July, For Me

July has been my final full month of working full time, it’s also felt like the coldest month of the year so far (seriously, why is it so cold?!) and the month where I took a long hard look at how far I’ve come since last July (which was the worst month of my life; and let me tell you – LIFE GOT BETTER. In fact I’ve never been happier!)

Spotted: Covent Garden in London

Before jumping into August, let’s look back at how awesome July was:

MAIN HIGHLIGHTS

  • πŸ‹Gymshark – I think I’ve over-shared how much I love Gymshark. Earlier this month, I went to their pop-up event in London where I bought more gym gear and met some of my favourite fitspos. You can read about the whole day here.
  • πŸ‘― After the Gymshark event, I went to see Chynna and Mutay again! Along with Hamdah (who is interning in London at the moment), we went to have an interesting ice-cream candy floss thing and Nandos. We’re literally all bffs now! #UKsquad
  • πŸ‘½I attended the Bioinformatics Awareness Day with fellow CFG instructor, Tania which was useful because I’m taking a Bioinformatics module in my final year, this September.
  • πŸš‚ Despite nearly missing the train to Bradford because I was telling my manager about the importance of cyber security in today’s modern world πŸ˜…, I had a great day exploring Bradford and networking with like-minded folks. Despite it being a work trip, I got to go to the Science and technology museum after I expressed an interest in it! It was really interesting, I’m definitley going back to explore more of it!
  • πŸŽ“ During Graduation week, I helped take photographs for multiple events because of photographers dropping out last minute. It was a little stressful because I’m nowhere near a professional, but it was a lot of fun. I also got to see my Biomed cohort who I started University with, graduate! I was really emotional.
  • πŸ† …Because I helped out a lot during the week, I was awarded an Amazon voucher which let me buy ~stuffs~ on my wishlist for a while. Woop.
  • πŸ‘­ I met up with Amy and Holly in Manchester last weekend where you voted us to go have Italian food (YOU’RE AWESOME), blog post coming up~
  • πŸ‘ͺ Matt met the fam. The fam like him a lot. πŸ€—
  • πŸ“² For my final placement year assessment, I created a cool AR poster. You can check it out here.
  • πŸŽ₯ I did a few profiling/interview type things for Georgie’s HG, Julian, Jazmine and Ella’s CW this month. You can read all about it here!
  • πŸ‘©πŸ»β€πŸ’» Attended my first Sheffield-tech meet up at Google Garage which was an ‘interesting’ experience. It made me think a lot about what diversity and inclusion really means to people.
  • πŸ’ͺ Completed my first month of the Grace Fit Guide. I’ve been feeling it πŸ‘
  • πŸ“Ί I created a summary video of mine and Matt’s trip to NY:

3 Things I’m HAPPY about

1. Meeting incredible people

If you knew me last year, any sort of socialisation drained me. I didn’t enjoy them at all.

However since I started my placement, I’ve found myself in loads of situations where I’ve had to do a lot of interacting with others – networking gah. Over the last few months, I’ve become much more confident and really enjoy meet-ups/meetings/networking opportunities!

Shout out to awesome new people I’ve met up with this month: Joe, David, Chin, Holly, Amy, Bhupinder. And those friends I’ve had great catch-ups with Darren, Tania and Kisha.

2. Applying skills

I’ve had the chance to apply my coding and technical knowledge throughout my placement year. For instance, using my knowledge in WordPress to re-vamp research websites and re-developing external websites linked to the University. I also recently created a web-application for a conference at my home Department and applied some simple HTML magic to a Welcome Site for new students hosted by Open Education. I’ve learned a lot of new things from doing these little projects, I’m glad I’ve been making use of my coding knowledge!

I’ve also been playing around with editing videos recently and created an instruction video tutorial about handling an expensive VR kit. It was fun to create and improve my editing skills; one day I’ll be at Casey Neistat’s level.

3. The fam things

The day arrived. Matt met my family last weekend.

Matt met my family last weekend over good ol’ home made Filipino food. The meeting has been something I’ve been trying to actively avoid for a while (mainly because of previous failed relationships, I think!) But to my surprise, it was really positive and wasn’t awkward at all. Thanks for being incredible, Matt!


