Finding our pet for next year....

It's been 20 days since my last blog post...terribly sorry about that. 

I've completed my first week back at uni and boy has it been busy! I've start two new modules: Human Physiology and Disease and Enzymes and Metabolism. These modules are the two I've most been looking forward too. Most people won't actually know this, but I am actually very inquisitive and love to know how things work, especially inside the human body. I've spent the past two days completing a Genetics and Evolution practical write up and it has really gotten me to dislike this subject very strongly...well I say that, but I really just don't like transduction (what the practical was based on); the use of bacteriophage P1vir to transduce a drug-resistance marker from one strain to another. 

Myself and my three future housemates for next year went into Canterbury on Friday with the intention of only going in for a few things and only staying for an hour or so. We arrived home roughly five hours later with very full and satisfied bellies! My friend Kirsty had a wonderful voucher that gave you a free, yes free, 200ml tub of body butter from the Body Shop. I am obsessed with this stuff so being able to get a free tub made me exceptionally happy; I love a bargin! I ended up getting the Honeymania, which smells divine. 

After reading an article about places in Canterbury to eat/drink in, I noticed a place called Chocolate Cafe. As the name suggests they obviously do hot chocolate, and claim to do the best in Canterbury. I gave it a try and they are correct. It was the thickest most delightful hot chocolate I have ever had (well apart from the hot chocolate my mum makes with cream and marshmallows!).

We decided to walk by our future house just to have another look (because we are all far too excited about it) and to also see what shops were along our street. We ended up spending what felt like hours in an exotic pet shop filled with the most beautiful snakes, lizards and some other creatures. I finally decided that the boa would be the perfect pet for next year; they didn't say we couldn't keep snakes! After admiring the wonderful animals, we had sushi in a sweet little restaurant along the road of next years house; it was so tasty. We all had very happy tummies afterwards! 

The wonderful Chocolate Cafe hot chocolates!

Tal's yummy tiffin

If you have a spare moment and fancy an interesting and, I hope to you, an inspiring read, check out my dear friend Megan's blog. Observations of a Fictional Girl

Until the next time,

Catherine xxx

P.S. I thought you would appreciate these pictures from back in Northern Ireland last week.

  

New Year, New Me?

It's the start of a new year. A fresh start, a clean slate.

I know it's seven days into the new year already (I'm just terrible at keeping up to date with what day it is!), but I thought it would still be a great idea to think up my new years resolutions. I for one am terrible at sticking to them so thought that, after seeing what a friend of mine did last year, that I would make a list of different things I would like to do this year. The list will comprise of some personal things but I'll give you the 'normal' new year new me resolutions, all with (I hope) good reasoning behind them.

1. Get fit
For the past few years I've been trying to get myself into shape. I wouldn't be the kind of person who would obsess about my weight or how I look, but I've found (especially now with living up three flights of stairs), that I am seriously unfit. I had started boxfit classes and a tried a few others whilst at university before the Christmas break but with deadlines approaching at the end of term, I just didn't have time to attend the classes. But this year shall be different. I will get myself moving, get the heart pumping and do some exercise!

2. Be more organised
I always thought I was quite an organised person as I would always have my desk sitting perfect with every item having it's own place but now looking back, that's not the organisation I needed then or even need now. I want to have deadlines pinned on my board, have a schedule worked out for when work is due in, when I have different activities etc. Being more organised with my university work and other activities will have such a great affect in reducing any stress that I may have encountered by continuing with my 'I'll do it in a little bit' attitude/style of doing things.

3. Be healthier!
This is a major one for me, though I am currently typing this section whilst eating a small packet of Wine Gums!
Being a student and living away from home, I had got myself into a way of being so lazy with food that I would just have pizza or beans or something else simple and not incredibly nutritious for dinner because I really didn't want to make anything as it would take too much effort or time. I need to become more adventurous with food and just eat more fruit and veg. (will help with my getting fitter too!)

4. Love more
Telling someone you love them, be it a member of family, a spouse or a best friend, could mean the world to someone and really make their day. The end of October/start of November was a very difficult time for my family as my maternal grandfather ended up in hospital and unfortunately passed away. I struggled and continue to do so as I was in Kent (my family all live in Northern Ireland) and I just wasn't able to see my grandfather at all when he would have needed me the most. I never would have thought that just before I headed off to university in September that me saying goodbye to him would be forever: it will be something I will never be able to get over. But this year I'm going to start being more appreciative to the people who help me, telling my friends and family just how much they all mean to me and also to start spending more time with them (though that may be easier said than done at times!).

Those are my main goals of the year but I have other smaller things I would like to do this year and I will keep you posted of when I get everything I have on my list completed!

Hope you all had a wonderful and happy New Year!

Catherine xxx

I'm Home!!!

Afternoon!

I have returned to the homeland, back to beautiful Northern Ireland (yay!). Our flight (as Tal came back with me) was slightly delayed but we landed in Belfast International at about 10:30 last night. I am super pleased to be back home but I shall now take the opportunity to fill you in on what I've got up to over the last couple of weeks.

Term ended for me on the 19th December with a lovely Molecular and Cellular Biology assessment, how fun! But it appeared to have gone rather well as roughly three quarters of the questions asked were on two of the past papers I had already done.
I spent that Friday night in my house with my housemates and another couple of people just chilling and listening to music which was lovely considering I won't be seeing them for four weeks.

