So I've been nominated for this by MakingLifeACamera which was such a lovely thing to find when I turned my laptop on this morning!A huge thank you for that, you should definitely check out her blog, her photography is lovely and I always read her posts.

The purpose of this award is to recognize the up and coming blogs that you personally enjoy and to share them with both your readers and fellow bloggers.

So the official rules are as follows (as stolen from MakingLifeACamera) 

1.Thank the blogger who nominated you
2. Answer the questions given to you by the nominator
3. Nominate 5-11 new blogs with less than 200 followers and link them
4. Create 11 questions for them to answer
5. Notify the bloggers you have nominated

So here are the questions given to me by MakingLifeACamera


1) What is your favourite type of food?

This changes literally all the time. I'm quite a fussy eater but I try really hard to combat this by trying new things when I get the opportunity. However my all time favorite has to be a roast dinner. Nothing can beat that.
 
2) Who is your celebrity crush?

Channing Tatum. He's funny, he's hot and he can dance. Tatum get in my pants. 
 
3) Where in the world would you most like to visit and why?

Since I've got a bit older I have a huge urge to travel. Luckily my lack of actual money quickly reminds me to calm the eff down. But right now I would really love to go to Iceland. I'm not sure I can be a proper geologist until I've been there. Pretty much everyone I know has been and they tell me how amazing it is and I've seen a blog post on NISHAANTISHU and dear god it looks incredible.
 
4) On an everyday basis, what puts a smile upon your face?

The little small things people do for me. Making me a cup of tea without being asked, a surprise bar of chocolate just because, cooking a nice meal. Its the small easily forgotten moments of happiness that create a happy life. 
 
5) What is your favourite quote?

I have loads but back when I was 13 and just about to compete for GB for the first time I went to a sports psychology conference where the guy said to us "Good sports people are like a horse with blinkers: always looking forward". 
I have that quote pinned up above my bed and I think it can be applied to all areas of life. In order to be successful we must learn from our mistakes and channel them into something positive. 
 
6) Who makes you happy?

My hilariously crazy family. I love them so much. I'm also lucky to have some amazing friends who make me laugh so much. And my boyfriend Jared who really understands me. They all make me incredibly happy.  
 
7) If you could go back in time, what would you tell your younger self?

It will all be ok in the end and everything will work itself out. Worry less, live more.
 
8) Any embarrassing stories?

Most of these are too awful to type. I embarrass myself on an everyday basis by saying stupid things. Unfortunately a lot of my cringy moments are recorded on home videos so there is no escaping the shame. 
 
9) What is your favourite scent?

Nina by Nina Riche. My Mum used to wear it and I got given it for Christmas a few years ago. It reminds me of my Mum whenever I wear it and it makes me feel powerful and strong. 
 
10) What song are your loving right now?

I'm currently loving Heaven by Amber Run. Such a great track! I love singing to it really loudly in my car.  

11) What is your favourite part of blogging?

I love the chance to express whatever I'm thinking and being able to do something creative. As I am doing a science degree I often end up having very little to show for my efforts. For instance weeks of work might culminate in a few pages of A4 paper which is unlikely to be something I treasure. By writing this blog I am producing something I am proud of and want to continue to work on and improve. 


I would like to nominate 

Laura Leanne

Eden Markel 

Oh So Daisy

The Hunt For Fabulous

Oh Boy Lola

Your questions are:

1. What made you start blogging?

2. If you had a whole day to yourself what would you do?

3. What is your goal for 2015?

4. What is your favourite thing about yourself?

5. If you had the chance to move abroad for a year would you do it and where would you go?

6. What is the best gift you have ever received?

7. If you won a million pounds how would you spend it?

8. Given unlimited funds where would you like to travel to?

9. What do you like to do to pamper yourself?

10. What is your favourite beauty brand?

11. Who in the world would you most like to meet?

Making decisions is hard

First off, apologies for not being so good with making posts. I've had a busy week with working and stuff and y'know life just got in the way.

I wanted to write this post because I've been feeling really on edge and stressed all day. I've been on the verge of tears a fair bit too and that's not my normal happy state. Its taken me most of the day to work out why I'm upset and I think thats because I'm feeling very conflicted lately.

I've written about this quite a bit on this blog before but its clearly still bothering me so I am going to to write about it again.

Without boasting, in general I think my life is great. For me personally I feel like I have pretty much everything I want. Now this might not measure up to other peoples standards but I'm not going to get into that in this post. The important thing is its my life and I am happy with it.

Oddly though I think that might be the cause of why I was feeling upset. Before you judge me and think WHY ARE YOU COMPLAINING ABOUT BEING HAPPY let me explain.

In general I would say its the people in my life who bring me the most happiness and the experiences I have shared with them are memories that I treasure. I am incredibly lucky to have so many wonderful people around me. But choosing who to spend time with and trying to justify my priorities to everyone can leave me feeling exhausted.

