ignore this post, it's a technical thing...

fast cars... part 1

Hanging out with my 'Jag Boys' over the past couple of years has given me a taste for the wonderful world of cars and speed... (beats football any day, sorry Angus!)
Whereas I would normally only be happy in a very swish Merc or Audi, today I decided to take a little risk and live a little bit and actually take up the offer of a ride in a funky kit car (BEFORE my brother has had a chance, sorry James your time will come!!!! ;-) )

My friend Tom has a Westfield. He built it himself over about 7 years...
It's black and I don't have a photo of it, but there are scarily lots of websites about cars so I 'borrowed' some photos from them. Tom will probably tell me these pictures are nothing like HIS car, but anyway... what would I know, I'm just a girl....

And to that end, Tom's car is black, not yellow or red, but it's just as shiny.

It might not be totally legally roadworthy, but then who's to know... I am just a girl...



In the event, after a pleasant few hours in Starbucks (they WILL fold in September when I leave the UK, at least the Leamington ones will - word of knowledge). Tom finally persuaded me that I did want a brief ride in his car from where it was parked (4 cars up from mine) to my lovely air-conditioned Honda, via the one way system, ie the long way round...
Slight problem of hair...mine.
I have too much, either that or my head is too big for the 'Darth Vader' crash helmet I was supposed to put on before attempting such a voyage.
Either that or I just didn't fancy looking stupid at 6.30pm in Royal Leamington Spa... it would have been that Zovirax advert all over again (apologies if that's a cultural reference).

In any case, I went for the hardcore option of just wearing sunglasses... much cooler (in all senses)

Now, I can't go into any technical details of the ride, because frankly I haven't got the foggiest, but to start with it felt like one of those little train rides you go on along the promenade on any of Britain's seaside resorts.. fresh evening air and light breeze gently lifting one's hair...

Then Tom put his foot down and the whole journey became slightly more scary...

Yet I survived and lived to tell the tale and managed even not to go into shock or shake when I got out of the vehicle (which beats runaway railroad train at Alton Towers!)
Maybe I'm improving on taking risks...
Maybe he was being nice and not driving too fast... (yeah, right!)

In any case, well worth a trip if you ever get the opportunity. Can now cross it off my to-do before Africa list and move on to item 2, the London Eye...

Another helpful link - HOMES OF HOPE

Big thumbs up to a group of lovely people from London who have set up HOMES OF HOPE and are currently out at GGA building a new home for 12 orphans and their carer.

Another link for you, if only to check out if you know any of the celebs...

http://www.homesofhope.org.uk

Even greater is they've raised LOADS of money for even more building at GGA!
:-)

Inspiration from the past... GGA/Oprah

For Christmas 2002, Oprah Winfrey, being one of the richest and most influential women in the USA or possibly the world, took her staff to South Africa for what became known as 'Christmas Kindness'. They brought with them presents, clothes and parties for 50,000 children. (This woman doesn't do things on a small scale!). During her time there she became acqainted with God's Golden Acre and Heather Reynolds. If you have broadband you can watch the videos of what happened by clicking on the link below (also in my links list)

http://www2.oprah.com/presents/2003/ christmaskindness/pres_2003_ck_main.jhtml

(if this doesn't work, go to the oprah site, click on 'Oprah's Angels network' and look up Christmas kindness, it's fairly easy to do!)

Forget the US style commentary and focus on the kids that she helped and whose lives were probably touched beyond what we could imagine by that one act of kindness. It's moving viewing, I dare you to watch it and not shed a tear for the plight of these kids. Some of these will be there when I get out to SA in September, I'm so excited about all the possibilities that there will be and it looks like, despite what they've been through, they like having fun! :)

Oh and I would love to use these videos in fundraising, but have no idea how to get hold of them. Oh techie-friends! Is there a way of downloading them, or is that actually illegal? I can't seem to order the tape. If anyone from Oprah is reading this, can you help? (you never know)

Bella Napoli!

Scusami il silenzio in questi giorni, però Rachel (la mia coinquilina perugina, ormai texana di nuovo) ed io abbiamo fatto il nostro viaggio annuale in Italia! Quest'anno abbiamo scelto la bella città di Napoli e dintorni per ritrovare i nostri piccoli amori italiani! Ormai io non riesco più di pensare in inglese. Comunque, ecco i miglior momenti dei cinque giorni lì:

Apologies for the silence of these past few days, Rachel (my Texan housemate from Perugia days) and I were on our annual return to Italy. This year we chose the beautiful city of Naples and area in which to rediscover our Italian favourites. Now, however, I seem to have lost the ability to think in English. Oh well, here are the highlights of the 5 days there:

