What's been happening in my life?

 Hello all,

I haven't posted on here for a while and I thought I'd come back. We all know there is a global pandemic and we haven't been able to do the things we would have liked. But now the lockdown restrictions are easing in the UK, we can all go out and see our mates that we haven't seen in a long time.

I have tried to not let the pandemic get mw down, oh no! I started a uni course this year to get a certificate, as I didn't want to go straight for a degree and find out I did not like it and quit, with history modules. I love history and visiting museums, stately homes and castles. I love learning about the past and I want to have a career in history, maybe a museum? I'm not sure yet, I just know it's history related. I'm with the open university and I am loving the course at the moment. Yes the assignments are hard, but if they were easy, there would be no point in me taking the course and I wouldn't get a thrill at getting high marks, which I am! I got 95% on my first assignment, which is the highest I have ever gotten in my life! 😁😁

I have no job at the moment as I had to give up my cleaning job because I kept getting injuries and kept getting ill. I have no idea why, but it was affecting my mental health that I was ill all the time, so I had to leave and that was May 2020. I am looking for work but wish me luck, fingers crossed I find something in the history sector. I have got a voluntary position at a museum near where I live and I am excited! I can get experience in that area.

I have gotten into diamond painting, and so has my mum. My sister got my mum a diamond painting of our cat, she had is done specially and it looks amazing! I am getting a bit obsessed with them and I have completed 2 and on my 3rd. 

 I have also started watching game of thrones and I love it. No spoilers please as I am only on series 1. 

Hope to see you soon

Julia xx

Poem

Hi all
My Grandma passed away this week and I wrote this fiction today. It just flowed from me and I thought I would share it with you all

As I walk gazing up at the sunset, I wonder whether she is looking down at me from above and knows that I am thinking about her and have been every day since.
I walk through the woods, hearing leaves rustling under my feet and feel the cool Autumn breeze on my face. I reach a clearing and see an old oak tree standing magnificently in front of me; I walk towards it and sit by its roots, wondering how many people have sat where I am now.
I gaze out, seeing all the glorious colours of a September evening, as if mother nature is delighted to share her beautiful creation with me.
I close my eyes and hear a bird song so sweet an angel could have sung it and I stay like this in this serene paradise for a while. I think about all the times we spent together, when we laughed and cried, when we annoyed each other, and wonder if she is thinking about them too.
I open my eyes and stare back at the sky, as orange as a flame dancing on an open fire and a tear escapes from my eyes, trickling down my cheek. I let it fall as I whisper "I love you Grandma."

Happy new year 2019!

Happy New year!
Its January and you know what that means? New year resolutions. I've made two: be more healthy and meditate every night.
During November, I was diagnosed with anxiety and I've been finding it difficult to clear my mind and not over think everything. That is why I have made a resolution to meditate every night. This will help me to clear my mind and be more relaxed. I want to try to keep this going and not stop after a couple of days/weeks.
The other resolution is to be healthy because over Christmas, I felt like I ate a lot of junk food and I want to eat more fruit and vegetables to have a balanced diet. I want to start walking more  to get more exercise and I'm hoping that it will also help my anxiety.
Hope you all have a very happy New year!

Family ties in The Great War

Hi all,
It's remembrance Sunday today and it is also 100 years since the armistice in 1918. We are remembering all the soldiers who died for us to have peace. I recently found out that my Great Grandad on my Dads side was in the first world war as a Sargent. We have a picture of him hanging in the living room, but I have never asked about it for some unknown reason.

I am telling you the story of my Great Grandad: James Gormley.

He was born in 1893 in Glasgow, Scotland where he lived with his parents. He went to the local school and left when he was 13 years old. He then started work at Parkhead forge where he saw someone get burnt to death which scarred  him for the rest of his life.
He went into the Highland light Infantry in 1909 when he was 16 years old, he lied about his age to get away from his abusive father. He was illiterate, but he got away with it by saying he was checking that the other soldiers could read and write and would also get them to write the forms on the blackboard and he would copy them down. An officer realised he could not read and write and helped him. He then worked his way up through the infantry and became a Sergeant.

