Don’t Let Revision Get You Down

(Or: Ways that I survive/brighten up the pyjama-clad days spent sat stationary, looking at not much other than books, my laptop screen, or the street outside my window.)

1. Running at 7am. I think an important thing is definitely to keep active, no matter how much time you think you should be dedicating to being at your desk hunched over your work. Its natural that you won’t get out much during the revision period, and the days can become long and samey, so making a bit of time during the day for exercise can work wonders. My mind seems to work better before 12 noon, so I like to wake at 6:30am, be out running by 7 (the streets are much quieter) and be back by 7:20 feeling refreshed and lots more focused.

2. Eat lots of Omega 3s! Omega  3s are known as ‘brain food’. And not only are they good for memory, but also for your skin and hair. (That’s right, use revision time to kill numerous birds with one proverbial stone!) Find this friendly oil in walnuts, which you could throw into a Waldorf salad with some mayonnaise and lemon juice if you don’t like them raw. Also found in oily fish like mackrel, sardines and anchovies (which are delicious eaten straight from the can!)

3. Make your own baked goods. This week I also had the urge to do some baking, so last Tuesday morning I awoke early and made some banana loaf, which turned out pretty well. I’ve since realised all these ace reasons for why baking your own sweet treats is a good idea. First of all its healthier, as it will lack the preservatives and any other potential sweeteners or artificial ingredients that other boxed snacks sometimes contain. Secondly, its a welcome break from revising! Thirdly you get to lick the bowl and its delicious. Fourthly, you get that sweet fresh cakey smell filling your house as you study. Finally, you can store your finished product in a tupperware box and grab a slice when hit by those 4:00pm sugar-dips.

4. Spare time for at least one night with friends. Sometimes cutting yourself off entirely from society to cram hard can be a real downer for your emotional psyche. Therefore its important to still check in, whether its going out for drinks or spending time with the housemates. Last Thursday I met the Band Society crowd for a mid-revision period social, but I did the smart thing. I hung out in the Saro for a chat, moved on to Font Bar where I had one drink & played a lot of Mario Kart, and then made my way home at 11 for that all-important sleep.

How awesome would it be to do this?

5. Say ‘yes’ to something different. Last Friday evening I accompanied my housemate and a few of his friends in the participation in 2.8 Hour’s Later, a tactical zombie-chase apocalpytic physical game that was taking place all over the city! It was the first time it had come to Liverpool, and I get the feeling it went pretty well. It was certainly a great night – we did a lot of sprinting, laughing, and of course, screaming in sheer panic (in my case anyway). It may have been the revision-period, but it was an opportunity too exciting to pass up! I highly recommend to anybody that they take part next year. I certainly will be!

6. Make your revision space a place where you want to be. Most people like to work in the library, as they concentrate better. I agree with this, but I also quite like to work at home so that I can make my own food instead of being tempted to buy a lot of sugary & salty snacks from one of the campus Tesco’s (which I have done more than enough in the past!). Luckily for me I enjoy spending time in my room; I have my desk in the window so there’s loads of sunlight, with a side-table and room for my speakers, notepad, books and pens. I also have fluffy fairy lights over my wardrobe which when switched on in the evenings give the room a cosy glow. I like my space to be quite ‘tidy’, with the only clutter being books really, but of course everyone is different and some even prefer to work in a messy space. Whatever conditions you’re most comfortable with, you must create them for the necessity of your concentration and inevitably, your success!

Good luck x

Tags: 2.8 Hours Later, college, exams, food, healthy, keeping active, period, revising, revision, study, studying, university, work

Healthy Times!

I really want to write about some new foods that I’m trying at the moment. I was wary about doing this, because I’m not really running a prescriptive lifestyle blog here. But I thought it might be appropriate seeing as a lot of my thoughts tend to revolve around what I’m going to eat for my next meal, as well as how I can munch myself silly whilst still remaining extremely healthy. It’s really hard, I’ve got to say. Plus, I know what people are thinking when I start talking about nutrition and wanting to be healthier. “But you’re so skinny!” they say (or words to that effect). “You don’t need to think about that!” But the truth is, I believe I do need to think about it. As I have just entered my twenties, I know that for one, my fast metabolism probably won’t work in my favour for much longer. My teenage years where I could gorge whatever I wanted and remain the same are rapidly retreating into the distance, leaving simply clouds of dust behind them. As I also am going to graduate from uni soon, I believe that now is the time for me to take responsibility for my own diet and health, and get into the habit of preparing fresh, healthy food regularly and efficiently. After all, nobody else is going to do it. And nobody else is going to tell me what to eat (unless you count magazines, of course!) Finally, there have been many gradual changes in my diet these past few months, mostly down to my older brother, who is a keen advocator of the Abs Diet. Many of his dietary tips have rubbed off on me!

