A while ago I came across this post on someone else's blog. The post was showing off the taxidermied giraffe head and neck that the blogger's hunter husband had shot, and they are now displaying in their house.
I want to add in at this point that I have never read this blog before, so my impressions are simply going on the content of this post and the comments people have left on it.
The blogger stated that she had been told that the giraffe had had a long life and was "on its last leg", and that its meat was donated to some tribespeople. Fair enough that the meat had been given to people who would make use of it once the animal had died, which is entirely what I think should be done as it shouldn't go to waste if someone else can make use of it. What I can't understand is how saying "oh it was old so it was probably going to die soon anyway" is justification for it being hunted and killed. How did the hunter know when it was going to die? And why did he think he had the right to decide when the poor creature should die, and that he should be the one who takes its life? It should have been allowed to live out its life to full term and die naturally. I'd be interested to find out what he does with the bits that he doesn't want from the rest of his kills.
However, what shocked me the most was not the content of the post itself, but the comments left on it. Some were along the lines of "wow, that's awesome, I want one" but there were a lot that said something like "that's cruel, but it's soooo cute!!!" There were also a lot of comments saying "my husband is a hunter too and
I've told him we're never having deer heads on display in our house,
but now I really want a giraffe head!".
Erm... is it just me that thinks when you find something cruel that kind of rules out any chance of it also being cute? If you think it's cruel, why would you want it on display in your home? And what's the difference between the head of a deer and the head of a giraffe?! They're both animals, and they're both in the same order (Artiodactyla), so they're not completely separate from each other. If anything, isn't hunting a giraffe worse? Their population numbers are much lower than population numbers of deer, they're longer-lived and they aren't as widespread.
Regardless, why should a human be allowed to take the life of an animal purely for enjoyment? Fair enough if people are hunting for food that they need to survive, or to control population numbers for conservation, or to protect themselves from animals that are endangering their lives, but simply going out and shooting animals for fun and for a trophy to take home is something I can never agree with. Surely the animal was much more beautiful alive and out in its natural habitat than it is dead, stuffed and eternally static. Or is it because it's unusual and you can say that hardly anyone else has one that makes it an attractive item to have?
I know there are private reserves where animals are bred purely to be hunted, but I still don't think that makes it right. Yes, it's better than illegal poaching and/or killing an animal that's "in the wild", but it's still taking the life of an animal for the sake of it and simply for the hunter's own pleasure. And there's a whole debate about whether having a legal element to otherwise illegal activities (e.g. hunting on reserves where the animals are bred for hunting, allowing trade in legally harvested products brings down the amount of illegal hunting that occurs, or whether it actually increases it... (see here (elephants and rhinos), here (tigers), here (rhinos) and here (a variety of species, and a brief explanation of CITES) for examples, but there's hundreds more brought up through a quick Google search).
I don't know, maybe I'm just overreacting. And maybe it's because I'm doing a degree in Zoology that I have a lot more respect for and understanding of animals, and can see the reasons why killing one animal often has further repercussions that aren't obvious to people that don't have a knowledge of animal science. Or maybe I'm not in the minority and there are a lot of other people that feel the same was I do...?
I'd be very interested in hearing other people's thoughts on the issue, so please leave a comment!
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Friday, 13 April 2012
South Africa 2012: Days 3 and 4
Day 3 - Thursday 5th January 2012
I got up nice and early this morning to go shark watching. We left at 7.10am to go to a town near Gansbaai, and it took about an hour to get there. When we arrived we sat around for a while before hacing a safety briefing about the boat trip. We were told we could dive in the shark cage which would have been amazing, but then one of the lecturers said we couldn’t as the uni insurance won’t allow it. Understandable but still disappointing.
We got on board the boat, and I sat downstairs at the front. As we were pulling away from the shore I saw my first seal! It dived back into the water just as the boa went past. The waves were huge just as we left the shore and it felt like the boat was literally leaping out of the water!
It took about 10 minutes to get out to the location where the boat crew dropped the baited shark cage. We then sailed for another 10 minutes or so across to Dyer Island where there was a massive seal colony. They were literally covering the rocks and there were loads in the water too. There must’ve been literally hundreds of them! They didn’t seem at all phased by the boat as they stayed where they were as we floated past. They were making funny noises and they smell weird – more like a farm than a seal colony! We spotted a few more penguins and Cape Cormorants as we headed back to the shark cage.
When we got back to the cage, the boat crew threw in a rubber float in the shape of a seal which they used as a lure, and a float with tuna heads on it which was used as bait. The lure and bait were both attached to ropes, and they crew kept pulling the ropes in and throwing them back out to draw the sharks in.
After about 10 minutes, the first sharks appeared. At first they were just swimming around the boat so we just saw the tops of their fins, but after a while the boat crew started pulling the bait and lure out of the water as the shark went to bite them to encourage them to jump out of the water. The sharks were fairly small – well, they were about 3m long so pretty big, but not as big as I’d expected. It was really cool seeing their faces too as they jumped out of the water. At one point a shark grabbed onto the lure and didn’t want to let go. It started shaking its head, as if it were killing some prey. At one point there were 2 sharks swimming around the boat. They were coming really close to where we were sitting which was amazing.
I did think all of this was a bit cruel though – we were winding the sharks up and drawing them in to where they wouldn’t normally be. One of the sharks was also missing the top of its dorsal fin because it had been bitten off by another shark when they were baiting them in.
We had to end the trip after about 3 hours as a lot of people were getting really violently seasick. Luckily (based on some previous very nasty experiences!) I took a seasickness tablet so I was fine.
We got back to land and headed back to the campsite. I decided to go on an optional walk to the fynbos at Fernkloof nature reserve. It was baking hot because we got there at about 2.30pm and we’d hardly walked anywhere before I felt sweaty and gross – I don’t know how I’m going to survive a proper fynbos walk tomorrow!
We’ve got to be up and completely packed by 7.10am tomorrow (including taking the tent down) before the second group leave to go to the sharks so we’re ready to move to the next camp at De Hoop. I’m looking forward to going there because there’s apparently lots more wildlife that we can see from the camp.
