C’mon brain, it’s time to study again!

I found it really hard to get back to studying this year. In fact, it was so hard that I didn’t actually study at all throughout October. In my defense, I did have a few health problems which made me feel exhausted and studying was the last think I wanted to do.

My previous module’s intensity level was very low. It allowed an extra week to write TMAs and there was no science as such in it. It was more of a journey though the world giving an overview of different environmental problems. The module was very enjoyable but it made me forget how intense and time consuming studying science actually is.
Back in June I’ve submitted my last TMA which was an examinable component and school was out for summer, for three and a half months to be exact.
This blissful study coma tricked me into thinking that I can just slowly get back into studying again and that catching up won’t be much of a problem. Well, it is a problem. SXF206 is intense and apparently I’m expected to already know AND remember certain things?? Errrrr well… maybe I do know something but not without refreshing my memory which obviously makes studying longer than anticipated.

Catching up really is not easy, it not only requires a lot more time put into the studies (the standard is already set high at 14 hours per week) but it has definitely also put extra stress and pressure on me.
Lesson to be learnt? It’s simple. I need to stay on top of things, make sure I am following the study planner and maybe even try to get ahead if possible. 

My first step towards Minimalism

There are no rules and regulations to minimalism. The concept is to own less stuff and it can be adapted accordingly to different lifestyles.

What drawn me to minimalism the most, is an idea that ‘less clutter means more focus on the things that matter’. The meaning of this is quite literal. The less unnecessary stuff there is around the house, the less we have to focus on them (less cleaning, less tidying, less distraction). It frees up the time to do the things that matter.
There are obviously a lot more benefits to minimalism. It’s a refreshing escape from the world revolving around consumerism; it’s an environmentally friendly concept based on ‘reduce’ and ‘reuse’ values; it contributes to spending less money, and it helps us focus on the non-materialistic matters.

I have started my route to minimalism in July this year. My first step was to declutter my home. I was shocked when I realised how much unnecessary stuff I was hoarding in my one bedroom flat. The flat didn’t necessarily feel cluttered but all of the cupboards were full, there was not much space and there was ‘stuff’ everywhere.
‘Keep’ or ‘Toss’ process was not as easy as I hoped for. It actually took me several days to go through everything and by everything, I mean EVERYTHING! Kitchen cupboards, make up, clothing, ‘man’ draws, ‘random stuff’ draws, bed sheets etc etc.

My little Fiesta’s boot as well as the back seats were full of stuff!

Two Saturdays of getting up at 6am and £200 later, and I was free from all of the unneeded and unloved clutter.

I think minimalism is not a project to be completed but it’s a continuous journey. There is still so much that I want to learn and do, and hopefully sell this idea to other people. 

I am hoping to write a few more posts about my journey with minimalism, including the difficulties I am having with putting together a minimalistic capsule wardrobe. Stay tuned!

A moan… because sometimes you just need one

This is basically going to be a moan… A moan about time or lack thereof. 

I work full time because I have to support myself and I study part time because I want to change my career. I have no children and I live alone. In theory there should be no major problems with my time 

needs. In practice however things look completely different.

First of all for some unknown reason I think that I can do a lot more with my spare time than the reality allows. In my head I come home, cook dinner, clean up, study, read a book, scrapbook, blog, paint my nails and go to bed at 10pm to have a full night’s sleep. Obviously none of this happens. I make beans on toast, leave dirty dishes in the sink, stare at my computer for 2 hours feeling guilty that I am not studying, play candy crash saga, take a shower and crawl into bed absolutely exhausted.

Is it a problem with motivation? Or maybe bad planning? I’m not supposed to overwhelm myself with a load of tasks because that’s the reason nothing gets done. BUT if I do have 10 minutes of spare time I feel guilty of not doing anything productive! My brain is fucked up! It tells me I’ve got too much going on and yet it doesn’t allow me to chill out.

I am currently trying to stay on top of the studies and failing because module only just started and I am already behind. I am obviously not blogging although I come up with great topics to blog about while in the shower. Books to read (for pleasure) ale piled up gathering dust, travel albums are waiting to be worked on/finished off.

