Pack. Unpack. Repack. Panic.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" - Confucius

So I think I am ready. Well I hope I am! This morning I have been panicking about how much stuff I have so have been taking things out, re-adding them, shifting stuff about. But I think I have managed to strip it to the bare essentials...for a lady anyway! I am just eager to get going now. (Although I am sure once I head off I will hate myself for the heaviness of the stuff I am gonna be lugging around)

So today is the start of our adventure. Me and Hasinah leave London and head to the forest just outside Brighton for training. I am excited to meet the other people on the tour. I hope we have loads of fun! I am worried about not knowing the script well enough but I think once we start the training everything will fall into place. I am most excited about getting dancing! No matter what this is definitely gonna be a great experience and something quite unique so I can't wait to get experiencing it

When I next blog the adventure will have begun! Until then...

The girlies - Hasinah and Sophie

It's the Final Countdown!

"A life without cause is a life without effect"

So in less than 24 hours we head of for the start of our month long travelling adventure with Restless Development. I can’t believe it is here! The project is visiting schools up and down the country, giving 2 hour workshops with information about HIV / AIDS to 13-25 year olds using dance. I am excited to start the project as it sounds so fun and is such a great way to spread an important message. I am also excited about moving away from TV and trying out something completely different!

Today has been all about packing. I am sure I have too much stuff but how is a girl suppose to survive out a suitcase for a month! I am most excited about the fact that we do our training in a lodge in the woods. My first thought was hide and seek. Such a child at heart! And I have had big deliberations about what DVD’s and book’s to take. Now I must try and focus this much energy into memorising the script!

But in all seriousness it will be great to combine my passion for dance with educating future generations about HIV / AIDs. It is just the change I am looking for as I want to get away from the vacuousness and exploitative nature of TV. I am also really looking forward to working with young people because I have such faith in if we educate and encourage young people they will reach their full potential. I’d love to work either in a charity working with young people or I am even considering retraining as a youth worker so this will be a great opportunity to see if this is the right line of work for me.

Over the tour I am gonna update this blog with all the stories and photos of our adventures and also give a better description of me!

So for now it is goodbye to normal life! Today marked our final dance lesson at Pineapple Dance Studios for a month. I am so gonna miss the class and the thrice weekly routine! Luckily we have a lot of good friends in class who will keep us up to date with all the moves, and all the gossip! But we went out on a high…both physically and mentally. Me and Hasinah both struggled today, Hasinah with a misaligned spine and me with a head close that was making me all  off-balance. So I think mentally we both had our head in the clouds! But our choreographer was really fun today and I couldn’t have asked for a better final lesson (even though my dancing was shocking!). At least we now have a month to get that particular routine down!