Christmas day arrived.

As I've been using this blog to discuss my Christmas plans and excitement towards the big day, it's only right that I do a blog post about it. So, that's exactly what I want to do, because today has been next to perfect.

My Xmas presents, before I destroyed the wrapping

Next to perfect, yet I've barely done anything. I opened presents, had my amazing Christmas dinner, messed around with a few of my presents and then sat in front of the TV for about four hours. But it's been really nice to have a day in with the family, with no stress, no arguments- just how Christmas day should be.

The only problem was, I woke up with the queasy feeling that I was coming down with the flu. Going out in town on Thursday night, when it was near enough -10 outside and walking the majority of the way home, probably contributes to that. As the day has gone on, my head has felt more and more conjested and I've had to drink some vile Beechams Plus, which is next to drinking cat wee in my estimation. But it kind of makes me feel better- for a few seconds anyway.

Anyway, enough with me sounding like a Scrooge, I woke up today at 10 (gone are the days of me jumping out of bed at 7am, waking everyone up) and went downstairs to open my presents. And let me tell you, I got spoilt. Just a few of them presents included a nice Olympus Dictophone for my course, Russel Howard DVD, Inception in a limited edition DVD and some much-needed money. I was really happy with what I got.

But I was made even more happier just lounging about and watching Christmas TV. I have to admit, a lot of it was aweful, but that's what Christmas is about. Bad TV, spending time with the family, eating loads of food and loads of chocolates on top.


So I just want to wish all my readers a very Happy Christmas, and hope that their day has been great!

And now with Christmas out the way...roll on the New Year celebrations!!

Being home.

So it's been a full week since I posted anything on this blog, and that's not necessarily out of choice. Basically, the last few days I've been back in Tamworth for my Christmas holidays and wanted to spend as much time as I possibly could just relaxing or seeing friends/family and not spending it on my computer all the time.That lasted a grand total of five days, and boredom has driven me into doing this post, because I think I could still keep this running.

I came home on Saturday, and since then I've enjoyed my home comforts. I do really miss Stoke-on-Trent and it's strange, because I was looking forward to get away from a few things there, but coming home makes me realise that my life is now over there and the ups and downs come with it too. That's not to say that I believe Tamworth is somewhere I just drop in and out of...despite what my mom moans at me about!!

Our Christmassy living room!

The most amazing thing about being home is seeing friends and family. On Saturday, it was my uncle's 40th birthday party, which was a good laugh. He'd hired out a UB40 Tribute Act and they were amazing, and sounded like the real thing. My mom and dad are massive fans of UB40 and this has resorted into me loving some of their music, so I'll admit that I got up and had a bit of a dance too. My nan and grandad then came round on Sunday for Sunday dinner, so it was lovely to see them, then on Tuesday night I went to my uncles once more to continue his 40th celebrations.

As for friends, I got some really good news over the last week. My friend, Bex, who I've spoken about over here before, gave birth to little baby Jacob, and on Monday I went to see them both with Nat. He was the cutest little thing and I was genuinely really happy for Bex as she seems to be enjoying her role as a mum and also coping really well. Then yesterday, we had loads of snow dumped on us, which resorted in myself going sledging with two of my good friends over here, Lauren and Alex, before going to see Harry Potter. It was a great day out and we had lots to talk about after not seeing each other for around 3 months, so it was totally worth the mile trek in the snow to see them!

But despite all this, I'm still struggling to feel completely at home. I'm missing my housemates, especially Sam who I went to see on Tuesday in Birmingham, so I really appreciate the fact that he's not very far away. I also feel like I've lost a lot of independence by being in my house, and today hasn't been a brilliant day.

However, I really appreciate being here, and it's such a nice break away from university. After all the hard work in semester one, it's just good to see a lot of people and chill out when I can in a lovely warm house. And with a night out on the cards tonight and Christmas only two days away, things can only get better.

Hangover cures.

After three weeks of being virtually teetotal, I decided last night that it was time to stop being a bad student and go on a night out. All my work had been handed in and deadlines had been met, so there was no reason not to, and with Gobble having it's Christmas theme, I was pretty excited.

(c) su-lin

However, excited was not how I felt when I woke up this morning. Because I've realised something- when you haven't drank for a long time, the alcohol hits you harder. And I felt drunk before I even left my house during pre-drinks, which certainly proves that statement.

