Welcome to my web diary!

So... it's been a while huh? But so many good things have happened, so I feel the tone of my journal will change for the better.

First things first, I completed and handed in my final assignments for my degree and... I got a 2:1 I am SO happy! Considering I started during covid, a house move, personal problems, adjusting to new meds and being diagnosed with anxiety and OCD... I am so proud of myself. I now have a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Arts and Humanities (English Language) and I can't believe it... I will have to book graduation soon so I hope I'm able to get tickets as it's first come first serve an I don't want to wait! Plus I also need to find out about photographers and graduation gowns... :)

I applied a couple of days ago to study an MA in Applied Lingusitics with Open University... fingers crossed! Am I crazy? Yes.

Another nice nugget of news is that I have a job, and have done for a few months. Retail, and I've met some lovely people through it I would consider friends. It's been great for my anxiety, mental health, self confidence... and having more money helps! It's really been a good but mad few months - if you'd have told me a few months ago this is where I would be I wouldn't have believed you one bit. Plus, the Sertraline is working absolute wonders for me and I wish I would have started them sooner!

I'd like to pick up some hobbies, I have four more days off work and I want to tackle making (or starting to make) my neocities website. I also want to do more art and writing, and reading. I'm excited!

In other news, I've randonly become allergic to hair bleach, which is a travesty as I am always changing my hair colour. I've also had some problems with tomatoes, some cider flavours (???) and some materials, like my smart watch strap. So I'll have to book an allergy test for sure, but first I have a cervical smear so let's take it once step at a time haha.

I'm also absolutely hating the heat... Sertraline is making me drip with sweat and it's awful. I can't wait for autumn/winter!

Anyway, that's my big update. I hope to post more from now. I might make a post of my favourite gaiaonline avatars that I have made.

Until next time!

So, last week, we had a very productive day that resulted in... nothing! Ha! Well, we had some garden furniture arrive only for it to be missing some parts, so we had to arrange for the place to give us a refund, come and take the furniture back, then order a new set. Thankfully by now the new set has been delivered and is in the garden ready for more summer nights. We tried it a couple days ago and it's lovely being able to sit outside - we had some wine and watched the sunset. Until it rained XD then it was back in for Chinese. Lovely! When we were waiting for food to arrive it stopped raining and there was a huge rainbow. Magical!

The on/off button on our washing machine has broken too, and the same day someone came to take a look... but couldn't because our appliances are built in, so need to move the fridge (our house has a very, very small kitchen with built in appliances, so any kind of mains or wires etc are very hidden behind... well, other appliances) I'm up early today because a friend has come over to help fiance move the fridge completely out of the kitchen for the moment, then someone is coming to take a look. Fully expecting there to be a part needing to be ordered, which is annoying as we will probably have to go to the laundrette again.

Another day my parents came over and my dad helped make a sideboard and hang a neon wall light. They'll be coming back soon to fix some hinges on the garden door and some garden lighting. It's all coming together nice and slow, the place is looking great. We've been here for two years this month and we are still sorting things out in terms of decorating and decor; it all takes money and time. I'm glad with the progress we've made!

And... lastly... I passed my 'year 2' modules at Open University!!!

I found out last night, a day early. Last year I remember just waiting for the e-mail to tell me my results were ready, but this time on the FB group someone said results were up, and, well, let's say evidently we weren't the only group to realise. The site and servers were down ALL DAY, with people still at 10PM trying to refresh to get their results from 3PM. Madness! Lots of unhappy people tweeting - I don't blame them too much as lots were waiting anxiously for degree results - I'd have been the same. I do wonder if maybe e-mailing or posting individual results wouldn't just be better rather than having everyone try to access a certain part of the website at the same time (especially when the site can't seem to handle it.)
Anyway, after only about three hours of refreshing I got in. And I passed!

Four modules out of six done which means I now have a Diploma in Higher Education. My last two modules start in October and this time next year, fingers crossed I will be writing that I've received my degree results and have passed. Here's hoping! I'm going for a BA (hons) in Arts and Humanities, and all my modules have been in regards to English language and linguistics, with creative writing. I'm very excited for my last modules, and I hope I work hard and pass! I only have myself to blame if I don't!

I've already e-mailed about my certificate, and we're celebrating later with a bottle of something in the garden. I'm super proud of myself - I started this in 2020, after a very shitty year (not just because of covid) but also covid, no laptop, a house move... finally some stability in the last module and a half so I'm excited to have a nice desk space to really sink my teeth into studying. I'm so close to my degree I can taste it! I can't wait to be walking across the stage at graduation... it's something I never thought I'd ever do.

Apart from that, there isn't much else to say. There's heatwaves in Italy and Greece and other parts of the world right now, just like we had last year, but strangely we haven't had it here yet. We've had a couple hot days but looking at the weather forecast for the next week or so for the past couple of months it hasn't gone above 23 degrees or so. Right now it's 16! The past couple of weeks have been rainy, gloomy and muggy with some pleasant sunny/bright intervals. I love it like this though - I am not complaining in the slightest! I hate the heat - I don't cope well in it. So I am perfectly ok sitting in a gloomy garden :)

Dyed my hair black, neon green and pink. I like it! I have never had green hair before. I love it. I used Bleach London's slimelight and it is perfect. The pink could be better, but I lightened it from black, so you can't have it all. It's solstice event in Destiny 2 later so no doubt I will be playing that. Best friend is currently in Poland visiting a group of friends and they won't be back till Sunday, so it'll just be me and fiance playing for this week. Hopefully the servers are more stable as I was kicked from Iron Banner and Gambit which made me say fuck it, not playing! Same happened to fiance - he doesn't get as annoyed as I do but he literally could not play for getting kicked so instead opted for MTG arena against a friend for the night. We also watched Bronson, which was very enjoyable. I've been better at watching films lately!

It's been nice to ramble!

Until next time!