I know I should just do what I want. But life is not that simple. I have responsibilities such as work and uni that restrict what free time I have and a large amount of people to divide that limited time between.

Put simply I am fed up with having to choose. I am tired of having to sacrifice time spent with everyone and trying to calculate in my head who I should be prioritizing at the moment. Sometimes I have to make difficult decisions and I then spent a huge amount of time worrying I made the wrong one. Whatever I decide I inevitably end up upsetting somebody. But most of all I upset myself because I simply cannot please everyone.

Sometimes it feels like I am so busy trying to do what everyone else wants there isn't much time left for things I want to do. Perhaps I need to be firmer but I find it hard saying no to people I care about.

So yeah. This was a bit of a rambly post but I feel better for having written it down. I'm sure I can't be the only person who this affects so I would love to hear if anyone has any advice on how they cope with it.

Picture from Pinterest

My Self Confidence Lapse

If in doubt, wear red

Back at the beginning of the month I wrote about the self confidence crisis I have been in the grip of for the past year or so without realising. It had been slowly getting worse and over the past 6 weeks or so I've been making an effort to put myself back together.

I've been making more effort with my appearance and this helps me feel braver as I know I look good on the outside even when I feel small on the inside.

This time last week I had a bit of a lapse. I spent the day in bed crying and starting the same negative cycle of being horrible to myself.
I felt I was disgusting, ugly, worthless and why the hell would anyone want to be friends with me? I wasted a whole precious day lying in bed, listening to Taylor Swift and crying. All because I didn't have enough faith in myself to accept that the people around me love me and want to be with me.

Looking back now I feel stupid and I can see that the person with the problem is me. I need to work on the way I perceive myself and to give less of a shit about what other people think about me.

I need to follow my own advice. I am always the first to encourage other people to do what they want and not let fear of others judging hold them back. When it comes to myself however I worry endlessly. It is such a pointless waste of my energy. My Mum said to me the other day I will end up with 'Worried too much about what others thought' on my gravestone. It scared me because its true. I am allowing it to take over my life and its starting to define who I as a person.

But I see that this small hiccup is an essential part of my recovery. There are going to be good and bad days and they have to be embraced equally. Without the darker days I would not appreciate the amazing ones and recognize that even in this short time period I have made some progress.

I've also come up with a plan to put into action for when particular scenarios get me down and this has helped me to relax and stop stressing.

All in all I think I am doing well. I am proud of myself. That was hard to write, but the fact I was able to shows I have made progress.

My Self Confidence Crisis

I'm going to be honest here and admit that recently I've been having a bit of a self confidence crisis.
Its actually been going on for quite some time, and has been steadily getting worse.

I've been feeling exceptionally worthless and like I wasn't worth anyone's time. I couldn't understand how anyone wanted to be friends with me or why they would enjoy my company. I felt undeserving of my good friends, lovely boyfriend and incredible family. I didn't deserve happiness. I was useless and everyone's life would be better if I just kept to myself and didn't bother anyone.

Now I can see that stress was probably the catalyst for this. I doubted I would be able to complete the huge challenge set for me and that made me doubt myself. But in truth my workload was not entirely to blame. It merely exacerbated a problem that had been threatening to rear its ugly head for some time. The problem was me and with how I viewed myself. I didn't feel good enough to enjoy my own life and I was too worried about what other people thought of me. In short: I had stopped liking myself.

This is not the first time I have gone through this. In fact I would say that underneath despite whatever front I put on I feel shy and incompetent. However if you ask people who know me they would disagree with that statement and say I am confident and competent. My coping strategy has had to be 'fake it til you make it' and over the years I have got better at convincing myself as well as others. So even if I don't feel confident inside, I am usually secure in the knowledge I am fooling others. This helps me cope.

Every few years, it gets out of hand and I sink into the dark horrible place I described above. I would not say I was depressed or mentally ill, just insecure and unconfident in myself. I've pulled myself out of this with my Mums help every time and she has been equally supportive this time. Its hard work, but worth it.

I spent so many hours crying over the past few months and being utterly horrid to myself. By doing this I was just making everything worse. Eventually I spoke to my family and friends and once they understood they have been a great help. The key was in recognizing there was nothing wrong with my life, but there was something wrong with ME. And it was all in the way I viewed myself.

Now 2 weeks after starting to talk about it I feel a lot better. I've been making more an effort with my appearance which is always good for your self confidence. I've also treated myself to a few new things as as reward for pulling through and not giving up. I'm starting to see myself and my life in a different light.

Don't get me wrong, I still have the odd moment where I lapse and start to feel like I'm not good enough but I keep reminding myself how damn awesome I really am.
I'm not perfect but I'm still fun to be around and the people around me like me for who I am. And do you know what? I deserve that, because I deserve to happy as much as everyone else.

