Now time to tell you what my BIG news was :)

Dear people who read my blog, I'm just kidding, Dear all you wonderful people in my life.

I have mentioned in previous blog posts that I had the best news to tell you. Well now I can safely tell you seeing as the event has happened. My younger sister who's 20 arrived in the Uk on Monday the 23rd last week :)))! She decided to come and work here for a few months. It's very nice to have her with me. It was amazing last month when she told me on my birthday that she'd decided to come to the Uk, I did not expect it at all. So there you go for those of you who didn't know already as I did tell quite a few people I saw because well I couldn't keep that kind of news in haha.

Bible verse I was reading:
Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity which are not fitting but instead let there be thanksgiving. Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure man or one who is covetous (that is, an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. ~Ephesians 5:4-7

‎"besides all these; taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication." ~ Ephesians 6: 16-18

On the 13th of May one of our bus coaches at the hotel was arriving late so I was told I was only going to start the dining room shift at 8pm but it turned out they weren't arriving until 11pm so I got the night off. Also on the 13th of May I found out you can update your facebook status via the new Skype. For those of you that don't know, actually I think most of you know by now that I am on facebook a lot but not because I am killing time or to play games or to look at photos, I'm on there to keep in touch with my friends and family around the world. I have a big thing about connecting with people and keeping in touch and facebook is a great way to do that. I even get notifications on facebook sent to my phone so sometimes I am not even on facebook and I reply quickly because I get it as a message so it may look like I am always online. I also facebook chat on my phone so if I'm showing online and I don't reply it's most likely because I have left it online on my phone and I left my phone in my room or it's on silent. Maybe I should work for facebook one day lol. Ok moving on from facebook....

When I read my bible I post some of the verses that stand out to me on facebook. Here is one.
So, whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all with the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31

I watched Aquamarine and this is what I said about it on facebook; "watching Aquamarine and the mermaid starts crying when the two girls said they love her and she says, "I didn't know you leak when you are happy too." LOL :). And before when she is crying because the guy didn't say he loved her and he asked why she was crying because they'd only been on one date and she said "apparently it's something I do." Hahahaha she'd never cried before coming on land."

I have a big sense of humour for those of you that don't know, I am always laughing even if it is at myself. I find almost anything funny. I love to laugh and sometimes when I am laughing I find it hard to stop hahaha. I remember a teacher saying to me in high school something like, "Nicola you're always smiling, how is someone happy all the time." Well I am a smiley laughing person generally, I do get days when I get down but I always manage to pick myself up. It reminds me of part of the lyrics for a song "I get knocked down but I get up again, you're never going to keep me down." I think life is too short to be miserable but having said that I only learnt things through my experiences, a lot of things I went through got me to where I am today. And right now this is where I am supposed to be and I've never been happier. I know Gods got a plan for me as he does for all of us and whatever the future brings that'll come in good time but for now in this moment is where I will be happy and where I should be.

I don't know if any of you have watched Eurovision which is a European singing contest with singers from all the European countries. I watched it last year and I caught a bit of it this year. Here is the song from the winners from Azerbaijan. I had to google Azerbaijan because I'd never heard of it before lol. They were really good :)! And Greece's rapping was funny haha!



I got the morning off on Monday the 16th of May because I had to work on my off day on the Thursday and it was actually really good timing because I needed the rest. I love how things happen like that and how God works in your life.

On the 15th of May it was 1 week until my sister arrived in the Uk :)! I think people were wondering what my counting down was because I counted down everyday from one week.

On the 16th of May I just randomly decided to go to Exeter and so I got my things together and went 5 mins later lol. I like spontaneous decisions sometimes.

We always experience problems and it's not that I haven't experienced problems this year that makes this year different, what makes it different is your attitude towards your problems. No problem is too big for God.

God always finds me the right scripture when I need it.
When one of you has a grievance against a brother, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Do you not know the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? ~1 Corinthians 6:1-3. Love how when you need it you find the right scripture, thank God ♥ :)

This is my favourite song from a really brilliant Christian movie - Fireproof, brilliant movie, brilliant song!



Another song I like:




I went for a run on the beach with a friend on the 20th of May, I will get back in to my running. I couldn't run for a long time because of my ankle but it has healed and have never felt better :)!

My younger sister turned 20 on the 21st of May :))) wow no longer a teenager anymore but she will always be my younger sister ;)! They said the world was going to end on her birthday, well the world is still here.