It still hasn’t quite sunk in that I’m in Africa. Hopefully going to De Hoop and seeing all the cool animals will make it feel more real!
Day 4 - Friday 6th January 2012
Just about managed to get up and get the tent packed for our 7am deadline – one girl in my group took forever to pack her bag, then she got really antsy because we were running late packing up the tent and it was running very slightly into breakfast time, so she disappeared with 2 other girls from our group to go and have breakfast leaving me and the only other person in the group to finish packing the tent. It was really difficult and I got so frustrated. I’m not letting her do that when we move to the camp at Addo!
After breakfast we had a couple of hours free to relax in the sunshine before we had to leave at 9am to go to the fynbos at Fernkloof.
A lovely lady called Pat was our guide on the walk. She was probably about 70 years old yet she was so fit and active and bounded up the hills, showing us interesting plants along the way. We started the walk at the bottom of a mountain and walked up to a small mountain peak. It was very tiring and it was baking hot in the sunshine. When we got to the top of the mountain though it was so worth it – the views were amazing, out across the fynbos and out to sea. The walk back down the mountain was nice and a lot easier than the way up! We stopped in a little forested area that had once had a waterfall, but they fynbos is having a severe drought so it had pretty much dried up. There was a little pool at the bottom still though – it had loads of frogs in it and I even spotted a crab just before we left (it was literally a big puddle so the fact that there was a crab living in it amazed me!).
We finished our walk at 12 and set off to meet the group that went to the sharks. We were driving for about 6 hours – we stopped at a Super Spar for snacks for our week at De Hoop and for a toilet break. We kept stopping along the way to look at birds, eland, rhebok, yellow mongoose and other things. At one point, just after the Super Spar, we turned down a road and suddenly stopped – there was a massive bush fire just ahead, and even as we were parked up at the side of the road while the lecturers decided what to do the fire got ever closer, rapidly getting to within less than 100m of us! We turned around sharpish and headed in the opposite direction.
A couple of hours into the drive the roads turned from tarmac into dirt, rocky roads. It was really bumpy and dusty in the van but I got used to it after a while. I think I even managed to fall asleep a few times. We had an interesting incident on some train tracks on the way... the train tracks on the dirt roads don’t have barriers or proper level crossings so you just have to look and drive. We were just driving over a level crossing when a car overtook at high speed and beeped its horn, and I’m pretty sure my heart missed a beat because I thought we were about to get annihilated by a train. Definitely one of the scariest moments of my life!
We eventually arrived at De Hoop at about 6pm and set about finding a pitch for our tent and putting the tent up. Somehow we managed to pitch the tent badly, probably because we were in a confined space, so the bottom was too big for the top and the sides didn’t peg to the floor correctly. I’ve had to put all my food and my shampoo in one of the vans because there are baboons that roam the campsite and we don’t want to attract them in with offers of food or mango scented shampoo! The showers and toilets here are so much nicer than at the last place – the toilets have toilet roll and the showers have lights and a little changing area in each cubicle – the last place had none of these things!
We had a discussion this evening about speciation and how it occurs in fynbos plants when there’s very poor soil and little water. It was quite interesting and I actually managed to say stuff for a change (we’ve had lots of assessed discussions this year and I normally always end up in a group with loudmouths who never bloody shut up meaning I can’t get a word in edgeways, which has lead to a lot of very poor marks this year and taken any chance of getting a first out of my reach). Another bright and early start tomorrow morning to go and explore De Hoop and see what’s out there – fingers crossed I see some cool things!
I got up nice and early this morning to go shark watching. We left at 7.10am to go to a town near Gansbaai, and it took about an hour to get there. When we arrived we sat around for a while before hacing a safety briefing about the boat trip. We were told we could dive in the shark cage which would have been amazing, but then one of the lecturers said we couldn’t as the uni insurance won’t allow it. Understandable but still disappointing.
 |
| People seriously need to be told not to touch the sharks?! |
It took about 10 minutes to get out to the location where the boat crew dropped the baited shark cage. We then sailed for another 10 minutes or so across to Dyer Island where there was a massive seal colony. They were literally covering the rocks and there were loads in the water too. There must’ve been literally hundreds of them! They didn’t seem at all phased by the boat as they stayed where they were as we floated past. They were making funny noises and they smell weird – more like a farm than a seal colony! We spotted a few more penguins and Cape Cormorants as we headed back to the shark cage.
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| Hundreds of Cape Cormorants |
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| Hundreds of seals! |
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| Seals in the water :D |
After about 10 minutes, the first sharks appeared. At first they were just swimming around the boat so we just saw the tops of their fins, but after a while the boat crew started pulling the bait and lure out of the water as the shark went to bite them to encourage them to jump out of the water. The sharks were fairly small – well, they were about 3m long so pretty big, but not as big as I’d expected. It was really cool seeing their faces too as they jumped out of the water. At one point a shark grabbed onto the lure and didn’t want to let go. It started shaking its head, as if it were killing some prey. At one point there were 2 sharks swimming around the boat. They were coming really close to where we were sitting which was amazing.
I did think all of this was a bit cruel though – we were winding the sharks up and drawing them in to where they wouldn’t normally be. One of the sharks was also missing the top of its dorsal fin because it had been bitten off by another shark when they were baiting them in.
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| Poor shark with its fin tip missing :( |
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| The one picture I managed to get of a shark's face |
We got back to land and headed back to the campsite. I decided to go on an optional walk to the fynbos at Fernkloof nature reserve. It was baking hot because we got there at about 2.30pm and we’d hardly walked anywhere before I felt sweaty and gross – I don’t know how I’m going to survive a proper fynbos walk tomorrow!
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| Flamingoes! |
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| Helmeted guinea fowl |
It still hasn’t quite sunk in that I’m in Africa. Hopefully going to De Hoop and seeing all the cool animals will make it feel more real!
