Mini's Student Survival Guide: Don't Waste Food!

Being a student who is seriously strapped for cash, wasting food is something that I try to avoid as best I can. Sometimes you cook more than you can eat. Sometimes you cook and then realise that you're not as hungry as you thought you were. Sometimes you buy things that you cannot possibly use before the use-by date.

With 24 hours before a litre of milk would expire, I couldn't deal with the pound that was about to be wasted when it could be put to good use.

Right now, I present - as a part of what I hope will become a regular feature of 'Mini's Student Survival Guide' - how to use up that milk before it stinks out the kitchen and gets thrown out by a flatmate. Of course, this relies on you having certain other things in to use them with, but it'll be worth it in the long run.

1. Meals to reheat. Some packet mixes require you to use milk to make the sauce, so this is what you need to go with (my personal favourite being chicken supreme, although I use Quorn pieces instead of chicken because I don't eat meat). The packet will probably say three to four servings, but I usually only get two. Either way, you have one for the fridge and one (or more) for the freezer.

Milk used: 425ml

2. Sweet treat. My homesickness food: Angel Delight. I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it comes in a range of flavours so you can find something that tickles your fancy. Whip it up with fresh milk, put it in a bowl and leave to stand for 5 minutes (I prefer to stick it in the fridge, but there is no need to). One packet will do 4 servings, but nobody will judge you if you eat it all in one sitting.

Milk used: 300ml

3. Does cooking make you peckish? Grab yourself a bowl of cereal. Cheerios are my 'breakfast-as-midnight-snack' of choice, but whatever you've got in the cupboard, with a generous splash of milk, will sort out those hunger pangs, at least for the time being.

Milk used: 225ml

4. And wash it all down. Get yourself a hot drink. Tea, coffee, hot chocolate; whatever floats your boat. Of course if you like your coffee black then this won't help you, but a nice milky hot chocolate sorts me right out just before bed.

Milk used: Depends on your preference, but hopefully most of the rest.

5. If there's any left, you may as well just drink it straight from the carton. It's only going to start smelling if you leave it.

So don't waste it, allow yourself a midnight snack, a milky drink, a sweet indulgence and at least two meal portions.

1 litre of milk gone in less than 1 hour.

How would you do it?

Failure

I am afraid of failing. Like, terrified. I always have been and I probably always will be. But it goes deeper than that, I am afraid of getting the tiniest thing wrong. If you ask me a question about something, no matter how insignificant the answer is in the grand scheme of things, I would rather go with you to find someone else who knew for sure than give you a wrong answer. And by going with you I will get to know the answer myself as well.

I guess a fear of failure or of being wrong isn't really an irrational fear; if you are wrong about if the guy at your front door is a murderer or not then it could cost you your life, if you fail to spot the signs of a fire next door you could - at least - end up getting burnt. I can't say either of these things have ever happened to me, but I would like to be correct about my decision if they ever do.

Not wanting to get things wrong is in some parts a good thing, it drove me to make sure that I made as few mistakes as possible throughout my academic life and even in the present moment I am still pushing myself to make sure I understand something - even if it isn't directly relevant to anything I need to know. I have always known things, even back at the ripe old age of 11 when I got incredibly high SAT scores.

I guess the fear of failure has gotten bigger as life has gotten harder. Really I should try and be less scared because the chances of it happening get higher as things get harder, and maybe I should try and learn to accept it; but the whole 'grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change' has never really been my thing. If something cannot be made better I want to know why; and I will scream and kick and drag my heels until someone offers me either a reason or a solution.

In High School I pulled off some of the best results the school has ever seen and then followed it up in College with an A* in what is now my degree subject. Even when it didn't count I got a 1st in my first year of university. The fear of failure seems to have been useful in ensuring that I didn't fail in the past, but now the chances and the stakes are almost as high as they're going to go and I feel like the pressure is mounting ready to pop the cork and drown me in my own misery.

