Waking up too early on Mothers Day

Mothers Day is here once again.

With my mother still here to grace us with her presence, yet my mother in law about to have her final curtains drawn on life, I can't help but wonder what is it all about.  Then I remember, I know now.

Wisdom.

Age.

Time.  

They have all taught me exactly what I should be doing with this thing called life.  I should be chasing memories and creating JOY.  And I know what that means for me and where it takes me.

To the woods, the trees, the nature. 

As a family, we are beginning to rethink things.  We want to be in the woods and grow organic vegetables, breathe good air and the like. 

What wakes me so early? Is it excitement? Stress?  Thinking?  Physical health?  I'm really not sure.  

Exams and deadlines loom all around, I feel flutters within my heart.  They frighten me.  Apparently, that coupled with the memory loss I keep experiencing and the lack of sleep all come up with anxiety, depression and stress (when you use Google).  

My old friend from London Met used to say "I like the Google very much." In her strong adorable indian accent.  I miss her.

So mothers day brings me to a place of once again being at my desk,  writing (I can't get enough of it)   and wanting to do more and more and more all of the time. There's so much there's too much.

Project proposal looms.  I'm going to love that yet I'm unclear where to start.  Watch this space, I will give you more detail and information as I can.

Meanwhile, back to looking for sellotape to wrap mums gift. That eludes me.  

Philip Bloom, Digital Creator

Meeting Philip Bloom was an honour and a pleasure yesterday.

As head cameraman of Sky news, you might be forgiven for wondering what this may have to do with science, relevant enough to add a piece of writing about it here on my pebblepad.

Heading to the Youtube space in the Google offices in London was pretty much a little dream come true.  Initially, I headed there to accompany my daughter who is at college studying creative media.  Yet with a passion for the science of nutrition,  creativity and business all rolled into one, I figured there is likely to be times when creation of a digital nature would be exciting to use.  

The dream of encouraging nations to eat better, with a clear guide of why and how it will benefit them and their lives is real.  The wonderful world wide web gives us this amazing platform to share our scientific findings.

Mr Bloom, the award winning photographer gave an amazing speech in London last night.  I was taking mental notes on his presentation skills, something super important in this years course.  When he began talking of taking the transition of shooting from DSLR camera to video camera, I did get a little lost in the nomenclature of all the different models of camera available, just as likely as the audience may have been confused on the nomenclature of a periodic table.

Nonetheless, this evening gave me a wonderful insight into what life can be like in this diverse world of digital.  Should my youtube channel get a wide enough audience to build on the 1000 subscribers I already have and head up to 10,000 then Google and Youtube extend an arm of generosity as they open up their studios for filming and their offices for writing.  Of course there is no lab in sight but I think that may be taking things one step too far with the general population.  So, now there is an inspired dream inside to continue with these studies enough to confidently make some educational laymens term videos to help spread the word of health into the nation who has ears to listen. 

Plus, there is a free barister on weekdays!

Presentation skills workshop

Attending a presentation skills workshop seemed a no brainer when the invite arrived in my inbox via the employability office. 

Many times we have been encouraged as a class to get used to the idea that we would be presenting many times over. At my last university, in year Zero, I was fortunate enough to be encouraged to speak at many of their events which were well attended by industry experts.

Most of us felt as though this was more of a practice as opposed to learning workshop, which was fine, yet I did feel I would have loved to go further into detail.  Perhaps as a mature student with experiences already I was expecting too much.  As a note to myself, I wondered how I should be learning more about my presenting skills.  Perhaps this is something I could look further into very soon. I know there will be many videos on the internet helping with the finer details of making a good presentation.

Nevertheless, this was not a waste of time as I met a couple of new students who I could now smile and wave at on campus, as well as fulfilling a requirement of attendance towards my own course credits.

Win/win.

Lab days with chemistry

Learning, learning.  What even is or was this?

Not sure.

Looks to me like serial dilutions.  I love the lab.  Yet seems I'm one of the few.

Why I adore practical 'stuff' I'm not sure.  

Today we got a locker with all these bits and bobs in, mostly made of glass.  Less chance of cross contamination than plastic. 

Learning to pipette is not an easy task.  Although I am crazy precise.  Thinking this might well come from my chef training.  Ingredients of a different kind.

We do have a chuckle in the lab. 

My deafness is at an all time high so even with the hearing aid in, I am struggle to hear unless I can watch the lecturers lips.  Thankfully, he has a big ol voice. 

Makes me laugh as he introduces himself with a simple Hi I am....first name.  When you look him up in a non stalker fashion, you find he is Dr so and so with all these letters trailing his name.  What a lovely and down to earth chap! I'm going to enjoy chemistry far more than last year.

I can tell!

Week 2 getting to know you

Week 2 of University - Getting to know you.

The campus is not difficult to negotiate.

