Back to College and Catch Up!

Afternoon lovely people,

it's been a fab two weeks off despite the ups and downs but honestly I've thoroughly enjoyed myself. I've not blogged for a while purely because I've spent quite a lot of time out of the house this week with friends, having BBQs, shopping, and such other fun things. overall it's been a rather busy holidays and I had planned to spend them just chilling out, reading, doing some cross stitch and knitting (19 going on 90 here!) but I've really enjoyed what I've ended up doing. 

I hope everybody else has had a great easter break too filled with chocolate and lazing about. With the two weeks off I've managed to get a couple of blog post ideas drafted which will definitely be posted over the next few weeks but most importantly after nearly 2 whole years I've finally managed to book a singing and piano lesson with my favourite music teacher!! I am so so so excited about this because I've been waiting to do it for ages and now i actually have an income I have a lesson for Friday at 5, music is one of my biggest passions and I adore singing and piano as well as clarinet so hopefully within a few lessons I'll have my mojo back and be playing Beethoven's 'Moonlight' Sonata soon enough. 

Anyway, because it's back to college tomorrow *insert sarcastic comment* I thought I'd do a quick post before I have to go an get all of my things together for the morrow, so far I have a to do list that goes onto back and front of a sheet A4 paper, oh the joys. I'm also going to spend some time researching jobs I might want in the future because I seem to be flip flopping and I'm gonna need my personal statement started soon so hopefully that'll help. Anywho, I shan't bore you lot anymore I just want to wish everyone a happy easter and a good start back to the last term in college/sixth form or wherever you are!!

Love Katherine. X

Post Break Ramblings

I'm back baby!

Hey there everyone, as you al know I've been away for a week or so, this was just a really short break because I had a bit of work to do for college this week and I was panicking about getting all that done as well as trying to make time for blogging, it's just wasn't doable and unfortunately I can't just take a break from college, so I've been absent for a while, and I'm sure you've all missed me very very much ;). 

So, here's a little update about what I've been up to. Last weekend I made a point of getting as much work as possible done so I would have this week as pretty free, I managed to get everything done quite well and pretty quickly. So, I ended up relaxing for the rest of the weekend and finishing a couple of my favourite stories in the Skulduggery Pleasant Armageddon Outta Here book, this particular favourite was 'Get thee behind me Bubba Moon', a fantastically frightening little story I must say, not unlike the Salem's Lot type storyline. On Monday it was pretty normal, Tuesday the same and that was when I got the news that I didn't have to re-do my last assignment as I'd achieved the distinction criteria thankfully! Since then my week has been free but I've been spending quite a bit of time with friends. On Wednesday it was my friend Annie's birthday (Annie of mockingbird vocals.blogspot.com) so I went over with her pressies, we did make up tutorials together and were generally girly which was so much fun. We did a bit of singing together and I also helped her set up her blog that I help with in the day-to-day running, I also set up her boyfriends blog (pausefordthought.blogspot.com) although his is still pretty sparse post wise I'm sure it'll be up and running in no time. Oooh also on Wednesday night I helped Annie dye her hair a lovely shade of blue! It looks very mermaid-y and I really enjoy dying or watching people have their hair dyed, no idea why. 

Thursday I was back at placement as it was as wonderful as ever, I've fallen in love with each and every one of the children there and the whole team have welcomed me right into the fold of their little family as though I'm one of their own and I'm also getting much more responsibility whilst I'm there which I'm loving, I've mentioned in previous posts that I love children and I love working with children so I'm in my total element whilst I'm there. 

Now, yesterday was definitely the highlight of the week because me, Annie and Adian (her boyfriend) went down to Whitby for a day out! Whitby is my all time favourite place to visit and I'll be posting on the later on in the day so watch out for that post! Due to the fact that I'm posting al about that later of I shall keep this really brief so as not to giveaway some of the details. It was a brilliant day and I couldn't have spent it with better people. 

As for this weekend I'm ill AGAIN! So I'm going to spend today and tomorrow getting my blogging back on track reading and catching up with The Voice UK! Thanks very much for reading and I hope you're all having a wonderful week!

Love Katherine. X

Short Breaks and Blog Scheduling

Hi Everybody!

I hope everyone's weekend is going fabulously, yes? Great! This post is just going to be really brief, so not too much reading involved. 

I would like to let you all know that I'm taking a short break from blogging for a few days, 5 days possible a week, this is just because as some of you have probably noticed, I've been having some issues with the consistency of my posts... they're not basically. I have no blogging schedule which means my ideas are pretty much all over the place and my posting times really aren't up to scratch. This is mainly because I'm snowed under with college work and have been for about 3 weeks now, so I'm taking a week out from blogging in order to devise some sort of writing and posting schedule around my timetable for the moment and get as much college work done in this week as possible to make sure I do have time spare to blog! Hopefully I will get some sort of blogging schedule made by the end of the weekend and I'll spend a few days next week writing up some of the content I have stored in my brain. I shall miss blogging while I'm away but I'll still be active on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, so you won't get rid of me that easily. 

