I'm afraid of the dentist

 For quite literally as long as I can remember, I've been petrified of the dentist. One of my earliest memories is being in hospital and getting an anaesthetic injection for when I got some crowns put on my back teeth to protect them (or something like that?). I also found out recently that apparently when I came to after the procedure, the first thing I did was punch my mam! How funny.

My next earliest memory of the dentists is getting my fillings done, and every single part of it hurt. For years afterwards, the sound of high-pitched noises would set me off and make my teeth ache as it reminded me of the drills. After I got more fillings done two years ago, I decided to take my oral health more seriously.

It's not as if I was neglecting my teeth before; I think, if I'm remembering rightly, my teeth are underdeveloped. I was told this a while ago, so what I say could be a load of rubbish, but I'm pretty sure my teeth are weaker than they should be, as the enamel never grew on them. It probably didn't help that the only thing I would drink was pop (quite literally, I would never have a sip of water), and my diet consisted mainly of chocolate. Since my last appointment, I've made an effort to floss every single day, reduce the amount of pop I drink, increase the amount of water I'm drinking, and reduce the amount of sweets I have.

I was worried that my efforts were in vain when I had my appointment booked for this Friday - I've always been anxious going to the dentist; I hate the feeling and sound of them prodding my teeth with their tools. But, thankfully, my teeth had improved massively! Only one section of my gums bled slightly, and he said my teeth were in much better condition than they had been before, thanks to all of my flossing! I was so pleased; he said the gums in the back of my mouth were slightly inflamed, but he said it made sense when I explained to him I've been struggling to brush the back of my teeth since it makes me gag. I was so happy when he made some recommendations to make sure I brush efficiently without triggering my gag reflex.

I think that the work I've done between now and my last appointment in preparing for pharmacy applications, and now my degree, has helped me understand that what he was saying before about my poor teeth wasn't an insult; he was trying to help. Up until very recently, I used to take any sort of criticism very personally, until I realised that the people I was receiving criticism from were trying to help me, and it wasn't any sort of personal attack; it was just that I was still learning, and they were helping to guide me in the right direction. I feel as though this mindset really benefitted me during my time at sixth form, as I went from being shy about speaking to the teachers to feeling confident about asking them questions, no matter how stupid I thought they were. As a wise man once said: the only stupid questions are the ones that don't get asked.

My first fortnight as first-year

 As you may know, the purpose of my blog was to document my journey into becoming a pharmacist, and I can finally say that today marks the end of my Freshers Week and my first week at university! It's been such an amazing fortnight, and I'm so excited to see where the year takes me. I haven't been insanely busy over the summer, but I'm happy to have cut back on my volunteering hours and finally returned to learning!

I will preface that some of these were written on the day, and so they may not be very cohesive and kind of like, "Oh, I can't wait for this to happen next week!" and next week is like day 9, so I hope it still reads okay! I worked on other blog posts at the same time, so I didn't want to cram writing this all into one day.

Freshers Week

Freshers Week was probably one of the more tiring weeks; due to immense paranoia (something I'll have to sort eventually), I've been struggling to fall asleep at night, and so it was hard to get back into routine, but thank god I wasn't learning anything I'd need to take in for an exam! Although it was all still very helpful information, I'm glad I went, as I got to meet new people.

    Freshers Week Day 1

Monday was one of the easiest and possibly most boring days. I'd been on a pub crawl the night before, and my friend was nice enough to let me stay at hers for the night, so I didn't have to have an early commute. She was also right next to a Tesco, so I was able to pick up a meal deal (now they have mini rolls in the meal deal section! Like what? I'm so chuffed!), whilst I waited for a girl on my course who I'd met through TikTok, and we were going to meet up with another girl I met at the Partner's Academic Summer School (PASS). I'll call them Abigail and Becca, respectively. Abigail and I walked up with her flatmates, who were all doing biomed or biochem, which apparently have a lot of mixed sessions. I'll be honest when I say I know nothing about the two degrees, so I'm not sure how similar they are. Anyways, Abigail and I met up with Becca right before we were let into the lecture theatre, and we were able to kind of weave between the groups and get to the front by the door. So we got quite good seats for the lecture (also, I say lecture, but I don't think it is technically a lecture). It was two separate sessions (one 2 hours and the other 1 hour), one after another; the first one was a little bit boring, as it was kind of reiterating things I knew from PASS, though it was a helpful reminder, and they also told us the dates for all of our assessments (not all of them have set dates yet). The second one was on academic advisors and how to essentially use them to our advantage, as well as some other things; the lady who did this session seemed so sweet. I wish she was my academic advisor!

Anyways, after that finished, we all split off to our different academic advisors - the place I needed to go was the furthest away out of me, Becca, and Abigail; I still got there on time, though! I also, coincidentally, sat next to a girl who knew me from TikTok! It was kind of unsettling when I thought about it afterwards, as I thought I was more hidden than I actually am - not that the girl was weird; she was so lovely; I just thought I was more anonymous than I actually am. It was lovely to meet her though! I didn't really get much from my academic advisor meeting; I was just eager to get away and have my meal deal because I was starving. I met up with Becca and Abigail again for lunch, and we had a quick look through the student wellbeing fair before splitting up again as we all had different plans.

My plan? To go to the library to borrow a book. Our Stage 1 Lead did the first 'lecture', and he was lovely! He told us that he would be teaching us chemistry, and during that session, he recommended two organic chemistry books to go through. I could only find one in the Walton Library. Apparently, the other one is in the Philip-Robinson Library, but I'll probably borrow it after I finish the other one. I thought it was kind of crazy, though, because I have 20 weeks until I have to return the book (unless someone requests it and then I have 7 days to return it), which is so good. I thought it would be a maximum of like 2 weeks. It's only 80 pages, so I'm hoping to finish it by next week.

When I went home the day after picking my stuff up from my friend's flat, I went home and finally finished my induction. Yay, all done! I was so pleased for it to be over with.

   Freshers Week Day 2

This day felt like it lasted forever. I'll be honest, I fell asleep late because I was too focused on a task, so I only got about 6-7 (hehe) hours of sleep - which sounds like a lot, but I function better on 8-10 hours of sleep, so the day was already off to a poor start!

I got the 7:45 train, which would get me there with 40 mins to spare (enough time to get a meal deal hehe), but it was also, unfortunately, the busiest train of the day due to people commuting to university, school, and work. So I didn't get a seat, and it was boiling; I thought I was going to pass out! Luckily, I managed to get a seat for the last like 10 minutes of the trip, so thank god. My first plan was to go to Tesco and get a meal deal - the only thing in the meal deal that I like is the Caesar salad, so that's what I was on the lookout for. The first Tesco I went to, unfortunately, did not have it (despite how large it was), so I went to the next one (thank god there were two on the way), which thankfully had a Caesar salad! It was so full of workers, though, so I struggled to get out! I got to the session room (the session was called "Context Cafe") about ten minutes early, but I was too scared to go in. I eventually went in after some other people went in before me, and we were able to get Border biscuits and tea (I didn't get any tea, though).

I had no idea what to expect from the name, but when I got there, it seemed to me to be an icebreaker. We were given strips of paper with different table letters on, so I assumed we had to go around to different groups to speak to new people. I was only partially right. It was like a carousel where we went between PharmSoc members, a fourth-year student, and professors. They were all telling us tips for first year, explaining the courses & placements, the expectations of the course, and giving us a chance to ask questions. It was actually really helpful and somewhat comforting to know what to expect. But then after this, I had 4.5 hours between that and my next... session.

Whilst I was in the library, I just spent my time working on my blog (I was a little behind, whoopsies), and applied to the NCL+ Award. I also looked into this programme called the University Wide Language Programme (UWLP) - the university offers free courses in 8 different languages and at a variety of levels, which is worth 10 credits alongside your degree. I applied to do the elementary level Spanish; I didn't do too badly at GCSE Spanish (I got a 7), but I really can't remember much and was never any good with verb endings anyways. I hope they have space on the course for me; if not, I put a backup for beginner German. I'm really trying to take full advantage of the nearly £10,000 a year I'm spending. I want to get as much experience as possible! I hadn't filled in the application yet, as I had to ask my Degree Programme Director if it was something I could do, and she said yes! She replied within about half an hour, which I was really grateful for.

