Wednesday 17 September 2014

Autumn


It's looking like the beginning of Autumn is here, my absolute favourite season! Crisp mornings, bright sunny days and cosy night in. September is a month that makes me rather nervous, knowing reality is soon to sink it. The day for me is Monday 29th September, the day my third year of University starts again and it is soon approaching...

 I woke up this morning rather early as I'd forgotten to close my blinds before I got in to bed, so the sunrise was my alarm clock today. After my morning cup of tea and a little This Morning, I opened the patio doors in to the garden taking a few pictures on my phone, which I'll scatter around this blog.

 The past few days have consisted of the same old tidying and cleaning the house whilst my family attend work and my sister Sixth Form, so nothing at all interesting to blog about. Other than the usual every day activities, I've been thinking about the fact I'm soon to return to University and in to my third year, which has flown by dramatically. To think that this time next year it will be my final year is beyond a crazy thought. I've had a lot of time to myself the past few weeks, a lot of thought about things I could have done better in my second year and what I need/should change for this year.

I would name myself an organised and driven person, but also one to arrive home after a long day involving lectures/placement and want to do nothing else but sleep which is not at all the attitude needed this time round. This I feel for myself needs to change because as my University years proceed...evidently the stress piles on like a tone of bricks! 

At University I'm studying Primary Teaching, therefore I have placements that progress in duration year after year. This year I have a lengthy twelve week placements that is split in to two - 6 weeks before Christmas and 6 weeks at the end of the school year. This I'm terrified about! Every year, a week before placement starts, you are given a school, a year group and a partner to be peered with in the classroom, but this year...it's just me. For the past two years I've had support when teaching lessons, having someone to help plan lessons with and help whilst the lessons commence, so the thought of it being just myself is rather daunting. But that is what I'm paying £9000 a year for, so I best enjoy it!! 

There isn't anything better thrilling than planning a lesson, delivering that lesson, the children having learnt something from your teaching and better still enjoying it. A feeling that cannot be explained in my eyes. It's what I spent hours upon hours planning for. 3am with my eyes half open typing up my planning sheets, yet to be woken by my alarm at 6:30am to start the day. 


Placement is such hard work but I wouldn't want to spend my time and energy in any other environment. Experiencing placement gives me the definition of the expression 'hard work pays off in the end'. I'm actually spending my 21st birthday this year in school as my placement falls over that period.



 Randomly..my Mum has always wanted to grow fruit and vegetables in her garden and since we moved house just over a year ago, this garden has become her little haven to experiment with.  She's growing tomatoes, strawberries, apples, plums and cherries! 


I hope to really enjoy my third year of University and not to let the work overload and surroundings of strange faces worry me too much. I have heard a thousand times that your years at University are the best years of your life so I plan to make it that way!



To end the blog, something that happened the other day and makes me giggle every time I watch it is this...

My boyfriends boss went on holiday for a week which entailed his beautiful and hilarious dog Alfie being left behind all alone, needing some company and TLC. Dan was to look after Alfie for around 4 days and bring him home, but since these days fell on a Thursday and Friday (days Dan is at work, working like a trooper), I was happily given Alfie to mind for the day. However, my family own two cats so my sister, myself and the little fluffy walking cloud named Alfie went on a very long walk around the local Pinewoods and this is what happened...










 The little fluffy cloud/bear fast asleep in my car, such a cutie pie. 

Hopefully see you soon Alfie :) 

Love J x


Thursday 11 September 2014

My Summer



I finished my 2nd year of university at the end of May this year, so my summer began pretty early on! On 2nd July myself and my lovely boyfriend Dan went to Gran Canaira and it was an amazing ten days!



Dan had just had his hair cut extremely short in this picture so excuse the skin head!!
I would love to be able to show you a beautiful breath taking hotel, however, since we are both students we went for an extreme budget holiday but i wouldn't have changed a thing! 


This was one of the views from a bar/sitting area on a beautifully sunny day in Puerto Rico. Some days we sat by the pool and sunbathed going back and forth from the 'free' bar, all inclusive holidays do have their ups and downs... But anyway, I feel like I am melting if I sunbathe for too long, however the pool was like an ice bath and sometimes did in fact take my breath away! Regardless of that we also had a little venture into a near by village which was rather cute :) 

Even though myself and Dan live very close to each other, spending most evenings and weekends together...it is very very very different spending all day everyday with each other for the 10 days we were on holiday and I suppose it gives you a real insight in to how they would be to leave with. The evaluation I gathered from this experience was that...

