London... Again

Firstly, this is my one hundred and first post! Who would have thought that just over a year ago when I started this, that I would continue, and fairly regularly too :) (I actually started writing this before the Breaking News post, when it was the 100th post, but forgot to write about it in that post, so I'm celebrating the 101st post :P).

Saturday 7th January we had a free day in London before heading to Slovakia for a ski holiday (yay!) We didn't didn't have any set plan, so just walked around London and came across random things. Our first stop was the Clink Prison Museum (dating back 1144), near London Bridge. This is the gaol (English spelling) that 'gave its name to all others' according to its slogan.

Next we made it to the Jubilee and Borough Markets, also near London Bridge. I hadn't been to any London Markets, and they were pretty good - so much meats and cheeses, as well as seafoods, and colourful fruit and veg :) For lunch we bought an award winning pieminister pie. YUM

We then walked along Tower Bridge and London Bridge. We mustn't have got up to much in the afternoon... I don't have any pictures, so can't tell you what we did :P That night I initiated Adam in sleeping in airports. We got there fairly early and managed to get a good spot to sleep each :) The next morning we were flying to Krakow, before getting a transfer to the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia, where we were spending the week skiing!!

On London Bridge, with Tower Bridge in the background

London Bridge

BREAKING NEWS!!

For those of you who don't know, I have been planning on returning to uni when I come home. Since about the 3rd year of uni I had wanted to do teaching - the young kids, not teenagers :S. By that stage JCU no longer offered the double psych/education degree, which meant that I would have to do a graduate diploma of education. When I finally did finish uni, I wanted a break from study for a while - 17 years of study in a row was enough for the time being! So I came over here for a couple of years as a sort of 'gap year' - and to have a heap of fun!

Well now I'm ready to return to study, admittedly a little earlier then I had originally planned. I had wanted to start at the beginning of 2013, but at least this way I get to finish 6 months earlier :) I applied through QTAC as a 'non-year 12' applicant - In fact I was only a few weeks off being a 'mature age student' :S Well, the early offer round was released yesterday. AND I GOT IN!! To nursing. Yes, you read that right... nursing. The thing is ever since school I had been debating between education and nursing. You know, when they ask you 'what do you want to be when you grow up?' Well first it was a teacher, then not a teacher, then nursing, then not a nurse... So by the time I was nearly finished school and had to apply for uni I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I chose psychology.

Which I definitely do not want to do (be a psychologist at least). Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my degree, and it's a great base degree, but it's not what I want to do. Since being over here I have been toing and froing between nursing and teaching - aargh what to do?!? Well I thought, I would just apply for both, and then leave the rest up to fate... I quite easily met the eligibility criteria for nursing, but not so for education. At first I had education as my first preference, followed by nursing. But then I changed my preferences after being assessed by QTAC as ineligible for early childhood education based on the entry requirements.

I contacted QUT and they stated:

I have looked through your prior studies to see which areas you are currently eligible. You meet the Studies of Society teaching area quite easily but do not have enough studies contributing to a second area for Early and Primary Years.

There have been applicants successful in gaining entry into the Grad Dip in Ed based on a completed psychology degree who are generally eligible for Studies in Society and Mathematics. Mathematics is generally fulfilled by statistic type units which are embedded in ‘research method’ subjects and in your case PY3101 Adv Behavioural Research Design and Analysis. However, you require at least 2 more units in the Mathematics area for it to be considered as a second teaching area. There are no other teaching areas covered with your completed studies.

So, according to that email I only completed ONE statistics subject... hahaha I wish. I emailed back with 2 other stats subjects I had completed, and hey presto, I was deemed eligible. After being deemed eligible by QUT I didn't change my preferences back to education though. And after getting that early round offer of nursing I could have changed my preferences back, and see if I would be offered a place in the graduate diploma of early childhood education. I decided not to however.

The reasons I decided to do nursing over education:

• I would be happy doing both - I would love to work with little kiddies, but it's possible to do paediatric nursing, and I love medicine. Nursing seems quite logical :)
• More job opportunities - I had a look on seek, there were a lot more job opportunities in nursing then education. 
• My 'life path' seems to be heading towards nursing - I have tried a few times to do things child/education related. When I was in uni, only doing a few subjects on campus I applied to TAFE do do a certificate in child services, so I could work in child care. Obviously this never eventuated. I also tried to do some volunteer work at my current client's primary school, to get some practical experience in working with kids with disabilities. They weren't looking for volunteers... Then I decided to get a job 'a bit more relevant to my field of study'. I applied for, and got a job with the Spinal Injuries Association as a personal care assistant. Then I came over to the UK to work as a live-in carer. Obviously both of these jobs  are more relevant to nursing then education.
• I get excited by the subjects I have to do with nursing - There's obviously quite a lot of placements, which is practical experience (something we didn't really get with a psych degree, that comes later in post-grad study). I also have to do subjects such as pharmacology and disease concepts, stuff I find really interesting :) About the only subject I don't look forward to is law and ethics :/ blgh :P
• Oh yeah, I forgot to add - the rest of my family works works for Queensland Health, obviously as a nurse I will be able to work for Queensland Health too. So I won't be the 'black sheep' of the family working for a different department (Queensland Education)!

