WHite Boxing Day

so we didn't get the white Christmas that I wanted, but it was only a day late. It snowed on BOxing Day and all the way up until I left Brussels.

I am now home and not wanting to face work starting next week and all the responsibility that will bring. I have work to do before i start school and much more to do on the weekends and afternoons. Once again, welcome to the real world deev... ha, but my class is wonderful (despite a few quirks) and i am really looking forward going to the same place everyday.

well, here are some photos of the snow, yay

Christmas at the Vercnocke's.

Well, am now in Overjise in Belgium. It is not very far South East of Brussels. I am here with Jen and Mike (my dad's cousin somehow), their children Catherine and Tom and Jen's mum and dad. And we had an absolutely smashing Christmas with lots of cheese, wine and turkey. The cheeses are very exotic from France, Devon and Belgium too!!! And the wines were French or Spanish and the beer was a grand 8.something% and from Belgium, where they can be as strong as 12%.

Umm, we went to the Christmas markets today in Brussels which were pretty. And we are hoping for snow, although unfortunately it was not a white Christmas. Well, off now to watch Doctor WHo with the family and then maybe play a bit of Playstation 2 with the eyetoy... ever so much fun!

love you all and missing you all. Hope you had a GREAT Christmas.
deev
p.s. tried to put the photos on, but they froze the computer... sorry, will add them when i get home. WIll be back in London for New Years, yay.
love ya

feliz navidad, joyeux noel, happy christmas

well, louis (infront of me) and marion (right of me) have left and we now have another mathieu and angelique. But, you get the gist.... Merry Christmas from all at 62!!! this was taken at our beautiful chrissie dinner.

love you all,
bisous
deev

c'est moi avec mon nouvel ordinateur

c'est moi avec mon nouvel ordinateur. c'est tres bon!!!

no really, it is exciting, cos i can now use the internet at home. YAY. well, i am off to Brussels on Friday for Christmas and then back home for new years. then preparing for my job that i start on Jan 4th, for 4 months. It is at an autistic centre. the kids are 5years old and i have about 7 (still not sure how many).

so lots of stuff happening here.

well, Merry Christmas to you all

love

deev

me

two housemates moving out and two new ones moving in (all french)... december holds lots of fun things in store. The dynamics of the house will change heaps.

umm, Marion went shopping in Selfridges the other day and bought a really nice pair of jeans, she had never heard of the brand, but nonetheless, it was sass and bide... go sydney...

went to order a laptop yesterday with lots of issues with my funding... I HATE the banks over here. so alas, no computer, hopefully sometime next week i will order it, who knows if it will arrive before christmas. as if not, i will not be able to pick it up, cos chrissie in brussels this year... who knows where i'll be for new years.

well, better get to tami's new place for dinner,

love you all
deev.
xx

northern ireland

had a great weekend with Carrie in Northern Ireland. Ummm, the weather was cold, but it was fun. And we had a great chance to catch up which was fantastic. She lives close to the sea and we took lots of photos, but unfortunatly i can't load them yet... hohumm boring.

umm,what else is news??? I played mixed doubles tennis tonight, it was great. the onlything missing was doubles partner either Schelle or Kristy. maybe in the future... ha

don't think there is much else to write. am still having a good time. winter starts tomorrow, but it hasn't been too cold yet.

well, to bed with me.
love
deev

Harry Potter

tonight i went to see Harry Potter with some friends from uni. I really enjoyed it. We decided that it would be a good movie to see again, so strongly recommend it!

Umm, oh, not sure if i said, but this winter is meant to be the coldest winter since 1963 or something. And on Friday the frost was really thick and we still had ice in the playground at 11:00am. So thinking it might be getting a bit chillier every day now.

Saw that they have outdoor ice-rinks in a few venues in London. Might go with a few of the housemates to check them out or with the uni friends. The main city streets are looking quite nice with all the decorations for Christmas and the roasted chestnuts on the side of the road. I am getting myself ready for a cold Christmas which will be quite bizarre. Although plans are that I will be in Brussels, not England... as for New Years... who knows??

that's all for now...
go see Harry Potter!

love ya

not every day...

it's not every day you walk down the street to the internet cafe passed by 5 police cars and also another one on the side of the road frisking a guy... or is it!!?? hopefully not! ha.

well, almost at the end of another week and what have i done?? I have worked, not done much else, but I am having fun.

