Tag Archives: London

Graduations & Celebrations!!

Sarah’s Graduation

So proud of my lovely wife Sarah on her graduation! Despite major difficulties following her latest eye operation, she managed to earn a “distinction“. Congratulations, it was a lovely evening! 🙂

Me stood on Sarah's right in my suit with Sarah's beautiful smile next to me

 ⇧ Sarah & i on way to the graduation ceremony ⇧ 

The graduation ceremony took place from 6-9pm on Thursday 6th November at Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London, celebrating the excellence of the class of 2013/14 from the IOF Academy.

Sarah s Graduation ceremony with everyone on stage

⇧ Graduates of the Certificate in Fundraising ⇧ 

 Sarah’s Dads 70th Birthday Party

Sarah & i had a fantastic weekend in Doncaster celebrating Sarah’s dad’s 70th Birthday! They had a huge party with amazing food (thanks Amanda) and we were entertained by a wide range of fantastic musicians!

Also thanks Madeleine (my sister in law) for asking me to acompany your stunning voice. it made my night! It was an honour to play on Sarah’s Dads new electro acoustic through his sweet PA system!

Sarah's dad playing guitar in front of 70th birthday banners

⇧ Sarah’s dad performing for us with his new acoustic guitar ⇧ 

Me sat playing Alfies new guitar

⇧ Me playing on Alfie’s new acoustic guitar ⇧ 

Marshall always connected on his phone

Marshall (my brother in law) is always connected ⇧

a close up portrait of Alfie

Alfie (my brother in law) ⇧ 

Update #1 On ‘Join Me In Prayer For Sarah’

Riding The Wave Of Prayers

 First i have to thank all of you amazing loving people for the show of extravagant love to me and Sarah. We’ve been simply overwhelmed with your prayers, kindness and love through this journey.

The Plan…

The plan was set. Go to the chemist to get pain killers (Sarah is not allowed d to leave the house for a few days), nip into the doctors to sort out a sick note for the next two weeks, then go for a [Cortado’ coffee at Costa at the train station with half an hour to enjoy our new fave coffee (mainly keep Sarah as relaxed as possible), then Sarah can put her last eye drops in before we catch the 11:04 train that will get us to Kings College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London ready for the operation. 

The Hypo…

This was all going well up until Sarah had locked herself in the toilet by passing out with a hypo. The idea was that she went in to put in her eye drops as we still had 15 minutes until the train arrives (the platform is about 1 minute away from the coffee shop. As i was stood outside the door while staff kept walking past suspicious of the weird man lurking around the toilets. With 5 minutes left i knocked on the door, with the sound of the music and the coffee machines i could just make out what i thought was Sarah. Then as i realised too much time had passed and we’d missed our train i asked one of the passing staff if they could open the door as i think my wife is having a hypo. Sarah had know her blood was creeping down and she had a biscuit and sugar in her coffee but she felt and seemed ok.

I opened the door to find Sarah in a zombie like state (the only description i can find that closely resembles a hypo) not knowing where she was, what she was doing or where we were going! I’d like to state at this point that we only really had one must do for this morning, and that was to try and keep Sarah’s blood sugar stable as they won’t operate if it’s too high, low or on the move. I prayed:

“Jesus, There is no way they can operate now, i did my best but i don’t know if there’s another train, if Sarah can even stand up, never mind walk,  and Sarah’s blood sugar always ends up too high after a hypo and we always have a long struggle getting it back down. i hand it all to you, please help”.

I got Sarah to her feet and she could just about stand up without her knees giving way. We managed to leave the coffee shop and after catching Sarah from behind as she started to fall back down the platform steps (i was behind trying to push her up) we finally got to the platform. This is where Sarah normally guides me as she knows the trains. Usually the trains are announced, but today there were none, but a train arrived straight away and we got on anyway. I told Sarah to just sleep on my shoulder and hope that this train is going the right way! The inside train announcement only said which station it was pulling up to and not the stations of the full journey. 