I've written this post to remind myself of that and to help anyone else out there who might be feeling crappy inside. You can feel better, you just need to find someone to talk to. Once you start talking to people, they usually admit they feel the same way. You are not alone. And we are all incredible.

Why the university system is backwards

I would like to start this post off by saying I actually really love my uni, and have really enjoyed the past three years here. I am not trying to slate the University of Southampton and I am proud to be a part of it. BUT there are major issues with the way that the university system works overall. Often these are to the detriment of their students and in my opinion that has serious repercussions for society.

I believe the problem lies in the backwards approach that universities take and this particularly affects Russel Group Universities. They focus on bringing in people to teach who are leaders in their field and then use this to draw in students. How many of you have seen on a university website about the 'ground breaking research being done' or this lecturer has just been awarded some prize for being the biggest smarty pants? If your uni is anything like mine (or the numerous others that I have looked at) then I would bet its quite often. After all this is the whole idea on which Russel Group Universities (including the University of Southampton) are based.

Now this seems like a good idea, because you want the next generation to be trained by the best people in their field. As a result, people often choose universities based on how good their research is in their particular area of study. I myself am among those people. The Ocean and Earth Science department at the University of Southampton is considered to be one of the best in the world and that certainly made me want to apply. I wanted to be able to say I had graduated with my geology degree from Southampton and for people to think 'Wow, she must have a good degree then'. The leading research they do creates respect for the institution.

In order for Southampton to maintain its reputation it must employ the top researchers for a particular subject and they attract these people to their uni by having a research based ethos. The idea being: 'Come to our uni and teach our students but you get to carry on your research using our incredible facilities'. Now by this point you are probably thinking: isn't the whole point of a university is to do research? That is where I would argue you are wrong.

To me, it feels like my university (and many others) have forgotten they are an institution of learning primarily as they are too focused on their research. Being taught by the top people within their profession sounds great, but these people are academics and often do not have the people skills that are needed to be a good teacher. Now I appreciate that you need to be at least a bit of an expert to teach at university level but it often feels like my uni gives no thought as to whether or not these people have the ABILITY to teach, not just the knowledge.

The other problem is lecturing is not most member of staffs priority. Their research comes first and their teaching second, maybe even lower depending on what other responsibilities they have. This is something that I feel particularly affects Ocean and Earth Science. Within the National Oceanography Centre where OES is based there are people who are paid just to do research and people who research as well as lecture. This means that in order to keep up with their colleagues lecturers have to do a lot of extra work. If they cannot stay at the fore front of science our university will not be interested in employing them anymore (not any other uni). Its no wonder then that as a student it can feel like a lot of lecturers can't be bothered or don't really care.

This I think is the fundamental problem: that universities do not consider being a good teacher to be important. As an undergrad who is paying NINE THOUSAND POUNDS A YEAR for the privilege to be here I would say this is not acceptable. The university system is providing a service for me, but I cannot afford to simply take my custom elsewhere as I have invested too much money in it. Also, the fact is that society says I need a degree. If I want to get a job and earn myself enough money to enjoy my life then I need that precious piece of paper. There is no alternative for getting it other than going through the university system. So I am trapped like millions of others by this situation and I wish I had the power to change it.

I am not saying that university should be exactly like schools but I do think that a lecturer should be accountable for our education in the same way that teachers are for their pupils. If all of a teachers class fails an exam, then questions are raised. It does not appear to be that way for lecturers in my experience.

Now there are some genuinely very talented lecturers at my uni who are passionate about their teaching. One of them is so good that he was the runner up for the best lecturer out of the entire university. But even for them it must play second fiddle to their research because their very job depends on it.

I would love to see universities move towards employing lecturer who actually WANT to teach and who are actually good at it. After all, the people they are teaching could one day go on to be the world renowned expert. But they will never reach such lofty heights if they do not receive the correct support during their undergrad degree.

So in conclusion universities need to stop putting the cart before the horse and focus more on teaching their students actual stuff and less on how many papers they published this year. Otherwise their might not be anyone to teach it in the future. If someone could just grant me some super powers and I'll fix all this in a jiffy.

Rant over.

The Happiness Project

So some of you might remember a few weeks back when I was still in the midst of exam/dissertation hell I wrote a post about all the things I was planning on doing once it was all over?
Well now that it has all been handed in I just thought it would be nice to share the positivity and happiness of all the fun things I've been up to.

In my head, I have called this 'The Happiness Project'. Please nobody laugh at how lame that sounds, I just think its important that we all focus on doing the small things that make us happy. In the rush of everyday life it is so easy to get caught up on all the stuff we need to do and this makes it hard to do the stuff we really WANT to do. So I'd like to share with you guys my busy week so far which I have tried to fill with as many fun things as possible.