However, I filled in the application on the train because I was going to my next timetabled event. I'd been dreading this since I saw the email come through - a blood test. I'd never had one before, and so I was extremely nervous and scared about it. I got there about 10 minutes early, but I was seen about 15 minutes after I was scheduled to be seen. I, embarrassingly, had a bit of a sob before it happened, but the man who was doing it was very nice about it, talked me through it, answered all of my questions, and then it was over and done with quickly. There was also a hepatitis B vaccination scheduled for that appointment, which I wasn't aware of. My blood test was to check me for TB, and if I was TB-free, then I was to go back for another blood test in a month; I need two more hepatitis B vaccinations, and I also need to receive my BCG vaccine at some point. I'm so happy my university is organising this for me!

    Freshers Week Day 3

This was my shortest day of the week by far. I didn't have anything scheduled, but I still went in because I wanted to have a look around the societies & clubs fair to narrow down my options. Before going around, I think I had like eight or nine societies I wanted to join, but I managed to narrow it down based on how often they met and where their events were. I met up with Becca for this, as Abigail was with her flatmates going for the Freshers Freebies. I debated going, but the line was huge, and I wasn't that interested anyways. Becca and I managed to see every society we each wanted to speak to before her workshop started! After we separated, I saw that the Poster Sale was still up, so I decided to have a look since there weren't many people there. I bought three posters of some of my favourite singers (Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan, and Sabrina Carpenter), which came to £21, and since I spent over £20, I got a free packet of white tack!

I went home after this and immediately hung the posters over my door. It was slightly scary to do, as I was balancing on my stool, but I managed to do it with no falls or injuries! I was only in Newcastle for about an hour and a half before I headed home, but it was still a great day and an extremely helpful one. I joined the First Aid Society, Pharmacy Society, OSCE & Simulation Society (though I'm going to try to refund this, as I found out yesterday it's just for medicine students), Book Club, and the Teddy Bear Hospital. I'm really looking forward to all of these, and I hope I'm not filling my schedule with too much stuff; I could also drop my volunteering if I am, as my education comes first and I am spending a lot on this degree.

I forgot to mention this initially, but I also received a phone call on this day inviting me for an interview! I hadn't had a job interview since Summer of 2025 (didn't get the job), so this was my second ever job interview! Keep reading to First Week day 2 to see how it went.

    Freshers Week Day 4

Another short day! All I had was an 11-12pm lecture on Fitness to Practice and the Code of Conduct. It basically just went over the professionalism expectations on the course, explained PIN to us, and how things could escalate (e.g. multiple occasions of late submissions or extremely late arrival). The lecturer who delivered the lecture seemed really nice, and I think he handles OSCEs, so I'm not sure if I'll see him much (I'm not sure how frequent OSCEs are; maybe they get more frequent as you go through the course?). This was only about 40 minutes, so afterwards, Becca and I went to have lunch by the famous Newcastle University arches, where we ended up seeing a boy I went to sixth form with! I had no idea he was going to Newcastle, but it was nice to see him; he's so kind. We (just Becca and I) then went to have a look around the Language Resource Centre before quickly finding out we had to sign up for membership, so at least we got that sorted. She also signed up for the ULWP, not for the same language as me, but we would both be using the centre if we got in, so I suggested we have a look before her blood test/vaccination appointment this afternoon. Obviously, it was short-lived since neither of us had signed up. So I just decided to go home and walked her to Costa Coffee so she had somewhere to wait for her appointment.

I didn't really do much when I got home; I've been quite tired since I've been doing a lot of walking with my heavy bag. Today, I walked over 3.5 miles and did over 8,500 steps. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a lot more than I've done over the summer holidays. I'm happy to be back walking a lot. I hope I can improve my stamina, lung capacity (I run out of air very quickly when I do things), and I hope carrying my heavy backpack most of the time will help strengthen my back muscles. I did go over the Stage One Handbook; to be fair, it was really helpful as it had a lot of the assessment expectations in it. I have a formative integrated report coming up, which I'm quite anxious for as I haven't done any long academic writing in a while. It's 2,000 words for the summative integrated report, but I think the formative is optional, as it's a chance to get feedback on your draft of the summative, I think? I'm not entirely sure; I think I'll hear more about it next week during the lecture "Intro to Integrated Report". I hope it goes well!

    Freshers Week Day 5

Unfortunately, this day was probably the most boring.

It started off strong with a library services talk. The two ladies who did this lecture were so lovely, but a lot of what they were telling me either didn't apply to me, I already knew from PASS, or I didn't care about because I was desperate for the toilet. In all honesty, it was an extremely helpful lecture, but, in my opinion, it went on for too long, and I was desperate for the toilet in the last 45 minutes. I was sat bang in the middle, with the entire row full, so I was too embarrassed to disturb the whole lecture to go to the toilet (and I would have to disturb people TWICE). I was far too awkward to do that because the lovely ladies doing the lecture did not deserve to be distracted by me disrupting everyone in my row. But I learned my lesson to not sit in the middle of a row during a long lecture again.

I then had a 2-hour break, so I decided to use it wisely and work on my blog! I think I got a lot done, but then I was late meeting Becca for the next session. I felt so bad because somehow my brain messed up my plan from being "leave at 12:15 to meet Becca at 12:30" to "leave at 12:30 to meet Becca at 12:45." Which seems harmless until my stomach dropped when I saw her texting asking where I was at 12:30 when I was only JUST starting to pack up; fortunately, I got there in about 10 minutes, but I felt so bad. This session was like a drop-in to sort our DBS checks. We were 15 minutes early to the start time, and the queue was still MASSIVE. For some reason, there was a queue on either side of the door, so it was kind of like a game of chicken over which person at the front wanted to go first. It took an hour and a half of queuing for me to finally get in to do my DBS check. Only for me to make a mistake. I thought my driving licence expired on the 19th, but it was the 18th. Luckily, the lady who was doing my appointment let me sit off to the side and fix it, then come back when she was available, meaning my other documents didn't have to be reviewed again! Thank goodness for her kindness; I felt so embarrassed about my mistake, but she just said it happens a lot and they're easily able to fix it, especially since it was just one little error.

A quick mention that it was whilst I was queuing for my DBS check that I got the email saying my application for the UWLP elementary Spanish was successful! I can't remember what day my timetable came through, as it took a while, but my lessons are every Thursday 17:00-19:00, which is what I was hoping for, as the other option was Fridays 15:00-17:00, and I wouldn't have been able to make all of those sessions. I was also really happy to see I was automatically enrolled on the semester two course for it as well! I really look forward to starting it.

After that, I could finally head home. Yay! Unfortunately, my train is only hourly. So I had to wait about 40 minutes for the train. Then it was delayed 20 minutes due to trespassers on the track. ONLY 20 MINUTES, BEAR IN MIND. But then they started cancelling stops. The train was only going to 'major' stops. My small town is not a major stop. Thankfully, my blesséd mam works in one of the major stop places and would have finished right before the train got there, so she picked me up, meaning I didn't have to get the bus. She then, bless her, drove me to our local train station (meaning she had to drive the opposite direction from home) so I could pick up my car and drive myself home. I love my mother! So that day was somewhat tragic for me. I got home about an hour later than expected, so I was starving.

    Freshers Week Day 6 & 7 (haha)

Funny number.

I didn't do much over the weekend; I even forgot to write in my diary, which is something I'm trying to make a weekly thing. I was so tired after an event-filled week, and I was still somewhat recovering from my cold, so I just decided to stay in the house all weekend. Well, except Sunday, when I went to the supermarket to buy ingredients for chicken fajitas. Well, some of the stuff was already in the house, meaning I didn't have to spend too much money (luckily for me). I've never made or had fajitas before, so I was really just putting in what I felt like and experimented with the seasonings; it turned out so nice, though! I did a side of sweet potato fries, which were very yummy (but I can't figure out how to get them crispy in the air fryer! It's harder than you'd expect, apparently). My parents also said that the mix I had made for fajitas was lovely! I have enough to last me for the next few years, since only a little bit fits in each wrap.

