This blog is no longer in use!

Monday 16 July 2018

New Blog

I've started a new website and blog. So please head over to https://inkstainedthumb.wixsite.com/home to check it out as I will no longer be posting anything here.

Tuesday 13 February 2018

The Last Post

Over the last few weeks and months, I've been doing some in depth reflection on where my life is going. I've been forcing myself to look at what matters the most to me. When I've prayed about the transition from missionary to full time employment, the desire to shed certain parts of my old life (as a missionary)  has been strong. Its time I prepare myself for new things.

In a way, I've worked my way through a seemingly long list of  items that needed dealing with in order for me to make the move from one life style to another successful. All that remains of my life in missions is this blog and the posts that are expected. It leads me to say that this will be my last post. I've decided to stop blogging. I no longer have the time, the energy or the desire to write regularly on here. Its down to the simple truth of knowing where my priorities lie. To say that this decision was an easy one isn't true. I've struggled bringing myself to this place as I know there are many people who enjoy reading my posts and want to know what's happening in my life. My life has become a lot more private. A lot of what happens in my day to day can't be shared online due to work. I also want to spend the time I have, when I'm not working, with Andy and the family, or investing in my church, not sitting behind a laptop (or my phone), for hours, trying to figure out what to write.

I will still be posting photos on my Blipfoto account (the link is here) so if you're concerned on missing out, please check that out.

Monday 29 January 2018

Just Busy

I know my blog has been extremely quiet since I started working. I'm working five days a week, usually in the evenings and sometimes I start in the afternoons and end up working twelve hours (with a break in the middle). Its a job and for that I'm grateful. Not everyone has a job, Andy still doesn't. He's still looking, but has started a course to gain IT skills. Hopefully these skills will land him a much needed job.

I might say that it feels like not a lot has happened since I las wrote, but as I write that, I know its not true. I haven't written about my birthday, Christmas and Hannah's visit, nor have I written about my New Year's resolutions.

So, as some of you know, my birthday is right before Christmas. I had requested the day off, since it was on a Friday and I almost always work on Fridays. So I got to spend the day with Andy and his family. It was great. Andy and I went into Crawley together to spend a few hours together. It was really special being able to celebrate my birthday with him like this. Hannah also came over on the 24th of December for two nights. It was the first time we've seen each other in nearly two years (when I spent Christmas with her in Paris). It was very last minute as she wasn't sure about it until a few weeks before, by which point the Christmas schedule at work has already been made, so I ended up working on the day she arrived and the day she left, but thankfully I had Christmas Day off. Andy's family threw a lovely Christmas and we had the cousins from Belguim come over, so it was pretty busy. I did enjoy it though. Its the first Christmas Andy and I have spent together and I know that there are many more to come our way.

I worked over New Year's so I didn't have much time to think about New Year's resolutions until afterwards. It was something I stopped doing because I was so go at failing after a month, but this year I chose ones that I know I'll be able to achieve it. Every year I aim to loose weight, but it never works. I always end up plateauing and then it goes back on. However, this year I decided to give Slimming World a try. Slimming World has a healthy eating guide, which you follow and you have weekly weigh ins, but you also have the support of the group you go to, which is great. So I'm not loosing weight on my own, there's a group of people there to support me through this, just as I'm there to support them on their weight loss journeys. Its been a great three weeks so far, and I've managed to loose half a stone (7lb; 3.175kg) since I started on the 6th of January. Andy and I have also been going for runs more regularly. We're aiming to be able to run 5km in a few weeks, without stopping and I'm really looking forwards to that. The last time I ran 5km was in 2016 and I struggled with it, especially since my foot started going numb half way through. Once we can run 5km we'll be heading for the 10km mark. I also got a Fitbit, which is a watch that tracks your heartbeat, steps taken, stairs climbed, etc and sleep pattern. I've got it on all the time and have found that it's been a great help tracking my heart rate (I'm trying to get my resting heart beat down). It's also given me a rough idea of how many steps I make when I'm working (roughly around 25,000 steps, which is about 16.8 km). To be honest, a lot of people think that doing exercise makes up the large portion of the whole weight loss scheme. This isn't true. 80% diet, 20% exercise will dictate weather or not you loose weight. You need the two in this balance to get the weight off. If I ran for half an hour, I'd only end up burning the same amount of calories as in a chocolate bar. We often think we've burned more calories than we actually have and will eat a larger portion of food more than normal, and will add the sugary treats as well. So the idea, for me, is to follow Slimming World's cleaning eating plan and to run. The two together should finally get these pounds off for good (and keep them off). I'm thrilled I've got Andy to help me stay accountable with what I eat and what exercise I do.