After waking up, I was hanging bad. My mouth felt like all the moisture had been taken out of it, and my head was throbbing. So I needed a hangover cure, and quick. Having to be out the house at about half 11, I walked past Wrights' pasty shop, with the smell of freshly baked pasties enticing me in.

I chose my usual (a chicken tikka pasty) then when I got home, poured myself a glass of Pepsi with ice cubes. And after eating and drinking, I suddenly felt a hundred times better. Well, that was until I had a nap for three hours and woke up feeling even worse.

So with this, I think it's clear to say that next time I go out on the lash, I know what to have once I wake up. It's just a shame that I'm going home in a few days back to good old Tamworth, where Wright's pasty shops don't exist...

That feeling of freedom.

I am happy to announce to you all one thing: I HAVE COMPLETED ALL OF MY ASSIGNMENTS FOR SEMESTER ONE!

(c) mherzber

That's right, today at around 2 o'clock this afternoon, my assignments were finalised and printed off. Looking back on this semester (and adding to what I said in this post), the first semester of my second university year has been pretty tough. I think it's mainly because of deadlines getting on top of me, but only because I let it get to that stage.

To sum up this semester, I would use one phrase- all work and barely any play. I haven't really been out partying as much as I'd like, or had much of a night to myself, but I guess I'm here to get a degree and not to drink my life away like I did last year. Plus, some of my assignments have really opened my eyes to what my career will consist of, so they've been worth it.

And it's actually quite upsetting to say that I am now officially half way through my time at university. So far, I've loved every second of it and I can honestly say I never want it to end, no matter how many ups or downs it brings. But I'm really excited for the upcoming semester, and I've still got lots of work to get through.

On that note, I better stop moaning about my workload and just get down to it in the future. But the future can wait, because the rest of this week looks really eventful, starting off with a drunken night out at Christmas Gobble tomorrow night!

Note: If you've been reading this blog since the beginning, you'll know that this blog was done for an assignment and all of my writing has been counted towards the overall mark for said assignment. However, I still plan on running this blog up until the point it drives me crazy- as of yet, I haven't reached that point!

Finishing an exam.

So today was the big day, the day of my internal Law Court Reporting exam. I've mentioned this a few times in recent posts, because before the exam I felt really unprepared and was just a little bit nervous. But this morning at 9am, I walked into the exam ready to write my knowledge away.

A few of my *helpful* mind maps

If you don't know already, studying Journalism at university also requires you to learn the law behind it so you know what/ what not to report. I have a whole module based on this, and although it's beneficial and I have an amazing tutor teaching it to me, it's really confusing also and can be hard to get your head around. Especially if you're like me, where revision involves making mind maps but barely learning them.

It probably didn't help that I had been up until about 2am revising, so a wake up at 8am was probably the worst feeling in the world. But after a cup of coffee and advent calendar chocolate for breakfast (yup, I'm serious), I began feeling more awake. I know what you're probably thinking though- minimal sleep and barely any breakfast, surely that's equivalent to an exam fail?

Well, maybe. Once the exam got under way, I did my usual routine- looked at the questions, panicked, looked at them again, panicked some more and then things began getting clearer and my late night cramming came flooding back to me. Which was lucky, because some questions I feel I may have nailed, but I can never be too sure with these exams.

What made me happy though was putting my pen down after the exam. Sure, I don't know the result and I don't feel I did so well, but I'm just praying that I passed. Because writing that much in an hour and a half has made my hand ache...good job I want to be a journalist then, hey?

Memories of the weekend.

You may have noticed that, yes, I neglected this blog last night and didn't update you on what made me smile. Whether you cared or not is another issue, but suffice to say, last night I was pretty busy and didn't have time to write even a short, crappy blog post. So instead, I'll please your eyes with a long one just to sum up the good weekend I had. That cool? Sweet.

So I told you in my last post that I had loads planned this week, and loads I did. I've travelled all over the country (well if you count Birmingham, Stourbridge and London all over the country that is) but it's been well worth it! My last post also touched on going to the German Christmas Market, so I'll fill you in with details from my weekend in London.

I've been to London quite a few times before, but mainly when I was smaller. I really enjoy the place, because it's a really important city. I know loads of people think 'oh London, watch out, you'll get stabbed' or some other stereotypical comment about it, but when you go down to central London, it's there where you see everything that makes this country what it is when you really begin to appreciate it.

