It’s finally getting into the exciting part of the year with competitions, holidays and uni work all hitting you at once. The stress of attempting to keep up with everything always begins to tell right around now, especially with exams just around the corner. Hopefully though, this is the penultimate year of that – from next summer I will finally be free from the chains of education! *cheers and waves arms about enthusiastically* Of course, exams usually require revision but as has happened every year for the last what…10 years (?!)…that’s kind of gone out the window. When the sun is shining and the beach is beckoning, what is one to do except grab a bottle of ice cold cider (hello mr rattler 
), throw on a sarong and head off for a long day of tanning, or in my case, burning. Strangely enough I have stuck by my mother’s ministrations of suncream, hat and sensible periods of time in the sun and every now and again still wish I was being forced into wearing an oversized t-shirt over my swimming costume, if only because I have succumbed to the body-consciousness that is practically a requirement of western society. Talking of beaches, tomorrow evening is my first proper beach party of the season, though hopefully it will be slightly better weather than the one we had this time last year. In the event that it is, I shall just have to resort to the old coping mechanism of consuming vast amounts of Amarula and cider…not too bad a prospect I think.
I only recently returned to the green and pleasant lands of Cornwall having spent three weeks at home in Wiltshire. I usually return home with very mixed feelings, down on the one hand that I’ll be away from my wonderful friends including awesome boyfriend ( 
) and also won’t be training for a while, but on the other I always look forward to being with family and taking time out from Life in Cornwall and being able to reset. I’ve had a recurring injury in my left hip which extended to the right one as well in the last couple of months and so was able to take a trip to the chiropractor and have a break from training to try and rest it while I was at home. Unfortunately it seems the injury is a little more serious than I’d like and I will have to take a 4-6 week break at some point in the near future. The lovely doctor said it was a judgement call on whether I continue training till the Worlds are over in August and then take the break or do it now. I figure, after all the effort I’ve put in up till now, there’s no point in stopping till the Worlds are over…provided I don’t actually permanently damage myself that is! All a bit depressing really…I seem to be following in the footsteps of one of my aunts who had to have a hip replacement before she was 40 due to copious amounts of exercise. Oops. Guess I should start saving up for a bionic one now.
In other news… Rob and I are spending as much time together and on the beach as possible, it was certainly a very good surprise to come back to Cornwall to find he’d booked the week off from work Sadly this may have impacted on my revision just a touch but I think it’s worth it. Long days on the beach and evening spent with a glass of wine curled up in front of Coupling, Game On and a variety of films is a pretty good way to spend your time if you ask me Also, we’re in the process of booking a holiday with my parents to South Africa in January next year so very exciting! It’s definitely a good plan to have a guaranteed two week block of sunshine and heat during the depths of English winter (which will no doubt be, like all previous winters of the last ten years, be the ABSOLUTE WORST WE HAVE EVER SEEN).
One last thing, music. I’m having a girly month: The Flood by Cheryl Cole and I Got You by Leona Lewis. Oh and a bit of Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys, definitely worth a listen!
P.S If my neighbour accidentally falls on his own shears in the next couple of days it definitely wasn’t because of his atrocious singing which is incredibly loud and irritating and has been filtering through my window pretty much at every hour of the day. Grrr….;D
