We're Going On An Adventure

  This time last week I was sitting in the cinema with my family watching the second installment of Peter Jackson's take of the classic The Hobbit. As the lights dimmed some brilliant man shouted out "We're going on an adventure" at the top of his voice, which was greeted with laughter all around. Weary as I was from a long shift at work, I was determined to enjoy the movie as I had been looking forward to it's release for months already. I mean, anybody who knows me would tell you I am a die hard Tolkien fan, and seeing as Lord of the Rings was so amazing I had high expectations for this trilogy.

  Sadly, it did fail to meet my expectations. Yes it was action packed and yes it was very very true to the storyline, but Jackson has in his greediness sacrificed quality for profits. By dragging out the storyline of a rather slim book into 3 epic length movies, each movie is therefore rather slow paced, with the storyline not progressing very far with each movie. Furthermore, the depiction of Smaug the Terrible was a huge let down, he looked more like a salamander than a terrifying fire-breathing dragon. 

  While I'm at it, is it just me or does the whole movie actually look more fake than LOTR? Because I couldn't help noticing that the horse Legolas was riding in The Desolation of Smaug was so blatantly digitalised whereas they actually used real horses in LOTR.

Effort

  Ok people, don't judge me but i'm working 11-8 shifts every day at the moment while I'm home, hold tight for updates in the next couple of days though ;) 

Assignments and Why I Hate Them

  At long last after 3 weeks my final assignment has been handed in *everybody cheers*. Yes that's right, on Thursday I shoved the final one into my collection box not caring whether or not I had passed or failed it, after all they do say "out of sight, out of mind"

  I have decided to celebrate this by rewarding myself with the rest of the term off and some hibernation, so long as I have my trusty MacBook to hand of course. But seriously, now I have time to do the things in life that really matter, like baking cupcakes, experimenting when making dinner and most importantly, playing LOTRO non stop for hours at a time (much to the annoyance of my boyfriend but hey, he can't complain he's benefiting from my cooking).

  Speaking of which, I'm off to take a 3 hour nap, but not before sharing with you all my little procrastination attempts when I was meant to be writing my final assignment ;) . And no mother, I did not cheat and use cake mix, thank you very much!

Please Don't Flush Your Hopes And Dreams

  Today while getting on a train to go home for my sisters birthday my impeccable early timing for the train was rewarded by walking under a gutter and getting absolutely soaking wet, thanks for that Mother Nature.

  So going to the toilets to dry off like any other embarrassed person with their tail between their legs, once I'd closed and locked the door I was greeted by an automated womans voice over the intercom droning on and on. "Welcome to Virgin Pendolino services blahblahblah etcetcetc...", which I was tuning out as usual, especially when she got to the part about "please don't flush stuff down the toilet", you know, the usual stuff. So you can imagine my surprise when she got to "unpaid bills, your exes sweater, your court fines...". My reaction was pretty much "Wut?!", and by the time she got to "hopes and dreams" I was practically in stitches. 


  Never have I been so happy to be given a reason to use public toilets. Thank you random automated lady for making my day :3 

Reading Week

  Last week was my reading week, or as I call it, the week where no reading would get done. So seeing as I was putting down the books I'd never been bothered to pick up in the first place, I spontaneously booked a ticket home for a few days to see my family. Which, seeing as they were working a lot of the time ended up predominantly consisting of me sitting on the sofa watching TV for most days while occasionally getting up to raid the fridge, but then again that is kinda just how I like it. Just the feeling of being home was enough to keep the pangs of homesickness at bay.

  On Halloween I went into work to talk to my manager and managed to surprise Tony when I walked in. I swear I wasn't wearing a costume or anything! But yeah, I did text him and all beforehand but apparently he hadn't had his phone for a few days so you know, he was a bit shocked and all that. It was kinda worth it though seeing the look of joy on his face, so much so that in the end the shift manager booted him out for a bit so he could sit and chat with me for 10 minutes that turned into an hour long catch up. Long enough for the fries he was meant to be looking after to burn I reckon...

Remember, Remember, The 5th of November

  Tonight me and my flatmate went with a bunch of people to Pype Hayes park up in North Birmingham to see us some fireworks and get lost in the park that had been transformed in a huge fairground for the night. It was cold, muddy, and at times confusing trying not to lose each other in the crowd, but it was nice to get out of town centre for a bit and go do something fun, even if it did mean having to wait half an hour for a taxi afterwards and then having to walk to said taxi because the driver just couldn't be bothered to drive all the way to where we were waiting. Unfortunately the fireworks weren't anything spectacular in all honesty but hey, at least it didn't rain. And being British and all, I'd say that makes any night a big success ;) 

Blog, Blog, Blog. All I Do Is Blog

  Last week Tony complained that I havn't been blogging much lately, which is touching because it actually means there's somebody out there who bothers to read this blog. So I'm making it my mission this month to blog as much as possible, once my assignments are done and stuff. Because you know, for once in my life I'm trying to keep on top of things. I've got 3 to do and the first is due in 6 days. So far I can't say it's going well...

The Great Giraffe Challenge

  Going around Facebook at the moment is a little something called the "Great Giraffe Challenge", and it's pretty simple. Somebody posts a riddle for their friends to solve, and said friends are meant to inbox the person whatever they think the answer is as their guess. Get it right, and you get to keep your profile picture. However, get it WRONG and you're saddled with a giraffe as your profile picture for the next 3 days. 

