THE most epic Weekend Away ever (Will I say that every time??)

Hum. Well, where to begin?? If I'm being honest, the excitement really began at Regenerate on Thursday night...well, that was where I began bouncing with excitement about it anyway!! Also was doing quite a lot of excited bouncing in the College Shop on Friday afternoon. I think I scared Luke...he looked slightly petrified at the prospect of spending the weekend with me!!! And then when I got back to Kingswood there was obviously the saga of packing...more of which later I believe.

Anywho. To move it along...Founders Wes' Thide (say it out loud...pref with the hand thing...), 6.45. And perhaps the funniest moment of the whole weekend (up to that point at least): Ben's face when he thought that the pile of bags belonging to about four people was all mine. Which it wasn't. Because I'd packed light :-) Really, if you don't believe that was light, ask my Dad how much stuff I took to America...ANYWAY, I didn't have *that* much...Susie had a suitcase too (Yes I know *all* her stuff was in it, but that is *such* a minor point. And Paula had two pillows, but no-one mocked her did they?? BUt it still became the joke of the weekend. Huh. After (much) complaining, all the stuff (and five people) fitted in Ben's car, even if it was a lil bit snug in the back. (Ooooooooooooh, at some point in there I became aquainted with Liz....almost missed that bit out!! ERROR!!) (Sorry Lani). Oh, an we had a bit of a pillow fight too (obviosuly before we got in the car...Ben's car might be the car of fun, but there isn't quite enough space for it to be *that* fun)

So, M25. Fun as ever. Almost blinded Ben by taking a photo when he was looking in the rear view mirror.

Debated taking a photo of Tom Page as we drove past, but decided that would be slightly dangerous and rather irresponsible, so we played some funky music instead...cheesy pop is my speciality :P Godalming proved really rather an exciting place..so exciting we drove around it three times (well, it sounds better than "we got a bit lost when we were trying to find the church" doesn't it?? no?? sarcastic?? me??) but we got there eventually. And it was MAHUSIVE. Literally, a person could get lost in that place. We were *so* spoilt...Table Tennis, Table Football, Air Hockey (Yes, AIR HOCKEY!! and not a bowling alley in sight) and a Pool Table. Turned out that the girls had an amazing room to sleep in...TWO sofas, and squillions of sofas...and the poor boys had, well, the floor?? there was lots of floor to choose from...yet they still moaned!! Can't completely remember what we did on Friday evening...we had Spag Bol for dinner, and played lots of games, including some sort of welcome game where we learnt that Tom "Quentin" Page's mum isn't allergic to potatoes and that there were a lot of sad musos on that weekend. Had some girly bonding over chocolate in the bedroom...lots of special housemate love to my girlies...

I think we went to bed at about 12.30 / 1ish...and went to sleep about 2.30ish. Lani sang (croaked) some German lullabys, but they didn't really work...but we did get a number of classic quotes in that time... "I need to go to sleep or I'll fail my degree" (Paula), "Chris has five letters" (long story, but thanks for that one Liz) and just general girly chit chat about boys and stuff...and I think we should stop there for Friday night (well, technically Saturday morning) :-)

So, later on Saturday morning...I managed to completely spoil Lani's fun by being awake and therefore not needing a nice early morning rendition of "Rise and Shine and give God the glory glory". Breakfast was pretty uneventful really...dunno why I a) only have breakfast on the Weekend Away or b) why I only ever have chocolate spread on toast on said Weekend... Hum *ponders* Anyway...had the first meeting...on a more serious note here, Vicky was AMAZING...everyone got so much out of the weekend, I know I certainly did.

Lunch followed...and who could've guessed that cookies go so well with a ham salad sandwich...well, Em assured us they did...no one else really wanted to try it!! Crisps in a sandwich, yes. Biscuits, no. There is a time and place for biscuits, and in a sandwich is not it. Lots of various sports (of the table based variety) were going on all day...turns out I'm pants at Air Hockey, pretty pants at Table Football and royally pants at Table Tennis...I maintain its because I'm too nice to want to beat everyone else...but I think the truth is I'm pants!!!! Second meeting...had a ministry time and laid hands on and prayed over Lani (which worked!! YIPPEE!!) then had some free time to explore historic Godalming. Which was EPIC. Actually, it was ever so slightly wierd, just like it was driving down roads that were so familiar to me...we were only 20 mins from my house, yet I was surrounded by uni people...VERY surreal, but soooooo tempting to go home for a hot bath!!!

Someone had the inspired idea of putting on some music when we were cooking dinner, and the memory of Tom CH 'shaking it' like a polaroid picture will (unfortunately) remain ingrained on my mind for many days to come. Was really good fun hanging out in the kitchen though, and I like to think we cooked a good meal!! (Actually, on a short diversion, ALL the food was good for the whole weekend...so simple, but really proper food!! I ate 3 proper meals each day!! Pudding and all!!). Then there was the big ol Saturday night meeting, which had such a good atmosphere. Vicky was a really inspiring talker, and it was really cool to do something so different (Don't worry James...Alan...we were all friends there...nasty smelly boys!!). Jokes aside, the fellowship *was* really good, simply because we were all such good friends.

No Weekend Away would be complete without the Saturday night games... *nods proudly* I KNEW learning the lyrics for "U Can't Touch This" would come in useful one day!! It was *such* a laugh...typical Page-esque scoring...still can't believe Ben took a point off us for "cheating" when he told us exactly what we'd worked out seconds after docking us our point!! Rudeness I call it!!! Still, Team Jamesey came second :-) so all was not lost. One of *the* most epic moments of the weekend though had to be the wheelchairs...

Me an Jo B stayed up for a bit to play table tennis with Chris and Ben...I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO rubbish...sorry Chris!! And he was so nice about me being so rubbish!! What a gent.

Bedtime was a *lot* quieter that night...people went a lot earlier, but there still managed to be quite a lot of hilarity anyway...Paula fell over at least four times before she got settled...Liz an Em texting...Lani threatening to confisscate their phones (which she did in her sleep apparently!! EPIC!!) and the snoring!!! Turns out that Paula actually tried to record it, but her's and Liz's descriptions in the morning meant that we didn't really need a recording...lol.

Waking up on Sunday morning was, admittedly quite a chore, but we all finally emerged. Had a *slight* problem getting my sleeping bag away which I struggled with for almost 10 mins and which took Ben at the most 2 mins to sort out :-( I'm such a girl sometimes!!! We went to the service, which was funny...some *classic* old skool hymns, and Lani's newest favourite song in the world...then a quick lunch and pack and we were gone.

I know I've missed so many classic moments out of that...all the time round the piano with Lani and Liz, all the classic quotes that were so funny at the time but that I can't recall now, Dodgeball with an inflatable globe, Hacky-Sacky...just know it was the BEST time I've had in a very long time!!

Thanks guys!!

xx