NPK

You Make Me Happy When Skies Are Grey The things you do it make children happy ... 😂 I love working with children, making them smile is rewarding and their laughter is infectious. No matter the language, you can still communicate happiness. Today I got the opportunity to volunteer at a local Holiday Bible Club called COPs (Children's Outreach Programmes) with local Romanian and gypsy children. When we first arrived, the tiny heads all hid behind the backs of the pews peeping over wide uncertain eyes, unsure about how to cope with so many new people at once. After a very competitive game to help them remember names, we started straight into our prepared plans for the day. We taught them actions to Romanian songs, we taught them a children's religious song in English, we taught them a Bible verse and we did a roleplay on a Bible story. We even made crafts and played team games. It was strange to see how divided the communities of 'Romanians' and 'Romani Gypsies...

Forever Young We're all really still children at heart aren't we? I still love a good Disney film.   I still enjoy arts and crafts and if fancy dress was viewed as 'normal' for adults to take part in I would probably still do that too. The thing is I don't think people really age in life. People are trapped in bodies that age but their mind does not. As you get older your body becomes more limited in what it can do but your mind is limitless. Can you imagine how trapped you would feel? This is the reality for the elderly in our society. One day it will be our reality too so we must strive to provide the best quality of care not just for our current care home residents and social care users but for our own futures. We must set the standards now.  Today I visited a care home in Tileagd. It was a home primarily for elderly people but it has the facilities for assisted living for adults with disabilities or that need 24 hour support. It was an eye opening expe...

A Rude Awakening My alarm rudely interrupted my dreams this morning. I was unimpressed with it's lack of respect for being quiet when people are sleeping. As my eyes narrowly squinted open, I dragged my heavy limbs to the edge of the bed, turned off my alarm (whilst silently cursing my phone for waking me) and faceplanted back into the welcoming embrace of my pillow. The sun's beaming rays streamed from the window tickling and growing across my face, gently waking me for a second time this morning. Finally I got up.  The houses here are very beautiful and ecclectic. Each have a unique personality. It's not like home where we have groups of identical houses built for efficiency amd profit. No. These people have their own land in which they've built their own houses to represent their tastes. You could have a giant house with iron gates and a balcony fit for for a scene of Romeo and Juliet...beside a small house with a yard for animals and an orchard for plums a...

I work all night, I work all day to pay the bills I have to pay...  Nobody likes budgeting. It's stressful, hateful and restrictive. If you're a student like me, whereby it's the last 4 weeks before your student loan comes in again, your previous one in either gone and you're living on your part-time job wages or you're left with the bare minimum to live on for the rest of the month.  And still there never seems to be a single penny left for me.... D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R.  I have a dream, I have a plan! To help you out, I've created a top 10 tips list to help you manage your money when you need it the most.... 1. BILLS- They don't go away. They have to be paid or you get charged for it. Simple. Prioritise what needs to be paid and how soon. Some bills are due on the 1st of each month, some on the 15th. Things like rent, credit cards, WiFi, phone bills (if you are on contract) and electricity are essential to pay first so make sure that if yo...

Day 1 of the Trip (... The technically Day 105 of updates on my fundraising page but let's start afresh for my blog 🙈) Well it's fair to say that student life hasn't prepared me for the early start I had today! Placement and work have thankfully turned my sleeping pattern back to normal so it wasn't as bad as I predicted but I'm still pretty exhausted. After my giant bowl of porridge and honey, me and my 3 month foodbaby belly rolled up at the Dublin Airport bus for 6:05am. I think I'm having a lucky day... I got up after my first alarm (I didn't hit snooze even once?!) I arrived on-time for my lift, my bus, my plane and even had extra time to top up on my MAC foundation stock to make sure I can cover the shadows embedded into my face under my eyes during the week. The patchwork quilt of fields and scent of humidity makes it feel like home but the flat landscapes remind me that I am away. There is no shadow of mountains in the distan...

See Your Potential September 2016 -  A girl moves into university accommodation. Her course looks good but she lacks self confidence because her A Levels weren't as good as predicted but she still got here. October 2016 -  Classes have begun. She's overwhelmed by the passion of the lecturers but she remains the quiet invisible one who doesn't speak or ask questions. The role of Course Rep is announced in a lecture. The lecturer reads out everyone's name on the register. If anyone wants to nominate themselves, they just have to say yes. If more than one says yes, they will have to do a speech each to say why the students should vote for them. The girl says no but waits until the whole register is read before raising her hand. She feared competition so she'd waited until everyone else declined the role but knew she could do the job. November 2016 -  She feels empowered with her latest achievement. She is more motivated and asks a Student Officer whether s...

To all those who grew up with a Nickelodeon childhood and understand this reference, I salute you. To all of you less fortunate people who didn't have this childhood, I'm truly sorry... Over the past few weeks, since I have began university, I have been on a rollercoaster of emotions, excitement, stress, motivation, stress, love, stress, passion, stress and ... stress. I don't know if you have spotted a recurring pattern here but it has been very stressful. Although my course has been incredible, I have felt responsibility settle on my shoulders. Bills are not fun. Nope. Money is only fun when you have a lot of it and let's just say, it's coming up to Christmas and I just don't. The stress from it was starting to affect my moods, I was edgy, anxious and very easily agitated. I decided it was time to put an end to my misery and come up with a solution... I am going to start a blogging series called 'Nicole's Declassified Student Survival Guide'. He...