January Blues

January has been one busy month. I have been a busy bee finishing my first set of university exams. Fingers crossed those have actually gone alright! I am about to start my new modules including an optional Education module which is quite exciting.

My big news for the month is I have finally signed for a house for my second year of university. To be honest it isn’t in my most ideal location and I would like to be a little bit closer to campus. I suppose it will only be a 10-minute bike ride to campus every day. However, we couldn’t afford to be too picky with our location as I am sharing with 7 other people so the bigger houses tend to be a little further out. It will all change next year as 3 of my housemates will end up leaving for their languages year abroad, so granted I’m still living with the same people maybe we can live closer to campus anyway? The process so far hasn’t been too stressful. I’ll have to keep you updated on that though!

We are back to lectures over the next couple of days. I am rather looking forward to getting back into a good routine again after feeling a little bit stressed over house hunting, exams and also being on holiday over the Christmas period.

Ella xx

2016 Resolutions

After my post on some reflections of 2015 I think it is now important for me to look towards 2016 and what goals I am hoping to achieve.

Obviously, there are the few health ones that everyone sets each year which are often set when motivation is high after a good refreshing and often indulgent holiday. However, often these goals are never sustained for a prolonged period of time.

1.    Drinking more water. Something that I know I am really bad at!- those dark circles will not go away by themselves! So far this resolution seems to be going pretty well and the added ease of being at my desk a lot of the time has made filling up my water bottle that much easier than when I am on the go. We will see when exams finish whether this is kept up.

2.    Make an effort to go running or do some form of exercise at least 3 or 4 times a week. I am literally dying to get back into running but with the sun not rising till well after I have eaten breakfast this has not been an exact successful.

3.    Keep up the healthy eating, do not turn towards the easy and convenient option. Yes, pizza is great, but your body will thank you. I have taken the step this year to give up crisps… I know quite random but I want to see if I can go without them. I thought it was just too difficult to try and give up cake, maybe that can be a trial thing over Lent??

 For some more personal goals/resolutions for the year:

1.    Make every effort to speak to your friends at home. I don’t just mean my closest friends but also others I felt particularly close to. They may appreciate a message out of the blue just to say you are thinking of them.

2.    Keep up your cooking and baking!! This is one of the things I love the most. Currently, I am in catered halls of residence so getting most of my cooking done for me. Although, I am pretty sure that being back at home my Mum would more than appreciate a night off cooking or just simply getting my creative juices flowing.

3.   Take more pictures! If 2015 taught me anything it is that so many moments are special. If I look at my wall right now covered in pictures they make me so happy and allow me to remember a moment in time.

4.    Make every effort to keep up my blog. One: it is good for me to get stuff down. Two: it will be a good way to look back on what has happened throughout the year.

 Ella xx

What a Year: 2015

We are already into the middle of January (where did that time go!?) However, I feel it important to reflect on what has happened in 2015. Maybe even set out some resolutions/goals for 2016. So much has changed in the space of 12 months. I have left school and started university. A process that was both exciting and really quite nerve racking at the same time. So here are a few highlights….

January: Ahh!! Not the year I am leaving school. I had a few 18^th birthdays to celebrate which made the month seem to fly by.

April: MY 18^th BIRTHDAY; one of the hottest days of the year and absolute bliss. I went to stay with a lovely friend and ended up being thrown the best surprise birthday supper at Pizza Express surrounded by almost all my friends. At that moment it was the definite realisation in a few months that I would not being seeing all these lovely people every day after the 7 years we’d spent growing through secondary school. That moment I think I will savour for years to come….

May and June: EXAM SEASON…. the words I hate hearing. Well unfortunately it is Semester 1 exam season right now as I type so again facing exam season reality once more.
Remarkably, those 2-3 weeks of hell did go by rather quickly so that was a relief and at the time I felt relatively positive I hadn’t totally mucked up the majority of my exams.
The end of June bought the annual Leavers’ Ball and Leavers’ Day. Leavers’ Day comprises of a prize giving, massive year picnic with parents and then a very emotional Leavers’ Service. I feel so privileged to have been given one of the top prizes in my year for altruism which was total shock but an incredible way to end my 7-year school career.
The evening was our Leavers’ Ball which allowed us all to get dressed up and let our hair down a little bit after all our exam stress plus an amazing way to end our time as a whole year. The food was brilliant too and maybe a little much was drunk throughout the night.

July: NEW JOB. I started my new job with the most brilliant catering company called ‘The Chipping Norton Tea Set,’ an afternoon tea caterer based in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. I had the absolute best summer with them allowing me to be paid to bake (obviously on a much large scale than I’m used to!) and also working at their weddings, christenings, birthdays etc. serving the food that I had made during the few days of preparation beforehand. Definitely, a very rewarding job that also allowed me to travel to many corners of the South of England. I am really hoping that this is something I’ll be able to continue as I felt so welcome from the first day I stepped through the door.