Day 4 - Friday 6th January 2012
Just about managed to get up and get the tent packed for our 7am deadline – one girl in my group took forever to pack her bag, then she got really antsy because we were running late packing up the tent and it was running very slightly into breakfast time, so she disappeared with 2 other girls from our group to go and have breakfast leaving me and the only other person in the group to finish packing the tent. It was really difficult and I got so frustrated. I’m not letting her do that when we move to the camp at Addo!
After breakfast we had a couple of hours free to relax in the sunshine before we had to leave at 9am to go to the fynbos at Fernkloof.
A lovely lady called Pat was our guide on the walk. She was probably about 70 years old yet she was so fit and active and bounded up the hills, showing us interesting plants along the way. We started the walk at the bottom of a mountain and walked up to a small mountain peak. It was very tiring and it was baking hot in the sunshine. When we got to the top of the mountain though it was so worth it – the views were amazing, out across the fynbos and out to sea. The walk back down the mountain was nice and a lot easier than the way up! We stopped in a little forested area that had once had a waterfall, but they fynbos is having a severe drought so it had pretty much dried up. There was a little pool at the bottom still though – it had loads of frogs in it and I even spotted a crab just before we left (it was literally a big puddle so the fact that there was a crab living in it amazed me!).
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| Paths snaking their way up the mountains |
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| These are called "seven year flowers" by the local people - the fynbos has so little water that all the plants that live there have had to adapt so they don't die. These flowers have so little water in them that the petals are bone dry and feel like plastic, so you can cut some and keep them for years without them losing their colour :) |
A couple of hours into the drive the roads turned from tarmac into dirt, rocky roads. It was really bumpy and dusty in the van but I got used to it after a while. I think I even managed to fall asleep a few times. We had an interesting incident on some train tracks on the way... the train tracks on the dirt roads don’t have barriers or proper level crossings so you just have to look and drive. We were just driving over a level crossing when a car overtook at high speed and beeped its horn, and I’m pretty sure my heart missed a beat because I thought we were about to get annihilated by a train. Definitely one of the scariest moments of my life!
We eventually arrived at De Hoop at about 6pm and set about finding a pitch for our tent and putting the tent up. Somehow we managed to pitch the tent badly, probably because we were in a confined space, so the bottom was too big for the top and the sides didn’t peg to the floor correctly. I’ve had to put all my food and my shampoo in one of the vans because there are baboons that roam the campsite and we don’t want to attract them in with offers of food or mango scented shampoo! The showers and toilets here are so much nicer than at the last place – the toilets have toilet roll and the showers have lights and a little changing area in each cubicle – the last place had none of these things!
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| Bontebok |
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| Baboooons! They'll become my best friends during this trip... |
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| A proper "Africa tree", like something in The Lion King. Definitely starting to sink in that I'm in Africa now! |
Monday, 9 April 2012
South Africa 2012 - Days 1 and 2
Soooo I've finally got round to typing up my journal from South Africa (when I really should be revising and finishing my research project, considering I had an awful dream last night in which it was 3 days before the deadline and I hadn't even finished my project, let alone had the thing printed and bound ready to hand in or even gone back to Cornwall...).
I'm going to post 2 days worth at a time, and I might schedule the posts to come up every 4 days or so so it's not all over in one rush. Plus that gives me time to type it all up and put lots of photos in each post :). The little notes in green are things that I've added since the trip.
(Does anyone else find Blogger's method of adding pictures to a post really time consuming and annoying? Normally it just takes forever to upload pictures and move them to where you want them to be in the post, but this time it just failed on me completely. I've had to redo this whole post because once I tried to start moving pictures around the whole thing just went blank even though apparently all the content of the post was still there when I looked at it in the HTML editor. Argh! Is there some clever way around this that I'm completely missing?!)
So without further ado, here's what I got up to on the first 2 days of my trip to South Africa. Enjoy! :)
Day 1 – Tuesday 3rd January 2012
Got to the airport at about 2.50pm this afternoon ready to get on the plane to Africa! Luckily when I got to the airport I bumped into the lecturers so I was one of the first in the queue to check in.
The rest of the group had been upstairs in a café, so once we’d all checked in and gone through security we headed to duty free to buy some last minute bits and some food and wait for the next few hours before we could board.
On the plane I sat in the middle of the
middle row of the plane - definitely my least favourite place to be. The
flight was 12 hours long – I tried to watch films but I couldn’t stay
awake, and I tried to sleep but couldn’t sleep for long before something
woke me up or I got cramp in my leg. Finding a comfortable position was really awkward!
Day 2 – Wednesday 4th January 2012
Arrived in South Africa (finally!) this morning at about 10am (8am UK time).
After we’d been through security, collected our bags and stocked up with
suncream and water, we headed out into the heat of South Africa. It was
shaded in the car park and there was a nice breeze so it wasn’t as hot
as I’d expected it to be. We were given lunch boxes which were really
fancy – corrugated cardboard boxes tied up with ribbon, and inside there
was – a spicy chicken salad wrap, biltong, brie and dates (maybe?) on a
stick, red grapes, a fruit and nut mix and a chocolate brownie. I was
surprised at how nice the biltong was – I’d always thought it would be
disgusting!
We then got into minibuses and headed to our first location – Stony
Point penguin colony.
The penguin colony was really cool, there were loads more than I was
expecting and as they were moulting they were mostly just standing still
because they couldn’t go in the water.
Our “learning”
for the day was about how penguin thermoregulate – they pant, and they
turn their black backs to the sun as even though black absorbs the heat
it doesn’t radiate the heat internally, so its organs are protected (as
the organs are on the front side). We then had to think up a hypothesis
for why penguins show the thermoregulatory behaviour that they do. We
then tested these hypotheses in small groups – my group looked to see if
there was a difference in panting/gaping between moulting and
non-moulting adults – it didn’t look like there was from our results!
We
also saw a few dassies/rock hyraxes at the penguin colony. They’re
pretty sweet and look like a cross between guinea pigs and cats.
