1 week to go!

It's the final week before I move to university. The packing is done, all the online bits are done, and all the paperwork is done. All that's left to do is get through this week, load the car and move.

Strangely, the closer it gets, and the more ready I am, the less ready I actually feel. Last night I started to feel a little wobbly about it all. I guess because I'm a bit nervous about the whole thing. I just feel a little too old, like maybe I'm crazy to take it on now. Five years is a long time and, let's be honest, university is just the beginning of a medical career. I'm going to be a little way from home, from my family, my Dad, and my friends, and it's all just going to be strange and new.

I am looking forward to getting there though, and getting unpacked, and trying to make it feel homely. I just hope I can fit everything in the car, along with myself, my uncle and my Mum!! It's going to be a squeeze, that's for sure! And this is after I've condensed down my packing at least twice. I just own too much stuff!

This week I'm working two long days and three half days, and on Thursday afternoon I'm going to hang out with one of my friends for a movie and pizza night, which will be nice before I move. I'm hoping some of my friends might even bother to come and visit, but I won't be holding my breath! One of my sisters will probably visit at some point, which will be nice. And I'll be making regular trips home.

Freshers events are being advertised like crazy, and honestly I can't even be bothered to think about going out clubbing, but I may go to the occasional thing. There's a pretty good looking Halloween party that I like the idea of as I love Halloween! It's actually on Brighton Palace Pier which has a sort of theme park on it, with fairground stalls and scare actors. There's afterparties too but it's a weeknight so I doubt I'll be partying! There's a paint party and a UV party too which look pretty cool, but again they're on weeknights so it's unlikely I'll go, especially as all of the Brighton freshers events start after BSMS students have already finished our freshers and started class.

BSMS has their own freshers events but we don't know much about them yet. All we've heard is some suggestions for fancy dress we need to pack for certain themed parties... I haven't packed any fancy dress because I'm a bore... haha! I'm sure I'll have something in my suitcase that I can make work if I decide to go out.

We've also had a leaflet about a bunch of Students' Union Events which has some good looking things such as:
Rock and Roll Bingo
Powder Paint Party
Murder Mystery Evening
Quizzard: Harry Potter Quiz
Casino Night
And even a board games cafe and a mature students community cafe.
I think I'm more interested in these events than the clubbing!

My first weekend at university I'll be heading to London anyway to spend the weekend with my Dad and some other family and friends, and we're going to Warner Brothers Studio Tour, so that'll be fun! And the second weekend I'll be coming home to visit family and celebrate my Grandad's birthday, and work a shift on time and a half.

I've got a few other bits planned throughout first term. A few weekends home. Bonfire Night at Lewes. And possibly the Battle of Hastings reenactment.

I'll be home for Christmas before I know it!

Thanks for reading,
Katherine x

2 weeks to go!

Reading Festival - There was no update last Monday due to a trip to Reading Festival with Dad and one of my sisters. We travelled on the Wednesday as my sister was working and had to be there by Wednesday evening. Dad and I spent a night in a travelodge to make the most of an extra night of comfort and a decent shower! We did an Aldi shop when we arrived to stock up for the weekend. Wednesday evening we ate at Benny's Diner, which was great. Thursday lunchtime we took at taxi to the festival and pitched our tent. Then walked to the on site supermarket to grab bottles of water and a few other supplies. Thursday evening we just chilled out. On Friday the music started. Favourites from the weekend were Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, Mike Shinoda, Skindred, Sum 41, Waterparks, Creeper, Pendulum, The Regrettes, and David Morgan. We also went to the signings for Waterparks and Sum 41 which were great, and Dad really enjoyed them! On Monday we were packed up by around 10am and had to queue for a shuttle bus back to the train station, but we were there before 12. The earliest I've ever managed to arrive at the train station in 6 years at Reading Festival!! 

Dad Update - At Dad's oncology appointment last week we were told that his new CT scan shows that all of his tumours are shrinking with the chemotherapy, apart from one which is slightly more prominent, but could be down to a recent infection. This doesn't mean he will get better, but it is the best news we could hope for at this stage. He continued his chemotherapy, starting cycle 9, on Thursday.

Work - I've been working late into the evenings at the end of this week, which meant I felt like I barely had time to do anything other than work and sleep! 

Bank - I had two appointments with the bank this week to try and open my student account, but the first time my driving license had the wrong address on, and when the new one arrived, it wouldn't let us open it because it hadn't been 30 days, so I'll have to come back to that one next month.

DBS - Once my address was updated on my driving license I could finally get my DBS sorted, so I got up early on Saturday to get the bus into the city and do that.

New uni outfit - While we were in the city my sister treated me to a new outfit for uni, which I absolutely love!!

Farmer's Jam - This weekend I've spent most of my time at the local dry slope as they had a competition/little festival going on, and one of my friends was competing, so that was nice. Both of my sisters came with me on Saturday and Sunday, and I was pleased to see the little one developing a similar interest in sports. The sun shined all weekend, perhaps slightly too much, the competition was great, and my friend won a new pair of skis, so an all round good weekend.