So there you go, I'm going back to uni - studying Bachelor of Nursing (graduate entry) at QUT!!

Oh, and while I'm here, I guess I should tell you that I'VE BOUGHT MY PLANE TICKET HOME!!! I actually bought it a few weeks ago now, and I'm not sure how many of you I've told, but now you should all know :) I leave London Thursday July 5, arriving home on Saturday July 7 at 7am in the morning, 1 week before being away for 2 year...

Overnight in Cardiff

Sunset view from the train to Cardiff

After saying goodbye to mum on the 5th January, Adam and I caught a train to Cardiff, arriving about 6pm. It was then a short walk to our accommodation, which by the way is probably one of the best hostels I have stayed in. It is basically a converted home, and as such has a very homely feel about it. The breakfast was amazing, and the beds had proper, comfy mattresses... Although my was broken, so it was kind of like sleeping in a ditch, but only the worlds most comfortable ditch! I also left my Kindle on the bed, and the staff were very helpful in returning it to me :) After checking in we went for a short walk into town to find dinner, and to get our bearings.

The next day (Friday 6 Jan) we went out with the hopes of doing a walking tour... but of course there wasn't any running that day! :( So we had to do our own thing. We went to Cardiff Castle and spent some time there.  Then it was time to find some lunch. The local markets were on, but of course I wanted to continue the food tour. We ended up going to a little cafe called Dragon's Kitchen, where we had a Welsh lamb soup, which was delicious, and Welsh rarebit, which is basically cheese on toast... After lunch we went to the National Museum.

The outside of the castle

Inside the castle grounds

View of town from the castle

View to the south - you can see the stadium. Our accommodation
was on the opposite side of the river to the stadium

They have owls/birds

Mmm best soup!

The museum

Unfortunately we didn't have much more time in Cardiff, so it was back to the hostel to collect our luggage, and back to London. It was a bit disappointing that we didn't have longer in Cardiff, from what I saw I really liked :) It would also have been good to do the walking tour, as we would have been able to see more, and learn more about the history of the place. More time would also have meant we could have explored further, like going to Cardiff Bay. But I can now say I have been to all the capital cities in the UK and Ireland!

Where was I? Oh yeah, London

Awesome Lego tree at St. Pancras train
station

Well I have had a bit of a break from Xmas/New year holiday blogging. I like to do things in chronological order, but due to the firewalking having a deadline, I had to interrupt my blogging. I also wanted to have a bit of a break, so that I can get lots of views in May - I like watching my views go up - thus the Happy 2000 Views post :P, since then I have had another 384 views, with over 800 views alone in April!!

Tower Bridge and the outer wall of the Tower of London

So, when I last blogged about my holiday I was telling you all about my French Food Tour.We left Paris on Tuesday 3 Jan, and caught the Eurostar back to London in the evening. Mum was leaving on the 5th, which meant she didn’t have much time left to do touristy things. On the 4th, Mum and I did some exploring on our own, while Adam caught up with a friend of his. Our first stop was the tower of London, after walking across tower bridge, followed by St Paul’s Cathedral.

There were heaps of these chicken wire animals around-
The king kept a royal menagerie of exotic creatures
to show his wealth and power

Ravens are important to the British monarchy -
legends states that if the birds ever leave it
will be the downfall of the monarchy.
So they keep some ravens in cages, just to
make sure...

One of the ravens getting close and personal

Does this hat suit me?

St. Paul's Cathedral

View from the top

At the 4D London Eye experience

Mum then went on the London eye, which I didn’t do, as I had done it a year earlier. I wanted to go ice-skating but had missed too much of the current session, so got a snack and waited instead. While I was waiting a guy with his ‘last copy of The Big Issue’ came up to me asking for money, as he was ‘only a couple of quid short of getting money to pay for a hostel bed for the night’. I told him I would rather buy him something – like food – then just give money away, and he didn’t take my offer. I think this was a wise move, as he may have been trying to scam me?! Who knows what he might have wanted to spend my money on?

The rest of the time I was waiting for mum I looked around the souvenir shop. I had forgotten to bring my Kindle with me, so didn’t have anything to read, and it was too cold, wet and windy sitting outside. When mum came off the Eye we went on the 4D experience. It is free with your ticket, but they didn’t actually check tickets, so I snuck in too. We then headed back to the hostel where we met back up with Adam and his friend.

After dinner that night we saw Phantom of the Opera – Adam’s all time favourite. EVER. Remember? I must admit that I think Adam’s enthusiasm for it set the bar a bit high, and to be honest I was a bit disappointed by it – I just didn’t see what all the fuss was about (sorry Adam!) 

5th Jan

Mum's last day. In the morning we went to Westminister Abbey, which after visiting that, along with Rosslyn Chapel and the Louvre, made me feel like reading the Da Vinci Code again. We did a bit more walking through London - seeing some squirrels climbing a lady's leg to get peanuts, Her Majesty's Theatre (where we saw Phantom), and Trafalgar Square, before Adam and I had to catch a train to Cardiff, and it was time to say bye to mum!

Just some random London attractions...

Her Majesty's Theatre

Trafalgar Square