As you will have noticed, this blog has been very quiet again. Whenever I come to write a post I get distracted, or remember something else I need to do.
Life has been hectic with all the work I have on. I'm into the final push now. Term ends, forever, on the 5th June, my dissertation has to be in 11th/12th May, plus I have two posters to do, and all my revision for exams which start the last week of May. And now I've scared myself with it all!!
I am back in Bristol for Easter, and torn between wanting to see my friends, and the knowledge that I have all that work. Plus the Easter weekend will be fairly busy with a variety of events and services to commemorate and celebrate the sacrifice made for us on the first Easter weekend.
I still have very unformed plans as to what I will do when I graduate (ceremony is the 17th July), so I am constantly praying into that.
I hope that there will be another post before I graduate, but I can't promise anything. Now I have to go to Sainsburys to buy food!
Take care,
God Bless
Clare/Bristol xxx
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Tonsillitis
I don't seem to be having much luck at the moment. I started feeling ill last week, but passed it off as a virus, the main symptom being a really sore throat. Over the weekend I went to the pharmacist who told me I should see a doctor. It turns out, as the title suggests, I have tonsillitis. Ow!
In other news, it's the Intensified weekend away with King's next week, which I am really looking forward to! Steve came to visit last week. It was good to see him and included a meal and quiz at King's to launch the student meal, which was fun!
There's really not been much else happening!
Hope you're all well!
Clare xxx
In other news, it's the Intensified weekend away with King's next week, which I am really looking forward to! Steve came to visit last week. It was good to see him and included a meal and quiz at King's to launch the student meal, which was fun!
There's really not been much else happening!
Hope you're all well!
Clare xxx
Monday, February 09, 2009
Sorry
I've been incredibly bad at updating this, woops! If there's anyone still reading, thanks for hanging in there.
It has been crazily busy recently, I had my exams about 3 weeks after coming back from Christmas, so most of my time has been spent preparing for them. I only have two exams to sit in the rest of my degree, scary. Deadlines seem to be rushing at me, work piling up, and it's getting harder to catch my breath.
I spent the weekend in Reading, seeing Ben, Dan and Kita. It was so good to be able to stop, not think or worry about the work I had to do. The friendships that we had built over the last two years made it easy to slip into the familiar banter etc.
I think I'm fully starting to realise how much this period of our lives is a time of change and development. People are getting engaged and married. Some of us are closing in on graduation and the scary world outside of the university environment. It's a time when we move around, find out feet and build on the foundations of our formative years. It's when we make the friends for life, and the decisions that go along way to shaping our future. When I was at primary school, we had to write our autobiography. It was a little difficult at 11 to really understand what it meant to grow up. Here we were writing about our secondary school, the G.C.S.E's we got, the A levels we did, our university degree and our futures. I think I got married and had 3 children, and I studied to be a doctor specialising in sports injuries (I don't even know if I could have done that!!). I was treating the F1 drivers of the future. I didn't have any idea about what Biochemistry was, and looking back on it now, I've just realised God played very little role in my "life".
Oh how different reality is. God is a massive focus in my life. My doctor ambitions kinda fell through when my A levels weren't quite as good as the should have been (ok, they were no where near...). I am still vaugly considering getting involved in F1, but I think its a slim to zero chance, and not actually where I want to go. I may still end up in the NHS tho! I don't want 3 children anymore, but at the same time, I hope that I will be contented with as many or as few children as God choses for me (not that I want any right now, just in case you're getting worried...). I know have a better idea of what life is actually like, proper grown up life, and it still scares me, even though I'm taking tentative steps into this world of being a "responsible adult" (adult, gah, not yet, can't I wait a few years...?).
I can't remember if I've mentioned it, but I now have a mentor through church. It's been so good to have someone I can meet up with and chat God with, all the different things in my life, the struggles and the triumphs. It helps me keep balanced and focused. There are certain issues that I am struggling with letting go at the moment, but I have very much felt that I need to to move on and get where I need to be. (ok that was kinda vauge, but I hope you know what I mean).
Right I'm going to stop there before I go anymore crazy. It was more thoughtful that I was intending, but hopefully someone will read it!
God bless,
Night all,
Clare (Bristol/Ruth/Brian) xxx
It has been crazily busy recently, I had my exams about 3 weeks after coming back from Christmas, so most of my time has been spent preparing for them. I only have two exams to sit in the rest of my degree, scary. Deadlines seem to be rushing at me, work piling up, and it's getting harder to catch my breath.