• Naples is like the vespa in the photo above, scruffy and falling apart, but quintessentially Italian and so you love it anyway. This is the REAL Italy, with helpful and friendly locals who bend over backwards to make our stay pleasant and trouble free. Everyone, it seems, has an opinion on what to do, how to get there and what to avoid...
• Everything they say about Neapolitan driving is true. It's unbelievable that there aren't more collisions. The key is to just do whatever you like. 'No entry' sign, red light? Why are they even there? Memorable journey from the Airport to Laura's house round the suburbs, involving a clever 'reversing backwards down a busy road onto a roundabout' move. This being Napoli, no one batted an eyelid at the manoevre. (I wasn't driving you'll be relieved to know)
• We stayed with up-and-coming diva and all round singing sensation Laura ( http://www.laurabazell.moonfruit.com) and Roberto (la fonte di tutta la sagezza napolitana), new friends of ours. Roberto became our guide as we explored the fascinating excavations at Herculaneum, although we ended up spending 4 hours in the sun instead of the planned 2 hrs there. Together we discovered more than we ever wanted to know about Roman clothes washing methods...
• Roberto also organised his friend Luigi to give us a nighttime tour of the centre of naples, which involved more adventurous driving, including a tour round the bars on the island near Castel del'Ovo in the car! (comunque, Grazie tanto per l'esperienza, ragazzi!)
• The chances of Vesuvius erupting in the near future have been minimised (see a previous blog) by our apathy in not climbing up to the top. The haze or clouds would have prevented us from seeing anything at all, so we were content to admire from afar. The city extends right up the slopes though and this is the most densely populated area in all of Italy. San Giorgio a Cremano, where we stayed, has a population of 59000. That's about the same size as Leamington, but in an area smaller than Warwick Gates. Along with many other 'comunes', it's right in the middle of the 'danger zone'. The experts reckon that they can give a month's warning of a possible eruption, but neapolitans being how they are, it will be quicker to walk out of danger than attempt any other means of travel....
• Pompeii, boat trip to Capri and Sorrento, pizza, mozzarella di bufalo, gelato, vino... all played their part in making this by far the best Italian stay yet...
• In fact, my luggage loved it so much that it didn't bother to make the transfer from naples to Milan and thus is still soaking up the Italian sunshine... (giving me the perfect excuse to go shopping and purchase some new school shoes, make up, etc etc... thanks Alitalia!)

Wonderful Welsh Weather!

Spent a great few days visiting Gillian in Wales. Below, sampling the 'famous' honey ice cream from Halo foods in Tywyn. V. nice, but also crazy high sugar content resulting in us both practically passing out on our return home... you live and learn...


And this is the fantastic view from Min-y-don Christian Adventure Centre, where Gillian used to volunteer. As well as amazing views and kayaking possibilities, there's also high-wire and low-wire 'team building' activities, perfect for groups of kids needing to bond! If you're looking for somewhere to take some kids for the week, check it out.

Gillian and I walked across the Mawddach estuary to Barmouth and had lunch in the sunshine at a great pub, THE LAST INN. If you ever go there, check out the homemade burgers, but don't try to move too fast afterwards...

This being Wales, the wonderful weather was shortlived and we woke up the next morning to near torrential rain, now that's the Wales I remember from childhood holidays!

VSPs part 1 - Ben

VSP stands for VERY SPECIAL PERSON in my life... and I'll probably introduce you to others over the coming months too. But first up, BEN PLUMMER - as it's his Birthday today (Friday 7th April) . Ben and I became instant best friends during a conversation about Perugia, Italy, where I lived for 2 years. With a love of all things Italian, especially opera and fine food, we were bound to bond well together! We did once have a fab holiday in Italy, which involved much partying... after a trip to the all-night clubs of Rimini (the Italian answer to Ibiza), we decided to go the the closing night of the Rossini opera festival, to see 'Semiramide'.

World Class opera.

Top 'A's hit without flinching.

Ben loved every second of the 5 hours of opera.

I remember about 15mins before I fell asleep, not even subtlely either, I may have even snored for half of the performance.

Quick tip: never attempt the opera after a few hours post-party sleep. It's doomed from the word go.

Ben is a wonderful organiser, people-person and encourager. He co-ordinated my 30th Audrey Hepburn black tie party very skillfully and still managed to belt out a Sinatra set beautifully during the evening. He is a wonderful listener and extremely wise in his counsel. He listens to God and is rewarded richly for it.

I completely love him and will miss him terribly when I am in SA, however as he is going to co-ordinate my fund-raising and support he will still feature massively in my life, even if I won't be there to drink champagne with quite so regularly! He recently gave me a fantastically 'bling' pink Chanel keyring which I'll take to Africa, so I'll think of him everytime I open my door!

