Counselling Psychology PsychD Year 1

September 2014 - July 2015
I have come to the end of my first year of my Counselling Psychology Doctorate. It has been one intense year of studying, placements, supervision and constant learning. Although, it has been a busy year, overall it has been exciting. It has gone so quickly, I wonder where the year has gone. 

I have had to make so many sacrifices and money has been a struggle. I have worked hard this year, and I do hope I am able to continue and complete the course. 

Year 1 Costs (Approximately): 
Cost of DBS Check via the university: £55
Cost of Therapy: £700
Cost of Fee's: £7000
Cost of Travel: £700
Cost of Books: £150
Cost of BPS Graduate Member & in division of Counselling Psych training: £65

Cost of Indemnity Insurance: £46.65
Cost of External Supervision: £150 
Cost of Audio Device: £35

Greece 2014

Greece 2014
Athens - Mykonos - Santorini

Greece Bound!

It was the third time on our annual sister holiday! We decided to head to the Greek Islands - Athens, Mykonos and Santorini. It was very tiring by the end of our trip as there was a lot of hopping about but it was expected. A personal favourite was Mykonos, perhaps because of the hotel we stayed in. However, I did loved it all! 

We booked the package via Fantasy Travel which included all the tickets (minus flights) but it was very professional, friendly, hassle free and overall I would rate them 8/10 and would recommend it to a friend. 

We departed from Heathrow T5 at 12.50PM, it was a nice flight and we even had a spot of lunch! I managed to watch Spiderman on flight which was good as the film ended, it was time to get off the plane. We arrived in Athens and was greeted by a Fantasy Travel representative. She was very nice and friendly and took us to our taxi and to our hotel. During the taxi ride, she explained to us what was the plan over the next 10 days in the islands, handed us the tickets and gave us tips and information about Greece. She was very good and even suggested some nice things to do. We spent 3 nights in total in Athens but two for the first part of our trip and one more for the last night of our trip as we was departing from Athens. 

Acropolis Museum

Lost the tour! Because we was too busy taking pictures

Athens is a nice city, surrounded by ruins and statues of Greek Gods and mythology. Our package included a half day city tour. The half day city tour included visiting the Acropolis, Acropolis Museum, Temple of Zeus which was very good. The only problem was that it was a 7.30am pick up from the hotel but at least transport was sorted. Our tour guide was good, he was informative but personally I got a bit bored after a while. The tour was good in the way it gave us a choice of either at 1pm to meet back at the coach car park or to just be free to do what we wanted to. We had decided to explore after so we actually disconnected with the tour group once we got to the Acropolis. It was good fun and very hot! We had a nice lunch at the Museum and a nice refreshment once we came down from the Acropolis. 

We escaped!!

Before the holiday, I had googled some fun stuff to do, Trip Advisor had suggested a few things and one in particular caught my eye - Adventure Rooms. I had recently participated in one similar in Amsterdam and thought this would be something great to do. I booked it online before coming to Greece so our challenge now was to locate this place. It wasn't easy. We had to get there for 5pm and almost stopped at every free wifi spot to check if we was heading in the right direction! It was a good adventure! The point of Adventure rooms is that you are locked in a room which you are to solve clues in order to escape. You had 60 minutes to do so. Now, before we came here I read that the escape rate was only 30% and stated not everyone will escape. Only I had participated in a similar one before and for both my sisters this was a new experience. What I really loved about this Escape room was that it had more complicated tasks and a variety of practical tasks, it was very much working together, shouting out clues and calling each other 'dumb' and having a really good laugh doing so. The fact we was handcuffed at the beginning really made you think on your feet. I absolutely loved it. I won't spoil it for anyone who wants to have a go, but definitely that was a great part of our trip. We did managed to escape with about 10 minutes spare. The lady's were surprised and impressed that we managed to escape but I felt it was because my sisters and I together we do work very well together as a team and also we played a lot of video games that require strategic thinking.