Until next time.
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Wednesday 13 December 2017

An Update

Work is all consuming at present. I'm working shifts... which means that my work rota and the hours I work, changes from week to week. One week I might end up working 36 hours, and the next it might be down to 27 hours. Its something that I'm still adjusting as it means that making plans weeks in advance is really tricky as I won't have my rota by then and so I won't know if I'll be working or not. It makes life interesting.

I never thought I'd find working in a pub so interesting and challenging at the same time. The hours I generally work are very antisocial as I'll be working when most people aren't and the other way around. Its helpful and not helpful at the same time. Often I can get things done, like going to the bank, that I wouldn't get done in a job with more regular hours. I've met and been able to serve many different types of people and its taught me so much about how to interact with everyone. For example, every Tuesday evening, The Coaching Halt hosts a very popular quiz night. Its normally fully booked, if almost fully booked. Every week we'll have both the regulars, who have been coming for ages, and then we'll have one off customers. Many will have drinks and sometimes a meal as well. Normally I end up serving the same people every week and some of them have know who I am, and where I came from.

Since I started working at The Coaching Halt, I've been asked where I'm from on an almost daily basis. I don't have a very English accent and most people pick up on this and will ask where I'm originally from. They're usually surprised when I say that I'm British Dutch by nationality, but was born and grew up in Africa. My necklace also has caused questions when noticed. I'm wearing a silver Africa pendent, given to me by my dad, over Christmas 2014 (the last Christmas I celebrated with my parents and siblings and the last time I was in Uganda).

In a way, when I was in Youth With A Mission, I somehow managed to have Christmas off and usually spent it with family, with the exception of my Discipleship Training School DTS outreach. This year, since I'm working in a pub that's open all year round, I'll be working on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day... I'll also be working over New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. I've also got a very special person visiting me from Paris, my younger sister Hannah is coming over for a couple of days on Christmas Eve. Even though I'll be working, it'll give her the opportunity to get to know Andy and his family since she's the only one who hasn't met Andy yet. Its been almost two years since we saw one another. This was down to financial and time restrictions. We're both really excited about it!

Friday 17 November 2017

Now That I'm Employed

Its been three weeks and a few days since I started working at The Coaching Halt and since I started I've been meaning to post something here to let you all know its going, but due to the busyness of working at a restaurant with shift hours that I'm not used to has left me too tired to do all the things I've wanted to do.

I'm working as a server and bartender in a typical English pub, called The Coaching Halt. Going to the pub is a big part of English culture. They normally have a bar area and will also have seated areas. Each pub will have its own style and way of service. There are also different companies that own a chain of pubs and taverns. Weatherspoon's is a popular restaurant/pub chain. The Coaching Halt belongs to one such company, called Marston's and is a relatively new pub, having been open only four years.

One of the things I love about the The Coaching Halt is how close it is to home (I'll get to that in a moment). Its only about fifteen to twenty minutes away by foot, so I'll normally walk to work on my own, and Andy will normally collect me when I'm done. Since I usually work evening shifts and usually leave at closing time, I'm never sure what time I'll be finished. So there's been two or three times I've had to get an Uber home (if you don't know what Uber is, its a taxi company that allows normal drivers to use their cars as a taxi service through the app) and send Andy the driver's name and information, just in case.

Working as a server is a lot more fulfilling than I thought it would be. I can't explain it properly, but I do love my job and the satisfaction it brings. Given I never thought I'd end up enjoying working as a server and bartender. This means that my job is to take food and drink orders, put them through to the kitchen, pour drinks (well, the ones I know how to) and bring the drinks to the tables. Sometimes I'll also have to run food out. This means that when the kitchen calls for 'service' one of the servers need to go to the kitchen and take the food to the table on the ticket. It can be a bit tricky sometimes because the plates can be hot (thus I'll usually grab a tea towel) or the orders might have been put through wrong.

Another thing about working in a pub is that each week the rota for everyone's shifts will change. This means that I will normally know what days I'll be working on for roughly the next ten days to two weeks. So it can be tricky arranging to see people well in advance, but since I generally work the evening shift (5pm until closing time), I'll arrange to see people during the day, and make sure I have enough time to get ready to get to work. My salary also comes in once a week rather than once a month. Its a satisfying feeling knowing that I'm earning the money coming into my bank account.

I've also managed to post some photos of the time Andy and I spent in South Africa on my Flickr account. Now that I'm working, I'm not sure how often I'll be posting on here, however, please do take a few moments to fill in this questionnaire for me! It'll be most helpful!

Until next time!

