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

20 for 20!

Hello again guys!

Hope you've all been well, especially with winter really coming home this week.

This weeks post is going to be a little different as it's going to be one of those "about me" posts. I thought it would be a great way to tell you guys a little bit about myself and get something down for the about me page too. Now that I've turned 20 (hurray?), I thought I'd do 20 facts... So let's begin!

1. I was born in London, UK and I've stayed in London ever since. 

2. One day, I want to move out of London to somewhere that's a little quieter and less busy.

3. I'm a Scorpio. I'm not a huge believer of the Zodiac so I'm not aware of the associated traits. However, I still often check up on things related to my Zodiac sign as it can be a bit of fun :)

4. Now I wanted to talk about my hair type but I don't even know where to begin. I have black hair which I would say is of medium length (just above my shoulders). My hair is wavy, curly, frizzy and all things in between. Ha. 

5. I'm just over 5ft tall... I've been waiting for that growth spurt for a while now and I'm starting to lose hope.

6. I had braces when I was 15/16 years old but I didn't wear my retainers properly so the majority of my teeth have shuffled back to their original places.

7. I'm short sighted so I often wear glasses during lectures.

8. I have two piercings on each lobe: the first one I got when I was a few months old and the second one only a few months ago. Haha. I want to get another piercing on my lobe on both ears and maybe one or two cartilage piercings on my left ear. Probably not anytime soon though!

9. The only TV series/drama I watch on a regular basis would be The Mindy Project. I honestly love it and can go on about it for ages! Melissa and Joey is another show I've come across recently and have quickly started to like a lot too. Grey's Anatomy has been on my to watch list for far too long but one day I will conquer all eleven (or however many) seasons!

10. I am currently studying Medical Genetics BSc and want to go into Medicine after completing my undergrad degree.

11. I have two younger sisters- no older siblings nor brothers.

12. Ice cream has to be one of the best foods in the world. (That is a fact.)

13. Winnie the Pooh has been my long term obsession. I love the character so much! He's such a little cutie <3 

14. Bloggers often have nice meanings behind their URLs but I'm not really sure I do. My twitter username was/is anotherduckling so that kind of carried forward to my blog too. 

15. I like maths. There I said it. It’s something I miss doing and I get a little bit excited when we have to do calculations for lab reports. 

16. I am a dog person as far as I'm aware... Cats scare me slightly.

17. I think I'm a forgiving person but I don't really follow the "forgive and forget" principle. So am I really forgiving? 

18. Yellow is one of my favourite colours.

19. I am yet to have a Starbucks or Costa coffee :P

20. I hope to become a vegetarian one day. I've started to incorporate more vegetables and vegetarian sources of protein in my diet so... Slowly but surely. 

And I'm done! This was a lot harder to write than expected. Sorry it's so wordy- hopefully my next post will have a few pictures to liven the post up.

Until then...

Take care,

Santhiya

Day out: Pulpit Hill

Hello guys!

Last Monday I had my first university field trip *woop woop*. It was to Pulpit Hill and it was the BEST, so I thought I'd share a few pictures from the day with you guys.

This picture does not even begin to show the steepness of the hills. I honestly had small bruises on my shins from falling whilst trying to climb the hill. Plus side was that I probably burnt a few calories doing it.

One thing I've learnt from this trip is that I definitely want to get into more outdoorsy stuff: like hiking and hill walking. I've wanted to try them out for a while now but I never got around to it- thinking it wasn't something I'd enjoy. But it feels like it is something I'd enjoy- even though it seems to bring me a bit of embarrassment. 

The surrounding area (which I sadly didn't capture) was also beautiful, which makes the idea of moving out of London when I'm older more appealing.

It really was a nice day and we made "plans" to come again (or go somewhere similar) for a little day out. So hopefully there will be similar posts on days out with nature to come!

Take care,

Santhiya