Athens from above

Sunset

We then decided to visit Lycabettus Hill as the Fantasy Travel lady suggested to us it was really nice. At the time, we didn't know what Hill it was and assumed it was the closer one to us, to find that this was not the case and that we had walked about over an hour to the wrong hill. We ended up back at the Acropolis where we decided to hitch a taxi ride. We got there and good thing we did, because it looked like a mission to walk there! We watched the sunset over Athens then had some dinner at the restaurant there (K Grill). It was a beautiful city at night and food was amazing too! The toilets there were very unique where the wash basin had flown into a line of stones and you had used fresh towels to dry your hands. It was nice. Our first full day in Athens was very adventurous, productive and fun! We had a long day ahead of us tomorrow as we was setting off to Mykonos at 6AM.

The next morning, 6AM start and we had to be downstairs at the lobby for our transfer to the port. It was a slight struggle to get up and out but we managed it. We had to be all packed and checked out too. The ferry was here and it felt really strange to me, it almost felt like we was being shipped into another country as immigrants. It was still dark, slightly breezy and you could hear the engine of the ferry and frankly we didn't know where we was going, not really. It was all unfamiliar turf and the fantasy travel representative also picked it up and told us not to be so scared and that it was alright. She was also a very friendly lady and very welcoming. 

Grand Beach Hotel

Finally, we arrived in Mykonos and was greeted by the Grand Beach Hotel driver at the port. He was slightly late and we thought we was stuck for a while. Whilst waiting, we called the our Fantasy Travel representative who did pick up but as we managed to speak to her, the driver arrived. He took us to our hotel which was amazing. We was too early to check in but the lady at the hotel told us we could use the outdoor swimming pool while we waited and the bar. My younger sister and I pondered a bit but decided we should and would take this opportunity and not waste time. There was no one else in the pool and it was so relaxing and I fell in love with this feeling. We got a few drinks and then went for a swim. It was so fun. My sister tried to teach me how to float as I don't know why I am unable to do this but it was such a laugh especially that we was a little intoxicated. It was beautiful. 

Pano of the beach

We also headed down the the beach which was about a 5 minute walk downhill. It was a quite beach and a little stoney but the sea was good and clear. We finally checked in and spent the rest of the day just sunbathing, swimming, drinking and just relaxing. We had some food from the hotel and the staff were so friendly. I really did enjoy the ambience.

In the evening, we decided to take a trip to Town. We headed there by foot which was 10 minutes but the roads at night can be a little dangerous. You really had to stick to the edge when cars and bikes were passing. There was limited street lights too which was a bit scary. We made it into town and bought a few snacks and little bits and saw the infamous windmills. It was quite lively down town which was nice. We also booked a trip to Delos for tomorrow which sounded good. 

Mount Kynthos

View from the top

We was driven to the port to depart for Delos by the hotel driver and he told us which ferry we had to get on. He was very helpful. We boarded our ferry and soon was off. The tour was very good. The lady was great and I did enjoy the tour very much! The only problem was there was an annoying kid that was making a fuss and attention seeking at any opportunity and their parents didn't do anything. Other than that, it was very good and there was an opportunity to climb Mount Kynthos we decided to do it! How exciting that was to do! It was very steep at parts and some loose rocks here and there which made it quite scary especially with my run down very little grip trainers. But then there were people attempting it with flip flops. It was an experience and to reach the top looking over Delos was picturesque. 

We got the ferry back to Mykonos and stopped at Little Venice for a spot of fresh seafood lunch which I must say was amazing!! It was so good! I had a calami filled with feta cheese. We also had some drinks with our meal and the waiter had gave us some Oozo to try. It was a bad idea that I mixed these. I was very tipsy and in the heat wasn't a good thing at all! We walked back to the hotel passing some windmills which we took a break and I was very woozy. We made it to the hotel where I ended up having to take a nap because the alcohol was a bit overload for me while my sisters went for a swim and a sunbathe. I loved this hotel because it was quiet and peaceful. After my nap, I felt so much better and immediately jumped out and joined my sisters. We finished up at the pool and then got ready and headed into town for dinner. It was lovely sunset stroll into town. We stayed out until quite late in town and stopping by to have some greek yoghurt. 

