Welcome to The Hearth. This space is dedicated to personal reflections and life outside of academic research. Browse the posts below for insights into my daily routines, navigating life as a neurodivergent PhD candidate, and finding balance beyond the university.
-
The Survival Game – Singer
I picked up The Survival Game by Nicky Singer because the cover and title reminded me of The Hunger Games. As I started reading I realised very quickly that even though this is a dystopian novel about survival, it is very different from The Hunger Games. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, in fact, it’s the…
-
2019’s Resolutions
There’s a bit of a stigma around the concept of New Year Resolutions. For example, if your resolution is to get fit then you’re likely to cop some flack about being one of those “revolutioners” that flood the gyms from the 2nd of January to about the 2nd of February and then never show up…
-
The Belles – Clayton
The Belles was rather popular on Instagram earlier this year; I suspect this was because of the beautiful cover. Due to its popularity, I was intrigued enough to give it a go and I’m really glad I did. Since then I have recommended it to a few students in year 9 and they too, have…
-
Instagram Algorithm Troubles
I am pretty active on Instagram. I share: What I’m reading and loving My training progress The animals in my life My thoughts on mental wellbeing And so much more… It’s not my goal to grow my profile into the 10s of thousands of followers, but I do take a small amount of pride in…
-
I sing because I’m happy
At the end of my blog post “Mental Health Reflection” I promised a follow up about the benefits of singing for depression. Well, here it is! My psychologist suggested to me that as I have a background in singing, that I might like to start singing once a day for at least 20mins. She didn’t…
-
Book Club Fun
The ladies at my gym, to whom we refer to as Valkyries, had been bugging me for weeks to start up a book club. I finally pulled my finger out and organised it. I chose three books for them to vote on, recorded myself talking about them (I’d only read one of the three so…
-
Science Fiction becomes science
Science Fiction is one of my favourite genres, in fact, I’m finding that I’m reading and watching more Sci-Fi than anything else at the moment. I think one of the reasons I love it is because Science Fiction is quite often a precursor to the leaps and bounds of Science. An example of this is…
-
Fuzzy Mud – Sachar
When I first started at Mount Alvernia College in 2016, I was asked to take over the Readers Cup team. One of the books that year was Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar. Since reading it, I have recommended it to countless students and it is rarely on our shelves. I thought it was about time…
-
Murder Most Unladylike – Stevens
I read Murder Most Unladylike because we’ve had an increasing number of students in years 7 and 8 asking for “murder mysteries.” I have no real idea as to why these types of stories are becoming popular again, but as an avid reader of Agatha Christie in my early teens, I cannot complain! And so,…