Recently I’ve been making an extra effort to avoid eating processed foods and snacks as they simply cause bloatedness. Here are some foods I am enjoying at the moment:

1. Pine nuts. Up until recently the only nuts I really enjoyed to eat alone were cashews and pistachios. Then I went for pine nuts because they looked so small and neat, and are apparently very good for your skin, which is great for me. Although quite a fatty nut (small but deceivingly filling), you at least know its the right sort of fat. I now like to snack on these, especially if I want to avoid a break-out of spots.

2. Soya milk. I read an article in Zest magazine a short while ago about the main dietary causes of spots. They are, in a nutshell, (not so surprisingly) processed and refined foods; particularly salt, sugar and dairy. I was surprised at the latter, but apparently the hormones in cow’s milk can actually indirectly be a trigger for spots and blocked pores. Drinking organic, soya or rice milk can be very beneficial substitutes in this case. I have tried soya milk and found it to be extremely pleasant, although I still like cow’s milk (organic) on my breakfast cereal. From now on though, I choose soya milk (and soya yoghurt!) over dairy. Oat milk is also lovely too. The only downside is that soya does not have as high quantities of calcium in it than cow’s milk, but its still a great source, and just means I can drink more. Yummy!

3. Dark chocolate. When I absolutely have to have chocolate, I try to go for dark. Not only does it contain less dairy, but I don’t have to have much of it at all to feel like I’ve satisfied my craving…just two or three squares to be exact! I was also astounded to read that two pieces of dark chocolate contain approx. 50 cals, whilst a mars bar contains 300! Its crazy. My favourite at the moment is Green & Black’s. Its pricey but lasts!

4. RDA Organic smoothies. I discovered these on my way home from Oxford last Sunday, when I went into Camden Food at Birmingham New St station in between trains, looking for a healthy sweet treat. The blueberry and the acai berry was the one I tried, and it was GORGEOUS. So refreshing and fruity. However, I don’t know if it was just station prices or what, but it cost me £2.40, which is probably the most I’ve ever paid for something that is bottled. On a regular basis, I think I’ll stick to my Innocent smoothies, but I definitely wouldn’t mind having one of these again.

5. Nakd raw food bars. These have probably been one of my favourite food finds. They are a perfect sweet snack that doesn’t just taste like muesli or syrup. They are bars made up of fruit, nuts and oats, sometimes with a little natural flavouring, all smooshed together. The BEST thing is, some flavours literally taste like cake! I tried the cocoa orange one the other day and I honestly felt like I was eating a brownie. I’ve also got a box of the apple pie ones on my desk. They aren’t baked, but pressed. They also lack added sugar or syrup, are wheat & dairy free, suitable for vegans, and one of your five a day!! What’s seriously not to love?!

I could go on forever about all the things I love to eat, so I will probably do another of this type of posts soon I’m not sure if the soya milk has actually had a positive impact on my skin yet as I’m going to wait a full month before making that judgement. I’d like to say yes right now, but I could just be having a good-skin week

EDIT: I’ve just found an online article which makes me an even bigger lover of dark chocolate. It seems to have many health benefits! Read more here.

Tags: dark chocolate, diet, eating, food bars, fruit, good skin, healthy, Nakd, organic, pine nuts, RDA smoothie, snacks, soya milk, soya yoghurt

And So I Went To The Ball

Last Thursday I made my third visit to Oxford, where I got to attend Lincoln College ball on Saturday evening with my boyfriend and his friends. It was the most fun night I’ve had in a while – probably since Chasing Infinity won BoTB, and pretty much any evening I spend with Bartosz of course – and I felt so pleased to be able to hang out with such interesting, funny and intriguing people. The ball was pretty sick – plenty of free food throughout the night, open bar (of which I didn’t really make full use of admittedly, due to my current only-drinking-in-moderation phase); on top of that there were DJ tents, a shisha tent, a casino room, a whiskey tasting room, performances from bands & the like and even palm and tarot readings (which I really wanted because I’ve always been curious, but the queue was long and laborious, and there were far more exciting things going on elsewhere).