Well, that's that post wrapped up for the moment, see everybody in 5-7 days! Enjoy your week!

Love Katherine. X 

Last Week Summary and This Week's Plans

Hi All!

This post is a little late as I usually post it on a Sunday but I wasn't in the blogging mood last night so I ended up reading instead... unforgivable I know. Anywho, as many of you will know last week it was half term for those of you at college or school or whatever, and for most people it's a lovely time to rest and relax... not for me this time. I thought I'd been busy at college lately but I haven't had a minutes peace this week. No rest for the wicked I suppose. Monday and Tuesday were spent attempting to get an assignment done, it wasn't a particularly difficult one but I had to explain to job roles in the children's workforce, 4 pieces of legislation that affect looked after children and evaluate regulatory bodies al in 1,000 words; for me that was like climbing a mountain because I really struggle when it comes to writing a little about a lot, you've probably all gathered that I tend to babble quite a bit.

So, those two days were literally full of research and coursework from the minute I got up to the minute I went to bed, no lie, it was a thrilling 48 hours, I can tell you that for nothing. I had planned on spending Wednesday just relaxing and reading or cross-stitching something that involved me not moving and drinking lots of tea. Well, that didn't work out, my elderly uncle came over on Wednesday morning and I offered him a lift home so he wouldn't wait for the bus in the rain. I was about 1/4 of the way there when I was pulled over by a massive tuck, the driver got out and told me I had a flat tyre, this came as a bit of a shock because it must've gone down during the night as I had planned to take my car to the garage to get a slow puncture fixed in the tyre on Thursday, it happened a day earlier anyway. When I checked it, it was pretty bad so I thought I'd get myself through to the garage right away, which I did. In the waiting rom for 20 minutes before the mechanic came in and asked me when my last service was, September last year and everything came back perfect. No, no, no, no. Turns out all of my tyres were below the legal limit tread depth and my break pads were over 95% worn, which is not exactly safe. My usual Richard Hardie garage in Durham had either not checked my car properly (important to note it's not even 2 years old yet and I had been twice about brake issues before!) or they'd given me correct info. So I ended up going back to the garage on Thursday and having my brake pads changed and all 4 tyres changed. That took up Thursday too. Friday I went to a house party with my three closest friends and ended up having an extreme fun night in which funny videos and pictures were taken. I completely lost Saturday to sleep to be honest which was much needed after Friday. With all my work finished and myself recovered from Friday's antics I was determined to read all day Sunday... No. i had at least 7 people from my college class asking me what to do on this assignment despite the fact it had to be handed in today (GO NERDS). Lord knows why people leave things so late. So I ended up spending my day on the phone to people explaining it properly. No reading done again. I must apologise for my very long rant about my week haha.

This week is really short, today and Tuesday is college and college is closed on Wednesday for staff training so I'll be getting my cute butt down to work and spending sometime with the kids there on Wednesday and Thursday! Eeek very excited for it :)

I believe I'm going for a meal on Friday with a friend from college and no doubt I'll organise something for Saturday to keep me occupied. I'm very hopeful that this week I will actually get some reading done haha!

Thank you all for reading! I hope you're all having wonderful weeks and had a fab half term!

Love Katherine. X

Weekend Summary and Next Weeks Plans

Happy Sunday everyone!

I hope all is well with you all today? Yes? Awesome. This week has been an odd one to say the very least, jam packed with Valentines Day reminders and plans with friends. As per usual I started my week off my getting up at 6am everyday for college, as if 6am even exists it's far too early. Anyway, Monday my class did the CPR training session for people within the college and we managed to get around 140 people trained in hands only CPR, it was oodles of fun, some girls in the class dressed up in fancy dress, others were manning the free cake stalls, we had the Vinnie Jones 'Stayin' Alive' DVD clip playing on repeat on one stall and some music playing on another while me and 3 other girls were stationed each in front of an Anne doll (dolls used to simulate CPR) I was teaching child CPR. There was also a baby/infant CPR doll which was interesting to watch how it's done on a child. That was fun, also me and a good friend made extremely impromptu plans to go swimming on Monday night which was great, I absolutely love swimming and it was such fun to go; we also ended up going on Tuesday and Wednesday night too so I'm thinking that I'm going to add Monday and Wednesday nights to my exercise plan, as I'm still sticking to that resolution. 

Thursday I was back at work with the children which was as lovely as usual, I absolutely adore it there and I can honestly say I never expected that I'd love it as much as I do. That's got me thinking about having my own children at some point in the nearish future, but for now I'm quite happy looking after others' children. Friday I wasn't feeling my best so I stayed home and tried to get an assignment done that I've got to do over the half term, I had a mini-meltdown over that because I'm struggling to cut my work down and there's a 1,000 word limit on the report part and I always write far, far too much. NOTE TO SELF: Work on that. 