Don’t even get me started on December… I have a forever growing list of things to book/sort out! Holiday (mini break in Fuerteventura, my own bloody idea off course!), my 30th Birthday weekend away in Bath for 10 (my idea and everything has to be the way I like it to I’m sorting it out) and my brother is coming over from Poland with his wife and my nephew for Christmas so we’re going London for couple of days (guess who’s idea was that!?). Did I mention that it’s one of my friend’s birthday in December? And that there’s work’s xmas party? And that I have an assignment due on the 10th? Ohhhh…. And I am a bridesmaid to my best friend so now I’ve got bridesmaidy duties like dress shopping and hen-do organising.

Are you bored yet? No? Well, I decided I need to apply for some volunteer jobs to start gaining experience in the environmental field… Because you know, I have plenty of time to spare…

I might have to tell my boyfriend and friends that I am not available until October 2016 although a new module will start then so maybe I should re-schedule seeing anybody until 2019 when I graduate… Or maybe… you who is reading this… Are you rich? If yes, have you got spare £1500 a month so I could quit my day job, live comfortably and do whatever I need (study) and want (holidays) to do?

Anxiety and Depression

Wow! I can’t believe this is the first time I am looking at my blog since May! I have to admit that few post ideas popped into my head over the last few months (usually came to me in the shower… as they do) but I just never wrote anything down. I have an excuse reason for this.

I needed time off to come to terms with few things in my life. I am talking about anxiety and depression which I have been dealing with for about a year now. I thought that maybe I needed this summer to stop stressing/worrying about things and start realising everything is going to be ok in the end. However I had to call things by its names and come to terms with the fact that it simply won’t go away on its own.

I have found the below quote somewhere on the internet and I think it describes anxiety and depression very well:

‘It’s being scared and tired at the same time. It’s the fear of failure but no urge to be productive. It’s wanting friends but hate socialising. It’s wanting to be alone but not wanting to be lonely. It’s caring about everything then caring about nothing. It’s feeling everything at once and feeling paralysingly numb. ‘

The reason I decided to write about it on here is because I truly believe that start of my new module SXF206 this October will help me to get myself back on track. Having an important goal with deadlines forces a person to be productive. That’s not to say that doing a degree isn’t scary and that it sometimes has the opposite effect. However it definitely provides me with purpose and lets me focus on a subject that fascinates me and I care about. It helps me to take my mind off of worries, anxiety, bereavement and just everyday life that can be really hard sometimes.

It took me a long time to pluck up the courage to write this post. I hope that maybe people will read it and realise that we all deal with some serious shit in our lives. But doing something positive just for your own self like starting with the OU can actually be a big help in dealing with anxiety and depression. Doing a degree comes with its own worries and pressures like fear of not being smart enough or struggling to find the time. But the most important thing studying with The OU gives me, is a purpose and a feeling that I am learning about something that matters. 

How to survive S104 Exploring Science

Apparently S104 is said to be one of the hardest Open University level one modules. I can certainly see how this might be the case. However I believe that it is also extremely rewarding and surviving it will definitely motivate you for continuing your studies.

I am not a study expert and certainly not a brainiac but there are few bits of advice that I am hoping will help people studying S104. Some of the below are things that I should have done, but didn’t. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.

1.       Get ahead and stay ahead.
Oh I am a master of procrastination. I plan and organise but never ever stay ahead of my schedule. What I have learnt about myself is that I work best under pressure and leave things until last minute. Now… you definitely don’t want to do that with this module. You won’t have time for procrastination because you will constantly be under pressure. The best thing to do is start studying as soon as you’ve got your materials, don’t wait until the actual module start date. Try to get yourself ahead and stay ahead. It will give you some time to breathe and if your life ‘happens’ then you will have that bit of extra time to do things other than studying without feeling too much guilt.

2.       Make study cards as you go along.
I made little study cards that I used when preparing for the exam. The mistake I made was that I left it till the end. The best thing to do is making cards after each block. It will seal your knowledge and you will be able to use them when preparing for the exam.