The next morning was sadly our last in Mykonos. We had breakfast and checked out and chilled. We then had to head to the port to catch our ferry to Santorini. We sat by the pool with drinks until then. We arrived in Santorini not too long after, and there was no Fantasy Travel Representatives but were told we would meet someone from Bellonias Travel. This lady wasn't very good I thought. She rushed us and made the whole experience a bit abrupt. She also told us not to book any excursions with the hotel as the staff were 'only receptionists' and that we was to book it via her through Whatsapp. She gave us a few leaflets and stuff to read over. Once we got into our hotel, it was a very nice villa and very different. I wasn't used to it and didn't initially like it at all. It had a cold feeling to it and I just didn't feel very comfortable. We decided to go down to the hotel staff and check out what excursions there were to the Volcano in particular. We decided to ignore the instructions from the lady as she was quite rude and booked a trip to the Volcano via the hotel which was much cheaper and hassle free. This set off tomorrow so we spent the rest of the day (which wasn't a lot) just chilling. We was also told that we had arrived on the annual celebrations of the Volcano and there was going to be a buffet celebration at the hotel tomorrow evening. We decided to book that too. 

Dreamcatcher

Swim

The next day, after our breakfast we headed out to catch the free bus ride from the hotel to town. We got on to our boat ran by Dreamcatcher in The Caldera which was a lovely style boat. We passed the white, red beaches on the boat and enjoyed an unlimited drink on board and a delicious cooked greek meal. It was fantastic! We also had an opportunity to go for a dip in the sea where they provided noodles (floaters) which was perfect for me! We also was able to swim right close to the volcano which was an unique experience! Absolutely recommend it! 

Dinner with a view

Fireworks

After a lovely experience, we was greeted with a bus back to our hotel at the dock. We headed back to the hotel and did some last minute sunbathing and swimming in the outdoor pool! We then spruced up and made our way to where they had tables set up for us to enjoy a buffet and watch the fireworks. They had a lovely live singer while the sun was setting. We ordered a bottle of wine between the three of us and we enjoyed some nibbles and bread before the buffet. The fireworks was a celebration of how Santorini first came about which was an volcano eruption which created Santorini. It was a lovely evening and the food was good! So full! 

Lost!

Santorini

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel and slept off the wine! It was a tiring day but a very enjoyable one. The next day we headed to Oia by foot. Well that was the plan. On trip advisor it said it would take about 4 hours. We decided to try it with the instructions we had got from the internet earlier. This was a trek and a half. We managed fine and even made it to one of the other towns but by 2 hours we was completely stuck and lost. At one point it looked like a deserted dessert area which was not good especially that the temperatures were reaching about 30 plus degrees! We had so much water along the way too but despite the heat and getting lost, we managed to see the funny side of it. We eventually gave up and asked someone who suggested it was not a good idea to walk as there was steep hills and the bus would probably be a safer option. We decided to take the bus. We got there and was actually relieved we did not choose to walk as we didn't follow this trail and would have ended up on the dangerous roads with hardly any walking pedestrian space. Exhausted and tired we was glad we had made it to Oia. With all the sunsets we had seen already, we wasn't willing to wait to see another one, even though it was said it was one of the best places to see sunset. We had some lunch at the restaurants there which was over seeing Oia and the infamous blue tops of Santorini which was lovely. We then headed back to the hotel were we stopped at the town to do some shopping and then swimming back at the hotel for one last time. We had to pack and the next day was our last night in Athens before we flew back to the UK.

