Saturday 30 May 2015

98. The First Day Of My Life

Hello everyone, I hope you're all doing well, apologies for the lack of posts during May but it was the final month of my degree so I've been hitting the library hard. When you're revising for the last time, you might as well go hard or go home. Yesterday morning, I finished my degree and it still hasn't sank in yet (Andy winning Wimbledon sank in faster than this and that was a much bigger deal) and I don't think it will either until graduation when I physically see my name on that certificate. I spent yesterday afternoon celebrating with my lovely friend Alex by shopping, having Go salads for lunch (neither of us have ate properly this week because of the stress of finals so wanted something light) and buying our Avengers teddies from Build-A-Bear and then cuddling them whilst we watched Age of Ultron for the second time which is the only film I've ever been to watch at the cinema twice as it is so perfect. You'd think we'd just finished primary school, not university but one is never too old for teddy bears- that's my motto. Alex was an absolute babe and bought me my favourite record of all time which is of course, AM by Arctic Monkeys and that album got me through some of the worst months of my life. Anyway today, I watched Andy continue to dominate clay this season and had lunch with 9 of my lovely uni girl friends. We had such a laugh and took lots of photos! Tomorrow, I'm spending the day with my best friend as I've barely seen her during the past three years which sucks big time as we went to the same secondary school and sixth form together.




Last night, I got quite philosophical and deep (after I'd finished dressing Captain Bear) and thought how I've literally been in education for as long as I can remember. I'm no longer a student which has been the default box to tick on almost every application form I've filled out and feel like I'm having a bit of an identity crisis but I'm happy and excited to begin the next chapter of my life. Today's the first time in months that I've woken up without my backpack packed at the bottom of my bed full of all my stuff to take to the library and my to-do list now has "lunch with the girls" and "go shopping" instead of "finish mind maps for UPEC" and "reading for DMD" and it feels so strange. I'll actually be able to watch The Sound of Music again at Christmas without feeling guilty and read for pleasure (talking of reading, look out for a book related post very soon)! Whether you want to admit it or not for fear of coming across as too keen/ being a nerd but whilst you're in school/ college/ university, your entire life is taken over by education and it's only once you finish, you realise how you can do whatever you want without feeling guilty and procrastination no longer exists! Having said that, the security and community feel of being at school/ college/ university and seeing your friends everyday will be greatly missed. 

University has had its highs and lows but what I do know is that I have met some wonderful people and have made friends for life and even if I don't get the grade I want, I've gained so many transferable skills! Some of the highlights of my degree include mentoring during first year, my summer internship in second year and then going back to my old sixth form to teach two A-level Biology classes in final year. In terms of studying Biology itself, the reason I picked such a broad life sciences degree and not a specific degree like Genetics or Zoology was because at A-level, I enjoyed learning about all aspects of Biology and didn't want to restrict myself. However, by doing this degree, I know that if I do choose to do further study, my calling in life is Microbiology because bacteria are so overlooked and I find it fascinating how they are able to do things that we can't despite their minute size. I'm not sure where I'm going with this post but I am feeling such a mix of emotions that I just wanted to write them down and document them and I know I could have done it in a physical diary privately but by doing it on here, I'm sharing it with others who I'm pretty sure feel the same. 


Anyway, I have rambled on for long enough so I'm off to bed to watch Captain America with Captain Bear to be philoSLOTHical rather than philosophical. Look out for my book related post which is something I've never done on here before and I look forward to blogging a lot this summer, hopefully!

Until next time, take care.
Love,
Mancunian Sheep x

Thursday 21 May 2015

97. May Favourites

Hello everyone! I hope you've all had a great month. May has been incredibly busy for me as I had four exams this month but have still managed to have some fun times with my friends. I'm posting these favourites quite early as I can't think of five things that I will like more than these in the last 10 days of May. Similar to my April favourites, I have a real mixed bag of favourites for May as well. There's everything from homeware to shoes this month so enjoy!

1) Avengers: Age of Ultron- May is a great month as we have two bank holidays (yay) so I went to see this with my friend and her siblings as a revision break on the first bank holiday! This and the first Avengers film are the only two Marvel films I have seen so far (but that is going to change over summer, trust me) after several of my friends have been telling me how good they are. *SPOILER ALERT* I loved this even more than the first one and one of my favourite scenes was when everyone tried to lift up Thor's hammer and when Captain America almost managed it, the look on Thor's face was priceless! I also loved the bit when Iron Man had to calm the Hulk down and it just wasn't working, Iron Man is so funny! I loved how everyone kept calling out Captain America for saying "language" at the start throughout the entire film, he's such a gentleman. It was a bit sad when Hulk left Black Widow at the end and when everyone thought Ultron had killed J.A.R.V.I.S. The way Quicksilver died was aIso upsetting. I can't wait to watch all the new Marvel films like Captain America 3 so need to catch up on them all this summer! Have you seen Age of Ultron, if so what did you think of it?




 2) Seeing S Club 7 live in Manchester- Regular readers may remember that it was back in my November favourites last year that I first mentioned managing to get tickets to see S Club 7 and the big day finally arrived in May! It was spectacular, I love them so much and it was amazing to relive my childhood that evening with my lovely friend, Alex. I never got to see them first time round so I'm so relieved that I managed to go to their reunion tour. They opened the show with Bring the House Down and they most certainly did and ended with Don't Stop Movin' which is my favourite song to listen to at the gym. My other personal highlights were when Paul did a beautiful acoustic version of Reach for the Stars, Jo and Jon sang a lovely duet and Rachel also did an amazing medley of two of her solo hits - L.A. Ex and Some Girls which worked so well! They also sang Uptown Funk and that was genius, Bradley has so much funk and it was just as good as the original and definitely got everyone up on their feet! God bless Tina for getting everyone back together!






3) Peter Kay's Car Share- Now I have been lucky enough to see Jack Whitehall and Miranda live but there is one man who my Mum and I really want to see live and that is the brilliant Peter Kay! He is a comedian that I have loved for as long as I can remember, he's the epitome of being Northern, I love it! I've not watched much television this month apart from this as I have been at the library most days. This show is such a simple concept but like everything else Peter Kay's ever done, it works so well! I love it when Peter and Kayleigh re-enact a big music video from the 80s and their on-screen chemistry appears to be genuine. If you've not given this a watch already then I highly recommend it, it's available on iPlayer here.

4) Crocs Huarache flat sandals- Never in a million years did I think I'd buy a pair of Crocs but these are nothing like the regular monstrosities. I actually went looking for a pair of black flat shoes and ended up buying a pair of multicoloured sandals, go me! (I did buy some black shoes too haha). These are light as a feather and I love how they go with such a wide range of outfits. I don't like the look of my feet but these don't actually expose that much. I bought mine from Schuh and they are available in lots of different colours.






5) Next slogan drinking glasses - I love Next Home, we've bought bedding from there in the past but never anything for the kitchen but when I saw these tumblers, I just had to get them. The quotes are so cute, the glasses are a nice shape and very reasonably priced too. My favourite ones are "do what makes you happy" and "be with those who make you smile".




I hope you've enjoyed this month's favourites. What has been your favourite TV show this month and what are your favourite summer shoes? Best of luck for any remaining exams!

Until next time, take care.
Love,
Mancunian Sheep x