And appreciate it I did, from more than 100 metres in the air. That's right, I went on the London Eye! It wasn't the first time I've been on (I went on the year it opened when I was like 10, and at that point I was too scared to look at the sights) and even though at first I got the nerves because of how high it is, I managed to stand up and look out to the whole of London. It was night time as well when we went on, so London was lit up and you could see for miles.

The London Eye certainly had to be the highlight of the weekend, along with experiencing the...ahem...'lovely' London Underground system in all it's stuffiness. But overall, it was a brilliant weekend, but after travelling back for the last few hours and having an exam tomorrow...I'm sure I will appreciate it much more sitting in my exam at 9 the following morning!

Frankfurt Christmas Market.

Every year, I find myself not only just counting down until Christmas, but also for the huge Frankfurt Christmas Market in Birmingham. I've visited it consecutively for the past four years, and really enjoy it. It's nothing too special, but just the atmosphere of the place gears me up ready for the big day. And with only fifteen days to go, I think it's safe to say I visited the market at a great time.

(c) ell brown

I told you in yesterday's blog post about my busy weekend planned, and the Christmas Market was a big event within that plan. Today, Sam and I managed to force ourselves out of bed at around 10, before getting a train into Birmingham. When there, we met up with Sam's friend, Emma, and two of my friends from home, Nat and Anthony.

Once getting all my Christmas shopping done (bye bye healthy bank balance) around the shops of Birmingham and the Bullring, we went into the market and experienced some of the great things there, mainly the food and drink. We bought lunch from a stall, drank cider from another and bought cake from a nearby bakery store.

It was pretty overwhelming with everything there, and it soon began getting busy. We actually ended up going home at 6pm, so spent a good seven hours out the house. But it looks like I may have gone a bit OTT with spending money...at least I can say it was all done in the joy of Christmas!

An early weekend.

I've been looking forward to this weekend for quite some time, and after a hectic few weeks, it's finally come round. Although I enjoy my time in Stoke, it's always nice to have a bit of a change of scenery. Being as though Stoke is so cold and grey lately, I think now was the right time to leave it behind for a little while.

Luckily, today I had no lectures, so this meant getting up when I wanted. With my day only consisting of work at 4 o'clock, I generally lazed about and tried to get a bit of law revision done before work. Once an eventful shift at work was over, it was time to get the train to Birmingham.

This is because this weekend I've got a busy one planned. Usually, I fill this blogs weekend posts with me sitting around on my arse, achieving next to nothing. But for a change, I've decided to take up the opportunity of a weekend in London. Sam's dad lives down there, and I haven't been to London in a while. But first, we're experiencing the German Christmas Market in Birmingham, which is renowned for it's extensive range of food...and you know me, I can't pass up an opportunity to eat more food!

So to sum it all up, I'm really excited for the upcoming days. And with a promise of a four day weekend, what  more can I enjoy before a tough law exam on Monday...gulp.

Coming home after a busy day.

With deadlines approaching, the last few weeks have been busy. I'm sure I've reiterated this on my posts many times, and I'm probably getting pretty boring by now, but it's true. And today of all days has been the busiest day I've had in a while.

The pile's getting smaller!

Want a run through of what I've gone through? Woke up at half 8, went to my 9 o clock lecture, finished at 11, went to the library for a little bit, got loads of money out of the cash machine in order to afford my exams, paid for those exams, then went to the Media Centre to edit my broadcast assignment. For a grand total of four hair-tearing hours.

On the subject of video editing, I had a bit of a nightmare with it earlier. It's my fault, because I came a little bit unprepared and forgot to bring my notes with me on how to use the software, so I ended up getting just a little bit angry over it all. Luckily, the media technicians were more than helpful and saved me from handing in a crappy assignment.

At about 5 o'clock, I was finally finished and decided to go home. And the feeling managing to go back to my student pad and just chill out for a little bit was great. I'd barely eaten as well, so made some good food and a nice cup of tea, cos I felt I deserved it.

I think at this point I'm beginning to get on top of my work. I've just got one exam left on Monday, and two assignments due in on Thursday which I've pretty much completed. Which means now that they've been done, hopefully my posts will start to get more interesting and less education-based!

Having a weight taken off my shoulders.

I'm not going to lie to you, this semester has been tough in terms of work. I don't know why, because it's not like I've had LOADS to do. I think it's probably due to the fact that things have taken a lot more effort than I expected, and thanks to my ever changing mind, I'm never able to feel comfortable with an idea. This came into effect this semester when I kept changing my ideas on types of news stories to do.

