I never really believed people when they said that moving house is one of the most stressful things that one can do but—having just had to condense the contents of my flat into an already full house—I’m starting to change my views on that. The simple fact is that I have too much stuff, and it’s mostly in the form of newspapers and scrawled lecture notes, so I’ve decided to sell what I can on eBay, and unfortunately bin as much of the rest as possible.

Anyway, aside from shifting the contents of my flat to Edinburgh (a feat that required three Edinburgh to Manchester round trips in a row), I’ve been trying to decide what to do with the limited amount of my summer holiday that I have left. Annoyingly, my EU Studies masters course at Universiteit Leiden starts in mid-August, so I’ll miss the Edinburgh festival, but I’ve planned a few days in Brussels to see friends, and about a week later I’ve booked a trip to London then Cornwall by sleeper train. It isn’t as exotic as the trip to Barcelona that I had to give up on due to limited time, but I can’t wait to see what UK sleeper trains are like. I somehow doubt that I’ll be woken in the middle of the night by a police officer with a gun, dismantling my cabin to search for drugs, as happened on one of the last sleeper services I used in Serbia; having never used the Caledonian Sleeper or Night Riviera before though, who knows what could happen?

Who’d have though organising a little thing like an international political youth conference with no budget would be difficult! This has been the dominant activity of the past week. To be honest, while it is hard work, it’s also quite a lot of fun. I wouldn’t do it otherwise. Anyway, next weekend I’ll be welcoming young greens to Edinburgh to take part in the third Inter Isles Young Greens ‘get-together’ (yes, I do insist on using ‘get-together’ in place of conference).

The coming week will be doubly hectic. On top of the get-together, I have a couple of essays due on the 14th and 20th, and a postgraduate study application due on the 23rd. Hopefully I won’t burn out before everything is done. Anyway, today has been my last full day in Edinburgh. Tomorrow I’m driving down to Manc. to get stuck into a to-do list almost as long as my scarf.

I’ve been very much enjoying my Christmas holidays here in Edinburgh, and it just struck me that I only have one week left before I have to go back to Manchester and start Term 2 of uni. The problem with holidays is that they always come to an end, and I’m never quite ready to leave Edinburgh and return to Manc. Anyway, I’m going to have to start the studying tomorrow. Annoyingly, I have an essay on the Spanish Civil War due in the first week back, and another on the EU which I need to get done before the 20th, so it’s the library for me for most of the rest of the week. None of this is helped by the fact that I’m trying to co-ordinate an Inter Isles Young Greens ‘get-together’ back here in Edinburgh just one week into term. ‘Get-together’ gives the impression that its a nice little informal thing which practically organises itself. It is far from that.

Anyway, I’m continuing to execute my resolution to blog more this year, even if it is just little random moans like this post has been. Lets see how it keeps up next week.