 

 

3.       Have a go at the iCMAs.
I know things often change and get updated at the Open University but when I did S104 the iCMAs were not part of the assessment. I kept having a go at them until I had over 80% on each. They are a great practicing tool, especially when preparing for the exam.

4.       Find most efficient way of taking notes.
I personally did not take any notes just because I wanted to save time. Instead I took four different colours of highlighter and corresponding post-it notes. I assigned a category to each of the colours and bookmarked the blocks with post-its.This off course might not work for you so try a few different ways of taking notes at the beginning of the course and see what method is best for you.

5.      Activities.
Make sure to do the practice questions and activities throughout the module and have a go at them again before the exam. This is essential because you will never truly know if you understand the scientific concepts until you have a go at solving the problems and doing the calculations yourself.

6.       Download advice from your student website.
Do a bit of research on your student website and you will be surprised how much help there is. I found some percentage practice questions that one of the tutors posted, no one from my group even knew this existed! I believe there was also a study calendar that had ‘essential’ and ‘non-essential’ activities written down.

7.       Don’t worry too much.
I know it’s easier said than done but think about the knowledge you will have after finishing this module, not about how hard it is.  S104 covers so many sciences that it is bound you won’t like some of it and you might struggle with some of it. Don’t beat yourself up too much about that, ask your tutor for help. I am sure you will get there in the end. And even if not, then … oh wells! You will be fine even if you don’t understand one subject. I hated geology (booooooring) and could not grasp any of the quantum physics (this stuff is super interesting but a bit mental).

 

Good luck! Remember, if I did it, so can you J

 

Everyday life planning – what planner will work for you?

This may seem like a simple choice but once you start researching, with a massive choice of planners out there you will get overwhelmed. It’s best to do some research first to see what planner will work for you. However you won’t really know what work best for you until you try it. Don’t get discouraged, we are all different and we have different lives with different priorities so what works for me might be simply rubbish for you.

I found few links to different planner videos and websites for you to have a look at:

Simplified planner vs Day designer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYo7BRt3VcU&index=2&list=PLmXnvEsseo1S-fyEa8jV9qKyhpLv3L-Rw

Kikki K planners (these are very girly) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1iYOpGXOHM&index=1&list=PLmXnvEsseo1S-fyEa8jV9qKyhpLv3L-Rw

Plum planner vs Erin Condren https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k3ziZFHBDQ&index=3&list=PLmXnvEsseo1S-fyEa8jV9qKyhpLv3L-Rw

Uncalendar vs Planner Pad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dnb-4tlyvnE&index=4&list=PLmXnvEsseo1S-fyEa8jV9qKyhpLv3L-Rw

Filofax http://www.filofax.co.uk/

Paperchase http://www.paperchase.co.uk/stationery/diaries-organisers/organisers

When choosing your planner, an important thing to consider is size because it does matter ;). Questions you need to ask yourself are:

·         Do you want to carry your planner around with you? If yes, choose a smaller personal size, if not then you can go A5 or bigger

·         What will you be using your planner for? If it’s only for one or two categories e.g uni and blogging then you probably won’t need much space. If you want to cram your whole life in there then you will probably need a bigger one

·         Are you a person that likes to jot details down, have your whole week planned out to every detail or are you happy with main appointments, assignment due dates, business trips or child play dates?

·         You might need both! Small one with main appointments and important dates to carry with you (small diary will probably be sufficient there) and a bigger planner to keep at home with all of the details, breakdowns, preparations etc.

Now onto inserts:

·         Will you be happy with generic planner insert or will you want to personalise your planner?

·         How much writing space will you need? There is loads of choices; month, week or day per page.

·         Are you a person that needs things categorised or happy to have everything randomly jotted around the page?

I realise that it may seem like these questions are a bit excessive for choosing a simple planner. But you will understand this once you watch the videos I posted. There is just so much choice out there and it’s all designed to motivate productivity and good organisation.

Overconsumption awareness

I have just finished studying Block 5 of U116 module at The Open University. The book is called ‘Changing China’ and my TMA for this was to write an essay explaining how migration enables economic growth and therefore leads to environmental issues. 