Our song would definitely be anything by Ricky Martin, probably 'Livin' La vida loca'. No one dances quite as well as him... Definitely prefered dance partner of choice at the many weddings we've been to these past few years.

Sometimes you meet people and you know that they are there for life, and Ben is one of those...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN!!! :-)

all good gifts...

Behold my beautiful new walkman, in pink (of course)... and behind every exciting new toy there's a story...

Am starting to think about getting ready for Africa, and this past week had been musing with the idea of getting an mp3 player small enough to travel well and big enough to carry my music to eliminate need for CD players etc etc in luggage. As most of my worship is enabled by music, it's vital to get this right. So I was thinking about all this... then I half thought, I'll save up and get one of those cool Sony walkmans, sell a bit of furniture etc...

But on Wed, the trustees sent the CEO to apologise wholeheartedly for the distress caused by disrespectful children during this term and to thank me for my hard work they presented me with a cheque. Nice. Completely unexpected. And I suddenly realised that I could probably get not only a walkman, but travel speakers as well! God is so good at giving timely gifts, anyone would think he was omniscient ! ;)

Then I wandered semi-purposefully into the Sony Centre, bearing my Argos catalogue for price referal purposes (and mid-shopping weight training - have you felt how heavy they are nowadays?!? - the price of dreams!) only to discover the very model I wanted was reduced considerably and well within my budget! Hurrah and Hurrah again!

I'll overlook the fact that the little thing crashed my laptop this afternoon, leading to much prayer and consideration of instant fasting, because it's pink, it's sexy and it stores all my music. It even plugs into my car for optimum travel bliss..... God is good and no one can argue with that.

Oh, and I've got Yellow Fever vaccine reaction at the moment, not nice actually. Am hoping I just get the flu-like symptoms and not the actual turning yellow bit of the disease... yellow is SO not my colour! ;-) So if you see me in Starbucks (it being the holidays now!) be nice to me...

Watery wonders...and other forest delights

Here's a selection of photos from the weekend. Others may follow, but I was on disposable waterproof camera instead of fancy digital...

Gwyneth was official referee for mini-golf. She didn't give any special consideration to the fact that golf ball had come from the lake into my fleece though (see previous post)

A talented child, at nearly 9 months, Gwyneth is already depicting classical art masterpieces in other mediums. Here, Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel 'Hand of God' moment...

I suspect she takes after her father for artistic genius.

My lovely siblings and quality niece!

Encounters with God - April number 1

Don't you hate it when you are really expectant and seeking after a blessing and a word from God to brighten your day, and the Holy Spirit misses by one seat!*

Took my friend J to an evening of prophetic evangelism last night here in Leamington, and he ended up getting loads of amazing and spot on words of knowledge from God, which is great and I know has blessed him totally, but I was sitting there going... 'Come on God, it's my turn now, bring it on...'

Yet God did speak to me, but perhaps in a less dramatic method.

We sang the fantastic song 'There must be more than this... Consuming Fire, fan into flame, a passion for your name' And as I was singing, I looked up and a banner on the wall was suddenly very clear to me, it's like something jumping within me.

Anyway the banner read : '... how much more... Matt 7v11'

'If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,

how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!’

A particularly good verse, as just an hour previously I'd been in mothercare world (great place, but not, I suspect, on a busy Saturday) purchasing a variety of gifts for assorted babies in my life... God loves it when we draw near, spend time with him and encounter the real Jesus. He loves to give us good gifts and we just need to ask.

The rest of the evening was amazing too, a guy who was struggling to walk with the aid of a stick was prayed over, and totally healed, he ran down the main aisle of the church! The group that were over, a youth group from Redding, CA (that's California for the non-initiated) had been working with the youth of Rugby, they'd taken the love and healing power of Jesus out onto the streets of the town and prayed for people, and lives have been changed.

One man, blind from birth, received his sight!

Others were healed too. This is the stuff of Bible times, it's the stuff that happened when Jesus walked on earth, it's the miracles of the Early church when the apostles first received the Spirit, and it's available to us today, if only we are bold enough to get filled and to run with what God is doing.

I believe he is calling us to be more open to the supernatural, to stand up to those who dismiss it as dodgy or are sceptical. To walk in the power of the Holy Spirit and to seek his guidance in knowing when to offer to pray for people. There needs to be a culture shift in the whole 'praying for people' thing. I love praying for people and seeing God transform them, but somehow it seems a little be un-British and I don't do it often enough. We should be able to offer and receive prayer in Jesus' name from any brother or sister in Christ and how much more should we be open and listening to the Spirit's prompting when we are out and about regarding who God might want us to pray for. If we did that, Leamington would be transformed, in a good way...