Verses I like.

Luke 6:20-23 "Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. "Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. "Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. "Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name in evil, on account of the Son of man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

Something quite true. We are not perfect but God still loves us, His love for us is unconditional.

Think of it: Jesus is willing to forgive our failures and call us into His service. After all, if only perfect people qualified to serve Him. He wouldn't have anyone to choose from. ~John Stowell

Another bible verse I like.

Hebrews 6: 12. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

My sister arrived on the 23rd of May as a I have mentioned. On the 24th I gave a her a tour of Sidmouth and on the 25th I took her to Exeter for her 1st time.

On Friday afternoon we had a really chilled day and watched a movie because we were both exhausted. And in the evening we went to a couple of pubs in Sidmouth with some of my friends at the hotel. It was my sister's first time in an English pub.

On Saturday she went to Exeter and I was going to go with her but I had to work in the evening.

On Sunday my sister spent the day in Exeter.

Today we had departure day (where most of the guests leave the hotel) and it's always a busy day for housekeeping. I have just finished departure day and I'm looking forward to what the rest of the week has in store :)!

I have taken lots of pictures since my sister arrived which I will put on my blog in another blog post later.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, keep well, and stay tuned for more news,
Love Nicola

For Mother's day 8th of May 2011 - A tribute to my mom, Penny. Love you mom.

In Loving Memory of my mom, Penelope Hill (maiden name - Katsouris) – Born 09/04/1959 – 24/01/1999

Its mother’s day and I thought I would write something about my mom, Penny. My mom was born in Kwekwe on the 9th of April 1959. She sadly passed away on the 24th of January 1999 of Malaria.

Some of you may remember my mom, for those of you that never met her; I learnt a lot from my mother. She was a very happy person; she almost always had a smile on her face. She was intelligent; she got a lot of A’s and was head girl (I can’t remember if it was in junior school or high school) and she was also wise. She had such a love for people; she cared deeply about her friends and family and not just her friends and family but all people. She always wanted to help and do things for other people. She lived her life doing what she could to help others. She had an amazing faith in God and together with my dad they and brought up my sister Christina and I up as Christians. My mom was the kind of person who would walk in to a room and the whole room would light up because she had such a wonderful way about her.

I remember her flower arranging in our garden with our gardener in Zimbabwe. She had a talent for flower arranging and she’d do flowers for weddings and functions and our church events. My grandmother could also flower arrange really well and I’m not sure she may have even taught my mom how to do it. I remember picking a few flowers and attempting to flower arrange too. I remember my gardener who was with us all our time in Zimbabwe and he said something along the lines of my mother was really special and taught him to flower arrange and he never forgot it and he even started his own flower arranging and sold a few.

One thing I’ll never forget is her laugh; she had such a beautiful laugh that just makes you want to smile. In one of our family videos you hear her laugh when a baboon had come on our houseboat in Kariba and my grandparents were the only ones on the boat because we had been out fishing and you just hear my mom laughing.

I copied and pasted what some people have said and what I have said about her (on her group I created in memory of her on facebook) to show the kind person she was and it says it best. Here they are below.

“Your mom was someone who warmed the lives of everyone around her - touched the hearts and souls of many. She was the most unselfish, kind, warm and beautiful human being. Always had time for everyone. She was a special friend and I will always cherish the memories of the times we spent together. She will always remain in our hearts.”

“Your Mom was beautiful, both inside and out. My Dad still remembers what a lovely child she was and smiles when her name is mentioned, even after all these years.”

“I remember your mom so well she was very special.”

“Your mom touched so many lives, she was always giving.”

“Your mom was such a special person and a role model to all of us.”

“Your Mom was the most amazing & loving friend and I was so blessed to have her in my life - such a privilege. She was so filled with God's amazing love and touched so many people's lives with her kindness and thoughtfulness. She was such an example. Such a great loss and I miss her greatly and she will never be forgotten.”

“Nicola your Mom was a very special person. She is often in our prayers and thoughts.”

“Precious friend, never forgotten.”

Nicola Hill: “It seems she's touched a lot of lives and left a special impression with a lot of people, I am blessed I had a mom like that.”

Nicola Hill: “She was definitely taken from us too soon but managed to do so much for people in her short time. Yes she will always be in our hearts forever. ”

I think all of that speaks for itself. I was so touched by all the lovely things everyone wrote about my mom. She was a wonderful person all round. What my mom left me was her wonderful example of how to treat people and how every person is important.