Virginia McKenna has one as a pet in Born Free, and I didn’t know what
one was until I’d seen that film – now I’ve seen them wild!
We also saw a cool blue and yellow lizard that I’ll try and identify
later (it was a Southern Rock Agama).
After we’d been to the penguins we went on to the campsite. It’s called Paradise Park and it’s just outside Hermanus. We collected our tents and set to work putting them up. They’re all 6-man tents and they’re huge. The sleeping compartment has lots of space and then there’s another even bigger compartment that we’re keeping all of our stuff in. 4 other girls.
After we’d put up our tent we had to make a poster with a graph of our penguin experiment results on it, then we had a quick discussion about what our results showed.
After the discussion was over it was time for dinner. The food was a bit odd – we were given some meat (I think it was pork), then could choose from lots of other different things but they were all orange/yellow/beige and I had no idea what was in them. In the end I went for some bread and butter and some pasta – not the most exciting meal I’ve ever had!
Once dinner was over I was so tired that all I wanted to do was head to bed. I’m up at 6am tomorrow to be ready to leave at 7.10am to go and see some Great White Sharks! Not braving the showers tonight because even though I feel gross I don’t want to risk a cold shower and have wet hair all night as it’s fairly chilly here.
I'm going to post 2 days worth at a time, and I might schedule the posts to come up every 4 days or so so it's not all over in one rush. Plus that gives me time to type it all up and put lots of photos in each post :). The little notes in green are things that I've added since the trip.
(Does anyone else find Blogger's method of adding pictures to a post really time consuming and annoying? Normally it just takes forever to upload pictures and move them to where you want them to be in the post, but this time it just failed on me completely. I've had to redo this whole post because once I tried to start moving pictures around the whole thing just went blank even though apparently all the content of the post was still there when I looked at it in the HTML editor. Argh! Is there some clever way around this that I'm completely missing?!)
So without further ado, here's what I got up to on the first 2 days of my trip to South Africa. Enjoy! :)
Day 1 – Tuesday 3rd January 2012
Got to the airport at about 2.50pm this afternoon ready to get on the plane to Africa! Luckily when I got to the airport I bumped into the lecturers so I was one of the first in the queue to check in.
The rest of the group had been upstairs in a café, so once we’d all checked in and gone through security we headed to duty free to buy some last minute bits and some food and wait for the next few hours before we could board.
 |
| The plane! |
Day 2 – Wednesday 4th January 2012
Arrived in South Africa (finally!) this morning at about 10am (8am UK time).
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| The amazing ostrich made from beads in the arrivals hall at Cape Town airport |
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| A South African Kinder Egg, which is nothing like the Kinder Eggs we have here. When you open it it splits into two plastic halves - one half has a chocolate paste (a bit like Nutella, except you get milk chocolate and white chocolate paste) with 2 crunchy ball things on it (like the crunchy stuff in a Kinder Bueno) plus a little spatula to eat it with, and the other half has the toy in. |
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| Dassie! |
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| Southern Rock Agama |
After we’d been to the penguins we went on to the campsite. It’s called Paradise Park and it’s just outside Hermanus. We collected our tents and set to work putting them up. They’re all 6-man tents and they’re huge. The sleeping compartment has lots of space and then there’s another even bigger compartment that we’re keeping all of our stuff in. 4 other girls.
After we’d put up our tent we had to make a poster with a graph of our penguin experiment results on it, then we had a quick discussion about what our results showed.
After the discussion was over it was time for dinner. The food was a bit odd – we were given some meat (I think it was pork), then could choose from lots of other different things but they were all orange/yellow/beige and I had no idea what was in them. In the end I went for some bread and butter and some pasta – not the most exciting meal I’ve ever had!
Once dinner was over I was so tired that all I wanted to do was head to bed. I’m up at 6am tomorrow to be ready to leave at 7.10am to go and see some Great White Sharks! Not braving the showers tonight because even though I feel gross I don’t want to risk a cold shower and have wet hair all night as it’s fairly chilly here.
Monday, 19 March 2012
This week, I have done the unimaginable
Well, unimaginable for me anyway.
I went for a run. Not just once, but three whole times.
You may be asking: Why is this so shocking? Thousands and thousands of people run, what makes it so special that you do?
I'm the kind of person who has avoided exercise pretty much all my life. At school I got teased and bullied in every P.E. lesson, partly because I wasn't very good at any of the stuff we did, but mainly because I didn't have the right expensive trainers or something petty like this. I did sports day once at primary school, and never at high school - I made any excuse possible to get out of it to stop the entire school having the opportunity to laugh at me. I made excuses to get out of most P.E. lessons too, and if I couldn't get out of it then I just hid in a corner with my friends.
Since I've left school the habit has stuck. I enjoy walking, so I do quite a bit of that, but now my fitness level as dropped so low that even walking uphill becomes difficult. I like swimming too, except I'm so awful at it that I don't really get much exercise benefit from it, and I'll only go to a pool if it's pretty empty and there aren't any dedicated people swimming lengths and making me feel ashamed of myself for lacking such a basic skill as swimming.
Since I've been living in Falmouth I've seen loads of people running, so I realised it must be "the done thing" and that got the idea in my head that it's something that I could do. It's free (unlike a gym, the other exercise activity that everyone does), I can go whenever I want, and I can go places where I can avoid other people (again, unlike a gym, where I would be surrounded by super fit people who can exercise for hours without the vaguest notion of sweating).
In November, I bought some running shoes. I was feeling all motivated and decided to go for a run that evening when I got home... except I put the shoes in my wardrobe and there they stayed until now. I found the NHS Couch to 5k podcasts and decided that this would be an excellent way for me to start running, so I downloaded them all... then didn't open the files until last week.
I kept putting off going due to fear of any possible person seeing me, regardless of whether I know them or whether I'll never see them again in my life, and the fear of the embarrassment it would cause me when they saw my massively unfit, sweaty and flabby body puffing and panting as it hurled itself along the road. At the same time, I was becoming more and more unhappy with my body and all its wibbly bits that don't let me look nice in clothes I want to wear.
