The Sixth of October Two Thousand and Fourteen.

Today, otherwise known as my birthday started at 12.00am this morning when I was still lying in bed trying to sleep, turned over to look at the clock saw it was nearly midnight and so decided to see the sixth of October in.

After doing it I decided I really ought to get some sleep as I had a lecture at 9am that morning. I managed to grab some sleep but of course woke up excited at 7am. Made myself sort of presentable then google hangouted my family to open the presents and cards (normally we do it all together at home) which was fun. William wanted the balloon and got upset when he realised it was impossible to have as it was with me in  Leicester and he was in Wakefield. I got some lovely cards from friends and family and gifts too it made a lovely birthday morning.

Even google said happy birthday to me!

Had to get ready sharpish after that to catch the bus to university. It started raining surprise surprise thank goodness I had bought an umbrella the other day. Incidentally when I bought the umbrella the guy from the shop said I sounded like I wasn't from around here and when I said Yorkshire he said oh yes I can tell, but when I'm in yorkshire people say the opposite they say I don't sound northern. Strange.

Not having any practical shoes for the rain I had to go out in canvas pumps - bad decision my feet were freezing - I think I shall be investing in some kind of boot. Arrived to university in one piece though wet and cold.

Lecture was really interesting it was the Introduction to World Archaeology BC and we looked at the palaeolithic age - interestingly palaeo means old and lithic means stone. We did a bit on when did we become human? But instead of spouting the "we evolved from monkeys" they took the "we had a common ancestor long ago" which I find more believable but still weird. But thinking about if we all come from the same maker (God) then of course there will be similarities in every species. Anyway that was a side topic, what we actually looked at was stone tools and when they started to be first used. And whether use and creation of these tools began to show the Hominins (humany creatures but not human) were becoming human.

After that I had a nice break until 4pm where I had a study skills lecture until 6pm. It was on things like how to get the most out of lectures, how to manage time efficiently and stuff like that. We have it for the whole of this semester I'm not sure about next. It was okay but so annoying to have such a big gap between 9-10am and then nothing until 4pm. Still it's all useful and it was a good presentation.

But until 4pm I went home and watched The Proposal. I had intended to stop watching dvds so I could study but I thought as it was my birthday I would extend it until today. It was a lovely movie to watch again and I had a nice laugh at it!

After study skills a call from Grandma B and then a bus home and then ordered dominos in for tea. As it was my birthday for a treat and I had so many vouchers from freshers to use up! I was going to give one set to my family when I went up but on the terms and conditions it says valid in Leicester stores only which is  shame. The offer was buy one get one free but you had yo do it on medium or large so I got two medium knowing I would not be able to eat it all. The remains are in the fridge for me to take to uni tomorrow for lunch!

Then I had my birthday cake! Although I bought a battenberg my mum sent me a me to you one in the post with some other goodies which was lovely and some candles so I used that! And did it over google hangouts so they could see it and sing to me.

All in all it was a fairly good day. Uncle Simon and cousin Zak came round and surprised me this evening with a gift and card and Zak told me about his day at nursery! Despite being away from home for my birthday it was still pleasant and I rang my family enough to make up for not being there.

Absolutely shattered, and tomorrow is a busy day two lectures, a film and a tutorial but I'll be done 3pm. I like these shorted days college was such a drag. It makes me feel much more inclined to study when I get back when it is still light and warm(ish).

Every year people ask me "how does it feel to be 19?" or whatever age I am. I don't feel any different to last year. But it's weird to know I'm getting older and I feel like this next part of life is going to go very fast.

The Weekend

So as I predicted I didn't do much. I feel like such a layabout but I did sleep in until noon. Oops that will probably never happened again although in my defence, it was a late night Friday and it was raining when I woke up so I think I was better of asleep anyway.

Stuck a load of washing on as after tidying my room I did discover I had enough to do one. Then hung it all up to dry on the airers in my room. Updated all my accounts and stuff, very important (but boring) I never ever want to go into my overdraft. Too risky and I am already piling up debt through going to uni I do not want to add anymore to it.

Rain sort of kept me indoors, although I had bought an umbrella the day before so technically I could have done. But, you know when you have the option to go out in the rain or stay inside dry...I stayed inside dry.