Today was the hand-in for my last Theory and Practice assignment. These assignments have been great fun, because they've meant going out there and getting a story, which is exactly the type of job I want to go into. But to say they've been easy would be telling a lie, because they haven't. I've had to send loads of emails, speak to loads of people and even go to places where I didn't think I'd end up. But this isn't me complaining, it's me actually reflecting on how worthwhile all this has been.

The final assignment meant putting together a news feature, which probably required the most hard work out of the three assignments given. I did in total six interviews, some taking a lot of time to arrange, and writing the feature took over a week and a half. But today at 3pm, I handed it in complete.

To hand that assignment in was a big relief, and a big weight off my shoulders. Now, only two assignments left to finish, and an exam on Monday, and then it's time for...you guessed it...CHRISTMAS!

A nice warm brew.

A bit of a simple thing that made me smile today, but nonetheless, with today being extremely busy and also really cold, it was probably the only time I was even relaxed enough to smile.

Back to the busy day, and today I got up at around 8.30 and since then I haven't stopped. I had a lecture at 9, work from 12-2 and 4-6 and then food shopping. And it's been one of those days where, conveniently, because there's lots to do, it's gone extremely fast. This has left me with little time to tighten loose ends to my news feature which has to be handed in tomorrow, so off to the library I go once more tonight.

But between my two hour shifts at work today, I managed to find time to sit down on my laptop and chill for a little bit in my student pad. If you've been outside today, you'll know that the weather has been cold. So cold in fact, that I was almost prevented from going out today thanks to the lock on my gate freezing shut. But it's nothing a little bit of boiling water out a kettle couldn't fix, even though people who walked past looked a bit bemused by this scene.

But anyway, I'm rambling...where was I?...ah. Yeah, so with the weather being freezing, our house was in turn freezing. The heating has been on loads lately but this week I think we're trying to cut back on using it so much due to the money it's most likely going to cost us. So this made me come up with alternative ways to heat myself up. I tried putting on a few hoodies, my hands were still cold. I tried getting under my duvet, the bed was too cold.

Then I thought of something simple- a nice warm cup of tea. So I got one prepared, poured it into my favourite mug and it did something that heating couldn't do. My hands were warm, body was warm and  my body temperature was restored to the right temperature. So take this as advice fellow students. If you're ever freezing cold, just stick the kettle on, pour a cup of tea and the job will be sorted!

Filming around.

I've been told before that Sundays should be a day of rest, where work should be left until the next day being as though it's the end of the week. Whoever told me that, I totally went against their word today. Instead of having a day to relax, I noticed that today's weather was probably the best of this week, which meant it was a perfect time to get some filming done for my Broadcast Journalism assignment.

Earlier in the week I interviewed the director of the UniQ project to catch up on the latest stages of the project. Although the filming of the director didn't go so well (thanks to my lack of technical use and common sense with a tripod and camcorder), I managed to get a new angle from the story. I won't reveal too much, but it lead me to getting some more shots today about student's opinions towards the project.

So, with my housemates Belle and Sam with me, I went down to Leek Road opposite the building site of the UniQ project. My first steps were interviewing Belle and Sam on camera, which turned out really well thanks to the shots and angles we filmed them in. Then, I managed to take around seven other shots, based on panning, zooming and stills which will be helpful for the finished piece.

After filming, I was really pleased that it was all out the way. The next step, however, is editing it, and I know that's going to be difficult. But at that point, I wasn't too bothered- my bacon sandwich from Brunchie's afterwards numbed the pain!

Fairytale of New York.

So here's ANOTHER Christmas inspired blog post, if you haven't had enough already. You know, writing these, it makes me sound like I'm well in the mood. I am, but I keep forgetting how fast Christmas is going to approach. I blame my university assignments for that, because they're distracting me beyond belief and making me forget what day it is, let alone how many days it is until the big day.

But anyway, today has been another day where I've generally done my usual Saturday routine. I wake up late, get a little bit of work done, and then chill out all day, usually by messing around on my laptop with frequent bursts of Xbox gaming. That's pretty much exactly what I did today too, although with a little added extra.

So there I was, on YouTube, listening to a bit of Florence and the Machine when on the 'recommended videos' popped up Fairytale of New York. If you don't know what that song is, you need shooting. It is pretty much the best Christmas song in the world, so why don't you take a listen?

