Escaping Lockdown, Unboxing Haul and Feeling Down!

The Covid-19 measures are starting to be more relaxed so we went to see family, before I finished my last undergraduate assessment.
Click here to watch the vlog or see below.
My sister gave birth to her first baby right at the start of lockdown, but before that, I hadn't seen her for over a year so it had been quite sometime since we were last together. Since I lived with dad, when the lockdown measures started to be reduced, he organised to go down and very gratefully, I was also invited. It was such an honour to meet my niece and she is seriously the happiest baby. She is completely and utterly adorable and the whole family fit so well together. My sister seems to be a natural.

With both of the families isolating, we were planning on socially distancing but did get some sneaky cuddles in with baby. I take a hand holding finger shot with all of my nieces and nephews as babies and I didn't want to stop the tradition now. As expected, we spent a lot of time outside and so it was a little different of a meeting in all honestly but still very precious and tender moments.

We stayed in a hotel - again for obvious reasons - and I managed to finish my book that I had been reading. The Secret Midwife is another book that followed This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay, but this time by anon. For some reason, this one really struck me and made me really quite sad. I think I defintely need to be back in placement soon, otherwise I am going to get more and more away from the reason I love what I do. Speaking to my sister about her pregnancy and delivery was a nice reminder and further showcased my passion for the career...yes, I've become one of those people who recite guidelines and how care "should be".
The next few days were a little strange. Maybe it was the rainy weather or the fact I wasn't going to be holding a baby again for a long time, but I just felt down which is very much not like me. I took a few days off vlogging but I did film a little unboxing of a few free trials I've been wanting to try and we also went to M+S to get some yummy food. Of course, life is getting a little more serious too and with job applications, interviews and mortgages, I'm beginning to feel much more like an adult than I want right now!
 After having 2 meetings with the Careers Department about my Personal Statement, I finally submitted my final version for my first ever job application, which still feels totally surreal to me. The more I think about it, the more nervous I get, but at the time, I was very excited! I ended up spending the day after preparing for mock interviews so that somewhat took my mind of it.

As part of the module, it was optional to partake in the exercise, but sadly only half the cohort did which I felt was a shame. My interview was first up and it actually went really well and filled me with a lot of confidence. Having written my personal statement, I defintely think it gave me a slight advantage over others and it helped me in knowing how to apply skills and examples to different aspects of the questions and underlying reasoning. I didn't get much sleep the night before so I slept past my first alarm and somewhat had to rush to get ready, but after a quick break, I topped up my makeup ahead of the interviews where I was acting at "interviewer". I think both experiences were useful because I really enjoyed listening to other people's answers and found myself getting inspiration from them.
 My positive mood continued as the weather was gorgeous and I'd convinced dad to go on a countryside walk. It was only short - less than an hour - but it was still great to get out of the house, and to stretch my legs. We didn't see a single person and we even went through a new-to-us field as the get was open, which was great!
It actually ended up being quite a busy day for me and I got lots of little jobs ticked of on my to-do list. It turned out that my selfie submission for the Nottingham Advantage Award - Prize Winner website was not quite what they looking for, so I had a mini photoshoot in the garden with dad. I think he found it hilarious that I kept making him take pictures, but lucky I did because my favourite was the last! I also found out we had won "Initiative of the Year" at the Volunteer Awards 2020, which was a great accomplishment and the entire team (plus extended involvement) were really enthusiastic in their congratulations. Plus, I finally finished sorting through my external hard drive files and watched the last three episodes of the latest Riverdale series.

Safe to say, it was a good day and probably the last for a while. I am somewhat joking but it turns out the next two weeks are really busy all of a sudden. I have appointments, meetings, my final ever undergraduate assessment to finish, a hypnobirthing course to complete and to top things off...I've just found out we have another week of teaching and not annual leave as originally expected, so I somehow need to rethink my social life plans of meeting up with family (I'll have been in isolation again for 2 weeks by this point).

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