However, I've given up on that and I ended up reading Skulduggery Pleasant Death Bringer which i hope to finish tomorrow. Yesterday I went out for a meal with a friend to a restaurant in Durham called Sambuca which was lovely, me and my friend had a three course meal each (starter, main, dessert) a soft drink and a coffee all for £14 which was in my opinion really great for the quality. I'll definitely be going back there. Today I'm chilling again with my book and some Disney films later on.

Next week is pretty eventful, I've made plans to clean my filthy car tomorrow which is a pretty big job considering it hasn't been cleaned out since Christmas Eve 2014. I'm also going bowling on Tuesday with a friend from college and her boyfriend/his friends for her birthday which I'm really looking forward to, Wednesday I am going to start that assignment have to do and Thursday I'm at work then over to another friends house as it's his birthday and me and his fiancée are planning a little party with one of our friends to come up and have a house party type affair the next day. Friday is also a half day at work too which I'm looking forward to. Next Friday another friend is coming up to see me and two others for that house party which I'm extremely excited about as it's always a great laugh when we are all together. I swear I am doing nothing when it comes to the weekend though, I'll be exhausted after this week haha.

What are you all up to this week? Whatever it is I hope it's fabulous! 

Love Katherine. X

What Have I Been Up To?

My night is sorted!

Hi All!

I haven't posted in a while now and, once again, I'm very sorry about that but I've had so much going on right now I literally haven't had any time to myself at all. 

I mentioned few weeks ago that I'd started my college placement working with children in a local daycare centre, well I've been there almost everyday whenever I can simply because I love it there so much. I've fallen in love with a couple of the children there and they're practically my best friends whenever I'm there and oh gosh they're so adorable! I initially started going more often to get my hours up quickly as I need a minimum of 100 hours before placement ends, I wasn't too keen on the place to begin with but I think that was because I was nervous and slightly intimidated but now I feel right at home each time I go and I'm being given more responsibility which is wonderful. Also I've been offered a job later in the year once a couple of girls leave which I'm so excited about, I'll definitely be snapping up that position mind!
I went on a date with a friend (non-romantic) I met at a Sunderland Uni open day last year which was nice as I haven't seen him in ages, although I doubt it will be happening again soon because of both of our work/college commitments which is a shame, I'm glad I got to meet up with him thug because when we're together it's a right laugh. 

Also I've had a few things to organise with college, as a student representative for my class I've been running around helping my tutor organise parents evening, attending meetings as there have been a few serious bullying issues I've had to report, thankfully they've been sorted now, I'm extremely stubborn when it comes to out college's bullying policy. Also I did a reading/demonstration session with some people in my class who might want to study health and social care too. Finally at college, as well as trying to get all my assignments sorted I've been helping my tutor arrange a campaign to train as many people as possible in hands only CPR which will take place at my college on Monday morning/afternoon, I think it's a fab way to raise awareness about Heart Month and also it definitely will help everyone involved out on their CV and personal statements. :)

So, as you can all tell it's been pretty hectic this week and probably will be until next Wednesday (half-term) but I honestly think I'd be lost without having lots to do, I'm a pretty active and practical person to the more I have to do during the week the better. 

Now it's the weekend I am definitely taking the time to relax and have some much needed me time; unfortunately I'm poorly again (what is wrong with me at the minute?!) so I'm in bed at the moment tying this up although I have a lovely evening ahead planned, my grandma is making me stir fry for tea and I have Ben and Jerry's Phish Food Ice Cream for later. My candles are ready to go, my hot bubble bath is running with my lovely lush smellies, and my onsie is laid out ready for me, as is a damned good book to read. So after I've written this post I shall be off to enjoy my evening and I hope you all are too! Hopefully I will have a couple more posts out these next few days, if there are less than usual I'm probably with all those adorable babies at work!

Thanks for reading and thanks for sticking around even when I was less than active on my blog this week! Have a lovely night all!

Love Katherine. X

Weekend Summary and Next Weeks Plans!

Hi everyone!

This week has been much busier than usual as I've had college and work, which although it has been lots of fun, has been very stressful. 

So this week I got results back from my last couple of assignments and both were fine so thankfully I didn't have to re-do any, but our class was given 3 different assignments to do, two of which are pretty heavy and we need to start referencing all of out information which is a pain in the neck to be honest. Out of the 3 assignments I managed to get 2 done within a day which I was really pleased with because it's given me this weekend off before I have to start my new assignment tomorrow evening. That was Monday through to Wednesday, I also had my first day of work/placement on Thursday which I was really apprehensive about becauseI haven't done childcare is a very very long time so I was pretty worried about that. I shouldn't have been because the whole day was just wonderful, I even ended up working on the friday from 7:30am to 6:00pm, the atmosphere at work is just so relaxed and all of the children are adorable and really easy to look after, I was even offered a permanent part time job there! I'm definitely taking that once I get my NI number sorted properly which should be roundabout August. 

