Out of sight, out of mind.

Isn't it funny how when things are out of sight, they are sometimes out of mind too. This isn't true in all cases, and I think there are varying degrees of it. But yeah, sometimes when you cannot see something you do not think about it as much. I know I miss my family because I'm such a family orientated person, so I always knew that coming away for uni would be hard, no matter how close to home uni is, I still miss my nephew and niece doing things for the first time and that is really hard for me. 

Me and my sister have always been so close, we never argued as kids because of the age gap between us, which has made us best friends as adults. When she had Jack, I was so excited to become an Auntie, it was such a special feeling. So when Millie came along, it was just as precious, maybe more because I now had a charming nephew and an adorable little niece. Because me and my sister are so close, it made me so close with Jack and Millie. Also, I'm their only Auntie so it kinda makes out relationship even more special.

Before today, I hadn't seen them in a month. A month doesn't even sound like a long time, especially when you consider the people who live really far from home, who can only see their family at Christmas, Easter and Summer, but with Jack and Mills it is different. They are children so a month to them seems like such a long time. And because they are children they change so much. When I last saw Millie, she could just about say 'Mum'. She has learnt to say so much in that month that I haven't seen her during. 

Just because I can't see them doesn't mean I don't think about them, but because I don't see them as often as I'd like means that when I do see them, it makes it harder afterwards because it reminds me just how much I miss them and how much it sucks to be away from them. 

Babbling bruised baton twirler.

I have thirteen bruises on my left arm, two on my right and one on my chest. 

I have a small bump on the right side of my head. 

My right shoulder twinges when I move it and the back of my left leg is constant agony. 

I can no longer bend down to pick something up without my whole body aching. 

I am over tired from long days of training. 

I have three loads of washing to do. 

I have a constant longing to be home on a Sunday night between six pm and half nine. 

I have an old injury to my left knee which is flaring up again. 

I have a seriously damaged left ankle from years ago which is going to start hurting more as the cold of Winter draws closer. 

I have countless medals, trophies, certificates and rosettes. 

I have another 'family' of seventeen and more who love me for who I am. 

I have eight little ones who look to me as a role model. 

I have made lifelong friends. 

I have a coach who is also one of my best friends. 

I have the joy of passing my knowledge down to the younger ones. 

I have the privilege of being part of something that covers the nation. I have made fifteen years of memories with these people. 

I have the honour of being Team Captain. 

I love my sport and wouldn't change a thing. 

Is it any wonder I get annoyed when people say baton twirling isn't a real sport?

6 days is a long time

So... I haven't posted anything in 6 days. Not sure why. Actually, it may be because I usually post about things that are troubling me, and as of late I have been back to my super organised and efficient self and life has sorted itself out again. Good. Although this week is going to be pretty crazy busy. I have like a million and twelve things to do. So, I need to start off well on my day off tomorrow by getting up early and getting on. My iPad just autocorrected 'getting' to 'ghetto' and this made me laugh waaaay more than it should. I have an itchy label in my pyjama top. My legs are cold but I need the window open as it's really stuffy in my room. I should probably pull my duvet up. That is all, for now.

Snowed under.

So this is probably the point in my life that I have ever felt most snowed under. I didn't quite realise how big the jump from first year to second year would be. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying uni still and like my modules (well... 2 outta 3 ain't bad) but I didn't anticipate how much work they would pile on us in the first couple of weeks. It probably doesn't help that I've got job interviews and family stuff to think about as well as uni and looking after our house and keeping up with twirling and worrying if I've got a scholarship or not and worrying about money and how I'm gonna be able to afford Christmas and the fact that I don't have any clothes to wear to the funeral I have to go to next week, and what should I say in my application to be in the opening ceremony of World's next year for twirling and are my new jeans going to arrive today because if they don't I can't go out in my holey ones so I'll have to brave the cold in leggings and blahhhh. My brain is too full, so my body is trying to shut down. I napped today for 2 hours because I just simply couldn't function any more. 

I had coffee and a catch up with Maria yesterday. She told me to write it all down in a list and then I'd feel better. So this post is my list I guess. Let's hope the feeling better starts soon.

Harry Potter Alphabet

So... I watched Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone recently, and I do love Harry Potter.

I was on a long walk yesterday and played that game in my head which we used to play as children like "In my rucksack I have..." And you had to list something that began with the alaphabet. 

Therefore, here is my Harry potter version of 'In my rucksack'.

In my rucksack I have Aragog, Butterbeer, Cauldren, Dress robes, Extendable ear, Felix Felicious, Goblet of fire, Hogwarts: a history, Invisibility cloak, Jelly slugs, Knut, Leech juice, Mandrake, Nosebleed nougat, Owl feed, Parchment, Quill, Rememberal, Skele-gro, Time turner, Unicorn hair, Veritiserum, Wand, Xenophillius Lovegood, Yew, Zonko's joke shop. 

That entertained me on my walk and hope it brightened your day if you are a HP fan.

The rules.

What makes you so special to think that you are exempt from the rules? You can see that everyone here is abiding by the rules, so naturally you'd think that a newcomer into a situation would as well. Clearly no. Most definitely not. I know I am a bit of a stickler for following the rules, but SERIOUSLY COME ON. You don't do what the rest of us are, then you say you will be better: that you'll follow the rules like the rest of us. I start to get my hopes up that you will. I think you might be 'turning over a new leaf' as the saying goes. BUT NO. You just go back to your old ways and for some reason, it's more annoying than it was at the start. I guess it could be that at the start people might have thought you just didn't know that you were flouting the rules and annoying everyone, but now, now because you have acknowledge that you know the rules and that you were breaking them before, it's DOWNRIGHT DISRESPECTFUL that you're doing it because you know it's against the rules. 

Shut up. Just shut up, then the rest of us will be happy and can get on with it.

Not so much sleep walking, more like sleep 'do'-ing.

So, I woke up this morning after a relatively good night's sleep, considering I have this cough. I found a photo frame from my windowsill dismanteled in bed with me. I must have gotten up in the night, picked up my photo frame, decided to get into bed with it and separate all the pieces. I wonder what on earth made me do that. I literally have no recollection of doing it, which is hilarious; that my brain told my body to do something, whilst I was asleep and I have no memory of it. Pretty sure I've never slept walked before or anything, although I guess I may have done but just ended up back in bed the next morning and have no memory of it like I do now, but I wonder what makes people sleep walk or sleep 'do' in the first place. It's very odd. 

I hope to do it again and maybe tomorrow I will wake up with more strange dismantled objects in my bed.

Cough, cough, cough.

I have a cough. A silly, little, dry, tickly kind of cough. It is so irritating to my throat, to me and to everyone else who can hear it. Whenever I cough, it doesn't achieve anything; all I feel is that I need to cough again. And the worst part is, it doesn't let me sleep well. When I don't sleep well, I get grouchy and grumpy and grizzly. Then I'm tired the next day and my cough isn't any better because I haven't slept well enough to get better. It's a vicious circle. Vicious circles suck. I want to be better.

Pass the cough syrup!

First Post

So... to keep up with the times, our lecturer has asked us to create a blog alongside our critical reflection and performance for this module. This could produce some interesting results.

Basically, what I think we have to do is write anything. Anything at all that comes into our minds about anything. Sounds pretty cool I guess, we just have the challenge to not be too self-critical. That will probably be embarrassing at first, but hey-ho, we'll just have to get over it!

Watch this space.