Second Year in Photos (Part 2)

January

As a January baby, this is one of my favourite months. As a university student, it means refreshers fest and getting back to "the grind". I spent much of January celebrating and partying with all me chums (top row & bottom left). We also had the lovely surprise of finding a rat in our house, which had made itself at home over the Christmas holidays! I've been so kind as to spare you guys the gross photos, so you can have my artistic example instead (bottom right).

February

February was equally full of fun and frolics. My chums and I attended a cocktail making event as part of the fundraising for UoB marrow soc (top left). Valentines day cards from anonymous sources a.k.a. my dad and my bessie, lol (top right). Feeling fab 'n' fresh at our regular student union night out... #theawkwardmomentwhen you have to crop one of the twins to square the photo (bottom left). My friend Joe made the long and tedious trip from Plymouth to visit (bottom right).

March

March brought with it a fair amount of birthday celebrations - they always seem to come in bunches. I trekked across to Norwich and partied with the freshers, as well as friends from back home (top left), before returning back to reunite with friends on a night out in Brum (top right). As always, all of my essay deadlines coincided with all of the nights out and culminated in me getting ill. Here I am with my lifelong pal, bunnyhops (bottom left). Finally, we discovered a thief in our midst when my housemate's chocolate was taken during pre drinks one evening. We're still looking for the culprit (bottom right).

April

Easter break meant a month spent back at home with family (top left & right), as well as out and about with friends. I visited both Whipsnade (bottom left) and Knole House (bottom right), both of which were absolutely stunning.

May

As a student of an essay-based subject, it's work all year round, which means it's actually quite quiet in the exam period. Of course, I kept myself busy, as usual. Baking with the boy was a welcome break from revision (top left) and my trip to oxford was amazing (top right). Becca and I hit the bullring (bottom left), and I popped back home for my cousins's wedding celebrations (bottom right).

June

Finally, end of exams meant even more celebrating (as if we ever needed an excuse). As a member of the bloodsoc committee I took part in a #nationalbloodweek "photoshoot" on campus (top left). If you didn't see the campaign, it's definitely something worth checking out. We enjoyed vale fest, particularly the facepaint and flower crowns (top right). I had giggles with my favourite lads and future housemates (bottom left). Then enjoyed gradball with the boy (bottom right).

Second Year in Photos (part 1)

Second year had absolutely flown by, just like first year did. It's been full of ups and downs, lots of essays, probably too much partying and tons of laughs. With the end of exams looming I decided that this was appropriate procrastination, so here it is... I'll post part 2 after my last exam, if I'm not too busy partying!

September

I didn't ever get round to posting a blog post on the disaster that was our house's delayed reconstruction but it was in a pretty dire state the day we were due to move in... Yep, that's our kitchen, and it has no roof (top left)! Cue having to move in with my friend Becca for several days (bottom right) before our temporary house was free for us to move into. Still, we had a good time (top right). Our temporary house wasn't the greatest of arrangements with Jenny & I having to share a double bed (bottom left).  

October

Jenny & I remained on speaking terms despite having to share, not only a room, but a bed for what felt like a lifetime to both of us ;] (top left), and as soon as we were in our new house she cooked up a cracking roast for us all (ok, so we did help..), as a moving in celebration (top right). My mum sent me a cute fleece to match 'olaf' from frozen, and to keep me warm when we refused to put the heating on... #studentproblems (bottom left). The fleece didn't work that well, because it wasn't long before I got a cold. Jenny kindly volunteered to drive me to sainsburys to get cough medicine, but we may have accidentally rear-ended someone on the way there (it was terrifying, but not really anyone's fault). The police drove us home! (bottom right).

November

At the beginning of November my friend Becca and I popped along to our local blood donation centre to donate blood, me for the second time and her for the first! (top left). My housemates and I, threw a halloween house party which was buckets full of fun and a really good way to christen our new house (top right, bottom left). Vale fireworks are a definite event for the calendar if you live in Birmingham, we popped along and enjoyed the cold, rain, and a beautiful firework display (bottom right).

December

End of term means lots of nights out and lots of fun. My end of term was no different. It ranged from three way spoons in bed (top left), to getting married at fab to a complete stranger (top right). Plus, lots of trips to all of the vodbull events, just can't get enough (bottom left & bottom right).

