!) and unwinding after 4 intense days. Some times it's just good to laugh.

Now I'm looking forward to a restful evening, ready for a long day tomorrow, the fun part is my 6 hour layover in Atlanta......oh the joys of travelling.

2006-02-14T18:39:00.000Z

I nearly had an embarassing moment at the airport yesterday. To set the scene correctly I have to take you back to Sunday morning. I live across the road from the church I attend & work for, so naturally when one of the kids workers forgets something they need, they come to me and ask if they could borrow mine. No problem. Even a potato peeler. So I lend someone a potato peeler and they give it back to me, nicely washed. I put it in my bag and forget about it.

Forward to Monday morning. I'm at the airport and realise I have no US cash (I'm over in the US right now if that explains why I'm at the airport needing US cash) so I go to buy some at the currency exchange place. Having already been through so much security just checking in ("Did you pack the bag yourself? When was it packed? By whom? What is in your bag? Has anyone else asked you to carry anything for them? Do you have anything that doesn't belong to you? Why are you going to the US? What address are you going to? How long are you there for? Have you anything sharp in your hand luggage? What is your shoe size? Inner thigh measurement? Clothes size?" You get the picture) I thought I was all set to go....hmmm.

Upon receiving my $$ I was making room in my already overcrowded bag to put my wallet back in, when I came across a surprise - the potato peeler!!! I hadn't emptied my bag from church yesterday and had left the stupid potato peeler in there!!! I took it out and showed the Currency Exchange person who was surprised and well, speakless as I pulled out the peeler. I think she thought I was going to attack her (even though she was behind a glass screen). I was sooooo relieved that I found it BEFORE going through the security point. Can you imagine the questions I would have gotten for that one? ("Why do you have a potato peeler in your bag??") How can you ever explain that one? I had visions of being secretly filmed and then it being used for a random BBC program about security at airports and the stupid things people get caught with!! Luckily I found a bin (that was hard to find I can tell you!) and threw it away but I thought Security were going to pounce upon me as I was walking around the airport with a potato peeler in my hand - I'm sure it would be classed as an offensive weapon.

I arrived in the US safely, which is more than can be said for the pens that we shipped in from Canada. For some reason the US don't like Canadian Pens and confiscated them from the shipment that we sent from the office in Canada. Don't ask me - apparently they are some kind of offensive weapon now. What is the world coming to?!!

Touring London with North American's

2006-02-06T19:15:00.000Z

It was a treat to take 2 Americans, 1 Canadian, 2 German's and 1 Scot around London yesterday. For 1 of the American's it was their first time ever in the UK, so he wanted to see as much as he could of London.

In true Nicola style, we did the "How to tour a city in an hour" (well, it was more like 6 hours) and managed to see a lot of London in that time. I decided it would be a good idea to introduce Eric (the American) to "Cockney Rhyming Slang" - which all British people know about, but most North American's haven't got a clue about! He picked it up and has been practising a lot on me and the others. I pity his poor wife who probably won't be able to understand a word he says when he gets back to the US!! He picked it up well and then I bought him a souvenir of his trip to the UK - a book on Cockney Rhyming Slang so that he can practise!!

We went on the London eye and that helped to see all the sites of London. We ate fish and chips and took a ride on the 'tube' - all those things you have to do as a tourist in London. Eric bought a police man's hat and then had it confiscated by security when he went on the London Eye! Apparently it must be an offensive weapon or something!!

The fun part was watching Eric getting attacked by one of the Royal Guard's horses along Whitehall. Everything was so fascinating to them - the history, the horses, the costumes on the Royal Guards, the underground. the statue of Abraham Lincoln, the number of STARBUCKS everywhere (they really felt at home!) and the way we pronounced things like "Leicester" - they would say "Ly-ces-ter".

I've put some picture below so you can see what we got up to. It was fun and a great end to a great, but busy week!

The gang by Trafalgar Square

Westminster Bridge

Eric before he got attacked by the horse!

New Year, New house and all that

2006-01-13T18:33:00.000Z

It's been a bit of a long time since I wrote anything. The lousy excuse is that I've been really busy but I guess it's a valid one since I've finally moved house and have been busy decorating. I'm determinded to have the whole house completely decorated by the end of the month. I'm joking actually because there is no way I'd manage that, but I have found my temptation was to move in and decorate it all in a week.....I've had to slow down a little!

I finally moved in just before Christmas - you can imagine the rush that was. Move house, go back to my parents, have Christmas, come back, decorate, celebrate new year and the go back to work....I need a holiday I think.

Last year i made 10 new years resolutions. I actually did 5 of them. So the other 5 are on my 2006 list. We'll see if I really keep to them this year. I'm not a big one to make resolutions but it's more of a wish list, where I have things I'd like to do but won't be hard on myself if I don't achieve them. Last night a group of us were talking about dreams and what we'd like to achieve this year - attainable and unattainable! I wrote the list down so we can keep checking up on each other to see if any of them have happened. The challenge is to help make people's dreams come to pass, so we're all working together. It feels so good when others are supporting you in attaining your dreams and when you can help out make someone elses dream come to pass.

We'll see what 2006 holds for us all. I'm sure it will be a good year, if not a busy one for me! At least I've finally moved in.....and i'm living alone for the first time ever. Not too weird yet and I haven't talked to the wall too many times, ha ha! Just kidding.....

The Christmas Formal

2005-12-11T17:48:00.000Z

Knowing how much girls love any excuse to dress up, I organised a Christmas Formal for our church which we had last night. I got the idea from the annual Youth Christmas Banquet which we had in Toronto. I just remember the girls talking for months about what dress they were wearing to the formal, and how they were going to do their hair, make up and spend 5 hours getting ready! So, I had most of the girls talking about which dress they should wear, going around to each other's houses to borrow dresses, shoes or whatever they could find to make themselves look glamourous.

I had some help to make the church not look like a church but a really posh kind of place to have a party by putting Christmas lights out and having candlelight instead of the normal lights. It looked amazing! We had live music and games and great food (well, I bought it so it had to be good) & wine (I could tell I wasn't in Toronto because we had wine at church!!). The ladies look gorgeous and went around telling all the other women they looked great - it's amazing how amazing you can feel about yourself just by dressing up and putting make up on! The guys all made a good effort as well and it was such fun organising something that people had a blast at. My plan is now to organise some more social events but I'd better be careful else I'll have a new role as "Social Events Coordinator" as well as everything else I'm doing!
All I can say is that it was a great excuse to get dressed up and see everyone else make a real effort to look stunning! I'm up for that anytime.

Finally

2005-12-02T15:58:00.000Z

My mortgage offer has arrived!! Hooray! Just need to all the legal bits and hopefully this time next week I'll be moving into a new house! A whole new adventure :)

I'm excited about having my own place - I feel all grown up. I can decorate it how I want and invite whoever I want around. I think I have about 20 invitations outstanding that I have given to people - so the next month will be busy with dinner, movies and entertaining. Well, my life is never quiet....

So all being well this time next week I should be a proud homeowner.

Waiting

2005-11-29T16:54:00.000Z

I'm not the most patient of people. In fact, I'm pretty impatient at times but to be honest I'm more patient than I used to be. However, my patience is being tested right now. As you know I'm in the process of buying a house and my hope was to be in by the end of November.

However, God must have another idea because I'm sat here, waiting anxiously by the phone waiting for it to ring to find out if and when I am moving. I still have not got my mortgage offer through and obviously the whole moving thing depends on the bank agreeing to lend me the money. Small but important point I think.

I have waited for 3 days now and no joy, no phone call, not even a word on what is going on. I have called to find out but no response. Aghhh. This is more than I can handle so I'm feeling impatient and well, just wanting to know what on earth is going on and when I can expect to move!! The joys of buying a house right? Hopefully this time next week I will have moved....

Germany

2005-11-20T19:43:00.000Z

The world traveller returns from her latest adventure in Germany. I learnt German for 2 years when I was 12 years old, so I got to practise my rather pathetic amount of German on the poor unsuspecting people. It's ok if you really need to find the way to the Hospital but if you don't, it just sounds silly. I know that when you mix French & English together you get "Franglais" but not sure what it is when you mix German & English together...any ideas? I did a lot of that.
Still, I came away with knowledge of more German that I started with, so it can't be that bad.

It was fun being in a new culture and seeing new sites. We were staying in Dresden, which got completely bombed in the war. We did a quick sightseeing tour of downtown Dresden in an hour (I seem to like doing 1 hour quick tours), which has been restored since the war. It was amazing apart from the fact that is was freezing cold. In fact, it SNOWED!! We saw the outside of the Frauenkirken (it's a famous church which has just been restored) but couldn't go in because they were having a concert in there or something.

The conference was fun. I got to meet lots of interesting people and lots of people had a blast, which was fun to see!!

I have only just got back so I am exhausted but still have to unpack, which I hate. In a week I might be unpacking in my new house!

I bought back lots of German chocolate. Yes, I rave on about English chocolate, but German Chocolate is even better.....so am going to leave now and start eating it before everyone finds out and eats it for me.

Coming out of the box

2005-11-07T17:58:00.000Z

I have just returned from my first youth weekend away here in Wrexham. Wow, it was amazing. I was asked to speak on Saturday morning. Now I have spoken before but that was mainly from other people's notes. This time I was challenged to come up with my own stuff! And it had to be entertaining - it was a youth weekend after all. I can't think of anything worse than sitting down on a floor listening to some boring person drone on and on.

I decided to speak on Identity. I know it's a huge issue for people trying to figure out who on earth they are. A few years ago I had no idea of who I was. But that was then and this is now. So we played a game, did a bit of acting and visual stuff and on the whole, I enjoyed myself as I was speaking. The youth were changed and God showed up - so I think it went well. But it was so encouraging to me to see all the stuff I'd learnt, all that I'd been through and all that I wanted to share with others come out of me and actually be of some value. Wow. It's not until you step out of your box can you actually see what is in you.

On Saturday afternoon I taught the youth how to play Mafia!! Some habits never die! They loved it and we ended up playing it for like 2 hours.

I realised on Saturday evening that I had given up so much when I moved here - friends, job and amazing young guys & girls that I love - but God has given me soooo much more here, like he's saying what you were willing to give up to move on with where I'm calling you I'm going to give back to you in abundance. He is so good. Now I have a family here, a group of amazing people who are just so loving and giving, a group of youth that are so flipping amazing, and great friends back in Toronto. What more could a girl want??!

Faith

2005-10-25T12:49:00.000+01:00

Our church is covering a series on Faith from Hebrews 11. It's been very inspiring to me particularly at this stage of my life where I've made and am making big decisions about my future. To be honest it all feels a bit scary now and again but I have to come back to this place of Faith that says God is in control of every situation!

I'm hoping to move into my new place in about a month but there are so many things I need but don't have! It all come down to simple trust that everything I need will come into being somehow, even if I don't see it right now.

When I moved into my apartment when I was living in Toronto, we needed furniture and had no money to buy anything. So we prayed, we got given a whole apartment full of furniture! So I have seen it happen before, and that faith keeps me going....

Reflection time

2005-10-17T13:11:00.000+01:00

I've now been in the UK for over 6 weeks and it feels like so much has happened in those 6 weeks. I've had some time this weekend to just relax, which as most of you probably remember, is not something I used to do on a regular basis.

