Gifts and the raft.

I suspect it will be diffcult writing a blog entry while a needy labrador is sitting on me, and I'm waiting for a cake to bake but I'm willing to give it a go.

 

I've been living in Witham for about a week and a half now and its all going well. It's very different to Kendal but it seems like a nice place. D came to visit last weekend and we had a good explore of the area.

There's a town nearby on the Blackwater estuary called Maldon which is one of my favourite places in the world. I have lots of memories of sunny summer days spent there with Grandma and Grandad, playing in the tidal swimming pool and at the fairground next to the Hythe and when I was a bit older, going for walks with Grandma and her dog Lucy. D and I went for a visit last weekend and it was a bit different to how I remembered - the swimming pool is now a pond; the fair is now a play area (no trampolines!) but its still a lovely place to go for a walk.

We also found a really nice walk along the river in Witham with lots of little fields and wooded areas. I'm hoping the weather improves sometime soon so that I can have a proper explore of the fields and footpaths around my house.

 

Today I went on a bit of a nostalgia trip and visited a lot the places in Chelmsford that we used to go to when we'd visit Grandma. I started with Hylands Park which is just brilliant and there's so much more to it than I remember. It's an 18th century country house with landscaped gardens. The parkland is lovely. Especially on a muddy, rainy day when your walking boots decide not to be waterproof anymore.

 

 

Work's going well. I've got three weeks of induction to start off with which is great in terms of meeting staff and things but it still feels slightly like being chucked in at the deep end. I think this is mostly because I'm a bit daunted by the amount of money I'm expected to bring in. But it seems good and I think the change from youth work to fundraising will keep me motivated for a while.

Strong and courageous

It's hard to know what to do with my time now that I don't have to spend a stupid amount of it applying for jobs and preparing for interviews. Packing probably makes sense. As does reading all those books I haven't read yet and going for nice autumnal walks. As the queen of procrastination I'll probably end up doing none of that and will just waste away the next 5 weeks sitting on the sofa looking slightly bemused at how scarily soon I'll be leaving Cumbria and moving back to the south to do a job with a lot more responisbility in a field I have some (but maybe not much) experience in.

It'll be great. It's three and a half years since I last moved across the country to a job I'd never done before in a place where I didn't know anyone and it was amazing. And excitingly I'll be living so much closer to the Chappy which is great. Of course it is mildly terrifying taking a big step careerwise and moving somewhere where I don't have any friends, but I keep getting a fantastic passage from Joshua 1:9 turning up in my head every time I start feeling a bit worried about the whole thing:

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

Isn't it a great verse? Write it down. Stick it on your fridge.

I went for a jaunt around West Cumbria today. It felt a bit like the last Dr Who episode with David Tennant as the Doctor where Russel T. Davis has his saying goodbye to everyone and it just goes on and on and on. I said goodbye to Whitehaven and the beach at St Bees. I also went to Workington and Keswick but didn't say goodbye to them as I'll be heading back to them before I leave. West Cumbria is a weird place.