In a way, this is the whole theme of my blog, in that I try to celebrate the small everyday joys in life. It can be tough sometimes, and recently things have been tricky for me. This post is about how you have to sometimes be nice to yourself and be proud of your achievements, even if they seem small to others. What is important is learning to respect how you feel and understanding how to make yourself feel happy. So while the things listed below are actually very mundane, for me the time I have spent with people while doing this has made all the difference.

Went on a fantastic date night on Friday to Turtle Bay which has got to be one of my favorite restaurants. This was partly a celebration of me finishing exams (and my dissertation although I had not handed it in) as well as Jared's birthday. A big happy birthday to him <3 I got pretty sloshed on Prosecco before we even got there and then continued with the wine throughout the meal. It was nice to get merry though after so long of having to be boring. The food as ever was divine, and I had pulled jerk pork for a starter followed by Mo Bay Chicken (chicken in creamy sauce) with sweet potato fries. Jared had their goat curry which was also delicious and as always I was getting food envy. The only problem with Turtle Bay is all the food is so good I always want all of it. 

On Monday as we all know, I handed in my dissertation and this was the same day as the start of the new semester. My new modules seem to be fun so far which is good. As soon as lectures were finished I headed straight to Boots and treated myself as promised. I bought my new Clinique Sonic Brush as mentioned here and a new Long Last Lipstick in a colour called Rose Shimmer. It's much pinker than the lipsticks I usually wear but I wanted a change. So far I am obsessed with it. I think after all that hard work I deserved it. And I feel better now I've rewarded myself.

I did have a whole day of Netflix planned yesterday but this has had to be postponed due to my boyfriend being called into work at the last moment. Will be doing this at the weekend instead and I am really looking forward to some vegging out. We've made a whole list of movies we want to watch and I can't wait to get stuck in.

Yesterday, instead of watching Netflix I went to the gym and actually enjoyed it. I haven't been in so long it was actually fun. Fingers crossed for me becoming a super fit gym fanatic. It could happen.

After the gym however I undid all my hard work by meeting my flatmate for lunch at Wild Lime where the food as ever was delicious. Plus it was nice to have a catch up as I have hardly seen anyone recently.

I spent the afternoon having a really good sort out of my room and threw away a whole bag of rubbish. There is something so soothing about having stuff back in order and clean isn't there? Had a lovely relaxing bath before heading out on a bar crawl with the rest of the geologists in order to celebrate our freedom.

So there is what I've been up to so far. Can't wait to carry on having fun over the rest of the week!




Pictures: my own and the top one is stolen from Pinterest. 

7 Hairstyles to rescue a bad curly hair day

Curly hair is a frickin pain. It looks oh so fabulously shiny and swishy on the day you wash it. You float about with a tumble of glossy curls that cascade down your back making you look at feel like a Disney princess. Once you've slept on it the nightmare begins. Normal straight haired people just brush their hair again, maybe use a little dry shampoo or a quick once over with the GHDs and they're set.

Just washed

For people with curly hair its a whole different game. Now don't get me wrong the good thing about curly hair is that it never looks as greasy as straight hair so you don't have to wash it as often which is great cos washing it is a total pain in the arse.

However you can't brush it without washing it (or you'll look like the local madwoman) so you're in a bit of a tricky situation. You could just wash it everyday but if you wash it all the time it will eventually start to look flat and lifeless as you strip all the natural oils out. But if you don't wash it everyday you can't brush it. The result is a tangled mess that takes you forever to deal with plus second day hair never looks as good.

My advice? Figure out what you can do with it to disguise what a mess it is so you can waste less of your life washing it and make your hair better in the process. Accept the fact that you cannot brush your hair everyday and you will have to get up 10min earlier on days you DO wash it so you can attack it with conditioner and a comb while in the shower. Sorry housemates who also need to shower in the morning but TOUGH.

First thing you need to remember is that unless its been quite a few days since you washed it or you've worn a sweaty riding hat on it (like I do) then its highly likely that to anyone other than you your hair looks no different. I swear that normal people think my hair looks exactly the same all the time and they regularly feel the need to tell me this. Its all part of being 'blessed' with naturally curly hair.

So now we've established the plan of only washing your hair every 2-3 days what do you do with it in the meantime? Well as I have a lifetime of experience in this area here are my suggestions. All of these though will obviously work with straight hair too.

Day 2. Difference is not that obvious. Really

1. Just wear it loose anyway. As I've already mentioned nobody else thinks it looks any different anyway so just leave it and don't care. This is obviously the easiest option but it is really only suitable for the day after you've washed it. Get yourself some decent serum and run that through it and 9 days out of 10 it still looks fine and you're good to go. Laugh at all the straight haired people who had to brush their hair that morning.

2. Plait it. Once you've gone past this point or you woke up with it all stuck up cos you slept on it weirdly you are going to have to tie it up. I find day 2 or three to be the best day to go for a plait because my hair is not yet knotty enough for me to have to rip most of it out in order to achieve this.
The classic plait will keep your hair under control and tidy and is ideal if you are trying to do something where you need it out of the way eg. at the gym.

