Monday 6 February 2012

Monday Again..

And not so bad either. I got up nice and early to go for a roundabout sunrise walk to the post office, to send a little package by special delivery to my mum. I'm always surprised by how much happier I am when I wake up early.
Anyway, I spent the whole weekend near Dundee with the folks from the OTC. The band had pretty much the whole drum corps there, but was rather lacking in pipers. Either way, I got bass and tenor music written out for all but the two tunes we havent got out from the pipers yet.
The plan to do some rifle training didn't quite go to plan, but we will at least hopefully get around to doing all that by the time summer camp, if not spring camp, comes around.
There were two birthday celebrations on saturday night. There would have been three, but one person was not there. Three pints (roughly the amount usually contained in our usual yard glass, which was back at the mess back in Aberdeen) was downed in quick succession by each, as per tradition, and it was all in all a good night, regardless of how tired everyone was. We had a 2 mile run on Saturday morning, but our PFA (physical fitness assessment) was postposed on sunday due to ice. Thank goodness. There were also blizzards reported on facebook by friends, and apparently some problems due to the weather in London.

So I have a poem with regards to the cold weather. The past month or so, I have heard of many reports of flowers and animals coming out for spring early, thanks to the better weather this winter. Unfortunately these animals and flowers are often very succeptible to sudden bad weather. Most spring-times, a blizzard can cause a lot of trouble for the young animals, expecially the lambs, and last year was no exception, so here I have a poem, inspired by their struggle:

THE LAMBING FALLS (by Me)

The freshness of the new grass;
An avalanche on the senses.
The sights,
Smells,
Sounds,
Of spring.
The strange,
Though not unpleasant smells
Of ivy
Climbing up stone
Into the soft sunlight
Dancing in streamers
Between the clouds.
The ewes are lambing,
And little bleatings of joy
Are in the air.
Then once again the sky falls,
In little white tufts,
On the land of hope,
Turned fear.
And another fight against nature begins.

A long while later,
As the sky lightens
And colours to blue,
The survivors appear.
Shivvery lambs enjoy the grass once more,
And fresh sprigs appear above the whiteness,
Happy,
Sad,
Cold
But strong;
The survivors of the lambing falls-
The spring snowstorm.


So, now I'm back home and contemplating a gym membership. Students at my university get cut prices, so it works out well. The plan is to increase my stamina, my upper body strength (and learn to do 25 push-ups by this time next year - I can currently do one, if you're lucky), and hopefully, my flexibility.

I read an article today about a woman trying to do 23 things before her 23rd birthday, in memory of her brother, and I think its an amazing idea. I would like to think I could try to do 19 things before my 19th birthday, but with uni, band etc, etc. I think timing and money are issues for me. So, I have decided to try to do 21 things before my 21st birthday. Here's my list:
1) Get into 3rd year at uni (that means no failed years, or semesters)
2) Rent my first flat and get some flatmates
3) Get a decent-paying job to fit around uni, band and OTC commitments (few and far between)
4) Date a guy I like
5) Save up and get that tattoo I've been pining over for years.
6) Make a ball gown from my own design
7) Keep up with my blog here (ie. at least once a week - yell at me if I don't)
8) Learn to shoot safely and well
9) Organise a night out, instead of just going to them
10) Go abroad
11) Take part in a Great Scottish Run
12)  Pass an OTC PFA, and every one thereafter (50 sit-ups (2 minutes), 22 press-ups (2 minutes), and a 2.4km run (11 min or less))
13) Learn to ski
14) Learn Reveille, first post, and last post on the bugle
15) Buy my great long-time friend (who is younger than me and has known me since she was merely a few days old - we are like sisters and grew up together) her first legal drink from me on her 18th.
16)...
I'm out of ideas for the moment. I'll update again once I think of more things I would love to do.

PS. sorry for the ultra-long post

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