London

I made it to London and back, travelling completely on my own! (Quite a big deal for me, even though I've flown by myself more than once.  I just get a bit anxious having to do something alone for the first time.)
The whole day was just... magical.  It doesn't take much to make me smile, so even sitting on the train listening to Bon Iver and reading a book of my choice was great.  I don't get much time to read for pleasure now that I'm at uni; it's all books on my reading list I have to study.
Everything about London was brilliant; the streets, the diverse people, the cookies, seeing my friend, the coffee, Soho, the underground, the wine at dinner.
It was exactly what I needed.
:)

Being sick.

I'm ill.
I haven't felt great all week, but yesterday evening I started to feel really bad, and decided to make a mug of hot water with honey and lemon,
and went to bed early, in the hopes that I would wake up this morning refreshed, healthy and ready for uni classes.
The fire alarm went off at 10:30pm, and I could not get back to sleep after that, until after 4am.
I woke up this morning with my head pounding and my chest wheezing.
I dragged myself out of bed and made some more hot-lemon-and-honey-water (which is surprisingly quite nice) and went to the shop on a mission to find medication.  I bet that everyone who passed me never wants to leave their flat ever again, for fear of seeing me like that again.
The shop had no Night Nurse (the most genius medical creation ever), but I still managed to spend £10 on not much more than a tin of soup and a carton of orange juice.

I missed my whole day at uni.  I guess that's normal for students, but not for me.  I worry about what I've missed, and just know that the summer exam questions will be specifically on today's seminars.

I'm pretty gutted; I decided late last night (after some persuasion from my mum, who has been off work sick for almost two months now) to book flights home for next weekend.  I got on to my airline's site and discovered I missed their 70% off sale by five minutes.  Being ill, exhausted and somewhat emotional, I was a bit of a mess when I realised I couldn't afford to get home.  It's okay though, I'm going to get the train to London instead, to meet my best friend who I haven't seen since Christmas.  I've never been to London before; I can guarantee I will get lost before I even get on the train.

A pain in the... head.

Since I was about fifteen, I've had a headache.
Until I was about twenty I had a permanent headache, one that literally never left.  It was a dull pain that I learned to deal with, it was always in the background and I got used to it.  It eventually eased up and became more of a frequent fleeting headache, than a constant one.

Now (aged twenty-two), it's taking a different turn.  I can go an entire day without a headache, but then one will just hit me like a train, and it floors me.  These headaches are totally different; forget the dull background pain of my teens, this is an intense pressure that feels like my brain is swelling, or like there's something forcing my brain forward into my forehead.

Sometimes the pain is in my forehead, sometimes it's at the back of my head just above my neck, sometimes it spreads down my temples to below my eye sockets.

In six years I've been to three GPs on numerous occasions, several opticians and even the hospital.  No one knows what's causing them, or how to fix it.  I've been told I don't need glasses, been put on various medications, been given eye exercises to do and been asked to stop drinking coffee.  None of these things have worked, and right now I am absolutely desperate.  It's after 3am, and I can't sleep because of the pain.  I've taken painkillers, had plenty of water to drink, been out for fresh air, and stayed away from the computer for hours.

What the hell am I supposed to do now?

University newspaper

An article I wrote is being printed in my university's newspaper.
I know it's just a crappy university newspaper, but I'm still excited to see my name and work in print!

Just thought I'd share my excitement :)

Oh the frustration.

It's just after six in the morning.
I can't sleep.  It's not that I've woken up early and can't get back over; I haven't slept at all.
I'm not sure why, but I'm guessing it's one of these things, or probably a combination of them all:

• I never left my room today; I had an assignment to completely re-write, so it's just been me and my laptop all day.
  
• I drank an abnormally large amount of coffee today (although the last mug was more than eight hours ago; how long does caffeine stay in your system?).
• My mind won't relax; I have a constant river of thoughts going on in there.
• I am too warm.
• I spent a couple of hours starting new research for a possible writing project, and can't get the ideas out of my head (just a few hours would be nice!).

After tossing and turning, I got fed up and took some herbal sleeping tablets, but guess who is still awake?
I wish I had something interesting to blog about, but I really don't.  Unless you want to hear the story about my dog bite?  It's been almost a week and no foam has appeared around my mouth (yet), so I think I'm in the clear.

I'm kind of waiting for something exciting to happen.

My 100th post.

B is engaged.

December.

Um... it's mid December?  What the hell?
I can't believe I'm almost finished my first semester of university.
As much as I love life here so far, I cannot wait to get on that plane on Saturday.  I'm really looking forward to seeing my family over the holidays; not seeing them for months has made me realise how important my family is to me.
I'm looking forward to good food, plenty of laughs, sitting by the fire playing Scrabble with my mum, seeing my best friend again and generally not taking Christmas for granted as I have done every year previous to this one.

It is actually snowing outside my window as I type this, how cliche.
I have a massive To Do list pinned up that I need to complete before I go home in less than 48 hours (like cleaning the kitchen and emptying the rubbish, seeing as my flatmates are obviously allergic to doing things like this).

Last night we went out for our 'last night out before Christmas', and it was awful.  It was so busy in the club that we could not move, and kept getting stood on, elbowed, and other not-nice-things.  My friends kept calling me Scrooge, and they even bought me a black Santa hat that says Bah Humbug on it, because I won't get into the whole cheesy, over-the-top side of Christmas.  Anywhere, out of nowhere, some asshole pushed my friend over and she fell on her back right down to the ground.  As I leaned down to help her get back up, someone hit me in the eye.  For no reason.  As I went to the bar to get some water, someone stood on my foot in a stiletto heel, meanwhile my eye was throbbing and streaming.  Fed up, and feeling a bit messy in the head (not from drinking, I was sober), my friend and I decided to go home.  Unknowing to us, the friend that got pushed over had fainted twice, and so our other friends had to call paramedics to check her over, and they wouldn't leave her until about 3am.

So yeah, can't wait to get 'home'!