Eish! London 12 April Easter Sunday

Sunday, 12 April – Easter Sunday

(Yay! They gave me Lindt chocolate Easter eggs!! I LOVE Lindt chocolate! )

Once again it was the simple things that made this a good day.

Kay and I went to church in the morning. The Parish and Priory Church of St James, Deeping, a traditional Anglican Church. It was the church she had said her vows in, which was great for me to visit. These are the lines I have kept from the service:

Psalm 118: “O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His mercy endures forever.

The Lord is my strength and my song.” It was a traditional read-out-of-the-service-book service, but even so, it was great to be back in church.

After the service I sent out my “Happy Easter” text message to my friends and family:

“Happy Easter! I’ve just finished at church. The message was: God be with you in your journey and in seeing, having & achieving your vision! J Hope you are having a wonderful day. God Bless!”

When we got back from church the three of us headed to Rutland Lake, this was where they had had their wedding service, a lovely spot indeed. Kay’s hubby is bike mad so we spent about an hour wandering around the HUGE bicycle shop next to the lake. The two of them both want to own bikes, but her hubby is building his from scratch, Kay is saving herself the trouble and looking for a bargain deal on a whole, ready-made bike.

The lake was beautiful, it was sad that it was raining and there was mud everywhere. Kay’s hubby said I am going to have to get waterproofing for my shoes. Unfortunately my shoes are all from South Africa and made for sunny weather, air conditioning and, or, the car; not lakes, buses, trains and walking; very far from ideal. I’ll have to get myself more suitable footwear soon, especially before winter.

When we arrived back at the house I took myself on a long walk around the village, winding my way through little streets and along the river, taking in the solitude and the peacefulness around me. Observing the people, animals and buildings around me so that I didn’t have to think, I could just be. My soul frequently needs alone, quiet time, otherwise I go mad and stress out, which is rather unpleasant when it occurs, so it’s best prevented. I wound my way back to the house and sat down to a fabulous, good old fashioned roast dinner with all the trimmings. Roasts are my all time favourite meal, succulence and flavour mixed in with healthy veggies to form a meal that fits contentedly into my tummy. Love it!

The great dinner was followed by Kay sharing her favourite Facebook site with me; “i can like to be wearing a jean pant”. You see, most South Africans own a pair of jeans, and by direct translation from Afrikaans to English ‘a pair of jeans’ is a ‘jeanpant’. This site (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2343306735) is dedicated to the ludicrous pictures taken with regards to what people can (or in some cases didn’t quite manage to) do with their ‘jeanpant’. The site uses typical South African humour to rip off people and their ‘jeanpant’, which is then followed by the unique comments of other individuals linked to the website (All comments are typed literally in the Afrikaans ‘aksent’).

An example from the site is a photo of an obese person trying to wear a pair of jeans about 6 sizes too small so that she has the most ghastly muffin-top you can imagine and the comment is: “Exsquise me ma’am, ief you want to head back toe automotive we can like to have that spaire tyre fixed up in a jiffy.” Or a plumber’s bum picture with the comment: “CRACK DOES KILL!!!!!!!!!!!!” followed by: “Stay away from crack!!!!” Another example is a picture of a man in the tiniest pair of jean shorts that I have ever seen, he was facing away from the camera (thank the Lord!) and looking back over his shoulder; the comments: “i kan fink datt dis ees duh sjortest slieve jeant pant effer” followed by the same thought I had: “Yinnie, now I ees compleetly off my breakfas! Luckee we do not see da front.”, Then: “Sow saksie – wat is it wiff short slievd jean pants an hêrrie okes…” and last but not least: “Ya no vis ou wif a haary bum….yis ve ouke by Benoni will m..r hom dik ef he prade round like vis.”

Some of the pictures and comments were gems and the two of us took an hour to stop laughing and wiping the tears away afterwards. It was brilliant!

I couldn’t resist the opportunity to use Kay’s internet connection and she happily let me send an email to my Dad:

From: Shannan
Subject: update from uk…

Date: Sunday, 12 April, 2009, 17:29

Hi there Dad

HAPPY EASTER!

Here’s the update as promised:

Bank accounts, Agencies, National Insurance numbers and Police Checks … that about sums it up!

Jane – has been great – she’s sorted me out for settling in and has set me up sweetly. I had lunch with another school friend (who also works in teacher recruitment – yay!) at a Japanese restaurant on Wednesday – it was fun (no, I didn’t eat any of the ‘funny’ dishes; I stuck to crumbed chicken and rice!).

Jane and I have hit the theatre already and watched “Tango Fire” in the West End. I’m still so critical about staging and performance technique, sometimes it’s a pity. Oh well … there must be a reason for it

At the moment I’m spending Easter with my varsity mate and her hubby in Cold and Raining Deeping, Peterborough. It was great to go into a lovely big old church for Easter morning with the stain glass windows and all the rest… VERY traditional – but that’s ok I loved the organ and the HUGE bells!

An agency has set me up with supply teaching on the 20th & 21st and then another agency has a spot for me for which I’m being interviewed on the 22nd, pending the agency’s confirmation – they are mostly on leave now due to school holidays. There is a great demand for teachers this side … so I’ll ride the wave as long as I need to.

I’m going to look at a room in Wembley on Wednesday… hoping that it will be a God send

Please keep me in your prayers so that I can find a great place to stay and keep happy!

Lots of Love, Shannan