I spent the weekend in Reading, seeing Ben, Dan and Kita. It was so good to be able to stop, not think or worry about the work I had to do. The friendships that we had built over the last two years made it easy to slip into the familiar banter etc.
I think I'm fully starting to realise how much this period of our lives is a time of change and development. People are getting engaged and married. Some of us are closing in on graduation and the scary world outside of the university environment. It's a time when we move around, find out feet and build on the foundations of our formative years. It's when we make the friends for life, and the decisions that go along way to shaping our future. When I was at primary school, we had to write our autobiography. It was a little difficult at 11 to really understand what it meant to grow up. Here we were writing about our secondary school, the G.C.S.E's we got, the A levels we did, our university degree and our futures. I think I got married and had 3 children, and I studied to be a doctor specialising in sports injuries (I don't even know if I could have done that!!). I was treating the F1 drivers of the future. I didn't have any idea about what Biochemistry was, and looking back on it now, I've just realised God played very little role in my "life".
Oh how different reality is. God is a massive focus in my life. My doctor ambitions kinda fell through when my A levels weren't quite as good as the should have been (ok, they were no where near...). I am still vaugly considering getting involved in F1, but I think its a slim to zero chance, and not actually where I want to go. I may still end up in the NHS tho! I don't want 3 children anymore, but at the same time, I hope that I will be contented with as many or as few children as God choses for me (not that I want any right now, just in case you're getting worried...). I know have a better idea of what life is actually like, proper grown up life, and it still scares me, even though I'm taking tentative steps into this world of being a "responsible adult" (adult, gah, not yet, can't I wait a few years...?).
I can't remember if I've mentioned it, but I now have a mentor through church. It's been so good to have someone I can meet up with and chat God with, all the different things in my life, the struggles and the triumphs. It helps me keep balanced and focused. There are certain issues that I am struggling with letting go at the moment, but I have very much felt that I need to to move on and get where I need to be. (ok that was kinda vauge, but I hope you know what I mean).
Right I'm going to stop there before I go anymore crazy. It was more thoughtful that I was intending, but hopefully someone will read it!
God bless,
Night all,
Clare (Bristol/Ruth/Brian) xxx
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Long time no chat,
so how are you all out in the blog world? (I know I haven't blogged in agessss, again, rubbish I know, i am very sorry about that! There is no excuse!!)
I have, unfortunately, been ill for the past two weeks, a really bad cold, but something that refused to get better. My supervisor told me to take the time off, so I haven't worked on my project for two weeks, and term ends next week...ah!! But I'm confident that everything will work out. I just need to get better!!
God has been very good to me over the last month. First, I received a message from one of my old school friends, reminding me of a conversation that we once had about Christian rock music. He had found a song, All the Words, by Kutless that he loved, but was very surprised to find out, on more research, that the band were in fact Christian. For some reason, and I'm really not complaining, he decided to share this story with me, which was awesome! The song is a song that I've found really inspiring, so I'm grateful to him for that as well. It's strange how God works isn't it!
We had a really good God time at cell a few weeks ago, talking about the gift of the profetic. The session ended with a prayer time asking for words for the other group members, which was awesome. Every member got at least one word. The words for me were very true, and helpful. I love how God works.
In another random event, I went to a church in Swindon a few weeks ago with a friend, to support them at their first visit to this church, in fact any church in a long time. It was a privalage to be able to go with them and provide the support. They were crazy enough to drive and pick me up so that I could go, as well as drive me back at the end of the day. Absolutely mental!! I had a fun time, and enjoyed the church. I was impressed with how welcoming they were, but was slightly surprised by the 2 minute break beween the worship and the talk, that was new on me!
Also, last Thursday, instead of cell, a group of us took mince-pies into halls to wish people a merry Christmas (yes, because it is nearly Christmass, somehow...not sure where November went, I think I blinked and missed it!!). We were also offering to do students washing up. People were either surprising clean and had already done it(!) or didn't want us to see the mess, and let us do it for them. Rachael did pray for one girl with a cold, and we had a couple of good chats, steming from the "why on earth would you want to do someone elses washing up?" question. I really pray that some seeds were planted in people, and that they remember us and think more about out motives.
I now have all of my coursework back, and was amazed by one piece in which I got 82%, I'm not sure how it happened, but I was overjoyed!! The rest of my work was good, but not quite as stunning.
