Welcome to 2014

Well, it's 6:24 am on 6 January, and I'm on the train to University. The Christmas holidays are officially over, and exam season is about to begin. It's all a bit of a shock to the system after three weeks of lie-ins and lazy days! 

Getting the train is a total luxury for me – it's nearly three times as expensive as the coach, which is my usual mode of transport when I don't drive to Southampton. It saves so much time, though, and also gives you the option of returning whenever you like, rather than having to book a specific time. Aside from that, getting the train is just a generally better experience than getting the coach, so I suppose you get what you pay for!

Welcome back to the real world!

Christmas was a rather quiet affair – just my Mum, me and some good food. Tried out a few new recipes which, in hindsight, may have been a dangerous move on Christmas Day, but it all turned out wonderfully! It was my first Christmas as a vegetarian, but I honestly didn't feel as though anything was missing!

A rather special Christmas pudding

I saw in the New Year in Cornwall, where a group of us rented a house for a few days. We were incredibly lucky with the weather, which was mostly fine, if cold, and it was so lovely to have most of my best friends from university back in one place. We got up to all manner of ridiculous things, from winter walks to renting out spas (which remarkably only cost us five pounds each!), and a number of rowdy games of Articulate, of course! I already miss everyone so much, and it really made me appreciate the first two years at university that I was able to spend with them all. I'm not normally an advocate of staycations, but I was more than pleasantly surprised at how much fun can be had for relatively little cost.

Reunited

Winter walks in Newquay

The 2nd of January was my birthday – 23! Feeling rather old. It was quite a quiet event this year, as I was pretty exhausted from our trip, but we managed to squeeze in a final trip to the German bar, Anchorman 2 at the cinema, a meal at Wagamama, and a few cocktails – all in all a very good day in my book! The best thing was being able to spend it with people I love, and catching up with some old friends who were back from university and travelling.

Birthday cocktails

I managed to recover from all the celebrating enough to go on my first run of the year yesterday, which was nothing short of grim, if I'm perfectly honest. The weather was absolutely disgraceful – I don't think I've ever been so cold and wet in my entire life! But there's only eight weeks to go until my next half marathon, training to be done and no excuses! Here's hoping for a good year of running.

A rather wet and windy Bournemouth beach

Now, to revision. I've got two exams this month, and it's time to knuckle down and make sure I finish third year with the marks I want. January is always a strange month for me – part of me hates it (let's be honest, who really enjoys exams?) but once you get on the library hype and 'the fear' sets in, the early mornings, long days and late nights can actually seem quite fun. Although, ask me again in a week's time and I might disagree!

Happy New Year to all our readers, and I hope 2014 brings you everything you wish for and more, and good luck to anyone with exams this month!

Tayler