What a Great Weekend

What a great weekend! It started off with a dash back from work to make sure I was home in time for Tim & Debs Yau to arrive for our first BBQ of the year… and what a BBQ! Having a Rayburn in the kitchen is great in the winter where it keeps the house warm and cooks some great meals, its just not practical in the warmer months and we leave it off for most of the day and only turn it on when we need to cook… waiting over an hour for it to warm up to a sensible temperature. Because of this, Ang and I thought we’d invest in a sooper dooper gas BBQ which would allow us to cook outside during the warm summery months and we thought that it was only right to try it out on friends Tim & Debs!!

We had a lovely evening with the Yau’s, eating yummy sweetcorn, beef kebabs, salmon kebabs, grilled vegetables and some lovely grilled pineapple with ice cream!

Saturday started off with a trip to Chesterton Rec for a game of football with the guys from church before heading back to Linton for a lazy afternoon in the sun. Again, we had some sweetcorn on the BBQ before we decided to go on a walk up to Linton water tower where we were given fantastic views of the countryside – fields of gold everywhere! Finishing off the day we did some boring chores – shopping at Sainsburys, washing the car and then chilling out to a number of reality TV programs and cooking chicken on the BBQ!

The day finished on a slight downer when one of our cats, Toby didn’t come home… where could he be?

Sunday was a good day too. We woke up and Toby was still nowhere to be seen so we did a short walk around the neighbourhood to see if we could hear him trapped in a garage… No. We then headed to church where Ang and I were leading Youth Church all about what it means to be a witness. The service went well and we had time to catch up with friends afterwards.

For lunch we invited friends Helen, Graeme, John and Jane for… you guessed it… another BBQ! We cooked sweetcorn, Japanese beef, burgers, sausages, grilled veggies and finished it off with grilled pineapple with icecream… we were getting the hang of BBQing! It was a great afternoon of chilling out with friends.

The day finished with a trip to church to do some training with one of the youth on the PA desk, before heading back home to see TOBY!! He had finally come home – who knows where he has been, but at least he is back safely now!

The Day the Fire Engine Came to ESco

I've just been looking through the photos I took on my phone's camera and came across this one which brought a smile to my face. Back in February, on a typical afternoon at work the fire alarm suddenly went off. As a firewarden, I grabbed my light saber (torch) and day glow jacket and made my way upstairs to make sure that everyone had evacuated from the top floor. Meeting Room 1 - check, Meeting Room 2 - check, Kitchen - check... it looked like all was clear, just one more room to check... Shower Room... um, there is someone in there. I knocked on the door... "Come on, get out, the fire alarm is going off" I shouted.

"I think its because of me!" the voice shouted back. "Sam!?" - oh my goodness... a few seconds later the door flew open with a rush of steam and through the midst out popped Sam... "I think I had the water too hot and the steam has set the alarm off". Oh dear. What an embarassment. So basically, Sam's hot shower had set the fire alarm off and caused the office to be evacuated with an automated call to the fire brigade. Only minutes later the firemen arrived, the females of the office were at the window having a nosey and not much work got done. Well done Sam!

Holiday in Wales and the NW

Ang and I have just got back from a lovely holiday travelling across England and Wales, relaxing in a cottage and spending quality time with friends and family. Our trip started with a visit to Rob and Clare Humphreys in Oxford, Tim Harding in Chippenham and Dan Jones in Bristol before making the final journey across Wales to the Pembrokeshire coast.

We stayed in a lovely converted barn near St Davids and despite the wintry weather we managed to get out everyday to enjoy the surrounding beaches and cliffs – the scenery was pretty stunning but it was so COLD! Because of the poor weather we spent most of the days just sleeping, reading, watching DVDs – generally chilling out after a busy few months at work – it was lovely!

Moving on from Wales we travelled up to the Lake District where we attended a wedding about 10 minutes away from Ambleside. We saw our friend Sarah Hall tie the knott with Rob Gilber at a quaint little church on top of a mountain near the Langdales before heading to a posh country club where we had the best wedding grub ever! We stayed the night at Ang’s sister in Lancaster on the Saturday night before meeting up with old friends at church and afterwards for lunch.

On the way back to Cambridge we spent a day with Ang’s brother and parents in Kirkham and my Grandmother and sister in Manchester. We also managed to squeeze in some window shopping at the Trafford Centre, although surprisingly, Ang was bored after a couple of hours!

Highlights of the week included eating yummy food, seeing old friends, playing crazy golf and air hockey, watching bouncing lambs playing with each other, seeing the sun set over Lake Windermere and sleeping lots and lots!

Click on the links below for some pics:

Wales Holiday

Lake District on Sarah's Wedding

Sarah & Rob's Wedding

You’ve Got to Try It – Once!

Just thought I’d share with you a very special website which I have found both encouraging and enlightening over the past few years. Its run by an American organisation called 7:22 and was set up for the young adult population of Atlanta – every they week upload a video of their meeting where 3,000 attend to worship God and learn more about him.

The bands are fantastic – fresh, energetic and full of passion. The talks are relevant for today’s young people (and they still talk to me too!!) and are full of wisdom and insight. What stands out is the level of professionalism in the music and production – for something that is run by students its amazing (no offence to students!).

If you are not a Christian and want to see what all the fuss is about from the safety of your computer it’s a great place to go. If you are a Christian I hope you will find it as inspiring as I have. So I encourage you try it – even if its just once!

Want to see the videos? Click Here.

Want to see the website to find out more? Click Here.

Weed on By A Lion

Thats what happened to Ang and her sister Helen while walking around Linton Zoo today. There were some little kids winding up the lion from the safety of behind a fence, the lion turned around, paused... then sprayed everyone! What a claim to fame, weed on by a lion! How many people can say that?

The weekend has been quite busy, Ang got back from her short trip to Florida and then her sister and husband (Helen & Brian) arrived mid-afternoon - we've been entertaining since! Lastnight we played a great game of The Really Nasty Horse Racing Game before going on a pub crawl through Linton. Today we popped to the zoo, went to church and enjoyed some great cooking from Ang. Its been a good weekend though a little exhausting!

I didn't get any pics of the lion, but here are some other ones from our visit to the zoo.

Samson the Satsuma

Here is a picture of Samson the Satsuma before I ate him. He tasted good.