The only downside to the evening was the weather; it rained for four days, and Saturday evening gradually got colder and wetter as it went on – NOT a good environment for gals wearing long dresses and high heels I can tell you. After dancing the night away, eating all the food we could, and playing poker at 1am with random strangers (in my case at least) we finally concluded the night by enduring an excruciatingly bitter-cold walk back to St Cross (Barty’s college) to get warm at 2am and have a little gathering in their common room.

If I were a good blogger, I would be able to display some cool photographs to sum up the weekend – pictures of my favourite dresses at the ball; Barty & his friends; some nice college buildings and even probably a photo of the awesome ice cream sundaes Barty and I ate on Friday evening as we battled our way through our workloads (his somewhat more looming and intimidating than mine). Unfortunately however, I do not own a camera, but this is something I’m thinking of rectifying very soon, probably with the help of some of my 21st birthday money. I’m realising increasingly that images are very often just as important as words, and as much as I adore and rely on words, it really would be nice to get some unique pictures on my blog…ones that I actually own copyright for.

Until then though, this will have to do. I’m going to do another post very soon. Happy MayDay everybaardy!

Tags: ball, Lincoln College, Oxford, Oxford University, St Cross College

Are You Stuck In A Rut?

So its a break in the semester. You’re home with your parents & family, taking time out from the usual routine of lectures and seminars, and alongside it, the city lifestyle. At first, its great. Most of us are probably greeted with the welcome wagon, and are genuinely excited to see our loved ones once again. For the time that we are home, we probably don’t have to do much (if any) cooking, or even food shopping for that matter, meaning more money to spend on clothes and things we love. Nor is it likely that we will have to do laundry, or any heavy housework. However, whether you’re enjoying the lie-ins, having days out with the fam, or utilising this time to get lots of productive things done (like me, for example), it is highly inevitable that at some point, most of us will begin to feel at a loose end. We will, effectively be somewhat ‘stuck in a rut’.

What is a ‘rut’? Well, in my experience (of both being in ruts, and listening to my past friends complain about being in ruts), it seems to be a point where we feel bored and listless, yet restless at the same time. This is usually due to not having much to be getting on with or focusing on (like a project for instance), or due to feeling so weighed down with projects and tasks that we repeat the same processes every day and start to feel impatient that results aren’t appearing fast enough. For me, earlier this week, it was the latter.

Having said that, I won’t rule out that sitting stationary at our family dining table in the front room and staring at my laptop for many hours of the day has something to do with feeling sluggish and tired. Admittedly it has often been the lack of any vibrant movement that has got me a bit irritated at times. But alas, when one needs their laptop for almost EVERYthing (as most people do nowadays): sending emails; monitoring projects; reading articles & journal entries; typing up documents etc…not to mention the fact that I haven’t seen or socialised with any of my friends for 8 days now (which is actually a long time when you usually live with your best friends), it’s pretty much a given that one would feel a tendency to get frustrated. However, this holiday, and other recent ones like it, I’ve been taking conscious steps to still remain a normal functioning human being, and not a robot from being cooped up in exile; studying, reading and writing.

1. First of all, I’ve been taking a morning run every other morning. I did this last summer when I wanted to get in shape before I traveled to Greece. Only this time I went a step further – I went and bought actual running shoes! It eases the guilt from wanting to eat so much food (due to being inside for the rest of the day) and also gives me a reason to get out of bed at a decent time in the mornings (I hate sleeping in these days; when I know I have lots of work to do, and when there’s nobody to enjoy the bed with). Plus, a burst of fresh air in the AM boosts concentration levels, surely?

2. I’ve been intermittently watching many episodes of Sex & The City throughout the day, in between reading articles or completing tasks. It’s been one of my favourite TV shows for years. Its fun, humorous, uplifting and doesn’t require much brain-power. The downside to it is that it made me want to a) go shopping and b) get dressed up and go out and socialise. These options haven’t been so openly available to me this week, and probably won’t be until I get back to Liverpool. But it’s great escapism, if not motivation.