We all know that China is growing economically and the growth is still rapid. Whilst developed countries are looking into newer ways of protecting the environment, Chinese government seems to be still steering the country into even more development having little regard for the environmental damage this is causing. List of China’s environmental problems is long. It includes issues like threats from flooding, desertification, water shortages, disappearing forest reserves, air and water pollution and many more.

Studying this subject made me wonder what are we ‘the individuals’ are really doing to protect our environment. How many people actually lead their lives by putting the environment on top of their priority list? Well, that off course would be unrealistic but if anyone would take a small step towards decreasing consumption, it could have a massive impact. But we don’t. Why? Because it’s inconvenient and because often environmental problems don’t affect us directly. We are so used to the convenience of life that we can’t be bothered to even make a small effort. Everything is so easily replaceable and accessible that we just don’t bother to re-use things.

I don’t have children but many of my friends do and it is shocking how many toys and gadgets the littles ones have. I totally understand that parents want for their children to have everything they need and to have a happy childhood. But do they really need 100 toys when they’re five? Or do they need new mobile phone every 6 months when they’re sixteen? No, they don’t. But our society is powered by money, advertisement and sales. When you become a parent you’re being told you need to buy hundreds of gadgets for your baby and they’re all essential. Then you need to buy hundreds of toys which will stimulate baby’s development. And after that your kid wants hundreds of toys and gadgets because they are bombarded by the advertisements. If you do try to stop this and say ‘no’ then you’re facing a fear of your kid being an outsider because all other kids will have the toy, the phone etc. and you have to cave in because you don’t want them to be the odd one.  

So which way do you think this trend will go? Will we continue to overconsume and not think about what we’re doing to our planet? Or will we wake up, stop this madness and teach the future generations to re-use rather than bin and buy a new one.   

Click here to see ‘Overconsumption, overpopulation – in pictures’.

Who do you want to be when you grow up?

Lately I had a thought. Does anyone ever know exactly who they want to be when they grow up?

I don’t really believe in ‘what’s meant to be, it will be’. I don’t belive in fate, destiny and the whole ‘our lives have already been written for us’. I think there is a lot more complexity to who we become and how our lives turn out. I believe our lives are a combination of random series of events, coincidences and chances; background we come from; family circumstances; choices we make; how hard we work; how intelligent we are and so on.

So how do people know who they want to be and how do they become that person?

What prompted me to think about this was my old friend. Both she and her husband have degrees and work within their degree’s fields. She works in an environmental sector and he is a geologist. They both enjoy their jobs but she recently said to me that if she had to make the choice again she would become a veterinarian and her husband said he would become a chef. She didn’t study veterinary because she was scared to move away from her family for 5 years as it takes 5 years to complete a degree in Poland.

So does anyone know who they want to be at age of 16 when they have to make that first important educational choice? Many young people go to uni and study subjects they don’t really like but feel that they need a degree of some sort. Also many people come from well-educated families and get pressurised to becoming doctors, lawyers etc.

I never knew who I wanted to be. I tried few different jobs and did few college courses. I was just as confused and undecided in my early twenties as I was as a teenager. Finally at age of 28 I have made my choice and I am so happy I decided to start my studies with The Open University. It took me so long to realise that I have always loved science, I have always cared for the environment. I am now finally motivated enough to pursue this path. I feel that any other time in my life I was too young and too confused to make this decision.

I am so grateful that The Open University allows people like me to get higher education without compromising their lifestyle. Hopefully in four years time when I’m all grown up, I will be who I want be.

 

 

 

Everyday life planning – introduction

I am a person that needs planning to stay sane. I also like to write things down on paper. My head is usually full of ideas, things I need to remember to do, random thoughts. It constantly works on full speed. This becomes a problem when I don’t write things down. I randomly remember that it’s someone’s birthday in two weeks’ time and then forget about it the next day. Then I remember about it one day before and panic that I haven’t got time to make/buy them something. It caused me a lot of stress and sleepless nights with added guilt and feeling of failure when I forgot things or wasn’t prepared for things.

