Nicola's July news!

Dear my Awesome Friends,

I thought it was time for another news update.

On the 3rd of July I was feeling quite tired but it was such a beautiful day that that I wanted to sit on the beach with a book but when I got ready to go outside it turned cloudy. Funny how things always happen like that. I love just sitting and relaxing for a while. My life is very on the go so any moment I get to stop and chill is really precious to me.

I found this video and I really love this song, they sing it at my church and this video is great because it also shares some awesome bible verses with you. I'm a music fanatic, I have such an appreciation for music and I'm always listening to music, most of you know that already ;)!



On the 4th I actually did go and sit on the beach with a good book in shorts and a t-shirt. It was so awesome sitting in the sun. I did that after departure day (where most of the guests leave the hotel so we have to clean the rooms from top to bottom, extremely busy day for housekeepers). After departure day I also hoovered the staff corridor and cleaned my room. I was saying a day like that is only with God's help how I still had energy to do everything. I wrote a new poem on this day too called "God's got an Awesome plan for you." I've already posted it on my blog if you look in my earlier blog posts.

I also wrote a poem called "The gift of friendship" which is in my notes on facebook. I'm really loving writing, to me there is no better feeling. I love creating new things. That's why I have so many different online accounts for writing and videos and quotes and all sorts. I'm always coming up with ideas for things. I'm one those people whose mind is always on the go and sometimes I can be somewhere but my mind will be somewhere else thinking about a new idea or something I want to do.

On the 7th of July, so amazing it happened on the 7th because so many things in my life have happened with 7's. You will notice my twitter and youtube are nicolahill7. For the reason that 7's keep happening to me. I finally realised what I want to do with my life, there is something I really want to pursue but I will let you know once I've pursued it. It was always in the back of my mind but I decided that I'd love to do it.

I found another amazing Christian song by Casting Crowns, they're really amazing artists, you should check them out if you have never heard them before.



I decided on the 7th I also want to do some travelling. I already have travelling plans for all over that I will be doing when I get some time off. And there is a good chance I am getting time off very soon :).

This is England's FAIL of Fanta. Well maybe to the English this is great because it's the only Fanta they've known. It just made me smile when I saw it in the kitchen the other day because it reminded me of when I took my sister to Nandos when she was here and we both got Fanta (it was my first fanta in England) and we were thinking what is that? Because it was so different to what we were used to. Aw I miss my sister so much, if you haven't met her, you've missed out because she's awesome :) she can make me laugh so much.



I thought I should post our REAL Fanta below so here is the African Fanta!



I can tell you must really love my blog updates. There is always interesting things like my fanta news etc. Anyway moving on from fanta... lol

On the 9th of July I wacked myself in the mouth with my hoover plug, yes it was very painful and I was putting ice in my mouth. I saw the humour in it later and found it quite funny. Of course these things are never funny at the time. If you know me, you'll know that I hurt myself almost on a daily basis so don't worry. I'm a bit of walking disaster. Ok maybe more than a bit - I am a walking disaster.

Friendship is a very special thing and I'm grateful for the true friends that I do have. I love making friends with people and I think you can never have enough friends because there are so many people out there in the world and you'll always have room for one more.

On the 10th of July I got to go to Church and it was an amazing service and about creation and a dedication for a special baby girl. I won't say more because I filmed the beginning of it and you can see. My friend wrote and sang that song "Arise." The full service will be online later and I'll post it on my facebook. Here it is:



After church I went for coffee with a new friend which was great. At my favourite coffee place - Starbucks.

I love this quote: Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. ~ Oprah Winfrey.

I was thinking of my old job the other day at a shipping/freight company in South Africa and thinking how different it was to working in a hotel. And some memories flooded back of when I was locked in container to see what the inside was like and when we locked my assistant in a container when she was new. I did cotton exports overseas. I love good memories. I had some really good times there.

I got two great bits of news on Wednesday the 13th. See whoever said the 13th was unlucky was wrong. One was to do with my love of computers and the other was to do with my love of travelling.