I love being back in the UK. It's Autumn time and even though the Autumns were more colourful in Canada, it's such a beautiful time of year here. I am so glad that I took the step and moved back. There has not been one time in the past 6 weeks that I ever looked back and thought "I've just made the biggest mistake of my life". Quite the opposite!

I never really wanted to live back in the UK again, convinced that Canada was going to be my home, but since I made that decision to come home, it has just been amazing to see how my heart has changed about my home. This is just the beginning of a journey, an adventure, that I'm sure will take me to many different places around the world, but an adventure that has already excited me about the endless possibilities that exist. There is nothing impossible with God and my challenge is to start living in that place where I truly believe it.

Thoughts of the day

2005-10-11T21:29:00.000+01:00

Thursday I get my first 'speaking' engagement since moving back. I've got to speak to a group of women on identity. Still haven't figured out what I'm going to say and I really should be using my time wisely to prepare, but got sucked in by television and computers!

I was thinking this morning about creativity. It struck me that so many times we as the church try to take something that the world does and redeem it, so to speak, and make it "Christian". Why should we be doing that? As I was thinking about it, it came to me that as God is the creator, why shouldn't we be 'creating' things that the world wants to copy? We need to get downloads from God on what He wants to do in this nation, in this generation so that the world are wanting to copy from us. I think it's time we changed our thinking. I want to have those ideas that are going to change communities, people, towns, cities and nations.

The New Age is such a counterfeit for the things of God. We need to be living in the supernatural realms so that we can take back the counterfeit and give the real deal.

I guess now I should go and prepare the talk, but wanted to share my thoughts!!

The Matchmaker

2005-10-07T17:40:00.000+01:00

One of my friends, who shall remain nameless, has decided that I need help with my love life and is attempting to set me up with one of his friends. Now, I'm not opposed to meeting new people - and this could be 'fun', if you could call it that - but the last attempt someone had at matchmaking me didn't work - which is quite obvious I guess as I am 28 and still a single woman.

The last matchmaker was my mother. Yes, that's right. Never let your parent's decide who they think is perfect for you because their taste is usually not the same as yours. She blurted out, upon meeting this random guy, that her daughter was a single woman looking for a husband and that he should write to me. Well, he did write to me and yes, I did write back. This continued on for about a month or so until my curiosity got the better of me (I didn't know what he looked like) and I decided it was time we met.

Well, I think it was a mutual decision that neither of us wanted to proceed with anything further after we had met. When we met I was very nervous and proceeded to spend the entire 'date' talking. I don't think the poor guy got a word in. No wonder he never wrote back to me.....

Anyway, this other guy has my email address so if he's brave he will email me. If he doesn't, that's ok. I'm not emailing him. It's a guy's job to do the pursuing and I know that I have a whole group of women out there who are going to back me up on that one....right??!! So we'll see what happens..... :)

Paperwork, paperwork

2005-10-04T18:04:00.000+01:00

I'm discovering the amount of paperwork and other stuff that comes with buying a house. It's not all that straight forward, but I never thought it was. To be honest, the process is a lot easier than I ever thought it was though. I imagined long days at the bank trying to get them to lend me money, but not at all. They seemed quite pleased to lend me money (I went through an independant mortgage advisor - she is amazing!), but i realised why when I saw how much my mortgage was really going to cost me...hmmm. I'll be paying back 3 times as much as i borrowed if I keep to their terms!

So now I have completed my mortgage application, home insurance application, mortgage protection insurance application, critical illness insurance application, lets-get-more-money-out-of-you insurance application, got a solicitor, arranged for a surveyor and am now arranging the most important thing of all - a trip to IKEA on Saturday. Fun! With any luck I'll be able to move in by Christmas 2007. Just kidding, they estimate around 8 weeks, so by the beginning of December I should have a new house, if all goes according to plan....

God seems to want me to have this house so I'm just trusting him that it all comes together! I really never thought I'd ever be able to own my own house. I guess God just wanted to prove me wrong!

I bought a house..!!!

2005-09-30T17:49:00.000+01:00

I can't believe it. I just put an offer in on a house and it's been accepted!! It's a bit of a miraculous story - the people who are selling it are moving to Canada of all places! They are members of the church here and were convinced I was meant to buy their house....well, I felt it was right so have gone ahead and put in the offer and well, I'm now about to sort out my mortgage.

I have only been here for 2 and a half weeks but already have made Wrexham my home. I have been overwhelmed by the people in the church - I have felt so welcome here and I have so many friends already. Now I have a home to entertain them in + all my friends from all over the world.

Off to Llandudno - about an hour's drive away on the coast - to see my friend Ruth. It's raining but what's new??! This is the UK after all.

House Hunting Part 2

2005-09-25T02:39:00.000+01:00

So to date I have seen a total of 9 houses and it's opened my eyes to a few things. Some people just don't have any taste in decor. We went to one house that in my opinion was a bargain at the price it's on the market for but trouble is, it would need at least half the amount their asking to renovate the place! Apparently the owner said that the kitchen was recently decorated. Not sure what recently means to them, because it looked like it had been recently decorated in 1978 or something.

I mean with all the home decorating shows that are on tv I'm surprised at how out of date some of these houses are. I turn the channels over here and on at least 2 or 3 of them it's a home decorating show! When my mum came house hunting with me, she was giving me tips from a show about looking at the location of where the property is, so I think from her advice and common sense, I have ruled out at least 8 out of the 9 properties I've seen.

But today I saw a place I really like. It's a 2 bedroomed apartment in a cute little village 10 minutes drive from Wrexham and the best thing about it is that it over looks a mountain (well, big hill, but they call it a mountain around here) and it snows in the winter!!! It'll be just like living in Canada again! So first thing Monday morning I'm going to put an offer in and see what happens....my friends who came with me liked it as well, and nothing else I've seen today compares. I have 3 other places to see tomorrow and a whole heap over the next few days, but most are a little out of my price range. Still, it's good to get an idea of what is around I guess!

So maybe soon I'll be a proud homeowner!

House Hunting

2005-09-22T17:24:00.000+01:00

I have decided to buy a house. No more renting and paying someone else's mortgage, Nicola is going to climb up the first rung of the ladder to maturity. I have a car now, so it's natural that I want my own house as well.

Only problem is, on my wages and deposit that I have, the only places available are either in dodgy areas or are stuck in the 1970's in terms of decor. I have a pile of house details on my desk that I am aiming to look through and make appointments to see. It's a lot of fun but can also be stressful. Don't they say that moving is one of the most stressful times? I haven't even moved yet but am feeling the stress of being able to afford the right property and all the adult responsibility that comes with that. I need to find a lodger to help pay bills & mortgage, so if there's anyone out there that wants to move to Wrexham and live with me, please let me know. I'm a really nice person to live with, honestly :)

Off to see a house tonight. It actually looks nice inside by the look of the pictures. The only problem is that it's £5,000 too much. Minor detail....

Wrexham

2005-09-21T01:39:00.000+01:00

Day two in my new job, day six in my new 'home'. I love it here. The people are friendly, the weather is well...interesting, the church is amazing, the job is varied enough to keep me entertained and the people I'm living with for now are hospitable and really welcoming. What more can a girl ask for?

We had Patricia King at the church this past weekend and it was an amazing weekend for me. Like a welcome to Wrexham present! Still trying to get myself established here with friendships and such, but the people here have made me feel like part of the family already and I've not even been here a week. I'm going to my first Youth Leaders meeting tomorrow to see if I want to venture in that direction. I think they all are expecting me to get involved, and I really do, but I have set myself this goal of not getting involved in anything until January! Ha ha, we'll see how long that lasts!!

Am intrigued by the Welsh Language though. I've not heard one person speak it, but it's on all the signs around here - everything is bi-lingual, a bit like Quebec, except they don't seem that anal here. Ysgol is the word for School, so if you can figure out how you pronounce it, let me know. I'm sure it's something obscure because Llangollen isn't pronounce Langollen, like you think it should sound, it's something like clangothlen. Yeah, right. I'm in no hurry to learn the welsh language I can tell you that!!

Must go - have been invited for 'tea' at someone's house. No, it's not to drink tea (I don't drink tea) but to eat dinner. Must get used to my own lanugage again!

Watch out Britain, Nicola is on the roads

2005-09-12T23:59:00.000+01:00

Finally I have an insurance company that want to insure me to drive my little red peugeot with my Canadian licence, so now that I've sorted that out + have emptied my bank account trying to pay for it (insurance over here is sooo much cheaper than Canada but only if you have been driving for 1 or more years!!) I am able to get out there and drive. So if you hear of any major incidents on the roads in Britain, my name will probably be mentioned. Now i have to master the art of driving on the left side of the road, remembering that I can't make a left turn on a red light (remember it's reverse here) and how to use flipping roundabouts - although I think I have mastered that just by being a passenger.

I went away this weekend and met up with a whole load of former SOM students. It was so good to meet up with all of them and it reminded me that I'm not alone in this country.

Tomorrow my day is being spent visiting the family and practising my driving. I have a ton of family down here that I haven't seen in years so I have to do the duty of seeing them all and saying hi. I actually love my family so it's not a duty really. Then I leave for Wales on Wednesday - my new home for the next little while. Exciting stuff.

Settling in

2005-09-09T07:47:00.000+01:00

So it's rained already - what's new. Plus, I have already attempted to drive on the wrong side of the road in my new car (not that I can officially drive right now as I don't have insurance on the car or a British licence) oooops. At least it wasn't too far. Then, I'm all screwed up with the currency. I mean, £27 sounds so cheap for a pair of trousers, but it's really $60. Ouch.
On top of that I can't sleep until 2am and being woken up by the postman at 8am is not my idea of fun.

I was in the store yesterday and I heard English accents and my first instinct was "Oh, they're English" but of course they are, because everyone over here speaks with an English accent (well, mostly). It's like reverse culture shock.

I know God has an awesome plan for me here and I am just waiting to get on up to Wales to begin my 'new life'. I love being with my family but I think I just want to get on with it now. The transition hasn't been too hard so far - just getting used to adapting my vocabulary again. No more "pants" or "gas" - it's trousers & petrol. At least people over here know how to pronounce my name right.

I've arrived

2005-09-06T16:20:00.000+01:00

After 7 hours, 3000 miles and $112 in excess baggage, I've arrived back in the UK. I was met by my mum, sister and gorgeous little nephew (who's not so little now at 2 and a half!). I have my shiny red Peugeot 106 to greet me, a lovely welcome home present! I can't wait to get out in the car and practise driving on the other side of the road. Jet lag hasn't hit me yet, neither has the fact that I'm not returning to Canada in a few weeks.....I'm sure that will take a few days, weeks or months to sink in.

Still, it's good to back with my family - they are amazing people. I miss all my friends back in Toronto though and just want to call them and say hi, I've got back and it's really strange. Can't figure out what time it is - I think I just need to sleep!!!

Anyway, you'll hear more from me over the next few days, weeks etc. as this seems the easiest way to keep people updated without the customary mass email!

Back in town

2005-08-23T22:02:00.000+01:00

4000km and 10 days later, I have returned from my travels to the East Coast of Canada, more specifically Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. How on earth we did so much driving and still managed to come back in one piece I don't know. It was fun though and both tania & I have come back having learnt many lessons - mainly, don't try and plan things because things don't always go according to plan!

