What I Got For My 20th

Hello again peeps!

So a few weeks ago I did a post on things I wanted for my birthday. So today, I thought I'd do a post on some of the things I actually got. Let's get started!

On my birthday my friends from uni had gathered for a surprise lunch after our lecture. It was really sweet and was a real surprise! I got a cute HANDMADE (can you believe it?!) doggy in a basket and perfume. I'm not really a big perfume wearer (on a daily basis that is) but I will definitely be wearing it more often as this particular one smells amazing! And I think my friend will resort to killing me if I don't use it anytime soon...

One of my best friends got me a jigsaw puzzle and a Rubik's cube. She read my post and told me that's what she'll be getting me. I'm yet to use the Rubik's cube but I have started on the puzzle, and boy is it hard! Maybe a 1000 piece jigsaw was not the best place to start, ha.

I also got the blender I wanted! You see, I'm not a big fan of greens so mixing spinach with a couple of fruits and gulping it down is what I've got to do. I used a banana and an apple as my accompanying fruits on this particular occasion but I'm not too fussed as to what goes in.

My little sister got me a Tigger onesie but I have not yet got a decent picture of it so I've got nothing to show you at the moment. I love it though- it has a tail and everything!

This one  I didn't actually get for my birthday but it was from my "secret" santa. I love Winnie the Pooh and this was honestly a perfect gift. 

And that's it for now! 

I'm not a big fan of my own birthdays but this one was nice. So thanks to everyone who made it special. Love you guys ❤

Oh and this is not birthday related but here are a few pictures I took since the sky looked so pretty!

Take care,
Santhiya

Mary Christmas!

Hello guys!

So... I think it's fair to say I've been a "little" quiet on here for a while now and I'm going to talk about one of the reasons why today.

My friends and I had been organising a little project to help the homeless this Christmas and "the big day" was last Wednesday. The initiative is called Mary Christmas as the majority of us are Queen Mary students *badum tish*. 

The idea came from two of my friends who wanted to do something for the homeless after seeing them go through the harsh winter last year. They bought the idea up and all of us were up for doing something. A group of us got together and planned the event... And none of us- not for a moment, thought it'd get the reception it got. 

The idea was to make "winter packs" which we would distribute on a selected day. The packs contained essential toiletries, winter wear, instant noodle packs and a candy cane. All the items in the packs were either donated or bought through donations.

We only got around to making the packs a day before "the big day". I woke up pretty early to get to my friend's house so we could start with a nice breakfast before getting down to work.

Breakfast!!!

We didn't get much work done as we left soon after breakfast to exchange Secret Santa gifts with the others. When we got back, however, we were working like elves would the day before Christmas. In the end, we didn't even finish all the packing.

The morning of the big day arrived and I went to my local Greggs to collect 50 chocolate muffins which they'd donated. After collecting those, I went to my friend's house again to see she'd finished the packing and the bags were ready to be distributed!

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur to be completely honest.
1. We transported the bags to uni, which was the meeting point.
2. We were given instructions as to what everyone was going to be doing.
3. We set off on our assigned routed.
4. And we distributed!

My group only got to four homeless people during the day. We had a lot of bags left which we gave to shelters and the rest we gave to a soup/food van after merging with another group. 

To say it was an eventful day would be an understatement. However, the real distributions took place at night, when the others drove around and distributed the remaining packs. The night crew managed to get to around 130 homeless people which really was great.

All in all, I'm really proud of what we accomplished and am grateful to everyone who helped out: through donations to volunteering on the day. Thank you all!

Our Facebook page is here and twitter is here, so do check us out! Hopefully we can do it again next year and the year after and so on...

Just to mention: Of course, uni deadlines and other bits and bobs have made me a little preoccupied too! It wasn't just Mary Christmas that had me stressing slightly. However I don't think you guys would want me to go into detail about the other things.

Until next time (which will be a lot sooner!)...

Take care,

Santhiya