An anally retentive, and surprisingly boring, list of things that surprisingly surprise me

When someone who is really rugged is really meticulous about their nail maintenance.
How much people care about their mobile phones.
What my shoulder blades look like from the back.
What my hair looks like from the back.
That I'm an actual person like the people that I see through my eyes as opposed to a walking talking thinking voice.
Graffiti in unexpected places.
Genuine accounts where people make really solid judgements on superficial or superfluous things.
Seeing a butterfly or moth really really close up when it's drinking nectar. Surely thats a sight that only cameras get to see?
People my age getting married, having children, having mortgages, infact anyone who is able to talk about mortgages and credit rating and money with understanding and without total mindmelt astounds me..!
When cafes give free water.
An uncalculated step on the stairs.
When people just don't care about something, or genuinely don't believe that any input that they give will make a positive difference.
Even though I've been doing this for 20 years (discounting the 6 months where I was gummy faced) how good brushing my teeth STILL feels.
That I can run, and it feels good.
How quickly I get bored with skipping.
That people don't know that Norwich exists.
That people are surprised that I don't drive, and that suddenly its this skill that everybody just assumes that everybody can and wants to do.
How different people spread butter.
How boring this list is because I thought it was going to be really exciting...

Intergalactic word vomit. plus this computer rattles!

ciao bellesimo pisa, firenze e venizzia and dober dan slovenia.

 this keyboard im using is really funny and no postcards have been sent as stamps in italy cost one good sized kidney-which frankly im rather attatched to! i have been writing them to all you lovelies, looking quite like a squirrell with ink! the z is next to the t and the u-i dont think you can make the word typewriter out of the top line! i am so humbled at how lovely and friendly slovenians are-im just here in ljubjana until monday mid-day and got here at about half 3 last night on THE most surreal sleeper train in my life! there were some really wonderful people-a texan couple who have invited me (after i semi invited myself...!) to come look after horses on their ranch! but then i got chatting to these two chaps who were on the erasmus scheme from UCL staying in bologna. i thought they were really cool and the first 2 hours were really funny and it was odd to be hanging out with people from britain as ive been travelling with this amazing canadian called simone for the past 3 days and we both didnt realise how big the culteral differences were-so fun to chat about. but then as one of them studies classics and the other linguistics, they spent like 3 hours declining latin, having mini competitions to see who could find the origins of words! interesting perhaps in a different context but not when i was nearly weeing myself with excitement that we were crossing the border into slovenia on my first onland international transfer!

loveee you, lovveee me, looovin life :D


p.s i realise this has not even given a snippet of how i am in my head, what ive been doing, but i have taken 3000 photos in 5 days and had to buy a new diary, so everything will be explained and shared when i get back. also no worries on the rape and mugged front as the worst thing thats happened so far is screaming at simone coming back from the toilet as i thought she was a rapist. she wasnt, i didnt get raped, but the whole campsite woke up. ciaooo!

I'm vegetarian but I've certainly got worms in my tummy.

I know eventually everything will be tickity-boo and I'll bounce over the sunset with a grin on my face but my head is like a kaliedscope of ideas and lists and un-organisation!

I've just seen and read loads of photos and info about Bulgaria having loads of cats. I really hope we can have a bit of a cuddle and they won't be diseased cats.

I'm mega excited. And tremendously inarticulate at this point, plus I have a thousand things to do today aswell as be uncertain and unorganised. So I better get serious about my day. Alsoo I had 10 hours sleep last night-my body has LITERALLY no idea whats going on-I fell asleep with my head on a book and a glass of wine to my right hand side, so I guess it was good training for being a student.

My hair is doing a 'woohoo' thing on one side...I think it's a sign that things are changing.

Living in Devon is something that I completely underestimate. Being in the hub of a civilisation that centres itself on the regularity of crop rotation and 'livin' off o' da fat o' tha land' (if anyone ever studied 'Of Mice and Men' that should be a knee-jerk recognition!) makes me realise how fragile and changable everything is. I never realise that in a city the seasons don't make such an impact-here in winter the hills are a parched grey, or spread with snow, which melts and the green becomes richer and lusher. Then the speckled shapes of animals canter down the hillside, and produce more bundles of energy, and petals of coloured silk erupt from the ground and then the sun bakes your skin and the evenings become longer and lazier. There is a comfort in knowing what to expect from the seasons, and whilst they happen every 3 months, because we are always learning about ourselves, i find something new about myself and the world each time they come around. I've always pulled away from coming from Devon; yet I feel that the county's reliance on nature reflects how I feel about learning; constantly testing myself and responding to my surroundings. I've always felt slightly unstable, but I am finding a garden of soil to rest some roots in.

From Dix's field to a familiar friend.

Spent the morning being lovely with David, and taking it in turns to persuade the other to make the morning cup of tea- a battle which we both won and lost as he made the tea and I put the clothes up. I tell myself all there is to being a grown-up is compromise. To balance out this mega outburst of maturity I made a flower chain from daisies and primroses and dandelions (washing my hands afterwards so I didn't wee myself of course...) for a friend I haven't seen in 6 months. I caught the Davidmobile into Exeter in order to avoid shelling out the outrageous £5 single (just thinking about it feels painful!), and walked through Exeter at my favourite day; when its waking up. When the sun is bouncing off the balconies of Princesshay and I can hear someone playing music and the pitter pattering of fancy shoes, and polished shoes, and shoes that make you wobble and look grown-up. I think what I enjoy most about Exeter is that it's a city that is in love with it's people.

I did it!!

Yup. I did it-was slightly alarmed to discover that my first night at running club was their last night of a 10 week programme and were being 'rewarded' with a 5k run. Cue me metaphorically soiling my pants. I think the colour drained from my face and my feet started edging me towards the door as my mind starting to formulate escape routes. However everybody's amazingly welcoming faces and easy chats put me immediately to ease and my mouth on motor-controlled natter. I do like a good natter-and surprisingly, against all my better judgements that's all that the evening felt like-a really inspirational, energetic, emotionally bonding chat. I was so prepared to fail that I surprised myself and everybody else that I could actually run, after spending so much time convincing myself that I'm not a runner. Yet it seems I am a good talker and I do have a body and legs and stubbornness and that's one thing I have learned from this evening: is that's all you need! So whatever you have convinced yourself that you can't do, or don't like, find the right people to be with and I think you can amaze yourself with what you do like and what you can do.

Running around in circles.

Tomorrow I'm joining a running club. To say I'm nervous is to understate it, and to say I'm underprepared would pretty much sum it up. My trainers have a giant chasm through the sole of them (my god I hope thats not a metaphor for anything...!), and the longest I have ever run singularly is 1 mile-and that was once, and with the brute stubbornness of a mule, which I am hoping will accompany me alongside the 4 miles I'll be jogging this time tomorrow. O and plus I've been told that I'll need to be wearing a fluorescent jacket-so the entire of my town can immediately see me and the blancmange I'll be sporting in place of my face! Despite these niggles I have decided that I am going to get through it-two of my most fabulous friends today have completed a half marathon-thats part of my inspiration. Also the girl who recommended it has 2 children, works a hard job, and does a degree-if this go-get-it mentality is borne, or at least enabled by running then I definitely want to be a part of it.