Packing for Uni | BACK TO SCHOOL 2015

Greetings humans! 

So, it’s that time of year again - back to school, back to uni…just September. Either way, as someone who spent all of last summer thinking “I must buy and pack ALL THE THINGS” for starting university, I thought I’d let you in to the things I forgot to pack and the things I shouldn't have bothered with. Hopefully it’ll be useful!

Things I managed to forget:

• Kitchen roll. It’s one of those things that you don’t realise how much you use it until you need some.
• Laundry basket. Okay, so I didn’t forget to pack this, but the pathetic-excuse-for-a-laundry-bag that I brought with me was far too big and everything spilled out everywhere/I gave up/I ended up doing about four loads of washing at a time. Not fun (nor is it something I’m proud of).
• (also, if you can afford to, I would recommend buying your own detergent and softener instead of using what’s used in auto-dosing [if your laundrette does that] - it cleans clothes, but it doesn’t clean clothes, if you know what I mean)
• White tack. Whilst I’d planned how I would decorate my room at uni, I seem to have forgotten that photos and posters needed something to help them adhere to the walls (top tip: for the love of all that is good and pure, use white tack instead of blue tack - you don’t want to get fined for damaging the walls).
• Flask. Luckily I brought this back with me after Christmas, but I made a massive mistake leaving this behind in the first place - especially in winter term. 
• Flip-flops (or other such shoes). Definitely a must if you share a shower, but even if not, I would recommend getting some to go to-and-fro the kitchen, your room and your flatmates’ rooms. Those floors are nah-stay. 

Things I really didn't need:

• Apple corer/slicer. I don’t even like apples, but apparently I thought it was a kitchen necessity (I think my thought process involved potato wedges - I didn't make any of those, either).
• A wire rack which hung on a shelf. (I bought a pack of two from Dunelm, but I can't seem to find it on their website. I'm searching!) Rather than it acting as an organisational aid, it was just where I shoved stuff that I couldn’t be bothered to put away. If you’re a better person than I am, then it’s probably a rather good idea.
• Fancy storage. Whilst packing a fold-down ottoman from The Range was one of the best decisions of my life (well, of my university life), some fancy desk storage with little drawers for things, well…wasn’t. Similarly to the wire rack above, it could definitely work for some people. The issue for me was that the things I had intended to put in there didn’t quite fit, which meant they were all over the place.
• (I didn’t pack this myself, but I thought it was worth mentioning) A TV. Not only will you have to pay for a TV Licence (as much as I love the BBC, I’m also a student with little disposable income), but you’ll probably be doing things when your favourite programmes are on anyway. I’d recommend using catch-up services, or if you’re really keen, watching things live when your device isn’t plugged into the mains*. It’s a shame I found out about this nearer the end of the academic year (although just in time for Eurovision, so ker-ching!).

Which silly gadget did you decide to pack for university? And which staple item did you forget to fetch with you?

*on 2nd September 2015, the TV Licensing website said the following: "A hall's licence doesn’t cover a student in their room. Their parents’ licence also won’t cover them, unless the student only ever uses devices that are powered solely by their own internal batteries, and they don’t plug them into an aerial or the mains."

A Trip to Newcastle - Some Stationery

Greetings humans!

Last week I went to Newcastle with some of my friends, and I thought I'd show you the (very exciting!) stationery purchases that I made. Who doesn't love being nosey, right?

I bought both these pastel Staedler Triplus fineliners and Pilot Frixion erasable pens from Ryman. The fineliners were on offer for £2.99 and the Frixions £4.99 (down from £10.99 - what a bargain!). I love writing my notes in fineliners, and I always use erasable pens in my Filofax - especially at uni, plans tend to change more often than they stay the same!

I also went into John Lewis (JOHN LEWIS! I love that place), and was of course immediately drawn to their stationery section. After staring lovingly at the Filofaxes for a good couple of minutes, I had a look at the ranges they stocked. One of my favourites is Happy Jackson (I already have this pencil case from them) and these bright sticky notes are a brilliant addition to my collection.

I also bought a set of 3 MT slim deco tapes. I like the more pastel hue of this set, and the fact that the pattern alternates on each roll (as opposed to it being the same design the whole time). Apologies for the glare in the photo - I can't bear to take them out of their packaging yet!

And that's all until next time, folks!

Things I've Learnt in First Year

Greetings humans!

