What's up darlin'?

Crikey. It's been a while. I've almost forgotten how to blog. I'm doing some fairly noteworthy things in the next few weeks so thought I'd pop my head back into the blogosphere for a while and let you know what's going down.

Firstly, it's the only day of the working year that my mum is allowed to legitimately have off from work; my graduation. This Friday. It's an odd one really, as it's kind of important on the scale of things to do going from: a regular Saturday morning watching cartoons and picking a scab on your knee to: your Wedding Day. I'd say it's about an 8 on that scale. However, despite all the giddy anticipation that surrounds the day, it's one of the things that I feel the least prepared for. I mean, what's the right thing to wear underneath the gown? How do you have your hair under the silly square contraption? Is it OK to not want to hang out with your doting parents for the entire day? Can you act about and pretend to be batman while you wear the cape? There are no rules. This is unsettling.

Secondly, I'm going to Uganda. Next week. On one hand I'm completely and utterly over the moon at this prospect; I went to the same place in the country last year and made some great friends and had a really lovely time. However, I think the nostalgia setting in my brain has gone a little bit crazy and has blocked out the hard bits from last year in place for beautiful sunsets and sitting around with gorgeous Ugandan children singing songs and making friendship bracelets. The truth is, it's going to be hard. There's no running water; we have to wash out of a bucket. There's very little access to electricity; we'll have hardly any contact with friends and family back home. We'll be living in cramped conditions as a team and working on a building site every day with heavy lifting and potential for injury.

These things are all really hard to cope with, and last year I remember almost breaking down after the first week through sheer emotional and physical exhaustion. But this year, I want to approach it from a different angle, to be more outward looking and to consider the people who live in these conditions all the time. Not to be so selfish and instead, try and learn from these people's generosity and kindness. I think if I see it as a challenge not to be introspective and hard done by, and instead embrace the chance to learn from a different culture and make some lasting friendships then I will have a far more rewarding time.

Finally, here is a great track by Florence and the Machine from the new Twilight film, Eclipse. It's mega. Enjoy.