So the week itself had been pretty busy and unfortunately I've not had as much time to blog although I am doing my best to blog at the very least once a day. 

This weekend has been all about relaxing and unwinding. I'm a major stress head and I've been struggling with the amount of things i've had to do lately, my tutor tends to rely pretty heavily on me to direct the class when she isn't there and she's been off a bit this week, so if any of my classmates have needed help they've come to me and it can be pretty hectic sometimes. This led me to thinking that because my last proper holiday was in 2012, that I should probably think about booking myself and maybe a friend a nice short brea  sometime in February or March just to get away for a while and really get ourselves well and truly chilled out. Basically, this weekend has consisted of me listening to Celtic Woman, Carrie Underwood, reading my favourite books and looking for holiday cottages around the Cornwall or Devon area, I've found a very nice one but it's £183 for 3 nights and 4 days which isn't exactly in my budget just yet although I'm definitely going to geek somewhere if I can't book that right away. 

Next weeks is hopefully going to be a bit slower than this week as again I have college Monday through Wednesday and work on Thursday. Tomorrow I'm meeting Aymie for coffee and starting any and all assignments I get tomorrow to make sure that I stay on the ball with them all. I believe that set of the week is just college stuff, reading and hopefully I'll manage to get out to Waterstones on Friday and buy myself some lovely new books!

So, that's m week/weekend in review and my plans for next week, what's everyone else up to or been up to this week? Thanks for reading. 

Love Katherine. X

Work Placement Hints and Tips: Making a Good Impression

Hi All!

Recently I've not had much time to post anything on this blog so for that I have apologies, as many of you will know from a previous post I'm currently studying Health and Care at college (and loving it!); well after three months of settling in, getting used to assignment formats, making friends and quickly grabbing myself the student representative position for my class, I can finally say the part I've been most excited about has finally arrived. Placement! From day 1 all of us on this course knew we would have to do at least 100 hours of practical work experience, excluding simulation ward time, so all the girls in my class have not stopped talking about where they would like to work and how excited they are. It's a really exciting time for everyone, particularly the younger girls in the class who have just finished year 11 and are being thrown into the world of health care work.

Well today I visited my place of work placement  for a taster and it was fantastic! Some of my peers have gone to residential care homes, GP surgeries, Primary schools and day care centres for severely disables and vulnerable people. Where did I go? Well I get to work in a local Butterflies Day Care Centre for babies and children between 4 months and 3 years old, and admittedly it was a difficult day dealing with 23 young children with no official training and 2 other staff members on hand but WOW it was such fun! Before the fabulousness of today got going I and the rest of my class was extremely nervous to start work placement, one girl was convinced an old person was going to beat her with their walking stick! So I thought it might be helpful to make a short post on how to deal with first work placement nerves and the best way to make a good first impression on your employers.

1. Introductions - It's always a good idea to introduce yourself a few days or even a week or so before you first start work, this gives the impression that you're enthusiastic and eager to start work positively. Get yourself acquainted with whoever it is you'll be working with so it doesn't seem as scary on the day.

2. Induction - Usually your place of work will give you an induction the day you begin work but its always a good idea to ask a few days before you first go. This will help you get to know your way around, and you should find out about fire procedures, fire exits, bathrooms, staff rooms, lunch rooms and so on.

3. Questions - On your initial visit to your place of work it would be helpful to ask any questions you need to know, what do you wear? Who do you report to? What happens in an emergency? What time do you start and finish? What is the lunch and break situations? Make sure you cover everything you can think of so you are completely prepared for the first day.

4. Look Smart - Obviously placement isn't a fashion show and you really don't need to look like a model but looking smart and professional with help give the right impression to your employers and clients you'll be meeting. Often employers will ask for black trousers, leggings or knee-length skirts/dresses if they're modest, along with pumps or appropriate heels. Depending on the work you may be given instructions about how to wear your hair, for example, because I am working with very young children and babies I was told to tie it up so it cannot be pulled.

5. Get There Early - Getting there early shows that you are alert, prepared, willing and eager to get started and you'll definitely make a good first impression if you're punctual!

6. HAVE FUN! - It's really important to stay professional but remember while you're getting your experience just enjoy the time you have, it is an experience after all and you are bound to meet some lovely people and learn valuable skills from your time. 
I hope this has helped someone out there. 


Love Katherine. X

Apologies and Schedules

Hey Everybody!

This is going to be a really, REALLY brief post because I seriously pushed for time at the moment. I'd like to apologise for not posting yesterday as I did have a rather good post planned, however I'll save that for another day, so keep an eye out for lots more posts to come. I've not had much time for blogging this week and I doubt I will until about Thursday night because this week has been crazily busy and it's only Tuesday! 

Anyway, I've not been posting because I have a massive amount of coursework that I received today, three assignments and SO many forms to ill in for work on Thursday, although I'm very excited about that. 

