No Comprendo Amigo

Hola.

Well the last couple of weeks have flown by, but at the same time been filled with so much I've found the days and nights have felt so long.Weird how that happens.

Last time I posted it was right before my 21st birthday and I was getting uber excited about my party with all my friends. Well, it was RAD.  I had such a great time, my family loved it- who knew my Ma had such moves. We even got Dad to dance, his love of Beyonce 'Single Ladies' was well and truly revealed by his continuous requests for it to be played, my brother danced to Apache-Jump on it* and Henry and I had 2/3 successful(ish) attempts at doing the dirty dancing lift. It was a magical evening, and I loved that I got to share it with such special, loving friends of mine too.

 

On Sunday, all the family came over for a BBQ which was ace. It's so good to have everyone together, Pa did a speech (He kept it short and sweet so luckily I didn't cry) and Ma baked 2 cakes. Cor.

Last Friday saw my first solo flight, and the drive down from Aberdeen with Boyd, my oldest brother, to bring him home to his new pad in Putney. We had such a great time, stopped off in the Lake District and then spent the rest of the weekend celebrating Dad and Alex's birthdays.

This week, has been a bit more of a breather for me... although still writing the flipping dissertation. The end is in sight, kind of.

Anyway, now that you're all caught up, I'll get to the main point of this post. I was on one of my daily walks with Benji this week and was thinking about how cool it would be if I could hear his thoughts or at least understand what he's thinking sometimes (I know, I know, too much) and it made me think. How many things in life do we just not understand? I've been struck lately by certain things which I just can't comprehend. Here's what I mean:

1. Procrastination. I understand that I'm trying to put something important off (statistics/ anything maths related), but at the same time I can't stop myself from watching youtube video after youtube video. Some days it will be behind the scenes videos, others it will be about puppies learning to walk down the stairs.The other day I spent half a day finding out about P!nk, downloaded her latest album, followed her on twitter and watched her on The Ellen Degeneres. FYI, I am a massive fan (again) and now know alot about her life, including her husband who manages to rock the whole covered in tattoos look. Dayuum.

I'm hoping that wasn't an overshare and that sometimes other people do similar things. Otherwise, oh well,  just go with it?

2. Goodbyes. I said goodbye to two of my close friends India (off to start Uni in Norwich) and Jess (on a year abroad to California!) this weekend. And what I find so frustrating about goodbyes is it never feels enough. I mean, you say what you say, hug, then you just go your separate ways.

 It's not a satisfying process. 

And the worst thing is when you are saying goodbye to people you are probably never going to see again. When we left Egypt, I remember that being the weirdest thing. Because normally when you say bye it's like 'I'll see you next week,' or 'See you at Christmas!' Not 'see you...well, see where life takes us, maybe we can email?'

(It was the days before facebook and skype, our computer still had a dial up tone. Good times.)

3. 'One Born Every Minute' (OBEM). This is a more recent thing I totally do not get. For some reason, lots of girls I know, really enjoy watching this show. Some even feel drawn into a career in medicine because of what they watch. So, I sat down with some friends and tried to watch it. Oh my. I'm not sure what everyone else is watching, but they must not be seeing what I saw...

First off, why are we watching women react to a lot of pain? Secondly, why would you want someone filming that? The close up images are not flattering, for anyone. Not even the baby.

Now, I realise I'm quite biased in this largely because I'm not really the baby 'cooing' type.

I do get that the tiny humans are cute. 

But maybe because we haven't really had any babies in our family and I've never really held a baby,  I don't know, the whole thing kind of freaks me out. With lots of the girls I know getting broody after watching OBEM, I'm concerned. After watching that show, having a baby gives me the heebiejeebies. I'm not sure I have the hips for that stuff, I was not blessed with childbearing hips. Watching someone give birth, scream, cry, or sit in what looks like a glorified paddling pool, but is actually a birthing pool surely makes you want to cross your legs and celebrate being single and being allowed pour yourself a glass of wine. Not create a desire to quickly find a man, any man, get hitched and sleep with the babymaker quilt on, am I right?!

Anyway, let's not get ahead of ourselves. It's not that I don't want kids altogether, it's just... can we maybe chill the beans on the whole baby thing? I'm 21, I am still celebrating every time I manage to parallel park or get a good offer on greek yoghurt from Sainsburys. Maybe, ladies, young single ladies, we should curb the enthusiasm? Enjoy being young and independent?! If not, how about a puppy first? I'm all for that.

Well, there you go. Three things I currently am grappling with and can't really understand. 

Next week I am shifting most of my stuff back to Oxford, and getting stuck in again. Today I popped into London, went shopping with Boyd and found a great place to eat in Soho. London is pretty much one of my favourite places. 

Until next time, I'll leave you with this. Sounds morbid, but a great song. 

Wish I was dead part 2. - Shout out Louds

* The reason it's hilarious my brother dances to this song, is that one time when we were away skiing, he was singing and doing the dance as he waited for the lift to reach our floor (we were just joining him from our rooms) and inbetween hip thrusts the lift doors opened and a small, innocent swiss family looked on in horror as he slowly turned around whilst 'lassooing' to face them. I am gutted that I didn't get there in time to witness it. But LOVE that my brother is that weird. And will forever make him do the dance