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If you wish to start from the beginning to the point where I was in Year 11 (2012) to understand me more, please scroll down to find 'Blog Archive'.

Friday 14 October 2016

Busy Busy Busy

Honestly, I am terrible at keeping this blog up but that's because I'm not so motivated considering I feel like the blog is not actually read by readers but in any case there are people who read my blog, I will write when I can...

I've been so busy and always am busy with many things!

One is planning the wedding... Things are coming together and I'm almost through booking everything and now there's just bits and bobs left to do, such as rehearsals, hair trials, food tasting, final preparations and all that. The wedding still doesn't feel real to me... Yet. That happens all the time for me; when there's something coming up, I won't feel it happening until perhaps the day before, just like Disneyworld last year.

I've finally graduated from university and I cannot tell you how pleased I am to achieve 2:1 and finally free from education. I found the last year slightly draining me out because I had a lot of things to deal with, such as deadlines and I was the leader on the exhibition project. But also I was starting to get fed up because I generally felt alone; I've always found it difficult to make new friendships due to my deafness but I'm used to it and it didn't bother me much.

Since graduation, I mainly worked in my summer job, which I enjoyed throughout and spending few day outs with my friends. I was sad to finish the summer job because I doubt I'd be returning again next year considering I was looking for a permanent job now that I finished university.

Not long after finishing summer work, I landed in a part time temporary job at a supermarket where my fiancè works. It was better than going straight to unemployment after summer work and again, something to fill in my time and earn bit of money. Even though I was placed on a small hour contract, they gave me a lot of hours every week because the store is always so busy that they're still understaffed. I am on the checkouts, and I actually quite enjoy it because I still communicate with customers like I did on my summer work, and the colleagues are kind to me. I could get used to this but I'm not entirely sure if it's something I want to do in the long term, as I am now slightly clueless on what to do with my future career plans.

There's not been much any updates since then because I'm simply busy working a lot now... So, I will apologise for any delays in next posts...

Ta-ra,
Cathy

Sunday 3 April 2016

Long Update...

I am SO sorry for abandoning my blog! My life has been real crazy since the last post! I suppose as you get older, you get busier so I guess that's adult life for you!

So, since July... I did mention that I was jetting off to Florida and that was AMAZING! It was my first time to Disney World so really, I was acting like a child over there; getting a Belle tattoo (my favourite character!), buying lanyards and collecting badges...
It was also my first abroad holiday with my boyfriend so it was really nice to finally get some time with him since he's constantly working and we hadn't been able to spend together much.

Then the rest of the summer was pretty much working in my summer job, with few plans here and there. I mostly visited around Nottingham, since I live there so it was easier to meet up with friends without having to deal with the hassle of travelling.

October comes, back to university. Honestly, I didn't want to go back! I had the most amazing summer ever in my life as I had so many plans that time and enjoyed it throughout. But towards the end where we were settling in, I started to get bored so I kind of wanted to go back to university... Until the last minute!

University was pretty easy from October to December, I managed to complete all my work in time for deadlines... Nothing new from the course...

In October, I had a great surprise... I had a busy day out with my friend and I'd come in the evening and noticed that my boyfriend was acting weird. I was with him for nearly four years and he wasn't like this before. He didn't speak to me but just kept looking at me and biting his nails. You guess it right - he proposed to me! Of course I said yes! I announced to my family first, before telling my friends the next day. I changed the relationship status on Facebook few days later and it exploded with many Likes and Comments. I didn't think everyone would be so pleased and happy for the news, I've always considered myself as not so popular... We arranged on a wedding date in March 2017 on our anniversary date. Here comes planning!

In November, I went to Winter Wonderland in London with a friend and her young son and sister, it was very magical. I've been to Winter Wonderland in Nottingham but London was nothing like it. It was much more magical, and there were so many decorations, it felt like a fantasy. Everyone was also friendly and gave us a nice atmosphere. Since we went there as soon as it opened in November, it was fairly quiet so it was easier for us because we had a 2-year old boy with us and he doesn't like crowds. We went in the Ice Kingdom, and I was NOT expecting it to be that cold! I thought it was going to be cold so I wrapped up warm but apparently not warm enough... My fingertips were freezing whilst trying to film around and even my iPod's battery went down to 1%! The next day, we went to M&M World, Picadilly Circus and visited Disney's Christmas Tree that was in London St Pancras station. It was a lovely break.

New Year Eve; one of my deaf friends organised a get-together for the NYE, so I went with my boyfriend. Two of my closest friends said they weren't gonna make it - one due to not finding anyone to babysit her son and the other had plans. So I was expecting to spend the night with my boyfriend and the others (I didn't know them very well as I'm quite new to the community) but one of my friends unexpectedly turned up to surprise me! She said she finished her plans early and thought of coming over anyway.