I'm also very excited because I've finally managed to get some scheduling done so I have a full month's worth of posts prepared for all of my lovely readers out there!

I hope everybody is doing wonderfully and I shall be posting more come tomorrow night if I have time!

Love Katherine. X

Weekend Summary and Next Week Plans!

Happy Sunday everybody!

This week has been pretty busy but thankfully I'm healthy again, yey! Si I've been able to get myself out and about, I managed to get to college for two days this week where my class started the unit I've been most looking forward to since I started the course, Caring for Children and Young People. Unfortunately earlier in the week I got a puncture in my rear left wheel so I had no way of getting to college and I hate missing college as well so that wasn't too fun. 

Anyway, I found out on Thursday that my college placement has been approved so I'm able to start that this Thursday, when it hit Friday I had planned to spend a quiet night at home just relaxing with the family as I had taken my Grandad to a bus station where he was going to be picked up by a cache to take him and his friends down to Blackpool for a weekend. However, I ended up having an impromptu sleepover with Aymie which was definitely unexpected but lots of fun, at this sleepover we did some blogging together, talked about anything and everything and we actually found an old SD card with pictures of us both from about 6 years ago so we nada good laugh at those.

On Saturday we spent the day together and did some baking, see my previous post to see what we made, that was cry interesting as we didn't exactly follow recipes but the teacakes that were made tasted very yummy. 

Saturday night I was with my Grandma watching a concert of Celtic Woman: Emerald and I've completely fallen in love with their music and their voices, Lisa Lambe is an absolute Angel and her voice is stunning, as is her hair and her accent and I just love that woman. I think it's safe to say Irish Folk is porbablymy favourite music genre now and Celtic Woman is just wonderful, I personally don't hear that many female Irish Folk vocalists, I mainly listen to Foster and Allen, The Dubliners and so on. It's truly refreshing to have stumbled upon such fantastic vocalists (and violinist), I've actually spent quite a lot of this weekend listening to music, artists such as Fletwood Mac, Celtic Woman (obviously), McBusted, Olly Murs, The Beatles, Queen and Demi Lovato have been my favourites this week. I think I'm obsessed with the Celtic Woman song Téir Abhail Riú at the minute, find that video below.

I actually have quite a lot planned for next week, hopefully I should be able to get everything done! Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will conist of the usual routine, 6am start, college, assignments and I'll be reading a couple of new books in-between whenever I get time. However, Wednesday will be quite busy for me as I have college from 9am-12:30pm, a dentist appointment later in the day (ugh, I hate dentists), because i have a very painful wisdom tooth that I could do without to be honest, then later in the evening I will be attending a Yoga class from 6-8:30pm which I'm actually rely looking forward to, as I've said previously I really enjoy Yoga, it should be quite fun. 

Thursday is my first day at work, I get to work with babies (YEY!) which I am genuinely so, so excited about as I adore children. Also I'll be scheduling a post for later in the week on how to prepare for your first placement or day at work, so be on the look out for that. Friday I believe I'll be meeting a friend for a coffee if both of our schedules allow and Saturday will be taken up with going for a catchup with another good friend from Secondary School with Aymie I think. Also I may be going ice skating later in the week if that can be organised. Hopefully Sunday will be my day off and I'll get to relax at some point haha. 

Thanks for reading guys and let me know some of your plans for next week, I'd love to hear off of you guys!

Love Katherine. X

Waiting to go to University and Gap Years

Hi All!

Recently I've been doing a lot of research into universities, courses and personal statement information because I'm off to uni next year hopefully and I just got thinking about why I chose to not to go to uni right away and why some other people might choose not to. This post is just a few reasons why people may want to take a gap year or why it might be a good thing to take a gap year, and a few reasons it isn't a good thing. So lets get right down to business, I hope you find this useful.

There are a number of reasons that people might want to take a gap year and a number of reasons why people don't want to but it can't be denied that, if spent productively, that time can be really helpful for University later on or just life experience in general. Gap years or choosing not to go to university right away gives you the opportunity to:

• Travel and experience new places
• Teach or study abroad
• Work or live abroad
• Save some money for university
• Prepare yourself physically and emotionally for university
• Get work experience

Personally, I took time out before Uni to try and get my health improved, in sixth form I was constantly ill and I was in and out of hospital a lot so I thought that it would be a good idea to take some time out to get my body and mind into a better place before I went to university as it can be a stressful time. I also took the opportunity to undertake another course and gain some more qualifications in the subject I'd like to continue at university, health and social care. If you're thinking of taking some time out before university there's a few things I would recommend you consider.