3. Talking of shopping, I did a bit of a crazy shopping splurge in Boots on Wednesday afternoon when I got so fed up from being stuck inside for three days (minus the running), staring out of the window at the dull weather. I say ‘splurge’ by my standards – I am a student after all. But I did get quite a lot, despite telling myself I only needed a few ‘essential items’. New mascara? Check. New nail polish? Why the hell not. Shall I finally get around to trying those Tweezermans which I hear are highly recommended? Better make it now or never. I didn’t feel guilty for it at all, to be honest, for I’d deserved it. At least I tell myself I did.

4. A simple single coffee, just on the days that I needed a little boost roundabout 4:30pm, made with low-fat Coffee-Mate instead of milk. That was sometimes the little saving grace I needed when the reading was getting too tedious and I felt like I was going to drop off.

5. And finally, speaking with my boyfriend on the phone from Poland each evening. It’s always lovely to talk to somebody when you feel you’re not making the progress that you wanted. Not just that – hearing about the other person’s exciting and very different day is also a great way to take your mind off your own stuff.

I’ve got to say though that overall, I’m quite pleased with some of the stuff I’ve managed to get off my back this week. There is still of course a LOOONG way to go (still not much further with those 8000 words…yikes), but its been really nice to see my family. On Tuesday though I return to Liverpool and I have to say that I’m looking forward to it for various reasons. My boyfriend, my big bed, and the fact that a city provides everything literally within walking distance, are just a few

What do you do to prevent yourself from sliding into a rut?

Tags: busy, coffee, Easter break, motivation, running, Rut, shopping, student, studying

De-Cluttering: Clear Out Your Shelf, Preserve One’s Self

On Sunday, I went with my parents to visit my oldest auntie, who is moving house in a couple of days. She’s always lived with her husband and two grown-up sons in a fabulously large house in Altrincham (yep, that part of Manchester). It was a always a place which, as kids, we would be thrilled to go visit as it meant a huge garden to run and play in; let alone the upstairs corridor and rooms which allowed us when it had gone dark, to turn out all the lights and play hide and seek (my brother, sister, our many cousins and I).

When we arrived the other day to see the momentous house one last time, it did look slightly different – boxes and bags strewn everywhere; some furniture missing – so much so that my auntie’s usual desire to maintain a beautifully pristine show-house was probably being thrown all out of whack. But in truth, she seemed more exhausted than anything else, as she divulged to my mum and I how it had seemed a Mount Everest task just to take on the loft alone. Having been in that house since being married, its not difficult to imagine the years-worth of hoarded items that one would collect; simply as an individual, let alone as part of a family. Even though they hadn’t known until a week or so ago that they could finally sell their house, they had still made a start wading through the monstrous mounds of old furniture and belongings because, in my auntie’s words, they had needed to “de-clutter”.

On the other hand though, she talked about “treasures”. Of all the products we buy, accumulate, receive as gifts, save, recycle, repair and maintain, its probably safe to say that there’s only a handful of them we really ‘need’. Small, one-of-a-kind gifts which we’ll never find again; things that remind us of our childhood…or indeed, who we are in general; any project, creation or achievement that is a reflection of our purpose or accomplishments in life; anything that enables us to preserve our memories of ‘the good times’…these are the things actually worth keeping hold of. Having said that, it’s important to be ruthless. My auntie told of how she’d thrown out several batches of cards. Cards from her 40th, cards from her 50th, cards her kids had given her on various occasions. Unfortunately, the majority of them had been thrown away. I spared a thought for my 18th and 21st birthday cards I have stashed in boxes under my bed. Will I ever actually get them out and look at them again?

It got me thinking about material things. As much as we try to ‘de-clutter’ our lives – whether it be constantly updating our wardrobes, throwing out old toys from the loft, or FINALLY getting around to sifting through those old bank statements (back when paper banking still took presidency *shudder*), somehow the spaces in which we reside, and therefore our lives, still manage to become messy and disorganised.

