March

Film

I am still watching all of the films. I went to Rich’s and basically spent an entire weekend watching films. We watched Beasts of the Southern Wild, Contagion, Tyrannosaur and Alien. As I seem to want one of everything when it comes to social media thingies, I now have an account on Letterboxd, if you care or want to join me.

Books

Perhaps the trade off for all the film watching is that I can’t seem to read a novel to save my life. I started The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy and while I’m not saying for one second that it is bad (it is certainly not), I think I’ve just read too much contemporary fiction lately that classic literature has been a shock to my system and sort of sent me back to reading like a student. As in, at one point I skipped a few pages and then started reading the Spark Notes. What the hell is that about?

However I did manage to finish The History of the World in Bite-Sized Chunks by Emma Marriott. I won’t pretend this was particularly exciting, but it did exactly what it said on the tin. Now, for my non-fiction selection, I’m reading The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia by Andrei Lankov.

I’m trying to impose a personal embargo on buying books for a while. This will be hard because I love buying books. But I feel like I should stop buying so many when I am not reading so many. What I’m hoping is that this will spur me to read lots more, and then I can return to buying every nice book that crosses my path (or passes my Kindle).

Learning

I finished my course in Critical Thinking in Global Challenges, with a mark of 83% – not bad at all for a loser like me who averaged around 65% at real university. I flunked Introduction to Philosophy because I quite frankly didn’t have time for it, couldn’t understand a lot of it, and then missed the deadline for the final assessment. I’m now signed up for Democratic Development from Stanford University, and International Organisation Management from the University of Geneva.

I’m also still making a relatively genuine effort to improve my language skills. I’m mainly focusing on German, and I’m actually beginning to enjoy it.

Work

I have created an Excel document that logs my various professional (or somewhat less-than-professional) responsibilities. One page has jobs I’d like to apply for/have applied for, another has freelance writing opportunities and commitments, another has the online courses I’m taking, and the last one has volunteer opportunities and commitments. This document is very exciting and may revolutionise my life. (It’s up to you how much sarcasm you want to read into that sentence.)

Friends

Yes, I have friends! Who even knew that one. I’ve seen some of them, and planned to see some other ones. I don’t discuss my friends very much on here because I’m not so sure that they want to be discussed. But I have a few, and they’re all very lovely people. Two of them are moving abroad soon, for extended periods of time, which is awesome for them but means I won’t see them for ages which is sad.

Snow

It’s snowed for pretty much every moment of 2013 so far. Nobody has shut up about it. I have very little of value to contribute to these endless discussions of the weather, so here’s all I’ve got.

1. We’re in Tory Narnia, folks. I am of course not taking credit for this joke/idea but I am repeating it often. If you voted Conservative, it’s your fault.

2. The word for snow in Slovak is sneží. This is not pronounced ‘sneezy’, perhaps unsurprisingly, but it is a very lovely word. The ž is pronounced something like j – maybe. I’m not very good at either linguistics or Slovak language. The best thing about this word is that it doesn’t just mean snow but also means ‘it is snowing’. (People who speak Slovak better than I do, feel free to correct every wrong thing I have written here.) How much easier would life be for people in the UK if there was one word that meant ‘oh look, it’s snowing again’?

March 28, 2013
by Emily 5 Comments

What to Do When You Don’t Know What You Want to Do

Sometimes it seems as though not knowing exactly what you want to do is unacceptable in this post graduate limbo some of us have found ourselves in. When everyone around you is desperate for a career in publishing, marketing or teaching, with their eyes firmly on the prize, you may feel a little lost if you realise that you don’t know what you want a career in. The vast majority of university graduates will be brimming with ambition and determination for the future. So what happens when you have all the ambition, but not so much of a clue what you want to do with it?

1. Know that it’s okay. You’re allowed to be clueless right now. When people ask the dreaded question ‘So what do you want to do next?’, it’s alright for you to say, ‘I’m not actually sure’. For your own sanity you might want to come up with a stock response, as many people simply cannot grasp the idea that you are just looking for a good job, rather than one particular role within one specific industry. (I would suggest lining your stock response with big but meaningless words that will stop most people from prying further.)

2. Remember that not knowing might be best for you. Keep an open mind. Those who hurtle straight from their graduation ceremony to the doors of the nearest publishing house, CV and cap in hand, may be doing themselves a disservice. Many skills gained through university study and work experience are very adaptable and transferable, so so by keeping your options wide open you are giving yourself the chance to become involved in something that you may never have thought of, but could end up being the perfect fit for you.