We arrived in PEI on Sunday evening, and spent 5 nights on the island. We went to the beach, drove the entire length of the island (and got a certificate to prove it), saw the Anne of Green Gables cottage, ate Lobster (well, tania did, I don't like seafood), and got lots of photos (which I will share with you at some point). then, as mad as we are, we drove over to Nova Scotia and spent the day driving on the Cabot trail, which is a 300km drive around some windy roads (Tania practised her racing car driving skills, whilst I held on for my life!), and some breathtaking scenary. After that, we made our way back to Ontario, ditched the idea of camping again and opted for a cheap motel in some small town in Nova Scotia. We then spent the next day travelling to Quebec and spent the night in Quebec City. We did a "Shapers Guide to Quebec City" on Sunday morning, which consisted of us parking the car in the old city and racing around with the camera for an hour to get some pictures before heading back to Toronto! You think that's madness, our original plan was to drive around the city rather than park, and get pictures out of the car windows......!!

Still, we had some memorable moments - like us locking the keys in the car and having to get some kind old gentleman to come and get them out for us, and trying to start a fire at the campsite and having some kind man from the next site offering to come and help us start our fire!! I felt like we were being filmed for "Girls go camping" or something like that! Still, it's those kind of things that build memories, right?! And we certainly have a few of them.....

Where on earth am I?

2005-08-10T14:05:00.000+01:00

So I got back from a short trip to Houston (yes, I have been jet setting recently) and am now staying with friends for my last week of work. I finish in 3 days (not that I'm counting or anything!) and then on Saturday morning set off with my friend Tania for a road trip to PEI (Prince Edward Island on the East Coast of Canada for those of you who were wondering) for 10 days. My life doesn't seem to be boring at least - I'm never in one place long enough to get bored. After I get back from PEI I have about 4 days to recover, relax and get myself together before I go to Youth Camp for the final time.....no, I'm not a youth, I'm a counselor again. Should be fun :)

Today is Wednesday and I'm just settling in for a fun-filled day of work, getting my email inbox empty (impossible!) and getting my desk cleared (even more impossible!). It seems strange that in 3 days I won't be working here any longer. I've been at TACF for over 5 years now and have made so many amazing friends. I'm looking forward to my future as well as enjoying my present escapades all around North America! This will be my first road trip where I am driving! An accomplishment......

Wedding photos

2005-07-28T13:54:00.000+01:00

Thought I would share some photos from the wedding:

Camping again

2005-07-26T02:32:00.000+01:00

I went camping again this past weekend in an effort to make the most of the rest of my time here. 6 weeks today I fly out, in fact in exactly 6 weeks time I will be at the airport waiting for my flight home. Anyway, enough of the home talk, let's talk camp. We drove up late on Friday to Elora Gorge and met up with our group - there were around 15-20 of us altogether. We had this amazing camp site for the group. The boys did all the cooking - the food was just like being at a fancy restaurant all weekend :)

The scariest part of the weekend was Friday night when Paula & I decided to go in search of a washroom. I should have gone with my first instinct, which is to take the car and drive around and find one, but I wanted to rough it, which included not taking the car and walking everywhere (which soon wore off after our scary experience). We headed off in the direction of where I thought the nearest bathrooms would be and after about 10 minutes of walking down a deserted road with no one around, we found the bathrooms. It was around midnight, so it was dark but we had flashlights. We were in the bathrooms and I could hear things falling on the roof and what sounded like someone moaning outside. Bearing in mind that there was no one else around, my mind started thinking crazy thoughts like, someone may be trapped in the washroom and I might be the person who is sent to save them etc. I decide to ignore the noises and hope that they will go away, but as we leave the washroom we hear this cry of "HELP ME" and things being thrown at the roof of the washrooms. I decided not to show fear but calmly say "It's ok, it's only an idiot trying to scare us". So we walked away pretending not to be afraid.

We walked around the bend back to our campsite - it was still deserted everywhere - and then we heard the voice again "HELP ME" and then some weird breathing sounds getting closer to us.......I lost all calmness and turned to Paula and said "Lets run"!!!!! So we ran as quick as we could back to our campsite!! Expecting everyone to be really concerned about us when we told them what happened, I started to tell them the story. I had visualised that the boys would run up to the washrooms and find out who the pranksters were. Yeah, right. Everyone laughed at us when we told them!! Here we were freaked out and they just laughed!! I was not impressed - until I thought of the boys that we were with and thought that it would be something that Jon Long or Steve Hollema would do for a joke, and that if they'd ever tell the tale, how hilarious I'd find it to know that they had scared 2 twenty-something year old girls so much that they ran away in fright!

Needless to say I took the car from that point on if I needed to go to the washroom. What a wuss, I know!! Still it was a fun weekend I got to hang out with some cool people that I am going to miss lots. Transition is sometimes a hard thing to go through but I'm realising that it's ok to not have it all together sometimes.

San Francisco

2005-07-18T06:38:00.000+01:00

After an exhausting conference, rather than resting by the pool & sunbathing, Sarah & I decided that we hadn't done enough, so we went sightseeing in California and ended up in San Francisco. We went via the beach, which strangely enough was really foggy, even though 1/2 mile inland it was clear blue skies. Still, I managed to get sunburnt, even after putting on suntan lotion so now I have a bright red face.

It was my second time in San Francisco and it reminded me of downtown Toronto. There was such a diverse mix of people and I told Sarah that I'm sure if I walked down the street in a bikini and pink hair, I don't think anyone would take a second look.

Sarah drove around downtown, driving the wrong way down a one way street, doing a few illegal U turns every now and again!! We escaped death a few times I'm sure.

We only stayed for a few hours but it was fun. I went to my favourite shop in the whole world - Bath & Body Works - and bought this lotion that smells like something that both Sarah & I cannot figure out. I'm sat here trying to figure out what on earth it reminds me of, but I've drawn a blank. It's annoying the heck out of me so I won't rest until I have it figured out. So looks like a long night for me.......

Working hard

2005-07-16T21:31:00.000+01:00

Here is a picture of Sarah & I working hard in California. Yeah, working hard on our tans that is. Yes, I know it's hard job but someone has to do it.

Sunny California

2005-07-15T19:00:00.000+01:00

A day after I returned from the UK I flew out to the beautiful state of California to run a 3 day conference in San Jose. Hard life I lead right? It's been busy but of course I have found time to relax by the pool and sunbathe. I'm here with one of my favourite people - Sarah Dailey - who is native to this area!! We're taking time off on Sunday and heading to the beach

Hi, this is the Sarah Dailey Nicola was just talking about. YES we're having a good time, I mean it's practically a vacation. We kind of just walk around lookin pretty. You wouldn't believe the amount of eye candy here at this conference. I'm pretty sure Nicola has already met her husband. He WAVED at her this morning...WAVED!!! I didn't get a wave.

Yeah, he waved at me & he keeps asking my opinion on which CD to buy....hmmmm. We'll see. Sarah is determined that I'm going to meet a Californian man so that i can move here. If I had my way I'd move to California but I guess God's plan is that I move to Wales. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Wales, California, Wales, California. Tough choice to make but I guess Wales wins. Don't ask me why!!

This afternoon will consist of being nice to people and then closing things down as early as possible so that we can get out on the sunbeds for 3 hours. The beds at the hotel are sooooo comfortable that it's hard to get out of bed in the morning.

I have to go now cause Dave needs his MAC back. We all know what will happen if I make Dave mad...bad things. BAD things.

love
Nicola
(and Sarah)

The wedding

2005-07-10T22:12:00.000+01:00

Yes, it didn't rain at all!!! I was so happy. The wedding was beautiful, amazing, fabulous and probably one of the best I've been to. it was so much fun being one of the bridesmaids and spending 4 hours getting ready (well, I am a girl after all).

Gail looked gorgeous and was so calm all day. Her new husband Klaus absolutely adores her, and it was so good to see a couple so in love (except when you're in a room with them for any amount of time!! Hee hee!).

By the end of the night we were all tired from dancing and the exhaustion of taking 4 hours to get ready - my legs were aching from wearing high heels all day! Oh, the pain we women put ourselves through (I tried waxing my legs the other day...hmmmm. Won't be doing that again in a hurry). I returned to Wrexham again today and am flying back to Toronto tomorrow. 2 more months and I'll be back here, but if I had my way, I wouldn't go back to Toronto tomorrow. It's feeling more and more like home back in the UK.............

Life in the UK

2005-07-07T23:22:00.000+01:00

So the London bombing is the news of the moment. There were speculations on who it could be. Obviously Al-Queda (or how ever you spell his name!) is the top suspect, with France being mentioned - in annoyance of London winning the 2012 Olympic bid!! Funnily enough, the Irish were ruled out because there were no warnings given of a possible attack. Sounds like the Irish normally tell the British when they are about to do something so the British aren't shocked when it happens.

Apart from the worrying news (I don't want the nation to start living in fear of being attacked), life here is great. It's rained every day since I've been here for at least 5 minutes and the funny thing is, in the nation that is renouned for rain, they are saying that there is a drought and 3 water companies have enforced a hose pipe ban!!!! Yes, this nation is hilarious.

I spent the afternoon in a lovely country manor, having cream tea & orange juice with the bride to be, and then we had her wedding shower tonight. It was a fun day. 1 more day left until the wedding....!!! Apparently it's going to be warm and sunny - I'll believe it when I see it.

Faith

2005-07-05T22:22:00.000+01:00

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Famous quote from a famous book - the bible. As I take a leap of faith into the unknown it feels kind of scary. What most of you don't know is that I am actually leaving Toronto to go to Wales and as of a few days ago have not really got everything that I thought was in place, in place - if that makes sense. Not that it's a disaster and I'm going to be homeless, but what I thought was going to happen (2 part time jobs, more work that I can handle) has now diminished into one part time job and err, not much else. So in the natural world, what we see is that I'm moving somewhere where, well, why on earth would I move to Wrexham? I'm surprised no one has actually questioned me on that one!! But there doesn't seem to be much there in terms of opportunities at the moment. So my natural reaction is "Why" and "What should I do?!"
But I have to remember there is a higher purpose to all of this and God keeps bringing me back to faith and trust in Him. I'm taking a leap of faith here - stepping out into the unknown and hoping beyond hope that I really have heard God's voice right! But I do know. It's that faith I have in the unknown - being certain of what I don't see. I'm certain right now that I am indeed going in the right direction, that this is the right move.

Faith and trust are big things to learn. I think I'm having my biggest lesson yet.

I keep thinking of a line from a song by Coldplay (on their latest album which is great) which says "Lets take a brave jump over the side". It's from their song "What if" which sounds like it's about a relationship. I guess in many ways I am taking a brave jump over the side, into the unknown, knowing that I will be caught no matter what, knowing that I will be looked after and provided for, because I know that God will not abandon me, never.
There endeth the lesson for today. Until the next time.

Getting excited about the small things in life

2005-07-04T19:15:00.000+01:00

I'm totally mad I've decided. I went to good old "Boots" today - the British equivilant to Shoppers Drug Mart for you Canadians - and got overly excited and had to stop myself from going mad with my money.
Firstly, everything seems really cheap to me because it's in ££'s. So I have to double everything to realise that it's actually NOT a bargain, and that it's just as expensive, if not more, that it would be in Canada. But I must say this about British shops - they know how to give you good bargains.
So I'm in Boots and they have loads of "Buy one get one Free" products. Yes, can you believe it, you buy one thing and they give you another one FREE. Unheard of in Canada. So I took advantage of these wonderful offers and got very excited about the prospect of once again shopping in Boots for all my toiletries. Oh, how the simple things seem to please me. I just can't wait to go grocery shopping. Yeah, I know. I'm mad.

