Favourite Place

portstewart

Sorry for the lack of postage recently, finding wi-fi has been nigh impossible! Had a great few days back in Ireland – saw the most beautiful sunset from the plane on the flight on Wednesday evening. Great fun meeting some bloggers and other new friends, good conversations too.

Spent Friday in Portstewart, my favourite place on earth, just chilling out. Took some pictures on my new camera, drank some coffee in a great coffee shop, read a book, watched the ocean for ages. Pictures will be up on my Flickr soon.

me

Today

These last few days feel like they have been a bit eclectic, heres a run-down:

Catch up with some friends on Monday;
Housegroup on Tuesday evening;
Trying to finish off some work now before catching my flight back to Ireland;
Pick up my new camera tonight (!!!!);
Soliton Belfast Sessions tomorrow;
Rest day in Portstewart (my favourite place on the planet) on Friday (thats the plan!);
Soliton North Coast Sessions Fri – Sun.

How’s that for excitement! Of course, been fitting uni and some work in around that!

The Last King of Scotland

On Friday past I saw The Last King of Scotland at the cinema. An incredibly hard film to watch!

The Last King of Scotland

“Garrigan’s seduced, as are we, initially, by Amin’s charisma and charm, and only gradually does he become skeptical and eventually horrified as he realizes he’s the intimate of a ferocious dictator who, estimates say, killed off 300,000 of his citizens…”
[IMDB]

The thing I really liked about the film is that it doesn’t resolve. Amin is portrayed not simply as a crazed dictator, but as a human… a very brave and difficult thing to do. We like things to resolve, but the truth is, so often issues just aren’t so black and white… we can’t resolve them.

If you haven’t seen it, I’d recommend it. It is an incredibly well-made film, and it is interesting to watch the progression of Uganda from chanting supporters to horrified victims of a dictator.

Idi Amin: A man who shows fear… he is weak, and he is a slave.
Nicholas Garrigan: If you’re afraid of death… it just shows you have a life worth keeping.

Watch the trailer here.

Newcastle / Durham / Friends

What a weekend!

I had a blast hanging out with some friends in Newcastle and Durham over the weekend. Got to spend time with one I know a bit, get to know someone I’ve only met a few times a bit more, and meet a new friend I’ve heard lots about, but never met. Much fun! We just dandered around Newcastle on Saturday afternoon, pretty place.

baltic mill

[Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art]

statue

[A random statue in Newcastle… there was a lot of stuff like this, appears to be a rather artsy place!]

I stayed in Durham on Saturday evening with the girl I’d just met that day. Durham really reminded me of Edinburgh to be honest! Lots of little winding streets and old architecture. We spent some time in prayer that night, which was intense, but can’t be shared here! If you really want to know, drop me an email and maybe I’ll share some more.

Sunday morning we went to my friends church in Newcastle, City Church. I really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it… it has a really nice family feel to it, a range of age groups. After having some lunch and coffee, we got the train back up to Glasgow. Journey takes about 2 and a half hours. From Central station we headed straight out to a church on the southside of Glasgow to chat with their youth pastor.

starbucks quality

[We ended up in Starbucks for coffee, despite my not liking it… This sign amused me… “To protect the quality of our coffee, we ask you not to smoke.”]

When I finally made it back into my flat and dumped my stuff (rucksack, sleeping bag et al), I realised just how shattered I was!

Snapshots

Thought I would share a few snapshots from the last few days…

perfect cup

Jenni had a few of us over for some tea and Scrabble playing on Wed past, had a blast hanging out and having a laugh together. I had this cup… amused me to no end! “I know I’m not perfect, but I’m so close it scares me.”

church tower

I passed this church out walking recently, and loved how the sun was glinting off it. The image doesn’t show it very well as it’s off my camera phone, but I’m gonna head back down past it with my proper camera some day soon and take some pictures.

flat dinner

flat dinner

On Saturday we had dinner together as a flat, as one of our flatmates was leaving. We cooked a proper roast dinner, it was immense! Loved it. Thought you’d like to see some pics!

How was your week?

“You Had Me At Scrolling”

“Hi. My name’s Emma, and I’m a techno-addict.”

I want one of these so much! I finally got to watch the Macworld Keynote last night… with a little help from my friends! I had tried downloading it a few times at my flat in halls, but the network either blocked it or timed out about 30mins in, so frustrating. Then my lovely friends from housegroup offered to download it for me at their flat, and I picked it up yesterday. Huge thanks guys!

Oh my. How amazing is this phone?! Even if you ignore the fact that I’m an Apple fan and a techno-geek, on a purely technological level this phone is stunning. It’s made so many breakthroughs.

I really want one when it’s released here, but I can’t afford one.

Someday…

ORIGINAL:

iphone

Introducing: Apple iPhone