  1. Dan snores like a heard of trains that are crashing through the wall, which I find incredibly frustrating at 3...4...5...6am.
  2. The toilet seat is all I am going to say.
  3. Dan thinks that he is the tanning king, however on day 1 realised he is in fact not as he looked like a lobster x10000 and had to speak to the hotels Sun Care Advisor!!
  4. Dan is terrified of driving Jet Skiis.
  5. Dan is a clean freak!
  6. This holiday made me realise how lucky I am to be with such an amazing person.
Overall, all of these things (except one) seem rather negative, but they are part of his personality and that of generally being a boy. But they are factors I love more than anything and would not change for the world.

Cringe time over.


Also, problems of the shorter person in the relationship taking the picture...


Here is a fantastic picture of us Jet Skiing as you can clearly see all of my face!
Joking, it's an amazing and hysterical memory.


Quick explanation...

I had BEGGED for us to go to the beach and do some water sports and it worked for a change! The guys who were taking us out told us they would take some pictures that we could buy at the end if we wanted to...however looking at the price we decided not too... BUT THEN the family who were had done the water sports with had kindly taken some pictures on their camera of us as we evidently couldn't take them of ourselves... 
After the holiday and arriving home checking my emails, the lady had emailed me saying that her camera had broke and all her pictured had been deleted...
She then informed be that she had bought the professional ones and emailed me the entire package!!!!! This is therefore a very longwinded explanation of why the pictures are such amazing quality :)



After being on the Jet Skii together with Dan driving for around 5-10 minutes, chicken licken decided he didn't feel comfortable, so I had to drive around on my own for the remaining time! Which I actually enjoyed as I had a fun time to myself :)


We also decided to go Paragliding which was ammmaaazingg!! I have done this before in Cyprus with my Dad and sister, but chicken licken had been too scared as he 'had seen the rope snap before when he was in Turkey with his family'. He was forced to do this activity :)

Here are a few picture from my phone on holiday...









 This steak was absolutely ginormous ^ !!!!


                                 The local hotel cat, naw.










Whilst walking along the beach we had seen some signs about a boat trip that took you out to see some dolphins... well I was all aboard and was beyond excited to go on this trip. So the day arrived...along with my full packet of Kwells as I get VERY travel sick. I had ignored this factor as Kwells more often than not work for me and I was too excited to think of it. 
The boat leaves with not that many people on it, which I loved as we sat on the top deck with that blazing sun hitting us. 30 minutes pass, land looks rather small and very far away. The waves are making the boat almost bounce up and down, and by this time my face was VERY green. 

Here is a video of the beautiful dolphins that we saw that day and hopefully you can see how much the boat was moving! 



That was rather a long blog, but hey ho it was our first holiday together with many, many, more to come along with fantastic memories! 


Love J x

Tuesday 9 September 2014

My First Blog

This is officially my first blog! 

Soo.... Here I am, on a cruise, somewhere hugging the Spanish coast on The Independence of the Seas, which is where I spent my holiday this year with my family. 


Generally I'm not too sure about what this blog is going to consist of just yet, but hopefully it will contain things that you will find interesting to read. 


A little information about myself...

I'd like to think I was a rather happy person in my day to day life and attempt to focus my mind on the positives, along with the fact that every day I find myself a very lucky human being.

 Like most girls in their teens/twenties we find ourselves (well I do) hung up on clothes and makeup and shoes and items that often cost a bit of money...something I find myself spending rather a lot of time buying and searching. Whether that is good or bad I'm not overly sure but its these subjects I often I spend most of my time on.

I work as a waitress in Hightown, Liverpool in a 'Vintage Pub' called The Pheasant. It's a unique little place with a cosy and atmospheric feel to it, along with the delightful food...woo but it's work. Spending the odd few days throughout the week and most often weekends there, it's necessary with any job, even if you desperately hate it, to put a smile on your face and a bounce in your step and I've found the hours feel shorter and the tips feel heavier! 

I am currently studying Primary Teaching at Liverpool Hope University going into my 3rd year and I'm lovvvving it :) I love the school placements because I suppose if I didn't then I'd be aspiring for the wrong dream? Lectures are more commonly average as per usual but 9am + deep thought never really go together in my mind. Give me a Caramel Latte and I might be a quarter of the way there!

This year I went on holiday with my boyfriend Dan to Puerto Rico, Gran Canaria which was in fact our first holiday abroad together after 4 years! 


I love this picture just because of how crazy our height difference looks, even in the air! Also that we look as if we are laughing about something and that makes me smile :)
But anyway, we live on the same road, basically living in each others pockets and are hoping to move into a dinky little flat when I have finished university, hopefully finding myself a job, lets hope. 


6'4 and 5'2...Little and Large

Yes, you could call the height difference rather amusing.

I shall leave this blog here and hopefully find more things in my day along with the adventures of this summer to write about soon :)

First blog completed!

Love J x