Not that I'm not doing well. I'm working my arse off to keep on top of everything (except writing this instead of doing a lab report) and can generally write essays well. When things go a bit pear shaped I know how to claw them back so things are going my way again. But at the same time there is this part of me, that seems to have gotten bigger in the last 3 years, that is telling me that things keep getting harder and I'm closer and closer to falling off the cliff into my worst nightmare.

For my chosen career, a first is pretty much what I need. I know that and that's why I'm working as hard as I can without spinning into mental illness to get there. It's a tough road but it's the one I need to take. And I tell myself daily that it won't be the end of the road if it isn't a 1st, I'll just have to deviate and take a lesser travelled, less direct road. I've gotten this far and I've not failed yet, as a fan of statistics I cannot fail to see how they are on my side. As long as I ignore the part of me that is saying 'Law of averages, it has to happen sometime!' (or throw it the U I got in a General Studies exam and the D I got in GCSE Music) I can manage to keep myself afloat. And when I can't ignore it, I have a support network of friends and family who will argue with it for me (please ignore how mental this sentence makes my friends, family and myself seem).

So, in a rambly sort of way, I will conclude that failure is scary; and being scared of it is a perfectly normal part of everyday life. But I have managed 19 years without any significant failures, so the statistics seem to be on my side.

So that is going to get written on a post-it-note and stuck to my pinboard, and I'm going to get to work on this lab report.

Lancaster Uni Freshers' Week Guide (From the Perspective of Someone Who Didn't Drink in Freshers' Week)

Note: This guide can also be used for other universities, but some of the more Lancaster specific points may not be completely relevant.

1. Your college is important (but only this week)

Buy the t-shirt, learn the chants (ask your reps), drink exclusively in your own bar. If you're on campus then your flatmates will be in your college; and they'll be the people you spend the most time throughout the week and your freshers' reps will help to instil a sense of family from your college.

After freshers' you'll go into normal uni life and meet people on your course and in societies, at which point the only time your college will matter is if you play inter-college sports. I am in Fylde and some of my best friends are in Lonsdale, Furness and County. The only time the college difference matters is when we beat them at pool, when a bit of casual banter is thrown around.

2. Ask questions

You'll have a tutor and two freshers' reps; they're there to help you. I didn't know which bus to get to the train station and my rep not only told me which bus and where from, but she also found me a timetable. When I had to change my minor, my personal tutor (who didn't actually know how the procedure worked herself) rang around to find out for me while I was feeling emotional and had no idea where to start.

Freshers' reps are largely there to get you drunk (ahem, I mean make sure you aren't too drunk to get home safe), but they will also answer your questions - they were once nervous freshers with millions of questions they felt stupid for having to ask, so they completely understand where you are coming from.

3. Play sports/join societies

The Freshers' Fayre will usually be Thursday/Friday of freshers' week, and you'll probably be overwhelmed by how many things people have been bothered to make societies for. Join anything you are remotely interested in or think you could be interested in. But, make sure you take account of the cost - some are free, some have joining fees, some require you to buy equipment; but if its something you are going to enjoy and make friends doing then it has to be worth it.

I didn't do this. I signed up for the writers' society and never went. I only joined the pool team by accident, but my captain is now the best friend I have met at uni, and a lot of the other girls are totally awesome!

4. Don't feel pressured to drink a lot and go out every night.

I'm disabled and when my knee started to hurt, I went home and chilled with a hot water bottle. Your freshers' reps will encourage you to get drunk and enjoy yourself, your party animal flatmates may think you're a little weird if you don't wanna go out; but it's your life, your freshers' week and your uni experience - do whatever you like.

I even left my Big Night Out (sampling a lot of the local nightlife under the watchful eyes of your reps) early, and my female rep - who had been encouraging the rest of the group to drink as much as possible without being sick - walked me to the bus station and made me promise to text her when I got back before she would let me on the bus.