Bread with olive oil and cuttlefish ink

Beetroot cooked in different ways

Steak

We checked out and headed to the port via the transfer. It was all smooth. By this point we were sick of travelling on ferries and packing and unpacking, we had one more long ferry ride from Santorini to Athens. We arrived in Athens in the evening where we decided to stay in the hotel to watch some TV and then go to try the rooftop restaurant at the hotel. It was a great idea. We was starving and the restaurant was gourmet. Amazing food! Really cooked to perfection and with an amazing view. When we got back to the hotel, we was mostly packed and got our documents ready for check out tomorrow. 

Changing of the guards

National Gardens

We checked out at the hotel the next morning and then we decided to make the most of our last day in Athens and went to the National Gardens which was about 20 minute walk from our hotel. We spent time exploring the National Gardens which was very pretty but loads of flies! and also passed the Parliament where we managed to watch the changing of the guards. After we headed back to the hotel and sat in the cafe area for a bit until it was time to get our stuff and be taken to the airport. It was a wonderful trip and despite being tired and moving from one island to the other, I had some really unique experiences. Definitely enough days at each island and great service and organisation with Fantasy Travel! 

Video of our time on the Greek Islands See Here

Brown's

Location: Browns, Canary Wharf

Meal: Bavette steak Frites with peppercorn sauce (£14) 

Price: £14

Browns is a nice cosy yet elegant restaurant the steak was good and as were the fries. It was cooked to my preference but didn't exceed some other places I have had steak. Nevertheless, it was good! Company was excellent, service was good just that the waiter wasn't too good when it came to instructions with a surprise birthday cake. 

An overall rating 7/10.

Flat Iron

Location: Flat Iron, 17 Beak St, Soho, London, W1F 9RW

Meal: Flat Iron Steak with house salad (£10) Fries  (£2.50), Salted Popcorn on arrival (Free), Béarnaise Sauce (£1.00)

Price: £13.50

Flat Iron gives you a slightly different dining experience but comes with great food. I must admit, it wasn't as filling as much, but I guess I did plan to have dessert else where so it was probably a good thing. Sadly there is no reservations and we had to wait about 30minutes. On arrival, you are seated where there is space (We was sat on a table between two other pairs, which wasn't ideal but nevertheless we was seated). You are given a jug of tap water and a cup of salted popcorn to start. The menu is very simple and once you are ready, you can order. I ordered the Flat Iron steak medium rare and it was very good. The meat was tender and it comes with a small cleaver looking knife as opposed to a steak knife. The steak came sliced so I didn't need the knife really but it was fun to use for a bit. The chips I really enjoyed too. It was a bit noisy but the food was definitely on point. The salad was very nice too. No complaints regarding food!  

An overall rating 9/10.

Flat Iron Steak

Amsterdam 2014

One evening we was having gourmet hot dogs and champagne when the idea came to us and we decided to pencil a date in and a few months later we booked the hotel and flights and off we went… 14 years of friendship and this was our first holiday away together.

Love 'em

Friday 25^th July 2014

At 7.30am, I left my house and into the cab. The cab picked all of us up and we headed towards Gatwick North Terminal. Our flight was at 10.50am and we arrived in good time. Despite being extremely tired, I was rather excited. We checked in, went through security, spent some time in duty free and made our way to the gate. When we was boarding the plane, there was a familiar face that I passed but I couldn’t quite work out who he was. Afterwards, we worked it out and we were boarding the same flight as Robin Van Persie. What a coincident! We decided to play a game were we would make up a name and an occupation. We had Scout the infector, the environmentalist; Liz the undecided, the diving instructor; Sky the crackhead, the voice over actor; Brooke the grump, the journalist for glam magazine. 

After some snacks on the plane, we had arrived in Amsterdam. The plane journey was very quick and took about 45-50minutes. When we arrived in Amsterdam we went out and took some pictures. There was some rain but only drizzle. We managed to find ourselves a cab driver that was around at the time and we asked him to take us to our hotel.

