Midweek Ramble/ Instagram Catch Up

New skincare in the mail/ Technology post/ Healthy snacking/ A new month/ My book pile/ Tea break at work/ Afternoon reading/ New magazines/ Hot chocolate at uni

I'm sitting here typing this with a rather violent case of hiccups and the rain pouring down outside. I love autumn! I can't believe we are already halfway through this week - the first three days of my week are always packed with uni and work so I'm happy that they are out of the way. At the moment, I'm writing a 3000 word essay for a unit at university. 3000 words is a lot, especially when I'm not 100% sure I understood the essay topic to begin with. One of my friends very accurately said something along the lines of "the problem with a 3000 word essay is that mine always seem to have the same real content of a 1000 word essay!" Too true, too true.

Over the weekend some of my parent's friends came over for dessert after they all headed out for dinner (lucky, my sister and I were left at home with only a salad for company [I love a good salad, but when your parents are out having Italian, well, you know…jealousy does tend to set in]), including a couple who they hadn't seen for 8 years. It was actually the lady of that couple who initiated the dinner, as one of her New Years Resolutions had been to reconnect with people from her past whom she missed. I suppose when you see these people again, you have absolutely no shortage of anything to talk about (not that mum ever does!). It's nice knowing that even when you haven't seen people for awhile, you can still reconnect with them in the future.

Something that has happened lately that completely shocked me was the kidnapping of over 200 Nigerian female students. In such a progressive world, we still hear about shootings and attacks on female schools in African countries due to the belief that females should not be educated, which is absolutely horrible. However to hear about these girls being taken from a place where they are supposed to be nurtured, safe and learning, and then enslaved as child brides to their kidnappers, definitely disgusted and floored me. It is completely undermining their ability to learn, and is just a revolting show of power. Furthermore, the lack of coverage in the news about this is pretty appalling, with a focus instead being laid upon two grown men fighting in the street and the budget.

To finish on a happier note, I've been enjoying Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project". Such a great book about being happier with your life by changing little things in it, like going to bed earlier, solving arguments peacefully and how being right doesn't necessarily mean being happy about the situation (I really need to learn this). There will be a post on it coming up when I finish it.

I hope you enjoyed this rather thrown together post and that the rest of your week is great!