I started thinking, David Blaine gets a massive audience when he goes round doing miraculous signs and wonders for people and being filmed. He's not the only one. How would it be if God raised up someone, or a team to go round praying for people and then gave them airtime so that others could be blessed through it? Not for their own glory, but for the Glory of God. People who are open to Mr Blaine and his weirdness should be open to the healing that only Jesus can give... yet somehow the sceptics reign. Maybe God will do that someday...

My sister was telling me recently of a group over in her town, very much like L.Spa, that go out in pairs on a Friday night at pub / club closing time offering chocolate and prayer for the revellers. A team is in praying at the same time so that they are completely protected. And they are seeing results, lives transformed through encounters with the real Jesus. Other people do it in Ibiza. Does no-one have a vision to do something similar here?

How can we talk about a picture book Jesus and tell people he's great and he can heal etc etc, if we are not living demonstrations of his power and testimony to his work in our lives? Who would buy products from a salesman who merely talked about his fabulous products yet didn't show us a demo of what those products could do? Jesus has given us ALL authority to do the same miracles he did, healing etc. It's time, surely, to jump on the bandwagon that's slowly been meandering on for thousands of years, and perhaps if enough of us jump on it, it will gather momentum and impact. There is no doubt that things of God are gathering speed in Royal Leamington Spa, which is so exciting (and also annoying cos I'm called to the other side of the world, but I'll be back one day!)

More prayer, more of God, more encounters with Jesus and more of Him working through us in the community, through our friends and our fellow shoppers, gym-goers, or wherever we hang out... let's listen for the direction of the wind and jump fully into it...

*this is, of course, a joke. The Holy Spirit NEVER misses... ;-)

Toad in the hole, anyone?

The Horn Family Holiday at Sherwood Forest !

Well, here's a review of the weekend, instead of my usual end-of-term frazzledness and general irritability, I was surprisingly pleasant to all children today, further convincing me that weekends away before the holidays are the way forward.
We had a great time at Sherwood Center Parcs. If you've never been, it's like a holiday village in the middle of a forest, with environmentally-friendly-type villas of differing sizes that blend in so it seems you are in the middle of nowhere, plus the obvious essentials of any forest: lake for watersports and pedaloes, restaurants, bowling alley and subtropical swimming paradise...
Because there's so many of us we got a super villa with all mod cons, although even Rob (techie supremo) couldn't get the CD player to work. The aim was to make the most of chilling out, whether that was in the jacuzzi, reading the papers on comfy sofas (one of my fave weekend activities) or enjoying cream teas in the country club.
We were active too. Having hired a bike with baby trailer, it was only right to take Gwyneth (my 9mth-old niece) on many rides around the, albeit flat, terrain of the park. The Horn family mini-golf challenge was won by a Webber, with the scores being video-ed as no-one thought to bring any paper. James sent his golf ball into the stream, Rob got it out and somehow it ended up down my back... cheers, who needs in-laws!? There was some dispute as to who scored the most, although I think nearly everyone cheated, except me, but then I knew I was last...
I tried to swim lengths in the real pool, but my well-meaning plans for an actual workout were thwarted each day by the likes of aquarobics and kids in a dinghy...
at least the intention was there...
Gwyneth enjoyed having 7 adults to show off to, like her dad she loves the camera, and her parents enjoyed the lie-in every day... they also enjoyed the rapids whilst Gwynnie sat contentedly sucking my goggles...
Being a nature place, we had to fight past ducks, pheasant and squirrels to get to our villa. The signs saying 'Caution: Toads crossing' were, for the most part, ignored and the day after arrival saw scores of flattened toads on the road, a bit like 'night of the living dead', corpses everywhere. By the last day, my Dad and Liz had decided to help the toads live on and make it safely across the road, by standing over them, totally blocking the traffic until the toad was safe... Liz kept strangely quiet about the toad on her bike wheels later on though... I found toads the least of my problems, but did nearly slaughter a pair of moorhens who thought it amusing to wander down the road towards my car, and the duck that meandered across quacking in the rain... wildlife, you've gotta love it!
Good food, fine wine, great company... interesting (and parent friendly - adjusted) card games were the order of the weekend...
I'm now nicely ready for my real holiday ;-)

that's me!

But I'm not super enough to understand html yet though! Here's my picture, go via Martin's website (see links) to get to the test itself!!

I blame my incompetence on the hard weekend I've just had, lounging in a subtropical swimming paradise in Sherwood Forest... someone's gotta do it...

Supergirl!

Your results:
You are Supergirl

Supergirl 90% Wonder Woman 80% Superman 75% The Flash 75% Iron Man 75% Green Lantern 70% Hulk 60% Spider-Man 55% Catwoman 55% Robin 35% Batman 30%

Lean, muscular and feminine. Honest and a defender of the innocent. But then I knew this already ;-)