Oh last night, i went to see Tim Freedman live at Bush Hall, just a walk from my home, not too bad. I managed to convince one of my housemates to go and met two girls from church there. Had a great night!! Hopefully i won't make myself poor by seeing gigs all the time. and Sat will be the next Harry Potter movie with some uni friends...

hope you are all well!!
love ya,
deev

oh my goodness...

well, we have had a lovely french/mexican couple living on our loungeroom floor for the past two weeks and they decided to give us a thank you present. Not only did Celeste cook a mean tikka masala (as well as other culinary delights throughtout the fortnight), but JB and Celeste decided to give us a fussball table. Who could ask for anything more??!!

Also, I am a changed person! And i am still trying to figure out if it is for the better. When we were putting the fussball table together, we had Robbie playing in the background and i was singing along... And believe it or not, I have a new found liking for the guy. See, I saw his Berlin Concert on TV and he is a fantastic entertainer. You could see from his eyes that he felt honoured to be performing the the German crowd - AMAZING!!

What else?? ummmm, finally booked my tickets to Northern Ireland. I'm going to visit Carrie on the weekend November 25th. And hopefully seeing Harry Potter next weekend, can't wait for that!!!! I played tennis on Friday night with one of my housemates, Clément. It was sooooo great to play after such a long time. Might try and get along to some mixed doubles nights so that I can keep it up.

Have been teaching every day since half-term, which has been great for money and experience. I have been at a variety of schools. I have decided that High Supports needs is not a field that i want to go into full time, but i enjoy teaching it every now and then. I have also been at a high school for students with medical troubles, austistic classes and mainstream classes reception to Year 6. On Wednesday I had a great arvo giving students massages listening to relaxing music. We had 5 students and me and 4 teaching assistants, it was FANTASTIC.

think that is all for the moment.
bisous,
deev

the photos are
first:us making the table.
second:left to right top: Celeste, JB, Mathieu, Louis, bottom:Me, José et Clément.

i'm fine now!!!

don't stress about me, my homesickness was gone the next day, praise God!!!

i am back to loving life over here!!! yay

love
deev

P.S. jana, it was not your fault at all!!! i loved Germany!!! thanks for having me!

homesickness

homesickness has juststarted to kick in.

ha, crazy, it's only been 4 months.

i think it was coming home to the daily grind after spending an awesome week in Germany with Jana, talking about Aus and all that sort of stuff, ahhhh, Masthead Island... ahhhh, the sun and sand... ahhhhh the rain and dreariness of England, will apparently be our worst winter since 63, waiting to see whether the weather reporters have it right.

but it was great to see Jana, and had fun over there (germany). and all in all i am having a good time over here (london). work is great!! and 'home' is great too!!!
and will hopefully get to Nthn Ireland soon... yay.

well, hope you are all well
bless you all
deev

photos in Münster

here are some photos from Münster... Jana and her friend Hannah at their uni cafe. Hannah with her new buy looking like a Yeti. J-na and our bikes (with my new coat in a bag on the back of mine), J-na and me pulling some kind of face, but looking tired and sick at her house.

oh and one of me and schelle (awwww) outside harrods... no that wasn't in germany, but i thought i would put it on anways!

