A Day on the Wensleydale Railway

On Wednesday 6th of September it was my Dad's 60th Birthday, so being the dutiful daughter that I am I took they day off work so that we could spend the day together. My Sister is currently on Maternity Leave and my Brother in Law also managed to get away from work for the day and with my Parents newly retired we had a rare opportunity to spend the whole day out celebrating my Dad on his 60th Birthday together.

We had a bit of a tough time deciding on what we would do during the day as we have done quite a few of the local attractions near by to us. We had originally discussed going to Northumberlandia but this was quite far away from where we live and as we had plans for the evening for a meal with some of our family friends we thought it best to stay slightly more local. So instead we decided on the Wensleydale Railway which is much closer to where we live and also something we haven't done before.

The Wensleydale Railway is a volunteer run vintage railway running between Leeming Bar, just outside Northallerton to Redmire in the Yorkshire Dales. As well as running steam trains they also re-purpose old diesel trains and basically any vintage trains that they can get hold of are used.  We weren't lucky to be attending on a day when the Steam Trains are running but if you check the website they will have the dates advertised there subject to change because as im told steam trains arent always reliable but that just adds to their charm.

 As we were queuing up to get on the train there was a carriage being set up for afternoon tea which looked amazing and my Mum got talking to one of the volunteers and they say the afternoon tea train ride is very popular and books up months in advance so if this sounds like something you would like to do bear that in mind.  Also when we arrived there was a coach load of people arrived so we did worry that we may not get a seat for the five of us and my 3 month old nephew, but luckily there were more than enough seats to accommodate everyone and we settled in nicely. We had brought with us a little picnic to eat on our journey which felt very civilised and with the gorgeous scenery racing past it was a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.



We only had time to go as far as Leyburn a small dales market town on the line as we needed to get back home in enough time to get ready for our evening meal out with friends. When we arrived in Leyburn we took a steady walk into the town and had a cup of tea and a biscuit then a little wander around the shops before heading back to the station for our journey back to Leeming.

We all had a really lovely time and it was so nice too see parts of the local countryside you wouldn't normally get to see as it runs through some remote parts of the dales. All the staff and volunteers were very friendly and clearly passionate about the Wensleydale Railway. The Wensleydale Railway run themed events on the train throughout the year such as Gin Tasting, Hog Roast and Jazz Evenings and at Christmas they do Journeys where Santa joins passengers for some festive fun!

Life As An Open University Student - A Degree in International Studies

So I briefly touched on the subject of what I am studying with the Open University and that is International Studies. I want to talk about why I chose this particular subject and where I hope this degree will lead me in the future.

I've always had a keen interest in current affairs and in particular what is happening overseas and how this effects how we doings in the UK as well as wanting a career that will allow me to travel or work overseas it seemed that the right fir for me would be a job in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. I looked into the kind of qualifications diplomats and Embassy workers have and one that i saw pop up a few times was International Studies so i decided to look more into the subject area and decided that this was the degree that not only suited my career aspirations but also sound like something I I would want to study, I didn't want to have to force myself to go through the motions of getting a degree for the sake of it.

As I mentioned before I did look at doing this course through Leeds Beckett University part time but didn't want to work part time so I decided to go with the Open University and the flexibility that offered. As well as the flexibility to fir the learning around my full time job the open university gives you choice in the kinds of modules you can study which again was very appealing as you can tailor your overall degree to the areas within it that suit your interests.

The Open University covers a wide rage of topics under the umbrella of International Studies looking at areas such as International Development, Environmental Impacts, Living in a Globalised World, The British Isles and the Modern World and Understanding Politics in the Modern World to name a few. This means I can pick and choose the kind of topics i want to study as i move through each stage.

I am about to start the module International Development at Stage 2 which is the equivalent of second year if I was studying full time. I might discuss this particular topic in a separate post to give more info and details and also it gives me something else to write about haha!

I hope you enjoyed reading this post, are any of you looking to study with the OU? Or are you interested in International Studies? Let me know in the comments below.

Travel Inspiration - My Parents

There is no doubt about it, I get my desire to travel from my Mum and Dad! I have been travelling with them in some way shape or form since I was born and the places we have been to and experiences we have had are ones I'll never forget!

