Therese

• I’m doing part of the Camino de Santiago in Spain this summer for charity.
• I just booked flights to Fiji! This is my last summer of freedom and darn it, I’m going to spend most of it doing what I’ve always wanted to do – lying on a beach and snorkelling (not at the same time). I also get to stop at Seoul for a few days on the way back. :D
• Moving to London and starting work in September!

Just writing this to motivate myself a bit – I am stuck in the library right now and I’ll be here til it closes at midnight, so it’s nice knowing what I have to look forward to when this is over.

I have a job in London! Applying for jobs and flying over for interview has taken up a huge amount of my time over the past few months, which is the main reason why I’ve been so absent from 43t, but it was worth it! I interviewed with a fantastic company on Friday and found out yesterday I have the job, I’m so thrilled, I haven’t been this excited since I moved to Paris. I did have a job lined up with a company here in Dublin, and I feel really bad about letting them down, but I realised I just didn’t want to settle. I start in September, I can’t wait! :D

I’m really sorry that I’m late but hope you had a fantastic day and that you get everything you wish for this year! (((Hugs)))

“You spend ages hating it, then you grudgingly admire it, then you end up 5 starring it at Amazon.”

This is what one of the reviewers on Amazon said, and it sums up how I feel about the book too – I’m not quite sure how, but by the end I really liked it. So it’s worth suffering through the first 500 pages to get to the good stuff.

I had to switch teachers when classes began again after Christmas and (I know I sound really whiny) I miss my old teacher so much. The thing that I found most stimulating about yoga was its fast pace, and the new teacher goes at probably a third of the pace I was used to, so I just find myself getting bored. So I haven’t gone to class recently or even practised at home and I’m starting to feel the effects. I have been in the worst humour for the past two weeks – I just feel cooped up and restless, even though I’ve been doing other exercise. It’s definitely time I started practising at home again. I’m already out of practise so I’ll start small – goal for tomorrow is just five sun salutes.

...thank goodness! 230 pages to go (still haven’t been able to stop counting the pages though).

...got to do this! She came to my university this week and I was one of the lucky ones who got a ticket to see her. She read quite a long passage from the Deathly Hallows (she’s really good at the voices, especially Hermione) and answered a good few questions. There was a raffle to get a ticket for the book-signing which I didn’t even know about, so no autograph unfortunately – but still totally worth it!

I got my results from my Christmas exams this week and was 2% off a first! I was disappointed at first but having had time to think about it, I realise that I just didn’t put in enough work during the semester to deserve a first. Studying non-stop for the month before the exams just doesn’t cut it, and there was a crystal-clear pattern to my grades – the ones I did best in were the ones that I worked hard at throughout the semester.

So now it’s time to rally:

• Actually go to the library more. I’m not always in the mood for it but the fact is I get more done there than I do at home.
• Prioritise study periods and not just fit them around everything else.
• Study at weekends and stop seeing them as mini-holidays from college.

I was bored one evening and wrote an entry for one place…one thing led to another and 95 entries later, this goal is completed! :D

Hope you had a wonderful day and that you will have a wonderful year!

...on to stage 3.

...this is the longest it’s ever taken me to read a book. I’ve been at it for two months and I’m only halfway through it! There are parts of the story that I like but to be honest, I just find the book boring – in my haste to finish it I find myself checking what page I’m on every few minutes, which I really must stop doing.

The later the birthday wishes, the bigger the cake has to be! I hope you had a great day and that a wonderful year lies ahead of you!

I hope you had a wonderful day!

I read this article a while ago and I’m going to try it out. Basically you go to sleep whenever you’re tired but get up at the same time every morning. You only go to bed when you’re really tired – when it doesn’t take you longer than 5 minutes to fall asleep, so you’re not wasting time lying there trying to fall asleep (a big problem for me).

I tried this last night – it was great being able to fall asleep right away but the experiment was kind of ruined by my very loud, drunk housemates, who woke me up 3 times (they’d better not make that a habit). So I lost a good two hours of sleep and found it really tough getting up early this morning.

It’s almost 10.30 now and I’m not remotely tired, so I don’t think getting up early tomorrow will be any easier, especially since I’ll have no early class to motivate me to get up!

I’m getting frustrated with myself and my progress with this goal. I have always been able to keep up momentum for short periods of time, but then I experience what I can only call a mental block, which stops me dead and which I’ve never been able to really get past.

I’ve never been a fan of journaling, but I have so many thoughts about this particular issue that I just can’t work through without some kind of tool, so I’ve decided to try writing them down in an online journal. I’ve only written two entries but already I can see patterns emerging and, while I don’t have any easy solutions, I’m at least able to think a bit more clearly about this goal and how I’m going to be able to achieve it.

I think it’s just about still the 16th where you are, so I’m not too late! I couldn’t decide which cake to get you, so take your pick! _{Don’t you really miss Parisian patisseries sometimes?}

Hope you had a lovely day and I wish you all the best for achieving your wonderful goals in 2008!

This is a perfect opportunity to _finally start this goal. All I can send are paper things, so I need to find the pinkest, sparkliest card ever as well as some stickers and any other interesting paper stuff that I can find.

...a different secret project! And one that I’m much more motivated to complete as quickly as possible. I’ve completed the first stage and now I need to prepare for Stage 2. Eeh, I’m really excited about this!

Just before Christmas I got two messages through Flickr, one from an online travel guide asking for permission to post one of my Paris photos on their website and another from an NGO wanting to use one of my Vancouver photos for their website.

I was so pleased to get the emails, and they reminded me of how much I love photography. It’s not really possible for me to take it up again right now, but it is definitely going to be one of my goals for this summer.