Writing things down on paper helped me to free my mind and organise my life. We are all different but I know that there is a lot of people out there stressing about things, forgetting things and running around like headless chickens trying to do everything last minute. I was one of those people and yes, it’s impossible to fully get rid of that attitude if you’re naturally little bit ‘all over the place’. But I guarantee you that planning and organising your life with a simple planner will save you time, stop the stress and will help you sleep better. Also simple ticking the tasks give a sense of achievement and makes me feel that I have been productive and succeeded in managing my time.

There is a lot of different planners and organisers out there and a bit of research will help you pick one that will suit your life style. It took me few months to work out my ‘perfect’ planning routine. In fact I still adjust it as I find out how/when I am most productive. Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t work out the first time, try different approach, different planner.

If I was to keep going with this post it would turn out extremely long. So I decided to split it into a few posts and make a little planning series out of it. I will share my planner with you, post links to planning videos and ideas and explain what works and doesn’t work for me. Don’t forget that this planning series will apply to anything from work, uni to personal and family life planning. These categories can be separated or combined all in one. As for me, I like to have everything in one place to see an overview of my week/month/year.

‘How to Be a Woman’ by Caitlin Moran - a book that everybody needs to read

Since today is the International Women’s day I thought ‘How to be a woman’ is an appropriate book to mention.

 

Feminism is often misunderstood for hatred towards men. Many people don’t actually realise that it really means advocacy of women's social, political, and economic rights. Many people also don’t realise that women are not treated the same as men even in developed countries like Great Britain or America. Women are often paid less than men, their opinions are often less regarded than those of men, and men are often hired rather than women because it’s more of a manly job. I am not talking about something like mining here, I am talking about office jobs where experience, knowledge and skills should be taken into consideration, not physical capabilities. I myself was discriminated for being a woman. Doing exactly the same job as my male colleague and I was paid less. I was also asked not to wear a skirt to work (I’m talking about professional knee length skirt) because the male colleagues couldn’t focus on doing their job. This was in England, year 2013, particularly sexist work place.

I veered off a bit here but what I wanted to show is that the inequality problem is still here and Caitlin’s book shows us just that in a hilarious way, based on her life. I think all men and women should read this book. Even if you don’t fully agree with her opinions, it will show you different perspective and maybe open up to something you haven’t considered or didn’t realise was issue.

So happy Women's Day! Let's hope that one day women all over the world will have equal rights to men. Let's hope that one day girls won't be refused education, won't be forced in marriage, won't be brutally circumcised. Let's hope that men and women will stand together and become feminists in its true meaning.

Handmade gift for my best friend – a watercolour sunflower painting and a mini album

One of my bestest friends lives far away, back where I come from – Poland. Me and Marta have been friends for about thirteen years now. For ten years we have lived in different countries, about 1600 km away from each other. Our friendship is still strong, even though we only talk to each other once a month and see each other once a year.

It was Marta’s 30^th birthday back in January. I wanted to give her something special, something that will show her how much I value our friendship. I thought there is no other way than handmade.

Sunflowers are her favourite flowers so I decided to paint a sunflower with my watercolours. I’m definitely not an artist but I think it came out quite good. I really enjoyed painting it, I will definitely try and find some watercolour painting courses so I could learn some techniques.

I felt like the painting was not enough. I found some pictures of us from good old high school days and made a ‘journey through our friendship’ mini album. Apparently none existent eyebrows were ‘it’ back in 2008. There is few more embarrassing pictures in there, looking through them brought back lots of great memories.

What do you think about handmade gifts? Would you like to receive a gift like this from a close friend?

 

Is wearing fur morally worse than wearing leather?

Click here to read the Guardian article.

Source http://atrl.net/forums/showthread.php?p=23415933#23415933

First of all let me say that I eat meat and buy leather but I don’t buy real fur. I would not be able to remove meat from my diet so if I eat meat I might as well buy leather since it is a by-product of animal farming, right? However according to the Guardian article leather industry is linked with pollution which is something I haven’t considered before.

When it comes to fur, the industry also creates high amounts of greenhouse gases and air pollutants. In fact the article states that the pollutant levels coming from production of fur are higher than any other textile. That’s the environmental side of things but what about morals? Fur is produced only for the sake of fashion so isn’t that selfish?

