WORK TIME

Freshers is officially over, as lectures have began. I received my timetable late last week and it isn't too bad. I only have 8 hours or so of contact time a week. Although that isn't a lot we have a lot of reading and work to do outside of the lecture room. The history modules I have picked for my first year are - Mao to Mandela: Twentieth Century leaders in the non-western world & Social and cultural history of Europe and Britain from 1453-1789. Along with these modules we have to do 2 compulsory modules which are Doing History & History and Meanings. 

As well as lectures starting, sport has also began. I've joined the rowing team which I am loving so far. It's just such an awesome (hard work!) sport! I'm also going down to watch the rugby training (as I still can't train as I'm injured). Friday morning at 7:30 myself and two of my block friends went down to the gym for an early morning spinning session. I'm feeling more relaxed and settled now that I'm starting to get in to a routine involving work and sport. 

After our spinning session on Friday we headed in to the nearest shopping town to do some . . . well . . . shopping! I only bought one thing - a nice woolly jumper! On this trip, I also had my first ever Nando's! When we arrived back I headed down to rugby training and then did my laundry! Proud!

 Now, I have some reading to do! 

SUPER FAST FRESHERS WEEK

I've been in university for just over a week now. Wow, how quick did that week fly by! I was struck down by the freshers flu in the middle of the week but am getting better now. Over the last couple of days I've been joining different societies and trying out different sports. Saturday I went down to the fields and played rugby for a couple of hours which was ok. Yesterday morning at 10am I went to the rowing taster. We had to run about 2 miles to reach the boat house (I'm getting my bike soon so I can just cycle down!) once at the boat house however we had a go on the rowing machines just to get the technique and then we went out on the water. I loved it! Even though I wasn't that great as it was my first time doing such a thing but it was really enjoyable! It also didn't affect my sciatica so much, which is good! So I think I'll be joining the rowing club soon. 

Thursday night we headed over Medicine and the Stumble in for a chillaxed evening.

Last night, after a busy day, we (the flat) went to the local pub across the road for some Sunday night supper. 

FRESHERS

So far my first week here at RHUL has been soooooo busy! Making sure that I go to the right place at the right time, running around making sure that I've signed up for everything that I need/want to sign up for, on top of going out to freshers parties and going to  bed at god knows what time! Although it has been pretty good! I think that our block is incredibly lucky that all of us get on really well - all 17 of us! We all cwtch up in to our little kitchen and play uno/ultimate ultimate snap, drink and just have a laugh! Our housing is situated in the middle of the campus so we have really easy access to Founders, which is a great Hogwarts-like building where we have food in the big hall, were 2mins away from the students union and 5 mins from the sports centre and our lectures! Tomorrow I get my timetable for the year and I find out what history modules I have been given! Hopefully my timetable isn't to busy because I've also signed up for the media and history societies and the rugby and rowing club. Sport is my main thing so I'm looking forward to start using the gym and the teams! 

Here are some photos from some parties we've been to recently! 

UNIVERSITY!

Well hello there! I've been pretty busy this week so I haven't had much time to think about blogging! On Saturday I moved to University! We left home and drove for 5 hours to reach London! I'm here studying History. The rooms are massive! I really was not expecting such nice rooms! When I've settled in more things will become calmer and I'll have time to update this blog properly! Here are some instagrams from the last couple of days - packing etc. 

Hendrix helping me pack (: 

 A little champagne before we left for London! 

 A cool cupcake from Windsor (: 

 We're not in Wales anymore! No S4C!! (: 

Like I said I'll update you on my goings on properly in the next few days (: 

x

GO GO GO GETTIT

Yesterday was a strange day. A good, fun, but very strange day! Myself along with the other head prefect went in to school (now our old school!) to have a photo for the local newspapers. After the photo myself and Ruth went to see some teachers. Walking around school was strange! However, it was really nice to see some of our teachers before we left for uni! After our trip around school, we headed for lunch in town. We let our food settle for a bit and then we headed to the gym! I didn't really feel fresh in the gym yesterday as I've been out on the bike doing 20+ milers nearly everyday this week so . . . ! I arrived home but before I had a chance to sit down I was out on the road again to see the grandparents!

Walking around school yesterday reminded me that I hadn't posted the photos of our last official day of school back in June. So here they are!

LIFE LATELY . . .

. . . this is what I've been up to in the last week or so.

Friday was such a beautifully sunny day, something that we haven't really experienced much here in Wales over the summer. Apparently, this has been the wettest summer for over a 100 years! The Olympics and Paralymics, however, did manage to bring us some sunshine! Friday was my rest day off the bike, so instead I headed out with Hendrix for a walk and waw, the views were awesome! I know I've lived here all my life and sometimes you dislike the place because it's sooooo far from everywhere else, but on days like these you seem to forget about that and just enjoy the birds singing and the sun shine!

