One Night in the Fatherland

I've been quite proud of myself this Christmas break for just about managing equal fun and work times. For example, last week was filled to the brim of fun stuff, and then this week is solidly focused on good old dissertation work.

Last Tuesday-Friday was spent relaxing in Wolverhampton, and in Oxford/London celebrating a good friend's 21st. As much as London is not a favourite place of mine, I had a lovely evening, and thankfully my friend really enjoyed his birthday. I personal highlight involved our going to see Bill Bailey.

I happened to find a joke of his particularly funny, so funny in fact it caused me to do my 'squeak laugh'. Basically, sometimes I laugh so much I can't breathe and then when I try to catch my breath it comes out as a squeak. This happened to the point where the audience began laughing at me, so Bill attempted to play one of his drums along with it. It was definitely memorable.

After this lovely week with some great friends, I spent the weekend in Derry in Northern Ireland, with my dad's side of the family. Unfortunately, I haven't been to Derry in a fair few years and seen my many aunts, uncles and cousins over there, but finally I managed it! And thanks to the beauty of Ryanair, the ticket actually cost less than a train one to London would, so I will definitely not being leaving it so long again.

(https://www.instagram.com/p/BActDLWp5em/?taken-by=laufrancesmccann13)

On Saturday, my oldest cousin very kindly took me around the city centre, including the Tower museum that tells the history of Derry, before we went 'beveraging' (his word that I've now stolen) around some of his preferred pubs. I have to say, there is definitely something special about Irish pubs. There's always a brilliant atmosphere, people are incredibly friendly, and even if the music isn't live it is still usually great. After that we spent the night with many members of the family playing board games. It was thoroughly enjoyable! Or should I say, great craic!

The next day involved four hours of Making a Murderer. If you haven't watched it yet, I implore you to. It alone is worth the cost of opening a Netflix account. I won't go into detail because I don't want to spoil it, but the four hours I spent watching it went by ridiculously quickly; it's that gripping and outrageous. Afterwards, my auntie and I made a trip to the cemetery, because as I said at the time, I couldn't go there and only see half of the family. Then, it was dinner time and plane time! The whole weekend went by in a really happy, and relaxed blur. I'm so grateful that I got to do it, and can't wait to go back again.

Speaking of going back places, I'm now also counting the days down to being back at Keele. Only ten days or so of hard work, then boom! Back in the field for my final term! I can't believe how quickly it's come around, and as much as I'm going to miss it all, and as apprehensive as I am about what's next, I'm so bloody excited to get back to my friends and go out on the biggest high possible.

Come at me 2016

**Only just realised I didn't post this last week as intended. So, please bear with me, and accept my apologies. :)**

As I said in my last post, I'm not a very festive person at all. The whole point of Christmas for me is the fact Jesus was born, pigs in blankets, and catching up with loved ones. To be honest though, all of that should happen every day of the year, we shouldn't have a 3 month build up to 24 hours of it. New Year's Eve is a slightly more special, I feel it's a good time to take stock of who and what really matters, relax and enjoy as much champagne as can be handled! And there's no shame in doing all that in front of Jools Holland. I was very fortunate to manage exactly all that this year, sat in Wolverhampton with Alex, his parents and family friends. It was the perfect calm and pleasant evening that gave me a good chance to come up with my resolutions for 2016.

1. Get the best degree I can, keep up the hardwork
2. Stop procrastinating about masters and make a decision
3. Organise the fun stuff too, make the most of all this time off because you'll never get it again
4. Make the effort with those from 2015 you want to end 2016 with too
5. But don't feel guilty if some people have to be let go. Work out how to get on with everyone, even if there are some you can only handle for 5 mins a day, it's healthier
6. Keep an eye on your mental and physical health equally, they're both incredibly important, as 2015 showed
7. Don't stop praying, it's always works
8. Stand up after a forward roll!
9. Once you've saved for America, don't stop saving. It's a good skill and holidays are fantastic; a car would be pretty great too
10. Do something for charity, or other people in general, it's not all about you...

So let's take our cup of kindness yet, and say cheers to the New Year!