We set off on Saturday morning, getting the train from Canterbury to Waterloo where we had a lovely bite to eat and collected Tal's younger sister and then made our way to Poole, where we would be staying for Christmas.
I'll not divulge all details about the holidays as they are personal times spent with family but I had such a wonderful time in Dorset. We went to the pantomime to see Mother Goose at Salisbury Playhouse which was hilarious, and contained all the usual "oh no you didn't" and "he's behind you". I also had the pleasure of being able to have a few lovely walks with the gorgeous Giant Schnauzer Ella along bridleways and through the fields; it was so relaxing being back out in the country again after being in a city for the past three months. An added bonus was going the the Boxing Day hunt meet which was just amazing. I am a huge lover of all dogs and horses so being at the meet just made my day; also allowed me to point out my favourite horses for future reference for whoever was listening!

Due to thick fog last night, we only got back home just before 12 midnight and we decided it would be the ideal time for presents! Tal and I had got mum two little angel tree decorations as when she was over visiting at the start of the month, she had saw them in the Canterbury Cathedral shop and had loved them but they unfortunately only had one in the colour (gold) that she wanted. We were just happened to spot them in the window of the shop in Canterbury and much to my relief, they were both intact when mum opened them up! My dad is an avid and brilliant cook so I got him some hot ketchup which I thought he would really like, though I can't wait to have some! I'm still yet to get my brother his present as it involves him having a car, which he hasn't quite got yet!

Archie, my lhasa apso dog, seemed incredibly pleased to see me, though I was told that I looked much happier to be reunited with him!

The weather here is lovely, it's frosty and rather slippy as we found out when we took Archie for a walk earlier, but it is so wonderful to be back in my own bed and to be back with my family, who I missed dearly.
Tonight I shall also be reunited with my school friends as we're all going out for dinner to our one of our favourite restaurants, the Winebar in Portrush, where we shall be doing our secret Santa, cannot wait to see them all and to get some yummy food too!

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year!

Catherine xxx

Holidays are coming!!

Evenin'!

Apologies for my lack of posting, the past few weeks have been very busy with practicals and various assessments and just general lectures, meaning I haven't had any time to post anything for you!

In my first assessment, for my Genetics and Evolution module, I had to complete a karyotyping assessment. For those of you who don't know what karyotyping is then count yourself lucky! No I'm only kidding, genetics is the best thing but having to sort out chromosomes into pairs when so many of them look identical is so difficult but I still (thankfully) managed to get 82% which I'm rather pleased with saying as it was my first time doing karyoptying.

My second assessment was actually an assessed practical for the Introduction to Biochemistry part of my course. The practical itself wasn't overly difficult with my lab partner Katherine (yes I know, how typical that we have the same name!) finishing earlier than expected so we had plenty of time to complete graphs and various calculations. The main problem with the experiment was that no one, literally no one out of around 250 biosciences students, got good or correct answers...opps! Meaning that all our answers were incorrect but the working out of the calculations is correct as Katherine is a complete maths genius!

But yes, more about my post title.... IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!
I really wasn't at all excited about Christmas this year but as I type this, the boys in my house are cooking a wonderful Christmas dinner and it smells delicious! I honestly wish you could all smell it as you would be super jealous.

 The boys cooking away

I am so lucky as last weekend, my mum and my brother Adam came and stayed with me for just over four days. It was so lovely to be able to spend time with them and to show the the area I'm currently living in, and to even go and do some exploring of places I hadn't yet been to. Mum and Adam spent the Friday in Canterbury doing some well deserved retail therapy after a flight and two hours worth of a train journey just to get here! On the Saturday myself, mum and Adam went and explored Whistable and Herne Bay, where I hadn't been before. Both are lovely little seaside towns full of cute little shops and some more well known shops such as Boots and Peacocks. Mum bought me two adorable little Wade Whimsies, of which I have a collection of over 70 at home after being given my great-grandfather's collection by my aunt Peggy. Sunday was their full last day so I gave the tour of the university ad we also went down into Canterbury and visited the Cathedral, being in time for the Evening service. I bid them farewell on Monday morning as they started the almost five hour journey all over again! It was a lovely few days and I cannot wait to get home to see them all both again and to see my dad, grandparents, friends and my little pup Archie! I hope there's snow when I'm home; Northern Ireland is covered in it apparently!

Last Tuesday (9th December), I was so proud to have been part of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment's annual carol service where I played flute with the Army Reserve PWRR band and also slow marched down the nave to the Cathedral along with the drum corps playing Little Drummer Boy on the piccolo. It was such an incredible experience, made even better by playing with such an amazing bunch of musicians.

My housemates have gone all out in decorating our house, we even have a real Christmas tree!! I can't really describe how fabulous or cute it is so I'll just post some pictures here for you to have a look at instead!

I'll hopefully get much better at blogging, I really haven't been very organised but I shall get my bum into gear and get posting more to keep everyone up to date!

What are you doing to celebrate Christmas?

Catherine xxx

PS. I had written this during the afternoon (hence no other pictures) but forgot to upload it!

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