12 things I'd like to do before I'm 30...

Well, feeling like mush so not going into Uni today, seem to feel better when I'm warm and sitting still. I feel a bit bad as Im not as active as normal and not feeling upto playing with Carla. She seemed a little bored so i gave her her kong toy stuffed full of treats, and she said thank you by running off into the living room with it so I cant even watch her play! I'm quite settled in bed now. I'm trying to entice her back into the bedroom but I think she's ignoring me ....I'm just dreading hearing the crash of the TV breaking as she swings that thing about.

I was having a little hunt through stufff yesterday looking for something, and found a book I had forgotten about. It's a nice notepad in which I had wrote a list of my life plans and what I wanted to achieve. My career plans have changed now so I had to ammend those as I've found out profiling isn't really an English thing and if you do get a chance to do one, it doesn't pay. But reading that list got me thinking about how much of those ambitions I would like to see achieved by the time I'm 30, which is only 7 years away now, and time goes so quickly. So here's a list of what I would like to have done by the big 3-0 bitrthday:

1. Completed my undergraduate degree
2. Started working for the HM Prison Service
3. Started my Masters degree in Investigative and Forensic Psychology
4. Moved into our first house
5. Gotten married
6. Skydived
7. Visited China and Japan
8. Run the 10K race for life every year, starting in 2011 (and hopefully without to much struggle!)
9. Have a journal article published in a Psychological Journal
10. Started writing a book
11. Crowd surfed at a gig (which Ive still not done but it looks like so much fun)
12. Learnt a martial art (I am currently a yellow belt in Jiu Jitsu but it's been so long since I've been I don't feel I deserve it anymore).

So that is actually quite alot to try and acomplish in 7 years, but even if I can tick half of those things of my list I'll be happy.

When I was in high school and looked forward into the future I thought I would have done a lot more by now. I pictured myself in a successful job, with my own house. But things pop up that you don't expect. I didn't feel ready to go straight into Uni when I moved to the West Midlands at 18, and I believe it would have been a mistake if I had ignored those feelings and gone for it anyway. It would have been a whole different experience; a different uni, different people, a lot further to travel and probably a whole lot more stressful. I feel I can handle it all much better now. But it's funny how life does turn out. You can make all these plans and daydream about what you want to be doing in 5, 10, 15 years time, but how often does it work out exactly like you imagined? Rarely is probably the answer for alot of people. You never know what opportunities are around the corner.

Well I hope that's got you thinking about what you'd like to get acomplished. Carla's back in the chair next to the bed now, looking a bit tubby. When I feel better she can come with me on my runs, get us both into shape for race for life this year. I'd best go be productive since I'm not going into Uni. Get some more work done.

xx

just a quickie

Just a quickie today to catch up and say hello.

Back to work this weekend after having last weekend off for London. A 11-7:30 shift! may not sound like a lot but time drags in that place. My feet are killing me!

I'm hoping Colleys dad gets his shower fixed soon as it's too cold here to have a bath, even in the middle of summer it's freezing in this flat's bathroom. I'm going to have another inquirey/nag as to the progress of contacting someone to instal it in a bit. I'm having to wash just using the sink, which is ok first thing in the morning but you cant really have a relaxing shower/soak after work in a sink. But because its so cold I've been keeping my dressing gown draped over my shoulders! Oh I cant wait for the days we have our own place and can afford central heating.

Think I may use a facemask and make myself feel better with some piping hot veggie soup and bread and then maybe settle down for the night and do some of my rationale for research skills at uni. Sounds like a relaxing plan for a saturday night, ready for a busy, active sunday :-)

blood practicals and sticky plaster finger puppets

We had a practical for biological psychology today and it was a little strange. The experiment was on blood glucose levels and our concentration. In order to measure our blood glucose levels we had to use these little disposable automatic needle things to prick our fingers and then put the blood droplets on a little automatic reader. Each time we had to give two samples to try and get an accurate reading, but according to the technician (who was wearing a big white coat that had stains on it that looked alot like blood!) I didn't do it properly the first time so I had to do it again! It hurt loads the second time around! After that and a memory test about a global warming video, we had to drink this orange squash with sugar (i think) in it.

