1st December!

I know right? that time already!? It's my 20th birthday on Saturday and I still have no idea what I'm doing fully on that day... and that's because; I HAVE DEADLINES.

So many DEADLINES!

People and Performance
Financial Appraisal
Consumer Behaviour
Event Management;
include into this, CV, cover letters, placement search, job search, birthday plans, Xmas plans, tattoo plans, money saving... all in TWO WEEKS! 

It's 1.13am on Thursday the 1st December. I have a lecture at 11am. And I'll let you into a secret: I haven't even started my People and Performance essay and it's due in Friday 2nd December at midday.
It doesn't look like I'm going to go to bed anytime soon, does it? and I was thinking about getting into University at 10am...?

I haven't actually got anything useful to say. Except when your talking to 2nd year students rolling your eyes when they stress to you how hard 2nd year is because you were out the night before and you thought year two was a whole year away yet.. I knew they weren't kidding but I just thought that I would have cracked the whole 'time-management' thing (like my lecturer always stresses to us about.. blah blah). Turns out I'm really not a time-management person...

This post is just to say, I'm trying my best not to panic. or stress. or cry. or get too excited about my 20th (!) birthday and forget my bloody deadlines!

And with my time-management out the window, it's back to waffling on this damn essay.

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How to stage an all-nighter

So this is probably my fourth time staging the study all-nighter. First year I was notorious for them; a assignment due the next day but you'd been too scared to complete it? pull an all-nighter. Been out way too much and you finally realise that you have to do some reading before the lecture tomorrow? pull an all-nighter. Way too much on for you to handle; you just started working and before you know it it's midnight but you can't prepare yourself to stop? pull an all-nighter. Simple.

So it's not good for you to not sleep for a day but this is university, you're not supposed to drink excessively but we do it anyway. Everything in moderation, I say.

At the moment, it's 7.46am on Wednesday morning and I've been up since 10.30am Tuesday morning. I have a 500 word literature review on economic impacts and a 2000 word essay on Entrepreneurial Development. I've finished the ED essay (however it's 3000 words) but I'm struggling very muchly on the literature review.

My all-nighter has consisted of 40minute study time and the occasional 10minute spider solitaire break. I've watched both the brand new Glee's and have been trolling through YouTube looking for anything to keep me up. As well as eating a hell of a load of chocolate bourbons; I'm surprisingly, on my second cup of coffee, stolen some Sugar Puff cereal in a mug and gone through three packets of tissues. Oh, plus the odd posts on Facebook - about absolutely nothing at 3am in the morning, then again 40minutes later thinking it's been about an hour since I last posted.

However (this is the good part), I've been to university, had a thorough talk about placements, emailed people about placements, looked at placements and part time jobs, emailed people about the fundraiser I'm organising, seen my friend do a open-mic set and do most of my review and essay.
See! Useful! All in a actual full days work.

So here are the tips I've stuck with on pulling an study all-nighter:
1. Do work. Your supposed to be studying, don't end up downloading movies and watching crap TV (even if I watched two new Glee's - I had been working really hard before that)
2. Comfy? Make sure you're comfortable. Nothing's worse than being up all night, done all that work and you've been in the most uncomfortable position that you can hardly stand... Talk about nightmare.
3. Coffee. Caffeine. Sugar. You're gonna need it. I've heard a disgusting recipe today for Red-Bull and Berrocca, can you imagine..? Pro Plus can help, so can coffee, Red Bull, Monster, Relentless.. and water helps too!
4. Time yourself. Saying you're going to study consistently for the whole night is unlikely and stupid. Give yourself a break.
5. Again, Sugar. I always think something sweet (like chocolate) gets me through the night..
6. Stretch. Stiff neck, stretch; aching back, stretch; cramping fingers, stretch.
7. Tiredness. There will be a bit where you think "Forget this, I can't stand it anymore, I need sleep." Push through, get up and walk about for a bit, drink some more coffee. Remember that this is all about getting the work done, you can sleep when you've finished it.
8. Water. Definitely have water by your side.
9. MUSIC! click through YouTube like never before, find music on your computer that you completely forgot about so you can head-bang/ mime/ sing along. Anything to keep you upbeat and lively.
10. Mood swings. You've been up all night what did you expect?
11. Reward yourself. By what else? sleep.