August: RESULTS DAY! Rather a stressful day, as I missed out on my first choice of Exeter to do Geography by about 3 marks. In hindsight, I look on that day and realise I was lucky even to have had a confirmed place at university when so many people had to go through clearing.

September: A 21^ST BIRTHDAY PARTY AND STARTING UNIVERSITY. Just before starting university I was lucky enough to go to London for a Masquerade themed 21^st birthday party. Was a really lovely evening which allowed me to see lots of my friends before we all went our separate ways for university.

The start of university at the end of September was truly so exciting and yet very daunting. I was lucky enough to be placed on probably the best corridor in halls with some very likeminded people. People who wanted to socialise but also could get down to work at the same time. Freshers’ was not the best week of my life and I look back on with a certain amount of blurriness. Maybe good considering some of the stuff I do remember was someone going to the loo in our kitchen sink or streams of sick passing by my door. Oh well it seems to have ended up fine- luckily no sick or poop incidences again.

October: MY MUM’S BIRTHDAY. I only mention this occasion as it was the first time I came home from university. My twin brother, Angus also came home and we ended up going to her twin sister’s for their birthday supper. I also spent an absolute age making her a cake.

December: A LOT OF CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS happened both at university and also at home. As a corridor in halls we went out for a brilliant supper to Bella Italia. A real laugh and so nice to be able to have everyone together. I also had my first ever Geography Society Christmas Ball. For some reason as a subject we like to make far more effort to socialise and organise something formal. We ended up going to a Country Club just outside Southampton having a 3 course meal and then a massive party afterwards. Was fun until our bus broke down at 2am…

SKIING:- The first weekend of the Christmas holidays my brother, my Mum and I with another family of 5 had the most brilliant week up in La Plagne, France. Thank goodness we were up high as so many people had had to cancel their skiing holiday because it didn’t decide to properly snow till the end of December. Although a little icy and rocky in parts we came away with no broken bones having thoroughly enjoyed our week away.

CHRISTMAS DAY: we went for the day to see my grandparents, my aunt, uncle and cousin in London. We were virtually only there for 5 hours but it was a very special moment that I am hoping can one day be repeated.

What else in December: I passed my driving test and finally got contact lenses…!!

Obviously, I have not included every month and not every detail happening throughout the year but that is just a taste of what has happened in my 2015.

If I can I will do a separate post on some of my goals/resolutions for 2016.

Ella xx

Link to Chipping Norton Tea Set: www.chippingnortonteaset.co.uk

Back in November

How disorganised I am a blog post that got written and never shared from back in November....


How time truly does fly. I am currently sitting on a train between Southampton and Exeter, as I am off to visit a friend who is studying Spanish down there. So far some of the views of open fields, (and LOTS OF COWS- well in comparison to Southampton) have been a bit of welcome scenic change from the constant hustle and bustle that Southampton seems to offer. This landscape is definitely more of what I am used to living in rural Gloucestershire and seems much more familiar than city life.
In no way am I saying that I don’t enjoy city life because both city and country living certainly both have their perks, but surprisingly I found the transition to city life much easier than I expected.
 

I cannot begin to tell you how quickly the last 10 weeks of university have gone. It does feel like I have been there and known everyone forever. That is a good sign! So far I have a really good set of friends; some who live on my corridor, a few on my course and then a couple of others who live in halls with me. This week has been a little testing, because I have been given two offers of house sharing next year. I have known since pretty early on that I have wanted to share with a group of girls in my halls, but I suppose I have found it difficult to let the other group down gently. Eventually, I did pluck up the courage to tell a few of the group and there have been many promises of visits bearing baked goods and maybe a little alcohol too…

I think there is so much pressure on students nowadays to feel they need to make best friends really quickly and then settle on renting on a house before Christmas. I feel you need more time to actually get to know the people you are living with and there is plenty of time to look at housing in January, or even February. As a group we have a rough idea of where we want to live and generally most of us mutually agree on what we are looking for when choosing to rent somewhere. Quite a scary, yet exciting thought that I am going to sign my first tenancy agreement before I even turn 19!...

Every day at university surprises me in some way. There is always something that changes- may it be some boy related drama that a friend is having (more of my own in another blog post??), work related or something going at home. The last 10 weeks have been something of an emotional rollercoaster. I have realised where some of my strengths are and reinforced where my weaknesses lie. I can’t say university has been really hard, but I have definitely learnt to be much more self-reliant especially when it comes to my work. Your time is most definitely your own to choose what you do with. This is totally obvious to me with ‘TV Dan’ who lives above my room and plays FIFA all day with the boys on his corridor. I literally have no idea when he does any work??

Ella xx