I'm currently staying in a place called Bampton (not to be confused with Brampton, although you can hardly do that once you're here) which is a lovely English village with lots of lovely little cottages. I'm staying in a house which I think is around 300 years old. Yes, that's 300 years old - I didn't make a typo. It's been a typical British day with rain, cloud and sunshine all making an appearance today. Let's hope the sun shines all day on Saturday!!

Pants

2005-07-03T22:38:00.000+01:00

I have realised that my language has become too Canadian and I'm now having to reajust to a new language - British. Yes, I have spent 5 years learning how to call things by different names and now I have to revert back to what I used to call them. The hardest one to learn is Pants. I have, on several occasions, refered to my lovely new white trousers that I bought in Gap for £10 (yes, I am very proud of my purchase as you can tell) as "Pants". Now, to those of you who know the English language (and not the American or Canadian version of it), pants are underwear worn specifically by males, so to refer to my trousers as "Pants" is making a big mistake. It would be excusable for an American or Canadian to call them Pants and get away with it, but for a British person to do it, well....

Still in the UK and now I'm down in Oxford, where everyone has accents that sound just like me and the sign posts are just in one language, rather than 2. In 5 days time my friend Gail is getting married, and I'm one of the bridesmaids!! How exciting. It's my first time in this part of England, and it's everything everyone thinks England to be - green rolling hills, quaint little cottages and sheeps, cows & horses in the fields.

I have to say it - I do love this country. I think I might start a campaign to get the British more patriotic and start getting them to fly the Union Jack in their gardens or something. I think we have lost that sense of National Pride and it needs to be restored again.

I know that I am so meant to be back here in the UK - it's like God has this big plan for me here and everytime I think of moving back here for good I get really excited. I have booked my flight home from Canada on September 5th. Not long to go now. It's going to be great to see my family again and not be so far away from them. I know they are excited too....who wouldn't be???!!! Ha ha!!

Back in the UK

2005-07-01T19:00:00.000+01:00

I am back in the UK for a visit and a wedding. It's great being back over here and it's made me realise that I have indeed made the right decision to come home, except that it's raining and although the sun has made an appearance, it's a very rare sight!!
I arrived on Thursday morning after flying with Zoom airlines, a cheap charter airline. I flew into Manchester on what was supposed to be a direct flight. However, the airline had a different idea and decided that it needed to stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia (not Halifax, England as one poor chap thought it was) to let people off the plane. What the people from Halifax were doing on a direct flight to Manchester is beyond me. That added an extra 2 hours to the journey but I had a good book, good music, good food (yes, we had thai chicken and a glass or 2 of wine!!) and a good movie to entertain me. The bloke sitting beside me was British but living in Canada and he reminded me of a typical English man who complained about everything (not to the staff)!
I am staying in Wrexham right now - my new home in September - and have decided that I quite like it here. They have good shops nearby (very important) and the nearest Ikea is an hour away (very important too). It's wierd to be back here because everyone has an accent to me, even though they are British. And they drive on the other side of the road, and I'm so glad I'm not driving because I would have crashed about a thousand times going the wrong way down the streets!
However I went shopping yesterday and bought lots of English chocolate, so I will be popular when I get back to Toronto. I have to keep reminding myself that I am in WALES not England right now. It's a lot like being in Canada because everything is in 2 languages, apart from the fact that Welsh is nothing like French as it has all constanants and no vowels (or very few) in the words. Like the word for "Road" is Fford. How on earth do you pronounce that?? I have no idea. Still, I expect I'll be fluent in Welsh by the end of the year :)
The time difference is strange too because I didn't sleep in the overnight flight, and then didn't go to bed until 8pm last night and slept for 14 hours straight. I was about to call my sister and started working out the time difference forgetting that I'm in the same country!! Even the currency is strange because I keep adding tax on to the price, forgetting that it's already included!!!
So tonight later on I'm having curry - the new staple dish of the UK! Looking forward to it.....

Five go camping

2005-06-21T17:28:00.000+01:00

I had probably one of the funniest and best weekends I've had for a while. I've decided it's good to laugh sometimes.
A group of us went camping and the group comprised of 2 guys and 3 girls. The guys - Ben & Jon - were talking about pranking us girls, so we were threatening them with pranking them back. All empty threats of course on our part as none of us had anything up our sleeves (not that the guys knew that, we fooled them into believing that we had lots of things planned) - I'm not a big fan of pranks, unless they are done on someone else and doesn't involve hurting them. Well, I hoped and prayed that I wouldn't be the one that was the target....

On Friday night we were supposed to leave by 8pm. Now, I'm a bit of an 'on time' freak - I have my life planned out in slots of time like: 9am-5pm work, 5pm-6pm home, 6pm-8pm shopping etc. so you can tell that I'm a bit oppessive complusive about time. So.....the plan was to go shopping before we pick Ben up at 8pm. If only everyone else was as organised as me it would have worked out perfectly and according to my plan. We finally pick up Ben at around 8.30pm, having not done any shopping. So we decide to go shopping and then go via Ben's house for some other stuff on our way up. Yeah, ok so by this time I'm like "Are we ever going to get there?" So we're on our way by about 9.45pm. We decide to make estimations of what time we'll get there by. I say 11.59pm on Sunday at the rate we're going. We actually arrive at 11.15pm and set up our tents in the dark without much problem.

We're all awoken the next morning by the crow squarking loudly. And I mean LOUDLY. If I'd had a gun I would have shot the stupid thing. It's lovely to be out in nature right??? Not when there are crows around it's not. Still, we overcame our anger at the bird and got up only to find our tent had been padlocked shut by none other than the boys (or one boy in particular). First prank of the trip. Then Maeghan got talc thrown on her whilst we were imprisoned in our tent. At least that was the all the pranks over. We found out the next day that there were other pranks planned but not done, the worst one of all was putting fish in our sleeping bags!! The fish smelt really bad as it had been in the car all weekend. Jon got rid of the fish but not the smell. All the way back home the car stunk of fish. Lucky it was (a) not in my sleeping bag and (b) not my car else I would have gone mad!

We spent the day travelling around. We went to Wasaga Beach then to Blue Mountain because I wanted to see what Blue Mountain looks like when it's summer. It's green. That's all I can say. It is a mulit coloured mountain. Blue, green, white, brown.....
Then we did a bit more driving before we found this cool beach where we had our 8th snack of the day. The others took great delight in feeding the seagulls. I, on the other hand, did not take great delight in feeding the seagulls. When we arrived on the beach there was 1 seagull. By the time we left there were over 20 of them. The others seem to enjoy watching them fight. I believe that they must call their extended family and all their long lost friends when they find food because they multiplied pretty quickly. Mel & I just let the others have their fun and went and skimmed some rocks in water. I'm not a big fan of seagulls as you can tell.

To round off the day we had a bonfire and watched a movie (yeah, I know, we're supposed to be camping but Ben bought up his computer). We have pictures and video footage of the weekend which I can't wait to see!! We finally got back to Toronto on Sunday all totally exhausted! Still, it was a good weekend and definitely one with lots of quotes and inside jokes.....so that trip will be a great memory for my last few months here.

Moving on and moving out

2005-06-07T02:05:00.000+01:00

The craziness of life has caught up on me and so that is why all has been quiet for a few weeks on the blog.
It's suddenly hit me that I have 3 more weeks in my apartment before I have to move out, so I have been sorting through my stuff - it's funny how much crap you collect over 5 years! I am wondering how on earth I'm going to get any of the stuff back to the UK.
I've been so busy recently I haven't even had chance to think about all that's going on. It seems strange that I'm about to start a new chapter of my life in a new location, new setting with new people. It's hard to let go of things here in Toronto. I'm surrounded by so many great and awesome people who have influenced my life in so many ways that my life is going to be so much emptier without them. I still have 3 months before I head on back to my homeland, but really if I think about it, I'm not really in Toronto for those 3 months. I'm trying to get quality time with each of my friends and each of the girls in my cell before I go!!
I have so many good memories of my time in this place. One day I will blog about them - when it's nearer the time to leave.

I want to enjoy my life over the next few months and luckily I'm surrounded by people who help me to do that. My friends here have so much life in them (although they would probably all disagree!!) so should be fun. When I finally get time to stop and think, I'll share my thoughts with you all. For now, you'll have to put up with blogs every so often!

The Wild At Heart Man

2005-05-26T17:20:00.000+01:00

Tania & I have met our own very Wild At Heart Man. After Sarah Dailey's post of "Chase me dammit - the cry of a woman's heart" (hope that's the right title) I know a lot of us were like, yeah, that's right Sarah, tell it as it is. Our question was "Does the Wild at Heart man that Mr Eldridge talks about in his book really exist?" And my answer to this is "Yes" and we have met him.

We were walking along a woodland trail and this guys starts to talk to us both - asking us questions and just being a friendly, nice individual. We get to some rocks and we part ways for a while. We have to climb down some rocks to get to this grotto and see our "Wild at Heart man" climbing the rocks in this grotto, even though if he was to fall he would drop into this freezing cold water. He starts to talk to us again and we climb up the rocks to the top of the cliff. We then disappear again and he follows and comes up to me and gives me a flower that he has picked and found...ahhhhhhh. I've never been given a flower by a guy I've just met!! He then proceeds to run off across the cliffs (with the both of us watch of course) and he looks just like the guy on the front cover of "Wild at Heart". That's when he got given the name by Tania of the "Wild at Heart Man".

We walk off because we don't want to make it too obvious that we're watching him and hestiate about sticking around to talk more, but decide to walk back to the campsite - yes, I know, we should have stuck around but I decide that if this guy is serious then he will come and find us at the campsite. Tania, however is not sure about my theory that he will come and find us but we decide to leave anyway.

So we get back to the campsite and have a laugh about it with Joanna & Nicole who are camping with us. About 30 minutes later this car drives past and who should be in it but the guy!! He sees us, reverses the car and comes and speaks to us!!! So my theory worked. Alas, the story ends there as we did not see him after this because we left the next day & he was about to go and get 'smashed' for the evening (yeah, that kind of made me realise that he was probably not the kind of guy that would be good for me - but it gave me hope, right?), but it encourages me that yes, there are men out there that will pursue you, will drive around the campsite looking for you and give you flowers. So yes, Sarah Dailey and the other girls out there - the Wild at Heart man does exist - the guys just need to take a lesson from Josh (that's his name).

Visa's

2005-05-06T18:26:00.000+01:00

So on the same day that the Russians decide that my bosses are not spies or experts in Nuclear warfare and are indeed admissable into their country, the Canadian's decide that they have in fact FOUND my "missing" visa application from last February and issue me a new 1 year Visa for Canada!! Imagine my surprise when I go to my mail box to find a Visa waiting there for me. I laughed for a while and then thought of the hassle I've just been through trying to (a) get all my forms sent back to them (b) spending money on "Reinstating" my supposed non-status in Canada and (c) trying to teach 2 people how to run a conference in Chicago. I promptly booked a flight to Chicago and am now relaxing in the knowledge that I can know leave and come back into Canada without a high risk of being refused entry.