3. Try thinking about what you are able to do, if you can’t think of what you want to do. Have a look at your experience, whether it’s experience through working or volunteering or things you do for fun. Nobody else can figure it out for you but there might be some clues in there, and you may already be gravitating towards the career that’s right for you without even realising it. I simply do not believe that every person out there who is actually in their ‘dream career’ knew what they wanted to do from the start. I bet a lot of them had setbacks, changed their minds, and accidentally stumbled into the field they’re most content working in.

March 1, 2013
by Emily 6 Comments

February

February has been a lot more fun than January. Starting the year with a cold and miserable month has proved to be a good thing, as any vaguely enjoyable thing that happens in my life from that point onwards will be grabbed with both hands and clutched onto for dear life.

Film

I think 2013 is going to be the year of film for me. I have been to the cinema not once, not twice, but three times. That’s a wow, in case you’re not sure how to react. I have never been very excited about films. I often wondered if it was an attention span thing – I love reading books, and the great thing about books is that you can read them in as many sittings as you want depending on how interesting you find them, and I also really like watching television programmes, which are rarely more than around 50 minutes long, all told. So the act of having to sit through a whole film, in a cinema no less, was kind of excruciating. I’ve enjoyed the whole experience every time I’ve been to the cinema this year, although there still comes a time, just past the midway point of the film, where I feel the need to shift in my seat about twelve times per minute, and I want to go to the toilet, and get some fresh air, and get a drink, and check my email, and my leg has gone to sleep and I have an itchy knee, and so on. That may never leave me, and maybe it is just part of the film-going experience.

I’ve been to see Flight, Lincoln and Hitchcock. In the past I have usually opted to go see chick flicks and rom coms, thinking that the more light-hearted a film is the easier it will be to sit through. Yet, given that I have yet to cultivate a money tree and cinema tickets cost £8+ at the Showcase and £6 at my local cinema, I have vowed to only see good films. The definition of good is a work in process, and doesn’t necessarily mean, as the films I have seen so far may suggest, ‘starring a successful male actor in the lead role’. It just means ‘not crap, worth the money’.

Books

After much mental anguish, I toiled my way through With or Without You by Domenica Ruta. I do not enjoy speaking badly of anybody’s my-tragic-childhood memoir, as it seems disrespectful and strange, but I just had to review it, so click here if you want to read me slagging it off. I finished Les Enfants Terribles, which I’ve been on with for many months. It was… okay. I didn’t passionately love it, but it was okay. I wonder if the fact that I kept reading ten pages, losing the book, reading another ten pages, getting into another book, and so on, that stopped me from loving it. I might give it another chance one day in the future. I also read City of Women by David R. Gilham. Set in Berlin during WW2 and dealing with the lives of the women left in the city, it ticked a lot of boxes for me before I started it. Now, I am no prude but there really are some terrible sex scenes in novels. Am I putting too fine a point on it if I suggest that there is a very obvious difference between male-written sex and female-written sex? Well, if you ask me there is, and there was some truly bad male-written sex in this novel. (Thankfully not Beauty Story by Luke Jennings bad, in which a female character describes her own nipples by comparing them to Marmite jar lids.) I also read Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, which was wonderful. I never expected to enjoy a graphic novel so much! Then, on the very last day of the month, I started Bright Young Things by Scarlett Thomas. The premise is great, but so far I just feel bogged down in unrealistic, pointless dialogue.

I like to have some non-fiction books on the go at all times, and this month they have been The History of the World in Small Chunks by Emma Marriott and The Horologicon by Mark Forsyth.

Learning

I am still truly, madly, deeply in love with Coursera. As well as Critical Thinking in Global Challenges, I’m also signed up to an Introduction to Philosophy course. I studied Philosophy and Ethics at A-Level, and I really enjoyed it. This course is covering some of the same stuff I learned back then (thankfully not all of it – due to the way the A-Level course was structured it was absolutely necessary to do what were essentially some Bible study modules) and some stuff I’ve never heard of. My philosophical thinking skills are slightly rusty and I find myself stuck at complete dead ends often when I’m doing the exercises, but hey, at least I’m giving it a go!

