#BEDM- A day in the life of...a student

I'm not even going to lie, I have been a total lazy bitch today. The maintenance people woke me up because they came to clean my shower head at about 11am and since I didn't have a lecture until 4 most of the day with my head stuck firmly in a textbook so there isn't all that much exciting stuff to show you.

The joys of revising 

I rediscovered a few old doodles from my lecture notes...

and made some beautiful revision cards

When I did finally stroll down to my 4pm lecture I found Al, who was a little worse for wear after last night.

I'm glad to say we did all make it through the lecture which was then followed by another 2 hour meeting for poor Al, but for me it was followed by a trip to the pub for drinks to celebrate finishing all of my first year lectures!

The burgers from the Belle Vue are delish!

This evening has so far consisted of a little more revision, a much needed skype session to the lovely Hubbert and Lambrini.

All in all a very good day. Have a good weekend everyone!

Keep it scrimpy
Laura.

#BEDM- Spring

Firstly, Happy Birthday Clive!

Now, onto the topic of spring. It’s a confusing time for me, the weather is lovely and shit all at the same time. I need to stay in and revise but the nice weather makes me want BBQ’s on the beach and the rubbish weather makes me all sad. Plus my wardrobe is confused as well, we had some nice weather before easter so I was convinced spring was here to stay and packed all my winter woollens up and took them home bringing back the summery stuff. In typical wales fashion it pissed it down constantly leaving me totally unprepared.

On a more serious note spring for me usually means exams. GCSE’s Alevels and now uni exams, it’s the most stressful time of the year for me but it also signals that I'm nearly there, summer is almost here and it’s nearly time to relax.

Nearly, not quite though and on that note, I'm going back to my revision.

Oooh look a scary crow...

Keep it scrimpy
Laura

#BEDM - 5 Lines...About me

I’m Laura, the crazy money saving student studying geography in Bangor.

Wales beautiful but it rains a lot.

I miss my dog more than anything else from home.

I have watched Mamma Mia at least 3 times in the past 3 weeks.

My friends are just as crazy as me.

May Blogging Challenge

Well it's been another crazy month that seems to have flown by a little too fast. While this month hasn't been my most active in terms of blogging I'm still really proud of how my blog has been ticking over all  on its own, yay me!

Looking forwards to May I have the big scary problem of exams and because I am a total genius I have decided to take a blogging challenge. Organised by the lovely Elizabeth at  ttp://www.rosalilium.com/ go take a look at her blog, she's brilliant, she once wrote a whole post about bacon. I'm not even lying.check it out here.

Anyway!

Every day in May I will be blogging a variety of topics, to be fair I am writing as many posts in advance as I can (cheating? Maybe, but I like to think my exams have slight priority).

If you follow me on twitter I will be using the hashtag #BEDM a lot to share my posts.

Wish me luck!

Keep it scrimpy
Laura.

My summer resolutions

This post is inspired Alex's tweet. 

It got me thinking, why do we only make resolutions in January? Why not one every month? Well now the end of the academic year is creeping up on me quickly, hand in deadlines are here and exams are getting ever closer. So among all this I'm procrastinating to the max and looking ahead to summer. So inspired by Alex's tweet here are my summer resolutions.

• Go to London- I love London, I'm a massive tourist when I go, might even invest in a bum bag to complete that tourist look.
• Go on spontaneous day trips- Not including pub trips.
• Take out a gym membership- I actually really enjoyed going to the gym over easter.
• Actually use said gym membership- I have a feeling this shall be the hard bit
• Relax - I have worked really hard this year, I think I deserve it
• Go 'outside' more often- I have stupidly signed up to a module called 'Geography outdoors' for next year.
• Spend some quality time with my dog- she's getting on a bit now but neither of us can really hack long walkies anyway. We are a good match
• Go on a picnic
• Spend quality time with friends
• Go blackberry picking- I know this is more in the autumn time but it still comes under my summer break. 
• Do more thrifty crafts- I haven't been crafting as much since I came to uni, I don't really have the space.

We shall see how well these go over summer.

Do you have any summer plans already? Feel free to share!

Keep it scrimpy.
Laura.

Sunny Days in Bangor.

This weekend has been amazing and has reminded me why I came to Bangor in the first place, there aren't many uni's where you can go and have a BBQ on the beach on your day off and since it was so sunny yesterday Epti, Giselle and I headed to the beach armed with a BBQ and kites (from poundland of course).

This was the view across the menai straits yesterday afternoon. We were amazed how blue the water was. 

Getting the BBQs going

The views were seriously beautiful 

Our kites from Poundland provided a few hours of fun. I called mine Kevin.

I was loads better at flying kites than Giselle. We also taught Epti how to skim stones, she was a natural! 