  Not only is this ritual humiliation enough apparently for friends who get it wrong, but your friends then have to go on and repost the riddle as their status, which not only lets their friends have a go, but if they have a giraffe as their profile picture it's pretty much a given they lost, making it funny to point and laugh at all the idiots who couldn't answer the riddle. I took the challenge this evening. How did I do I hear you ask?

Nuff said.

Gorillas and Giant Dairy Milk Bars

  A couple of weeks ago I took my boyfriend (yes, him again. He seems to be popping up a lot on here lately!) to Cadbury's World for his birthday after months of vowing to go together and never getting round to it. I've actually been before, but as he's an international student I maintained that he could not come and live in Birmingham without paying a visit to Bournville and the magical world of chocolatey goodness that is Cadburys World. 

  While it may sound like a childish day out, (we are big kids at heart really) he actually had a better time than I thought he would. Aside from all the free chocolate and stuff, we basically felt like we were sitting in school getting a History 101 lesson on the humble beginnings of Cadburys chocolate. Who knew Cadburys didn't even start off selling chocolate in the first place, I must admit I felt my world implode a little when I heard that. After all, growing up as a child I always assumed Cadburys was basically another word for chocolate, because you know, I'm special and all that.

  Sammy appeared particularly taken though with the life size drum playing gorilla we saw as we passed through one corridor, you all know that advert right? If not, here is the YouTube link, go watch it and your lives will be complete. In fact, he was so taken with it I could feel myself starting to resent the gorilla, and it took all my energy to tear him away from it so we could get to my favourite part... the gift shop, where I was able to expand my family of rubber ducks by adding Deborah to the fold, while he picked up a HUUUUGGEEE  bar of Dairy Milk for my flatmate in a blatant attempt to buy her love. 

Getting Our Asian On

  Last night my boyfriend treated me to a romantic evening and took me out to an amazing restaurant called Pushkar, in search of the elusive Indian curry that everybody says you can't live in Birmingham without trying, and I'm not gonna lie, it was probably hands down the best Indian food I have ever eaten, and I've lived long enough to sample my fair share of Indian cuisine. Most of the time when you reach the end it starts to get a bit sickly, but last night I found myself wanting to keep going and going even when my waistline was starting to protest.

  And of course, seeing as Pushkar was a cocktail bar too, there was no way I

was going to pass up the chance to act all sophisticated and grown up by trying one. There was so much choice though, it took me a good 5 to 10 minutes to decide what to get. In the end I settled on a Red Emerald, which turned out to be an absolute delight, so much so I found myself going for a second, causing my boyfriend to raise his eyebrows. 

  Food and such aside though, the atmosphere and restaurant in general was an absolute delight. Seeing as I'm quite fond of the finer things in life, though as a poor student I can seldom afford them, I appreciated the elegance and upmarketness of the place, while the staff were so attentive we were never left wanting (apart from wanting food which did take a while to arrive). In fact, the only flaw I could find was that navigating my way to the bathroom was a bit treacherous, especially in the heels I had on, as the comfy and rather spacious arm chairs were so closely spaced together that making the trip there and back again was a bit of an ordeal. Aside from that the evening was everything I was hoping it would be and more, and let's face it, it gave me a chance to dress up and to dust off my heels for the first time in forever :) . 

La La La

  It can't just be me who's finding Naughty Boy's "La La La" disturbingly addictive at the moment. Truth be told I think I'm driving my boyfriend mad at the moment as I just want to keep playing it over and over again on a loop. I wasn't too keen on it when I first heard it, but over the summer it was played pretty much ever day at work, and it's one of those songs that once it gets into your head it's just stuck there until you're going crazy trying to get it out, yet you can't help but find it a bit of a guilty pleasure. 

  If it weren't for the annoying woman singing in the chorus I'd happily blast it out of my speakers 24/7, but as it is I still cringe every time I hear her voice. Maybe they just ran out of ideas for lyrics when they got to her part and were like "oh let's just let her sound like a siren or something (police or fire, not a mermaid silly people).

Spring Cleaning

  Ok I know the blog is lacking pretty pictures at the moment people, but I promise as soon as I come back from the CU meeting tonight I will clean and brighten up the place with the finest gifs around to make you smile :) . Laters little biscuits.

An Ode To Sammy

  I have to be honest, my boyfriend complains a lot that I don't talk much about him online, so instead of including him in my little celebratory "Look at me I'm back at uni" post, I thought I'd give him one of his very own. Which I think he'll be sure to thank me for when I show him, until he reads it and realises I'm probably going to remain my sarcastic witty self while writing this.

  All joking aside, it's nice to finally be back in the same city as each other. After a long and arduous summer apart where we really didn't get to see each other at all thanks to conflicting schedules, we've become practically inseperable ever since I came back, much to the annoyance of his flatmates I must say. I can't tell what annoys them more, when they see us together constantly or when they can never seem to find him. I can't say I feel too guilty about stealing him away, after all we've had a lot of catching up to do over the past week. It's becoming a bit of a joke that eventually we'll get so sick of each other I'll end up practically shoving him on the plane back to Ghana instead come the end of the academic year. Which of course, I won't, just to be clear when he reads this ;) . 


  So there you have it, and who knows. After reading this he may be willing to forgive my bothering him all afternoon while he's been trying to work. It turns out, when Masters students have a lot of work to do that's, you know, due in the next day they couldn't care less how bored you are. You could be dressed up as a pineapple doing the can can and singing at the top of your voice and they won't look up from what they're doing, even for 2 seconds.

 And alas, as you may have gathered my antics have had me banished to the corner on his room to languish on the swivel chair until it's time to go out. So how better to spend all this free time then to write stuff on here :) . 