3. The fishtail braid. Looks great when you get someone else to do it and have it all the way down your back but I usually end up doing it myself so have it as a side plait (congrats to anyone who can do it by themselves without making it a side plait). I think it looks cute like this, particularly in the winter when I wear it with a beanie. Plus it keeps it out of the way and under control.

4. The french braid. Although I can french plait I need someone else to do it for me cos it's just too fiddly to do yourself. As a result this one rarely gets a look in but if you are skilled enough then it looks incredible.

5. Pigtails. These take only a few moments to do so are great when you are in a hurry. Plus almost everyone looks super cute with pigtails.

6. The pony tail. This old friend will never fail you and is great for days when you don't have time but your hair is just so bad its beyond saving. Get yourself some decent hair ties that are tough enough to hold your curly locks and tie it up in a high pony tail. I like to pretend to myself that this tells other people I'm low maintenance and I just woke up looking this cool. Scrunchies are back at the moment so add one of these on top of your hair tie thats doing all the work and you're good to go. 

7. The messy bun. Now as your hair is curly every hair style you do it going to be messy so just embrace it. Those straight haired girls spend ages back combing and using curling tongs to get this look. Just grab your hair and wind it into a loose, messy bun. Secure with a nice strong hair tie and glam it up with a scrunchie/ribbon/hair clip etc. Use bobby pins to secure any bits that wont co-operate. This style can hide even the messiest of hair so no matter how bad it looks and how much you overslept it can always be disguised.

So there we have it, 7 different ways to turn around even the worse of hair days.
What do you find works best for you?

Stuff I can't wait to do

Ever since I was about 14 I've hated January as it involved some sort of exam season. Not only is it cold, with shit weather and no Christmas to look forward to but then they decide to add EXAMS into that delightful mix.

This time last year I was disastrously ill and having one of the worst months of my life. This year is not much better for very different reasons. Basically I have three exams to sit and I hate two out of the three modules. Plus my dissertation deadline is only 2 days after my final exam. That's right. TWO WHOLE DAYS. Aren't they generous?

The amount of work I've got is crippling and is leaching all the fun and enjoyment out of my life. Even when I am taking a break I am so wracked with guilt I cannot enjoy what I am doing. Right now the only thing I seem capable of doing is crying and that is really not helping because I have got a horrible cold that is already making me a snotty mess.

To try and cheer myself up I decided to write a post on all the fun things I am going to do once this work is out of the way.

1. Netflix, tea, pjs. All day, for a whole day. I don't care what I watch or how much fast food I eat but its going to be incredible. Might even do it for several days. We'll see how I feel.

2. Dinner with my Geology Girls. We've got a fun celebratory dinner planned and I can't wait to consume copious amounts of wine and relax. While stuffing lots of yummy food into my face.

3. Get back to the gym. I have not had time to even go near that place, but weirdly I find myself looking forward to going back there... Probably a good thing as I plan on doing a lot of eating over the next few weeks.

4. Date night with my boyfriend. As a well deserved treat we are off to do something special together. It will be really nice to spend some time with him where I am not on the brink of bursting into stress tears at any moment.

5. Party time! There is a big party being planned for some friends of mines birthdays. Best part is its DISNEY THEMED. Time to crack out my well thought out costume and drink large amounts of vodka and coke (mostly vodka).

6. Planning my holiday. The reason I worked my butt off over Christmas was to earn some cash and I plan to spend a bit of it jetting off somewhere hot and sunny. Even thinking about it makes me excited!

7. I'm going to treat myself to some sort of beauty item. I haven't decided what yet but I've promised myself that the day I hand in that stinking dissertation I am going to go straight to town and blow my student loan on whatever takes my fancy.

8. Doing whatever the hell I want. This is probably the most important one. I am desperate to regain some control over my own life and get back to doing stuff I find fun. Life is too short to waste and I believe in spending every moment making yourself as happy as possible. I believe in doing what you love and I am hoping that one day this degree that I despise so much might actually lead to something I enjoy. So once this is over I plan on doing whatever I please for a bit. At least until the next deadline starts looming...



Picture from Pinterest.

Things I currently want

I love pretty things!

1. A faux fur headband. As previously mentioned I think I might look like a total muppet so I have never bought one. But I want it...

2. Netflix. As my boyfriend has this and I spend a lot of time at his house its pointless to spend any money on it. But I want to be able to watch it whenever I like. AKA. All the time.

3. For my dissertation to stop ruining my life. If it could just go away that would be great.

4. To have my car at uni. It would make my life a million times easier. 

5. I really want a go pro. Like really want one. Partly for filming my horse stuff with but also for just say to day life. I've spent a lot of the Christmas holidays watching old home videos and they're so hilarious. I reckon we could record some awesome stuff on a go pro. Now I just need to find £280....

