Hello again!

Well hello there!

After some complaints from *cough cough* certain people (yes, you @philmonger) I have returned to the blog.

I am not sure if I even have anything interesting to say. I have been very busy lately. I fear I have taken on too much this year. I love being busy but lately it has been ridiculous below is an example of what I have taken on.

Ballroom dancing – I have an awesome partner so I have to train hard and I teach others for at least 6 hours a week. I am also organising a ballroom competition for 400+ competitors. It is the first time it will be held at my university. I am so excited about it but it really is a lot of work.

Chemistry – attempting to do my phd full time whilst also teaching undergrads (upto 15 hours a week) as well as running some social activities for the undergrads and organising our yearly Ball.

Tutoring – I tutor some 1st year undergrads..it is fun but time consuming

I also find some time for the gym and occasional hockey game! Arghhh!

I fear this post may turn into a rant about how I was silly to take on this much and I really should say no when someone wants help with something. Don’t get me wrong I love everything I do, especially the dancing but it just gets to much sometime. After this week my teaching hours go right down (3-6hrs a week of teaching chemistry) which is a good thing. I hope this week I have more time and motivation to do my real work (chemical research) so I can really get back in to it. It has not been my priority lately and I have to make sure it is. I have a lot to accomplish and my time is fast running out. Yes, 2 years is a long time left but it goes so fast so I have to make every week count!

I feel like I need a holiday really. I really do. I doubt I will get one but Christmas is just around the corner and I have 2 weeks off then. Heaven. I also have a trip to Norway planned in March where I will visit my friend who lives in the mountains. I cannot wait. Oh..back to Christmas. I LOVE CHRISTMAS. I am Christmas spirit embodied. I really love it. I love the food, the music, the merriment, the cold and just generally getting to spend time with my friends and family. You will realise this about me closer to the time! Ohhh I am so excited

I should really start blogging about something else other than myself..maybe errrrrrrr well I can’t think of anything but I will try.

I should get to bed. Another busy week is about to be upon us. Dancing lessons tomorrow, squash game Tuesday, dancing practice Wednesday, dancing social Thursday, teaching chemistry Friday, dancing practice Saturday, dancing competition Sunday as well as a full week in the lab. Hmmm wish me luck!

 

Night night xx

 

 

Work work work

Hello all!

So I am sat in my lab (with 3D glasses and white coat on) and have decided I am going to work harder. This will involve me getting to work at 8.30am at the latest. I really find I am productive in the morning but prefer to stay warm and cosy in bed so I have to decide what is more important: 10mins more in bed, or better day at work?

 So I am now going to be a morning person. I will go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. Well I will try at least! I always feel better if I have had a productive, busy day than a slow, boring one!

So this is a new start! New academic year, new outlook

If you see me on Twitter past 11pm shout at me to go to bed!!

Have a good day all x

My weekend

Hello again! Been a while since I blogged. I haven’t really had anything to blog about.

This weekend I was in London visiting my 2 best friends as well as other people. One of the people I saw was The Ex and all those feelings came rushing back and it was horrrrrrrrrrrrrible. It was lovely to catch up and see what they have been upto but I couldn’t help but wish I was part of the Ex’s life again. GRRRRRRR! I didn’t want to talk about it with our other friends as I didn’t want to bring everyone down. The point of the weekend  was to have fun. Apart from that it was an awesome weekend. It was great to catch up with friends and sit and drink and eat in Hyde Park whilst singing along to rousing music We do it every year. Its a great tradition we have and at least I know I will see them at least once a year. I hope I always see my BFFs more than once a year but I know as we get older and live in different places it will get harder and harder. We will hopefully all put the effort in so I guess I shouldn’t worry. The next reunion is for my birthday in December YAY!

The weather in Hyde Park was beautiful and even Barry Manilow was good! I thought the Queen tribute band were amaaaaaaaaazing. Really put a smile on my face…along with the Pimms and wine heheheheh. Of course Rule Britannia and all those traditional songs were great too, as were the fireworks. It really was a good afternoon/night.

