TTMMH#6 - Autumn TV

Ah, TTMMH. Remember this? At the beginning of the year I started a mini-series of Things That Make Me Happy. I quite enjoyed having lots of random posts about things that make me smile, and so I thought I'd get back on the thankfulness bandwagon. There have been a lot of things recently that have frustrated me (largely pertaining to Estate Agents...Grrr), so instead of dwelling, I'm going to post some more things that make me happy :D

Today's was alluded to in my previous post. Apart from the MAHUSIVE excitement that starting my Masters brings, the other complete joy in my life is all the excellent autumnal TV series that are back on our teleboxes at the moment. So simply, I give you those:

1. Mock the Week. Literally kills me.

2. Doctor Who! Get in. 

3. Downton. I mentioned it yesterday, so I'm giving you a different clip today. I know, I'm all grace:

4...And *finally* Strictly. I mean, it won't be as good without a Matt Baker, but still. Joyful Joyful.

New Balls, Please!

New Balls, Please! People are starting to tease me about the frequency with which I'm using this phrase at the moment, but it's really the only way I can sum up what's going on. Firstly, I once again apologise for the delay since the last blog: I can flick back through my filofax at least four weeks and 'blog' is un-crossed off the to-do lists for each of them. *sigh* It's been a busy old couple of months - which is why there's so much to write about - not to mention the fact that I've just moved house (saga in its own right, which I REALLY won't go into details of here!) and we don't have internet in the house yet. One big delay after another. However, having lived for a month over the summer with the wonderful Emma, who blogs in a proper, award-winning way, I'm re-inspired; and also am at home with the parents this week, who have more internet than you can shake a stick at.

This is a lovely view of the Swiss mountains from the holiday I went on earlier in the summer, just to give you something pretty to look at for a moment.

So, presently, I'm in a weird little limbo phase of transition between one big thing and another. All change. In my head, I was going to blog about this as soon as I found out, and chat about it as news, but for most people this isn't news any more: In two weeks I start my Masters course at the University of Reading, in Species Identification and Survey Skills (SISS). 

The two reactions I get when I tell people what I'm doing, as to what this course entails are:

a. 'What, like discovering new species?! That's so cool! Will you name one after me?'

or

b. 'What, like, 'that's a cat'? 'There's three squirrels'?'

The hilarity is that it's much more akin to the second - I'm unlikely to be finding any new species (if I don't know what it is it'll only be because I haven't worked out my field key yet), but will be learning how to sample/catch anything that's out there, in a sensible fashion (Survey Skills), and then identify what it is that's there (Species Identification) - just thought I'd break it down for you. You're welcome. It leads, hopefully, to Environmental Consultancy: being hired out to survey natural sites and tell people what they can and can't do with them depending on what's there.

To me, it just sounds like a slice of heaven, handed to me on a career-shaped plate. Can you imagine, I get to spend a year learning about SO MANY SPECIES, and tramping around in wellies and waterproofs, and can *hopefully* spend my life doing this and writing reports for clever people, to tell them what to do. Just, bliss. As you might be able to tell, I'm thuper-exthited, and am really keen to get past all the nervous 'starting-new-things'-thing, and get my teeth into it. And that's not even thinking about the excitment of a new place, and a whole new set of people to meet.

Now, for the astute among you, you'll realise that if I'm going back to being a full-time student (which I am), then that full-time job thinger I've been doing this year doesn't really fit any more. This is true. And this is sad. I left OCC on Friday just gone, and was very sad to say goodbye to some truly excellent colleagues. It's strange for me to leave something that I know will be carrying on, without leaving because it's time for my cohort to go (like leaving school or uni); and bizarre knowing that everyone is carrying on in my absence. But I've had time to have some good conversations about all this while I've been back in Northampton this week, and as my excellent friend Philippa put it, 'just 'cos it's sad, doesn't mean it's not right.' Which is also very true.

Pub picture shamelessly stolen from Miles

We had a great time together at the pub to celebrate my leaving (I think that's how I'm looking at it ;)) - with a bittersweet mix of being ridiculously spoilt with stationery-centric presents that were spot on for me; and being somewhat mercilesly teased. There's not much more I can say about it other than while I am ridiculously excited to move forward, I can't quite imagine another workplace where I am so loved and encouraged, having been there for such a short time. Thanks guys :)

In my little limbo-fortnight between working and starting post-grad-freshers-week, I've made a list of all the things that are changing for me at the moment:

1. Leaving OCC, starting Masters
2. Moving house
3. New Housemates (they're awesome, btw)
4. Becoming a commuter (Reading ain't Oxford, doncha know!)
5. Different involvement at church (newly part of the Student Team, rather than leading a Missional Community)
6. New-found love of prayer and the prophetic. Yeah, sneaky little spiritual one for you there. Muaha. I love when God speaks.
7. A new phone! It works! It has a camera! It texts quicker than it would take to send a pigeon! It's a miracle!
8. New pyjamas. Ok, I realise that is not the same level as starting a Masters course, but it was time to *embrace* All Things New, so I've thrown out the PJs I've had since I was fourteen (yes, and they do still fit, thank you very much), and indulged in new awesome ones. I feel like Heather. (This only makes sense if you know Heather - she's got more pyjamas than Calvin Harris has girls. Yeah, quite.)