We stayed at The Golden Tulip West (Molenwerf 1, 1014 AG). It was about 20minutes from the airport. The hotel looked good from the outside and inside. It felt clean, spacious and the staffs were friendly. We arrived at 14.00pm and checked into our quadruple room. It was a lovely room. They had electronic doorbells, which I have never seen before. We unloaded our suitcases and all chose our beds. There was one double bed and two singles next to each other. We decided to get planning on what our days. We had taken some discount tickets and leaflets on the way up to the hotel too, to help us out with things to do. We checked the weather and also times and we marked things on the map. We had a rough plan of what we wanted to do, when we wanted to do them and where it was. It was a packed weekend but seemed very exciting. As we have been all friends for a long time and we trust each other, we thought it would be a good idea to have a ‘kitty’. This was one purse that we all put X amount of money in it every day and whenever we did activities or ate, we just used money from there. It was just a much simpler idea. Everyone agreed it was a good idea.

Trying to find our way 

Shortly after we decided to head into town by foot and grab some food. We wasn’t really listening to the directions and ended up talking to locals who directed us in the right direction. It was raining and we was hungry but it didn’t dampen our spirits. We got lost a little but stumbled across a restaurant that had nice décor and was reasonably priced. We sat down and had some late lunch. After a nice meal and refuelling our tanks, we walked into town, which, by now it wasn’t that far. We did intend on going to the Anne Frank House, however the queue looked ridiculously long and we wasn’t feeling a long wait so we decided to go take a boat ride along the canal. It was a nice boat trip, which lasted about an hour and 15 minutes. It had started raining hard during our boat ride and luckily it wasn’t as heavy when the boat trip ended. We did plan to go to the zoo but we decided that the weather conditions were not appropriate for going to the zoo. 

Boat Trip

We decided to go back to the hotel and to find a supermarket. The cab driver was nice enough to drop us off by a supermarket and then take us back to the hotel with no extra charge. Once we got back to the hotel, we messed around, drank and snacked, in between trying to get ready to go out. We all got dressed up and off we went to the red light district. It was busy and very strange to see these women in the windows dancing seductively. We then stopped at chip shop and had some famous chips and then a coffee shop and had some brownies. To me, it tasted really good. I couldn’t taste anything else but chocolate brownies. After the brownies, we asked around for a club that played RnB/Urban music. We were given the name Smokey’s. So the hunt had begun. We asked around and was told this way, that way, over there and after a long walk from place to place and asking around, we found the club.

It was a nice cosy club playing some good songs; one friend became a bit paranoid and was acting strange. One, felt dizzy and we needed to sit by the outside and I didn’t feel any effects. I was fine, maybe a bit dazed but I was aware of everything and no symptoms of any substance taking. Along the way to the hotel, I had a small moment of relaxed feeling but that feeling didn’t last long and it could have been because I was relaxed. I had no worries, no work and just enjoying myself in a different country with friends.

At about 2am, we decided to leave the club. We were peckish and somehow we made our way to a Burger King and got some food. We ate and then waved a taxi down and got back to the hotel. I was shattered and did not have any will power to stay awake. I completely K.O’d.

Saturday 26^th July 2014

I felt ok, I got up around 8-9am, and we got ready, as we had booked Room of Riddles for 11am. We didn’t have time for breakfast so we decided to eat after. We called the hotel to get us a cab for about 10.15am, which they did. We all were ready and arrived outside the Room Of Riddles a little earlier. We decided to take some pictures and then we called and got in.

The Room of Riddles was a very fun. The idea is that you are locked in a room and the key is in a locked safe with a code. The code is then hidden in the clues within the room, which you had to find and use logic to work out. It was very exciting and we worked well as a team and were told we found the first clue very fast. We definitely recommend it but I cant say more otherwise it ruins the fun.