Apart from the fun times had in London, I also went to see my parents and then picked up my new car. Mazda 2 in Spririted Green. HOT!! I love it. It was annoying that my first journey was 3 hours up a motorway but hey hehe. It is a great little car and I can’t wait to go and explore in it. I will be adding a picture soon I hope.

Anyway I am bored of writing now and don’t have much more to say. It is a bit of a useless post but hey it lets you know what I have been upto

xx

Bad news

So I have known for a while that the friend of the family, Lizzie, has terminal cancer. She is the loveliest, funniest, kindest person I have ever met. Really one of those truly wonderful people and I am not just saying that. She is a teacher in my Parents’ school and she also teachers specials needs children.

I have seen her go through chemo and she just keeps on smiling. She is married with young kids and she has taught them about everything that is happening to her. She lost her hair and wore her bald head with pride. She didn’t want to hide what was happening to her..she just wanted people to understand. She didn’t want pity either. Nothing seems to bring her down..in public anyway. She seems to be really living life while she can. About 5 months ago she got told she had a year left. The cancer was spread to her spine and to other places.

Well today I found out it has spread to her brain and she has been very ill all summer and she really doesn’t have long left. I just started crying. It is just so so so sad that someone so wonderful could be going through this. I am not usually an emotional person. I can keep my tears at bay at even the saddest of moments but this just made me start!

Well sorry to bring you down but I really had to get that out. I am sending so much love to her and her family. It must be a terrible terrible time for them. Much love Lizzie!

J x

11 days without a post

Hello..so it has been 11 days since I posted. Apologies for the tardiness of this post. I have nothing to worry about though as I still post more often than the lovely Lesley

Right, what to post about? well I think today I will babble about bloggging.

Not many of my friends know I blog. I only know of Ben (*waves at Ben*). In the pub the other day (when I was sober sober sober) he mentioned to people that I blogged and that it was interesting and deep (hahaha) stuff that I wrote. I may add here that he had indeed been drinking. Anyway, the rest of the people I was with were surprised that I blogged and asked me what the point was. I kind of brushed it aside as I didn’t want to talk about it. I did say that it was just somewhere to write one’s thoughts without any worry. They then said what is the point of that? They had a point.  I couldn’t really explain it.

Why do we blog? Personally, I find it relaxing. It is a fabulous way to rant and get feelings out so that things don’t get pent up. I am generally not a person who just tells some one what my inner mosts thoughts are. I think this is the closest I will ever get. I also love reading all your blogs. I love hearing about random rubbish as well as your inner most grievances. It is so interesting getting to know people through their thoughts on the their blogs. I think you can learn a lot about someone. Take Jose’s poems. They are full of emotion. I love reading them and I love that he shares them with us. Also, look at Lesley’s blog. Her blog is a wonderous place full of fun pictures and craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy dreams. Her blog is a sure fire way to make me giggle!

I think I haven’t post in a while because I had to think about what the point was. I realise now there is no real point other than the fact I like it. I shouldn’t be ashamed or embarrassed about what I write and I shouldn’t have thought twice about blogging because some one I know doesn’t see the point of it. If people want to judge then they can. Still don’t want lots of ‘real’ people knowing about it as I feel I would write less emotiony stuff…and I like venting on here! Sorry if you don’t like reading it.

Right, think that is me done for the day. I will post more soon!

J xx

Meandering thoughts? More like pointless..

I feel like blogging. I have no idea what to blog about. Any ideas? I am just going to ramble and see what happens. Apologies for the rambly nature. I am sure it will be d-u-l-l but enjoy none the less!