So nothing was really done over Saturday and Sunday. I'm not even sure I worked on my blog at all.

First Week

    First Week Day 1

Monday was another long day, unfortunately. Initially, I only had two 1-hour lectures in the afternoon, but then about mid-Freshers Week, I had two 2-hour 'practicals' added to the morning timetable, so I was actually there 9:00-16:00. The practicals were more like seminars, I think, with the first one being a group activity discussing two patient scenarios and how we'd handle them, then feeding back to the room. I actually really enjoyed this; it was fun to interact with different people, and I learnt that it's a northeastern thing to call food 'bait', as it was mentioned in one of the scenarios, and the other people in my group were confused, thinking it had something to do with fishing, which was a little funny, in all honesty. The second session was on the different roles of a pharmacist, so I got to do blood pressure checks (both manual and automated), make a poster for a public health campaign (mine was a bit rubbish), and check patient prescriptions for errors.

I had an hour break after those, so I had my Tesco meal deal lunch and just relaxed in the Walton Library for a bit. It's so nice in there, but yesterday at lunch was the busiest I've ever seen it! I might have to start considering booking the study rooms.

The lectures after that were actually quite informative and helpful. The first one was on the Personal Extenuating Circumstances (PEC) process, which was a bit boring, but it was useful to know - it was really annoying, though, because there was a group of girls who were very loudly mumbling to each other, which was so distracting that the lecturer had to call them out on it twice to get them to finally stop. The second one was an Intro to Canvas, which I thought would be boring as I did that during PASS, but it actually covered some other things around the MPharm degree that were really helpful to know.

    First Week Day 2

Tuesday was a well-deserved day off! Kind of...

I had an 8:30 GP appointment about my birth control top-up, where she did the manual blood pressure check... I don't know how it works, but I'm sure I'll learn! Then I had to head to volunteering at the Royal Voluntary Service (RVS) immediately. I felt so bad because I was slightly late, as I was let into my appointment late, and I had to set a reminder because my prescription would be ready to pick up the next day.

Volunteering was very easy; it was quite quiet, so unfortunately there wasn't much to do, but I still enjoyed it; I was just happy to be back, in all honesty. It'd been about a fortnight since I was last there, but it felt like I hadn't been there in ages, and so I was very bored. I was grateful because they let me leave at 12:30 instead of 13:00, so I could get to my interview on time. Luckily, I was 30 minutes early, but I wanted to make sure I got there on time in case there was, like, a crash or something that was on my route, or if it was just busy in general.

I think my interview went okay; it was quite informal, and I was only asked a couple of questions, and they then gave me a go at doing one of the everyday tasks (slightly wary of sharing the business I was interviewed at, as I don't know how professional it is). In my opinion, it went well. They were meant to interview a girl before me, but she didn't turn up, and then they had two more people to interview the next day, so they said I'd find out the results in the next few days. Obviously, I think it went well; they might have thought I was rubbish, but they were all nice, so I kind of hope I get the job, but I'm not too sure. It all depends on the other candidates; for all I know, they could be fully available, which is obviously more desirable than my 'only available on weekends'.

    First Week Day 3

This is when I began to burn out... All I had on Wednesday was the peer mentor meeting session, and then I was going to go to the BPSA talk. But then I decided I already knew what I wanted to know about the BPSA, so I didn't go; I was going to go to the PharmSoc academic intro instead, until I finished the peer mentor session and realised I was too tired to do anything. I decided to instead go to the Language Resource Centre instead to see what was there, and it was so quiet that I decided to stay there for a bit and get some work done. So I completed some of my pre-reading!

As I mentioned before, this is when I started to burn out for the week. I hadn't even done much, but it had been so long since I'd done anything that this week and a half had felt sooo tiring for me. Still two more days left.

    First Week Day 4

Today was a day from hell. Whoever designed my timetable is genuinely out to get me, because why did I have six back-to-back 1-hour sessions? Luckily, some of them finished early, so I had a chance to eat and stuff (I struggle to eat when chewing), but my GOD, was I exhausted afterwards. I had my first proper lectures today, though, so I wanted to go to the library to make some revision material for what I'd learnt and do some other things. I didn't finish anything, though, because I'm still trying to figure out what a lot of the biology stuff was, and so I went back to annotate my lecture slides more, which I think helped. I still need to finish watching some of the videos and annotating my lecture slides - I also haven't even begun to make any biology flashcards. Luckily, the chemistry lecture I had today was very easy; it mainly felt like an A-Level recap with some extras, so I found it easy to make notes and then make flashcards from there.

I felt so silly because I wanted to go home for 18:00, but I accidentally left too late, as I forgot that the medical school is 30 minutes away from Central Station and not 20 minutes away, so I just changed my ticket to one so I would be home by 19:00. Yay. I just sat in Greggs whilst I waited for the next train and got some more work done - typing it out makes it sound like I did a lot, but I don't feel like I did a lot. I was so embarrassed on the train because the conductor scanned my ticket and it came up as invalid - he was nice about it and accepted the ticket anyways when I told him that I had missed the previous train and changed my ticket on Trainline to the current one. Thank God he was nice about it. I can imagine some conductors would have been rude about it!

Today was also 1 week until my Spanish lessons start! I hope I don't end up hating it when they start, because right now I'm actually sosososososo excited for them to begin. Before starting secondary school, I used to really like the idea of learning another language (my primary school taught us French, which I hated and never really paid attention to), but then I started secondary, and I really hated learning Spanish. I think it was mostly just the classroom environment, as no one really took it 'seriously', so it made it hard to learn. Although I got a 7 in my GCSE Spanish, I haven't spoken it in ages, so I'm just going to do the A1 level. I'm okay at Spanish, but I can't remember when to use the different verb endings, tenses, and just a lot of important words and rules for sentence structure. I'm looking forward to learning Spanish!

    First Week Day 5

Finally, on to my last day, which was meant to be a day off, but I ended up with a 9:00-10:00 lecture scheduled. This was an easy lecture; it was mostly about molecular shape and bonding. There wasn't much that was difficult; it was mainly A-Level content, such as the laws for how the electrons arrange themselves in shells and orbitals, which we already knew (or at least we were taught them), but we were told the names of what they were.

That lecture only lasted about 50 minutes, and I was so tired that I just went straight home. I knew I would be able to catch up on making flashcards over the weekend - especially since I already understood the lecture. It really does help when you enjoy the subject! I genuinely thought I was going to fall asleep when I was on the train; I think my late nights and early mornings were finally catching up to me... Luckily, I managed to pull myself together before driving home and to have a meal before having a 20-minute nap. I would have napped for longer, but I had to go volunteering!

I spent the first half in the smaller coffee shop, which was frustrating because the card machine there had stopped working for some reason; I think it's something to do with the WiFi? We're always having WiFi problems, and I was hoping the hospital would have fixed it by now. Oh well, I suppose. I was then placed upstairs after 2 hours, which is where it's much busier and actually requires two people. But bless, my 'manager' had done her back in whilst she was there. She tried to just continue working as normal, but then eventually decided to just shut down 2 hours early. She wasn't able to bend over or really do much in terms of turning, so she talked me through how to do the closing procedures - I was kind of like her little puppet! It was a fun new experience, but I felt so bad for her. She texted later in the evening that she was going to take next week off to heal her back. I hope she gets well soon!

So Friday ended up being a short day too! I was expecting to be busy from like 9:00-17:00, but I was only busy 9:00-15:00.

PHC: Stoptober (anti-smoking)

image from: https://campaignresources.dhsc.gov.uk/campaigns/stoptober-2026/ 

I think it's extremely common for people to know at least one person who has smoked at some point in their lifetime. For me, my mam, gran, and grandad were all addicted to smoking at one point. I can't really remember any of them smoking, as they all either quit before I was born or whilst I was still quite young, but my mam & grandad both completely quit smoking (congratulations to them, very proud of them), whilst my gran moved on to being addicted to vapes. Vapes haven't been around long enough for us to entirely know the long-term effects of vaping, but I can't imagine it's good; especially because I've heard of people apparently printing false labels for illegal vapes so they appear legal - it's like they remove an ingredient from the list because it's illegal in the UK or something like that? I'm not entirely sure how true this is, though. If you couldn't tell already, Stoptober means a lot to me, as it should to many people. Addiction isn't something many people can handle alone, and so we, as a society, need to provide as much help as we can to ensure they can fully recover.