So my next challenge in the Visa section is to apply for my L-1 visa to the US. It's a specialist Visa which lets your company transfer you to a US branch of the company. This will help me getting in and out of the US for the conferences. I got the approval from the American's but the big hurdle now is getting the Visa in my passport. there are so many forms to fill out, interviews to have that it all seems more hassle than it's worth! I just love Immigration agencies......

The Lego Bible

2005-05-04T18:17:00.000+01:00

I got this link sent to me www.thebricktestament.com which is the bible illustrated by Lego!! I think it's highly amusing. My favourite has to be the "Holy Ghost" in the Gospels section. I also like God's eyebrows - but it makes him look really angry all time though. Have fun!!

"One return to Mars please"

2005-05-02T22:00:00.000+01:00

I was shocked to discover today that Virgin airlines are looking to offer space travel by the year 2008!!! Yes, we may too be able to travel to another planet, all for the bargain price of $200,000 US!! I was on their website looking into flights and came across the "Virgin Galatic" (check out www.virgingalacic.com )the latest in airline technology by the sounds of it, at the small price of $10million.
Wow, wouldn't that be amazing?? Not that I would pay $200,000 to go (there are many things I could do with $200,000, of which space travel would not be one of them) but just the thought that we could one day take vacations on the moon. Mind you, it's taken them long enough to get there. Didn't the first man walk on the moon back in the 60's (don't know the year - didn't get taught these kind of things at school)? if someone gave me a free ticket, I'd definitely go for it. So, all those of you who are reading who have $200,000 spare - you know what to do with it.

Russian Visa's

2005-04-28T21:32:00.000+01:00

Part of my ever increasing job description is to make sure John & Carol get Visa's to those countries that require Visa's (like Canada in my case!! Ha ha!).
Today it has been "Russian Visa" day. And oh what a joy this is. Last time it was simple - a few simple questions here and there and hey presto, you have a Russian visa in your passport. Simple as that.
Not so this time. They scrutinise every part of your life. I'm not sure what they are afraid of - they're the Russian's so it's not like they're expecting an attack from themselves. Here are a few of their questions on their lenghty visa application, just to give you a feel for what I've had to get John & Carol to answer:

Type of Passport (well, it's a passport, what else can I tell you?? I mean it's blue, Canadian and has my boss' picture in it + has lots of stamps in it). They wanted to know if it's a:
diplomatic passport,
official (I thought all passports are official??),
tourist,
seaman's passport (they have such a thing?),
alien's travel document (I mean, I know that they are into space programs and stuff but are they really expecting creatures from another planet??)

Mother & Father's full names. - Why, do they want to meet them?

List all the countries you have been in the last years (how many I don't know) and indicate the year of visit. Now, if you know anything about my bosses you will know that the question should read: List all the countries you HAVE NOT visited in the last how ever many years. That took some room up I can tell you.

List the last 2 places you worked.

List all educational institutions you ever attended, except high schools

List all professional, civil & Charity organizations which you are/were a member of etc.

Do you have any specialized skills, training or experience related to fire-arms and explosives or to nuclear, biological or chemical activities? (What??? Was very tempted to write "Yes" in here to see reaction but decided against it)

Have you ever been involved in an armed conflict, either as a member of military service or a victim?

Have you ever been deported from Russia, had a Visa refused etc. etc. The list goes on. It took me over an hour to have them complete both Visa applications........

I will leave my trip to Russia for a few more years until I have gained my BSc & PHD in Nuclear and Chemical warfare, just for the Russian authorities, so that I can write "Yes" to that question.

Immigration

2005-04-26T22:17:00.000+01:00

Oh the joys of being a visitor in another country. I applied for my extension to my work Visa for Canada as my Visa ran out on March 31, 2005. The website told me that the processing time was around 40 days, so when I didn't hear from them I assumed they just hadn't opened it yet. Don't ever assume anything!!
I call them today to find out that they have NOT even received it! So now I am 'without status' in Canada, have to resend my documents + $125 because I am sending it in AFTER my Visa has expired AND to top it all, I can't even leave the country. I was supposed to be flying to Chicago next month, but that's not going to happen. Yeah......so I guess I'm glad to be going back to the UK, where I'm allowed to live & work freely wherever I choose and whenever I choose!

I love Canada but am frustrated at now having to wait another 44 days to get a Visa extension......

Don't panic - right.....

2005-04-18T22:17:00.000+01:00

Ever wondered why the little button on the car remote thingy says "Panic"? In case you have no idea to what I'm refering to, on the car unlock door thingy that I have it has 4 buttons - one for unlock, another for locking, another for opening the trunk and another which says "Panic" which is in red.

The other day I was in the parking lot at the mall (I'm going to have to get used to English words again soon - I was in the car park at the shopping centre) and I accidently hit the "Panic" button which caused my car alarm to go off. I sat there for a few minutes trying to figure out how to turn the stupid thing off - I turned the car on, tried the stereo, flicked the light switch, opened the trunk - anything to shut the stupid thing up! The alarm keeps going off and I'm wondering who is going to call the police and tell them that I'm breaking into a car (even though I was sat in it). In the end I figured that if I hit the "panic" button again for longer it turns off the noise. So it's all quiet. Did anyone come to my rescue? No. Did anyone take the blind bit of notice that the alarm had gone off? No.

Now I know why it's called a panic button. It's not in case you get in a panic and need rescuing, but it's what happens when you accidently turn the stupid alarm on - you panic about how to get the stupid thing off before the cops come and arrest you for breaking into your own car. Not that anyone pays the slightest bit of attention to a car alarm going off anyway. It was nice to notice that no one came to my aid in the dark parking lot. I won't be using that button again for a while.

Finally....

2005-04-18T22:03:00.000+01:00

So I have told the "Important people" about my decision! I had to let my cell group know before they heard from someone else, that's who I was talking about, just in case you were wondering.
I have decided to go back to the UK to live. So that's the big news. I am heading back in September to a church in Wales to possibly work part time there and work part time for my bosses (John & Carol) from the UK - thank God for email right?! I have to fit it all together still and sort out the finer details but that's the basics. Exciting stuff???!!

Moving on.....

2005-04-13T22:09:00.000+01:00

So I realised that yesterday's post left you hanging - where is Nicola going, what is she going to do....
Well, I'll update you all on this once I have told one or two important people that I have not told personally yet.......so I'm going to keep you in suspense for a few more days, but I think you've probably all taken a guess at where I'm heading to.
I've got a few more months here in Toronto yet, so it's not immediate, unless Immigration Canada have other ideas (still no news on my Visa extension).

On another note, the money thing (the emails I mean) is getting a little out of hand. There are now 6 of us involved and for some reason everyone is getting the same emails, offering the same amount of money. I am winning this week. So far no one has guessed that the person who wins is the person initiating the thing. Not that I would cheat or anything (you can ask my sister if I ever cheated whilst playing Monopoly when we were growing up - she'll tell you a few tales I'm sure). No I wouldn't, honestly. I don't think Nicky Smith would believe me though. Not sure anyone believes me!

Change is a good thing

2005-04-12T17:14:00.000+01:00

It's funny how your life can suddenly go from lots of different pieces scattered around the place - thoughts here and ideas here - to actually having a plan. It's like my life has gone from a 'well maybe I could do this' and a 'maybe I should move here' to a definite plan and purpose.
My life has always seem purposeless. I've never really had a plan of where i was going and felt like I was just like the Israelites when they were in the desert, wandering around for 40 years not really having any particular destination (although they were ultimately heading for the promised land I guess). And then all of a sudden it's like I know it's time to move on, but I have no idea of what I want to do when I grow up. I'm 28. Surely I should have some plan by now??? I could go back and do what I was doing before I came to Canada, but would that fulfill me, would that make me feel excited about life? No. Why do I want to be working in an office in central London pushing paper for the rest of my life when there is a whole world out there to explore, discover and influence for God!? It's like going backwards, and that's exactly what I felt God say to me - if you do this Nicola, you're going backwards.
So I waited and waited. And waited some more. And then a plan came to me, a plan that I got excited about and dreamt about and thought "Yes! I want to do this!!". And now the plan seems to becoming a reality. A reality which involves a move to a new location in a few months time. And I'm excited.

Winning

2005-04-08T22:39:00.000+01:00

By some fluke I won the $$ contest. I got an email offering me $24.5million today, which bought my total to $77.5million, beating Greg by $3.4million. And no, I didn't cheat....in spite of what my previous blog entry may suggest......I won fair and square.

Mystery of life

2005-04-07T22:24:00.000+01:00

How come as soon as we want the emails offering us all the money from the dead people in their wills, they don't send any? I've had none today, apart from a hoax from Jon Long offering me $10million if I give him my credit card details, which I am sure Greg & Nicky will NOT allow me to use in the competition.

It's one of the mysteries of life - that when you don't want something, it's there and when you want it, it's not. And like when you have money you can't find anything you like when you're shopping but when you have no money all these clothes keep calling saying "Buy me, buy me".

I have decided that I need to better with my money as well. You'd think with all these millions of $$'s coming in that I would be a wealthy woman but you're wrong. My mum lent me this book called "The money secret" which has inspired me to (a) cut up my credit card, (b) be very cautious about taking out a loan and (c) to budget better. The secret is to not spend more than you earn. I'm good at doing the opposite of that but am learning.

I had a financial miracle yesterday - I like those. It's not so much of a miracle but more of a "God really knows what I need and when I need it" kind of situation. My bank account was not very happy yesterday but I got home to find a cheque in the mail which i was expecting but hadn't turned up in weeks!! If I'd got it 2 days ago I would have spent it already, but because it came yesterday and I don't have much money I can now use it really wisely, like buying clothes, rather than grocery shopping. Ok, I'm kidding, I wouldn't really use it on buying clothes above groceries.....but it's a good idea.

Cheating - what a good idea

2005-04-06T22:06:00.000+01:00

This is a copy of an email conversation between Nicky Smith & myself discussing our current state of play with the African money emails. I'm still in last place with $56.5 million now.

-----Original Message-----
From: Nicky Smith
To: Nicola Tancock

Any mega bucks in for you today? I’m lacking big time.

From: Nicola Tancock
To: Nicky Smith

$2.5 million on the lottery. So I'm still in 3rd place.

From: Nicky Smith
To: Nicola Tancock

Not bad – you never know you might even win this week. What’s the prize anyway? Still a paper Clip and the knowledge that you won?

From: Nicola Tancock
To: Nicky Smith

No you get to keep all the money combined. Big prize. And I'll send out a congratulations email.

From: Nicky Smith
To: Nicola Tancock

I love your competitive side! Does that total roll over into next weeks pot to for the winner or start over?

From: Nicola Tancock
To: Nicky Smith

Well we'll have to see. I think we should do it over the next 2 weeks and then see who is winning.

From: Nicky Smith
To: Nicola Tancock

Yes cos we cant let Greg dominate for too long!

From: Nicola Tancock
To: Nicky Smith

No we can't. Maybe I could ask Blake to send some of his to me....

From: Nicky Smith
To: Nicola Tancock

That would be called cheating – unless you share it with me and we don’t tell greg! We could club together and ask everyone secretly to pass on all their money emails to us and we’ll split them 50 50?

From: Nicola Tancock
To: Nicky Smith

Jolly good idea Nicky. I like the way you think.... :)

From: Nicky Smith
To: Nicola Tancock

Me too!!