Well lets see. What is going on in my life? Well that is easy. Nothing. Absolutely nothing new and exciting. Obviously chemistry everyday can be new and exciting but it hasn’t been this past week (as per a previous blog) but next week will be better. These things happen. September will be a better month. I get my BRAND NEW CAR! Yes I will be driving again so beware. Actually I am a good driver, so there! I am seeing all my friends in September as we are going to the Last Night of the Proms. We went last year. It was a lot of fun. It is the first time I will see the Ex since May. Excellent.

New University term starts in October so that will bring back my chemistry and ballroom dancing teaching. Yes I teach both. I enjoy it muchly. It will also bring back hockey training which will shed the lbs put on from cake consumption.

What else is happening? Well nothing really. My best friend has moved to Paris and my other best friend lives in London…not far but still far enough. Another amazing friend, Rob, has moved to Australia. Another dear friend, Jennifer, has moved to the other end of the country. It seems like all the people I am close to have gone away. It is great that they all have new and exciting lives. They are all reachable if I need them. Rob has been a life saver during the recent break up. So has twitter actually. It distracted me somewhat, which is just what I needed. I didn’t really intend to find all you lovely people on there. I thought it might be a nice quick fix kind of a distraction for a few weeks. Darn you all for being so lovely and friendly and making me spend all my time checking to tweets and your blog updates.

Anyway, back to Rob. He left to live in Perth for 3 years. We used to speak everyday and I helped him through a very bad break up and he has been helping me through mine. His break up was bad. She broke up with him on the day of his Graduation for no real reason. A 3 year relationship just thrown away. To be fair I disliked his ex a lot and he changed when he was around her. He was so much happier and freer when she wasn’t around. He sees that now but it was certainly not a happy time for him. My breakup was more difficult as we didn’t really break up for a big reason. There was no fight or disagreement. It was just a decision because we were going to be living hours apart. I know it would have been hard and I think our friendship would have suffered if we had continued to try and make it work at a distance. Obviously there were issues between us but they could have been figured out. Back to Rob again. Basically he has helped me to move on and not look back (yes I know, currently not doing a great job of it but I have been good at not telling the Ex how I feel, which would be unneccessary I think). I think it would have been easier if we had had a fight. Ah well! Life goes on and all that. Plus now I have twitter (my new relationship haha).

Oh this really in ranting again isn’t it?! Maybe I should actually plan my posts better to avoid this situation. Ah well. Its why you all love me tee hee hee!

So I made more cake today as some of you know. I really should stop. It is going to make me fat! Argh. Cake is good though. This was a particularly excellent cake. It was gorgeous! Well done Nigella Lawson for such a great recipe. You guys will have to come round one day for cakes. I will cook a veritable feast of cake with plenty of gin to go around. And Pimms so you Yankies can try it!

Well I guess on the upside my twin sister has moved closer to me and has her very own apartment and so I know I can drop in on her anytime. Term starts soon (not soon enough!) too which will be busy and fun. I am not very good at having nothing to do. I like being busy. The Ex told me once that I should stop being so busy all the time and just ‘be’ so I could figure out ‘who I was’. What ever that means. I like having things to do though. I love planning. I love being organised. What is so wrong with that? I would rather be super organised than super forgetful?

I still have tooth ache. It is the tooth that was fixed a few weeks back. I tweeted about it but I wasn’t friends with anyone then so you wouldn’t know about it. I am worried that something has happened to it as it has been totally fine until the last day or 2. If it doesn’t sort by early next week then I will go and shout at my dentist for making me suffer this pain. Maybe it is all this sugary cakey goodness? Nahhhh must be the dentists fault. They are evil after all!

I wondered if I have bored you enough yet? Congratulations if you got this far. I am not sure I would have bothered if I were you. Arghh this tooth hurts. Did I mention that? Yes I did. Sorry

Right I will leave this here I think. I haven’t got anything pointless left to say.