 After then BBQ we sat and watched the sun set. The perfect end to a perfect day in Bangor.

Epti, Giselle and I.  

I felt really lucky to be here in Bangor this weekend, great people and beautiful scenery. I am a very Lucky Lady.

Keep it scrimpy.
Laura.

An easter update.

Easter seems like forever ago now, but I arrived back in Bangor last night to some typical Welsh rain. I've had a good rest over easter and although I really enjoyed my blogging break I'm glad to be back. So here is a few updates from my easter break, mostly in photo form. Enjoy!



My first mission when I got back was to see my dog and giver her some major cuddles. To be fair most of my easter was spent snuggling playing or walking with the dog.

I caught up with some friends and family which included cocktails at midday and feeding the ducks, a trip to the casino and finally a road trip to a victorian town!

Feeding the duckies with Poppy (after cocktails)

A trip to the Victorian Village with Jon

Hehehee a building with a face!

We had tea for two (from the worlds biggest teapot)

And I got to be a nerdy Geographer!

I also cooked brownies, they were seriously amazing. The cream egg ones were alright but OH MY DAYS the chocolate orange brownies with an orange syrup were out of this world.

Just look how beautiful it looks...

Finally I decided to invest in a new camera. I was going to wait until my birthday but when this little beauty came up on groupon for only £70 I couldn't really say no. I love it, it's like my baby. I'm hoping it will help with getting me off my lazy arse over summer, we shall see.

I hope everyone has had a good easter, now if you'll excuse me I have an essay to stare at  write.

Keep it scrimpy.
Laura.

R.I.P Maggie T.

I hope everyone is having a really good easter, sorry I have been neglecting the blog but I have needed a break. Now I'm back and ready to rant. Yes, sorry it's another rant post.

So I have literally JUST heard the news about Margaret Thatcher and already I have seen sick jokes floating around on Twitter and Facebook. She may not have been the most popular politician but people need to have some respect she was a mother and a grandmother. Carol and Mark Thatcher have lost their mother, regardless of politics she was a mother.

Thatcher was a great woman again regardless of her political beliefs and actions she was the first female prime minister and won three general elections. She paved the way for women in a mans world and deserves respect for that.

Her campaign manager, Airey Neave, who was instrumental to her election success was killed on 30th March 1979 by the Irish National Liberation Army who placed a bomb under his car. She also survived an assassination attempt in 1984. The attack took place on the hotel in Brighton in which she was staying for the Conservative Party Conference on the early hours of the morning on the 12th of October. After narrowly escaping injury she then insisted the conference going ahead as scheduled despite the death of 5 people. What a woman! Anyone who has the strength to carry on after an experience like that has my respect. Just imagine going through that and then carrying on the next day, I couldn't do it.

People who are sharing sick jokes literally seconds after they have heard the news of her death need to stop and think about their actions. It just makes me so angry that people have so little respect for another human being.

I'm not ashamed to say that she is one of my role models, not necessarily because of her political beliefs but because of her strength and determination as a woman. I don't think I could ever show the strength that she has in life May she rest in peace.

Keep it scrimpy.
Laura.

My something crazy

So I'm finally home for Easter! I almost didn't (stupid snow). I decided that this Easter I needed to get my arse in gear, I'm back at work so I'm not staying in bed all day every day, just the occasional day, but I wanted something to motivate me to get out and about.

I'm not really an overly active person, I dislike 'the outside'. My dog and shopping are the main reasons for my venturing 'outside' for leisure related purposes. By 'outside' I mean venturing anywhere by choice where there is a chance of be getting wet or cold. I've decided that since I'm a geographer I really should be more of the outdoors type so this was my first step to becoming more active and I have big plans for a whole new active/outdoors me this summer, however I am still waiting for summer to come along so those plans are on hold..

So I did something crazy. Something totally out of character. I joined the gym. 

For the next few weeks I shall be hitting the gym 2/3 times a week, currently I'm full of enthusiasm however I'm not expecting it to last so my plan to keep myself motivated is...

• Go with friends
• Carry my gym stuff in my bag all the time
• Tell everyone that I will be going to the gym so I feel obliged to go

Any other tips to keep me motivated would be much appreciated!

Keep it scrimpy.
Laura.