Brought my pillow and fleece downstairs with my laptop and dvd's and camped out on the sofa for the day. First watched The Tourist, I had seen it in Italy but in Italian so I thought I'd see the English version as it happens it made it a lot easier to follow the plot, understandably. I really like that movie, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie make a good lead couple and the whole plot is entertaining. Only issue about twenty minutes before the end it started freaking out and not playing properly so I think I will take it back to the shop and get them to swap it for me! After that I watched Bridal Wars, again another entertaining one but not one I think I will watch again, it wasn't amazing.

I actually cannot remember what I did after that, I think sort out my washing and ironed it. Cooked some food, oh yeah I had the leftover pasta onion thing. I heated it up slowly so the onion had time to no longer be raw by the time I got round to eating it. Although saying that I think the pasta was thursday because yesterday I am positive I had tinned soup and bread. Foggy memory.

So for you guys reading this post that don't go to my church twice a year we get addressed by our world leaders in something called a conference. We get given talks on topics that have been highlighted as important for us to know more about or that should be re-emphasised. I love it because I always hear a message that's personal for me. Because it is broadcast from America we usually have to wait for the videos to be put online, but because I am now staying in a house with a television license it means I could watch it live. So 5-7pm saturday night I watched America's saturday morning session. It was really interesting and uplifting. One thing I thought was amazing was when the Prophet Thomas S Monson said there were more than 88,000 missionaries operating worldwide! It's such a huge number!

One talk I found particularly good was by Elder Lynn G Robbins, where he asked the question: Which way do we face? Do we represent God to the people, or do we represent the people to God? Are we willing to do what God wants us to do and stick to our standards even though the world doesn't like it or are we more scared and concerned about what our friends and associates will think of us to do the things we believe in and know to be true? Another good point was when Dieter F Utchdorf said that a trait of humanity is to assume we are right even when we are wrong. We have to recognise that we don't always act in an appropriate way and stop being stubborn.

So that was Saturday. Sunday I was invited to dinner at the family of my landlord's house which was lovely. They had a nice big cooked dinner with lamb and potatoes and vegetables with peach crumble for dessert it was great. Afterwards we watching another conference session the Saturday Afternoon Session. It was another good one. My favourite talk from it was by Elder Jörg Klebingat. He asked many poignant and thought provoking questions. Can we say in ourselves that God is happy with us? How would we feel if we had an interview with Jesus today? Happy or extremely nervous? He advised us not to let the adversary chip away at our souls and self confidence. And that the decision to change is ours alone. He then offered six ways that we can increase our self confidence to become better members of the church and better people. 1. Take responsibility for our own spiritual well-being, the Lord knows how hard we are or are not trying to become perfect and good people, we should try to be as good as we can within our own spheres of life. 2. Take responsibility for our own physical well-being, if we are not happy with ourselves we cannot be happy in ourselves. Body and soul are joined if we feel unhappy in one we can't be happy in the other. 3. Embrace voluntary whole hearted obedience, we cannot love God without loving his commandments. And casualness in spiritual matters will not bring us happiness. 4. Become good at repenting thoroughly and quickly. Embrace the atonement and apply it daily and establish ongoing happy repentance. 5. Become really good at forgiving others. As we make mistakes so will they and we cannot ask for forgiveness from God if we do not forgive those who ask for our forgiveness. Don't hold grudges against people or be easily offended but uplift others always. 6. Accept trials, setbacks and the surprises in our lives. We are all here to be tested, why should we not have trials if everyone else is? Some trials come through disobedience or negligence but they are not a punishment only a time to prove ourselves. They are there to make us stronger. We should acknowledge and face our weaknesses and try to repair them but not to become immobilised by them.  

I thought that was the best talk I'd heard all of conference and when it becomes available online I want to print it out and keep a copy because it will remind me of what I can do to dissipate the discouraging voices of the adversary and restore peaceful assurance and spiritual confidence. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865612418/Elder-Jorg-Klebingat-Approaching-the-throne-of-God-with-confidence.html

After that I got dropped back home and I watched the Sunday Morning Session of Conference 5-7pm English time but America's morning. It was another good one. It talked about how we should build up our relationship with God so we can receive personal revelation. Also how we can be more active in sustaining our Prophet. The last talk of this session was by the Prophet. He did a wonderful talk "decisions determine destiny". Our purpose on earth was to have a body and be separated from our Heavenly parents so we can have the same experiences they had and learn to choose well. Our decisions don't just determine where we will go on earth but for eternity. We are given the tools we need to get back. We have to walk as Jesus walked. Emulate Him. He is the light to guide us home. By following Him we can gain eternal life but we have to work. Only He can lead us safely home.