Cancer Research UK says that "Smoking is the biggest preventable cause of cancer," so why do people still do it? Looking online and by what this article says in "Why do people start smoking?", it seems to be mainly to do with society that they start smoking; whether it's because someone uses it as a tool to create friends, whilst others may use it as a way to rebel against their use. As most people know, cigarettes contain nicotine, which is highly addictive. It's a stimulant which can enter the bloodstream and quickly reach your brain to release dopamine, which gives it the "feel-good" feeling. Like any addiction, it's hard to quit, especially due to the withdrawal symptoms being things such as feeling down, being irritable, having problems sleeping, feeling restless, struggling to think clearly, and being hungrier or even gaining weight. A lot of these things can contribute negatively to mental health, so it's easy to imagine people would rather continue smoking to continue having the dopamine rush, rather than negatively affect their mental health to solve any physical, unseen problems they may develop from the cigarettes.

Fortunately, addiction isn't something I've personally had to deal with, and I can't imagine how difficult it is to recover from addiction - even from one as common as nicotine addiction. Luckily enough for UK residents like myself, the NHS runs a yearly public health campaign called Stoptober. During this, they provide a free personal quit plan (available here), with the goal being to reach 28 days smoke-free, as from then, you're "5 times more likely to quit for good". The NHS doesn't just do this during October, though, people are always able to book appointments with their GPs to create a plan to quit smoking for good. For example, there are certain prescriptions and/or therapies that can help eliminate or reduce cravings by blocking receptors in your brain. Outside of the NHS, there are plenty of other charities out there such as "Stop Smoking London" and "Action on Smoking and Health". I may be biased in saying that someone would be best off going to straight to their GP, charities such as these are such a valuable way to spread awareness and perhaps provide support to people too embarrassed or shy to go to their local GP. But addiction is something serious that should never be handled alone; as a society, people tend to judge and ostracise addicts, but what led them to this point? Normally mental health or poor education around certain drugs, and they deserve to receive the support as any ill person should. Everyone deserves a chance to live a fulfilling life without suffering from addiction or struggling through withdrawals alone.

Stoptober is just such a great way to show how public health campaigns can really help effect people's health in a positive way, hopefully this year, more people can get the support they need to recover from their smoking addiction or get the help they need coping with withdrawals.

Baking soda vs baking powder: what's the difference?

Last week, I made a blog post on how self-raising flour actually works, and through researching that, I found out that baking powder actually contains baking soda. However, not only did I already have this blog idea planned out, but I also wanted to know what the actual difference was. If baking powder is just baking soda with extra steps, why are they bought differently? Why are they both required as separate ingredients when making chocolate chip cookies? Which is my aim for this blog post. I want to know how they're so different that they warrant distinctive names, but also why I feel like it's not common knowledge that one contains the other.

As mentioned in my previous post (assuming you've read it), both baking soda and baking powder are leavening agents, which means they're used in baking to cause dough or batter to rise by releasing gas (some other examples of leavening agents are yeast, air, and steam, depending on the baking method). Though baking powder technically contains baking soda, they are both chemically different, so one shouldn't be directly substituted for the other. 

Baking soda tends to contain pure sodium bicarbonate (it's also referred to as bicarbonate of soda) and is basic (or alkaline), meaning it requires acid to activate it; this means that baking soda is ideal to use when a recipe contains something acidic such as citrus juice, cream of tartar, or buttermilk. Baking powder also contains this, but also has one or more types of solid acid and a stabiliser/filler like cornstarch (normally used to prevent an acid-base reaction occurring during storage). Therefore, it doesn't have to be activated using acid and can just be added. Recipes may contain both if they contain an acid; baking soda can be used to offset the acid to ensure it can be leavened properly.

I mentioned before that baking powder and baking soda can't be directly substituted, but you can substitute one for the other if you have the correct measurements (and other ingredients). When I was looking into this, I found a conversion guide that I've attached, which you can find using this link.

Everything I've purchased for the start of university

Unfortunately, I'm a very typical teenage girl who loves to go shopping. So it might not be a surprise to people to read that I have already overspent my allotted budget for shopping (and also food, but that's another problem entirely). The majority of this was spent the few times I went to Hollister - for example, before Results Day, I was stressed, and so I treated myself to a Hollister parcel; then on Results Day, my friends and I went to Newcastle for the day, so I spent more money on Hollister; then when I got home that day, I was given money from family members, so I spent more money on Hollister. All in all, I ended up with three new jumpers, a new top, and two new skirts. All for university, of course! My idea was that not only are they cute enough to wear going out, but they could also double as something to wear on placement!

My shopping spree only continued from there.

When I got my second meningitis jab, I went to browse in some charity shops and bought the cutest polo shirt and two skirts. All together it was about £10 (it was meant to be £11, but the worker put one of the prices in wrong, though I didn't notice until I got home. I promise I'm not a scammer). My only problem with the polo is that it sort of fits weirdly, so I've asked to get a sewing machine for Christmas, and hopefully I'll be able to fix it. But then I think that this could also lead me to spend much more money in charity shops! Obviously, if I do get any good at it, then it will be a fun new hobby for me. But at the same time, it means that I'll likely end up spending more money buying clothes in charity shops so that I can alter them. My wardrobe is already beginning to be pushed for space! I suppose I could try and buy more storage, or start storing things under my bed, but I don't know... I should probably specify that my bed is one where you can lift up a part under the mattress to access the space under it; it currently has a lot of junk in it, like my old school books that I can't bring myself to part with. I'm not sure if it's something my parents want to keep. I'll have to ask them. But I really want to buy more like storage baskets for under my bed. I bought some for all of my yarn, but they filled up veryyy quickly. Under my bed is also an awkward shape, so things can't fit too well, and a lot of it is taken up by my Vinted items (which I'm yet to post on my profile) and different packaging. Sorry that was such a tangent; I'm hoping to spend less money now that I have a lot of basics for my wardrobe, and at least charity shops are cheap. Hopefully I can get more into crochet again - I still need to finish a piano key scarf I started and sew together the leg warmer 'panels' I made. I think I'm going to try to make matching hand warmers too... I just want to make a tonne of accessories! Last January, I bought a bunch of white yarn in bulk; it was Christmas-branded, and so it was on sale for like half price. So I bought pretty much all of it (not every single one, so I could save my bank account and also because I didn't want to be selfish. From this white yarn, I could make so many cheap accessories! I think when I get more money, I'd like to buy higher-quality yarn, as the yarn I'm using now is just acrylic. I'm considering making some crochet clothes & accessories, then selling them on Depop for cheap. It would be good practice, get rid of unwanted yarn, and be a good way to earn a bit of extra money!

I didn't just spend all of my money on new clothes (though I spent most of my money on new clothes); I did buy some necessities for university, though I didn't really need money. Some of the other things I bought were a new calculator. The GPhC requires a very simple calculator; you can't use scientific ones because you're able to save things (which isn't allowed), so I thought I would get the simple one now to get used to it in numeracy exams, even though it looks so silly. The model I bought is the Aurora HC133, and I hope it's the right one, even though it was only like £5 on Vinted. In hindsight, I should have waited for them to tell me which calculator to buy before buying one. Oh well, too late now; I was too much of an eager beaver! I am still required to keep my scientific calculator for labs, so thankfully I didn't sell it. Then the only other thing I bought that I can think of is my backpack, which I got during the A-Level season. I feel silly when I use it because when I bought it on Vinted, I hadn't realised it was made to open like a suitcase, and it even has suitcase straps. It is also constantly really fat, but I think that's more to do with what I'm adding to it rather than the actual bag itself. It makes me look like a Year 7.

In all honesty, when I thought of this blog post idea, I thought I would have a lot more to say. I have a lot of images to add (at the time of writing this, I'm on day two of Freshers Week and am waiting for my blood test appointment, so I'll probably take the photos when I get home. I'd planned to make them fun little GIFs, but I'm now thinking maybe not because I want to get ahead on my blog posts rather than behind (as I was until today). I obviously would rather focus on university than on my blog, no matter how much I love it. 