Christmas & New Year

There's nothing quite like going home for Christmas. Spending time catching up with family and friends is always well needed after a long term at uni, and good home-cooked food is always welcome in a student's diet. I slugged with my sister (top left), had good grub with school friends (top right), and ate my weight in roast potatoes on Christmas Day (bottom left). Then, when I was missing uni the most, I had a wonderful catch up with my bestest for New Years (bottom right).

Oxford Comma

This week I was invited by my lovely friend Matt to visit him in Oxford for his college's guest ball. With the offer of (extremely fancy) food, drink, a catch up with friends, and dressing up, I decided I'd be stupid to refuse. Oxford is a pretty easy commute from Birmingham so I hopped on a train with my new tiny suitcase (I'm famous for over packing) ready for whatever Oxford wanted to throw at me.

As expected, Matt's college was gorgeous and he gave me a behind-the-scenes tour of the campus, whilst I took hundreds of photographs and lived like a tourist. The college costs £14 (!!!) to look around, but is absolutely gorgeous so I would recommend it if you ever find yourself in Oxford with nothing to do!

 

I don't think it's possible to take a bad photo of that place, it's spectacular.

The dinner was black tie and boasted four courses as well as a champagne reception beforehand, so once Matt and I were done with wandering around the college's many beautiful corridors we suited up and headed to the hall where the dinner was being hosted.

Any hardcore Harry Potter fan recognise the stairs? Yep, I went two of the greatest education centres in Britain in one day, Hogwarts (well, the stairs) & Oxford. 

The meal was lovely and the company was even better. We thoroughly enjoyed giggling at how inept we were when it came to the copious amounts of cutlery and glasses we had been provided - apparently it's outside in for cutlery and the biggest glass is for water, who knew!

I also spotted Constantine Louloudis at the meal, which thoroughly excited me. Please say that at least one of my readers knows who is, because only one other person did.

After lots of giggles and all the food we could handle we strolled back through the perfectly manicured courtyard to Matt's room where we all socialised in the best way possible... With drinking games. A couple of glasses later and we were on our way to Wahoo. I would describe Wahoo as the hottest club in town, but that's mostly because I had to take a break from dancing step outside several times for fresh air.

Writing a Blog

This is probably the thing I get asked about the most. If you have a lot to say then a blog is the perfect way to say it. Yes, it takes work and a small amount of skill, but it can be super rewarding and if you're passionate about writing then blogging might be for you!

Bloglovin' is great for catching up on missed posts and your favourite blogs

YOUR PLATFORM: There are quite a few ways for you to get your words out there. Your blogging platform is the website you use to publish your blogs on. For example, the current platform I use is blogger, which is Google's blogging platform. However, there are quite a few different platforms out there, such as wordpress or tumblr. I've found that wordpress and blogger seem to be the 'big ones', but it just depends on your preferences as to what you want to use.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?: Naming your blog is one of the hardest things about setting a blog up. You could make it relevant to what you'll be writing about, or make it personal to yourself. Try not to expose too much personal data about yourself though - you might not want to make it you full name for example. If you want your blog to be anonymous then that's cool too, just rack your brain and pick a random name. Hopefully something people will remember!

YOUR DOMAIN: I have a purchased domain, which I got from godaddy.com. If you're just starting off with your blog, it's probably best to leave this for a while, because you could end up spending a fair amount of money on a website which you don't ever use! However, if you do choose to have your own domain you will have to, firstly, purchase a domain, and then install this on your platform. There are plenty of tutorials on the net to help you figure out how to do this.

This is my (quite boring) header, which was made on paint

YOUR LAYOUT: Most blogging platforms make it quite simple for you to change your layout up to personalise it to your tastes. You can usually add a header image, which will add character to your blog. Header images can easily be made on image editing software such as photoshop, or if you're not that fancy you could even have a go on microsoft paint!

WHAT TO WRITE?: There are plenty of beauty, fashion or lifestyles blogs on the net. If you want to write an eye-catching blog you'll have to search for innovative ways to attract readers. Try to think of original ideas and write about what you're passionate about. Think about your target audience - what would they want to read? What would they be interested in?

HOW TO GET READERS: In order to get people to read your blog you have to publicise that it's there. That might mean sharing it on social media such as facebook and twitter, or commenting on posts from similar blogs so that they can then click back to your blog. Another great website is bloglovin.com which will notify people when you post to your blog. Try not to spam people with your blog, it will most likely put them off and usually isn't appreciated. A much better way is to write things people are interested in and then will share to their friends.