Someone wrote this “The best lady to ever walk the earth :).”

And one of her friends wrote this. “She was the best lady to ever walk the earth - what a privilege and blessing it was to be part of her life.”

My mom, along with my grandmother who also did a lot for people showed me the beauty of kindness, the beauty of giving with your whole heart.

It’s not about what you get in this life but it’s about what you give.

My sister and I miss our mom and so do all who knew her. I remember something my sister was telling me about a month ago. She said Nicola I have been thinking about mom a lot recently and she'd been thinking of our mom because my mom’s birthday was coming up on the 9th of April. And this is a quote Christina came up with because my godfather Nick (my mom’s brother) said we are both following in our mom’s footsteps my travelling. ‎"Everything happens for a reason - this one's for you mom :)." ~ Christina Hill (Penny’s younger daughter).

Someone said to me “She was truly amazing, and as I told you, you are just like her.” A lot of the reason I am the way I am today and a lot of the views I have today are from my mom. God brought out the best version of my mom. She was herself; she was who she was meant to me. She didn’t try to copy anyone; she just was the same Penny always. She had incredible faith in God, in people and in herself.

Someone else said to me, “Your mom is looking down on you and I am sure she is beaming with pride.” I think she is looking down on all of us with a big smile on her face.

To the most wonderful person I ever knew, to the most wonderful friend, to the most wonderful mother, I love you, I miss you and I think about you always. Thank God that I had you in my life and in the time you were here, you touched my life and many others because you showed everyone one very special thing, “LOVE.”

Written by Nicola Hill (Penny’s oldest daughter.)

May has arrived! A pinch and a punch for the 1st of the month!

Dear EVERYONE :)!

It's been about a week since my last blog post and the time has come for an update. I do try to update it weekly when I can :)!

So the question is, what did I get up to this week? Aside from my normal mischief not much actually haha. I am only joking. It's been a wonderful week, as most of my weeks are. There is something good that happens each day, even on my bad days there is still something good that happens in them. I like to celebrate each day and laugh and have fun each day because each day of your life is special, each day counts. My last blog post I ended on Tuesday the 26th of April which is a song that I dedicated to all my friends :-).

Now we move on to Wednesay the 27th of April. In the morning we had no water upstairs in the hotel so for housekeeping each of us had to carry a bucket of soapy water to wash our cups hehe and we couldn't flush the toilets so that was um, interesting haha... In the staff quarters we had water but when I showered after the morning shift, the water coming out the tap was brown so needless to say I skipped washing my hair that day. The water was fine by the evening though.

I found an amazing song by Casting Crowns called East to West and it's one of my new favourite songs at the moment and I would like to share it with you. I love music and lyrics and songs. I just feel alive when I listen to music and I love the words, some of the words are really beautiful.



In the afternoon on the 27th I went and sat in the sun on the beach, it was a really lovely day. I sat on the other side of the sea front below the cliffs that tend to have falling rocks and landslides. Actually as you enter this part, there is danger warning sign on the gate and it says beware because the cliffs are unstable and there has been falling rocks, you can see lots of places it's fallen. So there I was sitting in the unstable part risking my life, I am only exaggerating, it is dangerous but not too bad if you stay a bit away from the cliff. And yes I took a picture of the dangerous part.



On Thursday the 28th of April this is part of what happened to me that I wrote on my facebook and twitter. I have copied and pasted:

From my twitter @nicolahill7: knocked over coffee on a bed and had to change the sheets twice, then nearly had a heart attack from a barking dog in a room lol #notmyday, From my facebook: Then one of the toilet seats was broken then someone stole my hoover so I had to use another one. Hahaha but it's actually still been ok just so much happened! And one of my rooms always without a doubt the guests only stay one night so it's a departure every single day :P... Oh and it's a BIG departure day tomorrow :O woo lol...

It was a crazy day but good :) kind of funny when so much happens to you in one day and you can't believe it.

I watched the movie A Beautiful Mind on Thursday too and I love the quote from the movie so much that I have copied and pasted what I wrote on my facebook about it to have a record of it here.

