The final update of 2015

Hello everyone, I hope you’re all well. I took a week’s break from blogging
and all things blog related, because a lot has been going on. I have a couple of
posts planned for the end of the year, but before I started posting about my
beauty favourites and reviewing my goals I wanted to write a good old catch-up
post. I kind of skipped out on Novembers so I’m almost out of practice here, but
here goes nothing!

This week my grandfather’s brother sadly passed away. It has been a really emotional time for the whole family. Personally I keep thinking about how
without the seven men who came from Pakistan in 1965, who left everything they
knew and loved for the chance of a better life, I wouldn’t be here today living
the blessed life I do. Not to say that growing up in Pakistan isn’t wonderful,
however the opportunity to live in Britain not only brings privileges but it also
brings so many opportunities that I probably couldn’t imagine had I have been
bought up elsewhere. My grandfather was only 16 and his brother a few years
older, so to move away from your parents, to the other side of the world in the
60s, when phone calls were ridiculously expensive and travelling back was a once
in a few years type of thing is a huge thing for me to comprehend. The death of
an important family member has taught me a lot in a very short amount of time and aside
from being so grateful to my grandparents for sacrificing so much for us, I’ve
learnt that everything is temporary. And I really hope that I remember that
through 2016.

One semester done, two more to go and then I will have completed my degree
in’sha’Allah (which means God Willing)..insane! I don’t know where the
time has flown by but it’s safe to say that it’s a little daunting. I plan on
using the rest of my holidays planning out my week into a manageable timetable.
I have tried and failed to do this in the past, but at this point of my life it is literally make or break. I either sort out my time management issues and do well, or I
sink! The past two months have also been spent looking into my options after
graduation, which is such a weird transition phase. It’s like the first time in
my whole life that there is no right or set route to follow and although a part of me
wishes I had decided to take a year out (which would be the first year off from
education since I was four years old!!!) – its exciting to think about the next
year.

I applied for the School direct teaching route, which is essentially working towards a PGCE within a school environment. The biggest advantage for me
with this route is no longer having to drive 40 minutes to Uni. To be honest I have
genuinely enjoyed my drives and will probably miss them a little – but I know it’ll be a huge
relief to travel to a local school when I have a 8am-4pm daily routine.
Right now my uni schedule is very relaxed with only one 9am, but having a 5 day week of full days will be tiring enough without a long commute in the mornings too. Another advantage of the school direct programme is that you gain a
LOT of teaching experience every single day, rather than just when on placement
which is great. Anyway I have an interview for this route coming up in the second week of January so
wish me luck! I’m really praying it goes well ^_^

I know what you’re thinking…say what?! That’s right, you read the above
work correctly – I joined the gym! The same one that my brother and dad go to,
which happened to have a fantastic membership offer on and it also has a ladies
only section which sounds perfect. I feel a lot more comfortable exercising in a
non-mixed environment and I’m super excited to get stuck in. My logic for
joining was that I’m paying a monthly fee, so hopefully that itself
will motivate me enough to get into the routine of going a couple of times a
week. I don’t know if I blogged about this, but earlier on in the year I bought
two fitness programmes like e-pdf-things??, so I’m planning on transferring
those onto my phone and then working from them in the gym space, using the cool
equipment and starting to increase my fitness. This year I’ve put on a fair bit
of weight, to the point where contouring is pretty much as essential as
concealer when I’m wearing makeup ._. Growing up I never cared about my weight
because I had a pretty active lifestyle and a fast metabolism, however now I’m
20 my lifestyle is different and its up to me to do something about getting my
body in shape. Plus I know that exercising releases a lot of endorphins as well
as confidence, so YAY 4 ZA GYM

Can you guys believe that its been 87 days since I’ve purchased makeup?! Well
aside from the O.S.M Palette from NARS, but that was the one purchase I had
allowed myself when setting the challenge and I am so impressed with myself. Not
to blow my own trumpet or anything, but generally I can’t go more than one
payday without either treating myself to something pricy from the luxury makeup
world OR purchasing £20/£30 worth of budget makeup. When I started off I found
it very easy, however the past two weeks I feel like a LOT of products that I’ve
been wanting have suddenly become available in the UK (mainly MUG shadows lets
be honest!) and the urge to place an order was strong!! Aside from those urges
which I fought off thanks to you guys on twitter, I have really enjoyed not
purchasing any more makeup because it’s allowed me to actually step back and
look at my current collection. I have identified products that are more than
half finished and put them to the forefront, so I can use more stuff up and
write up either reviews or empties posts, as well as feel like I’m really
getting my moneys worth! Now just 151 days to go EEEK – and despite enjoying my cleanse, of course there are still some things that are catching me eye so there will definitely be a wishlist post at the 4 month mark hehe