A Weekend in Essex

Well, last time I posted I promised to be better with blogging so here I am! I'm quite tired having just spent 4 hours in the car, but it was a nice journey so I don't mind. I thought I'd share a picture I found on a website I love (secretzen.com) because it made me feel good today, and is now my background:



This weekend, I went to visit my maternal grandparents, who live over 200 miles away in Essex. They're getting quite frail now so haven't come to visit us for a few years (although they never came up here regularly because of the logistics of not driving etc) but we drive down for weekends quite a lot (every 6 weeks or so). My Grandad's now 89 (he'll be 90 next month!) and my Grandma's 83 (I think!), so both of them are beginning to struggle with getting to the shops and things - Dad's going to start doing tesco orders for them online, so Grandma gave us a list of the brands of groceries she usually buys and is going to ring to ask us to send of for them when she needs them :) I think it's an idea that could work well!

We usually travel down on a Friday night, sleep over, then come back on Saturday night so we have a day to do work etc, but this time I really wanted to go to Unite on Friday (which was really good) so we went yesterday (Saturday) morning and came back this afternoon instead. The journey on the way was good, although we had to leave at 7:30am, a time that should not exist unless you haven't been to sleep yet! (not that I ever really stay up - it just sounds good :P ) I listened to my iPod, read a magazine etc and the 4 hours passed relatively quickly!

When we arrived we had a cup of tea, then decided that the loft needed to be sorted out - upon asking what was in there, Grandma said they hadn't looked since they got back from Australia!! (they were in Australia from 1961 to 1965 haha) As I was the smallest and youngest I had to climb the ladder, stand on Dad's shoulder and hoist myself into the loft - not too pleasant an experience to be honest (dusty, the air tasted funny and freezing cold!) I felt like a bit of a ninja though (:P), sitting on one side of the opening and wedging myself there with my legs! I pulled out some extremely vintage suitcases and boxes of toys and searching through them was really interesting :). However, after I'd managed to get down (pretty scary jumping onto the ladder!) I came out in a really itchy, sore rash on my arms and hands which we've later realised must have been from the loft insulation, which I tried not to touch but did a bit because I had to put my hands under the cases to lift them up... The rash is still there a bit but seems to be clearing up now :)

After the loft adventure, Mum and I took Grandma to Tesco (part of the routine) and I did my OCD with the trolley organisation, bag packing and car filling helping job :). This morning we had a nice fry up cooked by Grandma and left at around 11:30am (I watched 'Music and Lyrics' (yummm Hugh Grant) in the car, got a caramel latte from the services and listened to my iPod)

It was a nice weekend, despite all the travelling. It's only recently I've started to properly appreciate my grandparents for people, rather than just my lovely grandparents - especially my Grandma. A couple of years ago she had cancer, had an operation and chemotherapy and very nearly died. She thankfully recovered, but has been diagnosed with cancer again very recently, apparently it's spread to her chest wall and the prognosis isn't good. My dad said she might not be here next Christmas but I don't want to think about that because she's the relative I'm closest to except for my parents and such a lovely, lovely person.

I think my Grandma is the person in the family most like me - I see so much of myself in her! (even though it should probably be the other way around..) That sounds like I'm being really vain now having said she's so lovely but I have some of her faults as well as a couple of her qualities. We share a similar sense of humour, and she hates confrontation and tries to see the good in people as well. I really, really want her to be okay :( she starts radiotherapy on Thursday so I hope it works!

I'm going to go to get ready for my work experience next week (doing a prospective medical student programme at Warrington Hospital) - I need to decide on an outfit for tomorrow and make sure I have everything I need.

<3 xx

Latest Ramblings!

I haven't posted for a while, I know, and I feel quite guilty about it! I've been really busy with modular AS exams (biology, chemistry and psychology) and am waiting for the results! Biology and psychology went okay, but chemistry was actually horrific! There's nothing I can do now, though, except wait and see, but chemistry is really important for medicine, which I am hoping to do at university, so I'm pretty worried!

To bring this up to date - I had a lovely Christmas, followed by REAL SNOW! In Warrington! :D We all became little children again and buried each other, went sledging etc. I spent some good times with my lovely Hayley in the snow, as well as doing some revision for my modulars (which were the week after). It was just a lovely time of excitement, and freedom from normal daily routine (as the whole of England practically fell apart with the snow :D) Families were building snowmen together, when they'd usually be separated by work and school, and children were pulling along younger siblings on sledges instead of sitting in front of the TV - it was pretty magical, and a taste of what life should really be like!