January struck; the only reason it's the worst month of the year is that I'm having to deal with group projects at university! I did this last year and I didn't like it. My year group joined with the first years to take on a competition (The Apprentice style), and I was dreading it because of the communication. Surprisingly, it went alright, probably because the majority of the group didn't really commit to the project properly and I was mostly working with my year group (they've gotten used to my deafness so they knew how to work around me).

After January, it was mostly working in work placements (as part of university course), so I was doing a lot of camera work for UNESCO City of Literature. I had a great experience because actually at the end, our work was published online! We had a tight deadline, and our editor had little time at the end so she had few mistakes in the video but we're really proud. See video here.

Last week, The Ear Foundation has set up a new family programme - Young Adult Days (17-25yrs) so young adults could get together whenever they set up events. It was Climbing Day last week and I had a great day. I met a lot of new friends there and everyone seemed like they enjoyed it and everyone was so friendly. If you are in between 17-25 years old and would like to join the upcoming events - please check on the Ear Foundation website for events. (As of today, there are no planned events yet as they are trying to arrange a day of doing something.)

Now I've caught up with what happened since last year! This year is off to a slow start, I have to say, but I have few plans coming up this year, like Center Parcs (TWICE!), and few day outs - both Ear Foundation and non-Ear Foundation...

Later this year... I will be graduating from university in July (FINALLY), and I can't wait to get started in actually getting a job. Apprenticeship was my first choice after A Levels but I couldn't find one in time so I decided to execute Plan B, which was to go university... The reason for this is that I was getting fed up with education because I was constantly working on projects all the time and all I wanted to do is actually work. I felt like doing projects were just something to do for teachers and examiners but I wanted to work so my work could be recognised and used by the employers. For example, if I was a graphic designer, my work would've been used for publishing purposes.

As for the summer, I'm returning to my summer job as I enjoyed it and wanted to fill in the time. Also, I thought it'd be reasonable to do it while looking for a job so I could earn a little bit on the side rather than waiting around until I get a job because you never know how long it takes until to get a job! My boyfriend was struggling to get a job for two years, and I was the one who landed him on a job (I got with him a year before he got a job) so I felt like his job agency wasn't any useful at the time.

I can't think of anything else to update so... Hopefully, I won't be gone far too long!

Monday 13 July 2015

Summer Holidays

About time that I finished university for this academic year! I've been on summer holidays since early June, so technically I'm on summer holidays until October... 5 months of summer holidays! It's crazy since before, I used to have just 6 weeks of summer holidays in schools but as I progressed in education, I'm getting more free time.

Since breaking up for the summer, I was immediately working as I landed on a summer job as a Distribution Assistant. Basically, my job is to travel with colleagues all over the UK to different schools for uniform sizing events. I just simply help parents and new students to find their uniform sizes before ordering for September. Sounds simple? Well, it's not always simple as I'm literally communicating with hundreds of parents and children every day. Honestly, I was expecting to at least struggle at first but surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. I was able to understand majority of the customers I served and I am quite enjoying it. The only bad part was coming home late in the evenings... Like around 11pm! Some days, I could be travelling to Bournemouth from Nottingham, or to London so it can get really tiring.

Apart from that, I have lots of plans coming up and few already been. I went to the Ear Foundation's annual BBQ on 4th of July with my friends. It was lovely as the sun was shining and I had a hot dog and a burger, along with paying only £1 to get 5 cakes and 50p of 10 shortbread biscuits! Amazingly, we raised £1,400 at this event. My friends and I participated in a competition where we choose a name listed on form to name a teddy bear. My friend picked a name that was the same as her older brother's because... Why not? Turns out she'd actually won it! They announced the winning name and I turned to her saying she'd won... It was a brilliant story.

In few days, I'm meeting my friends again for a day out to Cadbury's World. This time, I get to see my friend back in home town since she couldn't attend the BBQ as she was on holiday. It's been many years since I last visited this place, so I'm looking forward to free chocolate, especially a small cup of melted chocolate!

Next week, I'll be setting off to Bournemouth with my friend, Laura, for our summer break. We've been there last year and we decided that we would make it an annual thing. We've bought quad roller skates since we could skate by the beach as there are pathways. I'm looking forward to catching up with my friend for a week, especially when she's graduating from university on Friday.

After that, it's jetting off to Disneyworld in Florida with my boyfriend and his family! I'm partly worried about the heat, because I don't take it well... At least there's air-con everywhere so at least that's something...