a delayed introduction to our newest family member...

Hey Guys...

Meet Blue.

He's a labrador collie-cross.

He's our new puppy.

Well, not so new now. We've had him just over a month.

He appeared whilst I was in London and so he was a pleasant surprise.

In that month we have found out many things...

1) He's really good at falling asleep in any and all positions...

He can just flop on to the sofa and fall asleep instantly.

How he does it we're not quite sure.

2) Don't be fooled by his puppy dog eyes and how cute he looks when he sleeps.

He's a terror. His favourite pass time is barking at 5 o'clock in the morning.

And finally ..

3) He knows he should pee outside, and yet he taunts me

by peeing just infront of the open back door.

I mean seriously Blue! Cut me some slack!!

But, whilst he is a noisy, peeing machine, I love him.

In the evening when he's all tired out he's so cute!

we're all going on a summer holiday...

Mwnt Beach at Sunset

... Well actually I've just been on holiday.

No where fancy I'm afraid,

just five days camping in deepest, darkest Wales!

It had it's ups and it's downs,

but that's a story for a proper post.

This is just a pop in to let you know I'm still here.

Did you miss me?

university advice - money makes the world go round.

Congratulations!!

You've made it into University.

Now what?

Managing to life your life on s student budget is at times an art form.

I've seen how to do it from people, and I've also seem what not to do.

So here are my top tips for budgeting on a student loan.

1.

Open a student bank account as soon as possible - this can be done before you actually get to uni. They will be able to offer you an interest free overdraft, which hopefully you won't need but will be if necessary. Different banks have different incentives on offer, for example free railcards or NUS cards. This helpful article from the Guardian should help you choose the right one for you.

Also, if your bank will let you, open a second account. This can be used to store the majority of your student loan once you get it so you can't touch it from your everyday bank account. This will avoid the "I've accidentally spent my rent" problem!

2.

Ask for student discount at every possibility. Some shops will accept your student card provided by the university. Others will only accept an NUS card, this may be something worth investing in as it's only£10 and entitles you to loads of exclusive discounts.

You can get discounts for students everywhere from the cinema, most retail shops and loads of restaurants. But if you ask and that shop doesn't offer one, you haven't lost anything. It doesn't hurt to ask.

3.

Print out a monthly calender and display it somewhere prominant. Use it to mark all the money going in and out; loans, bursery, rent, bills. This should help you know what money you will have and when so you know how much you have to play with.

Don't forget to budget in money for food!

4.

When going on a night out, decide how much you can afford and take only that in cash. This way you won't have your card on you and the temptation of extra alcohol and spur of the moment purchases.

One friend of mine has a habit of buying expensive bottles of champagne on nights out - she doesn't even like champagne so gives it away. Don't let this be you!!

5.

This is probably the point I'd like to stress the most. Do not, and I repeat DO NOT get a credit card. Your bank will constantly try and push one on you, but resist. Unlike an overdraft on a student account they charge really high interest rates and are difficult to crawl out of.

If you are really struggling with money, there is no shame is asking your parents for a little short term help. Or if the situation is more dire then your university will have a department that should be able to help you out of your specific situation!

Managed properly, it is possible to survive on a student budget

without majorly depriving yourself.

Just don't go mad when your loan comes in - it has to last you all term!

See also:

university advice - the difference between try and triumph is a little umph.

university advice - all work and no play makes jack a dull boy.

university advice - food glorious food.

[1] [2] [3] [4]

university advice - food glorious food.

Congratulations!!

You've made it into University.

Now what?

The above pictures are just some snippets from my uni life last year.

Food becomes one of the main focus's of your daily life,

as for many people it's the first time they've had to cook for themselves.

Here are my top five tips relating to food at university.

1.

Make your food from scratch if at all possible. The may seem appealing to live on ready meals, but what you save on time you lose on money. Fresh ingredients are much, MUCH cheaper than ready meals and you can make more than one meal out of them.

It also gives you the ability to branch out on what you're eating - some ideas I've cooked (as shown above) are homemade beef burgers, chicken pie and roast veg, risotto. Vary what you eat, you will get bored of pasta all the time!

2.

Practice now, whilst you're still at home and can ask the advice of your mum, dad, grandparents, siblings. They'll have useful advice and will correct you when you make mistakes.

This should also help you build up a repertoire of recipes that you're confident cooking for those first few weeks. Having a taste of home (literally) will help you feel less homesick when you're feeling down.

3.