Finally, I decided that I needed to just man up and get over it and go for a run. So, last Monday, I dusted off my running shoes, put on some clothes vaguely designed for exercising in, and left the house to go for my first run of the three I needed to do that week.
Here's how last week's runs went:
Run number 1, week 1: Monday
I am so unfit. I feel exhausted like I never have in my life. I only ran for 8 minutes in total, with a 5 minute walk at the beginning, a 5 minute walk at the end, and 90 seconds of walking in between each 60 second run, but by about half way through I had a really painful stitch in one side, I was sweating buckets, and I was struggling to catch my breath. Making it to the end of the run was very difficult, but I managed it. Go me! I was quite wheezy when I got home though, and I was so worn out. Only 2 more to do this week, I hope it gets easier...
Run number 2, week 1: Wednesday
Today's run felt a lot easier. I'm not sure whether that was because I didn't push myself so hard, because I knew what distance I had to go before I finished the run, or because I'm actually getting fitter... hopefully it's less of the first one and more of the last two! Fingers crossed the next one is this easy...
Run number 3, week 1: Friday
Well, the last run lied to me, it went back to being difficult again today. It wasn't at the same level of "ohmygodI'mgoingtodie" as Monday's run was, but it was still pretty hard and I was really struggling towards the end. Not sure I'll be able to manage the more difficult runs next week.
I'm supposed to be starting the next level of runs tonight, and I'm really not sure I'm going to be able to manage it :(. I'm hoping this will eventually improve my fitness, so I'm trying to keep faith, and I'm really hoping the wheezy feeling I get at the end of each run doesn't turn out to be asthma or something nasty.
I did a St John duty yesterday at a half marathon through Falmouth and a couple of surrounding towns, and it was slightly demoralising looking at some of the people doing the run who were far from skinny but could still run a lot further than I could. I'd like to think that one day I could run a half marathon too, but at the moment running for any longer than 60 seconds feels like an impossible dream.
I'll do another update next week of how things are going and whether I think I'm getting any fitter. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
I went for a run. Not just once, but three whole times.
You may be asking: Why is this so shocking? Thousands and thousands of people run, what makes it so special that you do?
I'm the kind of person who has avoided exercise pretty much all my life. At school I got teased and bullied in every P.E. lesson, partly because I wasn't very good at any of the stuff we did, but mainly because I didn't have the right expensive trainers or something petty like this. I did sports day once at primary school, and never at high school - I made any excuse possible to get out of it to stop the entire school having the opportunity to laugh at me. I made excuses to get out of most P.E. lessons too, and if I couldn't get out of it then I just hid in a corner with my friends.
Since I've left school the habit has stuck. I enjoy walking, so I do quite a bit of that, but now my fitness level as dropped so low that even walking uphill becomes difficult. I like swimming too, except I'm so awful at it that I don't really get much exercise benefit from it, and I'll only go to a pool if it's pretty empty and there aren't any dedicated people swimming lengths and making me feel ashamed of myself for lacking such a basic skill as swimming.
Since I've been living in Falmouth I've seen loads of people running, so I realised it must be "the done thing" and that got the idea in my head that it's something that I could do. It's free (unlike a gym, the other exercise activity that everyone does), I can go whenever I want, and I can go places where I can avoid other people (again, unlike a gym, where I would be surrounded by super fit people who can exercise for hours without the vaguest notion of sweating).
In November, I bought some running shoes. I was feeling all motivated and decided to go for a run that evening when I got home... except I put the shoes in my wardrobe and there they stayed until now. I found the NHS Couch to 5k podcasts and decided that this would be an excellent way for me to start running, so I downloaded them all... then didn't open the files until last week.
I kept putting off going due to fear of any possible person seeing me, regardless of whether I know them or whether I'll never see them again in my life, and the fear of the embarrassment it would cause me when they saw my massively unfit, sweaty and flabby body puffing and panting as it hurled itself along the road. At the same time, I was becoming more and more unhappy with my body and all its wibbly bits that don't let me look nice in clothes I want to wear.
Finally, I decided that I needed to just man up and get over it and go for a run. So, last Monday, I dusted off my running shoes, put on some clothes vaguely designed for exercising in, and left the house to go for my first run of the three I needed to do that week.
Here's how last week's runs went:
Run number 1, week 1: Monday
I am so unfit. I feel exhausted like I never have in my life. I only ran for 8 minutes in total, with a 5 minute walk at the beginning, a 5 minute walk at the end, and 90 seconds of walking in between each 60 second run, but by about half way through I had a really painful stitch in one side, I was sweating buckets, and I was struggling to catch my breath. Making it to the end of the run was very difficult, but I managed it. Go me! I was quite wheezy when I got home though, and I was so worn out. Only 2 more to do this week, I hope it gets easier...
Run number 2, week 1: Wednesday
Today's run felt a lot easier. I'm not sure whether that was because I didn't push myself so hard, because I knew what distance I had to go before I finished the run, or because I'm actually getting fitter... hopefully it's less of the first one and more of the last two! Fingers crossed the next one is this easy...
Run number 3, week 1: Friday
Well, the last run lied to me, it went back to being difficult again today. It wasn't at the same level of "ohmygodI'mgoingtodie" as Monday's run was, but it was still pretty hard and I was really struggling towards the end. Not sure I'll be able to manage the more difficult runs next week.
I'm supposed to be starting the next level of runs tonight, and I'm really not sure I'm going to be able to manage it :(. I'm hoping this will eventually improve my fitness, so I'm trying to keep faith, and I'm really hoping the wheezy feeling I get at the end of each run doesn't turn out to be asthma or something nasty.
I did a St John duty yesterday at a half marathon through Falmouth and a couple of surrounding towns, and it was slightly demoralising looking at some of the people doing the run who were far from skinny but could still run a lot further than I could. I'd like to think that one day I could run a half marathon too, but at the moment running for any longer than 60 seconds feels like an impossible dream.