The juice reminded me of the cheap juice that schools and nurserys give to kids at lunch or during kids parties as cinemas. Rather strong and tastes absolutly nothing like orange juice! We then had to give more blood (different finger this time!) and do another memory test. It felt kinda wierd to be giving blood for a university experiment, and the readings I got were a little odd. They told us not to make any assumptions about our health based on this one, not always accurate, test, but the normal levels were between 5 and 7 whatchamacallits. I had chocolate cereal and a really sugary tea about an hour before the practical and my levels were about 4.3. After the really sugary drink they were still 4.3. Now I know it's not accurate but it is a little unsettling to be told that after chcocolate, and two sugary drinks your blood glucose level is still below normal range! Another girl measured 2.4 on her first sample though, which made me feel better, but considering we were told 1.5 means you're dead...well she didn't feel to enthusiastic after that!

It was one of those days as well today where I knew I'd forgotten something but I really couldnt remember what...then I realised when I was on the bus to uni that I'd forgotten my phone and was meant to ring my fiance to make sure he remembered to feed the animals before he went to work. Usually I'm always playing games on my phone while on the bus as it just makes the journey so much quicker! Today, I decided to people watch..and people are boring! No-one did anything of interest. So, on the way back home with my two fingers wrapped in sticky plasters to stop them bleeding after the samples, I made finger puppets!

It truly is amazing how much entertainment two sticky plasters with faces and hair drew on them can give a person. Mercifully, the top deck of the bus only had one other person on it and they stayed at the back while I sat at the front so I didn't get to many wierd looks. Hey! A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do to amuse herself! I recently found my ipod again and uploaded Murderdolls so my two little finger people were moshing to their new album and some of Wednesday 13's solo stuff. Unfortunatly, the two puppet moshers are now in the bin as they started to get a bit tatty and fluff from my glove added to the wild hair I drew. Rest In Peace little rockers.

Well, I'd better stop procrastinating and actually get on with some uni work (boo! roll on summer hols...I wanna break!).
Bye.
x

London Antics

So went down to London this weekend to see one of my best friends and had a great time.

I havent seen her in over a year and was taking down a long overdue birthday present....goldfish! I forgot to put them back in the plastic bag before we set off so we travelled from Dudley to Wolverhampton on the bus with a full tank of water and 2 little fishes scared out of their wits! When we got to Wolvo though a nice man in the pet shop put the fish in a bag for us and emtpied the tank of water. That was such a relief as I couldnt really walk that quickly carrying it and we had to get 2 trains and the tube. Still got quite a few funny looks on the train though. I dont think it's often people travel with goldfish!

They made it safe and sound though, which is the main thing, and the lid is secure enough on the tank so my friends cat can't get them. It did seem to enjoy sitting on the windowsill watching them. The Friday night my friend took us to one of her friends parties, with an underwater theme, which was great as I got to meet all her University friends. Colley wanted to dress up so he put on his goggles and flippers. Rather amusing watching him try and walk around the flat in flippers...he was waddling like a penguin! Some people's costumes were pretty well thought out. One guy painted a box and decorated it like a locker and wore it on his head. Can anyone guess what he was...? Thats right, Davey Jone's locker! One girl made a hat and came as a jelly fish and another made a big fish mask/hat thing. They all looked great.

Saturday didn't quite go as we planned it. We hit Camden Town for a bit of shopping, and everytime I go there I experience dress envy, and feel totally underdressed! It is an amazing place, expensive, but beautiful. I finally got a new bag for Uni, and since all the trousers were mega expensive I got a new top and Colley managed to get a tshirt, waistcoat and this cool jumper for £60. The jumper has zips on the hood and sleeves so you can turn it into a tshirt. Trying to get back to my mates was a nightmare though. Rush hour on the tube with probably 100 people trying to get through the doors and barriers? No ta! We caught the bus to a quieter station.