6. A cat onsie. I already have a onsie. It's leopard print and it's awesome. I also have pjamas with a hood that looks like a robin. Next on my list is to actually get a cat one. With ears and a tail and everything. I'm going to wear it and sleep for 16 hours a day. 

7. Eyelash curlers. I'm not sure I can be a proper girl without these. I need to stop messing around and just buy some. 

8. Clinique sonic brush. I feel like this will turn my skin care around and make me look like a super model. But then again it's EIGHTY POUNDS. So maybe not. 

9. Coffee. I bloody hate coffee yet I want to be as basic as everyone else and walk around with my Starbucks. Instead of having to be boring and get a hot chocolate every time I go into a coffee shop.

10. A Mac. Again I'm basic and I don't care. My sister has a Mac and it's so much prettier and cooler than my shitty HP laptop. But y'know as I don't have a spare grand lying around I'll have to give this a miss for now. 

New year... New Goals

Now I'm not really one for making New Years Resolutions. I never stick to them and that just makes me feel bad about myself. However since I was 14 every year with my sport of Carriage Driving I sit down and make a list of goals of what I hope to achieve each year. This tactic has allowed me to compete for GB so it must be working. In which case, its probably time to apply it to the rest of my life.

1. Be better with my skin care. I started using Clinique skincare back in April and it has made a huge difference to my skin. Over the next year I want to start being more dedicated to my routine and stop being so lazy.The effort is worthwhile and will pay off in years to come.

2. Finish my dissertation. This is a bit of a cheat goal because the deadline for this is the end of January and isn't something I am going to work on for the whole of next year. But this is a project I have been working on for the best part of a year and to finally complete it will be a huge achievement. I can't wait for the day after its done. I'm going to sit in PJs drinking tea and watching Netflix. Its going to be glorious and I'm already fantasizing about that blissful moment of relief.

3. Find a replacement curly hair shampoo. I've been loyal to Naked Bodycare for the past year and I've never been able to fault it. Unfortunately they have gone out of business so now everytime I venture into Boots I find myself leaving with every bottle they had in stock. Obviously this approach is not sustainable for ever so at some point over the next year I am going to have to go through the horror of trying to find something suitable to replace it with. No doubt that will appear on here at some point so keep your eyes peeled for that in the future.

4. Stop being so horrible to myself. I am very bad for talking myself down and telling everyone how bad I am at things. Now clearly I can't be bad at EVERYTHING so this needs to stop because the more you tell yourself things the more you start to believe it. It becomes this awful self perpetuating cycle and its very hard to break. This year I am going to make a concentrated effort to stop being my own worst enemy.

5. Care less about what other people think of me. This is a lifelong goal for me and I think it will probably appear on this list for a few more years yet. Certain events that have happened this year have brought how short life is into very sharp focus for me. Life should not be wasted worrying about other people. Over the past year I have started wearing a lot of lipstick, and I am sure it is not to everyone's liking, but it makes me feel happy so I do it anyway. This blog is another example of me trying to combat this problem that regularly threatens to cripple me. I felt like people would laugh at me if I started a blog and I eventually gathered the courage to do it anyway. Now I wish I had done it ages ago. I make small little baby steps with this everyday, but its important to keep focused on it. Otherwise I slip back into my old ways and that will not make me any happier.

6. Go on an adventure somewhere. I'm not really bothered where or what it is but I want to plan it and just do it. There are few things in life that are more invigorating than doing new things and its a worthwhile use of your money. Half the fun is in deciding what you want to do, or in just waking up and doing something on a whim. So while I have no plans yet, I will definitely be making happen.

7. Try to eat more fruit and veg. I'm not going to start whinging about dieting but I do need to eat a slightly more balanced diet and stop having eating so much junk. This ties in nicely with No. 1 and I'm sure my skin will thank me. I'm not going to give up anything or start being restrictive. Instead as a very picky eater I am going to try and be more inclusive and add some new foods to my repertoire. We'll see how this one goes.

8. Go on more dates. Both with my boyfriend and my friends. As mentioned above doing new things is good for the soul and is proven to forge stronger bonds between people. But aside from that its just plain fun. And I'm keen on anything that adds extra fun to my life :) I've already got a few things planned and I'm so excited for it!

9. Do the Race for life. Again I'm not going to pretend to have unrealistic goals of turning into a super fit gym bunny but I would like to do this in memory of my Grandad whether I run, walk or crawl it I don't care. I want to do it anyway. I think its a worthwhile achievement however you complete it.

10. Be more assertive. This is my big one for the new year. Despite my friends thinking I won't take shit from people I am actually incredibly prone to letting people walk all over me. The problem is I have a hard time standing up to people who are close to me. Yet I have no issues releasing my resting bitch face or scathing sarcasm on mere acquaintances who have mildly annoyed me. I don't want to argue with people or upset them and sometimes I let that be an excuse for allowing them to upset ME instead. This year I want to try to say NO more and start focusing on whats best for me. This might mean some of my friendships will change but I'm starting to realise that if they don't see that my happiness is important then they probably weren't my friend in the first place.