I'm Back People

 Oh yeah, that's right. I'm officially back at university and getting stuck back into some of that psychology stuff I like to call a degree, but I'm sure others will call an easy ride. They may say that, but then again they're probably not students, and therefore don't understand the agonising pain at getting up at 7 or 8am for lectures, or the tough decisions we students face as to whether or not to attend seminars, or what ready meal to microwave tonight. Let me be the first to tell you, it's a hard life. 

  But putting that and my fast dwindling food supplies aside, it's great to be back in the big, bad city. For some reason there's nothing so liberating as having your own place to call home, even if it is only a rented flat in student accommodation that you'll be turfed out of by summer next year. I love the freedom of being able to go where I like and when I like (when I'm not being hauled into lectures that is), and to be do whatever I want when I feel like it. As much as I miss home and my family a bit, I feel more of an adult here than I ever do at home, and that's with me having a job there and all.

  Maybe I'll be ready to go home come Christmas, but until then I'm perfectly happy to carry on strutting round campus like I own the place, or sitting on my bed wrapped up in my duvet playing Assassins Creed on my laptop while sipping my 7th cup of Lady Grey of the day.  

When Llamas Attack

  Yesterday I got my hands on my boyfriends Facebook profile. I say get my hands on it, but in reality he foolishly forgot to log himself out after using my laptop to check it quickly. Once he was done I scooped up Eowyn (my Mac, yes I named her, deal with it) without missing a beat and settled down on the sofa contemplating how much havoc I could wreck in the short time I had before he noticed anything amiss. 

 This is the end result...

  Let's just take a look at that attractive new face up close shall we...

... I have no regrets...

I Refuse To Be Ill

  The worst possible thing has happened, I am officially having to declare myself ill while I am away from home and right before the start of Freshers Week. I absolutely refuse to be ill, I've been waiting for this week away for weeks and weeks now! 

  It all started today when I woke up with a sore throat, I shook it off as one of those morning things that are to be expected after a good nights sleep, but here I am, at nearly half 3 in the morning feeling like my head is on fire and I'm dying. This is not the first time I'm lying in bed wide awake at night cursing my dire hayfever, and it certainly won't be the last, but seriously come on. The timing could not be any worse. Could my immune system not wait till I was back home before it decided to succumb to this? And even worse, what if this isn't hayfever at all, but the return of the dreaded Freshers Flu (*dramatic music*) that I was severely struck down with last year during (surprise, surprise) Freshers Week?! 

  I had hoped I would have been spared this pain when my lovely boyfriend stopped by Tesco to get my hayfever tablets, but alas, it appears that is not to be. So now it looks like I get to enjoy another 4 hours of lying wide awake all night before it reaches an hour socially acceptable to get up and go make some tea, yay me. Wait, hang on, I'm a student, surely any hour of the day is deemed socially acceptable for me to potter around the kitchen, especially where tea is concerned. Think I might try and make a break for it, wish me luck!

Tony's World Of Fashion

  Ladies and gentlemen, my dear friend Mr Tony Cole is clearly going from strength to strength in the bloggersphere. Now only does he have Blogspot and Wordpress, he's now set up his very own brand spanking new fashion blog on Tumblr, Tony's World of Fashion. And of course, there's no point having a blog if nobody's going to read it, so why don't you all dare venture into the excellent madness that is Tumblr and have a nose through what he's got to say! It's still a work in progress but that cheeky chap certainly knows what he's doing I must say ;) . As always, I've linked to it below, so happy reading and you're welcome!

http://tonyfashion.tumblr.com

The Countdown Begins

  I've gone and done it. Now that work is officially done with for the summer I have officially booked my train tickets to Birmingham. I'm actually so excited right now, it's been nearly 2 months since I was last there, that's way too long. In my head I've started doing the whole crossing the days off till I leave, it's just a shame I'll be having to cut my time there short to come back and pack up all my stuff. On the plus side, I'm going there mainly to help out my Christian Union with some of their Freshers Week events, which is pretty exciting.

Talking With Tony- Summer Special

  Once upon a time, Tony and I went to Frankie & Benny's one day for lunch. We were lured in with promises of an American twist on gorgeous Italian cuisine, which turned out to consist of plastic cheese so vivid yellow in colour we mistook it for custard, and so rubbery in texture I turned the bowl upside down and it still remained welded to the bowl. Nevertheless, our spirits were not so easily dampened, conversation flowed and the laughter was relentless as they swapped stories and made jokes at other peoples expenses.

  After 3 hours in that place due to painfully slow customer service (we actually had to ask if the waitress serving us had died), we waddled out and over to Hollywood Bowl across the road, not to bowl as one might expect, but instead to regress to childhood and blow our not so hard earned wages in the arcade, where Tony thrashed me at every single game we played, much to my frustration not to mention a huge blow to my ego.

  However, he soon soothed my ego by introducing me to my new best friend, snow cones! All it took was 2 minutes of eating one to wonder how I could have ever thought my life complete before that magical moment. 

  Of course, all of this could not compensate for my loneliness this week when Tony swanned off to the Reading Festival for the week, leaving me to mope around at work without my partner in crime. Which of course, makes this the penultimate episode of Talking With Tony this summer! I know, i know, sad times people *cry cry*

Last Calls

  This week is my last week at work before I go back to university, and oh wow am I looking forward to the 2 weeks of bliss that will ensue before the chaos that is university begins once again. As much as I've enjoyed what I'm doing and am going to miss the people I work with, I won't miss the rude customers, at times unbearable heat, or being permanently tired for that matter! 