5. Speaking of the Big Night Out, wear sensible shoes!

I wore flats. My two female flatmates wore heels. Guess which of the three of us wasn't moaning about her feet our third bar?

Lancaster is quite spread out. I used to go out with Wigan, where pretty much all of the clubs are along the same street. You get bored of one club, you just pop next door; it's easy and not too bad for high heels. But Lancaster isn't anything like this. With the exception of Sugarhouse, Toast and Elements all being along the same road, you don't get clubs that are all that close together. So wear flats for the sake of your feet and the ears of your flatmates.

Quickfire advice:

6. Don't take clothes you don't think you'll wear because you'll spend forever unpacking! But do weigh everything up for its fancy dress value.

7. If you can, get the top shelf of the fridge so other people's food doesn't leak and drip onto yours - particularly if you're a vegetarian or have allergies.

8. Bring a doorstop so your new flatmates can say hi while you unpack.

9. Establish football/rugby/other sport alliances and rivalries early - makes for good banter in the bar or your kitchen while watching a match/game/race.

10. Have fun, don't be scared, and just be yourself. If people hate you for it, that's their issue.

Picture perfect painted smile

I never wore a lot of make-up for the first half of high school.

While the 'popular' girls discovered foundation I barely knew how to apply mascara. It was never an issue to me, I was always happy with the way I looked.

I guess I didn't care what I looked like, there was never any reason for me to look my best because there was never anybody I was interested in looking good for.

When the hormones kicked in age 13 and I also started dying my hair dark as I was going through a 'goth phase' which I didn't really grow out of, despite now having blonde hair and currently wearing a floral top. I started wearing heavy eyeliner and resenting being told to take it off. I was convinced there was a double standard; the orange girls were never told to take their layers of the wrong shade foundation off - probably because they would quit the sports teams if the sports staff had a go at them. I was probably right about the double standard but I was young and didn't know how to deal with it.

At college I changed to just mascara and lip gloss, I still didn't see the appeal in foundation, I'd never been taught how to choose the proper shade or how to put it on and I found women at cosmetic counters in department stores a little intimidating.

But one day sat in the back corner of our college library (as we always did) my good friend Beth told me to stop moaning about the state of the skin on my nose and smoothed some of her foundation over it. She then thought it made a good fit and applied a little along my jawline to check it was as good a match as it looks. She didn't know it then, but she had created a monster.

I lasted about 6 months only applying foundation to my nose - covering up the slight difference in colour by the skin being dragged by a bump in the middle - before progressing to applying it to my T-Zone to cover spots for a night out. Now, I wear foundation all over my face, everyday. I was taught to apply it by the girls at college and I've never looked back.

You always hear about girls calling other girls 'fake' because of their application of make-up in this way; and in some sense I agree with this because the skin tone you see on my face is not the skintone that I actually have. My eyes aren't as big as the eyeliner tricks your eyes into thinking they are and my lips are not that dark. My eyelashes are not as long as my quest for the best mascara is gradually making them look; but that is what you see when you look at me. And it isn't a case of what you see is what you get like a lot of people think it is, it is far from that. What you see is what I want you to see, and I don't see any problem with this.

I don't wear make-up to be more attractive to other people. Whether that is or isn't a side effect is up to you to decide and not me; but it isn't the reasoning behind why I do it. If anything, I wear make-up to make me more attractive to me. Sometimes I look in the mirror and can't believe how ugly I look. I hate my spots and my bumpy nose and the fact that one of my eyes is bigger than the other and it does restrict how I think about myself; no matter how much I try to convince myself that it doesn't. An application of foundation and mascara can make me confident enough in myself to face the day if my self-confidence is hit - even if it's only because I don't want to have wasted the effort.

So if I look in the mirror after applying full make-up following a few days slap free and feel like I look fake, it's probably a good sign and not me insulting myself. And I'm certainly not comparing myself to the girls in high school - it's not natural, but it's not orange.