As it was my birthday the week before, we were going to go on a Ripper Walk on Saturday night as my birthday treat, but I don't think London was ready to make my dream come true quite yet. The internet said the meetin time was at 7:30 outside Tower Hill station so we set off in plenty of time and made it to Whitechapel quite quickly. However, the tube we needed to get to Tower Hill was closed over the weekend! Thankfully there was a replacement bus service, which took ages to turn up and then we had to wait as it was dangerously close to overheating. By this time I'd resigned myself to the fact we probably had missed the walk, but my friend was determined to get us there and was getting rather riled. It's not often I see her like that and she's funny. We finally arrived at Tower Hill station and found the meeting point, only to be told by posters that the walks started at 6:30!!! We missed the walk by a whole hour! On the plus side I got to see the castle and tower all lit up at night.

It's really beautiful. The picture may not be great quality as I took it on my phone. A new plan was needed and since we were aleady in Tower Hill we decided...lets find a pub! I'd never been that close to Tower Bridge before so we took a walk over that before walking down the side of the Thames.

It doesn't take as long as what it looks like it will, though it is really windy. I think this is the bridge in the London episodes of Bones that they're sitting waiting to see open and when it finally does Booth and Bones have their backs to it.

We managed to find a nice pub, well it was the first one we came to but it was still nice. Had a giggle at the name. We all had a pint at The Horniman. The full name is the horniman at Hayes but The Horniman was funnier.

Sunday was a quieter day. My other friend who shares the house was camped out on the Strand waiting for the Baftas so the plan was to take her lunch, get some for outselves and then get back to Euston for our train home. Again, London din't like that. There were loads of tube closures so we only managed to get to London Bridge before having to find a bus. First we got the wrong bus stop, then after waiting yonks outside the London Dungeon (which is another place I'm just dying to go to) for our bus we checked the travel information to find out that the bus we were waiting for was experiencing severe delays because of road works and would not be stopping at our stop. Pants! In the end we managed to get another tube to the other end of the Strand, but because we had out bags and the time it took to get there, my friend left us at Maccys while she ran our other mate her lunch before meeting us back at Maccys so she could take us to Euston. Thankfully there were no more delays or interuptions! We managed to get to Euston with 40 mins to kill before the train left.

Despite all the travel mayhem, we had a great time and it was lovely to see my friend again. I'm going to try and get back down in the summer so we can do the Ripper Walk, and we're gonna get there an hour early just in case!

2011 so far

So with one month of 2011 behind us, how is everyone doing?

After that disasterous presentation at the start of the year I was feeling really down and dispirited with myself and my abilities. I was questionning whether I had chosen the right degree, was I capable etc... we got our grades a couple of weeks ago and I managed to get 2 As and a B. I still get those depressed feelings and thoughts from time to time but I'm feeling decidely more hopeful than I did at the start of the year.

Home wise, we're moving back in with my fiances dad. Not my first choice but we cannot afford to live on our own at the moment and it's better than putting myself into even more debt and creating debt for my other half. We're going to wait til I'm working full time out of university and we can comfortably afford somewhere, perhaps a house with a garden for Carla. It's a bit of a nightmare having a mountain of uni work to do plus all our stuff to pack, move and organise yet again, but since it's only across the hall then we're doing it a bit at a time to avoid to much stress. I'm going to miss the independence and having our own private space but I know it's the best thing to do right now.

I'm off to jolly London in a week or so to visit one of my best friends and take her her long overdue birthday present of goldfish. The train and tube journeys ought to be interesting! we're going to a party and on a Ripper walk so I'm quite wet your pants excited :-) it's only a weekend but I'm gonna try and get down again in the summer.

Carla's doing well at training class, at least until this week. Right at the start of class she came into season, started dripping blood on the floor. We managed to get her out before any of the boys noticed. But apart from being a bit put out at wearing doggie pants (i am NOT cleaning blood out of cream carpets) she's her usual happy self.

All in all, apart from a couple of rough days, 2011 is feeling better so far than 2010. hears hoping it continues that way!

Sarah
xx