• How easy would it be for you to settle back into your studies? Some people find it much harder to get back into the routine of revision, coursework and exams whereas others have said that gap years and time out made them feel refreshed and revitalised before getting back to the hard stuff. You don't need to make life any more difficult for yourself so really consider how that period of getting into a routine would affect you.
• What would you do? It's a good idea to have some thoughts on what you'd like to do in your time out, learn new skills? Travel? Earn more money? At least that way you will have less chance of just wasting the time that could've been spent productively. 
• Why are you taking time out? Are you doing it simply because everyone else is or because it's what you truly feel will be best for you? You may find that if you do it to follow the crowd and you end up easting that year/s you'll regret it.
• Are you prepared? If you're thinking of travelling or going abroad to study/work are you prepared to leave home and be completely independent? Lots of students tend to go on gap years and while they eventually end up enjoying it they find that leaving home for such a long period of time is unnerving or worrying. Think, would you be okay with long times spent from home? Are you financially prepared to travel or work unpaid in order to get experience? Is that a realistic goal for you?

Overall gap years aren't always a good idea definitely not if you're only doing it because A) Everyone else is B) You think tattoos or piercings will be cool from some exotic land C) You simply can't be bothered with uni just yet D) You want more time to party. 

However, gap years or time out can provide you with so many new opportunities you can gain life experience, work experience, earn your own money, explore the world or your home country and one of the most important factors for me personally, that time can give you an awful lot of scope to truly consider what you want to do with your life. Since I started college I've been shown hundreds of jobs I never even considered for myself, I went into that course determined I would become a midwife, I've swapped to wanting to be a dentist, health visitor, social worker and now I believe I have finally settled on a career I wish to pursue. I want to eventually become a university lecturer of health and social care. I hope you all enjoyed reading this and have taken something useful away from this post. 

Love Katherine. X

College Vs. Sixth Form: My Experience

Hey Everyone!
Since it's officially my first week back to college after being ill I thought this would be the perfect time to do my comparison between sixth form and college as I've had the privilege of experiencing both environments.

Image not mine, from Google

This month it will have been five months since I and thousands of A-Level students received their final set of A-Level results. For many it will have been extremely daunting, it know it was for me! I've never excelled when it comes to exams, I get that pre-exam nervousness that then tends to linger until the end of the exam and then post-exam panic begins to rear its ugly head. I can't win.

I was utterly convinced that I would be running out of my sixth form centre with tears spilling down my face after my horrendous results had been exposed to me (and the little hoard of friends I had with me at the time) but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had done rather well; better than I had expected. I say I had done better than expected because after finding out what it was really like to be an A-Level student at a sixth form centre, I was not expecting anything good at all to come from my A levels.

After surviving years 7 and 8 at my lower school and achieving good results in most of my exams I was determined to continue my education after year 11... that was until I hit year 9 and the 'Gateway exams' arrived. I'm sure all of the people who read this that are currently around the age of 17 or 18 will remember the moment your teachers told you about picking your GCSE's and having to take the 'gateway exams', I personally was very excited about taking Music and Business Studies, music didn't turn out too well but one can't complain when the rest of the GCSE results we're, for me, fantastic. My GCSE results made the decision to continue education concrete. So, I chose to attend a sixth form college and chose my subjects, Health and Social Care, Religious Studies, Sociology and Psychology. That was when my journey as an A-Level student began. My first day of sixth form was SO exciting, I was looking forward to many more free lessons, more independence and being treated like and adult with respect by teachers. After the compulsory 3 day orientation I was really motivated that I would do well that year, I would focus more, revise more, I would get good grades and most importantly it would be easy! No. No. No.

Oh my was I wrong. Yes, despite the 6 or 7 free lessons I had per week and freedom to wander out of school in those lessons I still spent most messing about or revising for exams. Sixth Form is, excuse the language but it's bloody well difficult! If you think it's going to be just like your GCSE's you'd be wrong, the jump from GCSE standard and A-Level standard is absolutely huge! We weren't informed this before choosing out A-Levels as a group of potential students; when I discovered a C at GCSE is an E at A-Level I'm pretty sure my heart stopped and I lost the ability think for a moment... Me, an average student who barely scraped a C in maths and Science at GCSE taking heavy workload subjects such as Sociology and Psychology. WHAT WAS I THINKING?! Never the less I pushed through the first few months of sixth form preparing myself for the January exams which came and went with all of the usual exam stress, panic and hours and hours of endless revision. The results were more than disappointing, I was disheartened more than I have ever been (which is saying something for me because I'm easily disheartened, or was I should say) but I am thankful for those dreadful results. Why? Well I shall elaborate. Those results shocked me, panicked me and scared the living daylights out of me! If I didn't get my head down, spend more time revising, keeping on top of the enormous amounts of work I was, and you will be, given as an A-Level  student I would fail, I wouldn't have the bright future I'd always dreamed of; so, that's what I did. I concentrated, gave up a big part of my social life, spent my time keeping focused and grounded and it did pay off. When you are able to get your head around the immense changes in the work standard, load and quality you will be given and must understand and feedback to your tutors you will be fine at A-Level. A few reasons that sixth form isn't for everybody:

• There's a huge amount of pressure put on you.
• Lots of essays and assignments due.
• Many exams and mocks the can become stressful.
• You don't get as much freedom as you'd expect.
• Often you may need to drop a lesson you enjoy in the second year. 