From: Nicola Tancock
To: Nicky Smith

You're very clever but not as clever as me.

From: Nicky Smith
To: Nicola Tancock

Now listen here…we’re supposed to be on the same team. None of this bickering before we’ve even started cheating – I mean clubbing together.

From: Nicola Tancock
To: Nicky Smith

Jon Long thought our email was hilarious. I'm going to put it on my bog at his suggestion. Let's hope Greg doesn't read it (the bog that is).

From: Nicky Smith
To: Nicola Tancock

I just read it thru from beginning to end and I do agree it is quite entertaining.

From: Nicola Tancock
To: Nicky Smith

How come my email now reads "Bog" rather than "Blog"? Did my spell checker change it? How funny.

From: Nicky Smith
To: Nicola Tancock

I did wonder A) where your bog was and B) why you’d put it on it!!??

From: Nicola Tancock
To: Nicky Smith

The mind does start to wonder doesn't it?

Money money money

2005-04-04T22:04:00.000+01:00

One of the highlights of my job is getting emails from generous Africans who want to bless me with millions of $'s. I get quite a few of them. You probably have a mindset that most of the African's are poor and live in straw huts, but apparently not. In fact, by the amount of emails that I get (and other people in my workplace) the Africans might well be the wealthiest people under the heavens.

So this week I have decided I'd like to see who is the wealthiest person I work with, based on who gets 'given' the most amount of money this week from the wealthy African's. The scam is that they email you telling you that such and such a person has died in a plane crash or from Thyphoid or something tragic, and that in their will they left $xx Million which has to go to a charity or church, or sometimes they are being extra generous and tell you that you are their only beneficiary (they don't have your name - they address you as "Dear Sir". So they have decided that you are the beneficiary and want to offer you that much money. Sound convincing? Well, it's not until they ask you for your bank details so that they can transfer money to your account that you kind of get the "something smells odd about this" feeling. I think it should read "so we can transfer money from your bank" as that is exactly what they do. Needless to say I did not get sucked in by this and now my job is to make sure that no other person in our organisation is sucked in by it.

Each day this week I will be asking Nicky, Greg & Stephanie (all of which receive these emails frequently) to tell me how much they have been offered in total. We started today and so far I am losing with $25.5 million, yes I'm losing. Greg is winning with just under $70 million. So by the end of the week I wonder how much we'll end up with?

I just wish the money was real.

Fresh Wind

2005-03-29T23:43:00.000+01:00

We've just finished our annual Youth conference at the church. It's got to be my favourite conference of all because the music is so loud but so amazing and the teaching is not so complicated that I get lost after the first 5 minutes (you know what I mean?). It was fun again this year and so amazing to see my friends in the band all day Friday do so good. They were the best in my opinion, and yes, I am probably biased. I got to 'mingle with the stars' in the Hospitality room and serve them food, such a hard job!! (just kidding). I also got to eat the food which was amazing - chicken, steak, cheesecake, fruit....ummmm. ok, enough about food. I had too much to eat on the cruise but did not put on any weight, in fact I was asked if I'd lost weight (my mum also commented on the same thing - I don't think I've lost any weight, it's not like I have any to lose).

It was good to see my wonderful friend Sarah Dailey as well. I didn't see as much of her as I'd have liked, but Sarah, it was great to see you!!! My parents were also over with 2 of the youth from their church, so I got plenty of family time which was fun. I got to drive them all over Toronto on Sunday & Monday, which they enjoyed very much, and so did I. I also got brave enough to drive on the highway!! I must be overcoming my fear at last. I have discovered that the key to being confident is to keep doing something. The more I drive the more confident I become. One day I'll be an expert..... :)

Building train tracks

2005-03-16T23:28:00.000Z

I watched "Under the Tuscan Sun" last night, which I have seen before, but it's very thought provoking. I like thought provoking movies because it makes me think, which is always a good & dangerous thing.
The story is about a lady who finds out her husband is having an affair and gets a divorce and ends up on holiday in Tuscany. On a whim she buys this old Italian villa and starts to renovate it. She gets discouraged because she's on her own but has grand plans for the house. She longs to see a family in there, and a wedding and to meet someone etc. but it doesn't look like those things are going to happen. This wise old guy (they always have one, don't they?) tells her the story of the train that they wanted to run between Venice & Vienna and how when they built the train tracks there wasn't a train built that was able to run between the 2. But they built the tracks anyway, and later on they built the train. His comment was that she just needed to concentrate on building the tracks, and not to worry about the train.
What am I doing in my life to build train tracks? My life is all uncertain as I wait for my Visa extension to come through. I am so at peace with it all as I know that God has my future under control. I'm wondering if it's time to go back to England, or time to move on to another place. I love times like these, as I seek God's direction for the next step. I know it's not a step backwards but a step forwards, a new adventure, a new chapter. I'll keep building those train tracks so that one day the train will be able to run on them.

Cruising

2005-03-08T18:00:00.002Z

I'm sure when you think about going on a cruise you think of old people. That's what I always did, so was pleasantly surprised when I arrived last Saturday in Miami to find that I was not the only person on the boat under 50. In fact, there were lots of people on board who were in my age group, so forget the age old fact that cruising is for old people. It's a lie.

I had a blast. I got sunburnt. It's my own fault. I was sat on deck talking about how you can always tell a British person on holiday because they are the ones who are bright red from spending the day in the sun because we don't get much sunshine back home. So I go inside after being in the sun all of 45 minutes (on a sunbed - half the time on my stomach, half on my back) and realise that my face and neck area are bright red, just like a lobster!! That will teach me to laugh at other British people. I had sunglass marks which made it look even more ridiculous. I looked like a Panda or something. Thankfully now I have a tan (which is peeling) but I learnt my lesson about not putting sunscreen on. It was Factor 30 sunscreen from that point on.

I had my very first snorkelling experience in the beautiful island of St Maarten. It was wierd to have to breath out of your mouth and I had to train myself to breath out of my mouth for the first few minutes because I kept going under water and not being able to breath! Saw lots of fishes and shipwrecked boats from past hurricanes. Very exciting really.

The food was amazing. I was eating 3 meals a day, 2 of which were 3 course meals. And if that wasn't enough and you had room for more there was an all you can eat buffet open most of the time, and then if you still had room for more, there were 2 Midnight buffets. The food look great but I had no room to even fit a chocolate strawberry in my belly. My advice - loose lots of weight before you go then you can eat as much as you want when you're on the cruise. I, thankfully, did not gain any extra weight so don't have to worry about going to the gym to work all those mango cheesecakes and steak dinners off. Mind you I need to go to the gym to improve my upper body strength after I tried out the rock climbing wall (yes, the boat even has one of those) and got about a metre off ground before I had to get the guy to let me down again!! My friend Tania got all the way to the top and got to ring the bell thing - I was so embarressed.

So that's a few highlights of the trip. I got asked "did you have a good time" quite a few times when I got back, to which I replied - "no, how could you have a good time on a cruise ship in the Caribbean with temperatures in the late 20's and all the food you could eat??" Silly question really.

Lessons learnt

2005-02-26T01:46:00.000Z

I have finally taken the step and got in the car and driven on my own. Big step for me. It was fun and I had a blast putting the radio up as loud as I wanted to, just cause I could. I enjoyed my little singing session in the car - I'm sure other people around me must have thought I was crazy, but oh well, I guess I am. Better than being normal, right?

I am learning things about driving. Firstly, when it's cold in the car, the steering wheel is really cold and you need to wear gloves to actually drive, else it's painful. Lesson # 1 - make sure you have gloves handy in the winter.
Lesson # 2 is to make sure you leave plenty of room between you and the approaching car coming from the right when you are turning left (following me??). I thought I had, so turned left only to have the car zoom right past me, giving the fright of my life and the feeling of "Did I just nearly kill myself?".

Lesson # 3 - Practise parking - a lot. I'm still crap at parking. I can just about do a forward park without too much hassle, but try parrell parking and I'm embarressed, just incase someone is watching and laughing at me.

Lesson # 4 - Don't multi-task in the car. I tried driving and changing the song on my iPod and ended up in the middle of the road. Could be dangerous if you're on a busy road - luckily I wasn't.

Lesson # 5 - If you don't need to clear your windshield with the wiper fluid, don't do, especially at night in -20 degrees. My windshield ended up being much worse and I couldn't see a thing for a few seconds.

Lesson # 6 - Sticking to the speed limit is near enough impossible. It's a habit to want to go much faster and I ended up catching myself 20/30 kms over the speed limit at least half the time. I am dreading passing a cop.

I'm sure there are many more lessons out there to learn! I'm leaving tomorrow for some warmth & sunshine, so think of me whilst I'm suffering on the cruise ship in 30 degree sunshine and all you can eat buffets. Good job I'm not on a diet (and never have been).

Back in town

2005-02-21T22:57:00.000Z

So I've arrived - tired, travel weary and ready for my next fun filled adventure - a Caribbean cruise. And boy do I need it?! We worked from 8am in the morning to midnight, for 3 days - oh, sorry, we worked until 1.30am on Saturday. I got sick, didn't sleep much and then to top it all off got to the airport to find out our flight was delayed. We only had a 50 minute connection time if the flight was on time, but since we were delayed by the time we got to Washington we had a 15 minute connection time. You guessed it, we missed our connection to Toronto.
We had to line up in the United Airlines Customer Service line up for what seemed like forever. I was all very calm and enjoying myself really, other people were getting stressed and you could tell they were not impressed.

We got to the counter and were told the next flight was later on but was oversold by 6 seats, so we were looking at an overnighter in Washington. It's not like we were rushing back, so we did that, got free food, taxi & hotel and went and hung out at the hotel. Only problem - we had no luggage!!

I had the worst night sleep ever (well, slight exaggeration there but it wasn't too good!), got up at 6.15am after approximately 2 hours of sleep, got to the airport, got on the plane, landed and went straight to work....madness. And the stupid thing is it's 6pm AND I'M STILL AT WORK!!! I'm on my way home, honestly....

So I think I'll be sleeping well this week. 5 days to go until I am off to the Caribbean. I am counting down the days....

Virginia Beach

2005-02-17T21:06:00.000Z

I'm in Virginia Beach down in Virginia, of all places. We're running a conference down here so I'm down here running around like crazy pretending that I know what I'm doing and making myself look very important. It's actually going really well as this year I don't have to run the whole thing on my own and I actually have time off - even if it's only an hour or so.

It's all very interesting being down in Virginia. They all have great accents and say that I do too. I have decided to count how many people comment on my accent and so far the count today is 4. The Americans love to say things like "Oh you have such a cute accent" or "Where are you from honey, Australia?" or even "Can I have your accent?". Glad that some people like the way I talk. It's really strange sometimes going back to the UK to run a conference as I keep expecting to get asked "Where did you get that accent from?" but I never get asked. That's because to them I don't have an accent right?? It's funny to hear British people when I'm over here in North America. You instantly want to become friends with them because they are from the same country you are. There are a family here who are from the UK and who live in the next county to where I grew up! Dave seemed to think they knew my parents (which I have to investigate further - wouldn't that be strange?) so it's a small world, right?

We're having fun here though, and that is the main thing I guess. We work hard but play harder!! Better go and get some rest - have a long & busy night ahead.