Love you all

J xx

Chemistry Sucks

Ok…so I just want to scream. In fact I am so so close to it. It is the middle of the day. 3.39pm in fact. There are many reasons.  What started my mid-day meltdown was the fact that something I have spent a week working on has failed. It should have been easy because I am just repeating work I have done before. I wouldn’t mind usually but this stuff is for the Big Boss (my industry sponsors who pay for my PhD) and I want it to be right. It should have been easy, and it wasn’t and it makes me feel like I am bad at what I do. I know that isn’t true but I am having one of those days where I doubt everything. My supervisor came back from holiday today and was expecting wonders. It didn’t happen and I haven’t told him yet. He will say it is fine and ‘shit happens’ but I know somewhere in his head he will think I did something wrong. And I probably did. I wish today was Friday so that I could start a fresh next week. But tomorrow is Friday and so I will attempt to start again. Maybe I will go into the lab at the weekend to sort this retched mess out.

I have blown this whole thing out of proportion really. I am only really a few days behind where I should be and my boss won’t mind in the least. It just makes me feel bad about the trust he and the Big Boss put in me. I guess things like this will happen a lot over the next year or two of my PhD and I should just get used to it. But really. I don’t make mistakes! I am just not used to it. I should have spotted that what I had made wasn’t in fact what I wanted from day 1. I was silly and trusted chemistry just a little too much!

Ok rant over. I am going to get over myself and have a cup of tea because that makes everything better. Later I have persuaded people that the pub is a great idea because I need a drink.

J xx

P.s Just come back from tea break and do feel better. I am silly sometimes!

Changing themes..

Just a quick note..finally decided on a theme i like. Black was waaaaaaaaaay too hard to read and the green before was just a little too much. I actually like this one

For Phil..

Right Phil..you wanted to know about my alcohol addiction so here goes.

First of all I will start by saying I love wine. Red wine. Nothing can beat it. I love all kinds. Currently into Tempranillo though and New Zealand Pinot Noir. I don’t mind white wine too (if I am forced!) but tend to stick to Sauv Blanc unless Champagne is on the go! The great thing about  wine is that it is a sociable drink. I have had many amazing nights in with girlfriends and family whilst playing games or watching DVDs or just chatting all night long e.g. Saturday with Katie when I was up ’til 4am sorting out her love life over white and rose wine. Wine really does make the (or just my) world go around!

So yes. I. Love. Red. Wine!

What else…I also love gin and tonic.

I used to hate it. I used to steal my dad’s Sapphire and tonic and then spit it out because it tasted like medicine. Little did I know what I was missing out on. I was 5 so I guess its good that I didn’t get addicted so early on. Then in 2003 I went to America and my Auntie Sheila gave it to me (with cucumber sandwiches – she is an English lady living in the heart of an American City). From that day on I was hooked.

I like all gin. I started on Bombay Sapphire so that is kind of where my heart is. Hendricks is yummy too. So smooth and drinkable, especially with a slice or 3 of cucumber. Plymouth is also pretty darn good as is Miller’s. As you can see, I like gin.

Right what else do I like? Spiced rum and coke is a favourite of mine. With full fat Coke of course, none of this diet nonsence. It is great on nights out - so sweet and yummy. A lot of my friends drink it so it reminds me of them and all the good times we have had.

How could I forget Pimms and lemonade. The epitomy of an English summer. Those surprisingly great summer days in May/June after exams had finished remind me of Pimms. We would sit for hours in my University College garden drinking Pimms. We would just sit there and people watch and gossip and put the world to rights. Those really were happy days. Pimms is just so English. I always have a Pimms and lemonade on the first really warm day of spring/summer. It is how I know summer is starting. If you haven’t had one, then you really should make one with lots of fruit and mint and just sit in the sun. Nothing beats it.

