Southwold Day Two - Beach Huts and Ice Cream

We started off today quite slowly, just spending some time in the place we are staying this morning. Then in the afternoon we walked into Southwold in search of a bit of lunch.

After that we walked down to the beach and walked towards the pier, chatting away about all of the beach huts before stopping off for a drink at the putting green.

We then walked back towards town via St James Green passing the Adnams factory and back towards home.

Southwold Day One - Mooching Around

As a family we go to Southwold every year and yet there is something about it that never seems to get old. Every year on the morning of our first full day I like to walk on my own down to the beach. The novelty never seems to wear off that I can take a 20 minute walk and be by the sea.




I normally take the dog with me, but I have to say it was lovely to just walk on my own. It was nice not to spend the entire time focusing on making sure that she wasn't poking her nose into everything and barking at seagulls.




It was lovely just to be able to mooch around and walk around the back streets, going past the church and the lighthouse.

Then I walked down to the sea and walked along the front. It was definitely a lot hotter than I expected it to be, so I found some shade. It was lovely to just sit and listen to the sound of the sea and watch the waves crashing upon the sand.

After walking around the centre of town some more, I met up with the others and we went down to have some lunch at Gun Hill beach kiosk.

 All in all it was a lovely start to our holiday!

It's Ok To Be Quiet!

I have been labelled as shy and quiet for a lot of my life. For as long as I can remember I have always had someone commenting on how shy I am. To be honest I don't see it as a bad thing. I quite like being shy. I mean yeah there are times when I want to be less shy, less afraid to speak my own mind. But generally I don't really regret it.

I think a lot of the time people compare me to themselves. I'm shy by there standards and yeah I am shy I'm not denying that, but I'm never going to be a chatterbox. There are good about being shy and also misconceptions about shyness in general.

1. Shyness = lack of confidence

This is probably the biggest misconception in my life about being shy and it's something that people have been mistaking for years. Ever since I was really young and I would go along to parents evening at school people would mistake my shy and quite nature for a lack of confidence. Just because I wasn't shouting out all the answers in lessons and being as chatty as my peers, didn't mean I wasn't as confident as them in my own way.

2. Most of the time why I'm not speaking is because I have nothing to say

I don't talk when I don't need to, that seems to be my policy if I'm honest. I am dreadful at small talk, like honestly so bad. I don't really have to ability to start and sustain a conversation about something I'm not really fully committed to. I find it quite difficult to formulate what I'm going to say at that time. I'm also really bad at asking people questions which doesn't help. In short, in real life at least, I don't really speak unless I need or want to.

3. People take me seriously when I do speak

One of the upside to not talking that much is that, when I do, people generally listen to what I have to say. That coupled with my natural stubborn nature means that if I don't want to do something, I am confident enough to say, and people generally will respect that. Basically, I wasn't susceptible to peer pressure at school.

4. Good Observers

Due to the fact that I am not constantly participating in conversations, I would say I tend to be more observant. It's also a great excuse to be really nosy! I'm so nosy, I love nothing more than being able to listen in to other people's conversations. Because I'm not participating in my own conversation, I am able to fully concentrate on all the other often strange conversations that everyone else are having.

5. Good Listeners

Generally I find it a lot easier to listen than to talk and it means that generally i'm good at listening to other people talk. The best person for a shy person to know is someone who can talk so much without except too much back.

I am generally quite happy with being shy. At times it does get in the way somewhat, but it is also a great trait to have.

Thanks For Stopping By! :)

Second Year of University!

I cannot believe i'm at the end of second year! It feels like only yesterday that I was writing about my experiences at the end of first year. This has definitely been a better year for me. In terms of the uni side of things 1st year and 2nd year have been fairly equally enjoyable for me. I would say that I only enjoyed 2nd year more because I got to choose the modules that I wanted to do. Therefore, they were a lot more focused and I enjoyed this a lot more. However, although not a lot has changed education wise, outside of my university work has changed quite a lot this year.


Part Time Work and Work Experience

I was always quite scared about combining part time study with university. I couldn't imagine being able to juggle both. However, I am pleasantly surprised about how much of a difference it made to me. Particularly during breaks between semesters. Just after I started 2nd year I got a Christmas temp job at Lakeland. It was really nice to do something other than uni work and gave me a chance to socialise a bit more.

In second semester I spent a day a week doing work experience with the careers centre at my uni. This worked towards part of one of my modules, but it also gave me an insight into a career that I was thinking about. I really enjoyed learning more about what the careers service offer students and I really liked the work that I was doing. It really helped to confirm to me that this is definitely something that I would like to do in the future.

A couple of weeks ago I got my first permanent part time job. I am really enjoying it and it giving me something to focus on during the summer. As much as it is great to have such a long amount of time off during the summer, it can also be quite lonely not going into uni everyday. I find that it is giving me a lot more structure during the summer as I am generally working about 3-4 days a week. It is a great way of meeting people as well and means that interact with humans other than my parents!

Socialising

If you know me at all you will know that I find socialising really difficult. I'm never going to be one of those people who is constantly doing things with friends. However I think that I am getting slightly better at it. Generally I'm doing about one thing a month, which may not sound a lot, but when I was during school and sixth form it was surprising if I did something every six months with my friends. So I hope to keep this up during the holidays and into third year.

