John Archer Evening - 1st December

Hello again! I'm powering through my updates and stretching my memory to recall the stories from ages ago! Ok... So December 1st! It was an exciting day for me as John Archer, the comedy/magic man, as seen on CBBC and Fool Us with Penn and Teller, was coming to Riverside! (Thanks to my connections of course!) Being a friend of John's on Facebook, I mentioned him to Daryl who started looking into booking John for our fundraiser in December. After a long wait, the day finally arrived! I had some shopping to do so I took the bus into town and started on my day. Of course that Saturday was the day after Rise of the Guardians came out in the cinemas. I really wanted to go and see it but I had nobody to go see it with. However, whilst sitting in McDonalds eating my lunch, I overheard a conversation between a father and son about a trip to the cinema to watch Rise of the Guardians... So I decided to do a VERY brave thing... Or very stupid... I have yet to decide which it is! I put my rubbish in the bin and headed off to the cinema, bought a ticket and some Ben & Jerry's and went to the cinema... On my own! You may be thinking "Jess! You're crazy! It's a social faux pas to go to the cinema all by yourself! Talk about Forever Alone Meme alert!" But of course... I wasn't afraid! XD it was actually rather fun! It was like watching a movie at home in my bedroom, but with a massive screen! The best part was there weren't many people in the screen-room so it was very quiet! Anyway after my little treat to me, I headed back on the bus to get ready for that evening. We travelled down to church early at about 5pm and started to prepare the bar, the tables and everywhere else. At about 6:15, John arrived and have me a big hug! He started to set up his things whilst I watched the ticket table and Rachel went to get food. Then people started to arrive and we sat in our place near the front. John did a lot of tricks from his usual routine including eating a balloon and the number grid trick, as well as one I hadn't seen before involving a several books of maps and guessing a street name! That was mind-blowing! Then about half way through the evening we had a break where people went to get snacks and drinks from the bar area and I went to see some of the youth, and steal some of the peanuts left in little dishes on their tables. The second half of the evening was basically John giving us his testimony. It was very interesting and definitely worth hearing! After he finished, he spent some time talking to people afterwards and I asked him to sign my ticket, which he did. It's now pinned to the notice board in my room along with several other memories. After he and everyone else left, it was time to pack away and transform the church back into its usual format for the Sunday morning service the following day. After 6 hours straight of being out it was time for home... At LAST!