Mersea Island

While staying in Colchester with the 24-7 community, we headed out to Mersea Island for dinner. Although Hayley’s car broke down on the way, we still managed to visit this crazy little tidal island and enjoy the sweet smell of the sea, and the feeling of sand beneath our feet.

Impossible is the Opposite of Possible

The idea of back posting is rocking my socks off right now. The last few months have sped past and I’m writing this post college - pre Derby, in that crazy transition time.

We came across this playground on our first day in Colchester - our first placement location during our track month in June. An outside gym with working treadmill, rowing thing and pull-up equipment.

I don’t know how many people Kim and I have shown the ‘Impossible is Nothing’ video to, and then the Michael Cera re-take. Still kills me every time.

So long Sycamore

The Sycamore household went out to dinner at Prezzo tonight, to celebrate our time living together this year. Stories and memories bubbled up over meaty calzones, Fiorentina pizza and smoked salmon salad. The warm house in winter, super-fast turbo fan oven, Modern Family on our big screen plasma TV, organised morning shower times, a leaking bath dripping water over the kitchen, communal assignment writing time at the dining table, the washing machine that needs encouragement, the bread bin where we keep clothes pegs, the unplayed guitar in the corner… It’s been a great year together. Thank you Kay, Lizzie and Chantelle for making our house a home.

I love free new clothes. Thanks Hayley!!!

I love free new clothes. Thanks Hayley!!!

From one mission to the next

Many months ago we got an excited phone call from David which went something like this:

“GUYS!! THE NAKED AND FAMOUS ARE PLAYING IN OXFORD AND IT’S ONLY LIKE 7 POUNDS!! I hope it’s not a joke, I’m buying tickets… awesomesauce!”

We were looking forward to the gig… until it was postponed and we thought it was going to land in the middle of our trip. AND then we found out it was the day after we got back (hence the very tired faces!) The perfect excuse to use some Groupon Mission Burrito vouchers with some friends.

Tired faces but well worth it!

SO so so good.

So because it was a NZ band every kiwi in Oxford was out and we played the fun game of ‘spot the kiwi’. I took this photo of the punting boats as a ruse to hear an accent, but they turned out to be Australian.

DEErrrn nerr ne do…. (you get the picture).

And SARAH came down too!

Yay!!

It's not about the bus...it's about the plane.

Leaving a place isn’t always the most exciting part of the adventure. Generally the way home always seems shorter than the journey there, unless the plan has some holes in it, and you are in a country where important things like buses and information about buses aren’t always as frequent or as accurate as you might like.

As the sky opened up we left the centre and made our way down to the bus stop. After a long wait, our hope for the right bus coming along plummeted and we caught a different bus to another station… Unfortunately the bus that departed from there didn’t leave for another FIVE hours, and would have only taken us to the centre of the town rather than the airport. Missing the flight wasn’t an option.

So… some super sleuths managed to hunt down a mini-coach (the power of travelling en masse) which meant our bus station wait was only like 4 & 1/2 hours (the silliness rapidly increased in the fourth hour) and we made it to the airport on time. Hurrah!

We saw some pretty dramatic skylines while praying on the roof, and were challenged again by how

We saw some pretty dramatic skylines while praying on the roof, and were challenged again by how exciting this great invitation we have actually is. Once again saying ‘yes’ (or ‘yis’) to the next thing, and the thing after that, even if we don’t quite know exactly what it looks like!! It’s a big world out there.