Although I am supposed to be a lady, I do enjoy a good cold beer. It is so cheap here that I can’t not really. So much of my time is spent in pubs (no I am not an alcoholic, I just know lots of people that are). There are some great ones here by the river and I love finding new ones in the local countryside. Also Friday nights = pub = beer so i have no choice really. If I didn’t drink beer, I probably wouldn’t go to the pub much, which means I would miss out on some right laughs with my friends from the lab. Well I guess I don’t have to drink beer but when it is like £1.40 or something a pint it would be rude not to (yay for Samuel Smiths pubs)

I guess I should mention my favourite cocktails too:

• Mohito – my all time favourite. Rum and Mint and Lime. All lush.
• Long Island iced tea – why wouldn’t you love it? All that booze?!
• French Martini – love them. Enough said.
• Appletini – reminds me of my awesome trip to NYC. Brings a smile to my face everytime
• Margharita - I love these as long as they have fruityness and I hate salty things. Had the best Strawberry one in the States *drool*
• I dislike any cocktail with milk, cream or baileys. Ick! If I wanted dessert I would order ice cream.

Although I sound like a complete alcoholic, I am not (yet anyway haha). Drinking (especially red wine) is just part of my family life. I have 3 sisters who all have fellas that love wine and parents that love wine. We just sit around chatting or playing games for hours with a glass of wine in hand. It is part of us. We have had so many great family times revolving around wine. Especially Christmas. Christmas (and my birthday which is very close to Christmas day) is basically a drink fest. It is so great! That is when the Port comes out. How could I forget Port? Yet another awesomely amazing drink. I know it isn’t the wine that makes these days and nights amazing, but it is central to it I am sure!

I think that about sums up my somewhat unhealthy attitude to alcohol…hope you enjoyed that Phil!

J xx

Travelling

Right, I am sat at my desk in the office bored because my chemical reaction is working away and there is nothing else I can do in the mean time apart from wait. I am not very good at waiting. I always like to have something to do. Over the last few (boring) hours I was thinking about my life post-PhD. I will finish in around February 2012 (yes that is far far away) and I was planning on taking a few months off to travel the world.

I love travelling. I think I have done a fair bit so far in my life (not including all those family holidays to France and Italy)

• 2001 – 3 week hockey tour to Eastern Australia – Syndey, Brisbane, Cairns
• 2003 – 2004 took year off after school to be an Au pair in America. I lived for a year in Washington DC but visited Florida, Wisconsin, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, Utah
• 2004 – 3 week driving holiday around California, Arizona and Nevada – Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Joshua Tree, LA, an Diego, San Fran, Las Vegas etc etc
• 2005 – Inter-railed around Europe with Sis. Berlin, Warsaw, Krakoz, Aushwitz, Bratislava, Budapest, Vienna, Munich, Prague
• 2006 – New York City at Christmas with BFF (childhood dream)
• 2007 – 8 week work placement in Hong Kong with lots of travelling around China too
• 2008 – Brussells at Christmas
• 2009 – Nice and Monaco
• 2009 – revisited friends in Washington DC and Florida
• 2009 – Paris to visit BFF
• 2009 – Dublin with friends (happening in October)

So…where shall I go in 2012? I would love to do more of America. I would love to do South America. I also would love love love New Zealand. Where have you been that you would recommend to an eager 24 year old (27 when i plan on going away)???

One of my favourite places I have been to is the Grand Canyon. I flew over it in a small place and it was amazing. Truly awesome. I mean it is MASSIVE. We have nothing like that in England so it really was an eye-opener. I also fell in love with Joshua Tree National park. So gorgeous and peaceful. I sat there for hours and watched the sunset with a beer in hand. Perfect evening. Hong Kong was a fabulous place to see as well. So full of culture and they have great markets and some tasty food. Their seafood is to die for! Below are some photos from various places.

I think South America is where I really want to go but worry about being alone there..am i safe? Will it cost too much? Should i learn spanish? So much to think about. I dream of seeing the Nazca Lines and Galapogus (platypus!) as well as the amazing waterfalls etc. And who can forget the dancing and fun in Brazil?!

So… really the point of this post was for you lot to decide where i should go in 2 and a half years time!

J xx