Good questions

2005-02-11T18:35:00.000Z

Had a great cell meeting last night. There were 8 of us and we talked a lot about leadership and about where were going with our lives. Duncan asked the question of "Where do you want to be in 3 years time?" I had to think and admit that I didn't have any clue where I wanted to be in 3 years time. I don't even know where I want to be in 3 months time.

It got me thinking about life plans and how I don't really have a plan of where I'm going and what I want to do when I grow up - oh, but I am grown up so I should really have some idea??

How do you find out what you want to do? We came up with a list of things - by finding what you are passionate about, what makes you come alive, what you enjoy doing, what talents and gifts you have. So now I have to think about all those things and come up with where I want to be in 3 years time. I have an idea but how am I going to get there? That is the next question to think about. So I have a busy thoughtful weekend ahead of me.

Oh, and the network is finally up and running so I have lots of work to do now.

Still no network

2005-02-09T21:55:00.000Z

Day 3 of having no way of doing work. Most people would be rejoicing at the thought of going to work and having none to do, but I'm bored and actually want to be doing something, anything other than a blank screen. Thank Goodness we have the internet.
I'm about to go away next week for a conference so email would be handy right now as I have 1001 things I need to organise before we leave. It's nearly 4pm and today I have written 1 letter and 1 another document, read some strange letters that came in from some random person (yes, I do get some really weird letters & phone calls) that got filed to the bin, taken a few phone calls and did an inventory count. Now I have an hour to go and fill with something exciting.

What to do when there is nothing to do

2005-02-08T21:22:00.000Z

It's been an exciting few days in the office - our network has been down so we can't do any work. Well, that's a slight lie, you can do work but nothing that involves using the computer. Actually, that technically is still lying because you can use the computer but you can't actually access your emails or any of your files. So really, there is no work to do. How have I kept myself busy? I have surprised myself by how busy I have been but now it is Tuesday at 3.20pm and I am slowly lacking the ability to keep myself busy, hence the blog.

I am going to attempt to reply to lots of letters (my least favourite part of my job) and then if I'm still bored I could rearrange my files. Wow, I must be getting bored.

I discovered the best hot chocolate in the world yesterday. I'm a bit of a chocolate lover (as long as it's not North American chocolate) as most of you will know. I have never been a fan of Hot Chocolate though as it's always way too watery in my opinion. Hot chocolate should be thick & creamy. So yesterday I discovered Starbucks Chantico. It's so thick and chocolatey that they only give you a small cup of it - and even I couldn't finish that. So if you are looking for the ultimate Hot Chocolate - check it out. I guarantee you'll love it (but not the price).

Anyway back to work I guess.......

Finally....

2005-02-05T00:04:00.000Z

Watch out on the roads.....Nicola has finally passed!! Yes, I had my 3rd test today and I PASSED!!! Yay! And the exciting part - I didn't have to reverse park!! Wow..
I had the nicest examiner who talked to me about England (always a good subject to get me on) and how much he loves the country and how he'd been there before blah blah blah. So I felt really relaxed and had a good time (yes, I had a good time unlike my last tests) and I jumped up and down when he said I'd passed - obviously I was outside of the car when I jumped up and down. So now I can go out driving whenever I like.

I have decided that all examiners should be like the one I had today. He smiled, he talked to you about stuff when you're driving, he made me feel at ease and he actually had a sense of humour. My last 2 examiners didn't smile and I wondered if they actually had a sense of humour. Maybe they were robots, programmed to do their job and that's it?

If anyone out there wants to buy me a car, you are more than welcome.

Fed-ex

2005-01-28T22:00:00.000Z

Jon Long & I had a very intense day in the office on Friday and it's all thanks to Fed-ex. I'm sure that Jlo will blog about it so you can read his side of the story on his page.
It all started a few days ago when Duncan asked me to help get his visa to an unknown country called Kyrgyzstan (I don't even know if I've spelt it right either). We have done this before, so it's not too much a hassle, or so we thought. I did my little bit and left Jon to do the rest as he works for Duncan. We had to arrange for a fed-ex to pick up the passport + application and take it down to Washington D.C.

Now you have to understand that we were on a tight schedule. The passport went down on Tuesday, got there in time for the Visa to be processed on Wednesday and then mailed by via Fed ex on Thursday, to arrive in Toronto by 12pm Friday. Duncan was due to fly out that night, so you can understand the importance of getting it back in time....

So all was going smoothly - the Visa was processed, the Fed-ex man was booked for pick up and delivery. All very straight forward really.....what could possibly go wrong?? Well, Jon arrives in the office Friday morning and no sign of the Fed-ex package. Ok, well maybe it will appear later. So he chases Fed-ex who have no record of a pick up at the embassy for Duncan's passport! He calls the embassy who said a Fed-ex lady picked it up on Thursday. So the mystery deepens - where is the missing Fed-ex package?? Well, the answer was that Fed-ex had mailed it BACK to the Embassy!!!! Yes!! Instead of arriving here in Toronto it goes back to the place where they picked it up from. Why did they mail it back? We have no idea....

So all morning & afternoon we were trying to find ways of getting the passport back to Toronto so Duncan could fly out Friday night, but to no avail. The passport was back in the hands of Fed-ex again and they told us it will be in Duncan's hands on Saturday. As I am writing, Duncan has now left the country and is on his way to Kyrgyzstan (or however you spell it) so his passport did come. Friday was probably the most stressful day of Jon's career so far.....

Another year older

2005-01-27T22:21:00.000Z

It's my birthday today and I'm the grand old age of 28. Everyone says "You're as old as you feel". Well today I feel like I'm 22, so I guess that's a good thing. I have days when I feel like I'm 50, but luckily those are few and far between!

I have had a great birthday so far - lots of emails, phone calls & spontaneous rounds of "Happy Birthday" when I have walked into a room. I hate lots of attention so I just wanted to run away. I have a kind of "surprise" party on Saturday (Surprise because I don't know where it is, but I know it's happening, so it's only a kind of surprise) and I hope they don't embarress me with another spontaneously planned round of "Happy Birthday". I think I'll want to die!!

Nobody has asked me the stupid question of "How does it feel to be 28" yet. I'm waiting. To which my reply will be "the same as it does being 27". One day does not make that much difference in the grand scheme of things (see my New Year's post for more comments on that score) so going to bed last night I wasn't like "Oh, my whole life is going to change overnight". I figured out this morning that technically since I'm in Canada I was actually born on Jan 26th, since I was born at 1.40am British time. That makes it 8.40pm in Canada, therefore making my real Canadian birthday yesterday. Confused? There really is no reason to be confused. It's all perfectly simple. Just like life, right?

This year is going to be my best ever (I'm just speaking that out so that it will come true).

I failed...again

2005-01-18T23:05:00.000Z

Yes, that's right I failed my 2nd driving test. I am so annoyed!! I drove near enough perfect but once again failed on that dreaded thing called "Reversing into a parking space". They should ban that from the driving test because then I would pass!!!
The driving examiner was kind of interesting. He didn't smile, talk a lot or really make me feel at ease. In fact he looked kind of scary! But he pointed out somethings that I needed to watch for (I was surprised because most examiners don't tell you to correct things - maybe he wanted me to pass??) and I honestly thought I'd failed after the first few minutes because I forgot to take off the parking brake, drove through a yellow light and didn't really observe through an intersection. So when I failed my parking (again) I thought, well ok I've failed anyway. But to my surprise the examiner said "Too bad you messed it up because you did everything else great". Aggghhhhhh. I hate reverse parking!! Who reverses into a parking space anyway??? I have never seen anyone (with the exception of my dad) reverse into a parking space so why do I have to do it?

So yeah, I guess in 2 weeks I'll be back to attempt it for the 3rd time. I am determined to pass this test. It really can't be that difficult to pass the test?? My encouragement was that at least I'll be a perfect driver! I'd better be after failing twice :)

Life's experiences

2005-01-13T22:36:00.000Z

You know when you suddenly get revelation on something when you are just sitting down and talking to people? You're in the middle of this conversation and suddenly out of your mouth comes this statement that kind of makes you wonder "Where did this come from?!!" I've had a this a few times recently.

I was sat talking to my wonderful friend Nicole. We were talking about life and how sometimes it's so hard. When you are going through things, and even after you've been through tough times, you can come out questioning "Why God?" You try and figure out what you did wrong to make God put you through such a hard time! But as we were talking it was like this light came on and made me realise that it's not about why God let you go through it, but what was he trying to teach us as we were going through it. What did we learn, how did we change, what important lessons have we learnt from it. I don't think asking "Why me God?" will ever get us an answer that truly satisfies us, but asking "What were you trying to teach me" will enable us to see where we have grown, what we have learnt, what he was trying to show us.

My room mate Bee & I were talking last night about life and how in some ways it's been a really challenging 12 months for me. She simply asked me "What did you learn during that time Nicola?" Great question! I listed off about 10 things that I have learnt in those 12 months. Would I have learn them if life had been easy? Probably not. One of the biggest things was that even though things were sometimes really tough, I still know who I am, I am still secure in my identity. Things can come and rock you and that's when you really know if you have changed. And I know that I have, and it's a great feeling to know that you have overcome the challenge.

Yesterday was one of those challenging days for me. At lunch time one of the guys prayed for me and said that he felt God wanted to ask me a question - What does your name mean? Well, my name means Overcomer, Victorious. I wanted to cry!! God just wanted to remind me that is Who I am - I am victorious, an overcomer. Wow, that blew me away. In the midst of a challenging day I was reminded Who I am. Sometimes all we need to remember is who we really are.

If we don't go through challenging times then how can we know if we have changed? How can God work in us if life is always so good? He tests our character, he tests our faith and our identity. I want to try not to ask "Why God" anymore, but instead look on it as "What are you trying to teach me?" because I believe we can learn so much more that way.

Relationships

2005-01-11T18:19:00.000Z

In one week I have given relationship advice to no less than 7 people. And I feel like I'm the least qualified of anyone to give out this advice. I guess all my wisdom on the subject boils down to these points:
1. Relationships with the opposite sex are not easy. They all need to be worked at.
2. Men are just as confusing as women, despite what they say (Yes, men are from Mars and women are from Venus).
3. Love is more than a feeling, but you do need an element of the lovey, dovey moments!!

I'm sure there are many more wise words from me to come. I think that from my experience and what I have learnt I should write a book. So watch out....relationship advice from Nicola should hit the shelves shortly. I was thinking the other day how I'd like to be an 'agony aunt' (as they call them in England) which is basically someone who receives letters from people needing advice. I'd tell people how it really is and give them a few honest words. Ummm, for those people who really know me would probably never see me doing that (being really honest that is), but don't you get moments when you just wish you could be really honest with someone? I have moments like that - like "Just get a life for goodness sake" or "Wake up and realise that they're not worth it". Ummmm, maybe I should add that to my New Years Resolutions list - Be more honest.

So we shall see how many more people I end up giving advice to about relationships, but I think I'm the one who is needing the most advice this week.

New Years Resolutions

2005-01-06T01:35:00.000Z

It's that time of year again when people make resolutions. This year I made 10 of them, and I expect that by the end of the year, I will have accomplished 1 of them. That is my track record. Over the holidays I thought about what I wanted to achieve and do this year and set my mind to write a long list of resolutions that I would stick to. I could imagine Dec 31st 2005 as I sit down to check off my list and with a smile realise that I had indeed done all that I set out to do.