I don’t know if I am wrong or right here but I believe that we can farm sustainably for meat and if leather is the by-product of that industry then why not use it. Fur on the other side is a different story to me. I personally would feel wrong wearing a real fur coat. Sure, I’ve heard about sustainable fur farms but to my knowledge there isn’t many of those. More often than not, an endangered species gets killed and then skinned alive so that someone can wear a soft fluffy coat. I personally would not feel good with this.

I am curious what your thoughts are! Is it just as immoral to buy leather as it is to buy fur and I am being a hypocrite? Or maybe you think both are ok and we should wear whatever we want? Have you ever thought about the environmental impacts these two industries have on our planet?

Or maybe I should ditch thinking about morals and environment, and have fluffy gloves made out of my cat? …

 

Access to Success Route with Open University

The good thing about Open University is that you can ‘try it out’ without committing to the long term studies. If you want to get the feel of what it’s like to study with OU, you don’t even need to commit to a whole year. OU offers 3 month (at least that’s how long mine was) long introductory modules called ‘Access’.

I have gone through ‘Access to Success’ route two years ago which started with access module and followed by a level 1 module. I was eligible for funding so I paid £75 as opposed to something like £3000. I have been searching the web today but I can’t find any information about ‘Access to Success’ route. I am guessing they don’t do this anymore. This is a big shame because it allows people to get the proper feeling of what it’s like to study with OU without getting a loan or spending all of that money!

However I found that they do funding for the Access course and you might be eligible to study it for free. It’s not as good of a deal but it’s still an amazing opportunity to see if OU is for you. ‘Access’ is a great module especially for those who didn’t hold a text book in their hand for the past ten years, like me! ‘Access’ module I studied was called ‘Y181 Introducing Environment’ and it wasn’t very demanding. I don’t know if they still do this one but there is a variety of subjects to choose from. Studying ‘Access’ module gave me a chance to see if I am capable of motivating myself to study after a whole day at work; if I can actually handle studying on a university level; if my brain is still spongy enough to absorbs information and most of all if I find the topic interesting and enjoy the experience.

I sound like I’m sponsored by OU and trying to sell the product here… I’m not. I just had a great experience with OU so far. All of my tutors have been very supportive and helpful and they give great feedback.

Head over to this web http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/do-it/access to check out the details for the ‘Access’ course. Give them a ring if you have a question or you are unsure of something. I guarantee you that they will be helpful.

'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess - Review

‘A Clockwork Orange’ is probably one of the titles most people have heard about. Some have seen the movie but how many have read the book? I truly believe that you should always read the book before you watch the movie adaptation. The same goes for the ‘A Clockwork Orange’.

The nadsat language that Burgess has invented can make the book a bit difficult to read. The language is a mixture of Russian loanwords and Cockney rhyming slang. At first I found the nadsat quite annoying but it is very easy to get used to. I think it’s easy enough to understand the meaning of the words from the context and you’ll also find some explanations in the text. I come from Poland and Russian language has quite a lot of similarities to Polish. I have to say that this helped me a lot with understanding the text well. At times I even stop realising I am reading in two different languages. But even if you don’t have that advantage, you will get used to the nadsat words fairly quickly.

I am not going to deny that there is a lot of violence in the book and that it is quite difficult to carry on reading it at times. However the violence is not really what this book is about. There are so many questions that I have raised after finishing this book. Is there such a thing as pure evil? How much does society and upbringing affect our good/bad nature? Is being forced to be good against ones will better than being bad willingly? Does one simply grow out of ‘the fun’ of being violent? Why does one make a choice to stop committing crimes? I could carry on for a while here but I will stop and let you ask the questions yourself when you read it.
The book does not necessarily answer these questions. It forces the reader to ask them. It’s one of those books that I was itching to discuss with someone. I have been asking everyone if they have read it just so I could talk with them about it. But as it turned out, not many people have read it.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. Some say it should be read when you’re young/teenager but I don’t think it matters. Just read it and you will see for yourself what you have been missing.  

