Sufra

It is a shame to admit that I did not start volunteering at the Foodbank because of an urge to help deal with food poverty.

To be frank, my motivation was peer pressure. Actually, scratch that - family pressure. When three of your siblings all volunteer at the same place and insist that you must help, it is difficult to say no.

Despite going in without honourable intentions, I have learnt so much abo

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Volunteering at Sufra is one of the most rewarding opportunities that I have invested my time into. It is a great shame to admit that I did not start volunteering at the foodbank because of my urge to help deal with poverty in my local area. To be frank, my initial motivation was that three of my siblings were regular volunteers and they insisted that I popped in.

Despite going in without honourable intentions, my experience has made me eager to help out where I can when it comes to food poverty.

Usually, I volunteer at the Community food kitchen that they have every Friday in which trained volunteers cook amazing three course meals for anyone who attends.

Recently, I have been doing bits and bobs. Most of last week, I was wrapping presents. The Foodbank got a lot of Lush donations which they intended to give to users of the Foodbank.

Also, two weeks ago, I was a waiter and this week I've been cleaning.

I love my family there. :) There is

Update

Hello world. Or rather more, hello Bob.

Christmas was amazing.

It was the first time that my family did a proper Christmas dinner.

Tobi cooked turkey and I cooked everything else.

My dad was so happy - called it the best Christmas we ever had and it was lovely to see him smiling.

We then did a puzzle and watched several movies.

It was amazing!

The Monday that followed was great. I did my hair and Joy and I watched several movies.

Mamma Mia, and The Dream Girls - we certainly love our musicals! Also, as a family, we watched Stolks.

We also went Ikea breakfast which was fun. :)

I love life.

My family aren't perfect. There are always arguments and to be honest, it is a little stressful at times.

However, I love them to bits and I will happily endure the bad moments for the great ones. :)

People sometimes think that to be happy, you have to do things like travel or be in a relationship or have your goals fulfilled.

I think it is important to remember, in everyday, you can find pockets of happiness.

One night when River Song was in a spectacularly good mood, she told him all about her ‘real’ husband and his spaceship – he suspected at the time that large quantities of alcohol may have played a part in loosening River Song, but never questioned it as he was enjoying her story far too much. 

I walked five miles today.

My legs hurt.

I felt good though.

Today my friend messaged me saying 

'I am sad. Please help.'

(Normally, I respond immediately to his messages as I have Facebook opened up when I am on my laptop. Ironically, that was the message I took long to reply to seeing as I was showering).

I know that he is the one with the problem. However, I felt quite lost talking to him because I didn't know what to do or to say or how all I could help. Just that he was relying on me and I was doing a pretty bad job in cheering him up. 

I am not a counsellor or a therapist and I don't have any specialist experience. All I can do is be a friend. 

I think he forgets that.

That I cannot cure him. That I cannot offer him a quick fix. That I can't always be there for him. I can't make him happy when he is down, it also seems. 

And it is sad, because he is a really lovely guy. But everything is revolved around his problem. 

:( 

Christmas Party

Yesterday, my flatmates and I had a Christmas dinner (or lunch and dinner). It was absolutely amazing.

It started off as an idea a month ago. At the time, people were complaining, 'but Christmas is too far away!' Time flew so fast.

The day before yesterday, we went out as a massive group to buy food. I was prepared! I brought my suitcase. (Let's just miss out the part where I nearly left my suitcase in the Iceland and Tesco aisle).

At two thirty when I came back from my lecture, I started off peeling the parsnips and carrots. After some tedious minutes of doing them alone, I recruited my future flatmate, Adele. Together, we tackled the carrots and parsnips as well as watched The Parent Trap.

Then we started to fry and then glaze the carrots with honey. Trust me when I say that they were delicious!

I ended up coordinating most of the cooking (and telling people what to do). However, Josie entirely handled the meat and vegetarian pigs in blankets.

We were supposed to start at 4:30 on the dot. (We started at 5). Most people listened to the dress code and dressed formal so we all looked especially nice. I wore my prom dress (which Daniel said looked as if I was going to a funeral). We ate a fantastic meal.

At 10:30, we had dessert. Ole made Norwegian rice pudding and Marianna made a chocolate cake. Since being here, she has made four cakes. This is as she makes a cake for everyone's birthday. Let me tell you, her cooking skills have become amazing. I am now convinced that there is no cake she cannot bake!

We did our secret Santa and I ended up with a notebook. It is a really pretty one (so even though I did not want another notebook, I absolutely love this one!)

Afterwards, Hahnhee, Rebecca and I played piggy in the middle with a piece of foil. It was not the safest of games seeing as we were besides a table and in the kitchen. However, it certainly was fun.