Really, you even considering or completing an study all-nighter means you're not very good with your time management so in actual fact, you should be ignoring this post... because you've already completed all your work right?.. RIGHT?!


Don't worry, I won't tell if you won't.

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My first day in my new house... and this is what happens.

 Before:

To this:

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Looking for a job. Anyone hiring?

Currently, I’m trying to write out a new CV. I’m failing miserably. I’ve completed a survey for Studentbeans.com, looked at volunteering experiences whilst listening to Pala by Friendly Fires on Spotify but at the same time looking for new music. Oh, and now my tea’s gone cold.

I am on Prospects website though, which is a start. I had my desk all sorted, hung up the washing, made myself a hot water bottle because my huge room is very cold and a Earl Grey. I’ve closed the door, stuck my headphones in; I am ready to work. I just haven’t exactly started yet. I’m blogging instead.

You see, my CV before was okay (confirmed by my Dad) but I’ve had a varied work life:

·         Audience co-ordinator for SRO Audiences

·         BHS Web Studio assistant

·         Christmas temp ‘sales advisor’

·         Data Inputting,

·         and quite a lot of volunteering (from Pride London parade to working in a Charity shop)

Who on this Earth would hire me with that work history?

Sure I’ve done the little experiences of waitressing but never the things that should actually get me a job. Such as; bar-tending, retail longer than just a Christmas temp, a real waitressing job or the promotions gig for the local clubs.

If I wanted to make myself feel better I could say that for some jobs I’m ‘too experienced’ for the silly weekend jobs. But that would be a lie. The real truth is when applying for the normal student weekend jobs; they didn’t even give me a chance.

I’ve had one job interview. I turned up an hour early.

I did get a tweet from someone telling me they had a job for me in Bournemouth but it turned out to be something really strange and American. And here I was thinking Twitter was amazing.

I’ve searched on all the job sites, food stores, contemplated the ‘make money from home’ job adverts and the only job contact I did have has left her job and I have no idea who’s taken over. I emailed her old email and that sent back to me in about 3 seconds of sending it.

I tried to pitch a catchy ‘hire me please!’ tweet to a Events Group but that never got anywhere and to add to that, I missed out on the recruitment meeting for Event Managers at a successful Bournemouth club because I was at work in London.

This kind of leaves me a little stuck.

My People and Performance lecturer is having a CV lecture/ seminar on how to write a CV this coming week so I don’t exactly have to worry about writing out my CV but it’s the where do I send the CV to.

I suck at telling people what I’m good at. I suck at telling people what I’m not good at. I suck at talking about myself in general.

However, I’ve learnt that most people have trouble at that.

This all ties into my placement next year but I’ll probably create a blog on placements etc. so you can read how un-employable I am, as if that isn’t easy to see already.

Anyway, I haven’t done anything on my CV except write out my details.

I have a covering letter and a CV to write for Freeze Festival (by today I think), another volunteering experience.

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2nd Year!!!

Whoop Whoop 2nd Year!

So Survival of a University Student is becoming a 2nd year!
I am practically mourning my Fresher days already.
No more doing silly stuff just because I'm a Fresher, no Freshers fair; I feel so old!
However, before I declare myself a grumpy old student with no Freshers flair in me, I have three Freshers starting this year and that helps tremendously. Which means that, they will or I hope (after much persuasion) tell me the best Fresher parties so that I can gate-crash.
I'm still coming down on Freshers because if we're being honest here, these three weeks are the best you'll have at University.

So I have decided that until the end of October, I shall party. After that, I will put my head down, and I will study.
Whether this plan will last since my course is quite demanding and knowing them, I'll be emerged into a swarm of work.

On the subject of work and my course, I did well on my exams but I had to resit one.
There’s not much else to say about resits. They suck.
You do your best in an exam, you wait a month and a half and then you see the dreaded words of: Need to resit module.
But at least you can do them.
My motivation towards the exam wasn’t the best; I had work, volunteering, a social life and the thought of having to re-do an exam that I had already revised for… I didn’t want to do it.