He was 21 when the war started in 1914 he was given a unit to lead and went to the front in France. The infantry was wiped out and he joined onto the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders where he stayed till the end of the war where he got shrapnel somewhere in his body which suggests that he was either involved in an explosion or he was close to one going off nearby.

After the war, he was very poor and had to sell a lot of his medals to get by. We only have one medal left and some cap badges. He also showed signs of having PTSD, a lot of people did after the war, which caused him to drink alcohol excessively.
After everything that happened my Great Grandad did find love, get married and have children.

I now have a personal connection to the Great War and I will remember my Great Grandad for the sacrifice he made fighting along with millions of soldiers and will keep remembering him every year on the 11th November at 11am.

Cap badge

Cap badge

War medal (front)

War medal (back)

I passed my driving test!

Hi all
I am super excited because I have passed my driving test! Yay! This was the second time I took the test and I cannot believe I have passed. Afterwards, my instructor confessed that he thought I wouldn’t pass this time as the lessons weren’t great leading up to the test. (I didn’t think I’d pass either.)
I got 4 minor faults out of 15 which is very good. Before the test, I was really nervous and freaking out but when I got into the car, the instructor was talking to me normally and made me feel calm.
I’m now waiting for my lisence in the post and then I will buy myself a car; I saved some money and hoping to get a Ford Fiesta as my first car.

I wish all of you luck taking your driving test and don’t worry if you don’t pass first time ( I didn’t) as many people don’t.

See you all soon
Julia x

What happened this week?

It's been a week since I last posted and it has been a productive one for me. I'll try and not bore you all to sleep by the end! Haha

On Tuesday my Mum came back from seeing my grandparents and she brought me a pair of slippers, I call them Tinker Bell slippers, you can see why

I also started back at work from the 3 day weekend, I'm a part time cleaner for a woman. I was tired waking up early again, but we all were! I got back into the routine and kept myself busy for the mornings.

During the week, I started back on the sewing machine, learning the basics, seams, corners, zips etc, and I'm hoping to make a make up bag soon. I haven't done sewing on the machine since school so I have to start from scratch again, but I'll pick it back up quite quickly.

I've also started to eat more healthy as well, eating fruit everyday and cutting down on how much junk food I eat. I started to feel rough at the start, that just shows how much junk I have been eating! I have also decided to cut down how much caffeine I drink and I have been very grumpy this week and been getting headaches. My family were probably sick of me!

I hope you enjoyed reading this, hope to see you again
Julia xx

My (un)interesting day

Hello all,

Here I am, sitting at my laptop listening to relaxing piano music on YouTube, trying to think of how to write about my day; I don't believe anything interesting has happened, but you be the judge of that.

I haven't been up to much but I did take a trip up to my local Tesco this morning and brought a yellow flaming Katy which I put up straight away on my windowsill in my bedroom. I loved the pink one my Dad got me for my birthday that I had to buy another one. (That's lasted since February!)

Over lunch I watched a TV show that I've recently gotten into: Downton Abbey. I never watched it when it first came on TV, but my Mum loved it and tuned in every week. I'm only on series 2 at the moment and I can't stop watching it, I'm in love with it! While I was watching, I decided to put some of my old clothes for sale on Ebay. I might get a few pound for them.

My Mum is visiting her parents, my grandparents, so it's just Dad and me until Tuesday and today I made us some carbonara for Tea, with soft cheese, bacon and an onion. It was delicious! My Dad couldn't stop raving about it!

That brings us to now. Me writing to tell you about my day. Nothing special happened but it was my day off and I was resting for most of it.

I'm not planing anything special for the bank holiday Monday, I'm spending another day at home until I go back to work on Tuesday.

I hope you all enjoyed reading about my day, see you soon

Julia xx