Sarah woke and asked “where are we?” “I’m not sure, but i hope it stops at Clapham Junction”. Then a few minutes later we arrived at Clapham Junction. We then walked to the other platform and a train was waiting there too. We finally arrived at the day surgery unit a couple of minutes before the 12:30 appointment.

Sarah did a blood test and it was 8.6 which is really good for her, but we knew that it often goes into the 20’s after a hypo and there’s no way they’ll operate if it goes any higher or continues to rise. Sarah went in around 13:00 but there were 4 people before her, I stayed in the waiting room.

The Waiting Room

I wanted to update everyone but i’d never used the mobile WordPress app to post before, so i kept the post “Praying in waiting room for Sarah” short so i could begin praying. I started with my voiceover reading all of your prayers, i prayed through each comment individually about 2 times each from the 1st post “Please Join Me In Prayer For Sarah” then i had about an hour of personal prayer before loving sister Janet would arrive to drive us home.

The Operation

Sarah’s op happened around 16:30, her blood sugar stayed perfectly stable at 6.8 the whole time! (Amazing!) Her main worry was the really painful needle that she sees going into her eye and it feels like her eyeball is bursting out of her face! I need to quote Sarah at this point:

“I felt a real peace i’d not felt before, i knew everyone was praying for me and i knew God was with me the whole time. I felt no pain at all with the needle and the surgeon was surprised how well the operation went. I also heard him say:

‘There are always bubbles in this (not sure what he was talking about) always bubbles, but there aren’t any at all, i can’t explain it?!’ 

The Next Morning

I’m typing this post Saturday morning  at 11am while Sarah is sleeping. I’d like to thank you all once again for giving time in prayer and the loving encouraging comments that helped us through this amazing journey (and still help us as we read back through them). I’ll update again soon.

Sarah said to me this morning:

I felt like the whole day you had your arms around me, and God had his arms around both of us!

Reprogramming

📖 Verse 4 2day! 

Romans 12:2
New International Version (NIV)
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

My Thoughts 💭 

I have had a real impression on my heart to focus on the pollution that goes into my body through the filter called my face.

Travelling into London on the train I felt a real conviction to listen to what God was trying to tell me in that moment. As I was stood up and squashed into the carrage, I could just make out a few people intently reading books, magazines and newspapers and I thought about their brains as the most advanced computer on the planet and how they were programming it with the computer language from the stories they were reading. My thought process continued and as wondered how that code would affect their behaviour when they left the train to meet people,

Reprogramming….

On my iMac (desktop computer) there is an app called Terminal, if you type in a simple piece of code it can change the way the iMac responds, reacts and behaves for the rest of its life, or until you remove that piece of coding.

Billions of pounds (maybe more) are spent trying to protect and secure ourselves when using a computer, smart phone, tablet etc, yet we fail to protect ourselves from this creeping death that we choose to let into our immeasurably more advanced brains as we watch TV, listen to music, audiobooks, Read magazines, listen to gossip etc we’re failing to empty our own trash and also stop more from seeping in and reprogramming our brains and hearts!

So…how is your programming doing? Are you using “wholesome” or “Worldly” code?

Are you aware of the code you use and how it affects your life and the people around you?

Or do you wear a face filter?

📖 Another Verse 4 2day! 

Philippians 4:8-9

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

 

Not afraid to die

 

This song came to me as I was with Sarah at another Eric Bibb concert, we were sat very high up in the eaves of Cadogan Hall and I felt a sudden sense of danger. I pictured the whole place collapsing and I was trapped under all of the seats etc.

 

When we got home I picked up my acoustic guitar and this song (lyrics & chords) just came straight out. I havn’t edited it since and this happened around 2005. 


Not afraid to die

Music & Lyrics by Steve Rebus

 

Verse 1 G, D/F#, A Asus

On that fateful night

In Cadohan Hall

Eric Bibb’s Blues filling wall to wall.

