Work, Sunday Walk, and The A&H Exploration Expedition of March 2013

So, first things first (obviously...). Work has been fantastic! I really enjoy working with my fellow team members. We have loads of fun in the kitchen. This week I've started having a few more shifts on House. Yesterday was my first major House shift (the shift I did last Monday I just cleaned baseboards...). I helped Bob clean bathrooms and rooms (you remember Bob? He picked me up from the train station with another team member whose made up name I've forgotten so I'm going to give her a new one. She will now be known as Affee). Anyways, so he's basically the King of House so he was showing me how they do things. He showed me the way the clean the bathrooms and things, which is basically the normal way you clean them but they fold the clothes certain ways for the toilets so they don't spread bacteria everywhere. So we raced a couple times and then we had no time for fun and games because we had groups coming in soon and we need to finish doing rooms. That was a busy day. I did not get my morning break which was lame...I was really hungry by the time I had lunch. It's weird how accustomed you get to having a smaller breakfast and then having a slice of toast or two at eleven.

Kitchen has been fun. I've gotten used to everything super fast, which is really nice. It's nice being a fast learner. And every time someone compliments me on say my efficiency in doing the dishes or my attention to detail when I'm on House I rightly attribute it to my mother's excellent raising children skills! All the many things she's taught us over the years are coming into play even more now then they were when I was home. I know how to clean efficiently, speedily, and well. So thank you, dearest Mama! : ) And thank you, dearest Papa, for showing me how to pack things into a dishwasher! : )

On Saturday evening I went with a of the girls to the fair in Dumfries, where we met two of the ITs (Instructor's in Training) and one of their friends. That was fun. I've only been to a fair once or twice and the time I remember was the Chilliwack fair (in British Columbia). That was a large fair and we went during the day and I don't think I went on many rides. I only remember going up on the Ferris Wheel with my sister Heather. This fair was quite small, but it was all brightly lit up, and it had a Merry Go Round that looked like it was straight out of State Fair. I loved seeing the lights at night, and, of course, everything was modern, the rides and the music, but to me it still felt like something out of a film.  I gave myself a little bit of whiplash on the one ride, which wasn't fun, but is basically gone now. My neck is still stiff but definitely not sore like it was on Sunday.

I was on another K1 (that's 7:00-2:45) shift this past Sunday. It was nice to have a smaller group in since it was only Affee and me on kitchen. We had a nice break after serving breakfast and doing a few dishes. Usually you only have a half hour or so break for your own breakfast at 9...ours went for about an hour...but we had most things ready for lunch anyways, and we got everything done in time and everything went smoothly. So even though I didn't get to church (which sucked...) I had a relaxing morning that kept me from being too distracted so it actually felt a bit more like a Sunday.

After my shift was done I went on a long walk. I went down the same road I did last time, except when I got to the white house I took a different side road.

The first time I went to the right, and this past Sunday I went to the left

It ended up being a two hour and twenty minute walk (an hour and a half out and then about an hour back...it was more uphill on the way there and I tried to go cross country and then there was a stream and I couldn't cross to the other side because there was a wire fence right there...). It was quite lovely. I took quite a few pictures. The sunset ones didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped...the camera didn't catch the colours quite right. However, you can take my word that it was quite wonderful! I left at about 4ish and got back at about 6:20...

The farther uphill you go behind Barcaple the more hills and mountains you see! It's fantastic...they just keep going. It's kinda weird, because I'm so used to being in such a big country, and so far away from other provinces and things, but when you're here looking across at those mountains in the far distance it's a sure bet that they're in Northern England...

That group of white houses and things in the bottom right hand section is Ringford

There's something about bends in the road...They always remind me of these lines:

"Anne's horizons had closed in since the night she had sat there after coming home from Queen's; but if the path set before her feet was to be narrow she knew that flowers of quiet happiness would bloom along it. The joy of sincere work and worthy aspiration and congenial friendship were to be hers; nothing could rob her of her birthright of fancy or her ideal world of dreams. And there was always the bend in the road!

"'God's in his heaven, all's right with the world,'" whispered Anne softly. softly." ~Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Chapter 38 "The Bend in the Road"

 

Looking West towards Kirkcudbright

I know, I know what takes the image of an Angel is an Angel...but I wanted to take a picture. It actually was a little creepy going by it because it's the type of statue where it feels like the eyes are following you and that with the idea of a Weeping Angel just sorta creeps me out...I did check to make sure it didn't move when I blinked and when I came back down the road...rest assure it hadn't moved.

I really was trying to get to the top of a hill where I could watch the sunset...I tried going cross country, but as I already told you, there was a stream that, though ford-able, had a wire fence that I couldn't scramble over in my trenchcoat...

Creepy red eye, but this cow was actually pretty cute...it was super fuzzy too! : )

There is also something about hills that makes me always wonder what's on the other side.

There were sheep all over that hill!

The sunset was a bit redder/oranger/pinker but it still looks pretty cool like this...

The road goes ever onward (I think that's Tolkien, the Hobbit to be exact..but I could be wrong...I'm sure someone will correct me if I am...whatever it is this is about where I turned around and started heading back)

DAFFODILS! sorry...I just love how soon the flowers come here!

So that was Sunday.

