Blogs from Dorset, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 26

Its amazing how God is able to lead and guide one when your heart is open to Him. I cant believe how many mistakes I’ve almost made, and yet everytime He’s bailed me out and headed me in the right direction again.. Towards the end of October an opprortunity suddenly arose to pursue my hearts desire within OT, that being hand therapy. In hindsight I’m stunned at how within a few days I landed up nearly 300miles south of the wirral, and at the Royal Bournemouth hospital. Once again, God had my every step covered in that a friend of Jin’s, Nic Langlais was studying there.. so on the first night, he came to fetch me, fed me and took me off to church! Amen! Wonderful way to start a new season. Although I was only ... read more

The big day - Forde Abbey, Near Chard, Dorset Well, the big day finally arrived. So did the piano player, but unfortunately he forgot to bring the CD of the music he had promised to play for the entrance and exit of the bride... Oh well, luckily we had the laptop and speakers then... To start from the beginning; Woke up at 2 am extremely nervous with a heart rate of over 100/min, wondering if Jane had given the rings to Andrew, the best man, or not. Contemplated knocking on her door to wake and ask her, but remembered just how scary a bridezilla could be when woken from sleep, so read myself back to sleep (eventually). Spent a nervous morning getting up and showered/shaved, prior to bumping in to the bride in the corridor (so ... read more

I believe I have a unique perspective on this phenomenon of English Summer camps in Great Britain. See, over 2 summers I've taught in 4 of these institutions scattered about southern England. There are literally hundreds of these camps in vacant boarding schools there that want to make some easy profit. Anyone who has been in Heathrow airport in July especially will have noticed fresh faced teachers in their 20s wearing garish t-shirts and scholarly emblems or three letter acronyms in bold. They will be holding up signs indicating their school for the masses of French, Italians, etc. who escaped their parents(or vice-versa) for a few weeks to have a bit of fun in misty Britain and possibly learn some English. They literally clog up the terminals with teens between 12 and 18. Last year I ... read more

I've just got back from the week in Bournemouth looking after the granny. And OH MY GOD - what a laugh. This guy is obviously used to having someone around to do all the errands. From the moment we stepped into the hotel (4 stars, right on the beach) he was giving me orders (in a nice way). Some of the things that were said and done were hilarious. Here is a list of just a few of the things I had to do: Sort out room allocations; Round up the kids for breakfast, lunch and dinner (a big performance as they were 12 and 15 and needed about 2 hours to get ready each time, but we usually only had about 30mins); Reserve a spot on the beach each day (one day in the pouring ... read more

Mum (Bev Reilly), came over to visit (whilst on a work trip), and stayed with us for 2 1/2 weeks. It was great to see her and spend some time with her, we both loved having her, but would love to see Dad here next time too. We were a little spoilt while she was here, feasting on pre dinner drinks and nibblies, having dinner ready for us after work, drinking copious amounts of wine.....not to mention the care package she bought with her for us. Mum and I went on a little mother and daughter road trip for a few days and Justin met up with us in Bath for a weekend. Wednesday 26th October 2005 Mum and I decided to hire a car and go on a mid week adventure. We successfully navigated and ... read more