After our walk it was time to head over to a friends house for supper. He had invited some friends over before we all leave for uni. It was nice just to relax and laugh with friends over a nice plate of curry and a couple of drinks!

I arrived home Saturday morning, had a shower, and I was soon out of the door again! My dad was filming a wedding and my brother was working so mam and I headed over to the Daffodil restaurant in Penrhywllan. Saturday was the same or even hotter than Friday! We were able to eat our lunch out on the decking looking out over the green hills and trees! Beautiful! Once we finished our food we headed to Aberaeron for some pudding! I had a coffee frappe and a piece of butterscotch drizzle cake! We ate our pudding whilst sitting on the harbour wall looking out at the crazily calm sea! For the whole summer I haven't seen it so still and calm! Quite relaxing actually! Saturday night saw the return of the fantastic comedy The Thick Of It and some more memorable moments from the Paralympic and London 2012 games.

Sunday. I really enjoy Sunday's. It's the kind of day when you can go for a 20 + mile cycle and then chillax for the rest of the day. Yesterday, I had planned on going on the bike but it was so windy and I didn't fee; 100% it just wouldn't have been fun. Instead I went for a 3 and a half mile walk with Hendrix and mam. This is another thing I like about Sundays is that you can finish a 3 mile walk in 2 and a half hours and not feel guilty or having to rush to get ready to do something else! The reason for the marathon time was that we were also collecting  blackberries and that takes forever! We had a poopie bag full of berries which we used to bake a blackberry crumble later in the afternoon. Yuuumie! Sunday night saw the end of an amazing summer of sport with the awesome closing ceremony of the Paralympic games. What an inspirational couple of months. The french film 'Heartbreaker' was on BBC Four when I went to bed (one of my favourite films!), a lush end to a relaxing day!

MIDWEEK DINNER

Last night around 19 of us went out for dinner in our local indian. The reason for this was because most of us are moving away to university in the next week/2weeks. I can't actually believe that we're all moving to different parts of the country after being together for 7 years or even longer! Although I think we're all, well I am, ready to move on from school and start something new. Our old school has just had a complete makeover - the name's changed, along with new uniforms etc, so I think it's a good time to move on to a different school. My friends are leaving to cities such as Cardiff, Swansea, Bath and I'm leaving for Royal Holloway, which is 20miles from central London.

Over the last couple of days I've been trying to get most of my things ready for uni. Things such as kitchen utensils, cleaning supplies, toiletries and stuff to make my room homely and comfy.

These are just a few of the things we bought last Saturday (mostly from Wilkinsons & T.K. Maxx). My mum just wanted to through everything in to the basket, things that in no thinkable situation I'd use! I particularly like my yellow flower washing up brush and my red sieve! I also got loads of hangers, towels, plates, bowls, mugs and cutlery! I'm going to Cardiff next week to get the finishing touches to my room. Things such as fairy lights, pictures etc. I still need to buy some duvet sheets, I'm thinking of going for some Cath Kidston flowery ones, similar to my bed at home.

I've also been busy trying to make sure that i sign up and complete all the forms and requirements I need to do before leaving for RH. Along with this I printed off my history timetable for the first week before lessons start. It involves things such as ID check, tours and meeting with lecturers. I'm still looking at what sport clubs to join etc so there is still some things to do!

AWESOME APPLE AND CINNAMON CAKE

After my routine cycle ride yesterday morning, I decided to bake a cake from Mary Berry's '100 Cakes and Bakes'. I went for the apple and cinnamon cake and wow, it turned out soooo tasty!

Firstly you need to preheat the over to 180c/Fan 160c/gas 4. You need a deep, round 9in cake tin that has been greased with grease proof paper. Then you should measure 225g of butter, 225g of light muscavado sugar, 3 large eggs, 100g of sultanas, 225g of self raising flour and 2 tsp of baking powder and mix them all together in a bowl until thoroughly blended. (The recipe also tells you to add 100g of chopped walnuts in to the mixture but I'm not a big fan of walnuts so I opted not to put them in my cake.)

Once you've finished mixing the ingredients, spoon half of the mixture into the cake tin and spread evenly, covering the bottom of the tin. Grate 400g of cooking apples, then spread in an even layer on top of the cake mixture. Also spread 1 tsp of cinnamon over the grated apples. Once you've done this, spoon the remaining cake mixture on top, level the surface. Before placing in the oven for 1hour 15mins, sprinkle a generous amount of light muscavado sugar across the top of the cake.

The cake is ready when it has turned a golden brown. Leave to cool for a few minutes before removing from tin. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

(Serving suggestion)
I ate mine after heating for a few seconds, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yuuummm!