I'm Going to Australia!!!

As you read this I may even be in Australia, I haven't decided when I'm going to post this but I'M GOING TO AUSTRALIA!!!

My best friend is currently living over there and I miss her like crazy so we decided I would go over and visit and it was the best of both worlds because I get to see Australia too!

Australia is somewhere that I have always wanted to go (it might even be on my bucket list that I posted on here ageeeeees ago) and I am so excited that I am finally getting to go. I'm only going to be there for 3 weeks which, in Australia other-side-of-the-world terms, is not very long. I would've loved to be able to go for longer but I have work and things to think about and there's only so much holiday a girl can take.

I've been trying to make sure that I've got everything done and that I'm prepared over the past few weeks, because I'm that last minute kinda girl and can I tell you how difficult all of these things you have to organise are?

I've never travelled without my family abroad, never mind alone so I've never had to be the one to organise all the flights and travel insurance and visas and money and the list just goes on.

I also have the irrational worry that I'm going to run out of money or something whilst I'm over there even though I know I have plenty saved up but, again, that's something I've never had to worry about because when you're going on holiday with your mum you can always just be a pain and borrow money from them... Sorry mum...

 

Also, the flight. It's long. Obviously, because I'm going to the other side of the world but yeah. I don't mind it, the idea of a long flight doesn't bother me, the only thing I'm worried about is getting bored and because I'm not flying with any family or friends I'm not going to have anyone to annoy with my boredom.

Anyway, Australia has somehow brought me back into the blogosphere and made me want to blog lots (especially about the things I do over there) so hopefully I can keep on top of this and actually post these things. I actually have a lot of blog posts saved up in my drafts because I wrote lots of things that I never posted for one reason or another (that's a story for another blog post though).

So yeah. I'm going to Aus. That's what I was trying to tell you. Expect more blog posts. Hopefully (I'll try me best, promise!).

Katie x

'So what are your plans now?'

When you're in your final year of university, hell, not even your final year - as soon as you say you're going to university - everyone expects you to have a plan. To know what you're going to do with your life. But let's be honest here, there are very few people that have a plan for after university and, until very recently I was one of those people too.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when you go to a friends house and their parents start asking questions about your future, or you go to a family event and all of these people, some of whom you don't even know, ask you 'What are your plans?', 'What are you going to do when you finish university?', 'Have you got a job yet?'. This annoys the poop out of me. I always have the same answer too: 'I haven't decided'. Yet they still continue to ask me 'What do you want to do?'. By this point a million people have probably already asked me this question and I'm more than miffed, gritting my teeth, I reply once again with 'I. Don't. Know'. 

If you're one of those people that asks these questions and you're reading this: We hate it. Don't ask them. If you do ask and we say 'I don't know', leave it at that. We either really don't know or we really don't want to talk about it.

I consider myself very lucky because I've just managed to get a job in my home town, but there are certain people in my life (no names are being mentioned but they're who you expect to have opinions about everything you do) who don't agree with the job I've got because it has nothing to do with my degree.

What I think people need to consider when leaving university, planning what you're going to do next doesn't necessarily have to involve your degree. Personally, after three years of dedicating my life to studying everything about English Literature, I need a break now. I need to do something that doesn't involve me sitting and analysing a million and one books and what the hidden meaning behind every word is. I'm not saying that the job I have is something I'm going to do forever, but I'm not saying it's not either. I'm passionate about English but I'm passionate about this job too.

As for the Creative Writing side of my degree, to me I'm doing that right now by writing this blog post. Creative writing is something I can do whether I have a job in that area or not. I will always love writing stories but I can do that on my days off and in my spare time, as well as blogging. 

At the moment, my plan is to do this job for a year and then reevaluate. If I'm really loving it then chances are I'll carry on doing it because why stop doing something you love? If I'm not sure it's the job for me then at least it's been an experience and I can move on and try something different.

