This Weekend

I took this Friday off because I already had two half-days saved up and it would make it another short week. The plan was to go shopping in the morning at the Lower Hutt shopping centre north of Wellington, and then if I got bored of shopping I would go for a walk round the peninsula in the afternoon. The plan didn't really work, and this is why...

About half 10 on Friday morning when I was not long up, I managed to lock myself out of my room. Not only that, but all the numbers I had that I could call were up in the room. So I had to phone my mum in NI to get me a number to phone to get a number to phone... you get the picture! The worst part was that when I finally got through to someone, they didn't have a key to the room! I seriously panicked that they would have to take the door off because of my stupidity, but fortunately they found a key they didn't know what it was for, and it turned out to be my room key! I now have it in the bathroom just in case I do the same thing again!

I eventually got to Lower Hutt and it was a really nice place, good shops, a little more town than city and I really wished that I had longer. But what time I did have I enjoyed. I bought some things I needed, and some things I wanted and some things for other people. It was nice getting out of the city for a while, and really strange that the best shops weren't in the city!

On Saturday I got quite a lot squeezed in - I went to Kilbirnie in the morning and posted a parcel and some postcards. I also got some drops for my ear which is blocked, and the ingredients to 15s which I'm going to make for a BBQ I'm going to next week.

In the afternoon I treated myself to a long walk around half of the peninsula and fulfilled one of my goals of getting a picture of the 'Penguins Crossing' sign at Breaker Bay! In the evening, Hilary and I went to see a movie at a lovely wee theater in Island Bay. I felt very refined sitting there with my cup of tea in a non-takeawy cup. The only downside was that the screen was booked out and Hilary and I weren't sitting together!

Sunday
Kidzone was good this morning - I dressed up as Mary and told the crucifixion from her point of view as we decided the kids knew the story too well to just tell it again, we needed to make them think. I tried to introduce the song 'God's love is like a circle' as it really fits with our theme, but because I was trying to play the guitar as well as leading, it was hard to get them excited about the song. So we may try it again next week, or maybe just do a more upbeat one from the CD. One of the guys from Renovate saw me carrying the guitar and wondered if I could play ... not really sure how to answer there - and he thought I was just being modest but I'm like ' no seriously I'm not really a guitarist - I just know enough to get by on children's songs and some church songs!' but after he said it was a very Kiwi thing to play the guitar I sort of came round to the idea of saying 'yea I can play the guitar'!!! Just as long as they don't ask me to play it in church expecting me to be brilliant, I think I can get away with that!

This afternoon I went to the beach but it turned into another expedition as the bus only went a very short part of the way there!

Tonight was the first evening service for the youth (aimed at secondary school age, but we're helping to run it). It went well and fulfilled the brief of trying to get away from the idea of a service and more a place where people are comfortable and where they hear the same truths in a different way. It's our group's turn next week so I hope we manage to keep that atmosphere! We then played a very good game of Mafia afterwards - so comforting to know that even at the other side of the world, they still play Mafia! :)