This is the Welcome video for my church, to give you an idea of what we're all about. You can see we do everything together like a church family.



On Friday I went to Exeter to meet a friend for coffee and we were walking and you won't believe what we stumbled across..... HOGWARTS! Here is the picture.



Ok yes I know what all my Harry Potter fan friends will say -> that's not the real Hogwarts but it reminded my friend of Hogwarts and after walking past it to church so often I though that day it does actually look a lot like Hogwarts. The new Harry Potter movie is actually out now and I really want to see it. I wonder if any of my friends this side are Harry Potter fans. I was also told something interesting when I posted that photo on facebook. J.K.Rowling went to school in Exeter so there is a chance she could have got the inspiration for Hogwarts from that building. I may not be far off afterall.

I posted a picture of a mudhudhudhu on facebook and said it was mine. Yes that's right I just said it was mine, I saw it as I was walking on the street lol. I wouldn't buy a mudhudhudhu, I'll stick to cars thank you very much.

Yes I know my non-Shona speaking friends are probably wondering what a mudhudhudhu aside from being a very interesting long word. It means - motorbike.

Today I was having quite a bad day from feeling very sick to other things that were bothering me too but suddenly everything just got better and better. So I said on facebook "WOW! God is so good :)! He can turn any day around! :D." Thank God for today because I needed that.

It's been a long 3 weeks I've been working almost full time with only a couple nights off a week. Although I am getting my normal days off this week which is excellent because I really need the rest :)! I think you can probably tell I've been really busy because of my lack of online updating all my profiles. If I am not online I must be busy HAHA! I will try catch up with you guys soon! Work is full up at the moment and I'm just trying to get through the weeks because I've been sick as well but I am good and happy with my life :). I love my friends, my church and my life in the Uk.

On the 1st week of August we have Folk Week which is a huge festival in Sidmouth and it's all week long. If you're near here, I suggest you come visit because it's going to be awesome :). From what I've heard.

May you all have had an amazing Sunday and I hope you have a fantastic week ahead. Tomorrow is double departure day for me and I need to catch up on sleep so I may reply any messages and things on Tuesday or later on in the week if you send me something tomorrow or if you've sent me something already.

God bless and love you guys,
Nicola

Boom! More news! June - Beginning of July

Dear Friends and Family.

This post is written to you from my STUDIO - I am only joking I don't even have a studio. This is where I got that from, it was so funny!



On the 19th of June I was sitting on the beach and I was amused by the sight I saw because I live near a pebble beach but the tide had washed all the pebbles away and the beach was sandy for a change and I took a picture.



Here is a bible quotes:

Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me; that I am the LORD who practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the LORD." ~ Jeremiah 9: 23-24

On the 19th of June my days off were changing from Wednesday, Thursday to Thursday, Friday which actually worked out perfectly for me.

I'm always finding new music because I absolutely love music and here are some new singers I have found, well they have probably been around a while but they are new to me.



I created a facebook page last month for Sayings of the Day which is my twitter for quotes and sayings. I also post the original sayings on there that my grandmother translated from Greek calendars. The reason I originally created @sayingsoftheday on twitter was because I wanted to have somewhere to post the quotes my grandmother gave me and now a few years later sayings of the day now has quite a few followers and I post all sorts of quotes I like on it now.

On the 20th of June I decided it was my break from facebook time because I found I wanted to do a lot of things and facebook was taking up a lot of my time and so I took a break from facebook for a few days.

I found another great singer and I've already bought this song and I have it on my ipod too ;)!



And this is one of my favourite singers and I loved the guitar playing in this.



On the 24th of June, like most nights, I went up to the kitchen after I'd had my dinner to get a cup of tea and two of my friends were there. And I heard this noise in the sink and I got a bit of a fright because it was unexpected and I asked my friends and they said "it's a ghost go look" and I didn't want to look, I thought it may be a rat or something but after all that it turned out to be a big fish the boys had caught fishing earlier. It was really funny after, imagine you just walk in to the kitchen and there is this noise coming from the sink :O. So now I keep my eyes peeled everytime I go in to the kitchen for tea, lol actually not really but you've got to be careful haha.

