It’s been a crazily busy week, but I’m proud to say I
have now officially completed my second year of university! I still can’t quite
believe it and have no idea how I’ve managed to get this far. Over the last
year my health hasn’t been great and has thrown up a hell of a lot of curve
balls, but with a lot of support from friends, family and the university I have
managed to keep going. There have been really difficult times and times I’ve
been close to giving up, but I’ve also had so much fun and developed some
amazing friendships. I have a great group of girls on my course and, this year,
I really feel like we’ve got a lot closer. I’m really going to miss our chats,
banter and adventures over the summer! I don’t get my official marks back until
mid-June, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed I won’t need to do any re-sits!
Tomorrow I’m off to The Royal National Orthopaedic
Hospital at Stanmore for my three-week inpatient stay. I’m feeling pretty
nervous about it at the moment, but also a bit excited to meet some new people
and hopefully learn some techniques for managing my health problems. I’m
planning to continue with my Sunday Snippets over the next few weeks, but
instead they will be a diary of my time at Stanmore. I also have some other
Stanmore posts I would like to do, as I’ve found it really helpful to read
other people’s experiences of it, so keep your eyes peeled for those!
I woke up quite early for a Sunday last week and
sorted out my medication for the week ahead. Both my Mum and Dad were out for
most of the day, so it was just Bekkah and I at home. Freddie was a bit of a
pain in the backside all morning, but it’s so hard to be cross with him when
he’s so cute! I edited a few photos, then wrote and uploaded a blog post. It
was a lovely sunny day, so I took the dogs out in the garden for a while. The
clematis we have growing across our fence is flowering and looks beautiful. In
the afternoon I spent quite a while finishing my narrative article – it was
finally done! I then wrote two reflective commentaries and started putting my
portfolios together. I actually had quite a productive day!
I actually managed to get up early enough on Monday
morning to put some make-up on (which, let me tell you, doesn’t happen often
enough!) My Mum took me over to Uni for the start of our News Week. We had a
team meeting to allocate stories first. Zeena and I chose to work on a story
about Mental Health Awareness Week and the pledges that are being made by
various political parties. After doing some research, we drove over to Farnham
Hospital to do some filming and then popped into the centre of Farnham to get a
bit more footage. When we got back to Uni we spent the afternoon recording voiceovers
and editing the footage together. The programme was broadcast a bit late, but
it went well. My Dad picked me up and we went to the hospital to pick David up,
as he’d had an operation earlier in the day. I was absolutely shattered by the
time I finally got home.
I bought these peonies at the end of last week and
they’re absolutely beautiful. I’ve only ever really seen pale ones, so when I
found these bright pink flowers I had to get them!
My Mum drove me over to Uni again on Tuesday morning.
At our team meeting I pitched the idea of covering the new Aldi alcoholic
ice-lollies, as they’re proving to be incredibly popular, so I worked on it
with Zeena and Tazmyn. We went over to Aldi in Alton, but they didn’t have any,
so we then went over to Camberley and they did thankfully! When we got back to
Uni we had to work quickly so the lollies didn’t melt. We filmed the packaging
and then people trying them to see what they thought of them. I then spent the afternoon
writing a script and editing the footage together. Unfortunately, when we
watched the programme at the end of the day, our tutor didn’t really like our
package because he said it contained too much advertising, so that upset me a
bit because we’d spent all day working on it. My Dad brought me home and I
dozed on the sofa feeling exhausted for a while.
Wednesday was a pretty horrible day to be honest. My
Dad has been coming down with something for quite a while, but on Wednesday
morning he really wasn’t very well at all, which caused him to pass out as I
was getting ready for Uni. He looked so poorly and my Mum and I were really
concerned that he was having a stroke or something. I helped my Mum get him
lying down in bed and he seemed to look a little better, although I didn’t want
to leave him. But I had to get to Uni, so my Mum took me over – I was so shaky
so had one of these new Stoats cereal bars I’ve found – they are really tasty. Thankfully it was just a
production day, so things were a bit quieter. I spent some time finishing my
news day diary, and then Stanmore rang and wanted to go through all my
allergies and medication. I still felt really rubbish but was keeping in touch
with my Mum via text and she’d managed to get him seen by a doctor. They
prescribed him antibiotics for a chest infection but said if he passed out
again then we had to ring for an ambulance. In the afternoon I finished editing
my narrative piece and chatted to the girls. My Mum picked me up and we popped
in to see David and Emma on our way home. I felt absolutely drained after
everything that happened, but thankfully my Dad seemed a bit better when I got
home.
We were doing a radio news day on Thursday and I went
into Uni with three ideas, but decided to cover a story about how the new craze
for fidget spinners is stopping children with special needs being able to use
them for educational purposes. I did some research and lined up some
interviews. Ife and I then went to Enchanted Wood Toy Store and interviewed the
staff, who were so lovely. Back at Uni, unfortunately the other interviews I’d
lined up fell through. So I wrote a script and then edited all our footage
together. We listened to the radio programme, which sounded really good,
although I know I’m biased! We finished a bit early so I wrote my news day
diary and finished editing my narrative article. My Mum picked me up, as my Dad
wasn’t well enough to drive, and we popped into Waitrose on the way home. I had
a really bad headache, which I often seem to get after news days.
My Dad was feeling a bit better on Friday, but not
well enough to drive. So Richard drove us both over to Uni with my electric
wheelchair in the back of the car so I could try it out before we broke up for
summer. I worked with Emma and Amber on two packages – one about maths GCSE
questions and also a revision tips guide. We started by filming some five shot
sequences for both packages, and got some really nice shots. Then we went into
Farnham and got some vox pops for the GCSE package, followed by interviews with
Uni students about their top revision tips. I recorded a voiceover and edited
the revision tips package. Then a few of us went out and helped the presenters
film their links on location around the university. After watching the
programme the girls and I went to the Slug and Lettuce for dinner and cocktails
to celebrate finishing our second year. It was so lovely to relax, chat and
have a good time with them. I was so tired when I got home and had a really
sore throat though.
On Saturday I got up quite late feeling not too brilliant
to be honest. I opened a bit of post and then finished making Sarah’s present.
I wrapped everything up and then went across the road to celebrate Sarah’s 30th
birthday. I sat with Sarah while she fed Charlie his lunch, then we all chatted
in the lounge for a bit. After a while, we all headed outside to eat our BBQ
lunch in the sunshine. Little Charlie sat with us in his walker, which looks
like a racecar – so cute! We spent the afternoon chatting and playing with Charlie.
He was so good and was full of smiles and giggles. Late afternoon we did Sarah’s
birthday cake and sang happy birthday to her. I came home at about 6.30pm and
had a really bad tummy ache – having digestive problems is so frustrating and
soul destroying.
I opened my two subscription boxes that arrived in the
post this week. First up was my Birchbox,
which has a lot of brands I haven’t heard of before this month. But I’m still
looking forward to trying them out, especially the one with the cute hedgehogs
on the packaging! Then I opened my Pink Parcel, which I’m
always so impressed with! As well as getting your sanitary products, you also
get a box full of treats including food, tea and beauty products. I’m not a big
fan of the nail varnish colour but am excited to try the rose water toner.
You can check out my YouTube channel here, where I have recently uploaded a few new videos (and hope to
continue doing!)
I’m also trying to post on Snapchat a bit more,
so if you fancy following me, my username is Jennycole44.
If you don’t already, please give me a follow
on Bloglovin here - I would love to reach 800 followers and we’re so nearly there!
I do have a little giveaway planned for when I get there!
What have you been up to this week? I always
enjoy hearing about your news and adventures!
No comments:
Post a Comment