Thursday 26 October 2017

On Safari

One of Moholoholo's Lions
A lot can happen in the space of a few weeks. Andy and I went down to South Africa to visit my parents six days after we got back from Yorkshire. It was intensely busy ten days or so with them, which is why I haven't posted anything here during our time there. My mum really enjoyed planning a lot of various things for us to do whilst we were there, as it was Andy's first visit to the continent of Africa and we all wanted it to be a memorable visit for him, and for us as a couple.

In this post I'm going to share some of the photos I took whilst we were there and a few things we got up to whilst we were with my parents. My parents live in a wildlife estate and so we had the warthogs visiting on a daily basis. I had a lot of fun photographing the warthogs when they'd come by. They found my camera quite interesting as I'm not sure they quite knew what to make of it and were really curious about it. I really enjoyed using the gift that Andy gave me and practising the suggestions that Andy had given me. He's been teaching me how to become a better photographer. All the photos in this post (save the last one) have been taken with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1.

Andy and I flew out of London Gatwick Airport, which is right on Crawley's doorstep (and is less than twenty minutes away by car from where we live). Our journey took us via Kigali, Rwanda, as we were flying Rwandair. When we arrived at OR Tambo Airport, Johannesburg, we were collected by my parents, who had just gotten back from a conference in Cape Town. We then collected my younger brother from Nelspruit and then drove to Hoedspruit. We got to my parents home absolutely exhausted from the travelling.

Stoffel
One of the places we went to was the Moholoholo Rehab Centre just outside Hoedspruit, where wild animals are rehabilitated and then released back into the wild. They also provide homes and welfare for animals that aren't able to be returned back into the wild, like the lion pictured above. Andy had two of the items on his bucket list checked off there. He was able to stroke a cheetah (one of the animal ambassadors that go into schools, with their handlers, advocating what to do animal respect) and one of the bateleurs that live permanently at the centre (this is due to an injury it received which means it can't be released into the wild). We really enjoyed the tour. The guide, Moses (if I remember correctly) was a great narrator and passionate about the animals he and the others took care of. A highlight, for me, was seeing Stoffel again. Stoffel is a honey badger (pictured above). He's quite a character and an incredible escape artist. They've even made documentaries, on YouTube, about his exploits (I've found a short one if you're interested in watching it, just click here. If you're interested in watch any more, just type "Stoffel honey badger" into YouTube's search engine). He's one of the permanent residents at Moholoholo and was here when I last visited the centre somewhere in 2013/2014.

Andy Watching The Elephants
We also spent two nights at a bush camp that's owned by friends of my parents. This bush camp is situated on a beautiful game reserve that has the Big Five (lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo). Whilst we were there we went on two game drives in the evenings, which was truly incredible, and Andy also went on two bush walks, in the mornings, with one of the rangers (I went on the second walk with him). We were able to see quite a large variety of animals during the bush drives. The elephants, pictured here, were incredibly funny. The matriarch, Beckie, had been raised by the rangers and would rumble a greeting when we met them on the first game drive. When we saw them on the second day, they had gotten a drink at the water reservoir, and then Beckie saw that one of the rangers had brought a group of tourists across this bridge to the viewing platform where Andy and I were standing, so went to greet him. She then led her small herd towards the camp entrance so someone had to go and shut it quickly before she actually came into the camp.

These were some of the highlights of our trip to South Africa. I'll write again soon.

Wednesday 4 October 2017

I Got A Job!!!

Just A Random Photo of Ash
I've been living in England about two and a half months now and have been actively looking for work since the beginning of August, when NewDay 2017 ended. It's been a trial of faith and patience, that I can assure you. I'd only had one interview since I'd started looking and after the trial, that particular job came to naught. I went weeks and weeks of handing my CV out and contacting various jobs, whilst not hearing anything back from them, in regards to interviews of if the job had already gone. Then last week everything blew up, so to say. In the space of two days I had three interviews and two trials lined up. One was at the nearby pub and restaurant, the second was at an Italian food bar in Crawley's County Mall, and the third was at a restaurant at one of Gatwick Airport's hotels. I had done an interview at both the pub and the Italian food bar, with a trial at the second. I did a trial at the food bar, but got asked to come back after I get back from South Africa to see if there was still a position for me. Whilst I was doing the trial last week, I received an email from the the pub, The Coaching Halt, asking me to call them and when I did I discovered that I'd got the position. I was thrilled. I then went down with my paperwork for to sort that out before I left for York. I then had to cancel my interview at the restaurant in the hotel up at Gatwick.

I'm hoping to start as soon as I get back from South Africa in a few weeks time. I'm so happy! So thank you for your prayers!