 

Day out in London – a little tradition

When I first met Nick we went to London in January for a one day trip. The year after that he got me tickets for ‘We will rock you’ show (I LOVE QUEEN) in London, again January. We didn’t have any major plans this year but decided to keep the tradition going and bought the train tickets to London while they were cheap. I booked the tickets with trainline.com back in December and paid around £30 for both of us which was less than half of the usual price.

When I sit down to plan a little trip like that, first thing I take into consideration is the budget. How much money have we got and what do we want to spend it on. We knew we wanted to go to a Japanese restaurant as this is a part of our tradition (sushi for dinner). Someone recommended ZUMA which is not a cheap place. We have therefore decided to splurge on dinner and keep the day time spending to a minimum.

First we went to Daunts Bookshop in Marylebone High Street. I bought 3 books which cost £23. I know I could have bought them cheaper on Amazon but I like supporting lovely places like these so I didn’t mind paying a bit more.

We stopped at a coffee shop which was so busy that no one noticed that we had our own pack up sandwiches with our pret-a-manger lattes. Saved us money and they tasted better than the shop bought anyway.

Then we headed to the Science museum (free admission). We got confused (as in ‘I got confused) couple of times and jumped on the train going in the wrong direction. That Direct line is so perplexing! We have lost quite a bit of time and walked into the museum at 5pm. This only gave us one hour to explore which was four times less than what you need to see everything in the museum. I definitely need to go back there to see the rest. I purchased a compulsory fridge magnet for £2 and we headed for dinner. (I always buy a fridge magnet from places I visited, I will need a second fridge soon).

Zuma was very busy as expected. We didn’t have a reservation so had to wait for hour and a half at the bar. Waiting was not a problem, we had a chat and a laugh. The problem were these delicious and expensive cocktails they serve. I was being all sensible at first and was only gonna have one or two. But once that alcohol hit I was more like ‘I don’t give a f**k how much they cost, keep ‘em coming’.
The food was absolutely beautiful, although I wish my asparagus salad had more than one asparagus in it. There was a couple that sat next to us who ‘ahed’ at our bowl of sashimi. Nick said to them that we didn’t really know what it was but we are adventurous so ordered it anyway. That’s a great way of showing that we’re not sophisticated nor we are posh.

 

We had a great and fun day. I could never get bored with London.

A day at the Rushton Hall spa

This lovely place is only 10 minutes drive from where I live and I never knew it existed. It was my friend’s birthday on Saturday and she wanted to spend a day in a spa. For £65 we got an all day spa access, one treatment (to choose from a list) and a complimentary drink. I haven’t been to many spa’s an I am not sure if that’s a steep price but I had a lovely relaxing day with my friend so it was definitely worth it.

For a treatment I picked 30 minute REN facial. I never had a facial done before but I have instantaneously became a fan. I have obviously purchased a recommended product from the REN line. I went for Radiance Serum. Is it unreasonable to expect it to make my skin unrecognizably radiant within next two days?

I managed to retrieve few pictures of the hall and the spa from my friend. I am a rubbish blogger and didn’t take any blog expectant photos.

One thing I really enjoyed about the whole thing was how ‘dead’ it was. There was practically no one there, so peaceful and quiet. I am not considering checking out more spas and making it a once a month relaxation trip.

Check out Rushton Hall here.

 

Tenerife mini scrapbook album

Memories are a funny thing. I think they are all there, everything recorded but no, they fade away and so many lovely moments get forgotten.

That’s a bit of a deep introduction…

In the last few years I have become a ‘memory hoarder’. I keep every little thing that will remind me of nice moments spent with my family and friends. I collect fridge magnets from places I go to, I keep tickets, receipts, post cards and even bring a little bag of sand from the holiday beach. I believe that pictures alone won’t tell the story and sometimes just won’t capture those precious moments. Plus I am not the kind of person that takes pictures of absolutely everything. I hardly ever would take a picture of my meal in a restaurant and when I see a good view, I just take a deep breath and enjoy it, forgetting about the pictures.