She's a baaaabe :)


I also recently visited my best friend from where I used to live, Hannah :) It's always exciting when we see each other because it's only 3 or 4 times a year, but for a whole weekend and we get on so, so well - even better than when we were little kids, and do lovely things like shopping, cinema, swimming etc. This time, we went to see Avatar 3D which was amazing, had a big fat McDonalds and spent far too much money on clothes - it was great!
We're also really looking forward to going to Turkey together again (with our families) which we booked pretty much as soon as we got back from Turkey this October :D It's really exciting because a week is the longest we get to spend together now we're 153 miles apart (yes, I google mapped it!)!

This half term, I've been helping out at a children's church holiday club in a nearby village with Mission Academy (a course I'm doing with Warrington Youth For Christ) and it's been amazing! I love working with children, especially the littlest ones, so was thrilled to have the opportunity to work with reception aged children (4-5 year olds) in the mornings, then help with workshops in the afternoons. My beautiful Becky and I planned an awesome game for the kids involving custard and spaghetti hoops mixed together in large quantities, laminated paper memory verses (which we cut up into smaller pieces and put in the mixtures) and a team race for the children to find all the pieces, put the memory verse together and read it out :)



I've also visited my lovely Maddy's caravan for a day - we did a nice walk and marvelled at the changing weather - it was beautiful sun, the kind I've not seen for months and months, then snow in the space of an hour! :D

I'd better go now because I have an english essay to write before I go back to college tomorrow (in the posh new building!) but I promise I'll try to be a bit better with this in future :)

Looking at this post makes me realise how truly blessed I am! I have some amazing friends (many of which aren't in this post), awesome opportunities and a whole life ahead of me - it's so exciting to think of all the things I might do in the future!

I doubt anyone even reads this, but if you do, I hope you're happy and healthy (and please leave a comment :D)
xxxx

November Update :)

I just realised how long it's been since I updated - oops! But noone reads this anyway so I'm off the hook :P :D. Have settled into Sir John Deane's college nicely, and am home early today because we had a review day (where we go to speak to all of our teachers induvidually and set goals for the next few weeks) and all my appointments were this morning which was quite lucky (Y). It went really well and 3 of my 4 teachers (one wasn't in) gave me really good reports and said I was getting along well :)

In October half-term I had a lovely holiday in Turkey with one of my best friends everrr and her family and my family which was so nice! We had a week of relaxation, and spent loads of time in the sea and looking at the beautiful scenery. It was just so nice to get away from everything and I was really reluctant to come home! (N)

This last week has, however, been a bit strange because Dad had to go to hospital on Sunday night (8th rather than 15th...) and was in until this Sunday (15th) having tests and then a small operation on his arteries. He seems to be okay now, though, but is still pretty weak and can't drive or go out or anything...

I need to get started on a fairly huge chemistry project so I'd better go now, but I will try to get back into this! :P Dear me I'm a bit of a failure!... Never mind...
Hope everyone's happy and healthy :)
Anna xx

Summer '09 :)

I’ve again managed to neglect this blog, this time without such a good reason!. I’ve been really busy over the summer though, catching up with friends and going to three different places on holiday, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed.

My first trip was to Provence, in Southern France with my parents and some family friends. We stayed in two places for a week each, both very charming in their own ways: the first was on the outskirts of a quiet village called Correns, where we canoed; cycled and relaxed by the pool (it was very hot all week!). The second house we rented was near the centre of a larger town, called Vaison-la-Romaine, and was also lovely, although some of the decoration was a bit old-fashioned! (think 70s-style lime green chinaware). We were staying there on French national day, and were lucky enough to have an amazing view of the town’s fantastic firework display – we lay by the pool on the deckchairs and watched them explode directly above us – it was amazing! It was, however, a bit scary when pieces of (thankfully, cooled) firework landed all around us (one landed on my head!). In the morning we had to phone the man in charge of the pool to clean the bits of firework out of it for us!! All in all, it was a lovely holiday and it was good to get away from the English weather for a bit, although of course it was lovely back home the moment we went abroad!

