Aberystwyth NightLight Video

Stumpy Ethel Update

Do seagulls moult for the winter?

I hope so because otherwise Stumpy Ethel is looking poorly sick.

Perhaps she’s just missing her baby, Damien?

Out of all the seagulls that I want to die in Aberystwyth, I want Stumpy Ethel to die the least.

Get well soon Stumpy Ethel!
(You can even make a velociraptor sound outside my window at 4am if it makes you feel better)

Facing drama head on

I like to think that I’m pretty calm in a crisis.

I can see members of my family sniggering in the back row right now. I admit, I’m a bit of a drama queen, but I like to imagine that however much I’m screaming with terror inside I can put a brave face on things and get on with it calmly and efficiently.

Being a part of the NightLight team has been great experience for me. We have had to deal with situations, both on the street and off, that I would never have imagined that I would even ever come across, let alone be coordinating.
Dealing with collapsed individuals, giving statements to the police and mopping up minor injuries is par for the course. You expect it because that is why we are there. In a way it’s easier to deal with in that context. We’re out there to do a job and you just work as a team and get on with it.

However, what I still haven’t got used to is that it’s hard for us to turn off from it all. I’ve noticed that off duty care professionals find it difficult not to think about people with a professional mindset and to a certain extent we feel the same way.

I know as Christians we should be looking out for people that need help all the time. I’m not saying that NightLight is the only way that I am willing to serve people and that any other time is my day off…it’s just that I’m more used to what to look out for now. We can now spot the drug users and the trouble makers. It’s easier to sense when people are just having fun and when things are going to kick off. We know the ‘regulars’ and see them around town all the time.

And that’s why when a drunk guy started a fight last Thursday in the early evening in the middle of town, Josh was the only one to step in. Stepping in to break up a fight is always a debatable move, but as the guy calmed down it turned out okay in the end.

But when the drunk man then jumped on top of a moving car and kicked in the windshield, still it was only Josh that actually did anything to help.

The lady in the car was really shaken up, but everything was sorted out and the police were really grateful to Josh for helping out. But why didn’t anyone else do anything?

I’m not suggesting that we should always wade into any situation that should be left for the police. I’ve had the training and I know that would do more harm than good. But since we’ve started NightLight Josh and I seem to have come in contact with more and more dramas that we’ve spotted just walking around town.

I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not that Aberystwyth has suddenly turned into a pit of debauchery, brawling and despair, but just that we didn’t actually have our eyes open before. Over the last year or so God has been opening our eyes and giving us bigger hearts to love and help people, and so now it’s much harder to walk on by on the other side of the road.

So, I’m challenging you today to walk around your neighbourhood with your eyes open. I’m not just talking about sorting out major emergencies; I’m talking about stopping to speak to the lonely old woman who live three doors up, or offering to do a bit of shopping for a sick neighbour.
Hey, if that’s too difficult why not just try giving a stranger in the street a huge smile.

They might think you’re a complete weirdo…or it might just be the only smile they receive that day.

B.F.F

Meet Hayley.

When my parents moved to Exmouth in 1999 I had to cope with adjusting to a new place, a new school and new friends. Several weeks after I arrived Hayley started at school as a new student too. We got absorbed into the same group of friends, and gradually got to know each other. Soon we were visiting each other’s houses after school, and before long we were inseparable.

We would spend hours playing The Sims, talking and laughing in my attic room, and getting high on coke. 

Hayley is a complete coke addict. I’ve been kicked and thrown around when she’s on one of her highs, but our friendship still survived it all. 

(You do realise I’m talking about Coca Cola right? Who do you think I am?!)

Anyway, when we turned sixteen we both headed off for different colleges. Although we still spoke on the phone and over the internet our friendship suffered as it was difficult to see each other often and we were hanging out in different friendship groups. 
Over the next couple of years we went our separate ways, reaching adulthood via different life experiences.

When Hayley text me about a month ago to ask if she could come and visit us in Aberystwyth I immediately said yes. Then I began to worry.

What if we didn’t get on anymore? We haven’t really hung out with each other for five years. What if we don’t have anything to say?

I needn’t have worried. We had a great week, hanging out, chatting, laughing and reminiscing.
On Friday we walked all three beaches in Aberystwyth just chatting ten to the dozen – just like old times.

AND THEN, I found a CD of all of my files that my dad had burned from our old computer before they upgraded. We had such great times looking at all the old pictures and laughing over old MSN conversations. I didn’t even know that MSN conversations are automatically saved to your computer! Can there be anything more hilarious than pouring over hours and hours worth of teenage angst, young love and just downright randomness. I mean listen to this…

Haylesberry:     What r ya pics? [on webcam]
Rach:                    lol. It’s pheobe’s corpse
Haylesberry:     Whos Pheobe?
Rach:                    My pet balloon [chicken shaped orange balloon]
Rach:                    Its very distressing
Haylesberry:     rofl

Rach:                ive had her for two months and kept her perfect without deflating
Rach:                and then jen came along and squeezed her and she just died
Rach:                so i attempted resuscitation this morning but she couldn’t hold her skin together and her head blew off
Rach:                and now she’s dead
Hayleysberry:   rofl

RIP Pheobe

SEE! Don’t you just miss those days when you found the most random things absolutely hilarious?!