The last session Sunday Afternoon is showing 9-11pm but as I have a lecture at 9am tomorrow morning I think I will have to catch it later in the week when they put it on the website. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2014/10?lang=eng

All in all it was a very uplifting day, which is what I needed after freaking out on the telephone this morning to my mum. Panicking over whether university is the right decision...again. New stuff is hard, but it's something I can work through.

Wed-Thur-Fri

Freshers week = boring. Apart from free junk it means ridiculous amounts of time to waste in front of the TV. There are only so many times I can go into the town centre and forbid myself to buy anything!

Wednesday and Thursday I was in uni, more information picking up, got my timetable and got to meet my tutor. Also we had a guest lecture by Professor Norman Hammond on Maya Pre-History. If you read that and thought pre-history? What is pre-history? (As I did) Because surely history includes all of the past and what can be pre the past? Well I soon discovered that history refers to things known so pre-history is the period we don't know a lot about. For example we know the Mayans as temple building wealthy sacrificing people but what were they before they became great? We don't really know. And that my friends is Maya Pre-history. It was a really interesting lecture and made me feel quite sad that my course is limited to ancient Greece and Rome only. My ideal history course would cover so much stuff it would be like a mega degree. Some areas that I am sad I wont get to study are: Native Americans, The War of the Roses - you'd think Leicester would offer a course on that - well they are kind of I got a leaflet for it that I can sign up to later in the year but it focuses naturally more on Richard the third rather Elizabeth Woodville and Edward.

Bought a Latin dictionary it looks very complicated.

My timetable is pretty good. Not a lot of contact hours, though I am rather annoyed about the random lecture on the middle of Friday. It would have been perfect if that was earlier in the morning or even just on another day. But can't complain I got a pretty good deal.

So a lot of free afternoons/mornings which is good and makes it easy to travel.

Today I booked tickets to go northward got a nice funfare deal on National Express cost me under £20 for journey both ways. Three weekends time I shall be gracing Wakefield with my sunny presence. Clear your weekends you northerners I'm returning ;)

More exploring in town, I found the central library and joined it. They give you two library cards, one normal sized one and then one for your key ring which I thought was a clever idea because if you forget your purse with your card in you're most probably going to have your keys with the other card on!

I also found Highcross shopping centre I was feeling hopeful that they might have krispy kremes. No such luck, only Millie's cookies which were disappointingly priced. 99p for one cookie. Well I shall visit Sainsbury's and get 5 for 75p which taste exactly the same. Lots more shops in there and they had...a disney store.

I never understood why everyone loved the shop so much...until I went in it and then I wanted to buy everything. EVERYTHING. The Little Mermaid is basically my all time favourite disney movie, it's also my favourite fairy tale and just everything and they had so much little mermaid stuff. Ariel dolls and squishy toys, a squishy Flounder and Sebastian. Ariel mug and cup and dinner plates and cutlery. An Ariel costume (which actually looks as though it might have fitted me! The advantages of being small) It was so much fun to be in that store! However I didn't buy anything :( Poor me on a student loan, but my plan is to save and go back haha! Because it is quite pricey.

After that I went and shut down my Halifax bank account which I never use and received a grand total of 26p. Oh windfall for me. Went into That's Entertainment (bad decision) and came out with three DVD's (I budgeted this into my accounts so it was okay!) The Proposal - cannot beat a bit of Sandra Bullock, The Tourist - mmm Johnny Depp and Bridal Wars - never seen it but I remember wanting to when it came out. All together not bad.

Then went to purchase my NUS card from the student union and picked up some bits from morrisons apples and milk and stuff...oh an a birthday cake for me!! Seeing as I'm not at home for my mum to make me one. I chose Mr Kipling's battenburg yumm-y! My mum said it should last me a few days....but the equation goes like this Maria + battenburg + five minutes = no battenburg. And I'm not talking about the mini five pack, I mean the big loaf! At least I can stick candles in it although it is going to kill me having it sat in my room not allowed to eat it until monday!


Plans for tomorrow? Hmm I think I'll call it sleep in and not do much. All my washing is done, nothing to prep for Monday. Maybe I'll make a start on some of my course texts. Get ahead of the game. I also have a gym free day pass to use up so I might go burn some energy there. And it's right next door to where I was born haha I pass the Royal Infirmary (which by the way for non Leicester people is a hospital, where I was born, not an infirmary for the infirm of mind) everyday on the bus to university. Circle of life or something.