I'll do another update next week of how things are going and whether I think I'm getting any fitter. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
The Final Countdown
At the time of posting, there are...
69 days...
or 1656 hours...
or 99405 minutes...
until time is up in my last ever exam and I have finally finished uni.
University, you are not going to break me. You've thrown a lot of shit at me over the past 2 and a half years, and I've got through it, so no matter how hard you try I'm not going to let you defeat me at the last hurdle. You've given me an assessed presentation, a research project and four exams to do in that time, and it's going to be bloody tough to get it all done (let alone do it all well), but I'm not going to give in now, not when I've already come so far.
These are going to be the longest 69 days of my life...
69 days...
or 1656 hours...
or 99405 minutes...
until time is up in my last ever exam and I have finally finished uni.
University, you are not going to break me. You've thrown a lot of shit at me over the past 2 and a half years, and I've got through it, so no matter how hard you try I'm not going to let you defeat me at the last hurdle. You've given me an assessed presentation, a research project and four exams to do in that time, and it's going to be bloody tough to get it all done (let alone do it all well), but I'm not going to give in now, not when I've already come so far.
These are going to be the longest 69 days of my life...
Monday, 5 March 2012
Izzy in the news
I'm in the West Briton newspaper this week :D
Last April I wrote an application to get LINKS some money from my uni's Annual Fund, a pot of money set aside for student projects. We were awarded over £3,000, which allowed us to buy 3 full family sets of CPR training manikins, 4 handheld portable radios for communicating on duty, and an AED (a defibrillator, the machines that help to get peoples hearts working properly again after they've suffered a cardiac arrest).
Uni were obviously really keen for us to publicise the fact that they'd given us money to buy some fancy new equipment with, so Steve wrote a press release which St John Ambulance put in the West Briton. So I got to put on my uniform and look all serious to show off our fancy new training kit.
Next project: trying to get money from people so we can buy a new vehicle for LINKS :D
Friday, 24 February 2012
Five Things Fridays: Five reasons why I won't be sad to finish uni
(as expected, I found it quite difficult deciding which five things were going to make the list :P)
1. I won't miss having to clean up after other people who should be cleaning up after themselves.
Every place I've lived while I've been at uni, I've ended up cleaning up after people who are old enough and capable enough of cleaning up after themselves. Dirty dishes left for days, food left to fester in the fridge until it goes beyond the point of rotten, rubbish strewn all over the place when the bin is a metre or two away, pubes all over the bath/shower, toilets that never get cleaned (even when there's pee on them *vom*), mildew all over the walls, bits of food left in the kitchen sink... all little tiny things that don't take long to sort out if you've got half an ounce of common sense, yet people don't do them. Why?! Laziness? Never having to take responsibility for looking after themselves until they came to uni so they don't know how to do it or even register that it needs to be done? Not caring about decency towards other people living in the house? I really don't know, probably a combination of all those factors and more.
2. I won't miss the work
I feel like I put a lot of effort into the work on my course, yet no matter how hard I try my marks get progressively worse. Needless to say this has left me feeling really disheartened about work, and lacking motivation to do it. Although my marks have been picking up this term, so fingers crossed this gives me the motivation I need to get to the end of the year!
3. I won't miss the "banter"
"Banter", for those not surrounded by arrogant 20-something men, is basically bullying and verbal abuse that is then excused under the explanation that it's "banter" and only meant to be light-hearted. Call me dull and boring if you want, but I can't stand it and I think it's just miserable idiots finding an excuse to be pricks and get amusement from making other people unhappy. I've been the victim to a lot of this and it's really hurt me - at times when I've needed support from people and have just got insults it stings especially hard. A website called UniLad was recently shut down after it posted an article saying something along the lines of "rape is just banter". Urgh.
4. I won't miss feeling like I need to drink until I pass out in order to be accepted
Well, that's a slight overexaggeration, but it literally took me two years to get people to understand that I don't like getting drunk for personal reasons, as well as the fact that I really don't see the appeal of going out once a week to spend a load of money, make a tit out of myself, wreck my liver and feel atrocious the next day. I've seen the horrible effects of what drink can do to people, and I'm not saying that every student is going to end up an alcoholic, but by doing duties at our student's union on party nights I've seen and treated so many people who are incapable of retaining any sense of dignity because they've drunk far too much. I'd rather not be that person, and I can't wait to find people that accept that and let me be.
5. I won't miss the ever-increasing student debt
I'm so glad I've done uni now and am not going to be starting next year when the £9,000 fees are brought in. I feel so sorry for those who are or have been put off going to uni because of it :(. The £3,500ish that I've paid each year has racked me up enough debt, I would hate for it to be even more. I also hate the feeling of spending money that isn't mine (i.e. getting into debt) so I can't wait to start getting my loan paid off so it's not hanging over my head any more and I know that the money I have is mine to spend without oweing anyone anything.
1. I won't miss having to clean up after other people who should be cleaning up after themselves.
Every place I've lived while I've been at uni, I've ended up cleaning up after people who are old enough and capable enough of cleaning up after themselves. Dirty dishes left for days, food left to fester in the fridge until it goes beyond the point of rotten, rubbish strewn all over the place when the bin is a metre or two away, pubes all over the bath/shower, toilets that never get cleaned (even when there's pee on them *vom*), mildew all over the walls, bits of food left in the kitchen sink... all little tiny things that don't take long to sort out if you've got half an ounce of common sense, yet people don't do them. Why?! Laziness? Never having to take responsibility for looking after themselves until they came to uni so they don't know how to do it or even register that it needs to be done? Not caring about decency towards other people living in the house? I really don't know, probably a combination of all those factors and more.
2. I won't miss the work
I feel like I put a lot of effort into the work on my course, yet no matter how hard I try my marks get progressively worse. Needless to say this has left me feeling really disheartened about work, and lacking motivation to do it. Although my marks have been picking up this term, so fingers crossed this gives me the motivation I need to get to the end of the year!