But now, second year, I’m going to balance a job, work, volunteering and a social life. This can be done. I will do it.

Anyone got any tips?

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My 2011 Summer

Hands up if when you look back on your summer, you had a good time!?
Because I know I did.

From the end of May until mid-September I’ve been on holiday. So there were days at home rummaging through Virgin Media TV choice on demand, scouring through the various channels only to spend the whole day on music channels and I might have even had a plan of what I watched when I woke up. If I was up early enough on a weekday I’d watch Home Under The Hammer at 10am, if not I woke up to The Maury Show at 11am, then music channels until E! News at 1pm and then yes, back to the music channels going up and down and up and down every ten minutes.

Or I was at work, with models (men, women, kids), steaming clothes, chatting to different kinds of people, eating really bad canteen food and singing along to out-dated 80's music that I love. Or, I was wristbanding random strangers outside the BBC studios in White City, London, getting them into some of my favourite shows.

Aren't they pretty?!

At one point in my summer, I was managing a gate at Pride London Parade in the middle of Piccadilly Circus.
Picking up (for the first time) a speaker and getting near a thousand people to do the Mexican wave up and down each side of the barriers while the rest of my group, people I had only met a half an hour before, cheered me on. A gay guy asked me for a hug after as well as some girls asking me to take a picture with their Pride Teddy-bear; I’ve never felt so wanted before in my life.
Switch to, telling randomers that they couldn’t cross the road because if they didn’t notice there was a parade going on and though I understood that they had to go to their theatre showing, the parade stopped in a couple of minutes and only then could I let them through. Insert here the swear words, the pushing and the crushing of poor little me. Oh, and a transvestite called Tina who reminded me of a Army captain by the barks of ordering when things got a little too hard for me to manage myself. I did mean to say me to manage because in the middle of Piccadilly Circus at my first ever Pride I was managing a team of five to guard the gates, the ‘manager’ was sitting on the floor without a care in the world.
A day of volunteering meant a night time of parties and at 7.30am the next day I strolled into my house.

I went out quite a bit; I went to a Single Launch in London Bridge. Again, the best friend and I unlocked her door at nearly 6am that Sunday. A couple of birthday parties, drinking pitchers for myself and I may have forgotten that they were meant for sharing, house parties with rows and arguments, girly nights in talking nonsense until one in the morning.
BBQ's, family parties, hungover days, football matches... you get the jist.

Another volunteering experience of the summer was at a brilliant festival called LEEFEST. Started by a young 17year old (named Lee obviously) who, after his parents told him not to have a house party decided to stage a festival in his back garden in 2006. Now he has the likes of Fenech – Soler, DJ Fresh, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly (who waved at me!), The National, The Holloways and The Young Knifes and also, a ton of unsigned acts that will explode onto the music scene soon! By The Rivers were my favourite by far, look on their Myspace, they’re touring with The Specials.

A new friend and I at Leefest!

If you can imagine, a gorgeous budget festival with wonderful people walking around, free Nandos, joking around with bubbly girls I met that day, not being too friendly with the Event Management girls (who decided to boss us around and didn’t realise who she was talking to, AKA Me. I had managed the car park the day before without her I think I could do it again).

A group of volunteering girls who thought that volunteering meant not doing any work and left our group of six to do all their shifts; gawping at Lee himself for being utterly cool riding on the back of a mini open top 4x4 (no doubt about it this guy oozed coolness without trying but the 4x4 helped) and end the weekend by discovering two 11year olds at the front of DJ Fresh and barricading ourselves around them from being washed away into the huge mosh-pit.

Fast forward a few weeks as I travel up to Bournemouth to check out my brand new house (a post on that later)! Two days later, a 10am start at IKEA to buy cool stuff to go with the house. I wonder the whole way around IKEA thinking of whether the colour scheme this year should be purple or black, white and orange…

However, news got round to my work that I wasn’t leaving just yet and so now, it’s one week of partying, another week of full on work. More cash for the partying I guess…

Now, who else wants to share?


LINKS: http://www.pridelondon.org/
http://www.leefest.org.uk
http://www.myspace.com/bytherivers

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This Blog is about to change...