Now, you've heard about most of my Monday, at least the morning of my Monday. There is more. I was on a K3 in the afternoon (4:00-7:30). So I had a bit of a break in the afternoon which was nice (the shifts I was on on Monday I am doing again tomorrow...just so ya know...). I had some pretty fantastic discussions with Affee in the kitchen about the Bible and the OT and all the rules and things the Israelites had and all the punishments, because her house mate had been discussing them with her earlier that day so she decided to ask me what I thought. It was super interesting, and really great feeling to be having good discussions with a friend. Then in the evening, Allan (not his real name) and Bob (also not his real name but you knew that...) decide that they wanted to start a Bible Study so we met up at half eight to discuss what and how of it. So we had some good discussions starting then as well. It was decided that we are going to start doing Hebrews. The first seven chapters and then we'll discuss them on Monday night and see how far we get through them, and then maybe move on to the next group of chapters or keep going with these ones the next week. So basically this is pretty awesome! :)

After we were done that, Bob, Amelia Pond (basically she's my whovian, sherlockian, merlinite friend who will be known as Amy/Amelia/Pond from now on) went down to the kitchen to ice Bruce's cake, since it was his birthday and he had just gotten back from visiting his girlfriend. Basically this cake was awesome. It had the Batman symbol on it. I have a picture. I will show you in a couple lines...don't worry. I suck at making icing so I made quite a mess, but we managed to fix it. And the cake was iced and then we had to go find Bruce which was a chore and a half. We eventually tracked him down, and sang to him and gave him his cake. We didn't eat any though...it was about twenty to eleven and we were pretty tired. I went to bed, while Bob and Amy went upstairs to the staff room to find the others.

I slept fairly late this morning...sorta woke up at 9:30 and decided it was too early for me to get out of bed so I dozed till about 10:40 or so. Then I lay in bed under my blankets because it was cold outside my bed...(I know, I'm super lazy...but it was my day off...). I was dressed and out of bed by about 11:10 and went down for breakfast. Yay for tea/break at 11 that involves toast and things! I ate two slices of toast: one with peanut butter and one with strawberry jam (this is important for later, I promise...no, there's not a quiz...well...maybe there will be), and then, since Bruce was cutting it, I had a small piece of cake, and then I had a smallish bowl of cereal. (It seems like a lot but the bread was thin, and the bowl was small, and my piece of cake really was quite small...). It was after Bruce had cut the cake that I went to get my camera...I thought about telling him to wait till I had gone to get my camera but I decided I didn't care that much. So, at long last, here is that long awaited picture of the Batman cake we slaved over...

Yes, that symbol is carved in...It was Bob who did it. He has skills like that. The icing on the Bat was very dark chocolate and was quite delicious, the yellow was white chocolate icing that ended up being yellow which was pretty awesome!

And, just to prove I'm not as lazy as I seem on my days off, I am pleased to inform you that I cleaned the staff bathroom on my side of the house. So there...I was done around 12:40 or so, and then, since I had such a late breakfast, I decided just to have a piece of cake. It really was quite tasty; chocolate cake, with white and dark chocolate icing, with jam between the two layers.

I decided to drag Affee out for on a walk since it was also her day off. We left at about 1:15ish, give or take a few minutes. We took the same road that I took on Sunday except that we kept going along, and didn't stop where I turned around on Sunday. We had fantastic conversation ranging from talking about our faith to school to what we want to do to university costing so much to how well I fit in here and onwards. We get along so well. It's great. Yay for friends! :) Anyways, back to the walk. We eventually decided to go cross country. We had to ford a creek/brook which was fairly wide, and we thought it had a bridge and then it didn't so we had to use the stones...I was carrying my camera so I really need to find a spot with stones close together so I wouldn't slip and drop it (since it isn't actually mine that would be a horrible thing to happen...). I did find a spot and got my feet only a little wet. We walked over a really nice rolling green hill which had some sheep on it. Then we hopped a gate (at least I did....Affee just opened the gate. . .much less exciting...), and went up this track up another hill.

This is where it starts getting interesting. Because as we went around this hill and decided that we were going to head back in a certain direction and try to find our way back, it started getting mucky/boggy (but not like super boggy, more like squishy and squelching and watching where you step so you don't sink into mud/water...). It was okay for a bit..until we got to the field that had cows in it on the one end. It was super squelchy (and not from cow dung...) and wet and I got wet feet and slipped at one point and got dirt/mud on the knee of my one pant leg. But we really needed to head down that part of the hill because we wanted to get to the road that we saw. We eventually got through the muck and mire to the road/drive of the farm. We were very thankful to be back on hard ground.

We walked down the road for awhile and then it seemed like it was going waaay out of the way to where we wanted to go (back to the Center) so we went cross country again this time over a nice green hill that wasn't wet and squelchy, and we found a paved road with lines separating the lanes, which was pretty exciting since it meant that it was a proper busyish road that would definitely lead us towards the right place (the other road was more of a one lane country road). We were starting to notice our feet being sore and we were getting pretty hungry (this is where my info on what I ate for breakfast/lunch comes into play) because we had eaten so little and it was getting late. We finally found out where we were and were able to find the road that would lead us straight to the center! (the road I went on when I went for my first walk...past that sheep field and things....just go back and look...)

We met Allan and one of the other Instructors when we were coming up the lane way and told them where we had been. They knew the area, having done mountain biking over there with groups and by themselves. And Allan remarked that it takes him a couple of hours to do that biking. They were pretty impressed with our walking skills...

So it comes down to this. We left at about 1:20 and were back at 5. We walked between 9-10 Miles (and that's miles not km..it's about 14-16 km). So that's a lot of walking in 3 1/2 hours. We feel pretty darn accomplished. So you see, despite me getting up late I really did do a lot today! It was a great adventure/expedition. We enjoyed ourselves and talked an awful lot! : ) Here are the very few pictures I took once we started going cross country.

The surrounding hills and dales

We walked down that...

We found a Loch : )

To the right is the beginning area where it started getting soggy...

So that was my day and part of my weekend. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write this post. I hope the length of it makes up for it's lateness! I'll let you know how it goes with the Bible Study on Monday and how it goes with the group of 70 we get this weekend...