How does self-raising flour actually work?

A year ago, I got really into exercise and wanted to eat more protein, so I tried making a protein microwave mug cake. I could have misread the recipe, but I added both baking powder and self-raising flour, not realising that they both kind of did the same thing. So, as you can imagine, it was a disaster! The mug cake spilt all over the microwave and, whilst it was still yummy, it was partially raw. Speaking to anyone who had any experience doing anything had me realising that it was obvious they were conflicting ingredients. I don't think a recipe would have said that, so either I misread something, or I was an idiot (and likely still am). That past incident is sort of what inspired me to do this post in my 'The Baking of Biochemistry' series - the first one was just to look over tasting as a thing in general.

Every self-raising flour is made from plain flour with baking powder mixed in, and sometimes they have salt added for flavour reasons - I'm assuming because sometimes too much baking powder can make things bitter. Baking powder is a leavening agent (it's used in baking so things rise, soften, and become porous) and contains three key types of ingredients: an alkali, a weak acid, and a filler. The alkali used is normally a bicarbonate of soda (also known as baking soda); the weak acid tends to be dry acid (sodium bisulfate); and the filler can be something like cornflour or rice flour, and is added to prevent a premature reaction between the acid and alkali. The real reaction occurs when the baking powder is added to a liquid - so adding your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients - as this is when they can finally undergo an acid-base reaction (alkalis are also called bases). For anyone who has done GCSE chemistry, you may know (or might remember) that when an alkali and an acid react, one of the things they produce is carbon dioxide; this gas is what causes the mixture to expand and become porous. So it's recommended to put your mixture into the oven as soon as you've mixed your dry and wet ingredients. This will obviously also happen when self-raising flour is added to things, but if you've ever walked through a bakery aisle (not the one with the baked goods, the one full of ingredients), you'll know that baking powder (and baking soda) can be bought in their own separate containers. This kind of feels like an ingredient inception, and now I'm wondering if self-raising flour actually contains baking powder, which also contains baking soda. Kind of confusing. Especially since I use plain flour, baking soda AND baking powder when making chocolate chip cookies. Weird!

There were a lot fewer websites on this sort of thing than I expected, but I suppose it's something that's really random and irrelevant. But I think I managed to understand and somewhat relay to you how self-raising flour actually works, and it was much simpler than expected! Unless there was a much more in-depth study that was somewhere on the internet that I couldn't find, and these websites just lied to me.

Caring for your stick insects

I got my first set of stick insects when I was in Year 12 - I was in a rough patch mentally, in all honesty (not to trauma dump), and my mam's friend was offering up Indian stick insect eggs to people, and I thought having something to commit to would help me find a reason to get out of bed and do something. So I collected the eggs. Waited a few months. And nothing. No worries, I was able to dispose of the eggs and was gifted 5 Indian stick insect nymphs (babies), so thank goodness! I had those for about a year before they all naturally passed away, and tried to hatch their eggs. Nothing. So I disposed of those, with plans to get more stick insects after finishing my A-Levels, until I found a stick insect nymph on my ceiling. I must have dropped an egg in my room at some point, and it eventually hatched (they can take months). So my mam's friend said I must have been doing too much with the other eggs! I had plans to get more, but my plans happened earlier than expected. Currently, I have 5 stick insects (I was gifted 4 from one of my mam's friends - a different one from the first lady), and they are my world. They're such a unique pet that I find them a great conversation starter (hopefully it's not just for me and other people actually find it interesting, not just pretending to). When I was first doing my research, though, I struggled to find one modern source containing everything, so I thought it would be fun to write one myself!

These tips will likely only apply to Indian stick insects; they are some of the easiest stick insects to care for, and I don't know if they apply to other species.

With any small pet, I think the average Joe would assume that small animal = small enclosure, but that's not necessarily true (especially with hamsters). For stick insects, the height of the enclosure should be at least thrice their length and the width at least twice their length - they're meant to live in trees, so the tall enclosure makes sense. They moult, kind of like tarantulas, as their outer layer can't grow with them, so they shed it off and need to hang from a high place in order to do it properly. It's important to keep a large enclosure (mine is 30*30*60 for 5), as otherwise the stick insects may knock the others' legs off - they are social creatures, and so should be kept with others. It's recommended to have a mesh top as well, as it means that they can hang from it - they can climb the sides of my 'glass' enclosure, but it must be easier to cling to mesh.

The things they eat are very easy to come by; both sets of mine ate privet, but only the one I have now ate the ivy I gave to them - I haven't tried my new set with oak, but my older set had, but I don't think they ate as much of that as they did the privet, though that could have been because the oak leaves were lower down than the privet ones (due to the oak being shorter). But there are other types of things you can give them: bramble (from blackberry, and it's recommended to use older leaves rather than newer shoots), hawthorn, rose, hazel, and oak. You should ensure the food is kept fresh. I change mine about once a week, occasionally going for longer or shorter depending on how the leaves look. I keep mine inside pots meant for painting in schools; you shouldn't leave an open cup because the stick insects (especially nymphs) are at risk of drowning in it. The way they drink is by misting the leaves; the way I do it is to lightly mist throughout the day to keep it damp, and then spray them a lot at night because (at least I think) Indian stick insects are nocturnal. 

Some basic information about Indian stick insects is that after 6-ish moults (i.e. about half of their lifetime), they should begin to lay eggs - you will likely not have a male; I would be incredibly surprised if you did because of how rare they are (in culture at least). Indian stick insects reproduce strictly asexually (parthenogenesis) but are assumed to be sexual in the wild, and so all of these eggs are viable. To ensure they don't hatch hundreds of babies, you must either freeze them for a week (I would do two to be safe) or just crush them. I know people think this is cruel, but in the UK (not sure for other places), they are a non-native species, and so it is illegal to knowingly let them go free (as you likely will not have the capacity for hundreds of nymphs unless you neglect them or have a huge enclosure). So if you don't want to have to dispose of eggs, then I fear stick insects aren't the pet for you. 

And currently this is all I can think of! I will add more when/if I think of it <3

Yum! How am I able to taste this?

When I was learning about enantiomers in Year 13 (or whenever it was; sixth form is kind of a blur to me now, my memory is horrid), I remember learning about limonene. One enantiomer of limonene smells like fresh oranges (D-Limonene), and the other smells like pine (L-Limonene); for those of you who didn't do A-Level chemistry, when you look at your hands, they're identical (assuming you aren't an amputee or one hand has more fingers than the other), but no matter how you rotate them, you can never get them to fully match up. That's because they're mirror images, and enantiomers are exactly that. It requires one carbon atom to have 4 different groups bonded to it (e.g. a methyl group, a single hydrogen, an ethyl group, and an alcohol group), so it can have two versions of the exact same molecule, like our hands. Our noses are chiral, and so they can tell the difference between each molecule, which is why pine and fresh oranges smell different despite being, in the physical and chemical sense, the same molecule. I wanted to explain this because, after learning about this, I assumed taste buds worked in an identical or very similar way, and I was partially right.

Everyone knows that our mouths contain taste buds (the name "bud" coming from the fact that they are shaped like flower buds), but what people might not know is that they are found on three different types of papillae (small nipple-shaped bumps on the surface of the tongue):

• Fungiform: this is the most common type of papilla, with people having around 200-400 of them, and they are mostly found around the tip of the tongue and the edges of the tongue. Each papilla contains around 3-5 taste buds, but these papillae are also highly sensitive to things such as temperature and texture (which also influence the taste of things).
• Circumvallate: whilst there are only 7-8 types of these papillae, they each contain thousands of taste buds, and are found in a V-shape at the back of the mouth. They each have 'trenches' around them with glands that push the taste-producing substances towards the sensory cells.
• Foliate: we all have around 20 of this kind of papillae, and they're visible to the naked eye (they sort of look like folds within the tongue?), with each one containing hundreds of taste buds.
• There's also technically a fourth type of papillae called filiform, but they contain no taste buds and are only able to detect temperature and texture.