3. I won't miss the "banter"
"Banter", for those not surrounded by arrogant 20-something men, is basically bullying and verbal abuse that is then excused under the explanation that it's "banter" and only meant to be light-hearted. Call me dull and boring if you want, but I can't stand it and I think it's just miserable idiots finding an excuse to be pricks and get amusement from making other people unhappy. I've been the victim to a lot of this and it's really hurt me - at times when I've needed support from people and have just got insults it stings especially hard. A website called UniLad was recently shut down after it posted an article saying something along the lines of "rape is just banter". Urgh.
4. I won't miss feeling like I need to drink until I pass out in order to be accepted
Well, that's a slight overexaggeration, but it literally took me two years to get people to understand that I don't like getting drunk for personal reasons, as well as the fact that I really don't see the appeal of going out once a week to spend a load of money, make a tit out of myself, wreck my liver and feel atrocious the next day. I've seen the horrible effects of what drink can do to people, and I'm not saying that every student is going to end up an alcoholic, but by doing duties at our student's union on party nights I've seen and treated so many people who are incapable of retaining any sense of dignity because they've drunk far too much. I'd rather not be that person, and I can't wait to find people that accept that and let me be.
5. I won't miss the ever-increasing student debt
I'm so glad I've done uni now and am not going to be starting next year when the £9,000 fees are brought in. I feel so sorry for those who are or have been put off going to uni because of it :(. The £3,500ish that I've paid each year has racked me up enough debt, I would hate for it to be even more. I also hate the feeling of spending money that isn't mine (i.e. getting into debt) so I can't wait to start getting my loan paid off so it's not hanging over my head any more and I know that the money I have is mine to spend without oweing anyone anything.
Saturday, 18 February 2012
I love it when I have those moments...
... where it feels like life is going to turn out ok after all.
I went out for dinner this evening with Steve and his parents, and after dinner (Cornish crab cakes with salad, and warm citrus cake with kemon curd cream fod dessert, mmmm) while his parents were very kindly sorting out the bill Steve and I took his dog for a walk along the beach. It was such a simple thing, and something that for anyone who's used to always having a dog around would feel like just another daily chore, but to me it was such a beautiful moment. I was so happy, and I could see myself doing that every day for the rest of my life. And I can very definitely imagine Steve being the person by my side every day. Normally thinking about my future just makes me not very happy, so it makes an unbelievable amount of difference to be feeling like this.
Saying "let's get married and spend the rest of our lives together" where I am right now if definitely not on the cards, but if it's things like this and feelings like this that life has in store, then I can't wait :)
I went out for dinner this evening with Steve and his parents, and after dinner (Cornish crab cakes with salad, and warm citrus cake with kemon curd cream fod dessert, mmmm) while his parents were very kindly sorting out the bill Steve and I took his dog for a walk along the beach. It was such a simple thing, and something that for anyone who's used to always having a dog around would feel like just another daily chore, but to me it was such a beautiful moment. I was so happy, and I could see myself doing that every day for the rest of my life. And I can very definitely imagine Steve being the person by my side every day. Normally thinking about my future just makes me not very happy, so it makes an unbelievable amount of difference to be feeling like this.
Saying "let's get married and spend the rest of our lives together" where I am right now if definitely not on the cards, but if it's things like this and feelings like this that life has in store, then I can't wait :)
Friday, 17 February 2012
Five Things Fridays: Five reasons why I'll be sad to finish uni
(and coming next week, five reasons why I won't be sad to finish uni :P)
1. I'll miss having my own space.
In the short term at least, I'll have to move back home. There's no way I can afford to rent a place, pay bills and afford to live at the same time, especially as I'm not planning on getting a job for at least 6 months after graduating. I find it strange when I go back home during the holidays; I really miss having the freedom to get up and go to be when I want, to go out and come home when I want, and to be able to make my space my own. I'm not saying that my mum's super strict - she's actually really relaxed and doesn't mind if I go out places and she doesn't force me to get up/go to sleep (I really hope she wouldn't, I am 21 after all...), but she does start to nag and tell me that I've got so much to do and I could be doing so many other more productive things (e.g. tidying up, cleaning the house or doing uni work) and the nagging starts to grate on my nerves after a while. Plus I feel like I'm getting in the way of her life and disturbing her if I go about doing my own thing.
2. I'll miss living in Cornwall
See point 1 about having to move back home because I won't be able to afford to live, so this rules out staying in Cornwall too :(. The more I think about it the more I realise that I've really liked living here as it's such a beautiful place, but due to spending all of the first and most of the second year of my degree alone and feeling pretty depressed (and consequently spending most of my time indoors because there's only so much you can do alone) I really haven't made the most of my time here. When I've learnt to drive and got a car (which will be this summer if everything goes to plan, about time too!) I'd love to come back and either take a long holiday or get a job down here so I can go out and do all the things I've wanted to do but now won't have time to do (or things that I simply haven't been able to do because lack of a car makes it impossible to get there).
3. I'll miss having people to talk to close by
Apart from one person, I haven't kept in touch with anyone I was friends with at school/college. I drifted away from the people that I was friends with at college at the beginning of our second year there, and to be honest while it was hard at the time and I still feel kind of bitter that they didn't want to keep me as a friend yet stayed friends with each other, I think it was for the best as I've come to realise that most of them aren't very nice people. As I mentioned above, I spent the first half of my degree alone as I had no friends, so I got used to having no one to talk to but it wasn't very good for me. Now I've finally worked to the point where, even though I still don't have people that I go out and socialise etc. with, there are quite a few people that I can have a decent conversation with, so I don't feel completely alone any more. When I finish uni that's going to completely disappear, and I'll be back to square one on the "make a friend" game, which for some reason I seem to find abnormally difficult. It'll be even harder because I won't have a school/college situation to aid me in making friends, and until I get a job I'll be out there in the big wide world by myself and I'll have to work so much harder to find friends. I don't want to get a job for a while after I graduate (I want to enjoy the last decent holiday I'll ever have!) so it's going to be a very long few months...