Room Of Riddles

Hot dogs

Waffels

After the room of riddles, we got a Tram into Rembrandt Square, we saw hot dogs and we had to have that for lunch as that is how the idea of going to Amsterdam came about. The weather was good today and it was quite sunny and warm but rain was expected later. We got some hot dogs and we decided to get some waffles too. As we finished our lunch, it started to rain. It was quite heavy and so we stayed under shelter for a little while. We then looked at the map and Heineken experience wasn’t too far, so we decided to walk with our umbrella’s to the Heineken Experience.

Heineken

We arrived and there wasn’t much of a queue, which was good. It was better than we expected. There was a variety of things to do and learnt a few things about Heineken. It was great fun, it was a shame that none of us were big beer drinkers as you get two drinks free with the admission fee.

As we came out the queue had grown, thankfully we came earlier. The weather had brightened up and it was warm. We decided to hit up the zoo. We got a taxi to the zoo. We all was tired so we decided to go into the planetarium first. It was dark and a show was about to start. The man told us it would be in Dutch but we was welcome to stay to watch the visual effects. We decided to stay. The dim lights made us restless, where my friend actually fell asleep and started to snore. I couldn’t help but laugh. Shortly she woke up and we decided to leave the show. We left via the back door and we stopped for a toilet break and to refresh ourselves before seeing the zoo animals. We walked around the zoo and took pictures. It was lovely. I enjoyed it.

We headed back to the hotel and chilled after the zoo and we decided to just have a break. We made use of the coffee machine and we just sat about and spoke about life. It was really nice to do that, as we don’t get many opportunities to get to know each other as much now that we are all grown up with different jobs and busier lives.

Silly hotel moments

We got ready to go out and were an hour later than planned as we was too busy talking. We ended up eating at 11pm at a really nice steakhouse.  I ordered lamb chops and it was one, if not the best lamb chops I have ever had. It was really good. We wanted to head to the ice bar for some drinks before hitting up a club but when we arrived at Ice Bar, all bookings for the night were full. We decided to go straight to the club. We ended up going to a club called Abe, which was nice. It played some old school RnB and some urban music. We didn’t leave until about 3am and we had ordered a few drinks and I was definitely feeling it. I didn’t feel sick but was feeling rather tipsy. I again KO’d when we got back to the hotel. I tried to pack before I went to sleep which I managed it a little.

Sunday 27^th July 2014

I woke up around 8.30am and felt extremely hung over. My head was still spinning and I was still a little disoriented with a small headache lingering. I made a coffee hoping I would wake up a little, which sort of helped. We all finished packing and checked out of the hotel. We left our luggage with the hotel and decided to go to the Anne Frank House. The queue was probably worse then the first day we arrived but we waited, as it was something we wanted to see. We queue for 2 hours but had taken turns to leave the queue for a bit of browsing. We played some games to kill some time. Two hours later, we were at the front of the queue. The house was much bigger than I imagined.

After Anne Frank House we went to a well-known Pancake house, we had some Dutch pancakes. It was yummy! We had a bit of time to kill so we decided to walk back towards the red light district and go into a sex shop. We found a sex shop and went in for a nose. It was rather strange, not awkward though. It was rather funny. We then stumbled across a temple. We went in and learnt a little bit about the Buddhism and lit an incense stick each. We also stopped by a market place and did some shopping and had a look. We still had time to kill but we decided we would go back to the hotel lounge and chill on the chairs. We got a taxi back to the hotel and had about 30-40minutes to kill. We was just using the Wi-Fi and just talking. We then called a taxi to the airport, collected our luggage’s and off we went. We had some food at the airport and before we knew it, it was time to fly. Our plane left on time, 20:55pm. We got back to London but had to wait for a cab that took about 50minutes to come. We finally got home around midnight.

The trip to Amsterdam was jam packed and full of fun. It was definitely a memorable one! I had a lot of fun despite being extremely tired. Great trip and at a reasonable cost.

Total cost of trip for 4 of us -  £792.32 (Including flights and hotel, a quadruple room, for 2 nights) that is £198.08 each. Deal found on lastminute.com

I Amsterdam

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smbMOOW-eWc