Modules

During first semester I loved my adaptations module. It was all about different books that had been adapted into film and analysing how effective that was. It was different to any literature module I have done before and I was quite nervous about whether I would be able to pick up the film studies aspect of it. I really enjoyed it and I was glad that I chose to do it.

In second semester I really enjoyed the module conflicting words. It was about a range of different war literature and how war is represented through fiction. Again I was quite nervous about whether I would enjoy it, but it was definitely my favourite module at university so far. The assessment was a 3,500 word portfolio. I have never worked so hard on a piece so much before and I was really glad when my mark came through with a first.

How It Compares To First Year

I think one of the reasons I have enjoyed second year so much is that I feel so much more settled than I did in first year. This has to be one of the biggest differences and has definitely made me feel so much more content.

Due to the fact that you are allowed to choose your modules in second year, the groups were a lot smaller, particularly in lectures. I was quite surprised to go from a huge lecture theatre of about 150 people to a small seminar room with about 40 people max.

What Would I Do Differently?

I definitely intend to go to more tutorials in third year. It will help me to know that I am on the right lines when it comes to assignments. Also I will be able to discuss feedback to assignments which will help me to know where I need to improve.

Thanks For Stopping By! :)

Spring Update!

Hi Guys!

God it has been a while! To be honest I had intended to continue blogging throughout this semester, but as you can tell that has completely failed. This has by far been the busiest semester so far. It also seems to have gone so quickly, I can't believe i am nearly at the end of my second year of uni! To be honest I am still in the denial stage in terms of third year. I don't really want to admit that it exists. There is a part of me that is really happy that it is finally the Easter holidays, but there is another part of me that is cling onto this semester as I know how stressful third year will be.

To be honest this semester hasn't really been stressful just really busy! I had intended to get another part time job during this semester after finishing at Lakeland after Christmas. But to be honest the time that was taken up by part time work has been taken up by my work placement.

From the end of January I have been using my day off to work with careers at my uni as part of my work experience for one of my modules. This has by far been the best thing about this semester and has confirmed that it is definitely something that I want to pursue in the future. I only have too weeks of it left and to be honest I don't really want it to end.

Ever week there has been something different to do and this has really allowed me to see the different things that are involved in being a careers adviser. Also, when I think about it, I haven't completely abandoned blogging as I have been able to write blog posts about a lot of the different events and sessions that I have gone to during my placement.

Another reason that I haven't really been blogging over the last few months is because I haven't really been taking a lot of photos. To be honest my new years resolution hasn't really got off the best of starts. I really like photographing nature and if i'm honest there is only so many times I can take a picture of a bare tree with no leaves on!

However, now that everything seems to be brightening up I am making up for the months that I missed. The photos here are from when I went for a walk with Poppy (the dog) the other day. At the time I felt really guilty, because I felt as though I should have been doing work. But I am glad that I went as it was really nice to get a break from all of the portfolios and essays. I feel as though photography is really helping me to get out of the house and explore different places. These photos were taken relatively close to where I live and I feel as though photography really makes you look at the world in a new light as you try to work out what shots to take. Also watching Poppy being bewildered by a duck going in and out of her view was so funny to watch.

I definitely want to explore different places and I hope to do this during the summer, so watch this space! Also there will be a second year update. I intended to do one for first semester, but then things got really busy. So I will do one for the entire year.

Overall, I am glad that I had a break from blogging to allow myself to focus on my studies. However, I definitely did miss and can't wait to get back to it.

Thanks For Stopping By! :)

Princes Street Gardens!

Last week I went up to Edinburgh. It is a place that I have always wanted to visit and I managed to get a cheap ticket.

It was definitely a lot busier than I expected. With no idea where I was going or what I was doing, it was easy to get overwhelmed. I don't like not knowing what is to happen and being in new situations. Therefore, it was extremely overwhelming.

Then I found the Princes Street Gardens. It was a lovely space to be able to get away from the hustle and bustle of the Edinburgh City Centre.

It was mostly shut off so I couldn't properly go round it. However, from what I did see it was lovely. It was nice to sit there in the calm, before facing a lovely day. I definitely had a nice day and I definitely want to go back in the future.

Thanks For Stopping By! :)

Winter Walk at Clumber Park!

A few days ago we decided to go to Clumber Park as something to do on Bank Holiday Monday. It is a national trust area relatively near to where I live. It is somewhere that I have visited ever since I was a child and every time I go I enjoy it more and more.

To be honest with you, it was absolutely freezing and the walk didn't last all that long. It was quite a sunny day, but typically the sun disappeared pretty much the minute I starting taking the photos. However, it was really nice to spend some time with my parents. It also gave me a chance to give my new camera its first proper outing.

I am absolutely loving photography at the moment and I am hoping that this year I can really improve with it. I do feel quite self conscious taking photos, especially using my dslr. This is because it takes quite a while to get everything in the right place and in focus. I am hoping that by taking photos more while I am out that I can overcome this.

Clumber park it quite a vast space and you are able to go on loads of different types of walks. You can stick to roads, go down by the lake or explore more of the woodland. We do tend to go more for the latter, just because it tends to be a bit more quite.

Our dog, Poppy, can get quite overexcited around other people and dogs, so it is quite nice to go somewhere a bit more quite. This means that generally the walk is a lot more pleasant and it gives Pop the chance to have a bit more freedom.

Hopefully we will go back in the spring and hopefully it will be a lot warmer!

Thanks For Stopping By! :)