And then we found the conversations we had when I first started noticing Josh around…

Rach:                lol! [boys name]’s bugging me about Josh liking me
Haylesberry:     lol. Which Josh?
Rach:                Josh from Chapel. We’ve been talking a lot lately. He doesn’t like me, but [boy] thinks he does
Haylesberry:     HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA.
Haylesberry:     Sozzy
Rach:                What?
Haylesberry:     He’s getting jealous of Josh?!
Rach:                He’s cool beans
Rach:                If he was in our year you wouldn’t be saying that. He’s really nice.

Two months later…

Rach:                    Josh is going to ask me out on Wednesday, I just know it
Haylesberry:     awww! What you gunna say? How do you know?
Rach:                    I don’t know
Rach:                    I think I’m going to run off or shoot him with a paintball

Yeah…I was kind of scared of boys back then. And, we were going paintballing that day – I don’t just randomly carry around a paintball gun to ward off persistent boys. Oh, and Josh asked me out on Thursday, so my instinct wasn’t far off.

Anyway, back to the point in hand – I’m so glad to have made proper contact with Hayley again and to have renewed our friendship. It really does feel like we have picked up from where we left off

Other than now I have to pay my own phone bill, which kinda sucks.

Hayley has just started a new blog. Why not head over there, introduce yourself, say hi and welcome her to the blogging world!

Top 5 Photographic Memories – Wildlife

You have probably noticed that I love wildlife photography. I love the challenge it poses because it’s often so unexpected and you only get a few seconds in which to catch something special. Josh and I try and get out into the countryside as much as possible and as a result so many of our wonderful memories hinge on wild places and wildlife. It’s wonderful to have some photos to help us treasure those memories.

1. Dolphins in Pembrokeshire. June 2008

 

This isn’t a particularly good photo but it just reminds me of fulfilling one of my ‘do before you die’ wishes. While camping in Pembrokeshire we took a boat out about 23 miles into the Irish sea and eventually came across a pod of dolphins which swam and jumped around the boat for about forty minutes. It will be something that I remember for the rest of my life.

2. Starlings in Aberystwyth. February 2005

 

During the Autumn and Winter months thousands of starlings roost underneath the pier in Aberystwyth. If it’s raining the starlings will quickly swoop underneath the supports, but if the weather is fine they will mass together in their thousands and perform amazing acrobatic air displays. This photo reminds me of eating fish and chips while watching one of these displays with Josh when he came up to visit me when I was at University. We have only been going out for 8 months and hated being apart. That week we spent together was very special.

3. Ynys Hir Lizard. June 2008

 

This was taken on one of the first proper trips I had out with my new canon SLR last year. I had to crawl so slowly to try not to scare the lizard and managed to snap two frames before it darted away. I doubted whether either would be any good as I had been balancing on one leg, but amazingly this one was great and sent me into a bookeh induced euphoria for the rest of the day. I will always remember that day as we saw so much good wildlife without even looking for it.

4. Woodmouse in Wiltshire. November 2008

 

I know, a woodmouse can’t exactly be described as a top wildlife spot, but what is special about this one is that I managed to share the experience with my young Nephew. We were lagging behind the rest of the group on a walk when I heard a scuffling in a nearby hedge. We carefully moved closer and saw this little chap just sitting there. We managed to get very close and then just crouched there watching. I could tell my Nephew was holding his breath and was spell bound. Very special.

5. Butterfly. Aberystwyth

 

I just like this photo, and it reminds me of all the hot summer days that I have spent lying in fields of long grass and wild flowers, staring up at the sky while butterflies flit around me.

I originally forgot to give this a title…I can’t think of anything witty so this will have to do

I’m finally, reluctantly writing a blog entry under the instruction of my beloved brother (don’t use online translators – they make up words). I haven’t written an entry for a long time, I know. I’ve been busy doing various, unblog worthy things and (at the risk of sounding old) the days have just been rushing by.

Blogging hasn’t been at the top of my agenda, and to be totally honest my fingers have been hovering over the ‘delete blog’ button an awful lot lately.
If it wasn’t for the fact that my family use it to keep up with our comings and goings I would have clicked it by now. I feel like time is rushing by with nothing much to report, life is dull.

Or maybe I’m just tired and grumpy because work has been really busy lately and I haven’t been able to be bothered to go on the computer again when I get home, and soon things will be back to normal and I’ll get over it.

Yes, I think that’s probably right too. The world’s best advice. Get. Over. It.