Epilating

I've always been a shaving girl; it's cheap, it's easy and it gets the job done. However, I wanted to search for a better solution to hair removal because having to repurchase razors all the time whilst your hair grows back thicker and darker wasn't doing it for me any more! I'd heard of epilating before but hadn't really bothered to look into it further because I thought that epilators were really expensive and super painful...

However, whilst I was looking through the Amazon sale I came across a whole load of affordable epilators, and after some research (on YouTube) I found that it wasn't really as painful as I thought it was, so I decided to bite the bullet.

I bought the Braun Silk-épil Wet and Dry Epilator because I had read that epilating in the bath/shower was much less painful, and this epilator is waterproof! Plus, I had a bit of Christmas & Birthday money to burn. Thanks to my free student trial of prime, it came the next day, but annoyingly I had to wait another few days to use it because its charger plug is for use in 'shaver only' plugs, and I needed to order an adaptor.

Someone once commented that it was like a 'multi-tool' and "why does it need a torch?!"

I've been using it for a couple of months now which has given me the chance to properly test it out and get used to the pain (!!) and I have to say I'm pretty happy with my purchase. It's easy to use, holds charge really well and does the job I bought it for. I use it to remove hair in all sorts of places (lol) and each is different so I'll go through each bit individually.

LEGS: the first thing I tried epilating was my legs. It was quite painful... bearable, but it did make my teeth clench. I couldn't really do large areas at a time, plus had to do it pretty slowly. The pain is sort of like tiny pin pricks and goes away as soon as the epilator has passed that patch of skin. I think the reason it hurt so much was because I've shaved my legs for a really long time, and the hairs have grown to be pretty thick and coarse, which is always going to hurt more. So, instead, I tried the epilator in the shower, which was much less painful. You do have to be careful that you actually get all of the hairs though, which involved some contortion, or a quick touch up after the shower whilst still wet.

Hot dogs or legs? I epilated my right thigh and left my left thigh to demonstrate - but I'm not sure it's that obvious.

UNDERARMS: this sound like it would be mind-numbingly painful and I was pretty scared before I went through with it, but I actually think that it was less painful than doing my legs! I didn't even try battling this 'dry' because I was terrified, but doing it in the shower is pretty much painless. You can feel that the epilator is working but it really doesn't hurt too much at all. I think it's because I try not to shave my underarms too often, and actually used to pluck the hairs out (I don't have that many, yeah it's super weird but it's worked in my favour!). If you have previously waxed your underarms I'm sure you'd be fine.

BIKINI LINE: yes, I even braved the bikini line. It took quite a while to build up the courage, and although I could feel the pain of it, it really was bearable and wasn't as bad as I had feared. However, this is another area which I have waxed before so I think the weaker hairs made it much easier. The more you epilate the easier it gets too, and I now don't even wince whilst doing it.

UPPER LIP: having dark hairs can be such a pain and I've always used creams to either remove the hair on my upper lip or to bleach it. However, seeing as I had the epilator and because the creams can be awkward and messy to use I decided to give epilating a go. I first used it in the shower, and the pain was bearable but did reduce me to tears. Also, being in the shower, it made it impossible to see which spots I had missed, so I finished it off out of the shower but whilst my skin was still wet, which also hurts but you can get through it.

And that's it folks... I am loving having an epilator, but it can sometimes take a lot of time. I'm hoping that it will be worth it for the future when hopefully my hairs will be much thinner and less noticeable!

What A Girl Wants

Just a little side note here - my blog has reached 10,000 views! I'm very over excited and so pleased. Thank you so much to everyone who likes what I write and thanks even more to those who share it with their friends/family/pets, it means so much to me!

I have four female house-mates and one male house-mate (bless his little cotton socks). I think at times his experiences in our house would be described as hell-ish, but he doesn't seem to mind... too much. One bonus he does have, other than living with five beautiful ladies, is getting unlimited advice on women (whether it's asked for or not...). Sometimes he'll ask me what I think a girl would prefer and it's down to the individual lady, but other times I know exactly what she'd want - it just depends upon the issue we're discussing. Anyway, it made me think, what do girls really want? So during a lecture (oops) my brain got buzzing and I jotted it all down and here I am FINALLY sharing it with all of you!