Parallel corridors engulfed with beautiful dark wood just seem to make sense.  The buildings begin with a P (for Pembroke) or A (for Anson) then the floor numbers correspond with room numbers.  Easy!

This week while there were no lab practical sessions, we found we were off for the day on Tuesday.  Dr Lauren Pecorino provided me with my time filling activity as I began to read her book "Why millions survive cancer."  An excellent book.  Quietly showing me just how much I have to learn about cells.  I aspire to write so confidently as her.

Fellow students in their minority are finding it easy to complain about our insecurities.  We all are trying hard to gather our way into finding answers to things.   Self development plan number 1 - be more tolerant or space yourself further from the negativity.  I must not engage with difficult conversations.   My plan at University is to enjoy my time,  to learn everything I can to facilitate my brilliance as a nutritionist and to keep smiling all the way through,  becoming just lovely!

Chemistry was a difficult subject for me last year.  Worried that this year may prove the same,  I focused hard on the lecture.  A new tutor nervously took the lecture.  Last year, i found I was mostly repeating memorised sentances regarding atomic bonding.  Just enough to pass.  Yet this lecture saw the proverbial 'penny drop' as I realised that a covelant bond was in fact a sharing of electrons.  Aha,  a sharing of electrons.  Now I see clearly!

Writing myself notes,  I reference into Youtube to go and look up Pauli exclusion principle and Hands rules.  These are currently another language to me.

Week 1 of university

Rain, rain and a little more rain. 

Gosh did it rain.  
Such a shame as we had the most amazing welcome planned for us with a beautiful marquee set up on the Pembroke lawn.  Awfully posh.  I felt it sounded just a little Royal.   

Excitedly,  I straightened my hair to its finest smoothness just that morning and was happy to hear that my new found friend Jules has also done the same.  Neither of us with an umbrella. 
Both of us taking cover in the marquee.  Bravely.  As no one else was! 
They were shyly braving the rain!  

Bacon rolls for brunch.  Yum.  Slight issue there with my gluten allergy. I ate just a rasher of bacon.  

Becky sat with me who was another human nutrition student. She was struggling to eat too as she was vegetarian.  Chatting with new friends, all seemed to be going well.  There was so much to take in on this new day.  Imagining this must be what it's like to move into the Big Brother house on channel 5 tv. Everyone getting to know each other while at the same time being on our best behaviour.  Missing my friends from my old university in this week was a huge challenge.  I was so glad Kathy was there. She was a friendly and familiar face from the last university.  
Yet I wished my Muna and Sheyma were here.  My comfort blankets.  That was all. I would have to learn to get along without them.   

The staff we met on this first week all seemed so professional, smart and totally passionate about their subjects and their university.  Buildings all around with beautiful red brick,  steeped in history of days gone by when this was a historic dockyard.  The place is just stunning.  Surrounded by trees and other green life giving forces.  Opening my eyes to see such beauty more and more as I learn details of the science behind life.  I think I'm going to like it here.

Entering clearing for university?

So you didn't get the desired results?

It sucks and no doubt you felt let down.  Yet fear not! There is always the Clearing service

What is clearing?

Basically it's a service that universities use to fill up courses. This year should prove easier than some others as we now have the Brexit issue to deal with which will have made many european students think twice.

So what you need to do is all listed here and you still have a couple of weeks to get your desired courses in.  You can call the university you are interested in and apply that way by chatting to them, or just check the clearing list on the UCAS website to find out more.

Interested in nutrition? 

If you were thinking about getting an NHS funded course, think again.  Not only is there massive competition for these courses but chances are they are filled well before exams are even taken.

Dietetics is one of these courses.

I do get hugely frustrated when I hear students apply for such courses simply so they don't get a big student loan.  That's not morally right in my opinion.  You should train with the NHS as you want to work in the NHS.  Surely?  So if you wanted to enter dietetics through clearing, chances are it's unlikely.

Nutrition on the other hand may be an option for you.

Basically this is the same course but you don't go through the placements within the NHS hospitals.  There fore it is one year less too.  At the end of it you may be registered as a nutritionist but not as a dietitian.  There is a big difference.  Really, depending on which field you think you may like to work in.

As my career is likely to take me online, nutrition is perfect for me.

Check out what is out there but bear in mind, taking a degree is HARD work.  You must be interested in your subject.  Nutrition is very heavy on Science, particularly biology and chemistry.  There's lots of maths involved too and quite a few 'talks/presentations' too.

You can look at Extended degrees too if you need to brush up on your science or have been away from education for a while.  London met and Greenwich both offer these leading to nutrition courses and I would recommend them both as excellent universities.  I have been to both.

Let me know if you have any questions you think I can help you with!

Don't forget to follow this blog as there are lots more posts coming up to let you know my tips and advice for getting through university.