Packing - After I got home from the slope on Sunday I sorted through a couple more boxes and, I don't want to jinx it but, I think I'm practically ready to move, which is good because the 16th is fast approaching and I have to work every weekday! 

Thanks for reading,

Katherine x

4 weeks to go!

University is getting pretty close now. 4 weeks! Enrolment timetables and provisional timetables have been released, and I'm so ready to get started!!

From what I've seen the things we're learning in the first term should be a fairly nice start, after my first degree and 9 years in a GP surgery, there's nothing looking too intense, a few things I haven't covered before though, and I have to learn a brand new method for referencing, which I'm really hoping is easier than Harvard as I'm rubbish at that! But I'm looking forward to getting stuck in!

Last week I had to start back at work, which certainly wasn't in my plans, but student finance, after telling me earlier in the year I would be entitled to a tuition fee loan and a maintenance loan, have now told me I am only entitled to a maintenance loan. This means I have to find £9250 a year to pay my tuition fees for the first four years (the NHS fund tuition fees in year 5). It's a hell of a lot of money to suddenly be told you have to find. But my parents are adamant that I've got this far and this close that I have to go. They are both going to loan me some money, hopefully I can ask my grandparents for my inheritance and fingers crossed I will get a bursary from the university. The rest I'm going to have to make up with working, and possibly a loan towards the end of my degree. So, I'm working all the hours I can get and should be able to put £1000 away before I move.

I'm also looking at part time work at university for the first two years of the course, before it gets crazy intense. There's student ambassador jobs, events reps, bar work, and phlebotomy and HCA at the local hospital, so I'm sure I can find something to do for a few hours a week just to help out. But my maintenance loan is pretty good. It covers my rent and I've budgeted the remaining amount and I can definitely live off it, so that's one good thing.

Apart from working this week, it was my 27th birthday. I'm feeling pretty old! Virtually all of my presents were practical for university - packet food, cleaning products, coffee, wine! But I did also get a cute succulent planter from my Mum, raspberry vodka from my Sister, an enormous box of sweets from my Dad, and a Japanese art colouring book from my grandparents.

And today I've been sorting the boxes to go to uni. It turns out I'd packed a few too many so I had to have a little rethink, but it hasn't been too bad! Still might have to take some of it another weekend, after moving day, but hey, I like my luxuries, and I've accumulated a lot of stuff over the years, and the places I've lived.

I'm definitely looking forward to a bit of freedom, I've been living with my grandparents for the last 5 years, and while I have my keys and can come and go as I please, and they don't mind if I have friends round (not in a group), it'll be nice to control all aspects of my life again. Even the little things like the food shopping will just be nice to do myself, and cook and eat what I want, when I want.

This week I'm off to Reading Festival as my Dad's P.A. so there won't be an update next Monday, but updates will return the following week.

Thanks for reading,
Katherine x

Boxes, boxes and more boxes!

It feels like I've been packing forever! I'm moving out of my current bedroom at my Grandparents house so my sister can move in. This means that everything I own needs to be sorted. Probably more than I need will come to uni with me, some has been binned or recycled, some has gone to charity shops, and some will go into storage in my Mum's shed! Trouble is, I already have some stuff in storage at my Mum's and at my Grandparents because I used to live in my own house, and when I moved out of there I had to store some of my things. So to make room for the new things to go into storage I also have to sort through all of the old things. It's a long job to say the least but today I finally felt like I was making progress.

Because of this, packing has been a bit disorganised. Instead of just neatly packing the things I need I've been opening each cupboard and deciding where each thing is going. So, I don't really know what I've actually packed for uni! This could turn out to be a nightmare!

For this reason, I won't be publishing a suggested packing list until I've arrived at uni and unpacked my things so I can see what is actually useful!

I'll definitely be glad when the packing is done, and I can't wait to get to university and unpack and see what I can do with my room.

You may have seen my earlier blog post about "Design Plans for my University Room" and seen that I've decided on a theme for my bedroom. It will be themed around nature colours, so greens, whites, browns and greys, with woods, but also metals, and some contrasting colours such as pale pink. I've been gathering various things for this theme and can't wait to see it all come together, hopefully without being too chaotic.

I've also since decided on a classic nautical theme for the en-suite and just have a few little themed bits to go in there, as I know it will be very small, so I'm looking forward to seeing that too.

Kitchenware I already had in a black and white (mostly) theme, and so I'll be sticking with that but some other things will be coming which don't fit the theme, but I'm less fussy about my kitchenware.

I mostly just want to make sure that my bedroom and en-suite are spaces where I feel calm and peaceful, where I can escape, where I can study, and so I've chosen my themes around colours which make me feel calm. Hopefully it will work!

Thanks for reading,
Katherine

P.S. Not all of these boxes are mine, my Mum is having a sort out too!