So, here goes... Reading it back it's sort of more of a guide to first dates, but that's cool too right?

COMPLIMENT HER. I'm sure that this goes for guys too, but a compliment never did anyone any harm. Be truthful and genuine, what did you first notice about her? What do you find attractive about her? Personal compliments are the sweetest and always brighten someone's day. Try to let her know you're interested without sounding creepy - there's a fine line!

MAKE HER LAUGH. First of all, you want to be with a girl who has the same sense of humour as you and the best way to find this out is to make light hearted jokes and hope that she finds them funny. Play it safe with the jokes, probably best not to delve into any deep issues, even if you are trying to make light of them. Show your sense of humour, get a sense of hers. Try not to be too sarcastic because it can be quite hard to sense sarcasm when you first get to know someone, and you don't want her to accidentally take you seriously.

LISTEN TO HER. This sounds like a dumb thing to have to say, but take in what she's saying. Even if you're not actually interested get her to expand on the things she's talking about by asking questions. If it truly is really boring to you then you can always ask a question which tries to change the subject!

BE "CHEEKY". Sometimes it's important to show your playful side. Flirt a little and maybe even throw a couple of euphemisms in there. If that's not your kind of thing that's still cool, you'll find other ways of flirting and letting her know you're interested.

DON'T BE SHY. There's nothing worse than a surplus of awkward moments. First dates can be super awkward anyway so you don't want to make them worse! Show your true colours and be confident about it - what's the worst that could happen? Try not to be over confident or cocky though, that's a total turn-off.

USE YOUR BODY LANGUAGE. If you're into her then you don't have to just let her know vocally. Think about what your body language is saying - how you are sitting, how close you stand next to her, how you use your hands when you're talking to her, or what you're looking at when she's talking to you.

ASSESS HER BODY LANGUAGE. Read what she is telling you without really telling you. Her body language will tell you everything you need to know, and show you things that she can't hide.

The Implant

It sounds like something from a sci-fi film or a dystopian novel; an injected implant which sits just under the skin and controls the way your body work. When you put it that way it sounds pretty scary, but realistically it's just a small tube which stops you from getting pregnant. Contraception is something which is mostly about preference. You have to find something which works for you and will be the best for your body, habits and needs. I chose the implant because it worked for me, and here I am to sing its praises.

The implant releases progestogen into the bloodstream, this imitates the hormone progesterone, and stops your body from releasing an egg. In addition to this, it also thickens cervical mucus (yuck!) and thins down the lining of the womb. If there's no egg, then there's no chance of conception, and with these added factors, a much lower risk of pregnancy. It's pretty effective (about 99%), with only 1 in 1000 women getting pregnant whilst using it as contraception. That's the scientific bit.

The implant can be fitted at most Sexual Health Clinics or GP surgeries and is inserted under local anaesthetic - so it shouldn't hurt! It lasts for three years, but you can have it removed before then if you need to. You can also have another one fitted as soon as you have your old one out. Because it's just sat underneath the skin in your arm you don't need to worry about remembering to take a pill, in fact, you don't actually have to do anything, which was brilliant for me.

How revolting.

I did get a fantastic bruise on my arm as a result of having it fitted, but it only lasted a couple of days and was easy to hide. That's another thing, it's almost impossible to notice the implant in your arm unless you specifically feel for it.

Of course there are downsides to any form of contraception and the implant isn't any different. It can disrupt your menstrual cycle which leads to odd timings on periods, or no period at all (which I actually think is a wonderful bonus), and then there are other side effects, which aren't so different from other forms of contraception, such as headaches, acne, nausea, etc. but you can get your implant removed if this is the case!

Once you have the implant removed your fertility should return back to normal straight away (unlike the contraceptive injection), and you can even breastfeed whilst using it. Of course, you have to remember that like all a lot of other forms of contraception, the implant will not protect you against Sexually Transmitted Infections, only condoms will do that!

I have found that the implant was perfect for me and I have a couple of friends who agree. If you find that taking the pill is hard to remember, or even if you want something that's a little more worry free then this is probably what you're looking for. Then again, I have yet to have to have mine removed - maybe it'll be a different story then!

If you want to know more head over to the NHS choices website, where you can look at information on all types of contraception and find out more information!