Just remember that we're still young. We have plenty of time to figure out what we want to do with the rest of our lives, but we're better to experiment now and try different things because if we go straight into a full time career that we plan on doing for the rest of our lives then we can't really leave that job. We're stuck there and if we want to try something different we can't or we run the risk of losing the job we worked so hard for in the first place. 

So the next time you're at a family event and you've got all of those random family members that you're not sure you've even met before asking all the awkward questions, just tell them 'I don't know and that's okay, so please don't ask me again'. <ake sure you have that sickly sweet smile on as well, the one that looks really polite but really says 'f**k off'.

Katie x

Second Year = Completed!

Haven't written one of these in a while! 

It's definitely not been hard to notice I've been as absent from this blog as a first-year uni student who doesn't actually care about passing the year with higher than the necessary 40%. I've missed this little space but I've really just had no time for anything that isn't Literature essay related *sad face*. 

However, as of a week and a bit ago, I am finished for the summer! Woop woop! It's been a hectic few months and uni work practically buried me (if you'd seen the state of my friend's room - you'd have thought she was trying to bury herself under a million printed drafts of essays about urban landscapes and feminism).

As you can tell, we were more than a little bit happy to have finished our
final exam and second year!

So, even though it's been a hell of a long time since my last post, there hasn't actually been that much happening... but here's a little life update anyway!

The last blog post I did I told you all about the awesomeness of The Script concert that I went to (HERE). Some of the girls from my course and I booked tickets to go see Imagine Dragons at the Capital FM Arena in November, which I can't wait for! I love their music so obviously as soon as we heard they were coming to Nottingham we realised we had to go.  I'm considering it a birthday treat to myself, as well as an end-of-second-year-of-uni treat.

Only a few days after I went to see The Script, my grandma and grandad came to visit me in Nottingham, brought the dogs, and stayed for a whole week, which was amazing! It was perfect timing too, because homesickness had started to overtake, seen as I hadn't been home for over three months. It was lovely to see them and I got to show them around Nottingham a bit more as well as taking them to Sherwood Forest, one of my favourite places in Notts.

I went on a work placement with a friend from uni at the beginning of my Easter holidays before going home, where I got to see all of my little ones! I really hate how fast they grow, they just seem to ignore me when I tell them they're supposed to stay little babies forever! My nephew has learnt to say my name too, so he kept walking around going 'Kakie' and grabbing my hand to lead me to what he wanted, because of course he would know that I'm a softie and give in to cuteness way too easily. Although I did end up working most of the time I was home, which sucked because I wanted to see people but it was good at the same time because money. What student doesn't need money? Also, rather bizarrely, it ended up snowing for quite a few of those days - I know I live in the North of the UK, and our weather is often a lot crappier, but snow in April? That's crazy weather, even for us!

In the meantime it's been a few months of many birthdays, including my own! Which has left me rather poor, thanks to many nights out (although very awesome nights out, may I add), meals, presents, etc., etc. All of which were very lovely and deserved!

As for me, I've unfortunately left the teenage years behind and I've entered my twenties, I'm going to make 'twenteen' an age though because it sounds way cooler... right? My lovely flatmates decorated the flat and got me a cake whilst my amazing best friend (I better say that, in case she ever reads this ;) ) took me to the cinema to see The Avengers: Age of Ultron which, may I add, was a frickin' incredible movie. Obviously. My mum also rang me to tell me she'd sent me a card but she'd sent it to the wrong address... again. Yep. Again. It's not the first time she's sent me something and then I've had to go and retrieve it from some random strangers that she's sent it too by accident - she's lucky I love her.

Then came all the deadlines and exams and all the boring stuff, blah, blah, blah. Needless to say they were a tiring few months filled with a lot of work and very little sleep. However, I did find a lovely little place that I started running, or even just going for 'procastination walks' throughout revision period, but I'm gutted I found it so late in the year, especially when I won't be living in halls again next year so I won't be able to just walk out my door and down the road to it whenever I want. Oh yeah, and I developed an addiction to chocolate digestives thanks to stupid revision. Ugh.