 

Verse 2

A big explosion

And you were scared

But I was the one trapped beneath the stairs

 

(Chorus) Dsus, G, D/F#, G, A

Please save yourself, before it’s too late

Please save yourself, but don’t you cry

Because I got the Lord in my heart…..I’m not afraid to die

 

Verse 3

You let go of my hand

With tears on your face

The look in your eyes, as you left this place

 

Verse 4

I can feel the heat

Of the flames on my skin

The creak from the roof as it finally caved in

 

(Chorus)

Please save yourself, before it’s too late

Please save yourself, but don’t you cry

Because I got the Lord in my heart…..I’m not afraid to die

 

Solo

 

Verse 5

Remember me

And the life we had

Share your smile and never be sad

 

(Chorus)

Please save yourself, before it’s too late

Please save yourself, but don’t you cry

Because I got the Lord in my heart…..I’m not afraid to die

When you’ve got the Lord in your heart…..don’t be afraid to die

 

© Steve Rebus

 

I am not sure if this is an outpouring of my love for Sarah and how I would die for her, or if its trying to show how much inner peace I feel now I follow Jesus, maybe its both?!

 

Please comment and let me know your thoughts! 😀

 

 

More songs:

The Prodigal Son

Captivity of Negativity

 

 

London Eye & Big Ben

London eye 7

The London Eye 2

London Eye 6

The London Eye

Beg Ben

Description

I have been on the London Eye a couple of times and it has rained both times! lol 😀 

The London Eye is a giant Ferris wheel situated on the banks of the River Thames in LondonEngland. The entire structure is 135 metres (443 ft) tall and the wheel has a diameter of 120 metres (394 ft).

It is the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe, and the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom, visited by over 3.5 million people annually.[5] When erected in 1999 it was the tallest Ferris wheel in the world…..read moe

 

Camera usedSONY Alpha a100

 

Leith Hill Tower

A landscape shot of the Leith hill tower in the centre

A framatic black and white photo looking upwards of the tower from the outside

A black and white photo of a Squirrel eating from the right side profile

Description

On the summit of Leith Hill is an 18th century Gothic tower, with panoramic views northwards to London and the English Channel to the south. Richard Hull of nearby Leith Hill Place built “Prospect House” in the years 1765 to 1766, later to become known as Leith Hill Tower, with the intention of raising the hill above 1,000 ft (305 m) above sea level. The tower is 19.5 metres (64 ft) high and consisted of two rooms “neatly furnished”, with a Latininscription above the door announcing that it had been built for not only his own pleasure, but also for the enjoyment of others. Hull provided visitors with prospect glasses, similar to a small telescope, through which to survey the extensive views towards London and theEnglish Channel, each some 25 miles (40 km) away, and thirteen counties on a very clear day….read more….

 Camera usedSONY Alpha a100

Related Posts:

 

Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace 1

Hampton Court Palace 2

Hampton Court Palace Secret Garden

Hampton Court Palace 3

Description

Photos taken on my one and only trip to Hampton Court Palace (a few years ago now!) 😀

Hampton Court Palace is a royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon ThamesGreater London, and the historic county of Middlesex; it has not been inhabited by the British Royal Family since the 18th century. The palace is located 11.7 miles (18.8 kilometres) south west of Charing Cross and upstream of central London on the River Thames. It was originally built for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, a favourite of King Henry VIII, circa 1514; in 1529, as Wolsey fell from favour, the palace was passed to the King, who enlarged it……read more

 

Camera usedFuji F10

 

Epsom Clock Tower

 

Epsom Clock Tower

Epsom Clock Twoer 2

 

Description

I took this photo whilst walking around the market place in Epsom, Surrey.

Epsom Clock Tower was built in 1847, replacing the watchhouse which stood from the 17th century, and was built to 70 feet of red and suffolk brick, with heraldic lions of Caen Stone at the four corners of the tower base. A bell was added in 1867. By 1902 the lions had been replaced by lanterns, (which were replaced by the current globe lights in 1920) and the toilet buildings added either side of the tower..read more…

 

Camera usedSONY Alpha a100



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