July in pictures

Left to right ➑ Pasta Factory, on the way home being extra, favourite outfit of the month, Georgie’s HG post, seeing Kisha, Chynna eating a candyfloss ice cream thing, event photography, meeting Whitney Simmons, one of my arms & chest days for #gfg!

MONTHLY FAVOURITES

New lunch obsession

I’ve recently fallen in love with my new lunch of quinoa, kale, black beans, and chicken. It’s incredibly simple and easy to make and is SO filling – a new fave!

The Afete app and GFG

As I highlighted last June, I wanted to try a more challenging workout routine because my Fitness Blender ones felt like it was getting a lot easier. Also, I wanted to focus more on separate muscle groups rather than working multiple ones at once as FB tends to be (which is AMAZING for fat loss)

I started the Grace Fit Guide at the start of July and have been kicking my own butt every morning! I haven’t complained about sore muscles in a while but after that first week of training muscle groups separately, I’d go into the office after each day like, “Ow, my legs, arms, back, chest, shoulders, bum hurts SO BAD” It’s when you’re struggling to walk up a step that you know that the πŸ‘ got a kicking. πŸ˜†

I’ve seen a lot more toning of my body since I started – I have visible upper abs (before I have a whole day of eating the good food! πŸ—) and my bum is a lot more shaped! I love the results and can’t wait to finish the guide so that I can try the second one or restart. I really enjoy the work outs too!

Gymshark Seamless

OK OK ONE MORE THING ABOUT GYMSHARK I PROMISE.

But gals, check this beautiful battle outfit:

Isn’t it gorgeous?! Super comfortable too!

Little Black Book by WomenWho founder, Otegha Uwagba

I’ve been tweeting about this a lot over the last week but it’s such a great no-bullshit, straight to the point guide about being a working woman. Packed with tons of career advice and life hacks – I definitely recommend! The paperback is only Β£4 or Β£1.99 on Kindle.


Next month

Goals

  • Organise all my work/personal digital clutter
  • Declutter – inspired by Hiro
  • Read more books – already on it! Currently reading the Brain Book by Phil Dobson.
  • Establish an evening routine and stick to it.

Events

  • I’m finishing my year placement next month then starting a new one. OK, maybe two.
  • Holiday!!!!!!!! A whole week in the sun, by the beach and full on relaxation mode!
  • Also, I have a whole week in August with no events – how crazy is that? I haven’t had one of those in such a long time! I’m excited to fill it up with events, but mainly will try and take it easy before I start my next placement.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

Happiness, not in another place but this place… not for another hour, but this hour.

– From the Daily Calm

8 responses to “July, For Me”

  1. I’m glad July was a great month for you, Pauline! Ah, the dreaded family meeting! It actually took seven months of persuading from Chris until he finally got to meet my parents since he’s my first boyfriend and I was just so scared of him meeting my Filipino parents xD I’m glad things went well with Matt and your parents. Matt’s a great guy so I doubt it would’ve gone bad. And yes to Filipino food!

    Are you looking forward to that event-less week in August?! You work so hard, girl, I think you deserve that break. Go on a hike, go see a movie or something! RELAX πŸ˜€ It’s not everyday where you aren’t fully booked with events, right?

    I’ve actually been meaning to ask you what workout guide you’re on but you mentioned it here, thanks! You’re doing so well with working Pauline! You already know you inspire me! Keep working at it and that πŸ‘!

    Have a good week ahead of you and I hope August is just as awesome as last month was.

  2. It was so lovely to finally meet you in person and I had such a great day on Saturday! Your energy is infectious.

    I watched your New York video and I was impressed with the editing. It’s just made me more excited about heading back, and I even spotted a few things in the video that I’d like to see and do when I go.

    I’m glad everything went smoothly with Matt meeting the family. I mean he took you flying over New York for your 21st, what’s not to love?!

    Little Black Book sounds like my kind of book. And it’s so cheap on Kindle. I’d be stupid not to buy it.

    I hope August is another great month for you!

  3. Damn, girl. Hustle. Hustle hard! It doesn’t hurt to take a breather once in a while. πŸ˜‰

    P.S. Still fascinated about the revelation that is you have a non-identical twin!