Buy little and often. It will save things like your milk and vegetables not being finished and consequently going off in the fridge - which is unpleasant for all involved. It's also kinder on your pocket as you're not throwing away half of what you buy.

If you have the space, yuou can freeze things like milk and cheese and defrost them as and when you need them so you don't get caught short. As for everything else, if your walk home from uni is anything like mine, it will be littered with tesco express's and quicki-marts. So you can pick up those odds and ends you may need on your way home.

4.

If you do need to do a bigger shop, for example at the start of a new term, I highly recommend using the online services provided by most supermarkets.

Trust me, after a long day at uni the last thing you will want to do is walk to the supermarket, walk around the supermarket and then walk home with 10 million bags. So do it from the comfort of your house and get them to deliver it! Also, while you're at it, sign up for a tesco clubcard/nectar card/ points card because you will accumulate a lot of points which can help take the sting off some of your bigger shops!

5.

Most students know they can get money off clothes and other things with a student discount, but not many know that some restaurants do student offers. For example, Nando's do a 20% student discount monday-thursday and with an NUS card you can get 20% off at Pizza Express sunday-thursday.

Websites such as NUS and student beans can help point you in the right direction!

Finally, this isn't really a tip, but a suggestion for something I found very successful. Once a week (on a wednesday) I would cook a meal for myself and my best two gal pals. They in return would bring the wine. The three of us would eat and drink well for pennies, and afterwards we'd get ready together and go out to the biggest student night.
It ended up being one of our highlights of the week and they loved my cooking as I was more adventurous then they were!!

So there are my top tips for eating at university!

Don't be afraid to try something new!

See also:

university advice - the difference between try and triumph is a little umph.

university advice - all work and no play makes jack a dull boy.

university advice - money makes the world go round.

university advice - all work and no play makes jack a dull boy.

Congratulations!!

You've made it into University.

Now what?

The above pictures are just some snippets from my uni life last year.

At uni, your social life explodes!

If your university is like mine there will be some kind of social event

on every night of the week, most likely with discount alcohol!

These are my top five tips for social excursions!

1.

University students are obsessed with fancy dress, whether it's a huge student event like Carnage or just somebodies birthday. Or just 'cos - you'll find any excuse. So hunt down anything you think might be useful, I'm sure you have more hanging around your room than you originally thought.

And ladies, a hint from experience, coloured tights go a very long way in the winter when you're dressing up! This year I wore red, green, pink (regular and stripey!), blue and white. Stock up!!

2.

There will be nights when your friends want to walk home and your feet hurt too much, you may have lost all your friends completely or it's unexpectedly started tipping it down. These are the nights you want to get a taxi, but you don't have any money!!
I suggest putting aside £5 as 'emergency money' for these situations. Tuck it in the back of your phone (or I keep it in my bra!!) so that even if you spend everything in your purse, you still have something to fall back on if necessary! And it doesn't hurt to "find" it again the next morning and realise you didn't spend as much as you thought!!

3.

If you're going over to someone else's house for a party or for pre-drinks (if you don't know what this is, you'll become very familiar with it!!) only take as much alcohol as you think you will drink.

Because I can assure you, you will not be getting it back from that person's house. They will deny all knowledge of it being left there and drink it themselves. Promise.

4.

Be prepared to do some really stupid things, like apple bobbing out of a paddling pool full of alcohol, sneaking into a children's playground at 3am, climbing a huge pile of soil on a building site.

They seem like fabulous ideas at the time, and you will cringe about it the next morning. But you need to have an arsenal of anecdotes to share with your home friends when you all get together again.

5.

Invite your friends from other universities down to visit and go and visit them as much as you can at the start of each term (before the work piles on). This will really help you settle in during those first weeks of home sickness - which everyone gets so don't panic!
It will also give you great ideas for drinking games or dress up ideas or just fun things to do on nights out!

So they're my top five!

Of course there are many more, so if anyone has any ideas leave a comment.

See also

university advice - the difference between try and triumph is a little umph.

university advice - food glorious food.

university advice - money makes the world go round

university advice - the difference between try and triumph is a little umph.

Congratulations!!

You've made it into University.

Now what?

The above pictures are just some snippets from my uni life last year.

Not from the wonderful alcohol fuelled nights out that regularly happen,

but from the work and stress filled nights before hand-ins.

So I figured I'd pass on some knowledge I've gleaned from my first year!

1.

As obvious as it sounds, don't leave work to the last minute. I stupidly left a 3,000 word essay to literally the last day and it was the most stressful, tear filled day of my life to date. Seriously, don't do it.