ANYWAY (sorry, feeling a bit weird today), lets attempt to do some sort of recap of the last few weeks…

Welsh week was really tiring but good. It surprising how even a small amount of Welsh can help you understand things that are around all the time. However I haven’t really been practicing (for the reasons stated above) and feel like I have probably forgotten quite a lot. I enjoyed being back in an academic environment though and having my brain stretched by something other than people complaining about the fact they can’t work the carpark machine. I also now own a bilingual diary, but I made Josh buy if from the Welsh shop because I was too scared.

The weekend after the Welsh course we went away to Ffald-y-Benin to sooth our tired minds. It’s a Christian retreat centre in the middle of nowhere. Very, very relaxing and absolutely beautiful. It was also really exciting and encouraging to hear of some of the stuff that is going on there. They have a really powerful Christian healing ministry and it was great to hear some first-hand stories about how they have seen God working in awesome ways – growing people’s limbs back and things like that. They have written a book about it called ‘The Grace Outpouring’ which is meant to be really good, and which I plan to read soon. Available from all good bookshops (including mine!).

View from Ffald-y-Brenin

Then it was back to office to find a huge mound of things that needed to be done. I’ve been working flat out for the last 2 weeks and have just about caught up with things now. I have been doing a lot of design work which I love, so it wasn’t all bad (such as the postcard featured in the last post)

I think that’s about it for now. If you’re in Aber we would love to see you at the film festival each Wednesday at 7.30pm and if you’ve got kids that are already bored by the summer holiday don’t forget to check out the Showstoppers holiday club that is starting next Monday in the bandstand – it’s free!

I’ve got measles

Okay…actually I haven’t. But it’s less embarrassing telling people that than having to explain that I actually went out moth trapping without any insect repellent on and now I look like I have been attacked by a marauding toddler with a red marker pen. At least they have faded a bit this morning!

Last night we attempted moth trapping again. After our complete failure last time we figured it could only get better…and thankfully, it did!

We had been given permission by the warden of a nearby forestry commission site (Nant yr Arian if you know the area) to go and trap ‘after hours’ so we set off about ten, and arrived just as the light was dying in the sky.

Nant yr Arian is at the head of a valley and so the view was spectacular. It was one of those moments when the camera really can’t catch the magic of the light over the misty valley floor and the hills behind, with the smell of the woods and heath and the sound of calling of sheep and other night-time creatures.

Then, to top it off a barn owl swooped down to our right (just as I was taking the above photo actually) and flew off up the valley, framed by the orange sky. Beautiful.

Pesky Midges

Then it was down to the moth trapping. Now, I’ve got to be honest – moths aren’t my favourite creatures. Sure, there are some amazingly beautiful moths and it’s interesting to learn more about them, but many are brownish and look pretty much the same as each other to me.

However, I do LOVE how passionate Josh gets about moths and butterflies. He has self taught himself to such a high standard and to hear him getting really excited about little brown moths that most people would walk straight by makes it worth getting bitten to death by midges any day.

Moth Trapping (continued)

…So, as I was saying, on Monday night about 10pm Josh and I headed out to do some moth trapping. Josh got the trap for his 21^st birthday and up until now we haven’t had much chance to use it.

For the uninitiated, a moth trap consists of a UV emitting light which attracts moths (scientists are still debating the reason for this) into a funnel from which they can’t escape. You can then record them at your leisure before letting them go unharmed.

Josh quickly got to work setting up the trap, while I – as his glamorous assistant – sat and watched, eating crisps, drinking tea and trying to convince myself that I wasn’t getting freaked out by sitting in a dark wood in the middle of the night.

However, lets be honest, I have a completely overactive imagination and could see axe murderers or marauding forest monsters around every corner.

And so we waited for moths to arrive…and we waited…and we waited. I was getting bored and as a result the axe murders and monsters were increasing by the minute.

In the end we gave it up as a bad job and headed back to the car. While we were packing the stuff away we saw a few bats flitting around our heads and stopped to watch them. However, we soon realised that there weren’t a few bats flying around. They were everywhere. Hundreds of dark shapes flapping around our heads. The air was reverberating with their wing beats.

It was obvious that we were near a roost and soon located it in the roof of a nearby building.

There are at least 6 in this picture...

We later found out that this is one of the biggest bat colonies in Wales, but we had discovered it all by ourselves and at the moment we were all alone, in the middle of the night, having one of the best wildlife experiences of our lives.

We sat there with our torch on ‘fog mode’ (it seemed to disturb the bats the least) and watched as hundreds of flitting shapes materialised in our torch beam. Occasionally one would land on the wall and climb up into the roof, and then we would get a really good view.

Compared to other mammal species, we know very little about bats, but we think that these bats are Soprano Pipistrelles. Can anyone confirm or correct this please?

Such an amazing find, we will definitely be going back. Just ironic that we chose that area to moth trap…no wonder there were none around!