  These 2 weeks off do create a new dilemma though, what on earth am I meant to do with myself for all this time before I move back? Thankfully Freshers week promised to snap up most of my attention for the 2nd week, but even with money in my pocket I'm hard pushed for ideas of how to spend my free time between now and then. 

  Ok that's a lie, there are plenty of things I would like to do, such as going to Thorpe Park, reading books, tea drinking, blogging, or even just going out for a run, but truth be told they require a lot of effort and anyone who knows me will know how much of a sloth I can be when I have nothing important to do...  

  Wow, just writing this is making me feel tired, looks like it's time for yet another cup of tea and a nap.

Talking With Tony- Episode 4

  I had to take a bit of a hiatus from this for a few weeks due to not having enough time to be on here, but hurray we're back, and it's time to say hello again to that cheeky tousled haired boy I call Tony. Also, I don't know why he's not wearing shoes in this picture... or for that matter where his shoes even are, but details, details...

  Truth be told, this may be called Talking With Tony but in reality these past couple of weeks have been more like "Where Is Tony". You see, I havn't seen much of this loveable rogue due to us being on opposing shifts, and when we do work at the same time it's on totally stations.

  But anyhow, we went through a brief period where he decided he didn't want to talk to me, and foolish me being all lonely and such pleaded with him to reconsider. 
"I'll do anything" I bleated, looking up at him with big puppy dog eyes.
"Very well" he says with a slight look of glee in his eyes. "You have to ask 5 customers if you can McHelp them, and only then will I  talk to you"

  So off I went, muttering to myself at the unfairness of it all, but nevertheless I do like a challenge, only this one was just humiliating. Truth be told, in the end I only managed 3, and each time I mumbled it quietly, hoping the customer wouldn't hear, let alone my managers. 
"I'm actually humiliating myself for you" I snarled at Tony when I caught him smirking in my direction. 
"Not good enough" said he as he stalked off on break  

One Year Later...

  It's funny to think that exactly one year ago it was me anxiously starting up my laptop and logging onto UCAS, all the while praying that I had made it into uni. It's even funnier remembering on the actual morning after weeks of worrying and being in denial that I chose to stay in bed and prolong the agony to the extent that my mum had to call me over and over at 7am to get out of bed, a remarkable feat given I was in Aberystwyth a couple hundred miles away from home, but she managed it. And then there was the sigh of relief and numb shock when UCAS told me I'd been accepted, elation didn't kick in for a good few hours until it had properly sunk in.

  And now, one year on, sitting here feeling pretty smug about battling my way successfully through round 1 of uni, it was hard not to sympathise with the students waiting for their results this year, all bleating at work or online like they needed to put out of their misery or something. So this is my roundabout way of saying congratulations to all the courageous students who survived 2 years of torment, or those who have soldiered on for 1 year and are ready to do battle with the second, we salute you!

  Or if you're one of those who didn't do so well, let's face it, look at Lord Sugar and Richard Branson. They're basically you in 20 years ;)

Work, Work, Work. All I Do Is Work.

Nearly 8 weeks ago now I returned home from uni to start back at work for the summer, and truth be told although work's had its ups and downs at times, I've thoroughly enjoyed my job, to the extent I'm always happy picking up shifts for people who can't do theirs or working overtime etc. 

But the truth is, I need a holiday. I mean, it's been 8 weeks and I've not actually had any chance to relax and unwind. I've loved being kept busy and all that, but there comes a time where I just need some time to myself, I don't even have to go anywhere, just having that time to enjoy being in a sloth like state would be much appreciated.

So I wandered into the managers office the other day with a face unlike Spongebob here and went "Hey Souz (my manager), how about we play a little game called Giving Nina A Saturday Off", on the very off chance she would actually say yes. What I actually got was a lot of laughter and an "Are you all right?", which in McDonalds is code for "you must be joking". Naturally I laughed it off, grabbed my till and traipsed out to the front counter where I was greeted by a lovely queue of customers waiting to be fed. 

"Great" I muttered. "Looks like the holiday will have to wait. Hi, can I help?"  

Bloggers Break

Apologies folks, my hours at work are making it hard for me to post and stuff so I've been forced to take a break from my online stuff, but I shall endeavour to get up to speed in the next few days, so bear with me :) !

The Journey Continues Online

  How has it taken me this long to discover Lord of the Rings Online?? There I was, trawling through the internet as I always do on my days off when I'm not in my usual sloth state of relentless sleeping and eating, when I decided to look for some LOTR related stuff to put on my Tumblr. After doing an initial Google search it didn't take me long to come across a link which has changed life as I knew it. 

  For anybody who doesn't know, Lord of the Rings Online is basically a huuuuggee MMORPG based on J.R.R Tolkiens writings of Middle Earth coupled with the movies directed by Peter Jackson. You basically choose your class out of men, dwark, elf and hobbirt, create an avatar and away you go completing quests, earning deeds and titles and fighting any monsters that cross your path. And obviously you can interact with other players you come across in the game which is always pretty fun. What I find so brilliant about it is literally every town, village and city ever written about by Tolkien is accessible in this game. I've only been on for less than a week but already I've travelled from the Shire, to Weathertop, to Thorins Gate. I even attemped to reach Rivendell and Rohan but my character isn't levelled up enough to survive the journey :( 

  Ok so it looks a bit like RuneScape at first. When I started playing my initial reaction was like "oh no, this looks like a waste of my time", but as I've got the hang of it I'm amazed at how addictive it's become. In a similar way to The Elder Scrolls games such as Oblivion and Skyrim, there is a main Quest storyline you can complete at your own leisure, and you're not tied down to it once you start, you can pretty much come and go as you please or go off and do other quests alongside it which is always pretty handy.