After hearing this, don't you feel Christmassy? Don't you just picture Christmas day, the dinner, the presents, the snow? No? Then get off my blog! But anyway, once listening to this I was instantly put into the Christmas mood.

Like many others, this is my favourite Christmas song of all time (narrowly beating this gem of course) and whenever I hear it, it makes me get really excited for Christmas day. And on that subject- only 21 days until Christmas is here! Hopefully this week I will get the assignments done, and then time will fly, but who knows?

Not being in a library.

I've mentioned once before on a previous blog post that Fridays are officially my best days at uni. This is because I don't have any lectures to wake up to, just work at 3pm. Plus, it's the >end of the week, and we all know that is a huge benefit.

This has been my home for the past week

For the past week, I've spent three out of four nights in the uni's 24/7 library. Although it's been a productive week, and I've got loads of work done, it's just plain annoying spending hours in there.

It doesn't help that the computer rooms are really stuffy as well, and that I end up leaving at 2am feeling shattered. It's all totally been worth it, but my sleeping pattern has got messed up thanks to this week and the amount of work I've done and still got left to do.

So it was nice this morning waking up on my own accord, and spending a day chilling out (before work anyway). And I've also avoided the library today at all costs, because I didn't want to step foot in there. Even though I did another interview for my news feature, apart from that I spent the day feeling much better because I didn't have my assignments on the mind.

As I'm not going in the library tonight, this leaves me with a free night where I can do what I wish. But it brings me to my next challenge- do I go out and drink to celebrate, or shall I stay indoors away from the cold and eat my own body weight in junk food? I still can't decide.

A helpful interviewee.

Doing a course in journalism requires me to go out of my comfort zone and ask random people questions which I hope they'll answer. But the thing is, it's never that simple. Take today for example. I arranged to interview a councillor for my news feature, but they ended up cancelling the interview a few hours before it was due. And that just goes to prove what journalism is- you have to rely on other people to get articles written up.

But something good ended up coming out of the day, which also really benefited my work. Basically, about a week or so ago (I actually typed a blog post about it) I went into Stoke to ask business men about student nights that they were running. I was hoping to talk to the lady who set up the business, but she was on holiday at the time. However, as my news feature is once again based on students, I felt she would be a suitable interviewee.

I rang up the shop that she owns, and I was surprised that instead of simply chatting to me on the phone, she invited me down to her shop for a face-to-face interview. If you know a lot about journalism, you'll know that face-to-face interviews are the best types for a story, because you're not just getting speech- you're getting body language, facial expressions, all things that you can't see through a computer or a phone. So I quickly got my stuff together and went down there.

Once I got there, I got chatting to the shop owner and she was part of the best interview I've had. She was extremely helpful, funny, and was also really informative. I got all the information I needed from her that I could, and she also showed an interest in my university course.

I walked out of the shop with loads of information, and felt really good about the plans for the feature. It just goes to show how good it is to get a useful interviewee, and how happy it makes you feel that there are people out there who are willing to give a few minutes of their time to help others.

Opening the first door of an advent calendar.

So we've officially entered the month of Christmas, and boy does it feel like it! There's about four inches of snow outside, it's getting dark really soon in the day, it's freezing cold and the decorations are all coming out one at a time. But most importantly, today has been the day for one thing- opening up the first door of my advent calendar!

It's a joy I share with many students (and obviously millions of children, but they don't matter), and I'm going to be honest, I don't think there's a year where I haven't had an advent calendar. This is mainly thanks to my nan who goes out of the way and gets me a Dairy Milk one every twelve months. I think sometimes that maybe I should tell her that I'm too old for one, but hey, it's free chocolate.

But this year I have been blessed with having a Christmas loving housemate known as Louise. Yes, Louise is the one I told you about before, buying Christmas decorations well in advance in mid-November. Well with them decorations, we each got an advent calendar (mine being a Doctor Who one). So alongside the one I got off my nan, that makes two advent calendars for me to eat chocolate from...WIN! And if you're really bothered in knowing what chocolate shapes I had today, I got a train one in my Doctor Who calendar, and a cracker in my Dairy Milk one.

Being as though today has been a busy day, and a lot of things have made me smile in that day, it was hard to choose what to write about. But chocolate wins all the time, and it wouldn't be Christmas without good old advent calendar chocolate to munch on every day.