I'm now looking at what next, after graduation, and that is a massive maze to get through, with so many options, and requirements, deadlines, etc to fight through. I am really praying into where I should go, but it's still going to be a lot of work. I know I will end up where God wants me if I listen to Him.
I really feel like I have missed something, this is why I should blog more regularly!! Woopsie!
I shall wrap up there, I really don't feel like I have done God justice in this post, but I hope and pray that His awesomness will still come through this post, and my blog, and my life!
God bless
Bristol xxx
I have, unfortunately, been ill for the past two weeks, a really bad cold, but something that refused to get better. My supervisor told me to take the time off, so I haven't worked on my project for two weeks, and term ends next week...ah!! But I'm confident that everything will work out. I just need to get better!!
God has been very good to me over the last month. First, I received a message from one of my old school friends, reminding me of a conversation that we once had about Christian rock music. He had found a song, All the Words, by Kutless that he loved, but was very surprised to find out, on more research, that the band were in fact Christian. For some reason, and I'm really not complaining, he decided to share this story with me, which was awesome! The song is a song that I've found really inspiring, so I'm grateful to him for that as well. It's strange how God works isn't it!
We had a really good God time at cell a few weeks ago, talking about the gift of the profetic. The session ended with a prayer time asking for words for the other group members, which was awesome. Every member got at least one word. The words for me were very true, and helpful. I love how God works.
In another random event, I went to a church in Swindon a few weeks ago with a friend, to support them at their first visit to this church, in fact any church in a long time. It was a privalage to be able to go with them and provide the support. They were crazy enough to drive and pick me up so that I could go, as well as drive me back at the end of the day. Absolutely mental!! I had a fun time, and enjoyed the church. I was impressed with how welcoming they were, but was slightly surprised by the 2 minute break beween the worship and the talk, that was new on me!
Also, last Thursday, instead of cell, a group of us took mince-pies into halls to wish people a merry Christmas (yes, because it is nearly Christmass, somehow...not sure where November went, I think I blinked and missed it!!). We were also offering to do students washing up. People were either surprising clean and had already done it(!) or didn't want us to see the mess, and let us do it for them. Rachael did pray for one girl with a cold, and we had a couple of good chats, steming from the "why on earth would you want to do someone elses washing up?" question. I really pray that some seeds were planted in people, and that they remember us and think more about out motives.
I now have all of my coursework back, and was amazed by one piece in which I got 82%, I'm not sure how it happened, but I was overjoyed!! The rest of my work was good, but not quite as stunning.
I'm now looking at what next, after graduation, and that is a massive maze to get through, with so many options, and requirements, deadlines, etc to fight through. I am really praying into where I should go, but it's still going to be a lot of work. I know I will end up where God wants me if I listen to Him.
I really feel like I have missed something, this is why I should blog more regularly!! Woopsie!
I shall wrap up there, I really don't feel like I have done God justice in this post, but I hope and pray that His awesomness will still come through this post, and my blog, and my life!
God bless
Bristol xxx
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Busy Week
Hello again,
I've just completed my first week of project research, which was really good if a little tedious. There are two of us try to use the same piece of equipment so we can be a little limited as to what can be achieved in a day. I am working on the BIACORE machine, using SPR (surface plasmon resonance) to detect binding of small molecules to a protein. There is a lot of set up that has to be done first, such as checking the right pH levels (pH scouting, which I have completed for the RNase E E. Coli molecule, but still have to do for the RNase E TB molecule) and finding the correct buffers, so as not to make the protein too unhappy. Toni, I will be working with HPLC in a few weeks I think, so I am not fully sure of the methods used yet, as I still need to be trained on the machine. Just in case you're wondering, (most of you probably aren't!) I have also been studying the turning on and off of genes, and embryo development, including a practical in a few weeks cutting up a chick embryo.
In other news, I've had a really good God week. I asked if Adam (Blade) could find me someone to mentor me through this year, as I feel that it is something I really wanted to do, and would be good to have that extra support. I met her on Sunday, and she is lovely. We had our first "proper" chat on Monday evening over coffee, and it was really good! I found it incredibly helpful, and I had space to think and hear God. Things had got a little...foggy, over the past few weeks, and after letting some stuff go, it was really good to feel God's presence everywhere in my life.
