Ok, it's been three months since I last posted, and so much has happened that I want to catch you up on, so I'm going to divide the post into sub-headings to make it easier to miss out the boring bits!
University
I have officially finished my degree, after much stress, tears and some hard work. I graduated at the Guildhall, on the 17th July with an upper second award in BSc (Hons) Biochemistry. University has been such a life changing experience. I have learnt so much, both academically, but also it has given me life skills, I can now use a washing machine! Plus I have made so many new friends, people who I hope to still be friends with when we are all old and grey and our university days are a dim and distant memory. But that chapter of my life has closed now, I will probably still visit, but my world will be a slightly different one now.
Silverstone
My parents paid for me to go to the British Formula One Grand Prix this year. If you don't know I am fanatical about the sport, and unlike most British fans, I follow Kimi Raikkonen. My aunt and uncle go most years, as they live fairly close to the circuit, so let me tag along. What a weekend! There is something about fast cars that I find really exciting. And to see these cars and drivers that you are used to seeing on the small screen actually on the track was fantastic. We were in a Grandstand, so had quite a good view of the corner where we were. I took too many photos, but that didn't matter. The atmosphere, the noise, I can't describe it. Most people were supporting Button this year, and would stand up and cheer during the parade lap as he came past. The only downside was the early starts, I was exhausted by the end of the weekend. It was about a half hour walk to our stand from where we had parked, but I am so glad that I had the opportunity.
Holiday
The day I got back from Silverstone, I was off again for two weeks of canal boating with family and one of my University friends. This year, mostly at my request, we did the Kennet and Avon canal and the river Avon. This included coming back into Bristol, which was great fun and gave me a chance to see my brother and show my friend how much Bristol has changed. We had a great time, with only one really wet day, the day we went up the Caen Hill flight of locks, near Devizes. We generally had really nice weather, very hot, which gave us more time to explore the areas we stopped at. We had such a great time, we had started planning the next holiday before we had given the boat back. We are writing a narrative log for the holiday, if anyone is interested in the details of the trip!
Family
Due to the joys of no money, whilst I find a job, I'm back living at home. I moved all my stuff back at the end of term. When I moved down in first year, I fitted everything into a Volvo estate. By the end of third year, we used a transit van. So you can imagine how much stuff I now have. To complicate issue slightly, my brother unexpectedly moved back home. It was a bit of a shock to the system, to get used to all of us back at home, but we're getting back into the routine.
Church
Having come back home, it made sense to go back to my home church, the church I've been at since I was 7, and who have supported my during my early Christian development. However, before coming home I was starting to feel that it was time to move on, and after much prayer, this has been confirmed. Given that I haven't regularly been to my church, I'm not sure this is much of a surprise for some people. Last week, I went to a different church, River of Life, based in Hartcliffe. It's further away than my present church, but is on the way to my dads church. This in itself suggests that this is all part of God's plan. I received a really warm welcome, and felt at home. This week I met up with one of my elders for a chat, someone who has been like a second mother to me. She was very supportive of my and believes that this is the right choice for me. I will keep you posted as to where I end up. Can you keep me in your prays, that I will make the right, God led choice.
Jobs
Right, jobs. Now that I've graduated, I've got to start the fun old process of job hunting...yay! I have already found and applied for three jobs, one of which I got an interview for. It's not looking good for the other two jobs, so I'll keep looking. Eventually I'll have to widen my search, but at the moment, I want to find a science based job. Ah well, I'll keep looking, and hopefully something will turn up.
Banksy
As you may be aware, Banksy, famous graffiti artist, opened an exhibition at the city museum and art gallery. Due to popular demand, that queues have been up to 3 hours at times. We decided that it was too good an opportunity to miss. After one and a half hours we were in. It was a great exhibition, well worth looking around. There was one area which was solely his work, but if you looked carefully, you might spot the little touches that he had made to the rest of the exhibition, like new paintings. If you get the chance, its worth going, even if you have to queue.
Right, that was a brief update. I will really try to go back to regular posting! But not promises!!
Ruth xx (I now seem to be back to my birth name!)