Start thinking about your essay title as soon as you're given the assignment brief; either which one you want to choose if they're set titles or what you'd like to write about if you have the freedom to pick your own. Then start your background reading early, even if you're not going to start writing it yet, get an overall idea of your subject that way you'll show indepth knowledge (and thus get batter marks!!)

2.

Learn your referencing style early on. It was get you marks later on and save you the hassle of trying to learn it when it eventually counts.

Also, big piece of advice is to reference as you go along. Even if it's not in the correct format (Harvard, Vancouver, whichever you use), jot down the important information. It will save you the ordeal of trying to track down the book and page number when you're hurriedly trying to finish an assignment.

3.

One thing I found a bit of a shock was the fact that most of my modules where purely assessed by one exam and nothing more. This compared to A-Level where you have multiple exams or coursework for one subject was a bit daunting.

In second term I worked out that for me, the best thing was to read through my subject notes for that week and add any extra notes that I'd forgotten or got from a textbook. That way I knew if anything is missing and it kept the information fresh in my mind. So when my summer exams rolled around I felt prepared and not that I had to teach myself the whole course.

4.

Another painfully obvious tip, is to go to your lectures. Even if you're dying from freshers flu or the worst hangover ever, I really suggest you go. ESPECIALLY if it's an exam based module because they pick a little bit from every lecture, trust me!

If you do have to miss a lecture for whatever reason, find someone to get the notes or handouts for you. It was save you heartache nearer exam time and give you a chance to know what the information is.

If you ever need motivation, just think - you're paying for these lectures! For my course it worked out as around £300 a lecture! That made me get out of bed!!

5.

Finally, organise yourself. Have folders with dividers for each of your modules. If your lecturer puts their powerpoints online before the lecture I suggest printing them out before you go as it will save you scribbling like a fool. Similarly, print them off after if you forgot, they will fill the gaps that you couldn't write down; because you will not be able to write as fast as they talk and you will miss something!

Another tip would be to print out the calendar month and mark down all the things you have coming up, like deadlines, trips home, important dates (big nights out, birthdays). This will help you plan your work and will also help you with budgeting your money as that student loan runs out pretty quickly!

Hopefully these have been helpful for anyone starting uni.

Being organised from the beginning really does save you time later on!!

See also:

university advice - all work and no play makes jack a dull boy.

university advice - food glorious food.

university advice - money makes the world go round.

twenteen

Thursday was my birthday. My twentieth birthday.

And I had the whole family make 'old' related jokes;

so I decided it was I was turning 'twenteen'.

Being a teenager has had some downs, but it's definitely had some huge ups.

Waving goodbye to them means waving goodbye to my childhood.

And I need to learn to embrace the fact I'm getting older,

more mature if you will.

Something I didn't ever think I'd do! Haha!

Despite all this, I decided to have a little family get together.

The weather was horrendous in the morning,

however by the time that my grandparents and best friend arrived

it had all cheered up and the sun was blaring!

Mum and Grandma had, without meaning to, coordinated their wrapping paper!!

I love this heart pattern from Emma Bridgewater,

I received the mug in this pattern for my last birthday!!

The presents inside the wrapping were just as wonderful!

I received 6 hearts for my decorative wall (post to come soon),

some beautiful fairy lights,

books galore and a new Emma Bridgewater mug!!

As for birthday cake, we had plenty of choice.

Porscha brought over the little cupcakes that were incredibly sinful!!

And tasted soooo good!!

The big cake was made with a slimming recipe that I got from my class!

And even though I was sceptical at first, it tasted lovely.

And it was filled with tonnes of gorgeous fruit,

so it was very healthy!!

Even though it didn't want this birthday,

I did have a wonderful day with my friends and family.

I didn't want it to end!!

lovely london

What with all the madness going on in London at the moment,

I thought now would be a perfect time to show the lovely time

Ollie and I had only a week ago!

You can read about what we had planned here!

sunday, 31st july

Our first day started nice and early for an 8 o'clock bus. Owch.

And then we had a nightmare getting through Victoria station,

with a 55 minute wait for oyster cards.

However, on the other side of this hideous wait

was my wonderful aunt, uncle and two small cousins!

Ollie and I spent the early afternoon babysitting,

but then we were allowed out and into London!!

So we went to....

Covent Garden, hurrah!

I loved all the street entertainment that was going on.

Lots of "human statues" {some better than other}

a VERY grumpy magician,

a comedy duo doing circus acts,

and above - a dog in a basket; something I've never seen!!