Post-hoc poetry.

I had an idea for a new sub-anthology, details will follow if it actually gets anywhere. It's 13 poems, all based (loosely) around certain things that have happened at uni. I don't want to give too much away in case I decide I hate them all after they're written and they never see the light of day (although the first two that I wrote have been shown to one of my best friends).

Problem is, the idea came afterwards. I'm writing poetry post-hoc and it's causing some problems with dating and ordering the poems in the anthology.

I've tried to order them chronologically based on when the original events happened. This has taken some time and pouring over my diary trying to figure out what nights out happened when and when certain information become public and it's not been easy trying to put events with times.

But I think I've managed it, the last date just fell into place; remembering being filled in about the details of a weekend when I wasn't at uni.

I date my poetry. I've said this before in my post that was purely about poetry, and the date I include is usually the date that the poem is written in first draft form. But these poems are different.

The question I have is: Do I date the poems based on their first draft completion, or do I give them the date from when the event they're based on happened?

I could just include both, but that seems like a cop out. If you have any thoughts, please let me know.

Are you happy with where you are in life right now? Take 2

I missed my re-evaluation deadline. I don't tend to miss deadlines but those three months turned into almost 4, but here we are. (If you don't know what I'm talking about go here: http://dft.ba/-5things).

In short: 5 things I wish I could change about my life at this very moment.

1. Not speaking to my family as much as I used to.

This is a big thing for me. Last term we used to speak almost daily and now we hardly speak at all. It's partly down to me being busy at times when they're free and them being busy at times when I'm free. It's not all that difficult to make the extra effort, but these things happen and things slip through the cracks.

2. My pool ability.

And I was doing so well. I'm not really a quitter, but I imagine Sarah hates me for the amount of times I've been threatening to quit the pool team over the last 7 days. They say practice makes perfect but the more I've been practising recently the more I've been losing by huge margins (and by that I mean three 7-balls in the last week - Chris, Joanna and Dani) and then my confidence takes a knock and I don't want to play anymore. I don't want to give up because I have dreams of playing for Roses in my third year; but when you're playing as bad as I have been it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The worst part is knowing what you're doing wrong and knowing how to fix it and trying the best you possibly can to fix it and failing; because that's the point that you feel completely useless.

Although we did discover the secret to my success on Wednesday after our match. It turns out that all I need is a bottle of Lucozade two hours before playing and half a cider just before I play and I can beat Joanna 3-1.

3. Susceptibility to illness.

So recently I've had a cold, a stomach bug and now some nasty cold/flu-like symptoms including headache, sore throat, nausea and fever. I know it could be due to the stress I keep putting myself under by spending too much of my time playing pool, but it's starting to get annoying. I'm hoping on a period of good health to set me up for my week 10 deadline; fingers crossed.

4. Inability to respond to stress until very serious.

I'm not a night-before kind of person. I very rarely write an essay the day before it's due in and my last three assignments before week 8 were all handed in just under 24 hours before deadline. However, Psych 102 for Monday and Psych 101 for Friday were finished at 5am on Monday and Friday respectively. It's still not last-minute per say, they were both ready a good few hours before the deadline and there was even time for sleep while I asked my mum to proofread them before handing in, but it's still not like anything I've ever done before. I used to know a deadline was looming and start writing a week beforehand and keep going at a steady pace until it was done. Both assignments were started early enough but then ignored for too long a period of time until the night before work was necessary and I had to scramble to make up to my word limits while just wanting to go to bed. This kind of thing can't carry on happening and I imagine it can't could have contributed to the scratchiness in my throat and the mild pounding in my head.

5. Relationship status.

And here's the one that makes me look shallow. Of course I'm looking for love, I'm an 18 year old Fresher for God's sake; now is the time if there ever was one. I've pulled twice in clubs this term, but both straight girls, so not really an option for a relationship there. I've never been one for peer pressure, but it seems like everyone else at uni is getting some and I'm not. Maybe I'm a little bit jealous - so shoot me, at least I'll admit to it.