Image not mine, from Google

With the right attitude A-Levels will be much easier to deal with; personally I absolutely loved the free lessons I had in my final year of sixth form. However, I chose not to attend university for my own personal reasons and opted to take two years out and take up a place at a local College, now after experiencing sixth form and, to be quite honest, the very little freedom you do actually get, I was shocked as the whole dynamics of what I thought education was like, completely changed. Everything went from, teachers being on your back constantly to having your own independence at college, it was a wonderful feeling, the facilities on my current course are far more advanced than any facility in my previous sixth form centre; the opportunities offered will provide many a fantastic experience, more opportunities to gain extra qualifications. Now my current course is BETEC and admittedly this is a better type of course for myself given exam stress and such but I simply can't fault my college experience, the variety of people I've met is wonderful, I've been given opportunities for course representative positions, LGBT officer positions, board member positions and so many more chances to take positions that are never offered to you in a sixth form environment. Personally, and many of my classmates I've spoken to agree that their experience at college has been wonderful and has given me the opportunity to gain a whole new level of individuality, independence and qualifications, so I have to say if you're planning on continuing your education, don't bypass the thought of college, it may not be in your comfort zone or you may want to stay in a place where you have friends, you know the teachers and such but take some time to think about what you really want to gain from your educational experiences and what you really want to do. Yes, Sixth Form provides a good foundation for independence and opportunities but often college goes above and beyond the chances for personal and professional development. Consider college and sixth form, I have to say my experiences of both have been positive however College is a wonderful place to gain a deeper understanding of yourself and others around you. 

Thanks very much for taking the time to read my blog and putting up with my opinions.

Love Katherine. X

Weekend Summary and Next Weeks Plans!

This week has been pretty difficult for me what with having flu so unfortunately I had to put my plans for this weekend on hold and I'm hoping that I will get out to go shopping with friends next weekend. I'm planning a shopping trip with my Mam and Grandma next Friday or Thursday. The day depends mainly on whether the rather incompetent placement officer at my college finally manages to sort out my placement or not, if so I'll be in college from Monday to Wednesday next week and in placement on Thursday. 

Next week is going to be a pretty busy week because I lost all last week of college because of this stupid flu but still, I've managed to catch up and get my assignment nearly finished, I've spent some of this weekend doing that.

 So far since Friday I've had a lovely weekend that's actually been really stress free, other than trying to do my assignment I've been sat in bed snuggled up with endless cups of tea in my favourite mug that has my favourite quote on it "You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me" C.S. Lewis. I've also Managed to work my way through my new season of Family Guy and all three series of Miranda and American Horror Story; it's really rare that I ever get to relax like this so I love making the most of it. I've managed to get a few good posts up on the blog this week too, I'm most proud of my Advice To My Younger Self Post; finally I'm happy to say I got quite a lot of reading done this week, finishing two more books in the Skulduggery Pleasant series and moving on to the 7th book later today. Nothing in the world can make me happier than sitting down with a cup of tea and a good book, except maybe when it snows. So, there's my weekend in a nutshell. 

My plans for next week/weekend are pretty straightforward, I have college from 9am to 4pm on Monday, 9am to 2pm Tuesday and 9am to 12pm Wednesday, possibly at work on Thursday if not I believe I'm shopping with the family then on Friday if I'm free (and healthy) I'll be popping over to a friends for a chat or we'll be going out for a coffee maybe. Saturday Aymie will be coming over and we shall be doing bait of shopping hopefully and a beauty/pampering collab post. Finally I'm hoping to get my first draft of my personal statement finished by the end of next week too.

Thanks very much for reading today and I hope you all enjoy my blog. Please feel free to leave comments.

Love Katherine. X

My Weekend and Next Weekend Plans!

Hi guys! 

As you all know tomorrow it's back to the daily grind so it's highly likely that I won't be posting every day, or at least not twice a day as it has been recently. Anyway, I did a post similar to this one about a week ago, have a look at that here if you fancy a peek, and it was good fun to write particularly as a great deal of writing wasn't really needed. So, I decided to do another and add on a few of my plans for next weekend, I hope you all enjoy it. 

This weekend has been really slow for me and I haven't been up to much as all, the majority of my family came down with some sort of cold this weekend so I was in charge of looking after them, I was planning to go shopping with my friend Aymie however that was put on hold because of my carer duties. So when I wasn't busy with the family I did some online shopping and bought a ton of clothes from  ASOS, Yours Clothing, Debenhams, Simply Be and Schuh which hopefully I'll be scheduling a blog post on at some point in the near future. I've spent a lot of my time reading some of the many books I got for my birthday and Christmas which again I hope to review a few of. Yesterday I was given a bit of time to relax and decided I should take my Christmas decorations down, that was a painful experience given how much I love Christmas. I swear they're going up in October this year. 

