Hi everyone!

Am now in beautiful Swansea (currently pretty windy and miserable!) and have just found a permanent host home. Felicia and I (pic of us both above!) gatecrashed another counterparts host home for a while and so there were 5 GX volunteers in one poor ladies home at one point! Still I think she misses all the noise now we've moved out!

We're now living in a place called Burry port which is quite a way out of Swansea but right by the sea and I'm sure very beautiful when it's not pissing down! I have had to sacrifice my neighbours obsession again as there's not tv but considering there's a shower and a washing machine I have absolutely no complaints!

We started our placements this week. Unfortunately Busi hasn't been very well so I've been going on my own mostly. The Swansea young single homeless project (SYSHP) is ace and I've really enjoyed shadowing some of the support workerd there and seeing how these young people are managing in their tenancies. Most of them have very sad backgrounds so it's amazing to see how they can overcome their problems and make successes of themselves.

We're also working for connect which is an activity centre for the homeless, mentally ill, people with learning difficulties and also recovering drug user/alcoholics. That place is wicked and I wish Cheshire Home has some of their resources as I think they really would have benefited a lot from it! Only problem is they have so many volunteers I feel a bit useless! I've been the one learning - one of the ladies is teaching me to knit! (My nan will be impressed I'm sure!)

There are lots of plans while we're in Swansea. I only hope we can fit them all in as there's only 2 months left of the Xchange! Scary!

Anyway, apologies if there's anyone I haven't got round to speaking to yet. Hope everyone is ok and feel free to e-mail, text, phone me. (I now have my phone back that I managed to lose in Boots in the first week!)

Lots of love,

Susie xxx