We had a mooch around some of the stalls and the independent shops,

we stumbled upon the cutest ice cream parlour called "The Icecreamists"

and between us chose a scoop of 'the vanilla monologues' and 'sex, drugs & choc'n'roll'.

We were worried that being a sunday night,

that we wouldn't have much time before the shops started to close,

but when we left around 8 o'clock everything was still in full swing.

Which was just what we wanted!

monday, 1st august

Monday was the most jam packed day of my life;

river cruise, london eye, yo! sushi lunch, harrods,

bistro pub dinner and a westend show.

And lots and lots of walking!

We had another early start, as we wanted to get our tickets

for the eye and the cruise early because we knew there would be huge queues!

Once we had our tickets we had time to kill until our cruise

so we walked along the embankment next to the Thames.

Along the embankment they had a festival

celebrating the 'festival of Britian'.

Ollie and I had our photo taken in a little photo booth

and had fun looking at the decorated beach houses that were there.

For our River Cruise, we were given a wonderful air conditioned boat

that even had an on board bar!

Originally I was disappointed it wasn't open topped,

but after seeing them packed on like sardines I changed my mind!

There was a bit where we could go outside,

and we took a few photos with the London Bridge,

but soon retreated back to the cool!

Straight after we started queuing for the London Eye

as we expected a long wait, but were pleasantly surprised

that we got put in the short queue! Amazing!

I've been on the Eye before, but it was Ollie's first.

But the experience is always amazing.

I find it interesting to realise that everything in London is so close

because you can often feel detached when you're on and off the tube.

Plus the views are amazing!

Next up in our busy day was a trip to Harrods,

my favourite part is the food courts - especially the chocolate displays.

I've been to Harrods once before, but this time

we discovered rooms that I didn't before.

Like the technology room - which was Ollie's heaven.

And also the chocolate bar, where we had the nicest hot chocolate ever!!

Finally in our jam packed day was a trip to the theatre

to see wonderful show Wicked.

I didn't have any idea what the plot was about,

which was really rather nice as everything was a surprise!

The whole show was so well acted, and the singing impeccable.

And the end the audience gave them a standing ovation.

It also brought me to tears; I definitely welled up!

When we finally got home, we'd been out of the house

for over 14 hours.

Safe to say we collapsed in bed!

tuesday, 2nd august

Our last day in London had been left to do the things

we came up with during our stay.

We went to Westfield shopping center

with my aunt and it was like another world!

So many gorgeous shops - it has the only ugg shop in the UK!

Next up we went to the National History Museum

to visit the dinosaurs as Ollie has wanted to go since he was small.

I remember the exhibit when I was little,

they all seemed bigger, but that's probably because I was smaller!!

Our final stop was a trip to tea room 'Bea's of Bloomsburys'

which I had been eagarly awaiting the whole time.

And I wasn't disappointed.

For my tea I chose 'Earl Grey Supreme' which knocked my socks off

and we enjoyed the lightest scones I've ever tasted,

homemade lemon marshmallow,

raspberry meringue, tiny brownies,

and two beautiful cupcakes there were literally works of art!

After this we had a mad sprint to the bus station to catch the bus home

as the tubes had huge delays on them; stupid London tubes.

But we made it!

Even though London is rioting now, it is a beautiful city

full of culture and history.

It makes me sad that people would seek to destroy it.

But this won't stop me going back, I'm in love with London too much!

Forget trying to be sexy. That's just gruesome.

These wise words were spoken by Colin Firth,

who is one hell of an actor, and in my mind very scrummy.

Today I finally got around to doing something

that I've meant to do for a while. I actually joined we♥it.

For those who don't know, it's a website full of inspirational photos.

One of the key words to the right caught my eye,

and that word was sexy.

I think sexy is a very overrated word

and is something that a huge amount of emphasis upon.

So I clicked on it out of curiosity,

and a vast array of images came up all tagged with the word sexy.

Aside from the {apparently obligatory} topless men and women,

I came across a rather odd combination of images

a few of which I thought I'd share with you.

None of the photos below are what I'd describe as sexy.

*I'd describe this more as pretty, feminine beauty as opposed to a sexy beauty*

*I know for some people the back of the neck is a sensual thing, but just a messy hairstyle?*

*Whilst I think this image is beautiful, I wouldn't class it as sexy*

*Food? Sexy is not really one of the things that jumps to my mind when asked to describe food*

*How on earth can you conceivably class a baby as sexy!?*

Do you agree with any or all of these?

What do you class as sexy?

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