Guess who got 76 percent for her first practical report? :)

Hey guys,

I am really tired. I just want to go home.

Let me start with yesterday. I had a tutorial at 10:00am and it was in a cafe on campus. Liz offered to buy us all drinks and she came back with a plate of tiny mince pies. They were so adorable. I almost did not want to eat them. She pretty much forced all of us to eat them. She was like please take one. When no one would, she singled out Stephy. Then she looked at me and so I took one.

She continued by going around the table and asking us what we have liked the most and what we have disliked the most. There was pretty much unanimity in that time management was none of our strong points.

I had to give nemo back after three weeks of nemo sitting so that was a bit emotional. Though she assured me that she would look after him well.


I had a stats lecture and seminar.


At 2.45pm I had a feedback session with Liz regarding my essay. By the way, I got 58 on my first essay. Pretty good considering I haven't done a proper essay since GCSE's. She told me that it would have been a 60 but they are not allowed to give borderline marks. My essay was good and there were some very strong points according to Liz. However, some points were shit (though she sugar coated this, of course). My conclusion was bad. I contradicted what I put in my main body. If I had spent more than five minutes on it I would have probably got into the 2:1 region.

I mentioned how Liz's office is really cool and she has lots of pictures, photos and paintings up. Oh and books as well. Like 100 (and she said she has read most). I decided that I'd bring her a drawing to pin up (because why not? I was happy that she let me look after nemo because he helped me through some tough times.) She was really happy and hugged me. Then I left and outside was Nabs waiting for me.

Later Nabs dropped by at my room and we stalked her crush on Facebook and did our social psychology test together. I may have not mentioned Nabs before. She's brilliant. She is weird, she squees and she is funny.

After this, I went to a carol concert with my flat mates. That was cool.


Today I had two lectures, a three hour lab and a test. The test was open book and online but I did it non open book and I didn't do to well. It was a pass but I could have done better if I searched stuff up. Ah well. On the plus, I have started both my assignments that are due in January. I discovered that SPSS check my answers for all my stat's questions which I shall take full advantage of. Also, the stats is all basic S1 stuff so I only need an hour or two to get it done. My second assignment, I have finished a plan. Pretty much the only thing that will take time is my intro. However, that won't take long now I know how to read journal articles.

Peace out guys.

Two more busy days to go before I go home. On the plus side, tomorrow is busy because of the Christmas Party.

Dear Bob

Dear Bob,

If you are reading this, I just wanted to say, I love you loads. xxx

Hope everything is going well.

I was in the audience of a TEDx talk today. IT WAS SOOOO COOOOL!

That was actually on my bucket list so I feel as if I have achieved something today.

The theme was 'Who are you?'

There were two psychologists and one journalist talking.

I may expand on what they said some other time.

But my eyes hurt now, so bye.

I called my mother to tell her that I was ill. She asked me if I were cold and I said no and that my room has heating. 

She calls me back and puts my dad on the phone and he is under the impression that I am super cold and that it is such an emergency that he needed to drive over that instant to bring me covers and warm clothes. 

When I specifically told my mum, it is just a headache and stomach ache. 

One can only wonder how my mum completely miscommunicated this to my father. 

What is happening to me???

I think I may have mentioned, but my last menstrual cycle was 22 days. I was worried bearing in mind that the average is 28. Also, considering that it was an anomaly. Since around May, it has consistently been 28 days.

Since my period, stuff has been going wrong. I have been having stomach pains. Not usual cramps, but something else. It feels like I am going to throw up. As if I had been food poisoned. This has been happening quite often recently. I thought at first it was period pains but as they are still happening, they cannot be. 

Also, I have been having dizzy spells and headaches. The other day, I could not bear to move because I was in so much pain. Recently, the pain has been so much that I have had to take painkillers. 

Furthermore, I have been sensitive to light. This morning I had my laptop in front of me and it was so agonising that I had to put it away. 

What is bothering the most is that I have been extremely tired recently. So tired that I have to lie down in my bed for a bit. Or that I cannot do anything else. I don't get tired. I really don't. Okay, fine I do. But never so tired that I need to lie down. Never so tired that I feel like I cannot do anything. Last year, I ran on 7 and a half hours of sleep and I didn't have a problem with tiredness. I am running on 8 and a half now. It doesn't make sense. 

There is the argument that I am stressed. However, I was stressed when my mum left to Nigeria and I didn't respond physiologically. I was stressed doing my TSA and I didn't respond physiologically then either. Why the sudden change? 

I don't think it is serious. Like I have a rare disease. I know that online symptom checkers aren't the best / they get you unnecessarily hyped up sometimes. Therefore, I am assuming that I don't have a problem that is uncommon.