Well my friends, here we are. 15th December 2019 and we have just voted in the Conservative Party for the next five years. I thought I would take some time just to reflect on the past 72 hours, everything that's happened and everything that will happen. 

In case you've been living under a rock, the UK held a General Election on Thursday, and at about 7am on Friday morning a Tory majority of 80 seats was announced, and millions of us around the country had our hearts collectively shattered. You all know how into politics I am - it was piqued during the lead-up to the 2016 EU referendum and I make no secret of the fact that I am a pro-Europe, pro-Labour activist and I have a big, big socialist heart - and none of us saw this coming.

You see, a lot of my campaigning takes place on Twitter and I think I - along with many people I know - locked myself into an echo chamber of sorts, where I convinced myself that we represented the majority of the country and there was no way the Tories would take home a win this time around. I'd truly convinced myself that we had made a difference on an enormous scale. I spent Friday in mourning, you could say, in utter despair that it's come to this and this is what we've sentenced ourselves to for the next five years. People wanted change, but it won't happen with this government. Or it will, but not for the right reasons and not in the right way.

Everyone has their different opinions, yes, but the figures don't lie. We have had this government since 2010. Nine years we've suffered austerity and cuts to public services. 130,000 needless deaths have happened due to austerity put in place by this government. There has been a 165% increase in rough sleepers and homeless citizens since 2010. There is a record 4.1million children living in poverty. There's been cuts to mental health, with a 30% loss in mental health beds. We have lost 20,000 police officers, and gained 2000 foodbanks. A&E waiting times are at their highest ever, with patients sleeping in corridors waiting for treatment.

We live in a post-truth era, where elections and campaigns are fought with lies, misinformation and deliberate misleading of voters but unfortunately the numbers above don't lie, and I could go on but I think you get the idea now. Conservative voters from Thursday are on record saying they voted Tory for change but the statistics above are all direct results from a Tory government. The Tories will not fix the mess they made, but they will first drag us out of the EU and then make it worse.

It is very easy, especially when you are an active campaigner, to think that you don't make a difference. It's easy to think you are just getting ignored and you are shouting into a void and arguing with a brick wall - but now is not the time to give up. We must reflect on what went wrong and change things. The Labour Party had a beautiful manifesto, a vision of a country I desperately wanted to live in, and whether it takes five or fifteen years that country can be ours - we just can't give up on it now. If anything, this is the time to get louder.

So I will be continuing my pro-EU activism, I will begin campaigning for the electoral reform that we desperately need, I will start donating to foodbanks, buying food for the homeless man I see every day outside Sainsbury's, and using this blog to talk more about politics and the changes I will be making in my life to try my best to ease this shock for the people who needed Labour. You see - there's a good chance I will be fine. I come from a middle-class family and a well-off area of the country. I am white and non-religious and my privilege allows me to not have to worry too much about the result of this election. But while my life won't necessarily change all that much, the lives of the 14.3million people in poverty, the lives of the Muslim communities, the LGBTQ+A, the lives of single mums, of ethnic minorities - they are the lives that will change due to this election result and that's who I'm fighting for, that's who I'm worried most about.

I really hope you will join me. I hope you will use your disappointment and your anger, take it and channel it into helping the people the government will inevitably refuse to. We mustn't be disheartened - this is the beginning of something truly great.

I hope you're with me. 🌹

Em xx

October Bullet Journal

Good afternoon!! Yes, you'd be right in thinking I'm back on the bullet journal grind again, I haven't done an update in agessss but I definitely want to share this with you - I recreated yet another Amanda Rach Lee spread and I'm just so happy with how it came out, I love it so much.

My title page is, like I said, a recreation of Amanda Rach Lee's, with the moon phases as the main theme, I've not done a monochrome theme since I started bullet journalling and I really like how it came out! 

My calendar is once again the normal spread I like to go for, I like this way of doing the monthly log and again love the monochrome white on black theme - it's very spoopy and Halloween-y and I really love it! I changed up my stats tracker again because dedicating a whole page to it made me a bit depressed but I liked tracking all my stats and not just my YouTube so I made it a bit smaller and popped it in this section instead. I've also ditched my monthly goals - I think it's a bit detrimental to me too so not going to keep with that.

So what did I do with the extra space, you ask?! Well, I kept my content ideas page and used the extra space for a schedule as well, attempting to keep on top of content and making sure I actually update my socials! It's just a trial but we'll see how it goes this month and if we can carry it on!

I did pretty much the same for my expense tracker as always - I still am planning that post on how I track my finances at university, don't worry! Once again used the white on black theme and loved it as I did all the rest.

I spoke about how I changed my weekly spread up ages ago but I'm still using this layout, I love how much space it gives me on each day but also some space in to jot down things going on and things going on the week after just in case. I also ditched my water tracker as honestly it was just making me feel bad about how much water I don't drink - maybe not such a good thing but I'm definitely going to get it back on track soon!

Aaaaand that brings us to the end of this month's layout! I reaaaaally love it so hopefully it'll motivate me to actually use it properly and effectively this month - it's a busy one so will definitely have to stay organised.

Product list:

- Leuchtturm 1917 dotted a5 journal

- Tombow fudenosuke pen (soft tip)

- Faber Castell ecco pigment pen 0.3mm

- Uniball white gel pen

What do your bullet journals look like this month?