Humanity

So, many of you will know I'm home for the holidays. A few of you will know that I don't like my hometown because of a lot of the people in it. But yesterday I was in McDonalds and I heard something that was a little bit heartwarming.

I will admit, I'm the kind of person who doesn't always clean up after themselves in fast food restaurants. I do it most of the time, especially if I know the people working there, but if I've had bad service or I don't like the person who is working I will leave it for them.

Most of the time I will do it myself because there are plenty of people who don't do it and I have had to clear up after other people in order to be able to sit at a table before now. It isn't pleasant and the people who work there aren't employed to clean up after you because you're too lazy to do it yourself.

Yesterday I saw some chavs eating Happy Meals; not uncommon considering where I live. Including one I went to school with, accompanying who I can only assume was his younger brother. Upon finishing his brother put the boxes on the tray and went to pick it up. His younger brother said, in the snottiest voice I've heard out of an under 10 'But aren't they here to clean up after us?'

To which the elder brother snapped back 'No. It's nice if you do it yourself.' Well, I could have cried. This isn't something that you hear in Skem, that's not how Skem works.

Genuinely amazing moment.

Maybe it's a little sad how heartwarming I find this. Maybe I've just got such low expectations of Skem that this is absolutely amazing when it happens. But it happened, and it made me happy.

MINI NEWS: I am getting a tattoo on the 8th January. It's booked, I've designed it, and now I've told everyone I'll feel like a tit if I back out. So excited. Pictures to follow, watch this space.

Guided tour of Mini will be resuming normal service from this moment. I have my own 14mpx camera and took some photos on my mothers camera before I left uni, so let's explore the wall shall we?

This is a picture drawn of me by the lovely Danielle at the start of LVI. My skin is blue because I'm cold, my hair is red because it was back them and the boobs were only put in afterwards when I took my jumper off and stopped swamping my figure.

The text reads: To Mini. Happy Jew Day. Love Danielle.

I'm not sure if that is racist.

The unicorn covering the speech bubble was drawn by the wonderful Sammy Holden, who will be a famous artist someday and I have three Sammy Holden originals, all of which will get featured together in a different post.

As for the contents of the speech bubble... I'm not saying :)

Advice

Have you ever asked someone for advice about something that you've already made up your mind about?

I'm sure we've all done it at least once. But I swear I've done it at least twice in the last month.

Anyone who knows me personally (probably most of you reading this) will know that I had to change my minor earlier in the year. I had a lot of trouble with this because I just didn't know what I wanted to do and there were plenty of people pointing me in different directions that I wasn't sure I wanted to go. I ended up settling on philosophy because I had done it before. For pretty much the last 4 years in fact.

First I tried for psychology in education, because my major is in psychology so it was an obvious choice. But, because I had left it so late, the course was full. I left her my details and she said that she would email me if any places became available on the course which is when I started to look towards the philosophy department.

I got myself enrolled on philosophy, I purchased a reading pack, I caught up on half of the lectures that I'd already missed and then I received an email from the woman in psychology in education - someone had dropped out; there was room for me.

I was struck with indecision. On the one hand I had wanted to do this because it just meant more psychology and I was essentially only studying one subject instead of having to do two. But on the other hand I had spent the preceding week immersing myself back into philosophy and working extra hard to catch myself up. I guess in my head I felt that I had put in too much work to give it up and have to do the same in another subject.

But I did what I did in all situations like this, I called my mother.

I told her what had happened. I explained the two options that I now had and how far I was into my philosophy. I said that I didn't want to waste the week of extra work I had done and I definitely didn't want to do the same again; but the idea of only doing psychology was still one that was very attractive to me. My mum showed a slight bias to me changing to psychology in education.