The second holiday I went on was to Merseyside Christian Youth Camps (www.mcyc.co.uk) which was my third time going there in a row. It is always a truly amazing week, getting closer to God with the support of wonderful leaders who can really relate to you, and surrounded by and having funny, funny times with your friends. This year’s camp exceeded expectations, and I had a lovely time while really growing in faith which was awesome

My third holiday was in Devon, with my best friend Hayley and her family in their caravan. We went for ten days and stayed in Woolacombe, on a campsite 5 minutes away from the beach. We learnt to surf and had some classic quote moments – a great holiday, despite the issues with the great English weather!
Since arriving home, I’ve caught up with some friends and visited my mum’s cousin and her family in Norfolk, where they own a 500 acre organic vegetable farm. It was lovely to meet them again, and we had a nice weekend with a mini family reunion on the Saturday.

A couple of Thursdays ago was the day I’d been waiting for since finishing my GCSE exams in June: results day! My dad dropped me off at school for 10am, and I went in and collected them, before talking to everyone about the Summer and results and thanking teachers for all their help. I had a nice catch up with my favourite teachers in the music room. I got in total 7A*s and 3As (and an E in additional maths, but that was not at all unexpected!), but will have 8A*s and 2As in the end, when my biology coursework is all sorted out.
I start college on Thursday, so I’ll hopefully drop back in here with my impressions of that – I can’t wait!
xxx

Career Choices

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Over the past few days I’ve been really thinking about my career choices and have, almost without realising, done some unofficial work experience in two of the fields I’m most interested in. Last week I went into a Primary school for two days with the mother of one of my best friends who worked there (and my friend). I helped out in the nursery classroom and really enjoyed the interaction with the kids, although I confess I didn’t really feel stretched enough in that environment: I didn’t have to think enough, and really relied on instinct, which was fine too and I loved spending time with the children, but I just felt that academically the challenge of teaching Key Stage 1 was not enough for me…. However, obviously I can’t really get a full picture of the job in a couple of days so I won’t rule that path out completely as I definitely enjoyed it and my passion for working with children was reconfirmed…

On Wednesday, I went into work with my Mum, who works for St Helens Council as a director of children’s services, and spent some time exploring the child/educational psychology route. I talked to the head educational psychologist (or EP as they call themsetlves for short) and he explained more to me about what they do in detail, and what their role is in a community etc. He was really nice and didn’t patronise me at all – he spoke to me as an adult, and asked me things like whether I thought it was right to search for labels for children with difficulties, such as Autism, ADHD etc when they are not necessarily correct , helpful and/or obvious (often children display traits of several different disorders and contradict their own diagnoses etc.) which I found really interesting to talk about on an intellectual level.

I then went out with one of the other EPs to test a child with suspected ASD and ADHD. That was really interesting because I got to interact with the child on a one-to-one basis, and loved the mental challenge of logging his behaviour in my head and tracking it through to look for a pattern. The particular child I met seemed to, as I explained before, have many different traits of different disorders, so looking for a certain predominant one as he played and talked to me made me feel almost like a detective and was a very interesting concept. When we got back to the office, the EP I had shadowed (a very nice woman) showed me how to score up the WISC test the child had done and plot the results on a graph to, again, look for any pattern. She then began to write up the report for the visit which was a lot less boring than I might have imagined - it just basically described what had happened with the child from the notes we'd taken, and it was a bit like an essay so I was happy :)

Have not come to a proper conclusion still about my future job, especially as I have not yet really explored my other main area of interest - paediatrics..... Will keep thinking...

Reasons for my Neglect...

Sorry I’ve neglected this blog recently – exams and things have got in the way, making every moment I spent not revising feel snatched and guilty. I hate revision – although that seems obvious because, well, who likes it?!. But it isn’t just usual laziness that everyone has – on the whole I love doing school work as long as it’s not too pointless and repetitive – for example I love writing essays (call me crazy!) and really enjoyed doing homework like maths questions and german sentences to translate… The real problem I've discovered I have with revision is that I am not really motivated to do it because I can never be satisfied with what I’ve achieved, which I;ve noticed to be very important to me personally – I am happy when I’ve finished all the maths questions set, for example, and can then rest before moving on quite happily, but the knowledge of ‘have I ever done enough?!’ really makes me totally uninspired… Anyway, revision is over now, and I’ve got a lovely long Summer before starting at SJD 6^th form college in September :)

Quote of the Day

(In chemistry, revising solution mining)

Lottie (reading from questions): ''what can be a negative result of solution mining?''
Anna (giggling): ''urm....you get hot cross bunnies?'' :P
Lottie:'' nahhh...they'd be hot cross brinies''

....we're simply too cool, but at least we remembered then that brine (or sodium chloride) is used in solution mining :p

Good times, eh?!