From my facebook (28/04/11): Just watched a Beautiful Mind! Incredible movie! :) Quote from the movie what Nash says to his wife in his noble prize speech: "And I have made the most important discovery of my career, the most important discovery of my life. It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logical reasons can be found. I am only here tonight because of you. You are the reason I am. You are all my reasons... Thank you." ♥

On Friday the 29th of April as you know it was the biggest event in Britain - The Wedding of Prince William and the now Princess Kate. I was working in the morning during the wedding but I did catch some of it. All over England people had put up British flags on the buildings and all over England on that Friday people had street parties. There was even a street party in my town that I went to. Yes I do have pictures of the street party haha. I'm a picture-holic as I am sure those of you who have read my blog before know by now for those of you who didn't know that well it will be obvious as my blog continues.

Here is my friend and I posing in front of the cake they made at the street party. I had never seen so many people here, it was all quiet and then the street party started and there were tables all up the street and people everywhere. It was AWESOME!



And this is the cake that was made for the occasion in my town.



I did take more pics. I have loads more pics of things than I put on my facebook and I will try make collages of my pictures sometime for my blog.

Also on Friday friends of mine welcomed their little baby girl in to the world. I found it quite funny that their little girl was about a week late or more and then she decides to come in to the world on the biggest day for Britain! I think she planned it hehe :)!

So overall it was a fabulous day and on top of it, I was off from lunchtime Friday until Sunday because my days off had changed for this week.

On Saturday, yesterday, woo I am getting closer, I made it to yesterday in my news, anyway yesterday I had the whole day off work. In the afternoon I decided to go to movies in my town because I hadn't been to movies in ages. So in the afternoon I went to our local movie house and watched Hop and Rio. So I watched two movies back to back. Here is a picture of their posters. They are both soooo funny, I totally loved them, so good all in all!



I also made Easter biscuits on Saturday night lol. It was a biscuit making kit that was on sale in the shop because Easter was over so I bought it and designed some biscuits. And yes I took a picture.



Today Sunday on the 1st of May or the 2nd already as I started my blog at just before midnight and I hadn't checked the time at the point of writing this part. I took a picture of the most exciting thing today. Here it is.



I know what you are probably thinking. Did she put up the wrong picture? No actually I did intend to put up that one haha. I am joking about it being the most exciting thing that happened today but I was impressed with my new iron. See my new Iron (on the right in the picture) is bigger than a normal iron and it irons incredibly well. The reason I took this picture and no it's not because I have some strange fascination with irons lol it's because when I took it out the box today I was so impressed with how big it was, it was unexpected and then I put it next to the normal iron in the laundry room to show the size. I was very fortunate on Saturday I got an amazing discount on this iron because otherwise I would never have been able to afford it at this time. I actually went in to the shop to exchange the travel iron that I bought there that didn't work and I ended up finding this deal and getting the best iron. It's amazing how God works in your life. So I took a picture and put it on my facebook haha. And this is the caption that I wrote on the picture on facebook " My new iron I bought (on the right) next to the normal iron. HAHA it's so big it's like a SUPER iron! Let's hope it irons super well! :) Who said my facebook wasn't interesting, talking about irons lol :P." Then I wrote this underneath "Wow! I think I just had the best ironing experience of my life! And I would have never been able to afford the iron if it wasn't for the awesome discount! ... Good thing I am going to work in about 20 mins though before I decided to post any other random bits of information :P." One of my friends then commented and said this "Soon u ll be able to write a book : "How a Iron changed my whole life" :D" HAHAHA. It is my sense of humour by the way in case you are worried about me, I do have a very unique sense of humour, I love to laugh. I replied to my friend and said this "LOL :D!!!! Yes :))) that's a brilliant idea, it will be a best seller ;)! It can iron so well it even makes me look forward to ironing, which is really amazing for me haha." Then my sister commented and said this "Wow Nix, now that's the height of optimism :)" and then I said this " Hahaha oh yes sis :) and I will show you my iron when you come lol... the iron made my day. I am only joking, that's taking it a bit too far hahahaha :P."

So that concludes my Iron story haha. See I was telling it as a bedtime story to you all. I am only joking but the whole thing was just funny.

Speaking of bedtime though I actually better go to bed now, it's close to 1am already and I have to get up early in the morning for work.

I hope you enjoyed reading my news and stay tuned for more stories about the life of Nicola Hill.

I also always love hearing from you, I am big on connecting with people, meeting new people and keeping in touch with people I know. So don't be shy to contact me :)!

Love to you all and Goodnight xoxo