  My only criticism of this game is that in order to have certain things such as horses and houses or to acquire the majority of skills you need to really be successful when playing, you need to actually buy them with real money from the LOTR Online store rather than use in game currency, making it much harder for anyone playing purely for free to level up or get very far in a short period of time. Aside from that, this gets a solid 8/10 from me :) .

Going to see my boyfriend last week I decided to take along my Lord of the Rings DVDs to complete his Middle Earth education. He'd already been put through nearly 5 hours of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, so it only seemed right we ended things right there and them with The Return of the King.

  It all seemed to be going well at first. In the beginning he sat there with this patient look on his face that let me know he was finding it a bit boring, but as it went on and got to the siege of Minas Tirith and King Theoden's army riding to the rescue of Gondor (oh come on, don't start with the whole"spoilers" thing. How could you not have already watched this), it was evident he was getting more and more into it, because you know, that was the aim.

  However, when his flatmate walked into the room just over halfway through, he clearly forgot I was right there and let slip he'd found the first 2 boring and even with this one he only liked it. Yeah, that's right, "LIKED". Not "loved". Just "liked". If looks could kill the one that I shot him would have had him dying a long drawn out painful death. And to add insult to injury, I only went and left my DVDs at his flat SO NOW I HAVE NO TWO TOWERS DVD TO WATCH AND I'M GOING TO CRY DIE!

Talking With Tony- Episode 3

   A whole week has gone without posting anything on here due to my being away for most of the time, so it looks like it's once again time for your weekly dose of Tony-related madness. So just what have I been talking about with Tony this week?

  Well, believe it or not we actually missed out on a whole day yesterday. Turns out shouting at Tony means he's guaranteed to give you the cold shoulder for the rest of the day. Not even being super sweet when doing his order at the end of his shift was quite enough to soften enough, so I decided to hold out hope that Saturday would bring with it some Tony love.

  And running true to form, when I rolled into work at half 11 Tony was his usual bright eyed, sarcastic self. "Tell your boyfriend I'm coming too" he announced when I told him of my plans in a couple of weeks. "No chance" I replied, feeling not a bit of remorse of having shot his suggestion down in flames.

  The rest of the day was accompanied by his good old McChat up lines, including the tried and tested drop and pick up, always done with that cheeky little grin and sashay that only he can pull off. At the end of his shift when I told him he needed to send me some photos for this little piece he whipped out his iPhone 5 (the show off) and started snapping away before I realised I was being included in the impromptu photoshoot.

  So there you have it folks, yet another chapter in the life of Tony Cole.

Talking With Tony- Episode 2

Looks like it's that time of the week already folks, and on time as promised. That's right, it's Talking With Tony, with the one and only Mr Tony Cole! As you can see, rather than pose with fruit this week, he's opted to look rather nervously at a cactus before attempting to eat it. Why he wants to eat a cactus, I don't know but what he does in his own time is strictly up to him*. 

So, what has he been rambling on about this week you ask? Well, after reading my little piece last week the next day he provided me with some brilliant material in the form of a little something he dubbed as "McChat up lines". 

Here's a little example... So there I was, serving a customer, blissfully unaware of what was going on around me, when suddenly I heard a voice behind me go "oops my bad" in a purring and seductive tone. Next thing I know a hand is lightly running down my leg before reaching all the way down to pick up the well placed ketchup that had taken a tumble from his hands mere seconds before. "What on earth are you doing Tony?"I enquired, a little gobsmacked at his unabashedness. "McChatting you up of course" he replied before giving me a cheeky wink and sauntering off to cause mischief elsewhere.

Other than that, I am very proud to announce Tony now has his own blog. "Where" I hear you cry? Well scroll on down this page and you'll find I've already linked to it, but for all you lazy people out there, here it is again ;) http://tonyjohncole.blogspot.co.uk

* Just to cover my back here, in no way does this blog condone attempting to eat a cactus under any circumstances. Don't try this at home kids ;)

Don't Come Dine With Dave... Not Ever!

Ahh, the Victoria Sponge. How quintessentially British and perfect for a summers evening One look at this photo and you have to ask yourself how can something look so perfect? Surely there is nothing that can ever make you doubt its beauty, yes? Think again.

Logging onto Facebook this afternoon I was greeted by a site that looked a bit cross between a... well, actually it doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before. You see, my friend clearly decided to have a stab at baking, because clearly he has nothing better to do with his summer than murder recipes for Victoria Sponge. Accompanying his, err... "masterpiece" was an image of how the cake was Meant to turn out. I call it a cake, but that may actually just be an insult to cake. Why don't you take a look and judge for yourselves? I'm so sorry Dave, you did try. But I can never un-see this...

Major Roadworks Ahead. Expect Delays

For the next week or so depending on how much time I'll be working, how lazy I'm feeling etc, this blog will be undergoing a bit of construction again in a bid to freshen up the layout, improve viewing experience etc etc, so my apologies if the layout looks a little off for the duration, I'll be messing around with the html coding and other techie stuff a little, a lot of it is experimenting, trial and error, you know, that kind of thing, fingers crossed I don't completely mess it up though! During this time updates may be a bit slower, but thank you in advance for understanding why ;) . 

Another Minion Joins

Hey guys, would y'all help me in giving a shoutout and big old bloggers welcome to the one and only Mr Tony Cole as seen in a little segment on my blog I like to call "Talking With Tony". Why not go take a look at what he's got going on at his little part of the internet "Tonykins", he's just started so let's help him get those all important first page views ;) . As always, link is below, happy viewing my lovelies.