Both my parents grew up in families with little money and so were not able to travel widely and they both decided to join the Army when they were able to as a chance to travel and see the world which they have done by the bucket load since. Some of my earliest memories are of me, my mum and dad and sister piling into a car and going away whether that was to visit our family who live all over the UK or to Europe. One of my first holidays that I can remember was the four of us hoping on a ferry over to France to visit Disneyland Paris and also a caravan stop just South of Paris. We took games and had BBQ's it was so much fun.

When I was 6 my Dad was posted to Rinteln in Germany for three years and as a family we used this as a springboard to Europe travelling to Austria and Italy for summers away. I remember we went to Venice in the middle of Julys blistering heat and it was in the hotel pool that I found the confidence to swim with no armbands! Another holiday saw us travel to Austria with our caravan and we visited all the sites from the film the Sound of Music a family fave, me and my sister recreated the scene where the Von Trapp kids danced around a water fountain singing our heads off was such a laugh for us all.

When I was 12 my Dad reconnected with an old army friend of his that he lost touch with when he and his family moved out to Australia. This was in the early days of the internet and it was pure fluke that they made contact again. About a year after they found each other again our family flew out to Australia to spend 3 weeks with my dads friend and his kids and we all got on famously. Had my dad not reconnected with his friend I don't think I would have had such an amazing opportunity to travel so far at that age. My dad and his friend are still in contact now and his family have been out to see us and my mum and dad have gone back to Australia a second time.

Since myself and my sister have grown up my Mum and Dad have had a whole new lease on life heading abroad at least twice a year for holidays and trips away they always make sure they have a trip planned so they always come home to something to look forward to, a mantra I try to implement myself. They have been to so many different countries its unreal and so inspiring I want to see and experience as much of the world as my parents have and that is why they will always be my travel inspiration!

Who is your travel inspiration? Why do they inspire you to travel? Please let me know in the comments section.

Life As and Open University Student - Why the OU

Photo by Tran Mau Tri Tam on Unsplash

As you may or may not be aware I am two years in to a six year course studying for a degree in International Studies with the Open University. If you are not aware aware of how the Open University works the basic premise is that you study for various qualifications from home part time for the most part fitting in study around your life and work.

Studying in this way allows me to continue to keep my full time job and work towards a qualification that I hope will open more doors for me in the future. When at the age of 26 I finally decided what direction I wanted to take my career in after seven years working in administration for both local and national government I knew that a degree in International Studies would be the best option for me. I looked at doing a degree part time at Leeds Beckett University but that would have meant that I would have to have dropped hours at my job to part time to accommodate this, I wasn't earning much at this point and the thought of taking a pay cut at that time in my life was not feasible I had bills to pay and life etc. so this was when I looked at the Open University.

I had heard of the Open University before and so I took a look at their website and low and behold there it was International Studies, as soon as I knew I could study part time from home and I could also keep working full time too it was a no brainer and I set about filling out all the necessary forms to get me started. I'm lucky in that the job I have is a Monday to Friday 9-5 kind of job so I can fit studying into my life pretty easily.

Because I had been out of full time study for a few years it was recommended that I do what they called an access course which would give me the credits I would need to study at degree level, now I'm not entirely sure how the credit system works but it made sense at the time. So I started my access course in the October of 2014 and finished in the May of 2015. I passed that course with a distinction which I was pretty happy about and I'm glad that I did this access course as it gave me a good idea of what to expect from learning with the Open University remotely talking to tutors over the phone or via email it was a good insight.

Since completing the access course I have completed two years of my actual study for my degree this is known as stage one and is the equivalent to one full year at a normal university. I have passed both these modules so far but as these two modules were compulsory and covered a very board subject area  for students that will go on to study Criminology, Psychology as well as my subject of International Studies I found it difficult to motivate myself to actually sit down and read and submit the assignments as these are areas that do not interest me whatsoever. Ill be completely honest I kind of winged it these past two modules putting in the bare minimum effort purely because I just wasn't interested in what they were trying to teach me.

I'm excited to start my next module this October with the module topic being International Development. This topic is definitely the kind of subject I want to get my teeth into so I'm hoping this will help keep me motivated to sit down and put the effort in.