Humans have 2000-4000 taste buds, with them renewing about every two weeks, and each taste bud contains 10- 50 sensory cells. The number of papillae someone has can determine how you taste things. For example, some people are supertasters, for whom flavours can be very overwhelming, so they prefer milder foods, and other people can be subtasters, so they aren't as sensitive to strong flavours, and so may prefer more pronounced flavours and spicier foods. When I talk about 'flavours', there are five main types that taste buds can detect:

• Sweet: this flavour comes from sugars and sugar derivatives (e.g. fructose, lactose, glucose, and sucrose) and is detected by G-protein-coupled receptors T1R2 and T1R3.
• Sour: this flavour is not detected by proteins, but from the fact its acidic. The sour flavour comes from acidic solutions, which, when they come into contact with water, begin to release their H+ (hydrogen) ions.
• Salty: this is also not detected by proteins, but also due to electrical signals to the brain. The most obvious salty flavour is table salt, which contains both Na+ (sodium ions) and Cl- (chloride ions), so K+ (potassium ions) and Mg2+ (magnesium ions) also produce a salty taste.
• Bitter: within sensory cells, there are around 35 proteins (G-protein-coupled receptors T2Rs) which can react to bitter tastes. Being able to taste bitterness was an evolutionary advantage, as a lot of poisonous plants were bitter; the back of our tongue is the most sensitive to bitterness, likely to help us spit out any foods which could be poisonous.
• Umami: when I first saw this word, I was like, "What the heck is that?" But it just means savoury. Apparently it's so it specifies the specific chemical, whereas savoury in a culinary sense just means any non-sweet food. This flavour comes from glutamate and is detected by G-protein-coupled receptors T1R1 and T1R3.
• Spiciness is not a flavour; it's the pain response to capsaicin. 

You might think that every single taste bud can taste every single flavour, but you'd be wrong! Don't worry too much; I thought the same thing until I was doing research for this blog post. Essentially, half of our taste buds can detect just one flavour, so their focus is on the concentration of the flavour (like very salty or not salty, I assume), whereas the other half can detect several and apparently have an order of flavour priorities. You might also believe that certain areas of the tongue can only detect certain types of flavours. You'd be partially correct. Do worry because I also knew this was false. As I mentioned before, the back of the tongue can detect bitterness much more strongly, but this doesn't mean it's the only part of the tongue that can detect bitterness; in general, the sides of the tongue taste much better than anything else. I'll attach a photo to show what studies show to be the strongest areas for different flavours.

source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279408/

So there isn't really as much difference as some people make out there to be. I hope that sentence makes sense because I'm not clever enough to think of any other way to word it.

Anyways, what I thought was really weird is that it seems like the tongue can't actually taste. They can sense the general flavours of sweet, umami, etc, but they can't get distinct flavours. This is because it's the smell of these foods that determines the flavour. Have you ever noticed that when you're sick and have a stuffy nose, you can't taste as well, or you have no sense of taste at all? That's because when you chew (or masticate) your food, the smell of the food goes up the nasopharynx to the olfactory receptors, which are responsible for your sense of taste and are chiral (so they can detect the differences in enantiomers). So, the sense of taste is kind of due to enantiomers, but it has nothing to do with your tongue; it's your nose! So apparently, if you plug your nose and eat something, you should be able to detect the general type of flavour, but not the specific flavour until you unplug your nose. Which I'm going to go and try now.

The prestigious Hollister Style Club

 Okay, so whoopsie, I'm behind on my posts and forgot to finish my Sunday post! I was ahead on my blog posts, and now I'm behind again. Not that anyone reads these, but I like to pretend. It's called LARPing. Anywho, I wanted to make a cutesy little post on (as you can tell by the title) the Hollister Style Club. If you're uneducated - as I was about a month ago - the Hollister Style Club is a scheme(?) you can apply for if you're in the USA or UK (separate application links for both) for content creators with over 1,500 followers who have a love for fashion and Hollister. 

Some of the benefits are that Hollister can send you gifted items for PR (I'm assuming this is for massive creators), first access to their new pieces & collections, and discounts when shopping. These are the ones that massively appealed to me, but I also found out that some other benefits are that you can inspire new campaigns & products, be featured on their channels, and get access to IRL events. I think these events are like networking events with other content creators? Which I suppose could be good just for making friends, but also for getting tips on how to work the algorithm on different platforms, maybe? I have no idea, but it's so intriguing to me!

When I was looking more into the Hollister Style Club, if you get accepted, you set up a storefront where you can add 15 of either your favourite items or items from your wishlist. I'm not entirely sure how it works. I'm thinking maybe like an Amazon storefront, but you have to tag the item in a video you've made before you can add it to the storefront. I think, anyway, I wasn't entirely sure, so I could be completely misunderstanding what they meant. I believe the way you get rewards for things such as discounts is by completing challenges, and with each challenge you complete, you can get to different levels, and there are up to 7 levels. I'm not sure how easy it is to gain points through the challenges, but once you get to level 4, you can start earning commission from people buying items through your link. I'm not sure what the challenges may entail, but at some point in the process, the Hollister team has to approve or reject your video, as they have to follow guidelines on mentions and the number of hashtags or something? It's not like it's mega complicated, but more complicated than I thought when I first saw it. They mentioned in the FAQ (where I'm getting this info from) that some challenges are repeatable, so there's probably some where I could rinse and repeat the exact same format of video multiple times. I used to do this when I was a Simplestudy Ambassador; if there was a trend on Studytok, I would make one version that was like 'personal' and another that was for Simplestudy. I wish I had locked in more on that so that I could have gotten a certificate for the number of videos I made, but I wasn't locked in like that - they also only introduced it near when I was done with my time there, because why would I make videos about an A-Level revision video after finishing my A-Levels?

I think the only downside to the programme is that they can deactivate your account if you haven't been active for three months (which makes sense), if you purchase something using a Style Club code, you can't return said item (Vinted reselling?), and the fact that they can reject some of your videos! Like, guys, this is free promo because I'm parasocial with a company? But I don't really care too much, in all honesty. I think the benefits outweigh the cons, as I can't see myself hating Hollister anytime soon, and I can add it to my LinkedIn. I'm still trying to become a LinkedIn warrior. But actually, my TikTok and fashion stuff kind of has nothing to do with wanting to be a pharmacist, but I suppose it shows I have interests and commitments outside of education, so I'm more of a well-rounded person?

photo from here

Book Review: 'The Summer I Saved You' by Elizabeth O'Roark

 My Rating: 4/5

Genre: Contemporary romance

Books remaining in my physical TBR: 30

(Spoilers ahead)

This book contains adult themes & sensitive topics, and this review will cover those, so this is a trigger warning, as this review will contain themes of drug abuse/addiction, divorce, the death of a baby (off-page), and emotionally & financially abusive relationships.

I actually enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would. Was it realistic? Maybe, my life isn't as unlucky/tragic as either of these characters', but I only care that the book was 'action'-packed and entertaining, even if the pace of things seems somewhat unrealistic.

Our main characters are Lucie and Caleb.

• Lucie is the 'illegitimate' child of Robert Underwood, who is famous and has some sort of big company; I didn't care too much to remember what kind of company, in all honesty. He was a very minor, minor character. Back to Lucie, she has twins, Sophie and Henry, and is currently going through a divorce with Jeremy, who is extremely rich and seemed (to me) to be emotionally abusive (at least during the divorce process). Luckily, Lucie's aunt left Lucie her house, meaning she and her kids have somewhere to stay, and this happens to be the house her mother would 'abandon' her at over the summer. It would also be where she developed a huge crush on this boy, Caleb, and would watch him and his friends play in the lake next to both of their houses.
• You must be really clever if you can guess who the male main character is... Caleb! He's 4 years older than Lucie and has grown up to inherit his father's company, TSG. I also don't know what this company does; he just has one and is the CEO of a generic company. Maybe TSG stands for Totally Super Generic? Anyways, he's technically married, but his wife has been away for a year... ooo mysterious.