My Birthday!

 Now in case I hadn't milked the fact it was my birthday enough, it was finally the actual day!

I went home for the weekend to see my family and we had a lovely meal out at a local pub, getting very drunk on bubbly and just generally being rowdy and mad.

I received some absolutely beautiful gifts, mostly of amber jewelery which is all stunning and I cannot decide what to wear first. My mum made me an incredible basket of happiness (alcohol and chocolate). Also had some generous money gifts (big thanks to relatives for that, I am totally skint at the moment, so MUCH appreciated thank you!). My boyfriend bought me a beautiful ring (FYI we are NOT engaged, its just a casual ring that I had my eye on) and put up with my mental family for the weekend.

Spent the Sunday messing around on the farm with the horses, trying to get better at archery and attempting to shoot ducks with the air rifle. Proud to say I won this :D

Afraid I didn't take that many pictures as I was too busy having fun but there are a few. Big thank you to my parents, I had the most incredible 21st. There I said it, I'm old now. Its official. Heres to getting a million cats and being a mad old lady.

Feeling Happy

One of the few things I've learnt since being at uni is the importance of doing what makes you happy.

I have had an exceptionally stressful week due to personal stuff and having a large deadline due.

However it is important to have faith because a lot of the time stuff works itself out. A lot of the things I've been worrying about have resolved themselves in the past few days which is a huge relief.

Sometimes you just gotta have a carb filled meal and just allow yourself to chill out. 

I've spent the weekend chilling with a good book (Make my wish come true by Fiona Harper, free to download from iTunes right now) and just letting myself be happy. 

Sure I've got so much work to do that whenever I think about it I want to cry. But sometimes you've just got to take a break and be nice to yourself. 

Today I'm going to try and make a start on the mountain of work. Do what makes you happy. I really wish I could back out of this degree because I hate it but there's bits I enjoy and I've already invested so much time and energy into it that I can't quit now. To help me cope I try to do other things to counter balance the shitty degree. Like going to restaurants with my friends and relaxing with a glass of wine with my mum. Life's small pleasures are often overlooked but in my opinion they can make or break your week. 

Straight hair week

Woah, I look weird with straight hair

Ok, I have a confession to make. After my post the other day about curly hair I claimed that actually it is better than straight hair, but last week I got my hair straightened.

Now first of all let me explain this treachery. Over the summer I went on a massive field trip to the Isle of Skye for 6 weeks to do my Independent Mapping which is what geologist do to kickstart their dissertation. That's right, not only do we have to write the damn thing but first of
all we have to spend 6 weeks of our summer on it (and thousands of precious pounds). I

And fishtail braids are so easy when its straight!

returned from this adventure looking and feeling like a lady troll and vowed to rectify this as soon as I came home with some pampering.

Obviously as soon as I got home I got distracted with having actual FUN and forgot about my plans to get my hair done. But last week I decided to just do it and got my hair professionally coloured for the first time (embarrassing to admit I know). It was such a lovely treat and enjoyed every second of it.

The upshot of this is that I emerged from the hairdressers three hours later with straight hair which is also now a lovely rich brown as opposed to my natural mousy colour. I haven't straightened my hair for about four years because I am too lazy so nobody at uni has ever seen it when its straight.

When I walked into a lecture the next day (only slightly late, whoops) there was a collective gasp from my friends who couldn't stop wanting to touch it haha. When its straight its also clear how long it really is so there was lots of freaking out over that too. My boyfriend and flatmates were also pretty shocked but I was reassured to hear from all my friends that they prefer it curly. Which is lucky really cos I am sure as hell not going through all that hassle everyday.

Its so bloody long!

Anyway hope you enjoy the photos. I certainly enjoyed the change and being able to just get up, brush it and go like a normal human being. But I am relieved to be back to my curls because I actually like to be different and feel a little too plain without them.

10 things that have made me happy this week

I'm hoping that this will become a regular thing on my blog and to celebrate its one week birthday here is my very first attempt at this.

1. I had an hour long Skype session with my friend Imogen who is currently being chic and sophisticated living it up in Paris visiting the Eiffel Tower and checking out the incredible local coffee (and lingerie!) shops. I haven't spoken to her for a while and it was so lovely to catch up as I've really miss her. She also has her own blog so you can follow her adventures here. 

2. My Mummy finally came home after a stressful visit to Crete to try and sort out my Grandads affairs as he sadly passed away recently. He moved to Crete just over 6 years ago and unfortunately we didn't get to see him much after that. I'm still really sad whenever I think about the fact I can never talk to him again. But anyway I was really happy to see my Mum and we've had birthday celebrations (Chinese takeaway) as it the big day happened while she was away in Crete. Glad you're home Mum!