So I used to post all the time at the start of my first year. But I'm not so good at sitting down and writing when most of the time, the rest of my housemates were drinking... (can we say that's a good excuse..?)
And as much as I love to write, blog, put all my ideas down and share my university happenings to the world, it got a little too much sometimes - I get writers block A LOT (you can see I'm not really made for blogging, can't you?)

But this year, I'm hoping it'll be different.
I'm going to transform this little blog into something of Cupcakes and Cashmere, (http://cupcakesandcashmere.com), and of course, Because I'm Addicted. (http://becauseimaddicted.net/). Then, we count in the lovelies of Save The Student, (http://www.savethestudent.org), who I look up to tremendously on how to make a successful student site.
These bloggers/ student sites are getting so many hits a day they're making money from it.. IMAGINE!
Then there's, (http://nielsencerbolles.tumblr.com/), and my good friend, (http://lildarlinjay.tumblr.com), the two are born to blog.

These sites are just a few I could name from the many, many sites I've encountered through Twitter, Blogspot and the internet.

So here I am, about a week and a bit to go to University year two.
More about my parties, my course, the hardships of university, getting a job, the drinking, the housemates and just more on me I guess...

WATCH THIS SPACE!

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Tips I've learnt from being at University for a year

Me and my housemate.
That is a cup on my head.

1. Appreciate your double bed back at home. You'll be downgrading to a single at Uni. They don't encourage sex.
2. Always use your student card at McDonalds. And everywhere else were you can get student discount. Don’t be afraid to ask if they do student discount (however, they only do it nearer student towns)
3. You don't need NUS Extra card (It may help at times, but it’s not an absolute must)
4. Meal cards (Sainsbury’s, Asda meal cards) at supermarkets are a blessing. Get your parents to put money on it as a leaving present before you go away. They are literally priceless.
5. Be friends on Facebook with the local pubs/ clubs to see what's on (but expect lots of event requests)
6. Going out is for 1st years, say goodbye to that 2nd year onwards. It’s a shame but true.
7. You'll never party hard nor as much as you will at Fresher’s
8. Nor will you drink as much
9. Experience new things. How will you know, if you don’t try it?
10. Don't budget too much, budgeting is for 2nd years. That’s just my opinion anyway…
11. However, know this now, after 1st year is over, you WILL be broke
12. Alcohol and cakes are good house-warming gifts. Alcohol and chocolate, what’s not to like?
13. Brush up on your drinking games NOW. There’s a lot out there…
14. Learn how to cook basics, buy a GOOD cookbook but know that after the first three months you won't look at it again
15. Simple but worth it: during half terms to give your liver a rest. But still go out.
16. If you want to do work whilst in the campus bar, bring a laptop. Working with a drink = Ultimate multi-tasking.
17. Read the campus magazine/newspaper for the latest info on what’s going on around Campus.
18. Remember that £20 for a night out is more than enough. It’s not high night out prices, this is University prices. Relish in the cheapness that is, going out as a student.
19. If you spend more when drunk, leave your credit card with friends that you trust/ or at home.
20. Hide emergency money… But I know that you’ll probably find it at 2am in the morning drooling over the late night Subway. It’s the thought that counts.
21. Pre-drinking is essential. ESSENTIAL.
22. Don't fret if you end up in a Unilet; I loved it. You might too. Don’t be put off with the fact that you won’t be in halls, you’ll probably visit mates there anyway, or better yet, get a better location than the halls.
23. Remember the Mermaid Theory, AKA, you're bound to find at least one of your housemates attractive because you'll spend so much time together. And before you think that's rubbish... Here's How I Met Your Mother to prove it.
24. If you’ve drunk too much and are sick, you’re sick. Remember, it’s not a contest.
25. Be respectful. Of your neighbours, housemates, yourself.
26. Saturday nights out are expensive. With older drunken thirty-year-olds… yeah, I’d pass too.
27. Take FULL advantage of £1 drinks. This is where £20 is more than enough.
28. Learn to take shots. Learn how to neck a drink without being sick after and you’ll fly through Uni.
29. Don't use the fire extinguishers. EVER.
30. Wash up after yourself. No-one likes someone who’s lazy, I should know personally, but if you clean up, there are no arguments.
31. Milk Thistle is GOD. If you read my hangover post, it will explain.
32. 9am lectures were made to be slept through in your 1st year. It’s a fact.
33. Do your best but don't aim TOO high, first year doesn't count (unless, of course, it does)
34. Don’t panic if you have to do re-sits. It’s way more common than you think and it’s not something to feel down about, this happens.
35. Maybe try to get a job in your first year but not right in the middle of Fresher’s. Fresher’s is the time to PARTY. Not work. Unless you want to be drunk at work…
36. Weight gain/ loss. You’ll be drinking a lot and you’ll probably lose some weight but this is common. Also you’ll be drinking a lot and you’ll probably put on some weight. Again, this is common.
37. TV licensing! In halls you probably won’t need one, but if you’re in a house, it’s worth it. Someone (I’m not even joking, it’s happened to us) will knock on your door and ask you questions.
38. The gym/ fitness classes are so much cheaper than the ones you’ll live near, so why don’t you try something that you’ve always wanted to do? Rock climbing, Zumba, Pole Dancing, spinning classes?

