a busy two weeks for my filofax!

First and foremost, I must apologise for a lack of posting recently. I've been so busy with everything! Last weekend was my first weekend where I had absolutely nothing to do and I made the most of it. It was my friend's birthday on the Sunday so Friday and Saturday was taken up by preparing surprises for him. Monday was back to normal - netball match that night, then a normal week of lectures as the new module started, and the same this week - except I have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off with practicals all day on Thursday and Friday. This means that I have had to plan what to do in these few days; mainly to ensure that I don't waste all this time off.

Consequently, it means that I get to spend a lot of time with my Filofax! I plan what I am going to do that day with the aid of tick-boxes and with a 'to-do list' sheet in the middle of the week. The list is transferred to the next week if it is not filled, and so on, so as not to waste expensive refill paper (cotton cream as well!).

And now, on a completely unrelated note, I'd just thought I'd let you all know that I'm going to do a wardrobe challenge for the week beginning the 14th of Feb. It is mainly inspired by this post at Make Do Style. The aim of it is to choose ten items of clothing and five accessories to take me through the week. It is similar to the Six Items or Less Challenge I did last year, but I'm hoping this one will be less boring and repetitive as ten items and five accessories would make for much more interesting outfits! This challenge would also require me to use my Filofax - and I have already decided to write down what I will wear each day in my diary. I may also take pictures if I get the time! Once I've decided on these items, I will take pictures of each of these items and maybe post them on here if I remember. However, I am really quite a busy at the moment (aren't we all, new year and all that) but I will try my best to blog at least once a week (and I promise you, more pictures in the next post).

exams are over...hello blogging!

So, my exams have come and gone (until April and June anyway). This means that I can now resume blogging :)

For those of you interested; I think my exams went okay but won't know til results come out I guess (in a few weeks' time I'm guessing). Anyone saying that A-Levels are getting easier...well, I'm afraid I'm leaning towards the 'agreeing' population rather than the disagreeing population. I managed straight As at A Level with little work (not me boasting, just telling the truth) and I tried doing the same in my first year of uni last year...and well, I didn't end up with the top grade (though I didn't fail any exams and passed them all very well). Part of that was down to the fact that I never got pushed to my limits in order to achieve those straight As as everything was spoonfed to me from my teachers. A Level papers were getting more and more predictable and just by doing past papers, one could gauge how to answer questions, and answer them well. I didn't do easy A Levels; the ones I carried onto my last year of high school were biology, chemistry and maths.

Like I said before, I'm not boasting; but I do think the A Level system has to change in order to get the best out of university students. For those who have been brought up as bookworms or are natural workaholics (I confess to be this when it comes to things I'm interested in...less so when it comes to uninteresting things though!), it's okay as they have the work ethic and right frame of mind for studying honed; so they'll end up with not so much of a shock. However, I do feel that A Level underprepares thousands of students for the various degree courses they end up on. The structure of a degree, the amount of work required to put into a degree course and also the self discipline needed is completely different to anything you'll have ever done in high school.

With all this in mind, all I can say is that I'm glad that I will be graduating before the rise in tuition fees. I mean, don't get me wrong, I would still probably have come to university to do a degree as I do think it's worthwhile and I don't regret choosing this university (even though I say I do in the lead up to exams) but for those who weren't as positively minded as I was during A Levels, they may begin to have second thoughts. Because, all I can say is that, having experienced over a year of university now, I wish that I had opted to transfer to another Sixth Form or school in order to do the IB (International Baccalaureate) which many claim to be a far more useful in preparation for university.

And one last thing: I'm not slagging off the coalition government. I've been supporting the rise in tuition fees as I feel that a rise in these fees will encourage young people to do degrees in subjects that are more worthwhile rather than dilly dallying their time in subjects with little or no merit. I'm not a snob and I'm not elitist, and I'm certainly not from a posh family (in fact, up until a few years ago, my parents were deemed working class!), but I do feel that some people only do degrees for the sake of doing them. We need to accept that higher education is not for everyone - sometimes an apprenticeship is a far better option. Apologies if I have offended anyone with this post; but I just feel that sometimes, university is far too overhyped in this country. University is not a right; it is a privilage - for those with the passion, brains and commitment to study something for at least three years - not something which should be experienced just for the sake of it.

Culmination of Term One

And what a hectic one at that! A test and two lab reports due in for the last week of term, yep, that is exactly how my university chose to wish us second years a 'merry christmas'. Several of my friends pulled all nighters in order to finish the lab reports on time - something I don't quite understand as I had them done and dusted in just under twelve hours in total?! Maybe I'm just a machine... I'll leave that for you readers to speculate.

As it is, it is six days until Christmas day and I'm feeling extremely festive. Having had a few Christmas dinners of late, not to mention present exchanges and also the snow (more on that later), I'm ready for Christmas 2011! I've never felt more like a kid (and I'm definitely not a kid anymore by age) yet all I want to do is mess around like one. I know this isn't possible, however, as I have two exams as soon as the second term begins (boo!).

Anyhow, these pictures were taken a few weeks back. The first one is of the view from my window from my parents' house. I came home for the weekend on a Friday night and upon waking up on the Saturday morning, this was the sight before my eyes as I drew my curtains

And getting back to London on the Sunday afternoon was hell. My train was delayed by an hour so by the time I got back to my place, it was all dark - but no snow.

Obviously, I spoke too soon as in fact there was snow. This was the view outside my window in my place in London:

Can't say I liked it as I can fall over easily when there is no snow (I'm really quite clumsy, if I have to be honest) but with this gracing the pavements; well, that was a definite hazard. Needless to say, for the few days we had of snow, I lived in my Ugg boots and thick winter coat if I had to go out.

I left London on Thursday morning to come home for the holidays and there was not a snowflake in sight, however, I am told that on Friday, there has been a lot of snow with six inches being the figure I was quoted from a friend! Not sure if that is a reliable figure though as well, as with most things, I have to see it to believe it.

With that, I will conclude this post with a MERRY CHRISTMAS. I hope your Christmas hasn't been spoilt too much by the snow if you're travelling and I will post again in due course (provided revision goes well...)

(Also, apologies for the picture quality - they were taken on my phone which has, quite possibly, the worst camera known to man.

So, I've been a bit AWOL recently

...and my Filofax says it all if you open it up randomly. With netball matches twice a week and training once a week, this leaves me four nights in a week to get some work done - be it revision or a lab report. I had a hectic November where there was one lab report after another and netball three times a week but things are set to get quieter now with my first lot of second year exams around the corner in January.

With these looming exams, I have found myself turning to my Filofax to organise my revision schedule (as well as various Christmas events going on with several societies I am a part of).

I'm glad to say though that this time next week, I will be home and dry for the Christmas holidays...where I will attempt revision for two exams...