Amsterdam

Rich had some time off work and I am still not leading the wildly important and productive professional life I dream of, so I cajoled him into coming away with me for a few days. We had actually never been on holiday together before (while I was living in Bratislava he flew out to Budapest and I met him there, but I maintain that was not really a holiday, though I will allow that it was more than just a date) so he was essentially powerless to refuse. My first idea was to go to Tallinn in Estonia, because eastern Europe and because cheap and because former Soviet country, but after checking all available flights and hotels at short notice Rich eventually managed to bring me back west to Amsterdam. I’m not complaining, really, even though we all know that beer for one euro is better than beer for five euros. Having resolved that he would buy all my beers, we set off for what had leapt from a super-short break to four nights away. Amsterdam is fantastic and I had a lovely time. Lots of beer, cake, wandering around, looking at nice things, many of the things I enjoy. I will possibly post some pictures soon because I took lots and Amsterdam is very pretty indeed.

Tell me how February went for you!

February 1, 2013
by Emily 8 Comments

January

January has been quite a boring month. In fairness, I don’t very much mind starting the year with a month where nothing really happens, because it means I can only hope the coming months will hold a bit more excitement. If January had been too good, I’d be worrying that the other eleven won’t match up. (Or at least that’s what I’m going to keep telling myself.)

It snowed, it rained, it froze, it flooded, and all the rest. I’ve started my ‘2013’ album on Facebook (I upload so few pictures to Facebook I only need one album per year) and all that’s in it s far is pictures of snow and frozen things. As I said, not the most exciting month.

You might think that with the terrible weather and the not-leaving-the-house, I would have read millions of books. I would have thought the same, if I’m honest, but somehow I did not. I read two books. Three if you want to count the fact that I listened to an audiobook of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. One of those books was Warm Bodies which was supremely awful. The other was The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of a Window and Disappeared, which I actually loved, even if it was unexpectedly long. I did write a couple of book reviews at Judging Covers, though.

In terms of work and education and all that self betterment, I’ve been working on a freelance project that I feel very good about (but don’t want to go into detail about on here), and I have signed up for some courses on Coursera. If you’ve never heard of Coursera, go have a look! I can’t vouch for any of it being useful in ~the real world~ but learning is fun and free learning is fantastic.

So, even though I have next to nothing to say about the month just gone, there it is. How did your January go?

January 8, 2013
by Emily 11 Comments

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Glasses

Between my mid-teens and the ripe old age of 22, I genuinely disliked wearing glasses. Sometimes I would go as far as to say I hated it. Part of this may have been due to not liking the actual glasses I was wearing, but a lot of it was definitely a case of feeling ugly with some ungainly hunk of metal attached to my face. In August 2012 I got a new pair of glasses for my birthday, and they were different to any of the glasses I’d worn previously. They were large, full, squareish frames, half navy and half tortoiseshell. My previous pair had been small, metal, rectangular half frames.

I was kind of amazed that they suited me, that they were comfortable and, strangest of all, that people didn’t point and laugh at me while I was wearing them. Yes, this is ridiculous, but I had convinced myself that I looked stupid in glasses and so if I wore any style other than small, unobtrusive frames, everyone around me would think I looked like an idiot. Well, I probably don’t look like an idiot, and if I do nobody has mentioned it to me (with the exception of a hilarious ‘should have gone to Specsavers’ comment) and, most importantly, I’ve reached a point where I don’t necessarily care.

One of the most unexpected things I have found is that glasses actually work as a kind of fashion accessory. I mean, obviously they don’t have to. At their most basic, glasses with corrective lenses are simply an aid to help you see, and it doesn’t have to be any more complex than that. But if you find a nice pair, that you like and that (subjectively) suit your face, they can be an accessory. A plain outfit of jeans, a vest and a cardigan can look more stylish and even more put together with the addition of some swanky specs. On the other end of the spectrum, glasses with a dressed-up-to-the-nines outfit can look amazing, and thick frames might even add a much-needed edge to a frilly, girly frock.

The long and the short of this strange, self-involved blog post is that now I wear glasses most of the time (at least five out of seven days) which has to be cheaper than wearing contact lenses every day in the long term, and is also much better for the health of my eyes. As well as money and health, it’s a step in the right direction when it comes to being comfortable in my own skin and placing less emphasis on how I look, or how the way I look is perceived by others.

December 23, 2012
by Emily 3 Comments

The New New Year’s Resolutions

As the end of the year approaches, I’ve found myself thinking that we should all be making a different kind of New Year’s Resolution.

Less of the resolutions to punish yourself at the gym, to cut out the evening glass of wine you love so much, or to squirrel away all your money while denying yourself every treat and indulgence. More of the resolutions to do more fun things, enjoy yourself more, and to be happier.