What I hadn't told her is that I had already typed a reply to the email from the psychology in education woman which read 'It's fine I have already started another minor, feel free to give the place to another student. Thank you.' and I had just decided to consult her before I pressed send. I had pretty much already made up my mind but spoke to her about it.

I did something very similar for a much less important decision a few days ago. I pre-ordered Charlie McDonnell's album in the bundle with Alex Day's from DFTBA records (http://dft.ba/Charlie). I got the order through to the PayPal stage ready to click confirm and then consulted mum about it.

I guess it links back to what I said just before I left for uni about spontaneity (http://dft.ba/-Spontaneity). I've not quite reached the stage where I can be spontaneous. I can make my mind up about a decision very quickly, but then I will seek help to back me up.

Maybe it stems from a fear of being wrong or a fear of failing and the idea that if I consult someone on a decision and they back me up then I can apply some of the blame to them for what went wrong. (I have to stress that it is only some of the blame, after all, I had already made the decision).

And if the person I asked didn't back up my decision, well, I'd have probably moved on to someone else.

It was on an episode of Scrubs where JD asked Turk if he thought it was a good idea to do something that he had actually already done. It almost becomes a joint decision if someone is backing you up, even if that wasn't in place when you made the decision.

I guess I need an extra little push to be spontaneous.

Mini fact: I joined the pool team. Does this count? It's pretty scary because I'm largely bad at pool.

I need to stop posting whilst drunk.

Blah blah blah, don't judge me, blah blah blah, this may not make sense and/or contain typos that I will read as being correct... I think you know the drill from last time anyway.

I've had more to drink tonight than I had the whole of freshers' week.

This sounds MUCH worse than it is.

I had three drinks on the second night and two on the third and that was all I drank all week.

I always ask people not to judge me when I get drunk and then write a blog post - which has only happened twice I think, but expect it to happen quite a bit in the future. I don't know what it is about the alcohol in my bloodstream that makes me want to type into my computer for anybody who may be reading. However, it's not a strategy I'd recommend, because I honestly feel like the keys are switching around on the keyboard to trick me as I'm typing.

But since freshers' week, I think the concern I've had is that people will judge me if I'm not drinking.

It comes with the 'student' label. People think we're all borderline alcoholics who drink through our student loans and then beg money off our parents for bread and milk. And while this is true of some students, it isn't true of any that I've met so far - or at least as far as I know.

While we were on our Big Night Out, my wonderful freshers' rep kept telling me not to feel bad that I wasn't drinking; as long as I was having a good time then everything was fine. At the time I didn't feel bad at all but - and it may have something to do with the idea being planted in my head - I've begun to get a little worried that people might think I'm boring if I go out and don't drink anything. Or if I come home early because I don't feel well or my knee is sore (I did discover last night for anyone with knee problems caused by poor foot posture such as mine, high heeled boots are the way forward. My feet have never given out before my knees on a night out, until last night).

My flatmates are probably reading this. Please don't tell me either way, it's not something I'd really like to know the answer to.

I don't really care if people do think I am boring, it's just something that crosses my mind when I'm in bed at midnight, only slightly tipsy, with a hot water bottle on my sore knee while everyone else is in Sugarhouse.

It occurs to me now, that I don't even know where Sugarhouse is. That's how bad a student I am.

How much?

Three textbooks are going to cost me £110.

I don't really know what I was expecting, I mean this is part of why we get a lot of the loans and stuff. I'm not entirely sure if I should just get up tomorrow morning and go to Waterstones and get it or if I should look to see if I can get it cheaper on Amazon or something.

I may just buy them.

The lecture we had today about everything in the first year course was very daunting.

We have to read something and fill out a sheet before our first seminar and then we have to complete web based assessments before seminars and after lab sessions or something. I don't know, I'll check the handbook. When we got to our break an hour in and I went home to get a drink and a snack; I almost cried on my way out.