That's most of the update I have for now, without starting off on something else entirely; so I'll leave you now with the other joy that autumn brings, apart from the excitement of new stationery, and getting your boots and scarves out the back of the wardrobe again: autumn TV.

 I love that Downton is back - be excited with me!

The Joy of Joy

I've been meaning to write another post for an INCREDIBLY long time, and there's a proper post brewing about everything that I'm up to at the moment; however, because there's so much going on I don't quite have time to write it. Oh, the sadness. But don't worry, it's all good. 

What I do have time for, though, is for me to share with you my most favourite sequence of photographs I've ever taken. Have you ever taken photos of your friends when they're in hysterics? If I'm honest, usually it's impossible because you're in hysterics too, but this situation arose independently of me, and the book I was reading, so was highly entertaining to observe from the outside.

Allow me to introduce my two wonderful, and incredibly silly, friends, Sarah and Heather. I love them incredibly, and this sequence of photos makes me so, so, very joyful.

Probably the finest example of Love:Laugh:Photograph in one go I can produce.

Happy happiness to you! Until next time, with a proper update,much love. 

Em x

The Score does Open Mic

Since the beginning of this year, I've had the privilege of leading, with Danny and Mary, a new Missional Community in our church, called The Score. For those not 100% up to date with current OCC lingo, these are the small groups (that were once 'Community Groups') that meet midweek - the 'missional' bit being that we focus on one particular thing (some on an area of town, others a common interest or situation), and use that as our means of getting to know people, serving them, and helping them get to see who Jesus is and why we're so into him. The Score, as a community, is a gathering of artistic/creative people, who are spending time together encouraging each other in what we're doing, working out together what it means to be a Christian artist and how we use that, and using our arty things to get to know other like-minded people. Crafty.

Ok, sorry to those of you thinking 'Woah there Sturge, this sounds a bit serious and church-y, like!' - I just wanted to put this evening in context so you know what on earth I'm talking about - normal systems resume, as I tell you about my most recent interesting thing:

On Sunday night, The Score, as defined above, ran an Open Mic night at The Mitre, as a chance for a. us to jam together, because we're all pretty darn schweet; and b. to invite along other people we know and love to jam with us, 'cos they're pretty darn schweet too. However, we unfortunately managed to make our evening co-incide not only with the prayer and worship evening going on at OCC itself, and the church Elders' meeting, meaning large chunks of church people weren't around, but also with a particularly awesome person's stag weekend, and, y'know, the football.

The reality of all this hit me on Sunday afternoon as I was getting things ready. It can be really disappointing when you have these great hopes for an event, that they're going to be awesome, and all these people will come, and perform, and the people from the church will be on-board, and everyone will see what we're about, and yada yada yada - and then you realise that people aren't coming. I joked to my friend Rhoda, who I had the excellent fortune of being able to have coffee with on Sunday afternoon, that 'it's FINE, we'll say it's "intimate"'. I obviously said that with a little venom, and disparaging-ness.

Yummy decor, upstairs in The Mitre

Danny, our fantastic MC

Lovely Lucy

 What actually happened, is that the perfect group of people turned up. Obviously, the people who we wished could have come, we wished could have come; but it was one of those evenings when really we wanted for nothing. We had a brilliant collection of readings, poems, stories, songs, with both lightheartedness and things that hit at the core of your being. Eclectic, eh? 

Danny watching Dan

Mary

Audience rapture

And for all my earlier disparaging-ness (I think the noun might be 'disparity', but I'm definitely not confident enough to use it. Stick with making words up, is my plan.), it actually was intimate. It was like family, actually. So much so that I actually got up and read a poem. Some of you might find it hard to believe that I'd have any qualms with going up to perform, but I'm much more of a play-in-an-orchestra/write-a-weird-blog/stand-behind-a-camera kind of creative gal, at the moment, rather than putting myself into the spotlight. To quote Danny, I was 'freed from my admin cage'. That's always a nice place to be freed from!

 So! The things that I leave you with love of today are for when things don't go exactly how you expect them to, but are delightful in a different way, and of a wonderful little video of Miss Tessa Bosworth and Mr Josh Wells, singing Halo. It made me smile lot - these guys work so well together musically. Anyway, that's enough from me for now - will be back with something frivolous soon, I'm sure. I can feel it brewing...