Reflection of my first year at University

I’m about to go into my last exams which start next week (wish me luck!). So, I’m going to ‘reflect’ on my first year, of course the word reflect is silly and I hate having to do it but alas…
As you may or may not know, I started a little bit late at University. I missed ‘arrivals week’ and came into university just before ‘Freshers week.’
My housemates were brilliant at first. When I pressed that doorbell to see two housemates, and I’ll never forget their faces and my house-mate calling to the others that ‘Lauren was here!’ I’ve never seen them run that fast before, even to this day.
My room was large, bare and in the attic. The rest of the night consisted of getting drunk playing Ring of Fire and learning about my 6 other house-mates. I remember collapsing into bed that night thinking that this had been the “right thing to do and why the hell had I even doubted coming to university in the first place.”
The nights out were something to remember. No longer was I in Croydon, I was officially a university student with money to spend, a house with six great people and a course that I was sure I would like.
University was different than I expected; I found out what lectures were really like, seminars were definitely ones not to miss and try to get to know some of my course mates.

I got a job early on, in hindsight, I shouldn’t have done it but I can’t regret it. I got to work in a retail job, something I hadn’t done before and to really see what happens in a shop. Though I didn’t really meet a lot of friends and I really hated it, I tried my best to do a good job. But being a student in my first couple of weeks of starting University I didn’t want to miss out on anything. I would go out with everyone on a Friday knowing I had to get up at 6am the next day. I had done it before back in Croydon, I could do it again but, sometimes you wake up drunk at 6am and stumble into work a state; hung-over included.
I think after the incident with a night out and a week old pasta I re-evaluated everything that I was doing. I stopped going on nights out on a Friday and concentrated on getting more sleep but I think by then I was already really jealous of my housemates being at home relaxing on the weekend.

I may have had a four day week of university but to me it was like I couldn’t ever really relax. Even when I was at home I was still working, I was still in ‘university mode’ I could never switch it off. I thought that having a weekend I could maybe switch it off and actually have some me time.

Maybe I should have planned it out differently, maybe I can’t handle two things at once or maybe a retail job really isn’t for me. I know for a fact that that job didn’t treat anyone nicely – even the managers complained how much they hated it. Mainly it was because I was only a Christmas temp. They weren’t going to keep any of us so why bother helping?
I can probably go on all day about how much it bothered me and though I put it to the back of my mind that I wasn’t going to be let go – it was inevitable. I did get some good things out of that job, the other Christmas temps and some of the younger staff were actually quite nice and I was complimented on how good my customer skills were by the customers. Shame my bosses didn’t see that and only noticed I was putting in the voucher codes wrong…


*
UNIVERSITY WORK
University work turned out to be tougher than I thought, I was struggling early on and it didn’t help that everyone around me were doing well or wasn’t doing anything at all.
Even though I had group work, my first assignment did well but I had the horrible feeling that my group didn’t like the fact that I was so casual about it all. They freaked while I told them that we were doing well. As the weeks went on and the assignments kept on coming with other groups and I learnt that everyone was taking this a lot more seriously than me.
I missed lectures, I missed Financial Reporting a lot and only turned up to seminars and group work because apparently this was fine according to second year students.
They literally told us to get all the late nights and bunking off lectures/seminars done now for second year is a completely different story.
So that’s exactly what I did.

