Easter Sunday

Another wonderful Bring & Share Lunch, accompanied by the traditional Easter Egg Hunt around my house.

Basel was the winner of our Easter Egg hunt, finding 28 eggs. The question still remains though: did he find them all himself or did he wrestle them off of other people??!!

It was lovely to have Mo Chen and her children Tyler and Mia join us for the afternoon ... this is what happens when you've locked yourself out of the house and hubby is miles away.

Thanks Aiste for my beautiful henna tattoo and
for the stunning decorated eggs below :-)

English Festival

 

As we draw near to St George's Day, several students

joined me for a trip to the English Festival yesterday,

held each year in Riverside Park, Rainham. 

This festival is a celebration of all things iconically English ... 

well, except for the samosas and the Polish food that were on offer :-)

The Kent Police Band entertained us whilst
we tried to warm up with a cuppa.

Amy (China), Saira (India), Heba (Egypt) and Azucena (Mexico)

Saira was the winner of our crazy golf challenge; however, we all agreed that some very 'creative' scoring had taken place!!!

Amy & Azucena

Saira & Heba

I'm thinking about buying one of these to help
transport students around :-)

Good Friday Celebration

On this Good Friday, as a joint church venture, we decided against our usual march through the town and short service. Instead we tried to bring a sense of colour and of life and of Easter celebration to Gillingham High Street.


In a moment of weakness I volunteered to organise the tea tent ... which, if the truth be known, is really something I love to do :-) and I had a fantastic team of helpers.
A BIG THANK YOU to Gordon & Natalie, Frank & Lynda, Pauline, Barry, Kathy, Joyce and Josephine, and others who mucked in along the way :-)
Along with free tea and coffee and hot cross buns, our event was accompanied by music from the Salvation Army band and a Gospel Choir from St Mark's.

 

To take a look at Mayowa and her gospel girlies

in action on the High Street check the links below ...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bciaiv6ta42kxrm/2014-04-18%2011.48.20.mp4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v6j5llhcca6mh0w/VID_20140418_115038.mp4

English Night

Our numbers at TABLEtalk were low again; quite normal though for this time of year - everyone's just toooooooo busy with exam revision and dissertation research.  But sometimes numbers simply don't make much difference and we still have a LOT of fun.

So here we are celebrating our English Night ... for those eagle-eyed visitors, yes, I realise that our hats are technically 'British' not English, but such is life :-)  I taught students how to play Spoons (no, not as a musical instrument).  Take a look at the videos below ...

... and here's what happens if you put the spoons on another table :-)

On a personal note ...

Today I had the most wonderful afternoon catching up with my friend Trudy. We both worked as nannies in Los Angeles, California back in 1983-84 (yes I know, some of you weren't even born then) and have just re-connected after 30 years!!!  (well, the truth is Trudy stalked me found me through the internet)

This is us 30 years younger

... how wonderfully 80s

Health & Well-Being event

"Thanks, Richard"

Today I was involved in an annual Health & Well-Being event for the University; aimed primarily at staff rather than students. I collared Richard (Associate Vicar @ St Mark's) to come along and give me a hand.

Our wee Prayer Station was situated amongst stands concerning health & fitness, stroke awareness, free massage (which sadly I didn't get to partake of) and mental health awareness, etc, etc.

Although the event wasn't as well attended as we had hoped I had some good conversation with a variety of staff members and, for me, it was a useful networking exercise.  Our 'Soularium' cards led to several interesting conversations.

Here, one of my university colleagues, Angela, is energetically pumping away on the 'smoothie bike' and subsequently enjoyed the product of her exercise.

On a personal note ...

For those of you interested in cars  ...
this is my wonderful brother, Tony, who has lovingly and painstakingly re-built this C-type racing Jaguar from scratch.
It is now road worthy but still to be painted
(racing green, of course).

Turning the other cheek

As often happens at this time in the academic year our numbers at TABLEtalk have started to dwindle.  Students often become overloaded with assignment deadlines, preparation for exams and Masters students are also working hard on their final projects.

All the same, we had some interesting discussion last night on our theme of 'Turning the other cheek: the power of forgiveness'. Amongst other things we discussed what it is that shapes our view of forgiveness; and whether or not asking for forgiveness denotes strength of character or a loss of power/control.

We also looked at a number of quotes on the subject and two that we all liked and agreed with were  ...

"When you forgive, you in no way change the past,
but you sure do change the future."

Bernard Meltzer (American Radio Show Host)

"It really doesn't matter if the person who
hurt you deserves to be forgiven.
Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself.

Taken from RealLivePreacher.Com

Holi Festival

Students celebrate Holi Festival

on April 2nd 2014

HOLI - Sanskrit: होली - is a spring festival also known as the festival of colours and the festival of love. It is an ancient Hindu festival which has become popular with non-Hindus in many parts of south Asia, as well as people of other communities.

 

Saying goodbye

Yesterday I said goodbye to Atourya, who has been my lodger for the past five weeks. Atourya is studying in France but is priginally from Reunion Island (get the atlas out if you don't know where that is or should I say check google maps!). 







"Atourya, it was a pleasure to have you stay with me briefly and I'm glad you were able to connect with other students. I wish you every success in your future studies."

Green Week Swap Shop

This week is GREEN WEEK at the University of Greenwich - a week in which we have a concentrated focus on sustainability (though this is, obviously, an on-going process).  
Here Angela is helping me to swap some of my unwanted 'stuff' for some different 'stuff' :-)

Oh my word, I do look fat :-(

Cafe & Craft Sale

All of our regular activities (and irregular come to that) are funded by individuals, local churches and fundraising activities.
Once a year we hold a Cafe & Craft sale and monies raised help to keep TABLEtalk and other activities going for the remainder of the year. 
Our 2014 event was held last Saturday, March 29th. I am extremely grateful to all those who brought along scrumptious cakes for our cafe ...

... can someone please re-assure me that if a cake contains fruit, that fruit eliminates any calories??!!

Beautifully hand-crafted by Mark Crittenden,
one of my colleagues from the University of
Greenwich Student Centre  ...
Frank, my faithful right-hand-man at the World Cafe, scored Mark 10 out of 10!! 

 

I'm also grateful to Jenny, Chris, Sandra and others who help me make a variety of crafts throughout the year.  Sandra's amazing bags were a BIG hit!!!

Martha is a regular feature at our fundraisers with her tasty Alfie & Tilly Fudge ... for some reason there's never any left over :-(

A VERY BIG THANK YOU
also goes to all the students and friends who came along to help on the day  ...  selling crafts and books, serving cakes and drinks (special thanks to Karen who ran the cafe), clearing tables, washing up, and especially transforming the church back to a clean and usable state.

ANOTHER BIG THANK YOU
goes to some of the children who were so keen and willing to walk up and down the High Street advertising the event and to do a spot of busking and cake selling outside the church ... thanks Alfie, Emily, Niamh and Joannah!!!