Now you can imagine my 'shock' maybe when I read my journal from January last year and realised that I had written 4 resolutions, all of which happen to appear again on my 2005 list! Yes, the things I set out to do last year I did not do. This list was:
1. Pass my driving test (ummm, I would have done this if I hadn't failed back in December, so nice try).
2. Read the entire bible (nowhere near completed)
3. Get closer relationship with God (now, there is no real way of measuring this and I could have accomplished this but I know that I am still not in the place I want to be).
4. Get an outside interest (ummm, didn't achieve this one at all).

So now I have to get my butt in gear and get on and do the other 6 things on my list. Shame my 'doer' isn't very high else I would have done them all already.

Why do we make resolutions? I think for me it's a way of starting over, a way of saying "This is what I want to accomplish with my life" for the New Year. January 1st is a great time to think about all the things you want to change in your life - out with the old and in with the new. But I realised that although the day changes and the year changes, your life really doesn't change overnight.

I was surprised that when I woke up on Januay 1st, I had the same feelings, the same attitudes and the same motivation problem that I went to bed with!! I thought that I would change drastically overnight - because I mean it's a New Year now! It's time to start over, get rid of the bad stuff from the year before and move on. But no, nothing dramatic happened. I am still the same person, with the same emotions, feelings and attitudes. A day doesn't make a difference, the changing of the year doesn't make a difference. You are still the same person. It's funny how I can think that overnight I can somehow change!! I wish! Wouldn't that be great??

So hopefully by December 31st I would have accomplished all I set out to do this year......we'll see!

It's nearly Christmas

2004-12-20T22:06:00.000Z

My family arrived on Friday evening, all the way from England to have their first white Christmas and, for my sister Deb, brother-in-law Matt, nephew Sam and Uncle Robert, their very first Canadian Christmas.

Toronto celebrated their arrival by giving them a real taste of what a Canadian winter is like, as the temperature dropped to some crazy figure of -28 degrees!! Needless to say their first impression of Canada is "Is it really always this cold?!!" Sam, my 22 month old nephew, is not a big fan of the cold weather. Nor are the rest of my family. Luckily the weather is getting warmer so they could enjoy high temperatures of zero degrees. Funny when you think that warm is around the freezing mark. I've been in Canada far too long.

We are leaving for Huntsville - 2 and a half hours north of Toronto - on Wednesday, where we can be welcomed with lots of snow. I am looking forward to giving some of my family a skiing lesson (from a beginner like me!) and showing them how to make snow angels. We don't get much snow in England so it's like a novelty for them all!

Just in case I don't get time to blog again before Christmas - Have a good one & an even better New Year. May 2005 be the best year ever!

The Driving Test

2004-12-13T20:54:00.000Z

Thursday was the long awaited driving test. After 18 months of having my G1 licence and after many (and I mean many) driving lessons, I took my test....and failed. Aghhhh!!

Why on earth did I fail?? I actually thought I was doing pretty well until I had to do uphill parking, and you have to face your wheels a certain way. My brain unfortunately is not equipped to remember at short notice something as complicated as "If I park uphill do I turn the steering wheel right or left" and consequently I made the wrong choice - something I realised 10 seconds after driving away. Mistake #1.

The examiner asked me to turn right at the next road - and so, like most normal people, I was looking for a "road" not an entrance to the parking lot, so realised too late and did an extra wide turn. Mistake #2.

Then to top it all off, I had to do the final thing - a reverse park. Now, I had perfected my reverse parking and was very proud of the fact that I could reverse park with ease, so was excited to show the driving examiner my reverse parking skills. So I did all that I remembered and was confident in my ability....until I realised that I had parked too close to the other car, so I tried to straighten up, couldn't remember which way I should turn the wheel and basically spent the next 5 minutes embarrassing myself with my pathetic attempt at reverse parking. I knew I'd failed then. I stopped the car, apologised for making a fool of myself and looked at my examiner with a look of "I know I've failed so just bring it on".

He looked at me with this look of "I can't believe you even thought about coming to do your driving test!" and told me that I didn't meet ministry standards. He then proceeded to tell me everything I did wrong. He told me I went too slow!! Now, wasn't it my driving instructor who was always saying "Easy, Easy" to me because I was going too fast?? Mystery of life! I had just driven on the highway down to Guelph to do my test and was driving along nicely at 110km/h. Too slow??!!

Anyway, so after that episode and adventure I am going to attempt to do my test a 2nd time in January. By then I will have perfected my reverse parking, uphill/downhill parking and speed so that the examiner won't be able to fail me!! Hope I don't get the same examiner again, that would be tragic.

The "Instant" Wedding

2004-12-06T18:31:00.000Z

I went to my 4th wedding of the year last night. Each wedding I've been to has been so different so it's been amusing to see how other people plan their weddings, or don't plan their weddings in this case. Last night's wedding was dubbed the "Instant Wedding" or "How to plan a wedding in 3 days". We got our wedding invites on Thursday last week, by phone, and 3 days later they got married!!

It was a beautiful wedding - and very relaxed. We turned up to the church at 6.30pm, and the ceremony was supposed to start at 7pm. Well, they were organizing everything when we arrived and then we got asked to help decorate the church! So we were sat there making candle gifts for the guests. This was the first wedding I've been to where I actually had to help decorate (aside from my sister's)!

We were all wondering what the bride was going to wear - it was the question on everybody's lips "What will Ute be wearing?" because she has to the most individual person when it comes to fashion. She always looks likes she's just stepped out of the 80's but in a way that only Ute can do it because she looks so good. So we were expecting a big frilly white 80's style dress with shoulder pads and the works - but NO! She looked amazing! No frills, no shoulder pads! The only thing that amused us was the white fluffy boots she wore under the dress!

So this year I've been to the "Outdoor Wedding", the "Quickest wedding in the world", the "most entertaining wedding" and now the "Instant Wedding". The question I guess that you always ask when you go to weddings (if you are single) is "When will it be my turn", a question that was one all of us single people were asking last night. But this wedding gave us hope that maybe one day, each of us will be walking down the aisle (or around the tables like at this wedding!). When I look at Ute & Josef, and other couples that have gotten together, I have to say this - God really is the best matchmaker.

Christmas Tree

2004-12-03T22:22:00.000Z

We got our Christmas tree last night, which was a very exciting event in our apartment. We took the trek to Ikea in Toronto (now that they are finally selling them in Toronto and not just Burlington) and bought our $15 tree.
We chose the tree and I stood waiting for Bee to drive the car around to pick it up and I thought to myself, all I need right now to make it feel 'Christmassy' is for it to start snowing. And right on queue it starts to snow lightly!! I couldn't have timed it better if I'd tried!

So we get the tree back to the apartment and the fun starts. Bee has to saw the tree so it would last longer, so I left her on the balcony with the wonderful task of sawing the trunk in the freezing cold. Then we got the tree stand and tightened the screws, only to find that no matter how we did it, the tree would not stand up!!! It kept tilting or falling over. So what did we do to fix the problem? We tied the tree to a hook in the ceiling to keep it upright! It seems to have worked as it hasn't fallen over yet! I kept saying "Where there's a will, there's a way" and we certainly proved that one right. Right now we have a decorated tree with string coming from the ceiling to stop the whole thing falling over.

Our apartment is now festive and smells of Christmas. Just like our office, maybe without the smell, which is going to win the competition for best decorated office. Shame Accounting have done a good job with their decorating. They have wrapped boxes making them look like real presents, and have made it look like you're at home. All they need now is a comfy chair and a fireplace and might think you are in a real house - ok, maybe not.
May the best department win.....(my department of course!)

Driving

2004-12-03T01:56:00.000Z

Had my millionth driving lesson last night - went a lot better than last time. My driving instructor just sits there and goes "Easy, Easy" when I go too fast (in his opinion - I think I'm driving quite slow actually) and gives me directions of "Turn left" or "Three point turn". At least he's not like my last driving instructor who tried to kill me once and also nearly made me hit a pedestrian. He was also a Muslim Fundamentalist who took half of one of my driving lesson ranting and raving about why he hated George W. Bush and why he liked Osama Bin Laden. My mistake though, I asked him a question about how September 11th had affected him as a Muslim. Ummmm, interesting question to ask. It reminds me of the time when I first came to Toronto on holiday in 1998 and a guy (on finding out I was English) asked me how the death of Diana affected me. I thought it was a very strange question to ask - so I guess my question to the driving instructor was just as strange maybe?

So next Thursday is my test. I don't know if my driving instructor thinks I'm ready. I'm wondering what he's thinking whilst I'm sat there driving his car and he's going "Easy, Easy". Does he think "I wonder how she's ever going to pass this test" or "What is her problem? I told her 5 times how to change lanes but she still keeps forgetting to check her blind spot." He told me I was better last night than last week so that makes me feel some what better. We'll see.....

Ikea

2004-11-30T21:23:00.000Z

Ikea has to be one of my favourite places to go. There is something about walking around and picturing how the furniture would look in your own place that gives me a buzz. It's a place where you can think about what you would have in your dream home, if money were no object (and I'm sure we all wish that was the case!).

So on Sunday Joanna, Nicole, Millicent & I drove 30 minutes on the QEW to Burlington to go to Ikea. Why, you ask, did you drive so far when there are 3 Ikea's in Toronto? The answer: To get an Ikea Christmas tree. You see, Ikea are selling Christmas trees for $15 each, and then they give you a $15 gift certificate, so you're basically getting a free tree. WOW. The Burlington Ikea was selling them earlier than the Toronto Ikea's so we took a trip on Sunday evening to get a tree for Joanna & Nicole's apartment. Bee & I are getting ours on Thursday, along with the rest of TACF staff.....or so it seems!

In England it would be unheard of to even think about putting your decorations up before mid December (well, at least in our family!) but over here we started decorating our offices and homes mid November. I like that as it gives you more time to enjoy the decorations! We are having an office Christmas decorating contest and Jon (who shares an office with me) & I are determined to win. However, there are a few problems with this:
1) We were the ones who came up with the idea and initiated it, so it would look suspicious is we won
2) We are the ones who keep saying "We are going to win"
3) His mum is one of the judges, so if we win it would look like favouritism
4) We have rivals - like the Contact Centre (Blake & Crew) + Marketing (Linda Cho & Crew) - who are both determined to win.

So may the best team win......

Friends

2004-11-26T17:27:00.000Z

What would we do without friends? That's an interesting question. I feel like I have never had such an amazing group of friends, and the test of true friendship is when you are really struggling with stuff and they are there for you and just love you for who you are, not what you can do for them.
These past few weeks I have been so overwhelmed with my friends, just how much they care, how much they want to listen and how much they are truly 'there for me'. What I think hits me most is that I can be real, I can be honest and no matter how crazy I think I am, they just let me be me!
Do you ever find that you think you seem to say the same thing over and over, and then think that you can't possibly keep talking about this because at some point they are going to give up listening? That's how I've been feeling but my friends still let me vent, let me get my frustration & tears out and still love me (and still want to hang out with me!).
So to all my friends and family - thank you a million times over. You'll probably never understand how much you mean to me.

My first entry

2004-11-23T18:24:00.000Z

So I guess I'm the newest edition to the 'blog' family. Thanks to Mel that is! We went out to celebrate Mel's birthday and on the way she asked me "Why don't you start a blog?" And my answer was "Ok then". So now I get to write all about my life and other exciting stuff. How wonderful is that??
So yeah, I guess I'll end now but hope to add lots more over the coming months.