4. I'll miss not having to get up and do something every day
At the moment I can have quite relaxed days. The past couple of days, for instance, have been spent doing casual bits of work for my research project, catching up with Junior Doctors on iplayer (and cringing at some of the mistakes they make), baking shortbread and rock cakes, and generally being a bit of a slob. While I do work hard (trust me, I usually have 4 modules a term plus SJA so I'm usually constantly on the go), when I do have a bit of time when life isn't so busy I like being able to get up and do my uni work at my own pace, in my own room, and I can get up and do something else or nip into town for half an hour when I need a break. When I get a job that's going to disappear, because my employer will tell me when I need to be there, what hours I need to work and how much I need to get done, I won't have the freedom to choose for myself any more.
5. I'll miss student discount
I think this one is pretty self explanatory ;)
1. I'll miss having my own space.
In the short term at least, I'll have to move back home. There's no way I can afford to rent a place, pay bills and afford to live at the same time, especially as I'm not planning on getting a job for at least 6 months after graduating. I find it strange when I go back home during the holidays; I really miss having the freedom to get up and go to be when I want, to go out and come home when I want, and to be able to make my space my own. I'm not saying that my mum's super strict - she's actually really relaxed and doesn't mind if I go out places and she doesn't force me to get up/go to sleep (I really hope she wouldn't, I am 21 after all...), but she does start to nag and tell me that I've got so much to do and I could be doing so many other more productive things (e.g. tidying up, cleaning the house or doing uni work) and the nagging starts to grate on my nerves after a while. Plus I feel like I'm getting in the way of her life and disturbing her if I go about doing my own thing.
2. I'll miss living in Cornwall
See point 1 about having to move back home because I won't be able to afford to live, so this rules out staying in Cornwall too :(. The more I think about it the more I realise that I've really liked living here as it's such a beautiful place, but due to spending all of the first and most of the second year of my degree alone and feeling pretty depressed (and consequently spending most of my time indoors because there's only so much you can do alone) I really haven't made the most of my time here. When I've learnt to drive and got a car (which will be this summer if everything goes to plan, about time too!) I'd love to come back and either take a long holiday or get a job down here so I can go out and do all the things I've wanted to do but now won't have time to do (or things that I simply haven't been able to do because lack of a car makes it impossible to get there).
3. I'll miss having people to talk to close by
Apart from one person, I haven't kept in touch with anyone I was friends with at school/college. I drifted away from the people that I was friends with at college at the beginning of our second year there, and to be honest while it was hard at the time and I still feel kind of bitter that they didn't want to keep me as a friend yet stayed friends with each other, I think it was for the best as I've come to realise that most of them aren't very nice people. As I mentioned above, I spent the first half of my degree alone as I had no friends, so I got used to having no one to talk to but it wasn't very good for me. Now I've finally worked to the point where, even though I still don't have people that I go out and socialise etc. with, there are quite a few people that I can have a decent conversation with, so I don't feel completely alone any more. When I finish uni that's going to completely disappear, and I'll be back to square one on the "make a friend" game, which for some reason I seem to find abnormally difficult. It'll be even harder because I won't have a school/college situation to aid me in making friends, and until I get a job I'll be out there in the big wide world by myself and I'll have to work so much harder to find friends. I don't want to get a job for a while after I graduate (I want to enjoy the last decent holiday I'll ever have!) so it's going to be a very long few months...
4. I'll miss not having to get up and do something every day
At the moment I can have quite relaxed days. The past couple of days, for instance, have been spent doing casual bits of work for my research project, catching up with Junior Doctors on iplayer (and cringing at some of the mistakes they make), baking shortbread and rock cakes, and generally being a bit of a slob. While I do work hard (trust me, I usually have 4 modules a term plus SJA so I'm usually constantly on the go), when I do have a bit of time when life isn't so busy I like being able to get up and do my uni work at my own pace, in my own room, and I can get up and do something else or nip into town for half an hour when I need a break. When I get a job that's going to disappear, because my employer will tell me when I need to be there, what hours I need to work and how much I need to get done, I won't have the freedom to choose for myself any more.
5. I'll miss student discount
I think this one is pretty self explanatory ;)
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
A post that's not about snow.
My Google Reader and Facebook have been filled with posts about the snow the UK's been having over the past few days, which would normally be quite exciting for me... except Cornwall is the only place in the country that hasn't had snow, and we aren't forecast to get any either. Bah. In fact, the view from my window right now is this...
Please excuse the rubbish webcam photo, I didn't think the miserable weather was worthy of me getting my proper camera out.
So, instead of going out and building snowmen and suchlike, I've bought myself one of these:
When I was 12/13 I wrote in a diary every day for a year. I love having a snapshot of my life to look back on, and I regret not keeping a diary since then. I spotted these on a couple of blogs and thought it was a lovely idea. I especially like the fact that you can compare what you've been doing on each day across the years just by looking at one page.
When I told my mum I wanted one of these she made the noise that means "I'm not impressed" and "You're wasting your money on more crap?!". Yet I found out she kept diaries quite a bit when she was younger, and even kept a five-year diary at one point! Except she's thrown them away which I was quite sad about as I would've loved to have read them to see how much I'm like my mum when she was my age.
One last thing that isn't at all snow related: I gave my 5th blood donation yesterday which I'm pretty proud of :). I've done a post about giving blood here so I'll spare you the speech about why everyone should go and do it :P
So, instead of going out and building snowmen and suchlike, I've bought myself one of these:
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| Source |
When I told my mum I wanted one of these she made the noise that means "I'm not impressed" and "You're wasting your money on more crap?!". Yet I found out she kept diaries quite a bit when she was younger, and even kept a five-year diary at one point! Except she's thrown them away which I was quite sad about as I would've loved to have read them to see how much I'm like my mum when she was my age.
One last thing that isn't at all snow related: I gave my 5th blood donation yesterday which I'm pretty proud of :). I've done a post about giving blood here so I'll spare you the speech about why everyone should go and do it :P
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