Hannah Elizabeth

As I do every year, I once again am writing my New Year's Resolutions. I somewhat wish I'd thought of these before the New Year was here, because I'm not feeling well at the moment but nevertheless, I have tried to think of the important areas I want to focus on this year. Each year, I try to pick a word to summarise them all, so for 2022: health .  Exercise regularly. As I mentioned in my reflection post, this was also one I had on last year’s resolution list and I honestly failed big time. This year I want to make it a priority. I’ve felt myself becoming lazier and lazier, fatter and fatter. I want to make sure to get fitter, move regularly and incorporate fitness into my daily life. I want to make sure there is a mixture of fun activities: swimming, Zumba, yoga, walks, HIIT.  Read consistently. I have so many books in my to-read boxes. I feel like I’m not even making a dent in them but I really want to read them. I’m now back in the hospital so working 3 to 4 days a week

I very briefly discussed an unexpected event in the latter half of last year. At the time I wasn’t ready to talk about it straight away, but as I look back, I realise how important it is to talk about the topic that happens more regularly than you would expect.  As you can see from the title, last year I had a small pregnancy scare. I can’t remember the exact date now but I seem to think it was in September. My partner and I were apart quite a lot, with work and business meetings, so it was a bit of a difficult time in the relationship, but nevertheless we were still together. 54% of young women report that they've had a pregnancy scare, and more than 40% went on to experience an unintended pregnancy. I have been on the contraceptive pill for over 2 and a half years now, and since the first 3 months I haven’t had any spotting or bleeding. Due to shifts I don’t take the pill at the exact same time every day, but I do take it regularly and I’ve never missed a pill so it was quite unu

As promised, the series continues. This time, I’m picking one of my local childhood cities and also the capital of my home county. Welcome to York! York is full of history and culture. It is one of the cities famous for it's wall surrounding the centre, founded by the ancient Romans. I went many times growing up and I am always amazed my how well it has been maintained over the years. Plus, I still find new things to do as the years go by.  1.  Relax on the Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour.  If it's your first time in York, the bus tour is a great way to see the landmarks quickly and easily, whilst also enjoying an informative tour guide.  2. Walk the York Walls.  Possibly my favourite activity and something I like to do on each visit. It's free to walk around and they are still very much in tact. I also enjoy that there are ample opportunities to get up and down, plus the views are lovely.  3. Explore York Minister.  The huge 13th-century Gothic cathedral, is complete with medieval

I think everyone came into 2021 hoping it would be better but yet also minimising expectations to avoid disappointment. I barely knew anyone who had Covid-19 prior to December 2021 and then everyone I knew seem to get it. Today, I want to look back on the year and reflect on how I did with my resolutions. I'll be honest, with everything going on, I haven't looked at them since writing them. I would normally try to reground myself and make a plan to achieve them a couple of times throughout the year but sadly not this time.  Achieved This year I really wanted to be more sustainable. I feel like I did well achieving this goal and I am really happy with the positive changes I have made. I've supported lots of small businesses, including switching regular products to eco-friendly versions for shaving, cleaning and washing for example. Small changes even like recycled wrapping paper or using silicon moulds are great alternatives. I also continue to make little changes to limit

This wasn't exactly the post I thought I'd be writing because after my partner and his entire family tested positive, I genuinely thought I had Covid-19. Unfortunately, I did not, so instead, I spent a whole week alone, isolating in my house, feeling sad and sorry for myself.  I worked the two bank holidays following Christmas Day and as I woke up from my night shifts, Luke came over. We got ready and headed out to a local Chinese restaurant for a double date. It was lovely. That evening I woke up with a slightly sore throat and a message saying that one of the women I had looked after the previous evening had suddenly deteriorated and been diagnosed with Covid-19. I was heartbroken and of course, couldn't get back to sleep so I headed downstairs and did a lateral flow. It was negative and I couldn't decide if the sore throat was because of the message and a placebo effect, or not. Nevertheless, I went back to sleep, waking Luke and informing him in the process.  The ne

I had hopes to end and start the year on a high, and sadly it didn't quite go to plan. Covid-19 got in the way big time! After isolation, I headed to play with a puppy for a few days and then worked 4 days in a row.  Click here to watch the vlog or see below.  We had big plans for the end of the year. I hoped the week would be better than Christmas. We started with a lovely day together and then a double date at a Chinese in the evening. The next day we had a pantomime booked, another double date and finally, a movie day and takeaway planned. I was going to be working New Year's Day and then the next day going to Luke's gran's for a lovely lunch.  I ended up hating the end of the year. I spent the last two days, home alone, awaiting a PCR test. I sat in my lounge, celebrating sadly in pyjamas. It’s definitely no fun spending three days (and counting) isolating, feeling sick and sorry for myself. I was full of cold, with a sore throat, pounding headache and felt utterly

I am kick starting this new series with one of the most popular and requested cities in the United Kingdom: Edinburgh . Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, set on a famous hill and I interestingly relatively recently learnt, also a dormant volcano. I went to the city last summer and literally stayed for just 24 hours, but fit quite a lot in. It's quite unusual for a city centre and compared to many, compact in size, but there is still plenty of exciting things to pick from.  1. Walk the streets. The Old Town has such an eclectic mix of architecture, from medieval style buildings, to those with gothic remnants. It also has plenty of gardens and greenery mixed in between the buildings. I was pleasantly surprised to see many of the original features protected.  2. See Edinburgh Castle. Sat upon a hill, at the top of the central road, the castle looms over the entire city. You have to pay to go inside, but the outside is beautiful in itself. It has some beautiful gardens surroundin