BUT! We had a great final weekend - as an end-of-exams celebration and a birthday night out for my bestie, we went for our final ever Saturday night out of our second year, with some of the best people, and had an awesome night with a hell of a lot of dancing and laughing!

So I've realised I maybe had more to update you on than I first thought, and this became a much longer post than I first thought it was going to be.

It feels incredibly strange to think we've finished our second year of uni; it seems to have gone so quickly and it feels even weirder when I think about the fact that I'm heading into my final ever year of university (and education in general) - now that's a crazily scary thought!

Katie x

November Round-Up!

Heyyyy!

We're officially at the end of another month! Which, although might be a little sad, the end of this month means only one thing - tomorrow we can officially start the countdown to Christmas and no one can tell us off for it! Woop, woop!

It's been quite the busy month for me; I started blogging again (hurrah!), I've been to two bonfire shows/ firework displays, I met my new little nephew for the first time, we decorated our flat, I saw the lights switch on in Nottingham for the first time ever, I went to Lancaster, ate pancakes, and Starbucks finally brought back their red cups!

And that's just everything I can remember off the top of my head and isn't including the boring things like uni work that I've had to do tons of this month - it's been a bit hectic. 

It's been a month full of awesome sauce stuff but I cannot wait for next month and the arrival of Santa - Christmas is always a much bigger event and a lot more special when there are so many little ones in the family! I'm so excited!

Katie x

Another Real University

Hello!

About six months ago, maybe longer, I wrote a blog post about what university was really like (HERE - you should probably read this before reading anymore of this post), from a current students perspective. Well, since then, I have moved into a new flat, I live with new people and my view has changed a bit. 

I still think people are given the completely wrong image going into university for the first time - Freshers week is exactly how it sounds: great but messy. Other than that, everything's different after that first week. Obviously I'm in my second year now, so things are different for me just in light of that. I'm living with different people to last year who are also in their second/third years, so we're all a bit more mature and focused this year... just a bit though!

I love my flatmates this year. Let me just put that point out there. Last year, I got dealt a rather horrible hand of flatmates that consisted of a lot of bitchy girls and a guy who liked to hoover at four 'o' clock in the morning whilst playing extremely rubbish music at ungodly hours. This year I stayed in university halls but moved flats with one of my flatmates from last year (one of the nice ones) moving to the same block as me... if that makes sense. As in, I'm on the same campus but I moved to a different flat in a different block that was especially for returners (second years and above) and everyone in the flat is so nice; it's a massive shock to the system after last year. 

So let's have a run down of this years flatmates: The guy who's kind of old-fashioned but unbelievably kind - he came and retrieved a daddy-long-legs from my room at 5am one day because my friend and I were freaking out (I don't do creepy-crawlies! Complete aside here but did you know daddy long legs would be the most poisonous insect if they had the brain to use the poison? Nope? There's something to terrify you further then!). Anyway, back to flatmates; then there's the one I'm going to refer to as the musician because he is an amazing guitar player, like seriously - wow, and no he didn't pay me to say that! There's the loveliest Londoner you will ever meet as well as her being the one who exaggerates everything she's already exaggerated but it just makes her even funnier. There's the kind of quiet girl but has one hell of a partying streak in her (not that that's a bad thing). There's the guy I can't actually tell you anything about because the only word he's ever said to me, and most other people in the flat, is "hi". I can't forget the dude who I've never seen in anything but pyjamas and, finally, there's the quiet guy of the flat who is probably one of the loveliest people I've ever come across in life.

Added to my flatmates this year is the one guy I got on with really well in my flat last year - he lives in the flat below me, along with a girl I've grown really close to this year; the amount of deep talks we have at stupid times in the morning are ridiculous, but also great at the same time. I say she lives in the flat below me but the majority of the time she lives up here and occasionally goes to sleep in her bed downstairs - she's probably slept on my floor more times than her bed!