You may notice on my facebook profile that it has Pineapple on my name too and no it is not because I love pineapples, I do like pineapples but that is not the reason. It's because one of my friends tagged us all as a fruit and I was chosen to be a pineapple and that picture turned out to have over 100 comments so all our facebook notifications went crazy lol.

It was one of my friends birthday's at the hotel on the 23rd of June and he had a braai/ barbecue on the beach with the staff and so I went straight there after I got back from our Touch 11 rehearsal in Exeter and here are some pics lol.





On the 24th of June I went with friends from my church and went to watch my church football team The River Spartans playing against another church. They did really well and it was an exciting game. I usually don't get Friday nights off so I didn't get to see any of their other matches but I made the final one lol. It bucketed with rain after the match but I had my umbrella ;)! It was a really good night!

Here is a pic of me at the football with my umbrella lol:



I was very appreciative of the perks of living in a hotel because after a night when I was tired and didn't feel like making anything, I came back and helped myself to a full meal that was prepared for me.

Here is another amazing singer I found - Love this song!!!!!!



On the 26th of June I finally wrote my 1st poem after almost 2 years. I love poetry and I have written over 50 poems. I started off writing by writing poems. My poetry cane in to being when I was 13 and I have written many poems over the years since then. It was wonderful to be writing poems again. If you want to see my poems I have written, look to the right of my blog you will see a link to my Tumblr where I post all my writing.

Around about the 26th I was also thinking about what my plans are and if they are to stay in the Uk or travel elsewhere or what I want to do with my life. I am happy and do feel at home and settled here so I may stay here but do some travelling around the world. In fact as of last week I have something special planned for next year but I won't say anymore until later ;)!

I loved this quote from one of my favourite singers "It's easy to give up and find the easy way out. but you'll never be truly happy unless you hold on and give it your all. persistence. ;)" - Veronica Ballestrini. It inspired me to write a poem called Persistence which you will see on my writing blog. So far I have written three poems on there.

On the 28th of June the bus overheated on my way back from Exeter so we had to wait for a rescue bus. It doesn't happen often, that was only the 2nd time it happened since I have been using the buses in the Uk and I still made it to work on time.

On the 29th of June I got a full refund off the ticket I had to buy for my sister to let her fly (it was a big flight issue) and as the bible says, "Ask and you shall receive."

I liked this song by Natalie Grant:



On the 30th of June one of my friends at the hotel had his farewell at our local pub with some of the staff because he was leaving in 2 days. Here is a pic of him and I:



On the 1st and 2nd of July was Touch 11! Our Woman In Touch conference at my church. I will post a separate blog post for this event later because there is so much to update.

Hope you enjoyed reading my news and it's always great to hear your news too,
Love and God Bless,
Nicola

God has got an Awesome plan for YOU

I was sitting on the beach today reading Leaving by Karen Kingsbury and I found these two quotes in the book.
Commit your plans to the Lord and they will succeed
And:
God never said life would be easy. The purpose in living isn't about our personal happiness... it's about serving God.
Before I headed out to the beach I felt that moment of inspiration I get when I feel like writing something and after I read those quotes I began to write a poem and here it is :).

God has got an Awesome plan for you

As I sit staring out to sea,
I look at my life now and where God has placed me.
I look back at the time last year when I wasn't sure about this place,
And now I am still here, happy and settled by God's grace.

If God brought me through,
How much more can He do for you?
Sometimes you can't see God's surprise,
Because you have closed your eyes.

When I let God in
My eyes were finally open,
And I saw that once you believe
That is when you will receive.

When I was lost and life felt strange,
I let God back in to my life and He helped me make a change.
So when life is difficult and you feel blue,
Remember that God has got an awesome plan for you.

Written by Nicola Hill (04/07.2011)