I'm settling into the house well, and getting back into the swing of fending for myself, kind of. My clothes are mostly clean and I haven't starved yet!!
Last weekend I paid a trip up to see Ben, Dan and Nikita in Reading. It was great to arrive on the Friday evening, and feel like old times again. I miss it, but realise that the friendships I've made may be sightly different, they are still as strong as the were. The one problem I've found with going to Reading was that I always end up bringing back more than I went with, and that usually means I've been shopping :S but it's still fun!! Ben and I met up with some of the King's guys who had gone up for a conference, and came back with them on the Saturday night, so Ben could see Portsmouth people. And annoyingly they are renovating the lock near Ben's house on the Kennet and Avon canal, so I could go sit on the balance beam as I wanted...so I'm going to have to pay another trip to see them just to do that :P.
Finally, if anyone can help me make sense of miRNAs that would be appreciated! I have a paper analysis to write by next Friday, and I am totally lost in my subject!!
God bless,
Clare xxx (Or Bristol, as I seem to now be in the house!!!)
I've just completed my first week of project research, which was really good if a little tedious. There are two of us try to use the same piece of equipment so we can be a little limited as to what can be achieved in a day. I am working on the BIACORE machine, using SPR (surface plasmon resonance) to detect binding of small molecules to a protein. There is a lot of set up that has to be done first, such as checking the right pH levels (pH scouting, which I have completed for the RNase E E. Coli molecule, but still have to do for the RNase E TB molecule) and finding the correct buffers, so as not to make the protein too unhappy. Toni, I will be working with HPLC in a few weeks I think, so I am not fully sure of the methods used yet, as I still need to be trained on the machine. Just in case you're wondering, (most of you probably aren't!) I have also been studying the turning on and off of genes, and embryo development, including a practical in a few weeks cutting up a chick embryo.
In other news, I've had a really good God week. I asked if Adam (Blade) could find me someone to mentor me through this year, as I feel that it is something I really wanted to do, and would be good to have that extra support. I met her on Sunday, and she is lovely. We had our first "proper" chat on Monday evening over coffee, and it was really good! I found it incredibly helpful, and I had space to think and hear God. Things had got a little...foggy, over the past few weeks, and after letting some stuff go, it was really good to feel God's presence everywhere in my life.
I'm settling into the house well, and getting back into the swing of fending for myself, kind of. My clothes are mostly clean and I haven't starved yet!!
Last weekend I paid a trip up to see Ben, Dan and Nikita in Reading. It was great to arrive on the Friday evening, and feel like old times again. I miss it, but realise that the friendships I've made may be sightly different, they are still as strong as the were. The one problem I've found with going to Reading was that I always end up bringing back more than I went with, and that usually means I've been shopping :S but it's still fun!! Ben and I met up with some of the King's guys who had gone up for a conference, and came back with them on the Saturday night, so Ben could see Portsmouth people. And annoyingly they are renovating the lock near Ben's house on the Kennet and Avon canal, so I could go sit on the balance beam as I wanted...so I'm going to have to pay another trip to see them just to do that :P.
Finally, if anyone can help me make sense of miRNAs that would be appreciated! I have a paper analysis to write by next Friday, and I am totally lost in my subject!!
God bless,
Clare xxx (Or Bristol, as I seem to now be in the house!!!)
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Major woops!
I seriously hadn't realised how long it had been since my last post, but the answer is quite a while, my bad!
I've officially started year 3 (argh!! How did that happen?), moved out of Stansted Road ( :( ), moved into my new house, with 4 other girls (3 from church, one on my course), turned 22 (!) and been on holiday (on the canals in and around Birmingham! Great fun, but stupidly early starts for a holiday!).
It's been an emotional time. I found moving back here much harder than I expected. I've become close to two of my friends from back home, so I think that played a factor in my homesickness. But I think the biggest factor was that I was really scared about starting year 3, my final year, the big one! I felt, (and still does a little) like I was standing on the edge of a huge dark abyss. I couldn't see the bottom, or the other side, and there in front of me was a tiny white line, or tightrope that I had to walk across, with the knowledge that one wrong step and I would fall and fail. But I've started walking. My big fears are all turning out to be stupid. Yes, it is going to be a very hard year, but as long as I am sensible, do my work, not sit around blogging all the time (!), and most importantly, trust God, I will succeed. I won't just get through, I'll do well.