Why I fell in love with Bangor- The open days

One of the first sets of posts I did was about how to choose a university that is right for you but it recently struck me that I never said why I chose Bangor. So this is my story... Part 1

Warning this is quite a wordy/rambling post

Bangor was always on my list of unis to apply to. I love Wales, I spent most of my summers in the area as a kid, my grandparents had a caravan in Towyn. Anyway, I knew I wouldn't get the grades to go to Cardiff and Aber was too far away from home and it didn't really appeal to me on the open day so that just left Bangor really. Being from a small town I'm not really into the whole big city thing, I visited Leeds and while the shopping was amazing I missed grass and trees. So eventually I applied to Bangor, Chester, Sheffield Hallam, Plymouth and University of Nottingham. I got offers back from all 5. I picked Bangor as my first choice and Plymouth as my second only because it was my lowest offer. I don't think I would have gone to uni if I hadn't got in here.

For Bangor I attended one UCAS open day and one of the Senergy open days then I visited a few more times on my own.

UCAS open day 

The first open day I came to was a UCAS open day where the whole uni was open to any prospective students, I booked my place very early on and came along with my dad. The weather was amazing, Bangor seems to have a habit of whipping out the good weather just in time for an open day. We packed a little picnic in the car and set off nice and early, wouldn't want to be late now would we?

When we arrived I remember thinking how organised everything was, the whole town was sign posted, we were told where to park. My dad didn't put the handbrake on enough, when we got back to the car it had rolled out of it's space, lucky it didn't hit anyone. Anyway, my Dad's driving skills aside, we were then placed on a bus and were taken up to main arts where we got talked at by someone important about finance or something, I was just amazed by the room we were in (PJ hall) it is true what they say it is like Hogwarts!

After our talk we went off to a Halls tour, again a coach was very kindly provided! Compared to what I had already seen from other unis this was luxury (the halls not the coach). We decided to ditch the group here and walk back to Thoday since the weather was so good (where we found the car half escaped from the parking space).

Next we had a Senergy talk, now this was the bit I was most excited about I finally got to meet my lecturers and maybe even some people who would be on my course (although if I did I don't remember). Things are a bit fuzzy now but I remember Graham attempting to be funny but I think I was a little overwhelmed by the day so it all went over my head slightly, plus he does tell awful jokes anyway, the kind your dad thinks are funny. I also remember being terrified of Sian (how very wrong first impressions can be) and I remember thinking Lynda was brilliant because she was a northerner. At one point Senergy supplied us with lunch which was very welcome! Trust me it's worth coming to an open day just for the BBQ chicken sandwiches. We then split into our course groups which meant as a Geographer I had another hour of talks (bad jokes) from Graham and the team. You get used to his jokes, nowadays we almost find them funny...almost.

We then wandered back up to the main arts building where we got totally lost and ended up in some kind of meeting that we were sure we weren't supposed to be in, then people offered us food so we stayed. Next thing I know some guy is talking to me in Welsh, at least I think it was welsh, I hope it was since I said to the man, in the way all English people do when confronted with a foreign language, 'WE...DON'T...SPEAK...WELSH' he kind of looked at me and nodded then carried on anyway, you can imagine the look on our faces, we just slowly backed out of the room. I seriously hope I never meet this person again, or if I do I hope they don't recognize me.

After that humiliation we decided to call it a day. Since it was such a nice sunny day we called in at Llandudno where we had a picnic on the beach, which was a bad bad move, my dad had his sandwich stolen. I then watched him wrestle a seagull for a pork pie, you don't get between a stokie and a pork pie. Ever. We ended up having a picnic on Llandudno high street which wasn't quite a classy as we had pictured when we set out for a seaside picnic.

After a long but exciting day, it was time for home.

Senergy open day

Well somehow after the last open day I came back for another. Well played Senergy.

I only sat through half of this one (Graham's jokes had got worse). I thought I should come back and see Bangor again before  I made my final choice, although I was already 99.99% sure that Bangor was going to be my first choice plus there was promise of more of those BBQ chicken sandwiches. This time I made the journey to Bangor by rail just to test out the facilities as this would be my main way of getting home. By now I could already find my way to Thoday building so off we trotted from the station. When we turned up the weather wasn't as brilliant but it was nice to see Bangor looking not so glamorous and still loving it. Turns out  most of the talks and stuff were roughly the same as on the UCAS open day. We had a general welcome talk, a quick tour of the facilities and then a chat about finances followed by a free lunch (the best kind). Then we split into subject specific talks a.k.a 3/4 of an hour of Graham comedy gold. Then a GIS practical but I didn't really fancy the GIS practical .So at the half time break I asked Graham for the reading list so I could nerd it up over summer. Then we legged it to the high street for some quality shopping time. A girl has to road test all aspects of student life right?

Somehow between an escaping car, bad jokes (and a few almost funny ones), free food and a fight with a seagull I had fallen in love with Bangor and even as a write this post now, the wind is howling and it's bloody freezing but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Keep it scrimpy.
Laura.

p.s If you are reading this Graham, your jokes/funny stories aren't that bad, we actually quite like them they make lectures that little bit brighter.