The Summer of Love

I've just finished an incredibly indulgent and summery read. I happen to know that at least two other people (my Mum, and my Sarah) have shared in this particular indulgence, as Mum gave me the book to read, and Sarah squealed when I told her I was reading it, and was extra-pleased because one of the main characters is also called Sarah. But I thought I would share it with a slightly wider audience. The book is called Wedding Season, by Katie Fforde, a favourite author of mine whose books I can drink up in very few sittings. They are all incredibly cosy, romantic, fun and relatable - Yum. I'd recommend them to anyone (ok, probably any girl, though there might be the odd chap out there who'd find it entertaining...) after a light and easy summery read. You can read them in the evenings and pretend like you're on holiday, even though you don't actually have a long summer holiday, and are having to get used to the working world where you have to be at work at 9am the next day. *sigh*.

(...momentary nostalgia for this time last year, when I was in the middle of two months off between finishing my exams and starting my job, and had little to do but read summery books and watch Gilmore Girls...)

Mum gave me the book to read almost as a joke - I was home for 24 hours last weekend so I could go to the wedding of a dear and beautiful friend of mine, Debs. I honestly couldn't have been more excited for her, or in awe of how stunning and radiant she looked as she walked down into the church.

Pete and Debs, with Suzi.
Credit to Felicity Woolman, whose photo I have stolen.

The joke of the book was not that I'd been at a wedding that weekend - that doesn't really deserve a book. The jibe was more at the number of weddings and hen parties I'm attending this year.

Me and Mica on her big day, back in May
Credit to Rhoda Lawes for the photo

Some of you may know that I was a bridesmaid for my friend Mica's wedding [above], almost two months ago now (how that time's flown!), which is one of eight weddings I've been invited to this year. Sadly I'm only able to attend seven of them, as I can't get to the one in Paris; and many of them have had/will have hen parties that I have the privilege of attending as well. In fact, I drove straight home to Northampton for this wedding from the hen party of the wonderful Claire [below], having been at her housemate Hannah's the weekend before. And we haven't even gotten to the two housemates of my own who are getting married in July, and September...

Claire, woderfully adorned in Port Meadow

My Mum told me that everyone has a year where all they do for the summer is go to weddings every weekend. I thought she must have been exaggerating, but now I see that this is actually quite likely, and I have genuinely planned my one-week trip to Switzerland around going to various of the weddings this summer. The book I mentioned earlier centres around three friends: a wedding planner, a dress maker and a hair and make-up stylist, and the ins and outs, and ups and downs of their lives, running their own businesses, dealing with demanding clients and their own relationships as they facilitate the big days of others. Having spent much of this year on the inside of what planning a wedding looks like, it was an entertaining read to notice some of the same things in the story about different brides that I have this year. 

Up until last year, in all honesty I'd had very little to do with any weddings - everyone I knew was either already married, or nowhere near married - and then suddenly, as if by magic (a shop keeper didn't appear) a bajillion of my favourite people got engaged. And a couple more have been added since then. It's been an amazing year, really. It's so exciting to see so many excellent people settling down together, and making that commitment, and being absolutely stunningly beautiful in the process. 

For any of you out there concerned for my emotional well-being, you can be assured that all of this hasn't actually given me a hankering of my own to bride up and settle down with anyone in particular (if anything I've got itchy feet to go out and storm the world under my own steam at the moment...), but as a final related laugh (having loved and photographed already this post) this picture did strike a particularly entertaining chord. Especially as I'm already twenty-two.

TTMMH #5 (Port Meadow)

I think that apart from the Botanical Gardens, which hold a ridiculously special place in my heart, Port Meadow is my favourite place in Oxford. I only post this in advance of OUBG because I was up at Port Meadow a week or so ago, so it's on the brain. But isn't it just *divine*? I'm pretty sure I took this a few years ago, back when I was living in North Oxford so pootling down to PM with my camera on a more regular basis, but it hasn't really changed at all...

Here you are, TTMMH #5, Port Meadow (larger than usual, because it's more impacting that way) :) :)

TTMMH#4 (Amanda and Hayley)

Rather than things, today's TTMMH (that's Things That Make Me Happy, remember? :)) are two excellent people. These are two people who I've grown up with, Hayley [right] since year 2, and Manda [left] since year 5. 

This photo was taken last time I was with them, at New Year 2012 - hooray, look fireworks! This photo makes me happy because it reminds me of an amazingly fun evening, and these two incredibly special people who I just don't get to see or speak to enough, now that we all live in different towns/cities.

But nevertheless, I give you TTMMH#4 - Amanda and Hayley, two of my most favouritest school friends that there are <3