Blimey, it's been a while, and an awful lot has changed since I last sat down to write a blog post. My first year exams finished a couple of days ago, and I thought such an occasion provided the perfect opportunity to get back to this again! Here are some things I've picked up on over the past academic year:

• Fresh flowers are slightly more difficult to look after than I had previously imagined (and keeping desks tidy is also apparently more of a challenge than I suspected).
• Languages need to be learnt little and often, as opposed to in panicked chunks every month or so (I'm looking at you, Koine Greek).
• Real friends are the ones who wait for you and get annoyed when you don't let them help you.
• Travelling by coach for several hundred miles every few months is surprisingly tiring for literally sitting on your backside all day.
• Life is messy and beautiful, and cannot always be put into boxes or categories - and that's okay.
• (cf. time management, social activities, modules)
• You can't know everything - and that's also okay.
• Walking into the Vatican City as a heathen does not make one spontaneously combust, to my relief (posts will be up in the next couple of weeks about my trip to Rome this Easter).
• I'm hopelessly dependent on tea.
• Seriously, I had barely any in Freshers' Week and I really, really felt it,
• Dishwashers are BRILLIANT. Honestly, a gold star to whoever invented them. It's one of only a few things that I seriously miss from home. 
• Brand New Eyes by Paramore was released six years ago this year, a fact which I am refusing to believe because I CAN'T BE GROWING UP! NOT YET!
• Yik Yak is brutal. Absolutely brutal.
• Stationery shopping is the most common form of stress relief in teenage girls - something I found out at a job interview, after telling the interviewer that Paperchase was my favourite shop. Promising.

Motivation...Muesday - Colour Coding Priorities

Greetings humans!

When on a quick trip to Sainsbury's the other week, I found these three Frixion highlighters on sale for under £3 and bought them without really thinking about their use. However, I soon created a colour-coded priority system for my to-dos, since I have an awful habit of just copying tasks from day to day without really thinking or getting them done.

It's relatively simple: green means that a task has been copied once ("hello, you should probably do something about me"), yellow means that a task has been copied twice ("hello, you should really do something sooner rather than later"), and pink means that a task has been copied three times ("COME ON HANNAH GET ON WITH IT!").

e-mails galore!

I then get on with my tasks which have already been prioritised; I will complete the pink tasks first, then the yellow and so on. I've found that I don't need any more colours for this, and that I can complete most tasks within three days of putting them off delay. I've not been using it for very long, but so far, so good!

My Week #37

Greetings humans!

This week, for me, marked the beginning of the end of summer; the first of my friends moved away to university and I began with my packing! Aside from that and a few admin tasks, it's been pretty empty.

1) That's definitely an 'e' in 'stationery'!
2) And that's definitely an essay I have to write before I even arrive at uni!

I hope you had a good week!

Stray Sticky Notes

Greetings humans!

Although having a Filofax means that everything can be put in its place, quite often I end up with an excess of sticky notes which don't have a home. For instance, I have some with uni information, people's phone numbers and other bits and bobs which don't fit anywhere in particular.

I then found some old business card holders which came with an unbranded 6-ring organiser - in here I have folded and placed the sticky notes which don't have anywhere to go. This is sort of a dumping ground for them; at some point they will be sorted out, whether action is taken with them or whether I've learnt the information off by heart and thus no longer have a need for them. 

Five Things I've Learned in August

Greetings humans!

August has been a jam-packed month for me; I turned 18, received my A-Level results (which in turn confirmed my place at uni), and have focused most of my time on seeing my friends before we all disperse throughout the UK!

Here are five things I've learnt this month:

• I'm surprisingly better at navigating alien IT systems than I thought
• Enrolling at university means a whole lot of complicated IT-navigation. I managed to guess my password before it was released, and upload a picture without a hitch! (My IT education really wasn't the best and over the past few years I really haven't had the time to catch up with it; this is a pretty big achievement for me!)
• A one thousand-page book provides a "rough outline" in the World of Higher Education
• I'm not too worried; after all, a tonne of reading is what I signed up for in the first place. And at least it's something I seriously enjoy!
• The BBC ran a short series of Horrible Histories for adults, hosted by Stephen Fry
• Yes, really. If you're unfamiliar with the franchise, I'd suggest a little research; the books were best-selling (and a major influence in my love of history and culture when I was a child, especially in academic study), and the TV adaptation was the first family show to win a British Comedy Award. Despite a younger target audience, I've found that it regularly explains key issues in far greater detail than documentaries for adults (especially the Reformation and its progress), which in a family show is both extraordinary and refreshing. 
• A 'studyspo' community exists on Tumblr
• Ah, Tumblr, the land of the fandom, cat gifs and social justice warriors; and the land of  the studiers, apparently. Full of pictures of pretty desks and sticky notes, I absolutely love this side of the website. I've created a studyspo blog here, although I'm not yet sure how I'm going to balance original content in both places.
• I have a love for novelty push pins that I never knew existed
• Since I have a small room at home, I have no room for a corkboard or a similar item. However, I have a large notice board in my uni room; whilst buying stationery for uni, I saw many novelty push pins - my favourites are those shaped as moles and molehills! 

I know that next month I have a lot more to learn; I'm moving away from home and encountering a way of learning that I have never experienced before. More on that when I get there!