Mortarboarding
Huzzzar! We are again allowed to throw stiff cardboard squares into the air upon graduation and those injured be damned (although it is something of a rough deal to complete three years of education to be taken out by a hat on the last day). I am of course referring to the tradition of throwing [...]
Acts of Kindness
Next week is Random Act of Kindness Week. No honestly, it’s a real thing. So what was the last random act of kindness you witnessed? Last weekend I was travelling on the luxurious Megabus and had to pay a penalty for having the wrong ticket – note: your NUS student card is NOT a valid [...]
My Funny Valentine
So it’s this time of year again: V-Day. Now, up until about a month ago this column would have been a cynical rant about an over-commercialised celebration intended to make the fat cats richer. But as I’m now in a relationship for the first time on Valentine’s, I’ve happily changed my mind. Still, I have [...]
Alone, Together
As of Tuesday I will have been single for an entire 5 weeks and so for the first time in two years I will be ‘celebrating’ Valentine’s Day as an INDEPENDENT STRONG WOMAN (alone). Although I am not totally devastated by this – last year I received a ‘Happy Valentine’s Day!’ over Facebook chat so [...]
The Two Families of a Student
As Christmas holidays slowly, and yet somehow surprisingly, appeared at the end of last term, I only had to look at the 3 day old chicken carcass still sitting on the kitchen top from our house Christmas meal to fully appreciate how much I was looking forward to home comforts. After the world’s most stressful [...]
New Year’s Resolutions
As January rolls around, just as my post-Christmas belly does, there’s just one question on my mind: ‘Why is it that many New Year’s Resolutions don’t work out?’ Perhaps it’s because it takes effort to change old habits, perhaps it is because it takes time to make resolutions a reality, but either way, I know [...]
World of Food
In Poor Richard’s Almanac of 1733, Benjamin Franklin advised us to ‘Eat to live, and not live to eat’. This Christmas I had the chance to reflect on Franklin’s maxim during two weeks with my friend and her family in Nantes, France – an appropriate setting, given that Franklin appropriated his quote from the French [...]
Exam Technique
There is a simple formula for exam success: intelligence + hard work = a decent grade. If you found that too difficult to understand, or are a lazy procrastinator, then read on. Having sat through more than my fair share of disastrous exams, I thought I would share some techniques on how to make catastrophic [...]
Lizzy v. Lana
January: often seen as the month of reinvention. People aim to become fitter, healthier, kinder, less annoying or whatever else it is they have resolved to do. Why then have the majority of the media and some of the public taken such an opposition to the reinvention of Lizzy Grant, more commonly known as Lana [...]