Oh the Excitement!

Evenin'!

The past few weeks have been a bit of a struggle for me as being so far away from home (about 409 miles!) has had it's impact on me as I'm majorly missing my family and friends and some unfortunate personal family issues that have arisen. My work load doesn't exactly help everything but what can I do, I'm at uni now, it's to be expected!

For those that may not know, I'm currently studying Biomedical Science (I may have mentioned this already in a previous post). It is such a fantastic course that is really pushing my scientific knowledge to the limit, and even my limited maths knowledge! I honestly don't think I could have picked a better course to do, I totally recommend it to anyone who is thinking about a career in science, it's amazing!

This week really has been an exceptionally ordinary one, with nothing terribly exciting happening, so apologies for the rather short and probably boring post but I just thought I'd let you know I'm still here, busy working away. Oh, and sorry about the rather deceiving post title! But I shall make reading this post worthwhile with some wonderful pictures of pugs, enjoy!

Until next time,
Catherine xxx

A Day of Remembrance

Good evening!

Nothing exceptionally out of the ordinary has happened over the past week and a bit, just been leading the 'normal' student life of eating, sleeping, lecturing and repeating!

I thought I would treat myself tonight so put on my new Lush face mask, had some food and I'm now about to attempt the questions from today's exiting practical consisting of a mad rush to put cuvettes into a spectrophotometer and taking far to many readings. Hopefully I'll get some of my write up finished...if not, it can be completed tomorrow after a wonderful lie-in as I have the day off tomorrow! A first for the bioscience students this year!

Tomorrows lie-in will be even nicer than anticipated as I'll be in a double bed because Tal has finally been moved into his new room. No more being squeezed into a single bed for the two of us!

Today really is an exceptionally important day, what with it being Armistice Day or Remembrance Day. For those of you who may not know what this is, it arks the armistice signed between the Allies of World Ward 1 and Germany, to mark the end of the First World War. Today is also a day for remembering the thousands of men and women who have served or continue to serve in the Armed Forces, in wards past and present. Remembering these amazing people is very important to me having had various members of my family, close and distant, serving with the Armed Forces.

On Sunday 9th November, I was lucky to be able to parade in Canterbury with the band to help pay my respects to these wonderful people who sacrificed so much.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn them;
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

On Fridays, RaG wears pink!

Good afternoon readers!

So it's been quite a while since I first/last posted so I thought I should really start keeping you all up to date on a regular basis so I shall try my best to keep it up!

The past few weeks have been pretty amazing. I've spent quite a number of days exploring the city of Canterbury with the wonderful Tal, both on foot and by river! I was treated to a canoeing trip along the River Stour. As lovely as the thought was, I'm rather terrified of open water for some reason...(and no, it's not because of Jaws!). But none the less, I still really enjoyed my time on the water and may have started getting over my fear. 

Canterbury is such a beautiful city what with all it's cute little shops, the Cathedral (which I am yet to visit), the cobbled roads and all the rivers and parks. I really could get used to this!

So much has happened over the past three weeks; well maybe not that much, but it has all been rather exciting! 

On the 15th October Kristian Nairn was to be performing in Venue (the on campus club for those of you that may not know) Being a huge Game of Thrones fan I was definitely not going to pass up the opportunity to see the legend that is Hodor, no matter how long I might have to queue up for! Luckily the line went quickly and soon we were in shortly after 9:30pm, both so excited about the prospect of seeing Kristian but he wanted to keep us waiting, over an hour and a half to be precise! But boy was he worth the wait, I've never seen a man quite so tall! So yes, be jealous!

 Just look at that beard!!

 I've really only joined two societies here at uni, those being the Raise and Give (RaG) and BioSoc (society for the best subject ever, biosciences).

BioSoc has just recently started up again but the RaG has been keeping me very busy!

Basically RaG are the official fundraising body of the Kent Union at UKC and boy oh boy am I glad to be a member of it!

I've already taken part in two charitable collections (or Raids), one in Canterbury on the 4th of October and the other in London on the 24th October.

The mini-raid in Canterbury was for Dementia UK and both Tal and I together raised £45.12 which we were both very pleased with, saying as part of our collecting was done in the rain!

The mega-raid in London was comprised of several different RaGs from across the country, all collecting for Breast Cancer Campaign. Having about four hours sleep on the Thursday night, we all woke at 5am, yes 5AM(!!) to head off and start collecting. All armed with collection buckets and stickers, we set off to our various collection points across the city, with myself and the wonderful ladies that are Katherine, Vicky and Emma, being placed at Cannon Street. During our lunch break Katherine and I took a stroll to the Tower of London, having driven past it the night before. I don't really have to describe just how fantastic it looks or how proud I am to say that one of those poppies is for my great-great-grandfather, you can just see how wonderful it is from the picture. We continued our collecting until shortly after six that evening and then heading back to return our buckets in exchange for a sandwich and some cake which was well deserved after collecting for 12 hours! 

All together, we manage to raise an amazing £61,819. 95 with Kent RaG raising £11,771.09. I'm very proud to say that I managed to raise £465.46 for a charity that means a good deal to me.

 Did I forget to mention that we had to wear all pink?!

 Tower of London

 I shall leave it there my dear readers as I feel you may have had enough of my ramblings! 

Ta ta for now,

Catherine xxx