Germany

Hello all,
I am here in Germany and having a great time!!! have to ask Jana for some help with how to put photos up... this blogsite has all it's instructions in German, so not the easiest... but I am kinda learning.
Went to 3 lectures with J-na yesterday and out to a uni 'math' faculty party last night. Was weird to be back at a uni event. And man German Boyz are tall... puts all my male friends to shame... couldn't believe it.
Today i went to uni again, but took a book to read. I mean fungi and algae is really interesting, but i had a bit of trouble understanding the language. After uni i went shopping, whoops. I finally have a winter coat, but spent a bit too much money on other stuff too... i really needed the t-shirt, trousers and hairclips... really!
Oh and everyone would be really proud of me. I rode a bike to uni today and around town... I think i was a bit slow for Jana, but i didn't even fall off... even if no one else is proud, i am proud of me!!!! YAY. am feeling super fit now!!!
Before i left London for the week i had breakfast with Jose, one of my housemates... he comes home from work at about 4:00am which is when i happened to be leaving for the airport. We often have meals together when i get home from work and he is about to go off for his night shift. I am loving home, all my housemates are lovely. i have even gone to the pub with the french ones a few times, they are all really friendly. I am also LOVING mid-terms (holidays), and school is awesome too. have been at some crazy schools over here, but they have all been good. and the work has been coming too. oh and catching up with friends has also been good.
so now all i have to find is a church... and i am looking into one, so i will see how that goes this week.
well, off to watch a german soap.
will post some photos soon, promise!!
love you all,
hugz from Münster
deev

'home'

well, this could be it for a while... 'home' that is... seems to have been a few places over the last little while.

had dinner last night with some people in my new place. I am living quite close to Shepherd's Bush tube in London. Close to heaps of buses and not far from Tami either. ummm, i am in 'Aussieville' but somehow living with 4 french and 1 spaniard, so not really part of the Aussieness.

so moved up to london last week, and lived on tami's floor for a week. found a place to rent and moved in on sunday. worked 3 days last week have 5 days this week by the time the week has finished, so not too bad.

Will have paid off my first months rent and bond hopefully soon so i will be able to do some travelling. not too sure where, but will see. Mid term holidays are in about 2 weeks, so that will be awesome.

well, back to the grind i suppose. don't have much fridge/cupboard space, so trying to buy light... will build up my supplies this week and will hopefully be settled by mid next week...

love youse all
deev
HUGZ

life...

well, i had a job... but i decided that it is way too much committment for a travelling girl. (they wanted me to go in to work in my holidays). so at the moment i am living on someone's floor, coughing up a lung in London hoping to be better for my last day of work tomorrow. then, hmmm, who knows what life will throw my way!!!!!! and if i am not better tomorrow, i guess i have the day to look for work and somewhere to live! although i won't get paid, the great thing about supply work is you don't get sick pay, oh well, that's the way it goes.

apart from being a bit sick and jobless, i have pretty much decided to move to london and give that a go... so not sure what life will throw my way in the next week.

well, 'home' to 'bed' for me!!! rest up so i can hopefully get to school tomorrow.

love you all
deev

life...

well, i had a job... but i decided that it is way too much committment for a travelling girl. (they wanted me to go in to work in my holidays). so at the moment i am living on someone's floor, coughing up a lung in London hoping to be better for my last day of work tomorrow. then, hmmm, who knows what life will throw my way!!!!!! and if i am not better tomorrow, i guess i have the day to look for work and somewhere to live! although i won't get paid, the great thing about supply work is you don't get sick pay, oh well, that's the way it goes.

apart from being a bit sick and jobless, i have pretty much decided to move to london and give that a go... so not sure what life will throw my way in the next week.

well, 'home' to 'bed' for me!!! rest up so i can hopefully get to school tomorrow.

love you all
deev

ho hum...

back to the daily grind of doing nothing!! waiting for news on the job front... apparently there is heaps out there, just waiting for the agencies to 'get back to me'. chased a few up. they say positive stuff and follow through with nothing but know all the right stuff to say to keep you waiting.

ummm, apart from that, back in Lindfield. not doing much, except reading, watching news and doing Su doku... i think i am a champion now!!

went to the All saints church across the road last night, i think that is keeping me sane at the moment, the group there is pretty cool and keeping me in their social loop, is nice.

at the mo, looking for job, house and church... not sure in which order, but it will all fall into place eventually!

love you all, miss you!
deev
p.s. am finding a lot of people like to ask me about the cricket... wonder what will happen today?? can we get it?