So out of my eight flatmates this year, I can't say I actually don't get on with any of them and I definitely don't dislike any of them. There are obviously a couple who I don't know extremely well for one reason or another but I'm pretty sure that if I knew them better they'd probably be really nice.

The weird thing about my flat this year is how I'd go out of my way for most of them and vice versa. Whereas, last year, nobody wanted to help anyone (aside from the guy who's still here this year - let's pretend he wasn't a part of the flat last year) because they were too busy trying to be better than each other and it's that kind of bitchiness I hate, so I'm glad there doesn't seem to be any of that this year.

I've mentioned in many previous posts that I don't generally drink much and I mentioned in the other post that I didn't go out much because I never wanted to. Wow, how that has changed this year. I think I've been out more times since the end of September than I've ever been out - which probably has a lot to do with my flatmates, because they're all genuinely nice people; I feel safer and I know I'll have a good time without them walking off and leaving me or anything like that (which, on one of the few occasions that I did go out last year, I experienced that - it wasn't nice). I'm still of the opinion that if you don't want to go out or you don't want to drink you shouldn't though. I've maybe started doing more of both this year but only because I know I'm safe, I'm going to enjoy it and I know my limits. But there have been plenty of occasions where other people have been going out and asked me if I was coming and I've said no because I haven't felt up for it or I simply couldn't be bothered.

Not going to lie, the whole lecture/seminar side of life hasn't changed much since last year; I still think the same things. Very few of them are genuinely interesting for the whole two hours or however long they last but you should probably still make sure you go to them - especially if it's a year that actually counts towards your final degree...

I still miss home a lot and I have been back a few times since I got here but it's not as bad as last year and I think that's simply down to the fact that I have some great friends this year and we're like a little family away from home. It's super cute. We even take turns in cooking etc. so we don't have to each cook every night - we have this thing figured out! I still live the furthest away out of everyone in my flat but that was pretty much inevitable, it's not too bad though, after doing them for over a year, I've gotten used to the long train journeys!

So this is the new kind of university that I've discovered this year. It's still not everything people make it out to be when you hear about it in sixth form and college but if it starts off bad, it can get better :)

There's still a bit of this year to go, seen as when I wrote about this last year it was near the end of the final term and I'm only just nearing the end of my first one when I'm writing this, but this has been a better start to my second year than I ever could have imagined.  

A few of my favourite pictures with my flatmates (and friends) so
far this year :)

Katie x

Curious Dreams

Hello!

Whilst I was at work today I was pondering on last nights dream, trying to figure out what the hell it means and I thought "you know what, this is something I need to blog about it", so here I am, blogging about my weird dreams. As you do.

Last nights was one of the strangest dreams I've had in a long time, where, basically, my brother was half giraffe.

Yep. Your eyes aren't deceiving you; that does say "half giraffe".

Just so you don't think I'm a complete nutter, I'll take this moment to point out that my brother is actually very tall - 6ft 6inches... maybe even 6ft 7, I can't remember. He's closer to the height of a giraffe than most people, anyway, but still, he's not quite at the 18 feet he'd need to be to compete with a giraffe, and he definitely doesn't have the neck or spindly legs that giraffes have. In my dream though, he had the extra long neck and it's an image that has scarred me for life! 

I have no idea where this dream came from, apart from the fact I have an epic love affair with giraffes... It's not the weirdest dream I've ever had (yup, there have been some a lot stranger) but it did freak me out when I woke up. Obviously there was a lot more to it than just my brother being a giraffe but I'm worried that some of you might already think I should be in a hospital for the mentally insane, I don't want you to think I'm in any more need of it than you already do!

I once dreamed my mama and I were trapped in this massive Hogwarts-style castle and we couldn't figure out how to escape - in the end, my mum was literally able to breathe fire in the dream and I could fly like Peter Pan (I wish), and that was how we escaped; like some kind of flying, fire-breathing dragon! I mean my mama sure can be a scary lady if you get on her bad side (I've learnt to stay well away from it!) but I wouldn't go as far as saying she's fire breathing - I know better ;).

