A Guide to Surviving Freshers

Here I was two years ago when I filled my Dad's car to the brim and packed off to halls. It's that time of year again when groups of innocent 18 year olds fly the nest and head off to university. My freshers week was a week of two halves. The first half consisted of me consuming my body weight in wine before promptly parting ways with it again. The second half consisted of me crying into my pillow every night with the worry that I'd never make any friends. Today I thought I'd share my guide to surviving freshers and actually enjoying it.

Recipe: Balsamic Chicken and Pasta

This recipe is always on my 'mum please make this when I come home from uni' list. I am such a fan of it I asked her for the recipe and now make it myself at uni. It's so easy to do, and is great for sharing with friends or making in advance to either freeze or eat a couple of nights in a row! Some of the ingredients might not seem very student friendly but once you have them in your store cupboard you can use them again and again!

First year of Uni: What I'd do differently

It's that time of year where 18 year olds across the UK have just experienced that sickening feeling of being left by their parents in a dank uni room, with nothing but a few fairy lights to make it look homely. I'm nearly finishing the first term of second year, and I thought I'd look back on my first year, and share a few bits of advice of what I would and wouldn't do if I started all over again!

Recipe: Feel the Goodness Spinach and Chickpea Curry

I made this for my housemates and one nicknamed it the 'feel the goodness curry'. I'd raided the supermarket for a load of delicious spices and put them all in a pan with a heap load of healthy ingredients. This is a super easy quick and cheap meal to make for your flatmates, but equally it lasts really well in the fridge for the next day and freezes as individual portions for later dates.

Life After Stroke: Two Years On

 

I've been planning what to write in this post since some time in April. I would type something then delete it, type then edit, type then delete, and for about a month the line 'I've been planning what to write in this post since April' had been the content of this post. I decided to read back through my one year post stroke update, and I started that by saying I don't know what I'm going to write but I'm just going to write from the heart, and I guess that's just what I'm going to do now.

Coping with messy flatmates

When you sign up to live in Uni halls, you're more than aware it's a complete luck of the draw who you get put with. My flatmates were pretty varied - I lived in a flat of four, however it was more like a flat of three because one of the guys moved out after two weeks and went home, and we never saw him again! My other two flatmates were very different. I got on very well with the girl (Olivia*) I shared with and I was friendly enough with the guy (Jack*), however Olivia and I were very clean, and Jack....lets say he wasn't so clean. So here are some of my top tips to cope with a pretty untidy flatmate.

University Cooking: Chilli Con Carne

When I first went to university cooking was quite the mission. In week one I essentially lived on sweet potato and cereal. However in the past six months I would like to think my cooking has come on quite a lot and I'd like to think that now I'm properly cooking, making things from scratch and actually enjoying it! So today I thought I'd start sharing some of the things I'm creating starting with one of the simplest things ever...Chilli Con Carne!

My advice on picking a University Halls

Moving to uni is a strange concept. Never in the real world would a random stranger decide which equally random strangers get put in a tiny flat together and share a fridge, freezer, cooker and TV, having never met each other. But that's what seems to happen on that fateful day in September when you move to Uni. Choosing your flatmates is completely out of your control, but what you can decide is where you want to live. Here are some little things I recommend you ask yourself when picking your Halls and some things I wish I'd have asked or known when choosing my accommodation.

Top tips on coping with Night Shifts

I know I promised by birthday post would have been posted today however I've been on night shifts and in a state of utter delirium and have no hope of writing anything that makes sense. But I did want you to have a blog post so I thought I would actually talk about life as a student doing night shifts. I've only done a few and by no means am I an expert - I am also writing this in the middle of the night on a none night shift night so some may so I really haven't cracked it, but I've tried a few approaches to the dreaded night shift now so here goes...

I'm back!

Friday marked the final exam day and since I left the exam hall at 4:30pm I feel like I've got a large Life Sciences exam shaped hole in my life! I'm not saying I miss it but I'm just not quite sure what to do with myself. Now, I wouldn't say that I've had a massive weight lifted off my shoulders - because truth being told the exam did not go well...

Happy New Year! (and sorry I've been away)

I am knee deep in revision and essay writing right now. They're not lying when they say studying midwifery is one of the hardest things to do. My life is a continual balancing act - do I eat, do I sleep, do I revise, do I write my essay, do I socialise, do I relax...? I don't know, I don't think I'll ever know if I'm making the right choices, but while I'm home for Christmas (I go back today though, and just two weeks of my Mum's cooking is not enough!) I thought I'd sit down and give you a little life update.

What a week!

I'm writing this blog post as I stand up on a train, surrounded by a case full of dirty laundry, a handbag full of girl junk, a bag full of uni work, a heavy laptop case, and a lot of sweaty people. Yes, I'm on my way home for the weekend. I need to ground myself. I've had a crazy week...

Coping with Blogging at University

This post will take the form of a rant...and will contain a lot of explanation as to the future of this blog whilst ever I am at University. It was something I'd hoped to write a lot later down the line, however I feel the time has come to just type what I'm thinking about how blogging is going whilst at Uni and what I'm going to do about it.

My five ways to de-stress

Having just watched one of Vivianna Does Makeup's recent youtube videos on de-stressing I thought I would share with you some of my tips for keeping calm. Having just started university there's been a lot of stress in my life these past few weeks, so here are a few ways I've kept on top of it all!

 

Eleven things I learnt in my first week at University

I am very pleased to say I have survived my first week at University! I am yet to catch fresher's flu, yet to give myself food poisoning and yet to set the kitchen on fire...I'm pretty good right now. There are some things however, I have learnt in my first week at Uni that I either just didn't think of or knew but took no notice of...here they are!