well, am now back from a trip to Brussels which was nice. Caught the Eurostar there and stayed with some distant rellies. it was really fun. i think for me the most exciting thing was the automatic sliding doors in the back of the Lancier people mover, or the sat nav... soooo cool. or playing on the PS2 with eyetoy... i love kiddy toys... bring on kiddy toys. i wish i was a kid again, ok, maybe not, why not just teach them. ha went to technopolis a like questacon but in brussels, heaps fun, saw manequin piss too... ha what a name. is a little boy weeing as he was lost and that's what he was doing when he was found. ummm, might be going skiing with Mike, Jen, Catherine and Thomas (the family i stayed with) in February in Switzerland if i am on mid-term break... might have to try and organise that one. ummm, so back in England, dreary weather, but that is now expected. There was a job op today which i am looking into. it is for an epilepsy school in Lingfield umm, just south of london i think. not sure if they want me or if i want it, but it is promising, my first real positive job thing. hopefully jobs will start to come now as schools are starting to come back. not much to add, will try and get some photos of brussels on a bit later. love you all, deev

today

Helloooooo... well, today is my final day in Lindfield for the moment. (Richard, Rosalind and Caroline are in France for 2 weeks). So, I am going to Horsham for a week and then next wednesday I am off to Brussels on the Eurostar for a week as 'V' (Richards mother) didn't want to have to try and entertain me for a week, so off we go to Brussels to meet some of her family. She is going with me. Should be a good time. Then in about 2 and a bit weeks, probably back to Lindfield.

Haven't been back to the church yet as i wasn't in Lindfield on Sunday night, but i have kept in touch with some of the people from there and they are lovely, so i will definitely be going back as soon as possible.

Apart from that, not much else to add... am going ok. The weather is BEAUTIFUL!! sun shiney days for the time being. Had a few interviews with agencies and they all say the same thing... we won't know about work until School starts back in September, so i suppose i have to make the best of the holidays whilst i can.

feel free to keep the e-mails coming, i will reply as often as i can (V doesn't have internet but there is a cheap place down the road from her, so i can go there.)
love you all!
HUGZ
p.s. happy birthday Arnout!

and some sights of 'home'...

these pics are where i live (except for the one where i was catching up with Mark in London, i think that is Trafalgar Square in the background. he took the photo and cut most of his head off, whoops).

The run down on the house is, really old!!! i love it though. everything is really wonky, might take some photos to show that a bit later... here we have the outside (C13, redone C17) and the living room with fireplace i love how old the door and ceiling looks, the hall upstairs (complete with slpoing floor and random steps) and of course Charlie, the dog. He is beautiful, but nothing on Frodo.

once again, sorry about the setting out... might get that sorted out eventually!

love ya!
deev

some more pics from russia

well, here are some more photos from russia... just some more kids at the disco, or around the dorms or in the playground. the one with the table is the a younger group at our Health talk about brushing teeth properly... i hope you are all brushing your teeth properly!!! your mouth will thank you later =D

Finally, some russia photos

so, here are some photos from Russia... a photo of our team, from the top left we have Liz, Norm (team leader) Vera and Veronika (interpreters) and from bottom left we have Julia (interpreter), me, Jenni and Pam.
The photo below was taken at one of our gospel bead presentations. This group is about 8-10 years old. The children were beautiful, they responded well to what we told them.

The twins, Sasha and Enessa were the two girls who came to say goodbye to me at 5:00am. They spoke to us in English and Jenny and I developed a good relationship with them.
This is a group of boys who came to the club room to do art and crafts and body painting. They loved to aussie flag tatoos,.

And the last photo is of our youngest group. We went to them some nights and spent time at their dorm. They were beautiful and never wanted us to leave. We sang songs with them such as Who's the King of the Jungle, My God is so Big and Jesus You're my superhero. They loved it. THey sang in English, but we interpreted to them, so they knew what they were singing. THis night Babushka Pam gave them all some gifts.

Hopefully some more photos to come.
love ya
deev
p.s. sorry the layout is dodge. I'm no good at technical side of things!

England now...

G'day all,
well, the end of Russia Mission was great. I had a counsellor (camp group leader) let two girls sneak out of their dorm at 5:00am to say goodbye to me. They were touched and wanted to say goodbye. I turned around as i was about to get in the car to go to see them and was allowed to say goodbye. They were two lovely 15yr old girls. And many more were awesome too. We were able to tell the gospel to all groups and many kids raised their hands to pray to ask Jesus into their lives. Our prayer is that they will read the Bibles we were able to give them and the God will hold them close to Him.