I used to study psychology but I only did AS level (I don't know what that's equal to in any other country but I was 16/17 years old in that school year) and then I decided I'd rather continue with both English's and History for my second year of A-levels. As much as I loved my choice of subjects in my final year, part of me wishes I'd carried on with Psychology, just so I could psychoanalyse my dreams and find out what the hell is wrong with my brain - I bet I would find out some weird and wonderful things about myself. 

Anyway, before I make myself sound any weirder than I already have, I'm going to shut up and stop there!

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has freaky, weird dreams - I need your reassurance!

Katie x

(P.s. there is currently a spider crawling across my ceiling and I'm really trying not to freak out but it's not going so well!)

(P.p.s. As I was writing this I googled giraffes; did you know that hundreds of years ago they used to have antlers?! Also, their hearts weigh nearly 25 pounds - that's taking the saying "heavy heart" a bit too literally!)

A Winter Lover

Hello!

I work in a takeaway, not the most glamorous of jobs but a job's a job and, as far as jobs go, it's not actually that bad. When I looked out of my window this morning though and saw pouring rain, I'm sure a did a little happy dance inside my head - it's too early and too soon after just waking up to be physically dancing - yet rain is never really something to get excited about in the UK (especially up north!) because we see a hell of a lot of it over a year. When you work in a takeaway, where there is constant heat everywhere, rain is a very welcome element!

In the UK lately, we've had really hot weather (it's a massive rarity!) and not to sound all British and constantly complain about weather but, it's too hot. Yep, that's right, I said it. It's too hot. I know there are other countries who have weather tons hotter than we've had at our height of summer but we're not equipped to deal with this kind of heat because we're just not used to it! Man, was I dying in all that humidity. I felt like the Wicked Witch of the West that melted to her death - I felt like I was slowly melting into a pool of sweatiness - lovely mental image for you there!

As you can probably tell, I'm not the biggest fan of the English "summer", which basically just consists of sweaty, humid air. I much prefer the winter.

1.

If I'm cold, all I have to do is put another jumper on!

2.

Talking of jumpers; jumpers! I love being able to put a soft, cosy jumper on and feel all lovely and warm.

3.

I can drink hot chocolate and not feel like a numpty for drinking a hot drink whilst it's thirty-odd degrees celcius outside! Instead, I can just feel even cosier with all my jumpers on and a hot chocolate with extra whipped cream sitting in my hands.

4.

I love ice hockey... a lot! And, of course, ice hockey is a winter sport. There is also an ice hockey team in Nottingham, the Nottingham Panthers, who are awesome and, as most of my winter is spent at uni, I get to see lots of ice hockey!

There are plenty more reasons why I prefer winter but I'm going to be late for work if I list them all, there are that many! I just think winter is a much cosier and, ironically, warmer-feeling season!

Katie x

Those Bad Habits

Hello!

I've recently had the realisation that I have a really bad habit when it comes to writing blog posts... I always start writing them really late at night. For example, I'm currently writing this at twenty eight minutes past twelve... At night. As in midnight. 

I know I should be in bed right now. 

I know I should be trying to get some sleep. 

I know I have to get up early. 

I know I'm spending my day tomorrow with a two year old. 

I know that if I don't get enough sleep I'm not going to want to run around after a two year old. 

Yet here I am. 

Still writing. 

Still wide awake.

I think I need help.

Most of my best stories (in my opinion) have been written in the early hours of the morning. Strangely for some reason, I'm okay with this habit, to a certain extent. It's when it gets to four/five 'o' clock in the morning and I'm  still on a writing buzz. The problem is, I'm on that kind of writing high where sleep is far, far away from me and there's no chance it's coming back to me anytime soon.

The other problem I always have is, I always have more of an urge to write when I have no time to write... It's really inappropriate! I would say my mind needs to get its priorities straight but it has. Writing always comes first in my head, unfortunately my university work disagrees - it's an ongoing war in my head and the right thing doesn't always win out.

I really need to sort my writing habits out!

Katie x