Come play… With blog reunion/life updates.

It’s funny I always used to think that my favourite time of year was the season of summer. However as I have gotten older I have come to realise that is isn’t the case at all. I spend all of my time at home sweating like a pig because in Britain we haven’t decided that it is quite hot enough, long enough to warrant any AC devices within our homes. Which is bollocks.

This is the first summer that I have spent mostly unemployed bar the odd bit of temp work and I feel like I’m 14 again with the significant amount of acne developing above my brow. Caused by a mixture of sweat and boredom most likely.

Despite this lack of things to do I have still managed to procrastinate my way out of blogging, which I’m really sad about because I read through my old posts and read the thoughts of a unsure and hurting young lady, who is constantly tittering on the cusp between optimism and realism.

University life had not turned out to be all she expected and as a result she dropped out to work full time. Gaining employment within a series of customer service environments where no matter how many hours she worked she could still not cover the bills and rent. To this day she is still probably being chased by a certain local authority, whom of which she used to avoid paying council tax to.

However over the last year my life has been pretty incredible, I’ve had opportunities which had never presented themselves prior to now. Last August Kamil and I toured the country, 6 cities (Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Brighton, London & Bristol) in 7 days, 1050miles, mostly on Megabus.

That was a sweet holiday, though by the time we made it to our final destination in Bristol, Kamil passed out on the SS Great Britain and I had to drag him back to the hostel. I guess the previous 6 days of travelling just took its toll on him. So we decided that we would revisit Bristol at some point but to this day 1 year on we still haven’t gotten around to it.

But after that we moved from Manchester to Newmarket, I started Uni again for the second time and we got jobs outside of customer service. Newmarket was a bit crap so we moved to a village on the outskirts of Cambridge. We got an Astra called Roxie (think Police) and a pair of ratties called Vince and Jules (think Pulp Fiction). And we’ve all lived happily ever after thus far.

I had a pretty devastating personal loss in April, unfortunately in the middle of my exams, so I had to re-sit two of my exams at the back end of May. Considering everything I’m still so proud that I managed to get through and pass them all on the first attempt, it was a really tough time for me but I know that over the past 4 years I’d worked so hard to get to that point, so I just did the best I could, and that was enough.

It definitely signified the worthwhileness of staying back until midnight at uni to get all my assignments in on time; and finished to a standard that was not only acceptable but that I was proud to have my name attached to the cover sheet.

Kamil and I also went on a tour this year in May (it was a busy month) around Poland, but started our journey in Berlin. It was an amazing adventure and we both decided by the end that when I graduate it was going to be a toss-up between Berlin and Wroclaw as to where we would move next.

I think Berlin still wins just because German is a much easier language for me to pick up and for now the wages are still significantly higher in western Europe, and I kind of hope it stays that way just for the fact that you can get a pack of Lucky Strikes in Poland for 14zl, or £2.50. Also Kamil has lived in Wroclaw before so it’s always better to live somewhere new for both of us. Frankly I’d love to share more about this trip, but we made a video vlog of our journey which is still being edited. I feel it tells the story better.

In more recent news I passed my first year with a grade above my personal target of 63% (I just wanted a strong 2:1 this year, anything else extra was a bonus), and I finally achieved my dream of purchasing my very own Vespa. Her name is Martha (think The Beatles) and she is currently in storage with my uncle until I pass (hopefully!) my CBT on Thursday.

I went on and on last year about getting a scooter at uni and I’m glad to say that I officially own one; after the past 9 months of doing 7 day weeks between uni and work in order to save up! Unfortunately now I am skint, but I presume that she’ll be my most extravagant purchase prior to graduation. So in that sense she was worth it :)

So as you can see life has been pretty amazing. It’s funny how you only really feel the need to write down your thoughts when you’re sad, I guess I’m not really one for taking selfies either (Kamil is in charge of that). Though people take the piss out of others taking photos of themselves I love looking back at photographs of when we first got together and how exciting the whole scenario was. I guess it’s been a rarity for me to be so happy for this long that I feel the need to take it in rather than constantly document it.

But I guess now I’ve realised how important it is to do so, so through the bad days you can re-read these memories from when they were fresh to provide prospective and get you through.

I will definitely try to keep this up. And hopefully it won’t be so long next time.

Bye for now!

Corky xx

Come play... With a Change of Pace

Well this summer was very eventful indeed, honestly really annoyed that I didn't keep up with blogging, especially while on my travels. I guess sometimes you can be too busy living your life to get around to documenting it.

Well since I last updated. I moved from Rusholme to Withington for two months, my tenancy ended on my shared house and uni doesn't start till next week, so I had a gap to bridge, usually I'd sofa-surf up norf but I was still working at LateRooms, and having a job can be really handy when you're low on funds. (Thank god I have the guarantee of not having council tax sting me for the next 4 years, that shit literally pained me, srsly.)

So my boyfriend and his lovely flatmates were happy to take me in for those two months, the cheapest rent I've had to pay since I lived in Newcastle (Manchester student digs rates are crazy high) and I got to hammer my accumulated holidays (since I only took 3 days off all year till July). I took a week off in the second week of July to have a breather from full-time work life and then the first week in August to travel the country. 

We thought it would be a good idea to visit Scotland then just in case we'd need a visa for our next visit. Thankfully we're still united, for now, although to be honest I'd have been happy to put back up the original border and join them in their new independence free from the Mickey Mouse bureaucracy of Westminster and the monopolisation of the country’s finances around the soon-to-be state of Londinia. But hey ho, at least we can be happy to have any hope in hell of kicking the Tories out for the next election, though with me currently living in west Suffolk I wouldn't be surprised if my vote was the only one which wasn't blue.

Enough about politics.

After our sweet getaway (pictures are on Facebook) we sessioned work for one more month before we left Mancunia for good, to move to the south, I always said I'd end up back down here, though I didn't expect it to take 10 years, but the great thing about living in Newmarket is that we've got Cambridge and Bury St Edmunds on our doorstep, but we're pretty much isolated from city-esque civilisation, the main upside being, that I no longer have any urges to spend stupid amounts of money on clothes and make up. I never realised how bad Manchester was for having adverts ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE! And fuck me did they work! 

But here I'm so content just wondering the countryside, going on bike rides and being practically naked the majority of the time, I think today was the first day it rained since we moved two weeks ago, it was not missed. 

So now I'm sat here, just about caught up, well not really, but this is starting to feel like an essay and I am missing Pokémon on Netflix which I really must get back to.

So ciao for now!