My lord, this book annoyed me a lot, though. Like, Lucie had no backbone whatsoever, and I know it's hard to confront people, but like? Okay, for example, there's a part of the book where Jeremy, Lucie's ex-husband (I should mention he cheated on her with their teenage babysitter, and he's 6 years older than Lucie), sends her a bouquet of flowers and a note asking her to dinner. Lucie, obviously, calls and says no, so he gets annoyed and basically says she'll regret it. Can you guess what he did? He steals her car. I genuinely thought there was no way he managed to do that. Because, first of all, is the USA not meant to be extremely walker-unfriendly? So how unemployed must he be to have the time, during the night, to, presumably, walk to Lucie's house and steal her car with his spare key? SO odd. Fortunately, I've never met many evil people, so for all I know, this could be a common thing for evil ex-partners to do.

I also thought that Caleb was a very weird character. His whole thing at the start is that he is married (to a woman called Kate), but he hasn't seen her in a year. Because she's in rehab for drug addiction. This book has it all. She went to rehab for a few months, checked herself out of rehab, then returned to it - he only knows because of the bills he's receiving. Caleb must also be an invertebrate! In a whole year of having no contact with your wife, you don't contact her? But also, the reason she went to rehab is that she cleared one of the company accounts, and going to rehab was the compromise for the company not pressing charges. I can kind of sympathise with Kate, though; drug addiction is likely such a difficult thing, and it's probably something she fell into when her baby died shortly after giving birth. Oh, but it's okay for Caleb; he wasn't there for the birth of his child because he was too busy working. You know who was there, though? His best friend, Beck, who has a massive crush on Kate. What is it with this friend group and wanting a piece of your friend's long-term partner? Such an odd theme to have in multiple books. Another thing, though, is that Caleb did not even stay to comfort her whilst she mourned her child. He worked more. No wonder she became a drug addict! I really don't understand why he didn't divorce her earlier when he didn't seem to like her that much.

They were both just so incredibly hard to find relatable. Obviously (maybe?), I'm only 18 and so don't have all of the life experiences that these characters will have, but normally the characters in books I read will be somewhat relatable; like even Katniss Everdeen was relatable through her internal monologue! In the scene when she's being hunted by the Career pack, she's clearly being a snarky teenage girl when she says Glimmer can barely use the bow, because she's obviously annoyed that she (Katniss) doesn't have the bow, which would have easily allowed her to do better in the games. Sorry, that was a bit of a tangent, but I hope it makes sense. I feel as though Lucie could maybe be relatable to divorced mothers, but even then, her children aren't really mentioned, and I can imagine that two 6 year-olds would take up a lot of your time, especially as a single mother! She's also constantly being hit on by characters in the book, and maybe this could be realistic, but not everyone is drop-dead gorgeous! So maybe someone like Zendaya or something would be able to relate? Then Caleb is already a man, which I find hard to relate to, and he's the CEO of the company? Maybe Jeff Bezos could relate, but even then, he (hopefully) isn't seeking relationships with his employees. But I suppose books don't have to be relatable, just entertaining, which I thought this one was.

I think my favourite character was Lucie's friend, Molly. I wish we could have some sort of book or short story on her - like an end-credit scene kind of thing? I'm thinking A Minecraft Movie with Jennifer Coolidge's character and the villager in her office, and her ex-husband comes crashing in. I really hope that the people reading this have seen the Minecraft movie end-credits scene.

Anyways, yes, I did rate this book 4 stars, even after all of my complaints, but it's because I kind of enjoyed it the way my aunty enjoys watching American Housewives or whatever it's called, and in the way chavvy girls love Love Island. It was just such an engaging read because of everything that happened. I still wouldn't reread it like.

My tips for the ideal apple crumble

I would like to start this blog post off by saying that I actually really do not like apple crumble, which is weird considering I like the flavour of the actual crumble and apples, but I don't like them together. I'm not even sure what it is about them that I don't like; I just know it isn't for me. However, I still make it because people in my family really enjoy it, and I've been told by numerous people that it was the best crumble they've ever had; I know this is true, as, unfortunately, my family is extremely honest about my baking. So I think I have sufficient credentials to make some recommendations.

The recipe that I use has been adapted from the recipe available on the BBC website, and I am by no means a professional baker; I purely enjoy doing this as a hobby, and so it's something I want to talk about, as what else would a blog be for!

    What to buy

When I buy my ingredients, I'm actually not too picky about where I get them from and usually go to multiple shops. I first started baking when I was still at sixth form, so tended to buy ingredients before going home, which usually meant I was buying things from Tesco, but I don't think there's much of a flavour difference between brands. I always buy whatever is cheapest.

For a basic apple crumble, all you need are apples, brown sugar, unsalted butter (though I find no flavour difference in using salted butter), plain flour, and salt. But obviously some of these are better when you buy certain kinds; for example, the type of brown sugar you buy. I tended to just buy the light brown sugar just because it was normally the one that was on the left, and hence the first one I saw, but when you do some research, the type of sugar you pick is actually meant to make a big difference.

The recommended brown sugar for crumbles is demerara sugar; it's also ideal for mixing into hot drinks! Essentially, demerara sugar is (allegedly) the most unprocessed sugar you can buy, meaning that it still contains a high molasses content, which gives it that darker colour. A greater amount of molasses gives it a somewhat toffee or caramel flavour (especially compared to caster sugar, which has all of its molasses content removed), but it also has more trace minerals and a higher moisture level. The minimal processing also means that demerara sugar has larger crystals than other sugars, which works well for aesthetics when sprinkled on top of things such as cakes, but also gives the crumble a crunchier texture. So I think this type of sugar is one that I'll be sticking to in future. For a crunchier texture, I also normally add a pot of Quaker Original oats, which also has the benefit of added fibre, and I've heard adding Honey Nut Crunchy Nut cornflakes is also meant to be a nice addition! Obviously if you don't have a nut allergy.

And the most important part of an apple crumble: the crumble filling. When I was looking into what recipe to use before making my first apple crumble, I saw a single Reddit comment saying the best apple crumble they ever had had nine different types of apples, and suggested that more apple types meant a more delicious crumble. Hence, when I make crumble, I tend to use three or four types. I think the staples that I always look for are Granny Smith and Pink Lady apples. Both Granny Smiths and Pink Ladies keep their form even after being cooked, but whilst the Granny Smiths go tart and crisp, the Pink Ladies are naturally acidic, which means they supposedly help balance the crumble's sweetness and tartness. Any other apples I add are just the side show. I tend to go for Braeburn, Bramley or Gala apples (I always pick one as I can very rarely find them in anything other than packs of six, and I only need one), but you can pick whichever ones are your favourite, but never omit the Granny Smiths. I think Galas are a good staple too though as they go quite sweet when baked, and Bramleys can give a nice soft and fluffy texture to the filling if that's something you like. For some more added flavour, for 450g of apples I also add a 1/2 tsp of cinnamon.

    When actually baking

I think that crumble is one of the easiest things to bake, but it has a lot of tedious cutting. I always like to cut the butter that I'm going to use in the crumble into small little cubes, as I find it makes the whole rubbing part of the crumble-making much easier. I have also perfected my apple cutting; once I core it, I begin to cut the apple into very thin slices (like 1cm thin, not paper thin) before cutting it in half long ways, then into little strips the other way.

I also find that 45 minutes is a good time for the crumble to be in the oven for; I've never had one burn at all having it in for that long, but obviously that will depend on your oven and your crumble. Definitely begin checking on it after 40 minutes. I always use a glass dish as whilst you can obviously see on the top whether the crumble has browned or not, I also like to see whether or not the apple filling has begun to bubble yet, as that's when I know it's truly done. If your oven is also narrow like mine, or if you struggle picking up baked dishes, I would recommend placing the baking dish you're using onto an oven tray, as I find them much easier to pick up; otherwise, my hand would be caressing the walls of the oven.

I'm not sure if these tips are in any way helpful. But hopefully they were; I always get compliments on my apple crumble!

PHC: University vaccination schemes

When I applied to university, I had no idea that I would be required to receive certain vaccinations. It wasn't until after my last A-Level (which happened to be the last overall) that the head teacher of my sixth form sent an email to the whole of Year 13 outlining what to expect before university in September (should that be your chosen route), and this included the MenB vaccine. At least before this, I knew that being a pharmacy student required me to pass the fitness-to-practice, which included being up to date with my vaccinations. But I had just assumed that this was to make sure people had all of their childhood vaccinations - which I think I have, but I'll have to look into it. My university said it's very rare that people fail the fitness to practice, and it's usually resolved in the first week. I hope I pass; otherwise I won't be able to complete my degree. Anywho, this inspired me to make a blog post on the recommended vaccinations for university students, to hopefully prevent any confusion from passing on to the following year.