Em xx

So, I Started Third Year | Honest Life Update

Okay, so if you DON'T follow me on Twitter (and if you're not, then really, what is wrong with you???) then you won't know and won't have been incessantly irritated by my constant going on about starting my third and final year of my undergrad degree!

I started writing this blogpost about a week ago, but things have been slightly turbulent since then so I thought I'd give you a shortie little honest life update rather than sugarcoating my first couple weeks back at uni. Don't get me wrong, the workload hasn't piled up much so far apart from a few books to read but it's more my mental health. I should've seen it coming - I am not the kind of person who deals well with change, I don't like feeling out of control and that's pretty much all I've felt for the past couple of weeks. There's been people and situations I've been avoiding which is getting harder to do and harder to deal with and honestly, I've been romanticising the idea of working myself into the ground this year more than I need to and I think I'm just going to try and take a step back and start being a bit more sensible. I don't think the nonstop rain in Manchester recently has been helping and the SAD is definitely kicking in now but hey, I'm pretty used to that - it always gets like this at this point in the year.

However, there are a couple of positives from the last couple of weeks too! I started uni properly and have had at least one class for all my modules now which has been good and set me a little more at ease now that I actually know what I'm supposed to be doing. I've also taken the plunge finally and joined the mountaineering society at university - I was part of athletics in first year but never really felt like I belonged as it was a very elitist group, but I felt like I settled right in with the climbers, it's such a chill activity and literally no one cares if you're a bit crap which feels really good. They're a lovely, down-to-earth bunch and I felt at home from the first session - kind of can't wait to go back every week now! I've not done the society thing properly at uni and kind of wish I hadn't left it right till third year now!

I also thought I'd mention that I went to see Malory Towers on stage at HOME theatre this weekend! My mum, a family friend and my sisters both came up for it and while it's the craziest, most bizarre production I've ever seen I loved every bit of it, so much nostalgia was felt and it was lovely to spend time with the family which I hardly get to do at uni.

Getting back into the swing of it is hard but like I said on the Instagram story - we're gonna get there because that's what we do over here!

Em xx

Unseen Bits // 5th - 11th August

Okay so HI. It's time for another Unseen Bits post where I tell you about all the stuff that happened in my week around what you see on social media. The week in this post (yes, I am SO aware that this was several weeks ago but life has been less than ideal recently - please forgive me) was actually spent up in Manchester hanging out with my pals there, so while I don't have a lot of pictures I do have some updates. Also, I promise I will get better at detailing this closer to the time rather than needing several months to pull it together...promise.

MONDAY 5TH AUGUST

An early(ish) start to jump on the 11.50 train up north! So very exciting. I decided to head back up just for a break, to see my friends and just to have a bit of fun before heading back to work. Monday was mostly spent travelling and then spending the night at a "friend's" house...wink wink. One of our other housemates Lewis had moved into our house at this point too so seeing him was lovely.

TUESDAY 6TH AUGUST

Was, I think, the laziest day I've had in a very long time. I spent it at my "friend's" house eating lasagna and ice cream and just being lazy, which, like I said, I haven't done in a long long time so it felt good to not have any pressure to do anything for a whole day.

WEDNESDAY 7TH AUGUST

 Wednesday started bright and early with a doctor's appointment at 8.30. I saw the doctor a while ago with symptoms of anaemia and had some blood tests so I finally managed to get an appointment to discuss the results of those tests. In short, I have folate-deficiency and iron-deficiency anaemia so am on a few months of medication for both, after which we're going to sort out a diet/nutrition plan to see if I can make the numbers up myself rather than having to stay on medication because that shit?? is expensive. £18 for a folic acid and ferrous sulphate prescription? I think not.

The work on our new floor in our student house began on Wednesday as the builders had to come and level it, so Rhiannon and I popped into town to have a gander and drop into the Waterstones cafe (our haunt) for a nice lil catchup over coffee before she caught a train to see her boyfriend and I headed home to see the same "friend".

THURSDAY 8TH AUGUST

 I'm beginning to realise what a lazy week this was...my "friend" hung out alllll day Thursday with me and stayed Thursday night too so naturally we did very little for a whole day, except cook a monster of a macaroni cheese (I'm telling you, it was insanely good).

FRIDAY 9TH AUGUST

My "friend" said goodbye to me for another month :( and I hopped back on a train down south to get ready for working at the weekend. I began reading An Edited Life which I got for my birthday and will be in a "books I read recently" post soon but for now just know that I'm definitely enjoying it and I think I'm definitely feeling like my life is in need of a good pulling together (anyone else feeling like this atm or is it just me...?)

SATURDAY 10TH AUGUST
Oh this day was fun. That was said very sarcastically as I headed back to my little farm cafe job on the 10th - I love working there so much but god it's a tiring job (I can firmly say nearly a week and a few more shifts later I'm exhausted) so Saturday called for a lot of patience and a lot of coffee.

SUNDAY 11TH AUGUST
It was this day that I realised I should not be working on a sprained ankle...I was sent home early on Saturday as it had decided to swell up again and Sunday called for an icing on the kitchen floor at about 4pm...it's gradually getting better but being on my feet every day isn't helping so much!!

What are your unseen bits recently?

Em xx