  4. So many highlights in July! I’m glad it was such a good month for you πŸ™‚ I loved seeing photos of you, Holly, and Amy together on Instagram, and I’m looking forward to reading about it too. It makes me happy to see bloggers meeting up!

    That’s great that you’ve been able to apply your tech skills in various things! It sounds like those projects have been good experiences. I’m also glad that the meeting with Matt and your family went well! From what I’ve seen of him on your blog, I can’t imagine it’d go poorly at all!

    Ooh, I hadn’t heard of the Grace Fit Guide. That sounds like a good workout if you’re seeing results already! I actually started looking into Fitness Blender recently because I knew that you recommended it. I’m getting back into exercising regularly and needed suggested workouts!

    Good luck on your August goals!

  5. You’ve had a busy July, I think we all know that. ☺

    Ah, the dreaded “boyfriend meets Filipino family” LOL. I had two failed relationships already, and because of that, I became really picky with guys nowadays (main reason why I’ve been single since early last year LOL). I don’t know if I should be considered old-fashioned, but I know that the one I’m with is definitely THE one, that’s when I would start introducing him to the family. My younger sister was also nervous about introducing her boyfriend (her second one) to the family because none of us would really know what types of guys the parents prefer or how they would react, especially that he isn’t Filipino. Again. (her first one was Japanese, this one is Chinese). Some four years later, they are now husband and wife and things are well. 😁

    And seriously, you can never go wrong with good ol’ Pinoy Cuisine served at home. Aside from being picky with guys, I’m also picky with Filipino food too, probably because I’ve grown accustomed to my (late) grandmothers’ cooking, eventually passed on to my parents, and I’m currently learning some of the simpler ones nowadays. I’m currently learning how to make Sisig (the “safer” kind, not the original “guts” kind if you know what I mean haha!).

    Event-less week in August. Maybe another adventurous traveling? Or try out a new hobby or interest, something you’ve never done before, something you’d never imagine you would end up trying. Separate yourself from the things you’re usually used to, from coding to foodie travels to workouts. Okay, maybe not workouts. πŸ˜… On the other hand, if I were seriously a very old-fashioned Pinay gal, I’d just tell you to just focus on your studies for your placement. Ay naku po! πŸ˜‚

    I don’t know if I’m able to check out Little Black Book, since it’s available only on Amazon.co.uk (would be nice if we’d be able to purchase anything from any country’s Amazon, not just our own respective countries). But I’ve read something similar: Feminist Fight Club by Jessica Bennett. I purchased and read the Kindle ebook last year as a local book club reading in one of my women in tech-only meetups. I’ve been planning to write a small series of entries on The NINPOJineous regarding issues such as sexism in the workplace, especially in the tech industry, but my offline life has been preventing me from doing so.

    I seriously need to get back to decluttering too. So far, I’ve decluttered my clothes and donated half of them to my local St. Vincent de Paul charity. Now I need to declutter my brain. πŸ˜…

    Whew, that was a long comment. Looking forward to your August lady!

  6. Glad you had a great July, Pauline! So happy to see you achieving so much. You’ve definitely come a long way since last year and you should be so proud! Keep smashing those goals!

    It was so awesome meeting you and Holly on Saturday. You’re both just like you are on your blogs, which was great! If you come to Bradford again (or Leeds) let me know!

    I used to be the same with socialising, but this year I’m trying to make the most of every opportunity, even if it terrifies me. I missed out on so much during my time at uni through avoiding social events, and I don’t want to keep doing that.

    Your Gymshark posts make me want to start exercising just for the clothes. They’re so nice! Glad you had a great time at the event!

    Enjoy your holiday! And hope you make the most of your event-free week. You deserve some time off!

  7. Yay for holidays! My holidays are ending and I am getting back to school. Boohoohoo.

  8. Glad to see a lot of positive changes coming out of you over the past year. At this point, Gymshark better be sponsoring you with free gym wear with your passion over their goods ;). It’s great to see you having another good month :). When it comes to photography, we all have to start somewhere!

    I love it whenever I can apply my skills to things at work so I can totally relate with you on the applying skills part! It’s great that blogging helped you where you can make websites look lit ;). Good to hear that you’ve been having positive vibes all around!

    Keep on kicking butt, Pauline! Always put a smile to see you achieving good things~

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