Years are passing by and I forget those little things that made me laugh or smile. Those moments when I felt happy. I am now desperately trying to keep those memories somehow. So I started making mini scrapbook albums. The one I am showing you today is the first one I made. It wasn't as easy as it seemed at first! I found myself quickly running out of ideas, wasn’t sure what size pictures to use, didn’t know what colour scheme to go for and all I had to work with were scrapbooking papers. But I am quite pleased with how it came out, I have already learnt from it and know what mistakes not to make next time. I know I will want to make these while the memories are still fresh and add more journaling cards. My aim is to look at these albums few years from now and say 'Oh! I forgot this happend, this was such a funny moment, we had a blast'. You hear what I'm saying? 

Below are my favourite pages from my first mini scrapbooking album.

 

 

A little insight on my experience with Open University

I had very best intentions to write a book review post last week but unfortunately Uni work took priority and blogging got pushed back to the bottom of my list. I have therefore decided to change the plan and write a post about the very reason why I sometimes have to neglect blogging and all other hobbies/social engagements/basic human needs like cooking or sleeping.

Part time studying with Open University.

I’m not going to go into detail as to why I decided to study with OU because this is a story for a whole separate post. Instead I want to give you a little overview of what I’m studying and how time consuming it has been so far.

I am studying towards BSc (Honours) Environmental Science degree. I am on a standard path and I need to earn 360 credits. It takes 6 years of continuous part time studies to earn this many credits. On my path there are three levels of studies which consist of modules to choose from although the choice is very limited. I am currently in the middle of my second year i.e. second module of level one. To be honest I don’t really look for what’s ahead on the path. OU is constantly changing and improving their modules. The level three modules probably won’t exist and will be replaced by different ones by the time I will get to that level.

The good thing about Level 1 modules is that I only need to pass. The results don’t add to the degree scoring. This gave me a good opportunity to get back to studying, working out schedules, planning study time etc. without the pressure of ‘degree score collecting’.

Last year in June I completed my first 60 credit (full year) module called ‘S104 Exploring Science’. This module is considered one of the most demanding and hardest Level 1 modules at Open Uni. I’m not going to lie. It was very time consuming, it was quite hard and there was SO MUCH material from EVERY scientific area you can think of. It starts with a book about Global Warming which introduces basic math needed for studying the module. It then goes through chemistry, physics, quantum physics, biology, geology and astronomy. To pass the module I had to submit 6 written assignments (so called TMAs) and pass an exam covering the whole module.

I passed. And the things I have learnt were amazing. I had some clue about bits and pieces but to know how an aspirin tablet works with body cells on a molecular level is amazing and so fascinating. This is how I know I am studying the right thing. I find it all so fascinating.
My overall examinable score was 63 and overall continuous assessment was 85, I’m very proud of these scores. English is my second language and I finished high school ten years ago with poor results. These scores are a proof that anyone can succeed if they love what they are doing and if they work hard.

Here is a cutout from one of my assignments from ‘Exploring Science’ module. I found a bit with two ‘well dones’ from my tutor for a little bragging purpose ;)

I will write a separate post about the module I am studying this year as it’s very different to this one. I also just realised how long this post is and I’m ought to stop here.

Welcome

Some of you might know that this isn’t my first experience with blogging. I have run ‘My BeautyFul World’ blog since 2011 and decided to close it down few days ago. I won’t go into the details as to why I made this decision but click here if you’re interested.

I named this blog ‘geek is chic’ because quite frankly I am a geek and I am chic (insert lol face).
I have so many interests, ideas, dreams and ambitions that I’d love to share with someone. My friends simply can’t handle the overload of my crazy ramblings about all sorts of random stuff. Hence the blog, it will be an outlet for my thoughts and ideas. I will be posting about my Open Uni experience, crafts, planning and organisation, beauty, food, travel and many more other random things.

I hope all of this won’t be too much and you will enjoy reading about different aspects of my life. I love that some people have one great hobby that they focus on but that’s just not me. I don’t think having interest in many different things from broad spectrum of fields is necessarily a bad thing. We are all different and we’re all have so much to share. I hope it won’t be too much of a clash if one day I post about a lipstick and the other about a cool scientific discovery. I will just have to wait and see how it goes.

Please leave loads of comments for me! I get so excited every time I get a comment. Let me know what works and what doesn’t and if you find the content interesting.

Hope you subscribe and enjoy reading my little blog.