Life Is A Balancing Act

Hello Beautiful People!

I set myself a goal and low and behold two weeks later I’ve failed! I know I promised to upload a blog every week and I’m aware that last week’s didn’t happen, but in my defence I have been super busy! I know this is a fairly generic and over used excuse but hear me out guys!

My week has looked a lot like this.

My uni workload has gone mental! Normally I’m fairly relaxed about uni but since getting back after Christmas I’ve had SO much to do it’s starting to stress me out a bit. Second year is definitely turning out to be a lot harder than I expected. I have never spent so much time in the library as I have this past week. I’m normally quite a regular library attendee but recently I seem to be spending full days in there. Seven hours in a silent, windowless room! I get a medal for that surely?

You would think that spending all day in uni would stop me from emptying my ever dwindling bank account. In fact it does exactly the opposite. I’ve ended up spending a fortune on lunches and snacks over the last week. Nicola and I keep finding ourselves spending all our pennies having lunch in Queenies. Partly because it’s super yummy and partly because we need to escape off campus for half an hour each day. Also the new SU building has a Starbucks, so that’s snapping my money up fairly fast!

On top of the uni work load is every student’s annual nightmare. The Dreaded House Hunt™.  Oh sweet merciful Lord it is horrendous! On Tuesday we stood in the pouring rain for twenty minutes waiting for the letting agent (who turned up late) to view a house with a living room that was essentially a box room with a sofa crammed in it, which had mould in every room and water pouring down the wall in one of them. I have reached the point where I’m genuinely considering pitching a tent on campus and living in that next year.

But enough with the not so fun busy! I’ve been squeezing in quite a lot of the fun busy in too!

I’ve been sticking to the Couchto5K and surprisingly, I’m really enjoying! The first day nearly killed me but I’ve settled into a routine now and seem to be getting on with it pretty well. It’s amazing how quickly you start feeling fitter; I’ve cut a few minutes off my walk into uni and the huge hill on the way home doesn’t seem so massive anymore. It also appears to be helping me sleep better which in turn makes me function better during the day. Fabulous stuff!

I started back at choir this week as well which was really nice. Because of uni work I missed the first weeks of term so had to work doubly hard but it was worth it. They are singing some gorgeous stuff this term; Vaughn Williams, Britten, Gardner, and Holst’s beautiful arrangement of I love my love. The only downside is I’ll have my audition in a few weeks which is terrifying.  I better get practising my sight-reading!

My work placement started this week which was really exciting. I won’t say too much about it because confidentiality reasons and all that jazz, but I’m working for a community arts charity, helping out with singing workshops for people with mental health and wellbeing needs. I’ve only done one day but so far I love it. It does mean I miss out on my day off from uni but it’s definitely worth it.

I’ve had so much going on this past week it’s been a bit overwhelming at times but as they say (I don’t know who they are exactly), life is balancing act. Some days you feel like you’ve got it all sorted. You’re a pro plate spinner at the circus. You know what you’re doing. You can spin any number of plates without even having to look at what you’re doing. Other days you’re that poor sod who has been dragged out of the audience and forced into the sheer awfulness that is audience participation. You can’t even spin the sticks simultaneously, let alone balance any plates on them. But you never know, if you stick with it, you might become a pro.

I appear to have ended on a horrifically clichéd analogy, which if I’m honest doesn’t really make any sense and is quite frankly, unacceptable.

I do apologise.

Here, have this picture of my cat staring into the very depths of your soul instead.

What a stare that girl has got!

Love

S

xxx