The UCAS website itself does have a list of recommended vaccinations, but let's be honest, who really uses it for anything other than applying to universities? Unless that was just me. I can imagine they have some helpful stuff on there, but I was lucky enough to have a dedicated careers and UCAS team at my sixth form, so I was able to ask them about anything I was confused about. Anyways, the four recommended vaccinations for university are the MenB vaccine, MenACWY vaccine, HPV vaccine, and MMR vaccine. I believe the MenB vaccine is a brand new scheme following meningitis outbreaks in some areas of the south of England, as university students are at high risk for developing meningitis. This is because of the residence/halls and being in close contact with new people, especially with international students possibly carrying unique strains of the meningococcal bacteria. Both the MenACWY and HPV vaccines are offered to secondary school students aged 12-13, though they can both be offered up until someone is 25 (the HPV vaccine is also available for men who have sex with men). MMR is offered if someone didn't receive their MMRV vaccine as a child. MMRV is for measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella, which is chickenpox. Since most adults built immunity against chickenpox as a child, it isn't typically offered to people older than 12, hence why the vaccine recommended is only MMR.

I think the recommendations make sense when you think about it or look into it a bit more. Most of the diseases these vaccines protect against can lead to meningitis (MMR, MenB, MenACWY) - it's in the name of the MenB and MenACWY vaccines, as they all just protect against different strains of the meningococcal bacteria (meningococcal B, A, C, W, and Y). Meningitis is a serious disease as it can lead to sepsis and septicaemia, as well as permanent disabilities such as limb loss, blindness, and hearing loss. Whilst they're effective, they don't protect against all types of meningitis. MMR protects against diseases which can all easily be spread amongst people, and can also lead to meningitis, hearing loss, and blindness. If you're pregnant, measles can also lead to premature birth, with the premature foetus also possibly having the same deformities that meningitis causes.

Whilst the HPV vaccine doesn't have anything to do with meningitis, it's just as important. It protects against 9 strains of the human papillomavirus, which can lead to problems such as cervical cancer, mouth cancer, head and neck cancer, anal cancer, and cancer of the genitals. This is spread through skin contact, though most commonly through sex. Up until 2019, it was only offered to Year 8 girls within schools, but now it is offered to Year 8 boys as well. I think this is a great change, though I only found out from researching it that boys could also have it. I don't remember any boys in my secondary getting the vaccine (and this was around 2021), as I believed it was 'promoted' to us as a way to prevent cervical cancer. Through my research, I believe that the HPV vaccine was initially pushed out due to HPV being one of the leading causes of cervical cancer, and, allegedly, this led companies to push people to believe it was only something women could have, as it was more cost-effective. Which is quite sad, and it shows how parts of healthcare can be heavily influenced by money and a few elites.

I believe that there should be more of a scheme explaining what's in vaccinations, as I remember there being a lot of fear-mongering during COVID about the fact that the vaccine includes strains of COVID in it. Which, for people who don't know how vaccines function, is how vaccines work. If I remember rightly from GCSE biology, most vaccinations contain either a weak or a dead version of the virus or bacteria, or whatever the vaccine is designed to protect against (or at least certain proteins), to train the immune system to recognise and fight it. Think of being in a gym: you can't move onto the heavier weights before you've perfected your form with no weights or a lighter weight, which is kind of what's happening here. The lymphocytes in your body are learning what the antigens on the weakened/dead disease look like, so that it can perfect the antibodies to be remembered for if the actual live disease enters the body. I hope that makes sense, and it could be wrong as I'm going based on memory, so don't take my word as law.

I hope in future, fewer people fear-monger vaccines and stop being anti-vax, and begin to take action to protect themselves, their families, and the people in their communities. Everyone deserves to receive the healthcare they need.

photo from here

When stick insects become lizards

 A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I accidentally tore off one of my stick insect's limbs.

Peggy II not long after the incident

Though this was a complete accident, I have felt incredibly guilty ever since, as I feel it could have been avoided had I been more careful. It was an enclosure cleaning day, so I was doing what I normally do and cleaning out the privet stalks from the cups of water - only I forgot to check if there was a stick insect on the back. Hence, I had hold of its leg more than a light touch, causing it to freak out and drop as if I were a predator. I didn't even notice at first, thinking it was a branch and throwing it to the floor (I cover my floor with puppy pads for easy cleanup). Until I looked again and thought, "Huh, that looks an awful lot like a leg." And it was. I felt so bad because it was so obviously my fault as the owner. But then I thought, "Oh, no worries! It should grow back."

I'm not sure how many people know this, but like lizards, stick insects can regenerate their limbs. So when Peggy II (the second, as in my last set of stick insects; I had one called Peggy, as I thought she lost a limb, but I was mistaken; Peggy II has actually lost a limb) hadn't grown her limb back after her next moult, I started to do a bit of research online as to why not.

Peggy II now

As it turns out, stick insects actually need 3 moults to have a fully regenerated limb, and since Peggy II was nearly at adulthood (as it turns out, 1 moult away), she would never regrow her limb. She has five others, and so she will be able to live fairly normally. I can still imagine that she has some drawbacks because it was her right front leg. Whilst researching, I also wondered, "Why do stick insects have limb regeneration as a characteristic?" So, looking into it, I discovered that the most common way for them to lose a limb (at least in captivity) is due to low humidity during moulting. Low humidity means that the old skin dries too quickly, meaning the new, longer limb is trapped within the dry old skin and is therefore less flexible. Stick insects are required to moult as, unlike a lot of animals, their skin doesn't grow with them as they mature, so they have to shed it. For the type of stick insect I have (Carausius morosus or Indian stick insect), they take 6 moults to mature.

Some other ways stick insects can lose their limbs are:

• Fungal infections, where you would have to entirely deep clean their enclosure and then quarantine some of them, if necessary.
• Overcrowding, which can cause them to start biting others or knock each other's legs off. The general rule for a stick insect enclosure is, at a minimum, it must be three times as tall as the stick insect’s length and at least twice as wide as their length. Otherwise, they have insufficient room to moult.
• This final reason is, I believe, why stick insects evolved to have this trait in the first place: predation. If a bird or some other sort of predator were to take hold of a leg or an antenna, the stick insect could drop the limb and run away.

image from this study

Whilst this may seem like an ideal thing for stick insects and other animals which can regenerate limbs, it comes with tradeoffs - which is another thing I learnt while researching this topic. For example, in some lizards, if they were to regenerate a lost tail, it can come with the side effect of negatively affecting their ability to produce offspring. I think this would make sense as, obviously, regenerating a limb costs the body more energy - think of when you are ill. You're generally more tired because your immune system is using lots of energy to fight the disease, and regenerating a limb is likely a lot more taxing on the body than fighting an illness. I even found a study which investigates whether or not a stick insect having to regenerate a limb early in its life will affect its overall wing growth. In this experiment, Sipyloidea sipylus (also known as the pink-winged stick insect or Madagascan stick insect) was used - this species has wings to assist them in slowing their fall from tall trees, whether to escape predators or to seek mates. The results found that those which had to regenerate a limb were not only smaller in length compared to those that didn't, but they also had a 15% decrease in wing area and during their simulated flight tests, they consistently fell much faster. If you're interested, click here to read the study.

Although the sample size was small for this study, I believe it shows the right idea, and it would make sense for it to be true. Regenerating a limb is going to require an insane amount of energy; imagine how much extra food they'd have to consume. Imagine if humans could regrow limbs! Stick insects and lizards are only small compared to humans, so imagine how much energy we'd require.

I hope this blog post was coherent enough and made sense; I really enjoyed researching this, and I thought the study was such an interesting read! Though I'll be honest that when I read about them removing limbs with forceps and then euthanising the stick insects when they were grown upset me quite a bit. I know it was a part of the study, and I don't know how else I expected them to remove the limbs, but it still upset me.