The first year of university doesn’t count towards our final grade; you just have to pass it. All the second year students told us “you’ll sail through first year.”
So why was everyone panicking? It wasn’t until later that a fourth year student told us that in our course you couldn’t just ‘sail through,’ you work hard in all four years.


*
MAKING FRIENDS
I did have this idea that I would have loads of friends in my course and that I would go into Uni a different person. As much as I think I have changed, I didn’t really get the friends in my course.

I suppose it doesn’t bother me too much, I realised that everyone had much better and stronger personalities than what I was used to but also that I was quiet. I mostly listened and smiled a lot. I did get to work with many of my course-mates on group work which got me to talk more and to contribute more. Don’t get me wrong I’m not a loner, I do talk to a lot of my course-mates, we all sit together in lectures and I will always say hello.
If I’m going to reflect, I would say that actually does it matter if I haven’t made best friends with my course-mates? Well yes, because that’s why you take that 20minute journey into University but on the other side is all your housemates that make you smile and it’s not as if I haven’t got other friends elsewhere. I have friends through my housemates and my friends back home.
It’s just that little idea I did have before I came to University had been popped.


*
SECOND TERM
I had made my mistakes and revelled in my good grades by Christmas and after the two week break I was back on form to do the best I could. I still missed lectures but I made it into the hard subjects like economics and financial reporting (the subjects that I should really never do, because I can just about count on my fingers).
I hadn’t gone into my overdraft yet (big smiley face), I was happy to be back with my housemates and the two week break I realised that I didn’t need my parents as much as I thought, most of my mates from back home had stopped talking to me so what was the point? I was happier than I had been in ages.

However, my life was a soap opera. I felt like I lived in Hollyoaks. Drama happened left, right and centre. My grades were still good – I had had two really bad nights out and had been sick once. Little things started to happen though; I was really struggling with economics and financial reporting was a bore.

But you do what you can and you carry on.
University timetable was five days a week, three nine am starts. However, my timetable was four days a week (maybe five), with maybe one 9am start – if I hadn’t turned off my alarm in my sleep.

*
THIRD TERM
By March I was a tad homesick which surprised me. I wasn’t one to get upset about missing home however, I was talking more to my friends back home and little habits my housemates had would bug me.. So going home for the month of April really helped.

I was doubting about going returning to the next year of University though; I had changed my mind about what I wanted to do for a career (something I had had planned out since I was about 14/15 years old). It started when all my lectures and my friend stated this out for me: none of the guest lecturers, people we were supposed to aspire to be like, had degrees or any kind of experience in the field they were working in. They just worked their way from bottom to top. So why was I struggling over a degree when I could go out and gain that experience, working my way from the bottom to the top?

Additionally, it was little things like relatives asking me how my course was going and when I answered “hard,” they all rolled their eyes as if to say that I was obviously lying because University wasn’t hard.
It was weird but I was sick of always doing some sort of school work. I had been doing it since I was 5 and now at 19 years of age, I was sick of it. Irony.
It took some time; my parents freaked out just a little and a horrible career interview (while a tad hung-over, I’m not going to lie) for me to really have a look at what I was doing with my life.
Since then I’ve decided to stay. I’ll get the experience and the degree under my belt and then from there, I can look at where I want to go.

It just takes me a look at my grades so far to tell myself that I’m not actually struggling. It’s just me over thinking it. I’ve got a 1st in Financial Reporting (when two days before I had run down to the beach in a state because I thought that I would fail the test) and I haven’t gotten less than a 2:1 (yet…)

So in reflection, I have a house for next year with five (almost) great people and I pray that my course gets interesting in the second year, come September/ October. I’m gaining a really good experience with good friends, cheap nights out and the only real responsibility is to not kill myself with my own cooking.