Arrived in London last night and got a lift from my uncle to Lindfield which took us about an hour from Heathrow. Today I had lots of tea, had some great cakes which were bought from the local WI and had a chance to explore the village. It is very beautiful and the house is adorable. They have a cute dog a caramel colour called Charlie, he is kind of like frodo, so that is nice to have another dog.

Am trying to get myself organised for my interviews with the agencies next week. so today i bought a nice top and some black trousers so i can look respectable for my interviews. I looked up where to go and it shouldn't be too hard to train into london and then underground to the relevant stations. i will once again have to catch public transport.

not much more to add... sorry, again no photos, but i will get there eventually... i promise!
love ya
deev

St Petersburg

Well, today is our team day off... It is great, raining... but we are having a good time. The others are buying lots of presents, but i thought i would write, because I am not coming home soon so buying presents would be hard to do. But don't worry, i plan on coming back to Russia when I am in England to explore a bit more.

Now, about the camp. We have 350 kids in the camp, the first few days was spent getting to know them, and then 100 went home and 100 more came (had a change over) so the next few days were spent getting to know the new lot. They are soooo beautiful. We had to do a program with them about choices and healthy teeth. We were able to link the gospel into those lessons. Some kids were very responsive and some wanted to know more, others are very interested in Australia and some not in anything at all. I am having a great time here and God is blessing us through letting us spend extra time with the kids, and giving us lots of additional things that we had left behind (gospel beads from another group who has just left another camp)

our normal day consists of wake up 8:00am, devotions at 8:30, breakfast at 9:30, some time to prepare and then we usually have 2 groups for an hour each, lunch at 2:00, then sleep, snack at 5, two more groups for an hour, dinner at 7:40 and then free time to play sports with kids, talk to them, paint their nails, do their hair, etc etc. they go to bed at about 10ish and we then go for a walk and bed sometime around midnight for us. pretty good routine.

I don't know when i''ll be back at the internet, but just wanted a quick word with how stuff is going, oh and the food isn't nearly as bad as i was prepared for.... praise God.

love you all,
deev
p.s. can't work out how to post photos on this computer, so they will most likely come when i am in the UK!

Singapore

Well, here I am in Singapore, just realised how disorganised I am. Want food, no money, so have to go and change some money to get food... i'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. Free internet and a bit of free time, so thought i would update you all. the guards here carry guns (foreign experience for me)

Flights so far have been good... watched movies, slept heaps, eaten chatted to people, not really done much else, but that is cool.

Am feeling very distant. i now have a something like 12 hrs from Singapore to Helsinki with 1 hr stop in Bangkok and then not long till at Unost Camp in Russia, that is very exciting. Can't wait to meet up with my team and meet the kids and all that stuff in Russia.

can't think of anything else to write, feel free to e-mail me... miss you all, love you all.
right next to a jazz lounge singing priscilla... pretty cool
anyways...
until next time...

3 sleeps to go...

well, that is if i sleep... am very excited, and not yet packed. And there is still so much to do. Is a bit overwhelming really. Am packing my life into two boxes, one for Russia and one that I will meet in England. Not entirely sure what to take, but that doesn't really matter, i spose i can always get more stuff overseas or if not, get my parents to send it over (never know when you really need your favourite teddy or a packet of TimTams).

sorry, no photos this time, but I am having a blast wrapping up my adventures for the time being in Sydney. I'll be back, i love the beach too much. Will miss everyone, but come visit me, or i'll see you upon my return.

love ya

Hello World

This isn't Deev. This is Murray writing. I hacked into Deev's blog for sheer lack of content. Maybe she'll write something soon. Who knows. Might even be interesting too.

preparing to leave...

Well, only a week to go now, and it is getting exciting and quite scary. thanks to all you guys who came to my farewell last night, i had a blast (and hope you did too).

this is my blog site for my adventures over the next little while, so feel free to look it up from time to time for updates (slightly easier than me e-mailing you all ALL the time and doesn't clog up your inboxes!)

love youse all,
and a big deev hug,
deev
=)