3. Finally got my act together this week and went and got my bus pass. Got stung £265 for it but this now means I can hop around Southampton to my hearts content. The freedom (and less walking) is bliss.

4. In my first year my four bestest girl friends who do Geology with me used to have regular pizza nights where we would stuff ourselves, watch a film and gossip. Somehow this got put on hold last year which was probably to do with us being all spread out around the city but we had such a great time this week. We ordered £60 worth of Dominos (only paid £30 for it WIN) and devoured it within about 10 minutes. The film chosen was This Means War and we all agreed we would have gone for Tom Hardy. Would just like to take a moment to say I love these girls so much and the past 2 years would have been shit without them. And we need more Pizza nights!

5. My boyfriend and I have been planning a really nice date with an elaborate dinner this week. Anything that involves dressing up and eating scrummy food is a sure fire way to make me happy. 

6. This chocolate spread from Waitrose. Its so delicious and I daren't even look at how many calories it has but it's so chocolately and perfect. Go buy some. But don't forget to hide it from your flatmates.

7. It has literally not stopped raining in Southampton over the last week and we've also had some rather scary thunderstorms. Lying in bed, listening to the rain while I'm snuggly and warm is absolute heaven.

8. My new Avon Glimmersticks. My Mum bought me one of these last year and I instantly fell in love with it. I wore it almost everyday and it recently ran out. I don't think I've ever worn an eyeliner so much before that I actually used it all up. As they were in the sale I got three of them in different wearable colours. They go on so smoothly, stay put all day and are great for subtly enhancing your eyes without looking too 'done up'.

9. The only good thing about this incessant raining (going to start working on my arc soon) is that its a great excuse to wear my favorite boots everywhere. These were a birthday present from my Grandma and I love how comfy they are. Now that they are a few years old they are fabulously distressed and look incredible. 

10. Relaxing in my new room at uni with candles burning, music playing and a hot chocolate by my side. That makes it pretty hard not to be happy.

Is the iPhone really the best thing since sliced bread?

Recently my beloved Samsung Galaxy S3 has started to be really slow and unresponsive. The battery life is no longer as good as it once was and to be honest it’s started to become annoying. 

I always imagined that when my precious phone finally died I would upgrade it to Samsungs current model (whatever it may be) as I thought my S3 was practically perfect in every way. 

 But when I came to choose my new phone I was shocked at how enormous the Samsung S5 was. It’s way too big to be practical for me so enter my new iPhone 5s which I am not ashamed to admit I chose it purely because the size is convenient. Such a technophobe.

So far I have to admit I’m not entirely in love with it. So while this is in no way a post about technical thingy ma bobs about how these various phones work here is what I’ve found so far. 

Things that annoy me about my iPhone:

• The charger situation is seriously annoying. Apples sneaky move of changing the charger means that I have to wave goodbye to the freedom of Androids micro usb charger. As I’ve had several Samsungs over the years I’ve acquired quite a few chargers (plus one I’ve stolen from my sister, whoops). This means I just leave my chargers scattered about where ever I may need one and never have to worry about forgetting it when I go home for the weekend. Now I am going to have to purchase several more and this is going to cost me lots of money. You can’t even buy a cheap fake version as it makes the 5s go all weird and refuse to unlock while its plugged in. Damn you Apple and your money making schemes.

•  The layout of some general apps is different on iOS then it is on Android and not always for the better. For example the way the Facebook app is laid out with the navigation bar at the bottom not the top is bloody irritating.

• My Instagram no longer remembers all my hashtags which is total pain cos I have to keep typing them all out again. Life is too short for this. Sort it out Apple/Instragram or whoevers fault this is.

• ·         Its harder to personalise settings than on Android and despite being famously simple I find the iOS interface less intuitive. Maybe I’m just stupid.

• ·         Also it’s costing me more money for my contract. Anything that makes me spend money is annoying.

Things that I actually quite like about my iPhone:

• ·         Facetime is quite cool. Or well I reckon it could be as both my Mum and my sister have iPhones as do lots of my friends so it could come in handy.

• ·         It runs quicker than my old S3 but that’s hardly surprising as its brand new.

• ·         The fingerprint scanner is so effing handy. No more having to endlessly type in my stupid passcode.

• ·         The battery life is also pretty good but again it is brand new so we’ll see if I’m still impressed with it in a few months’ time.

• ·         It’s a convenient size as it fits in your pocket and is just right in your hand.

• ·         The front camera is much better than my old phone which is great cos I’m partial to a bit of Snapchatting here and there.

• ·         Unlike with a Samsung there are a vast variety of cases available for it which as a girl is important because I want my phone to look stylish.

• ·         It’s just so black and shiny and pretty to look at.

So while right now I’m not entirely sold on the iPhone I’m sure that I will soon join the hordes of Apple wankers and wonder how I ever used a measly Android.