A Wholesome Weekend

As I've touched on a few things regarding breaking up the university term in previous posts, I thought I'd write about how I chose to split up my Autumn term this year with my weekend away in Sheffield.

Last Wednesday I took the six and a half hour train journey home, arriving at Milton Keynes station at 10pm. I don't really mind the long journeys as such, I'd say I'm possibly used to them by now and any journey shorter than 3 hours has become a treat for me. However, they really do tire me and it's safe to say I went straight to bed when I got home that night.

As my parents were both at work on the Thursday I had the day at home to myself, or as I saw it, the kitchen to myself. After a nice long bath in the morning - an essential when you've been away from home for a while - I baked some vegan gingerbread biscuits to give to my friends in Sheffield, which actually went down considerably well considering my poor attempt at decorating them...

This was followed by cooking a beetroot and coconut dhal for dinner - a dish my mum wasn't too sure about the idea of but actually went down very well. I think it's really important to give yourself days off like this, they're so wholesome and refreshing. I really love baking and cooking for people, it makes me really happy and I love seeing people's reactions to what I've made. When they're positive of course, we don't talk about the vegan cheese pasta bake that my family absolutely hated...

Now, to the reason I came home in the first place - besides to see my wonderful parents - to see my old school's production of The Sound of Music. I went along with the group of friends that I performed Les Miserables and Miss Saigon with and it was so lovely to see everyone and to have a catch up afterwards. The show itself was really well done and it did make me really miss performing. At school you really do take opportunities like that for granted, our group was so involved in our school's music department and it's sad to think that only one of us has continued to be involved in music at university. One of our old teachers actually asked us if we were still singing and the majority of us replied 'no', which is such a shame, but nevertheless I'm sure we'll be singing again at some point and with Christmas around the corner I'm sure we will get together to record some stuff whilst we are home. After our group's catch up in the pub, I had possibly half an hour or so with both my parents to show them the Croatia video I had edited. My Dad had been away at work the previous night so we only really had this time to see each other unfortunately. I'd also like to add here that the full Croatia video is in my previous blog post if you're interested. I always love screening my video edits to the people who are in them before I post them, it reminds me of when I'd make Birthday videos for people and we'd all sit around together to watch them.

On Friday by 8:30am I was on a bus with Laurence, heading to Sheffield. My close friends Lily and Laurence (along with others) go to the university there and a few others go to universities close by, so it's usual for us to congregate in Sheffield. This time in particular it was Lily's sister's 18th Birthday so we were going for a night out at a club called 'The Night Kitchen', a club that plays only Bassline music. It's fair to say that clubbing isn't really my scene and especially not when the music doesn't feature anything from ABBA...

I would describe me dancing to bassline music as the 'dad dancing' of contemporary music. Besides the music, I had a really good time and I think I let loose enough to not let my inner dad dancing surface. I find it doesn't really matter where you are or what you're doing, as long as you're surrounded by good people, you'll have fun. My friends from home are all incredible and I could gush about them for any length of time. Being at university has only made me appreciate them more and I am so grateful for that.

Despite the lack of sleep that night, I was up, as ever, at 8:30 the next day. I seem to have trained my body clock to naturally wake up at this time if I don't set an alarm, which isn't all that bad. I don't like to waste the day and prefer to get an early night than a lie in now - something I never thought I'd hear myself say (or see myself type). Saturday was all about cooking, myself and Teke, (one of Laurence's flatmates and a definite perk of university being that you get to meet such lovely people through your friends) dedicated our day to cooking loads of curry dishes for everyone to enjoy in the evening. It was so lovely having everyone sat around the table eating together and I really love moments like that. It's also fair to say I definitely learnt a thing or two: how to make a crazy nice coconut, cauliflower and lentil dhal and that Teke and I need to work on our puddings. Vegan chocolate ganache doesn't set very quickly...

(Teke if you're reading this thank you for letting me cook with you and I look forward to our Christmas Dinner attempt).

Sunday consisted of a walk into central Sheffield, pie and mash (oh yes) and the sad time to say goodbye to pals and head back to university. I absolutely love weekends like this, spending time with family and friends is so important to me and I had such a nice time with everyone this past weekend. I find it's really important to split up your university terms with a trip home or a visit to friends as it's a good way to ground yourself and lessen the homesickness. I don't have set 'half term' breaks (or reading weeks) at my university so I have to schedule them in myself in order to keep me going. As I found out last year, I don't work well away from home for long periods of time. That being said, being away from everyone at university really does make times with them so special and I appreciate everything a lot more now. I've only just got back to Falmouth and I'm already getting excited about plans I have for Christmas (it's not even Halloween yet Emily, wow, don't mention Christmas).

All of the pictures from this weekend I took on a disposable camera which I'm hoping to get developed in the near future, so unfortunately for now you'll have to make do with photos of the ginger biscuits and dhal I made. I'm sure the photos will be up on some form of social media once I get them developed.

Thanks for taking the time to read my posts and if you ever have any suggestions on things to write about don't hesitate to message me, I really appreciate the responses I get.

Hope everyone has a lovely Halloween!