Here are mine! Maybe in January I will work on some specifics, but for now they’re just general concepts.

Cycle more, walk more, dance more

It doesn’t need to be January for me to come up with an unrealistic exercise plan that will leave me sore and aching or lazy and ashamed after the first week. I do this all the time. And it’s always about going to the gym more, doing more exercise DVDs, and other boring things that have me dreading the sight of my trainers and finding any excuse to do something else. In 2013, I want to be more active (and maybe get fitter in the process) by doing things that I enjoy, like cycling, walking and dancing. (Now that I unexpectedly enjoy cycling and everything.)

Learn new languages

I’ve never been much of a linguist, other than my native tongue. It never really occurred to me just how strange it was to be so fascinated with the English language but so ignorant of every other language. So about a year ago I was all ‘I’m going to learn Italian!’ and set off on a mission to, er, learn about five words and then unofficially give up. Then, a few months ago, I had a funny turn which resulted in me deciding to learn German. Again I charged forward, determined to be fluent within the week, and succeeded in learning what ‘ich liebe dich’ means, even if I can’t say it without breaking into a rendition of Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick. While in Slovakia I had a crack at learning Slovak but found myself bewildered by a language that allows a sentence like this to happen: strč prst skrz krk. (Though I got pretty good at ordering beer and dumplings.) In 2013, I want to make an effort to learn more Italian, more German, and more of any other language that takes my fancy – but without feeling guilty or stressing myself out. I’ll try to enjoy the process of learning new things, and I’ll bear in mind that the best reason to learn new languages is to facilitate travel and conversation: two things I like a lot.

Write more and read more

In 2012 I wrote a lot. I wrote about many different things and for many different purposes. I wrote for freelance projects, for volunteer projects, for my internship. I wrote about the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the parliamentary elections in Belarus, and about exhibitions of Elizabethan artwork. What I didn’t do very often was write (fiction) for my own enjoyment, even though I know that it calms and soothes me when I’m frazzled and confused. So, in the coming year, I want to spend more time writing for myself, without worrying about word counts or grammatical choices or if it will get published or if it will make me money. Reading goes hand in hand with this.

What are your New New Year’s Resolutions?

September 1, 2012
by Emily 5 Comments

On My Way

When this post appears, I will be on a train to the airport. I will then spend almost seven hours at the airport (fml) before arriving in Bratislava at 10pm (local time).

If only my suitcases looked that classy. If anyone should happen to see me struggling my way around Birmingham airport with two heavy cases, either help me or pretend you didn’t see me. Those are your only options.

Aaaaaargh how exciting.

I have two guest posts lined up in the coming week. Other than that expect radio silence for a while. If you still want to guest post for me just email it to me and I’ll get it up when I can.

August 25, 2012
by Emily 4 Comments

I Hate Packing

No, really, I hate packing.

I find the experience almost traumatic. It makes no difference where I’m going, or how long I’m going for. It’s all just as awful and annoying.

Now here I am, packing for 3 months away. (Yeah yeah yeah, you went to Outer Mongolia for 2 years and only packed one small bag- I do not care.) How do I do this? What if I don’t take enough? What if I take too much? What if I get there and realise that I have 7 posh dresses but no underpants? A variety of pashminas and no shoes?

I don’t think this is something I can put off until the night before, like I do for short trips. Even then, packing the night before is disastrous because I turn up at my boyfriend’s house for 2 days, during which time we plan to do little more than lounge on the couch and eat pizza, with five pairs of jeans and eight dresses.

This website has been helpful, if a little bizarre- I’m not entirely sure if I need knee high stockings and a hair ribbon, but thanks anyway.

So the spare room – which has now become my packing room – currently looks like this.

Utter chaos. I am not very good at this ‘minimalist packing’ business.

Do I need eleven shirts and blouses of varying prints, patterns and colours? What does 20kg worth of clothes actually look like? Oh my god, what about all that stuff I have to take that isn’t clothes?

There is no real point to this post other than to complain, and procrastinate from bloody packing. Are you an expert packer? Will you help me?

August 11, 2012
by Emily 8 Comments

Good Things 010

Good Thing #1: A few weeks ago I got a copy of The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai from Waterstones, and yesterday I received a free copy of Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos from And Other Stories. (I will point out that I was sent these books after entering competitions. People don’t just send me free things all the time. More’s the pity.)