I had a similar problem yesterday when I was reading through the handbook. I was just looking at the rules on word counts and deadlines and research participation and instantly found myself freaking out. Obviously uni is going to be very hard work - I knew that when I signed up - I just didn't know that everything would be so strict and so difficult to get my head around.

One girl in the flat upstairs has dropped out already.

Now, don't panic (mum in particular); I'm not going to drop out. I am enjoying myself - even if I don't have the party girl attitude that most people seem to have in freshers' week. I've only consumed about 8 units of alcohol since I started on Sunday and haven't gone out with the rest of my flat (and Ollie from next door who practically lives in our kitchen) tonight. I get on really well with my flatmates, our freshers reps have exactly the right balance of partying and looking after us and every Fyldean I've met so far has been lovely. It's all just still a little scary.

I don't care if I sound boring, but I'm actually sort of looking forward to lectures starting on Monday. Yes, I'm dreading having to pay for books tomorrow and I'm almost constantly terrified that I have forgotten or will forget to do something - but once things start I can stop looking at the big picture and start to take it one day at a time. Seems much easier that way.

Side note - Alex Day's "The World is Mine (I Don't Know Anything)" just came on my iPod as I was writing - a song (and album) that pretty much sums up exactly how I feel right now. It's the perfect marriage of 'I can do anything, let's go for it' and 'everything is terrifying and I have no idea how do this'. Perfection once again appears in music. Listen at http://alexdaymusic.com/music/.

I also faced another realisation today. Last week I thought this would do one of two ways; I would love it and never want to come home or I would just be constantly homesick and go home at every opportunity. But it seems that a third option has surfaced. I don't want to go home, I don't miss Skem in any way; I feel freed from the hold that the negativity of my hometown had on me - and it is exhilarating! But I do miss the people that I've left behind. I miss my friends and family; Tash and mum. I don't want to go home, I want them to come here (they are doing tomorrow!)

It's not even the end of freshers' week yet and uni is exciting, scary, daunting and fun all in one bundle.

Let's get stuck in.

Cinema ticket for The Proposal which I went to see with a former best friend. It was pretty good if you're into Chick Flicks - Sandra Bullock was good in it. I highly recommend it :)

Mini So Far

The Guided Tour.

Coming Soon.

I finished unpacking today :) including my 'wall of stuff'.

I will be showing and explaining each item (or group of items so it doesn't take too long) over several posts. Watch this space.

Spontaneity

My mum got a tattoo today. She's been threatening to do it for ages but she just went today and got it done. Her best friend was going to get the shading done on her tat and my mum just rand up to see if she could have one as well. She now has a ladybird - little bit bigger than life size - on her left shoulder.

She turned 42 on Monday.

It was a very spontaneous thing for her to do. I've always been one to air on the side of caution and not jump into things but if she had done that today then she wouldn't have a beautiful tattoo. The most impulsive thing I've done recently was decide to leave some of my books at home rather than pack them to take them to uni - and this wasn't that impressive because I had already packed them and have had to unpack them. The only other thing that I can think of is when I submitted my choices for my uni modules and had to choose my minor for the first year. I had a lot of indecision for a while and then I decided I would go with creative writing and submitted it before I changed my mind again. But even this was due to my mother - I told her my options and she thought it was a good idea.

I know from my last 18 years that I'm one to change my mind a lot so I think it'd be a huge leap for me to do something as permanent as get a tattoo because I'd be too worried that I'd most likely end up hating it in a couple of years - which is one of the most disastrous things you could do. I mean I can still change my mind about the books again before I go to uni. I can come back home and pick them up if I need them. I have the first three weeks of term to change my minor if I don't like it.

I think spontaneity is a good thing as long as you do it properly. Most decisions should be thought through properly, especially if they're going to have some bearing on the rest of your life. But if you've already decided to do something like this, why not just spontaneously decide to go and get it done while nobody is expecting you to.

I plan to do something spontaneous during freshers week. Watch this space.