Tonykins

Talking With Tony

Hi, this is Tony. No, not the watermelon silly people, the thing holding it up and evidently eating away at it. Let me tell you a little bit about him. I work with him at McDonalds and he is one of the only people there who can make a long shift go quicker. Needless to say, in order to be my friend he's also barking mad. 

So what did I talk about with Tony today I hear you ask? Well, there I was, doing drinks for customers when Tony turns to me and says with a forlorn look on his face "Nina, why have you never mentioned me on your blog?". My heart broke the way he looked at me and I said "For you my dear, I will not only run home as swiftly as my tired little feet can carry me and write about you this very night, I will turn you into a blogging phenomenon, the likes which has never been seen before".

And thus, "Talking With Tony" was born. Keep checking back weekly to see what Tony's up to, the conversations we'll be having, and most importantly, which fruit he's decided to pose up with next time ;) . 

Delusionally- She's Finally Cracked

Guuuyyysss I don't often do this, but my friend has just started her own blog on here, and I've linked to it at the bottom of this post. She's probably the craziest friend  have, and from what I've read so far it's amazing enough for me to be crying with laughter, so if you like cats, drawings and the ramblings of a delusional, then what are you waiting for ;) ?

I Told Them No

It's Scandaleyes All Right

I'm not a big make up person. Anybody who knows me will tell you when it comes to make up I like to keep it to the bare minimum. In fact, the only thing I like to make an effort with is my eyes, and even then this only started once I went to university and realised people actually care what you look like in public. 

Scandaleyes Show Off Mascara
 from Rimmel London, £6.99

When it comes to make up I tend to mainly focus on my eyes as that's how I often think my eyes are the most attractive part of me after my hair, but seeing as part of my work uniform is to wear hair up and hidden under a hat it kinda restricts what I have to work with to my eyes when it comes to the looks department. My daily (incredibly short) make up routine therefore only consists of mascara and 2 types of eyeliner, one for the eyelid and the other for the under eye. Hardly excessive wouldn't you agree?

Exaggerate Eyeliner Noir,
Rimmel London, £3.99

However, although I've said I don't put a lot of effort into it and don't resort to spending hours in front of the mirror perfecting it, my mum is very much against the idea of me wearing make up, partly because she feels I don't need it and also because let's face it, make up is expensive, especially for a student living on a budget. That aside, my mum has even compared me before to looking like Yzma from the Emporors New Groove, which is a little harsh if you ask me. Yes she may have ridiculously long eyelashes and be wearing a ton of eyeliner and even have the super slim body I envy, I don't look like a wrinkled old purple hag last time I checked ;) .

Soft Khol Kajal Eye Pencil Jet Black,
Rimmel London, £2.99

The downside of wearing make up for me though is ever since I started getting into it I've noticed a big difference in how I look with and without it, which has often lead to me now refusing to leave the house without wearing any, whereas in the past I've been quite happy to go out all natural and not care much what I looked like. When I was with my boyfriend last week and he was on Skype to his cousins, I kicked up a big fuss about being seen on webcam with no make up on because I was convinced I looked awful without it, only to be told I looked nice regardless. So this week I have pledged to put away the eye pencils and mascara brushes and go about my daily business to prove to myself it's ok to go against the flow and shun make up ;) . It's only Monday, but let's hope I can last the week! 

Around The World

Look over to the right hand column that runs down this blog and you shall see there is a new addition to the layout! I can already see on the admin page just how many of you read this from outside of the UK, so I decided it was about time I got myself one of these flag counters so you could see for yourself. Obviously my own counter doesn't look anything like this example at the moment but we shall see ;) ! If only I'd thought of this sooner, I'd have had quite a little collection of flags already, but ah well, what c'est la vie.

Working The Late Shift

Hmm... So... I admit I struggled to think of something to write about today. I sat down this morning with the intention of writing one only to end up drawing a blank. However, this evening I'm sitting down exhausted from a late shift at work, but my day today has provided more than enough material to make up a blog post. 




Where to start? Well, for one, being Friday and the end of the week it's always super busy at work. On the upside though, my best friend there always works the weekends so banter is never short. The day itself was fairly uneventful, and by the time half 10 had rolled around I was given the go ahead to go home. So there I was, utterly exhausted and looking forward to a ride home from my mum who'd text me earlier promising to pick me up.


But oh no, when she found out I had finished before 11 she was all like "oh get a bus, you'll be fine", as if, you know, all the thugs and drunks in Stevenage only come out to play from 11pm onwards and never before. And she wonders why I came through the door in a bad mood and absolutely refused to talk to her. Thanks mum, thanks a lot. 

Where Is My Sunshine

The weather's been a bit off this week or is it just me who's noticed? When I came back from Birmingham it was all sunshine and hot and high temperatures and there I was all ready to get those summer dresses out but then BOOM, what do you know, the sun goes away and the rain sets up a permanent residence in the Home Counties. I mean really rain? Could your timing get any worse? Just go away you're so annoying. If I wanted to be stuck in jeans and oversized hoodies I could just go back to Birmingham and do that. You've let me down Hertfordshire...



So instead of frolicking through the fields being all like, oh yeah, check out how tanned and carefree I am people, I'm sitting here like this instead contemplating why this always happens to me. 

On the upside, at least it hasn't been boiling hot while I've been working. High temperatures and a hot kitchen/workplace never make for an attractive mix

Back To The Daily Grind

Wow this is probably the longest I've gone without updating this blog, I would apologise but I've been crazy busy with work and stuff so I havn't had much free time on my hands, and when I do have time off it's spend sleeping off the exhaustion works creates. 