So here’s to good grades in my four exams. But most importantly, a good summer getting drunk.

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Did you miss me?

Did you miss me?

I bet you have hundreds of questions you want to ask me!!
No?... Really? Not even why I was away for so long?

Okaaaay don't hound me at once, I'll tell you: I was studying a lot (like you wouldn't believe), had mental blog-blockage and I was probably out drinking somewhere... The life of a University Student.

I do want to apologise to everyone for being away for so long, it's hard to write down what is actually happening at University, it happens so fast and there's so much to do - it can be a bit hard to describe.

Coming up is a 'reflection' of my first year of university! Yes! It's that time already!!!
This time next Friday I will be getting very drunk with everyone I know feeling on top of the freaking world =)

Leave comments, ask me questions, and enjoy!

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Student Finance

Student Finance DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooohooo!!

"Your tuition fee for 2011/12 has increased from £3,290 to £3,375"
Not something you really want to see but hey-ho I've got a maintenance loan :)

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I Will Upload Soon...

I will upload soon.
Just be a lil patient with me :)


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Why I love Blackberry

It’s true, everyone has a Blackberry. Everyone knows that familiar Blackberry sound and looks around to see that person getting out their Blackberry Bold clicking away.
But Blackberry's got everything you could want on one phone. Who could ask for more?

1.      Different Apps on one phone – Who doesn’t love UberTwitter and the official Twitter app. I’m pleasantly happy with the TubeMap, MSN and BeBuzz Free. The Facebook app is okay, it gets the job done.

2.      The red-blinking – Having something that tells me if I have received something is a lot better than constantly having to pick up my phone and check.

3.      Music – Unfortunately I don’t have an iPod so I put literally all my music on my phone, it can hold so much (just swap the headphones).

4.      Having my emails on my phone – It’s a lot better to just check my phone than having to log onto my computer when I’m running late for university at eight in the morning.

5.      Socialising – I love the fact that I can talk to anyone on the go using one phone, whether it’s email, BBM, text, twitter, facebook, Google Talk.

6.      Web Browser – I know, the web browser is shockingly bad but, if you link it up to a wireless network the speed improves (if only a little bit)

7.      Has your screen broken yet? – Yes, the Blackberry has chipped but has the screen cracked yet? The amount of times I have dropped my phone on the floor, heart in my throat thinking ‘this is it; I’ve cracked it,’ only to find that it’s just chipped. Phew.

8.      Blackberry Messenger – having Blackberry messenger is good if you used to spend a lot of money on texts. Now I can just PING them and talk for hours for free!

9.      Organisation – With a Blackberry, you can’t be un-organised. The calendar is great for someone like me, who likes to be organised as well as putting all my emails in one ‘Message’ folder or, splitting them up.

10.  Blackberry’s are cool – let’s face it, the new Blackberry Torch is cool.

You can’t deny Blackberry’s. You’re hooked no matter how much you find it annoying.

Survival of a University Student =)

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Second Term

Hopefully by now, you’re out of your holiday phase and you’re ready for a new term. If you’re anything like me, you missed some of your first lectures in the first week that you were back because getting out of bed at 7.30am was physically impossible.

The second term will probably be different than the first. Last term we were meeting new people, getting to know our subject and our course mates, drinking more than you ever have before and trying to stay awake in lectures after a heavy night out. You were turning up still drunk in your lectures, making horrendous meals and going out every night just to see what night was your favourite.

This new term could be good or bad, you’ve now gotten your head around what nights to go out and your housework skills are improving, but there’s still uni work to do and so your new term leading up to April is all about work, assignments and deadlines.

Being at university at first was so much about having fun and figuring out how it all works. But I’ve settled in now properly and with this new term and timetable (that makes it extremely difficult to go to my favourite Tuesday nights out), it’s all about adjusting. I’m having to organise my days better so I fit more in – so long Jezza Kyle – I actually have to work today.

There should be no excuses for turning up late or missing the bus (but it happens). Also, I have a small but improved knowledge of making meals for myself without meals that you can add chips too.

I’ve been at university for about five months and I’m still adjusting, still trying, but isn’t everyone?

However, this new term seems promising…

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