Good Thing #2: I kept spotting these weird wooden saint bracelets in shops but every time I considered buying one, I thought ‘it costs about six quid and looks like charity shop junk, no way’. In the end I found one not even at a charity shop, but at my friend’s house when I was helping her pack up some stuff to move house. So she gave it to me for free.

Good Thing #3: My flights to Bratislava are booked for the 1st September. Due to awkward timing and train fare fiascos I will be arriving at the airport a mere 6 hours and 40 minutes before the time of the flight. This, however, may actually be a good thing because I don’t mind sitting, reading, snacking, napping and people watching for a few hours. In what other situation do you get to sit and do nothing except leisurely read for that many hours? Even on a day off, I’d feel guilty for sitting for six hours straight without doing anything productive (whatever that means). So bring it on.

Good Thing #4: Speaking of which, I am so excited to work a 40 hour week and then get weekends off. Weekends off are almost unheard of at the moment. Even though I currently work less than 30 hours at my waitressing job, I’m actually looking forward to working more hours and then getting the weekends off. Two days with which to do whatever I please! This is so awesome I won’t even mind that I’m not getting paid.

Good Thing #5: I’m not so much of an Olympics type of person. I’ve never been very sporty or interested in sport. All I remember of Olympics coverage as a child was wondering why I couldn’t watch anything else. (This was back in the days when there were only five channels, and we often only had four because Channel 5 didn’t work very well.) But I’ve felt that I ought to pay a bit more attention this year, what with it being in my country and all, and I have to say that it’s fantastic how well Team GB are doing (and, more importantly, how well Team Yorkshire are doing). I’m glad that although in August last year, we were being represented by rioters who burned down their own cities, this year we are being represented by dedicated and inspirational athletes.

Good Thing #6: Last but (hopefully) not least, I would like some guest posts from you clever, witty, gorgeous people. I expect that I’m going to be pretty busy this month and the next, and blogging is unfortunately one of the first things I forget about when I’m clashed. However I would like to keep this little blog ticking over, and this feels like the perfect time to give other people the opportunity to take over. Comment, tweet me or email me (whatemilydidnext@gmail.com) if you’re interested!

August 1, 2012
by Emily 10 Comments

August Goals

Here’s how my goals went in July:

1) Stop wasting all my spare time on SongPop on Facebook

I didn’t even have to wean myself off it, I just got bored eventually. Not to say that I haven’t stopped wasting time. I will never stop wasting time.

2) Make an exercise plan for each week and try my best to stick to it

I’m getting a lot better at this.

3) Sell five things on eBay

I currently have seven items of clothing for sale on eBay, including some snazzy things from H&M, ASOS and others. (How sly of me to stick that in here mere hours before the auctions end. How very sly.) (link fixed!)

Not bad, not bad. Onwards to my goals for the coming month!

1) Pack

This is self explanatory. And non optional. But it needs doing, and it needs doing with some modicum of sense. Which is not something I often possess while throwing things into a suitcase. The first step will be not starting the night before I go away. I’m not quite sure what the second step will be.

2) Lose seven pounds

I kind of hate myself when I say things like this – do I sound like Regina George? – and I’m aware that it’s a bit inappropriate to discuss weight so lackadaisically on here so my apologies if this makes you feel uncomfortable. I’m a bit podgy and out of shape at the moment and I’d like to be less podgy and more in shape. I’m eating healthy food, doing a wee bit of calorie counting (I know, I know) and upping the exercise. I shall try not to moan and bang on and act like anyone else ought to care about what I’m eating or how much I weigh, but there may be blog posts about exercise and food – only fun stuff though, I promise! (I would ideally like to lose a stone but baby steps, people.)

3) Socialise

Sad, isn’t it, that I have to make being sociable a goal for the month? Well I do. Being sociable is bloody hard when a great deal of my friends live quite far away, I don’t have very much money, I work quite a lot, and I never get weekends off. I feel that I am becoming a recluse and a hermit and I would like to rectify this.

One of my goals for July was not to get swanky new spectacles, but I got some anyway. Here’s a picture of them so you can share in their loveliness. They’re blue and orange and while I’m not forced to grin like an idiot, as per this photograph, every time I wear them, sometimes I do. (Please note that the small snatch of purple shirted man you can see behind me is my optician, as I took this picture in the mirror while stood in the opticians. He saw what I was doing and did a double take and laughed at me. Awkward situations are awesome.)

What are your plans/goals for August? Did you do everything you wanted to in July?

What Emily Did Next

country living, city dreaming

Category Archives: general life