Watching my relatives completely strip bare the interiors of their bedrooms and living spaces made me extremely anxious to get my own place. I mean, the general plan is that I will be renting my own apartment in less than a year’s time, tops, but the day when I can afford one which I’ll actually be proud to call home may be a little far off yet. The point is, my relatives were getting the chance to actually start over with their materialistic matter. Moving house seems to me like the perfect opportunity to re-evaluate one’s physical assets and filter out the junk, leaving only the necessary key pieces of our relationship with the consumerist world. It made me really look forward to having my own apartment to move into so that I can ‘start afresh’ with my ever-evolving collection of materialistic things. But despite vowing to myself I’ll only take the things that really matter – books, records, projects, memoirs…I’ll still be leaving a room and half a loft full of things behind; fragments upon fragments of my childhood and adolescent years gone by, no doubt for my parents to hoard in their attic, until who knows?

Although it is important to frequently de-clutter our lives from the transient things, like our clothes and our outdated documents and our furniture, I would never be one for advocating a full-blown exorcism. Contrary to what the hippies say, some material things are important on a spiritual level. After all, haven’t initially menial and insignificant objects found throughout history come to be later known as crucial artifacts that tell us about our predecessors? One small piece of pottery, possibly thrown away in an ancient Greek’s desperate bid to de-clutter has been known to open a door to a whole array of speculation and deduction. And so it is placed in a museum, and the cycle continues.

What do we want our final, last-standing belongings to say about us when we die?

Tags: belongings, cleansing, clutter, hoarding, materialism, moving home, moving house, preserving, renewing, spiritual, Spring cleaning

Easter Break? Here’s Where The Work Really Begins…

These last couple of weeks of term have been a blast, I’ve gotta say. Bartosz has been visiting, Chasing Infinity WON BandSoc’s Battle of the Bands (I know right?!! We were ecstatic. Read more here) as well as recording our EP (see previous post!) and I’ve spent the last couple of weeks in particular free from academic deadlines, which gave me more opportunity to just have fun with my boyfriend and my friends.

I’m also proud to announce that LSMedia‘s fresh and modern revival of The Sphinx, our university’s official campus newspaper, officially went to print last week!! If you live in the city of Liverpool, you can grab a copy from various places, including the Liverpool Guild of Students shop, Costa Coffee, and pretty much any buses/trains/cafes/bars etc – just keep a lookout! Alternatively you can read the online version on our site. As editors, we’re all extremely proud of what we’ve been able to achieve together with our writers, and we hope to make it a regular thing each month.

For now though, I’m currently making plans to go stay with my parents for the Easter holidays (a.k.a. Spring break! woo) whilst my boyfriend will be spending time in Poland, as of Tuesday. And so normal keep-busy-whilst-your-boyfriend-is-away-and-you’re-at-your-parents’-away-from-normal-routine protocol will ensue. Its at times like these when, besides doing the usual chatting with family members and catching up (which, let’s face it, wears out after the first couple of days, and then you’re just getting in their way) I’ll be doing my best to make this next week and a half the most productive I possibly can. As well as the two mammoth assignments I have due in after Easter (totaling 8000 words, of which I have written nada), the countless graduate applications I’ve had building up, and my insistent determination to return to learning my Polish that I inadvertently seemed to abandon after Christmas (guiltyguiltyguilty), I am also going to be taking part in this April’s ScriptFrenzy.

ScriptFrenzy takes place every year, and I was introduced to it last December by my boyfriend who’s friend apparently does a lot of these writing competitions and things. The idea with ScriptFrenzy is to write 100 pages of original scripted material during the 30 days of April. Of course, it may not be quality material, but once April’s over you have the chance to format & edit or rewrite your script before considering send it off to any, er…important people. I’ve never actually written a proper script before (not since the ones I used to happily churn out when I was a child), so I’m very excited, as well as deeply intimidated. I’ve been poring over the ScriptFrenzy guidelines. I did NOT realise there were so many rules and regulations when it comes to the structure and layout of a script. And it differs not only with medium and audience, but often with genre too, making things even more complicated.

I’m not even 100% sure about my topic of choice. ScriptFrenzy advises its participants to write about stuff they’re passionate about, i.e. preferably not stuff closely related to their everyday lives. However, I’m actually pretty excited by my everyday life. I know tons of interesting and funny characters in the flesh, and feel passionate about many of my projects. So who’s to say I can’t write about the stuff that I know all-too-well, and yet love?