Although it's tiring it feels good to be working again, I've been back for a week now and it's really helped me settle in a routine, I've loved seeing all my friends again, but best of all it's 4 days till pay day when I will finally have money in my account again and feel like less of a poor student :D !

Yeah... I don't even have that, so more like, I only got £2 in my pocket and that was borrowed off my mum ;)

When The Mother Diets...

Today my mum started a new diet her best friend is doing at the moment, it's where you basically eat normally 5 days a week and do a starvation day for 2 days, where you only eat like... 600-700 calories a day. Today was her first starvation day, and the effects are so far proving hilarious.

For starters, the minute she gets home from work usually she makes coffee and sits down to watch TV, but today she traipsed upstairs to her room, and my sister went upstairs to find her lying flat out on her bed looking up at the ceiling refusing to come downstairs. I think she was afraid of being so hungry she'd lose all self control and we'd find her half an hour later digging through the freezer trying to get her hands on her tub of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Aside from that I'm going through the experience where part of my wants to be a nice daughter and ease her suffering, and the other meaner part wants to make her sit there while I look up pictures of the loveliest food online and show them to her. But something tells me if I do that I may one day find my laptop has disappeared under mysterious circumstances ;)

It's going to be an interesting few weeks I think. I may actually just use this blog to write down all the insanely funny things she does on her starvation days, because I can guarantee you there will be quite a few funny stories to share. 

Making Introductions

Ok people,  as some of you may know I am a big fan of social networking and stuff, therefore it will come as no surprise to you to learn that this is not my only blog. There's a lot of overspill from my Tumblr and Blogger blogs as the stuff doesn't quite fit the theme, but nevertheless I still want to share them with you all so they shall find a home on my brand new Wordpress blog. Wordpress is a little more fiddly than this site and I'm still trying to work out where all the buttons and stuff are to customise and move things on my blog around, but I've already started posting on there so feel free to take a look. I shall link to it at the bottom of this post. What is in this amazing new blog I hear you ask? Well some of it is witty and sarcastic like my Tumblr but it's also where I'm going to be posting a lot more emotional and personal stuff, and maybe even academic from time to time, who knows! Either way I'm going to have an amazing time writing it and I hope you guys join me on my new venture. Never fear though, this blog will still receive just as much attention and regular updates, don't you just love long summer holidays :) !

http://tiggerlily12.wordpress.com

Phase 1 Complete, Level Up.

In my last post I mentioned my last exam was today, so let me just tell you how it feels knowing I don't have to work for the next 4 months. IT FEELS AMAZING! Now that they're all over I'm beginning to wonder what all the fuss was about, I can't believed I got so stressed out and morphed into a monster for the last 2 weeks all over these exams. That aside, I can't believe I survived a year here, it's been such a rollercoaster of emotions and experiences and stuff, I've learnt so much and met some incredible people. It just feels unreal that this time next week I'll be reclining on my sofa at home catching up on Criminal Minds surrounded by all the comforts of home. I can't decide what to do first when I get back, I guess unpacking is a good place to start. This summer is going to be spent with all thoughts of uni and studying pushed to the back of my mind, I love it here but home is calling me. I'm even looking forward to going back to my job, which I never thought I'd hear myself say! It's great knowing my days up until Saturday are my own to do whatever I want with, and they shall be spent in a limbo between frantic packing and being comatose for a large amount of the time.

All Good Things Must Come To An End

Term has officially ended for me today with my last exam over and done with, and Saturday I shall clear out of Birmingham and head back home to sunny Hertfordshire, which I'm really looking forward too. What I'm not looking forward to though it having to say goodbye to so many people. Tonight I had to bid farewell to a very good friend who I met back in September and was only here in Birmingham for about 10 months, and even though it's not been that long since we met, I've become very attached, so as you can imagine it got a bit emotional saying goodbye, not knowing when we'll next see each other. While I admit I did tear up a bit, I had to keep telling myself I have a long summer ahead of me, and the likelihood we catch up over then is pretty high, but still, I will miss her so much come September when I return to Birmingham and realise I don't have our frequent coffee dates to look forward too during the term. This is sad times indeed... so this gif seemed fairly relatable as it was raining a bit as we said goodbye, but once I reach this stage of crying it'll be time to get out the ice cream methinks. 

To Kindle Or Not To Kindle

  Now I've always been a little dubious about these Kindle's, so you can understand the hesitation in my voice when my mother asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year and I replied "a Kindle". The thing is, I much prefer reading a book I can hold and feel the pages as they turn etc, but this may just be my old fashionedness talking. It was pointed out to me though that Kindle's can be lifesavers when travelling and stuff, and as a uni student struggling for space in a small room with an ever expanding wardrobe it became clear to me this year that as much as i love my darling books there is no way I can bring them all back with me in September, which is sad times. Fortunately this Kindle is here to save the day, i've only had it a few hours and my eyes have already been opened. Who would have thought a tiny little thing could carry hundreds of books and still weigh less than the lightest of paperbacks. And as if this couldn't get any better, pretty much all the books I read are serious classics, meaning they're all free online anyway. Life just gets better and better, defo the best birthday present I ever asked for!