Also because I'm getting into blogging much more I had the pleasure of meting and speaking to a few really, really lovely bloggers who I plan on mentioning at the end of this post. 

Today has been a little bit boring, so far I've done some housework, blogged a little and done some reading, I suffer from PCO/S and I have good days and bad days, to day is a bad day, it often drains me of energy much quicker than on a good day and the pain definitely isn't a bonus of the condition so I've decided that tonight is going to be full of relaxing and pampering before I'm back at college tomorrow. Face masks, hot bath, gallons of tea and my favourite book series is what's needed for tonight methinks. 

So thats it for what I've been up to this weekend, pretty dull I know but I'm hoping next week will be much better. I'm planning on going to IKEA, LUSH Cosmetics and the metro centre for bait of retail therapy with a friend, I'm also planning on going to Waterstones and getting myself to many books that I won't be able to fit them all in my car! That's if my bank account allows ha. Anyway, thank you all for reading and I hope everyone has a lovely night and a better week! Below you'll find a list of the wonderful bloggers mentioned earlier in the post. :)

- http://www.underlandtowonderland.com This blog is absolutely wonderful and it's quickly become one of my favourites, Danielle is also a lovely person and she recently mentioned this blog in a post of her own, thanks again for that!

- http://mejusttalkingtoyou.wordpress.com Again this is another fabulous blog run by a fabulous lady, Tamara is so nice and she's also helping myself and Aymie organise a bloggers meet up in Newcastle round February time - more info on that soon by the way. 

- Finally I couldn't mention some of my favourite bloggers without including Aymie Louise http://aymielouise.blogspot.co.uk  Aymie is a natural at blogging and her blog is varied and diverse, she's also really easy to talk to and welcomes interaction with other bloggers as I do. 

Each blog mentioned above is brilliant and more than worth a look, I'd recommend reading these blogs to anyone!

Love Katherine. X

Back to College Essentials

The bag I use for college!

Oh dear. The day I, and probably millions of other people around the UK, have been dreading is so close now; the day everyone goes back to school, work and college. Tomorrow everything goes back to normal, the christmas decorations will be down, no more relaxing or resting, just work and college for me. I've been dreading it ever since I broke up from college 3 weeks ago and despite the fact that I'm not dreading it half as much as I did going back to Sixth Form I still think holidays should be longer. Anyway, I thought I'd do a post on Back to College Essentials, this is going to be similar to a 'What's in My Bag' and an 'Essentials' post. You'll get to see what I drag around to college with me and maybe get some tips as to what you all might need to take too.Let's get started then. 

Firstly, I think it's absolutely vital that when going back to college or starting college, work, school or whatever, that you have a good quality bag, many people I know take only small ones and other bags to keep the less important stuff in. I've never seen the point in this and I like to take a biggish bag that can cary all of my things around in it. The first picture (above, left) is the bag I currently use and it was £10 from Atmosphere in a sale last summer. It's really sturdy and big enough that if I want to I could also fit in some lunch or a big book.

The image to the right shows what I keep inside my bag that I absolutely must take to college on a daily basis. As you can probably guess I study Health and Social Care and I need to take two books with me, one being a content filled book with information on each unit inside it and the other being a Study Skills Guide that we use for the Personal and Professional Development unit. I also have a large A4 multi-coloured lever arch folder that I've used for 2 years, I used it in my final year of Sixth Form but now it's breaking a little so I'm in dire need of a new one. Inside this I keep dividers for each unit, an absurd amount of plastic pockets and any and al work I've done so far. I also keep an A4 refill paper pad in there too for any notes I take in class. I bought the folder, dividers, pockets and refill pad from Rymans. I also have a Cath Kidston skinny pencil case in which I keep 4 black ball point pens, a blue, red, green, purple and pink ball point pen for any marking I need to do as my tutor often asks for assistance when marking or tutoring students. I have green, yellow and pink Sharpie highlighters for anything I need to remember or... well, highlight. I always carry a stapler and spare staples as well as a hole punch, you can never find one when you need one. Finally, I carry my 32GB Mass Storage USB with me at all times because I work a lot on computers and all of my assignments are written on personal and college computers, therefore i regularly transfer information via the USB. I got the USB from PC world, they're usually £10-15 depending on the store you go to however this was given to me as a gift as I was good friends with the guy who worked there. That is everything "college related" that's in my bag.

The Picture on the left is a few of the there things I like to keep in there also. I have my purse from Next, impulse body spray from Superdrug, some chewing gum, my iPod, an inhaler because I'm asthmatic and a little notebook for scribbling any quick notes I may need. I also take a few other things like my glasses case and lens cleaner as I can not ever function with dirty glasses, often I take a book to read in my free hours and when needed I take lady products, make up, a hairbrush and sometimes I take my own lunch. That is literally everything I can think that I ever take to college with me that I would consider essentials. 

Thanks for reading all and I hope you all have a good first day back whatever you're going back to!

Love Katherine. X