I am also realising how blessed I am by all the amazing people I have around me, who I am proud to call friends. There are some who I don't get to see all the time any more, but who are still supporting me. But there are others who are here, at church, in my house and on my course, who are all so amazing. I hope that I can be as great a friend back as they are to me.
This is a very serious blog today, but in a good way. And just think, it could be worse, and I was writing about telomers or HPLC.
On a random side note, I now have a deviantart account, where I have posted some of the pictures I have drawn over the past few years, some really reacent, some much older. The address is: http://roofster86.deviantart.com/
So I'm back! And I will attempt to update this at least once a week.
Clare xxx
I've officially started year 3 (argh!! How did that happen?), moved out of Stansted Road ( :( ), moved into my new house, with 4 other girls (3 from church, one on my course), turned 22 (!) and been on holiday (on the canals in and around Birmingham! Great fun, but stupidly early starts for a holiday!).
It's been an emotional time. I found moving back here much harder than I expected. I've become close to two of my friends from back home, so I think that played a factor in my homesickness. But I think the biggest factor was that I was really scared about starting year 3, my final year, the big one! I felt, (and still does a little) like I was standing on the edge of a huge dark abyss. I couldn't see the bottom, or the other side, and there in front of me was a tiny white line, or tightrope that I had to walk across, with the knowledge that one wrong step and I would fall and fail. But I've started walking. My big fears are all turning out to be stupid. Yes, it is going to be a very hard year, but as long as I am sensible, do my work, not sit around blogging all the time (!), and most importantly, trust God, I will succeed. I won't just get through, I'll do well.
I am also realising how blessed I am by all the amazing people I have around me, who I am proud to call friends. There are some who I don't get to see all the time any more, but who are still supporting me. But there are others who are here, at church, in my house and on my course, who are all so amazing. I hope that I can be as great a friend back as they are to me.
This is a very serious blog today, but in a good way. And just think, it could be worse, and I was writing about telomers or HPLC.
On a random side note, I now have a deviantart account, where I have posted some of the pictures I have drawn over the past few years, some really reacent, some much older. The address is: http://roofster86.deviantart.com/
So I'm back! And I will attempt to update this at least once a week.
Clare xxx
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
It's like buses...
you wait for ages for one, then two come along at once. Yes, that's right folks, I'm back!
Second post in one night!!
Well, I'm back in Portsmouth, came back yesterday, having been in Bristol for nearly a month, but had a change to catch up with a few friends. I was a little concerned about moving back to the house on my own, but it's been ok as there's another girl living here called Emily. I've only met her briefly but she seems nice. I'm going into the lab with my project supervisor tomorrow morning which I'm very excited about!
So what else has been going on? Erm, not a lot to be honest. I gave my testimony at church, which went well; I went to my grandma's with my parents, including a trip to the huge Borders in Oxford; I've seen two of my friends new flats and stayed up all night and watched the sun rise on Clifton Suspension Bridge, in a moment of madness with a friend, but life's been fairly quiet. Ooo, and I got a new bed, and my room is really tidy, which is astonishing, which those who know how messy I am, know how amazing that is!
I hope that I will be updating more regularly. Because more stuff has happened, it just doesn't seem as important any more.
If anyone wants to read my testimony from the last two years, I can put it on my blog, as I typed it before hand.
I'll wrap this up now, and appoligise for blogging twice in once night!!
Clare xxx
Second post in one night!!
Well, I'm back in Portsmouth, came back yesterday, having been in Bristol for nearly a month, but had a change to catch up with a few friends. I was a little concerned about moving back to the house on my own, but it's been ok as there's another girl living here called Emily. I've only met her briefly but she seems nice. I'm going into the lab with my project supervisor tomorrow morning which I'm very excited about!
So what else has been going on? Erm, not a lot to be honest. I gave my testimony at church, which went well; I went to my grandma's with my parents, including a trip to the huge Borders in Oxford; I've seen two of my friends new flats and stayed up all night and watched the sun rise on Clifton Suspension Bridge, in a moment of madness with a friend, but life's been fairly quiet. Ooo, and I got a new bed, and my room is really tidy, which is astonishing, which those who know how messy I am, know how amazing that is!
I hope that I will be updating more regularly. Because more stuff has happened, it just doesn't seem as important any more.
If anyone wants to read my testimony from the last two years, I can put it on my blog, as I typed it before hand.
I'll wrap this up now, and appoligise for blogging twice in once night!!
Clare xxx
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