It's My Birthday!! (Kind Of)

  Well this is a bit of a belated post. Basically, it was my birthday on Thursday, and I celebrated my reaching the 20 year milestone in typical understated Nina-like fashion, by staying in bed for half of it and eating my feelings the other half. All in all, a pretty good day, although slightly marred by the absence of my family for the first time ever, which was kinda sad times. However, today certainly made up for it when my mum turned up in Birmingham to take me out for lunch and give me the best birthday present ever, aka a Kindle :D ! (More about that in my next post). Even though I'm going home next weekend it was so good to see her and really made my week, and for once even the weather seemed to agree :) .

  The only depressing thing about turning 20 though is I can no longer use the excuse of being a teenager whenever I throw a strop or feel a bit immature, suddenly everybody expects me to behave and have all these responsibilities and it's just like "umm.... No". Just because I've hit 20 doesn't mean I changed overnight, I'm still my fun-loving, troublesome, laid back and immature self, and at least for the time being that shall not change. What has changed though is my smiling. On my birthday I found myself cracking a smile as the sun shone through my window so I grabbed my camera and snapped it as evidence that it really is possible ;) 

 

The Myths Of Mental Illness

Before you read this I should probably put a little disclaimer up here. This post is not intended to be academic or scientifically accurate because let's face it, I'm only a first year psychology undergraduate,  these are just my thoughts that arose from some conversations with friends that we thought would work well as a post. While I will touch on the disorders themselves, most of this post will look at the stigma these people face when given the label of "mentally ill" and a lot of the common misconceptions society has about it. This may seem like a bit of a strange topic for me to write about, but this is an area that's always interested me and one I'd probably want to work in in the future, so here goes... 

1) Mental illness is more common than you probably realise. Schizophrenia is estimated to affect only 1% of the worlds population (about 51 million), while the World Health Organisation estimates that around 2-3% (121 million people) suffer from some form of depression, and although this isn't a very large percentage when comparing it with the worlds 7 billion population the estimated number of people suffering from these disorders alone is 3x the population on the UK, and this is without taking into account eating disorders, addictions, split personality, ADHD and a whole host of others too numerous to count.  

2)  For most of you if I said the word "schizophrenic" you'd automatically think of the things you here in the news about serial killers and violent criminals, but as a matter of fact while these people Are mentally ill, they are actually in the minority. A lot of our misconceptions come from negative media influences or Hollywood which often are confused and misleading, but because we live in a media-saturated society it's practically impossible to not hear what they say, so often we end up taking everything we hear about mental illness is true. If you were to take a look in the DSM-IV-TR or V (the diagnostic and statistical manual for diagnosing mental illness), nowhere in the classification for schizophrenia does it mention violent behaviour as one of its symptoms. It's true if untreated some symptoms such as delusions or paranoia can trigger violent behaviour, but again this is rare and as I said, often because that person is not receiving the help they need. 

3) Which nicely brings me onto my third point. I've heard quite a few people say in the past that it is possible to cure somebody of a mental illness, but from my experience this is not always the case, and in fact many people I know would disagree with that entirely. While I often feel uncomfortable with the phrase "in remission" instead of "cured", it is important to remember doctors use this term for many illnesses such as cancer, not just mental ones. Being "in remission" doesn't mean a relapse is expected, in fact many mentally ill people can go the rest of their lives leading a normal life if treatment is successful, but it seems even then there is still stigma attached to the fact that at one point that person was seriously ill. One study on stigmatisation in 2008 found that mentally ill people in remission found it harder to find work, rent houses or socially interact because they often found they were seen as the outcasts of society. This was supported by a psychologist in 2001 who stated that mentally ill people were the most stigmatised and discriminated against despite also being the most vulnerable.     

4) (the one that really annoys me) there are some people who just believe mental illness is a myth, or if it does exist then it is self inflicted and getting better is possible without needing medical help. Not so. Mental illness isn't something you can just fake nor does it go away overnight. Recovery is a long slow process that needs to be worked at for a long time before any improvement is seen in many cases, and while yes, there are drug therapies that are used a lot that can speed up recovery, they are realistically only capable of managing any illness as they do not deal with the root of the problem, which is why nowadays a lot of treatments combine drug and cognitive therapies. But what makes me annoyed the most is the people who say mental illness is self inflicted. If you've never experienced it then how can you begin to understand what they're going through. Eating disorders in particular can see patients go in such vicious cycles that it is so clear something caused them to do this in the first place, and for them, having someone say it's self inflicted only confirms to them the thoughts they already have, that there is something wrong with them and they need to continue what they're doing in order to feel good about themselves. Many theories exist as to why people suffer from mental illness in the first place, and while they often differ on reasons why, aside from biological theories they all conclude that disorders stem from deep rooted psychological issues. This could be anything from traumatic experiences to childhood memories, and it may not even be apparent at the time, but it is often said to be the trigger, and is especially prevalent in eating disorders.

A sociologist called Merton came up with a theory he called the "self fulfilling prophecy", which is where is somebody knows there is an expectation of how they will behave and interact in society, they will inevitably adopt said behaviour and go on to behave as was predicted, and while this is mainly used to describe deviant behaviour, the same theory can be applied to mentally ill people who face stigma in society today. We focus too much on trying to see how "different" mentally ill people are from the rest of society that we forget that just because they're ill it does't make them any different to us. In fact, if we were to look at Marie Johodas 6 categories that she believed define mental illness, we would see that we all fall into at least one of them. Often people forget that some of the greatest people we look up to were/are mentally ill. Charles Dickens suffered from depression, John Nash is schizophrenic, Florence Nightingale had bipolar and ever Abraham Lincoln sometimes suffered crippling bouts of severe depression. Yet we still look up to and respect them because these were great people who left their mark on society, so if we can show respect for these people then why not extend it to everyone?