Either way, over these next few days (and weeks) I’m going to need a LOT of self-discipline, good time-management, and luck. The Easter Break may just be beginning, but for me its the end of my mini closing-of-term two-week holiday, and the start of a long road of work and perseverance. Here’s to Scene One…

Tags: boyfriend, busy, creativity, determination, Easter break, family, home, job applications, productivity, ScriptFrenzy, student, studying, work, writing

The Voice In My Head

I am incredibly pleased to announce that this weekend, my band Chasing Infinity went into the studio to finally record our first (official) EP. Its been a long-time coming; not only have we been striving for a replacement for our self-made demo we did in summer 2010 (which involved the use of a drum machine because our drummer at the time was out of town), we’ve also been dying to showcase just some of the hoard of new material we’ve been polishing for the last year and a half. The thought of doing sixteen hours of recording at first sounded daunting, for a couple of reasons. But I have to say that I’ve had a wonderfully enjoyable weekend with my band and my boyfriend (who was on those band tweets like there was no tomorrow!) and as a result we’ve produced some really sweet work which we’re all really proud of.

There are three things which, when they happen, definitely make me improve as a singer. One of them is the obvious – practice practice practice! The more you sing, the  more flexible your muscles get, and of course muscle memory plays a massive part in getting better at singing specific songs. The second (for me) is whenever I have a vocal lesson with my coach Andy, which is about two/three times a year (I’ve admittedly only had four lessons!) He’s where I go to if I need further direction or have a specific problem and need some help or advice. He’s great, and after each of my mere hour-long lessons I have felt a big difference in my voice, simply from a couple of subconscious changes in technique, which I barely notice, but they seem to work!

The third and final thing is recording. In my experience I’ve found that once you get to hear your own voice, bare and exposed, through your own ears (and not through the vibrations in your head, which is how we normally hear our own voices), you really do get to hear some home truths, so to speak. I’ve found it in the past to be quite an eye-opening and inevitably terrifying moment. When we self-recorded in 2010, I was almost traumatised by the sound of my own voice – “Urgh, is that what I really sound like?” – and suddenly felt a lot of pressure to change some bad habits I felt I was falling into without knowing it (being too nasal; too glottal; too hesitant etc). But that recording project definitely helped me improve my singing. After hearing my voice how it really was, I could make a conscious effort to change the aspects of it I didn’t like (such as the way I’d sing a particular vowel, for example) and just generally have an all-round better awareness of my voice.

Although this weekend hasn’t quite had moments like that (through the use of better equipment, and I think I’m just overall a better singer now than I was a year and a half ago, and am pretty much well-accustomed to the sound of my own voice), I still feel that I have an increased awareness of my imperfections and as a result, will inevitably keep getting better as time goes on, and we gig our way towards recording the next EP (or album??) There were of course still the awkward moments of doing the first couple of takes for a song, and then going back into the mixing room to have a listen. Hearing your own voice outside of your head is always quite difficult, or at least it is for singers who aren’t pro. But its definitely necessary to listen carefully and be brutally honest with oneself about aspects that can be improved, or maybe dropped altogether. Its uncomfortable listening to those first couple of takes, but then you can go back into the booth and do it right eventually, and when you listen to the next couple of takes, you think “Hey, this isn’t quite so bad”. This goes on, until you’re finally happy with the finished product. For every bad take there is, you’re one step closer to finding the good one; the one that’s going to stick.

I feel I’m having a great relationship with my voice these days. I take care of it and it takes care of me; these days when singing I can sometimes just go on auto-pilot and it seems to take control on its own, so trained are those muscles which take on the task of hitting the highs and lows of the ChinFin songs (or so I like to think!) I can only hope that if I continue with the practice and care, my voice will serve me for hopefully most of my life, and will keep developing and getting stronger. I feel to have a voice that works in general is pretty handy; to be able to use it in an unnatural way such as singing, is even better! Its a gift, and should be taken care of. It’s sad how many singers take it for granted.

I had a great time recording these three songs – simply twelve minutes of music – and I hope anyone reading this will enjoy it. It can be found on our SoundCloud page, and will be available for download very soon In the meantime, give us a ‘like’ on Facebook!

Tags: bandcamp, Chasing Infinity, Crosstown Studios, EP, friends, Liverpool, music, original, pop rock, recording, singing, voice