My sixth form Blog: A Wonderful Week in Wales (Redux)

Hello!

So, how's everyone's Easter been? Mine's been good.

At the start of the holiday, I visited Granny for a few days,, from Sunday 27th March to Thursday 31st, which was a lot of fun. Tessa's as energetic as ever - not bad, given she's now 12! She's an old lady now - though I don't think she knows that. She still bobs up and down in expectation when she wants a ball thrown.

Dogs - eternal puppies!

Tessa saying hello

One of the things I did with Granny was attend a reunion with a couple of her friends, on Wednesday. They hadn't seen each other for a few years, and made arrangements to meet up and go for a walk on Dartmoor; I was allowed to come as well, because I'd otherwise have to hang around an empty house on my own. I dropped an orange in a reservoir, which caused amusement all round. But on the whole, the walk was fun!

On the Monday, Granny and I went on a walk with Sally and Pippa, which was great! Pippa (and Sally) are as lively as ever. Pippa and Tessa seemed to miss Pippin, though - he didn't come with me, as I came direct from Reading. Unfortunately, Jen, Bob and Marvin couldn't come either, as they've been shielding since the start of Covid.

Pippin, Tessa and Marvin, from pre-Covid

Tuesday was a more relaxed day...by which I mean I stayed home and did revision. Granny had an all-day meeting (church thing, I think), which, unlike the reunion, I was not invited to. But I had a good time revising. I also read One Hundred Years of Solitude, which was very good. It concerns the hectic, dysfunctional life of a family in rural Colombia, the Buendias, over the course of...one hundred years. And seven generations, the last of which gets devoured by ants. Well, I think it's one hundred years - the timescale is a bit wonky. Multiple characters live to be over one hundred, including one who was born after the one hundred years started.

It's a classic.

I went home on Thursday. I then got to spend a week with my parents before going to Wales! (I spent most of that week revising - being a university student involves lots of work!) I've also been working on my dissertation proposal - and now, after two weeks of dithering, I can safely say I'll be doing a dissertation on the Egyptian response to the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian war. Quite topical, really...

Also, I got new hearing aids! Every few years, I'm entitled to the latest hearing aids, except I last had new hearing aids six years ago. The new models are good - I can hear very clearly.

I also looked after George and Alby again, who were both very happy to see me.

Now onto the main event - Wales! I went to Prestatyn Beach with my Christian Union (Reading Uni CU), for an event called Word Alive. Word Alive is a Christian holiday camp, like Soul Survivor, except not in the summer. There were lots of Christian Unions in attendance, and lots of Christian families.

The week was divided into early morning seminars (9:45-11:00), late morning seminars (11:30-12:45), early afternoon seminars (2:00-3:15), late afternoon seminars (3:45-5:00), early evening celebrations (7:00-8:30), and late evening celebrations (8:30-10:00). Understandably, people didn't go to them all...

Some of the things discussed were things like the Bible and sexuality, the Bible and mental health, spreading the Gospel, and so on. My main takeaway with the Sexuality talks is how wholeheartedly many people in the Church has accepted the idea of acceptance. There's parts of the world where the Church rejects LGBT+ people, but in other places the Church is eagerly doing as Jesus commanded and loving one another. With everything that's going on, that's quite uplifting.

Whoo!

In addition to seminars, I spent quality time with my friends! We spent quite a lot of time on the beach.

I also went there on my own a fair bit. Reading the Bible at 7 in the morning on an empty beach - it's lovely! We played rounders on Monday, I think - rounders on the beach, using an empty water bottle as a bat, is not easy!

Another thing that happened is my hearing aids ran out of battery (I forgot to pack spare batteries.) As a result, I was even more deaf than usual! (Not fun, in case you're wondering), The day after they ran out, a group of us went up a hill. I was able to jump-start them for extra juice, but they still ran out by the time we got down the hill. But I was able to get some spare batteries, so I didn't have to wait till I got home to be able to hear.

Another highlight of the week was the seagulls - they're very funny creatures. At one point, I saw one seagull sitting on another seagull and laughing maniacally while the sat-on gull squawked in discomfort. Also, when I was sitting on the beach on the Tuesday, I saw (and heard!) a seagull fly past, squawking non-stop; when it landed, it then engaged in a brief conversation with another two seagulls. No pictures, unfortunately.