2018 so far

2017 and 2018 have flown by (so much so that I haven't updated the blog in over a year)!! But here is a snipped of the things we have been doing over the past year.

Last August Beckie handed in her dissertation and finished her masters of laws at the LSE. Just before hand-in we took a trip to Scotland where we went on a road trip from Edinburgh to the Isle of Skye and back. It was absolutely gorgeous.

We also took an impromptu trip to Oxford for the weekend in July. 

Beckie and Ruth went to London for afternoon tea for Beckie's birthday in August. 

Beckie started working at the Law Commission of England and Wales as a research assistant on the criminal law team in September. She was initially working on the misconduct in public office and search warrants projects but moved to the anti-money laundering project in January. 

In september Chris started his penultimate year of uni at Sussex. It quickly became apparent that the quality of teaching at Sussex had gone downhill and because of this Chris has decided to transfer to the Open University as of Autumn 2019. He will be finishing out his degree in electronic engineering part-time (graduating 2020) because its a new degree for the uni not all the final year modules are available yet. 

On our 2nd anniversary we took a trip to Ashdown Park (where we got married) for dinner. When we were picking out wedding venues I made Chris promise that we would go back every year for dinner as our special tradition. 

In January we took a special trip to Florida for our 2nd Anniversary. We spent the week at WaltDisneyWorld and it was wonderful. Because it was January the parks were pretty quiet and it wasn't too hot (but it was still pretty warm). 

Chris was fortunate enough to get two internships this summer. The first was a two week placement with Teach First. Chris spent a week in London at head office learning about how to teach and then a week at a school in Leeds teaching KS3 science. Teach First called in July to offer him a graduate job starting 2019. However, we are unsure whether he will accept it as he needs to discuss a 2020 start instead. 

Straight after finishing his Teach First internship Chris started a 3 month placement at Hoare Lea who are an engineering consultancy company. They mostly do building services engineering and have some awesome projects (including the Qatar world cup stadium!!) 

In July Beckie went to the Netherlands to visit Heidi (her friend from Sussex Uni) they went to Leiden (where Heidi lived), Amsterdam and the Hague. 

March 2017

- At the start of the month we saw Russell Howard in London at the Royal Albert Hall, it was great, very funny but also quite serious at the same time. We can also now say we have been on the stage at the Royal Albert Hall as that was where we were seated as there was essentially a circular platform Russell stood on and did a 360 degree performance.

- Met up with Karen and Paul for Karen's birthday in London, went to the sky garden for lunch. The view was amazing but it made Beckie feel pretty sick. We then went for a walk around the river banks and visited a lovely old church and its crypt.

-  Beckie got invited to interview with the Law Commission.  She thinks the interview went okay but sadly the day of the interview was the Westminster terror attacks and I was fortunate to be back the LSE by the time anything happened. Beckie will hear back from the Law Commission in Mid-April so fingers crossed.

- Beckie also put in a last min application to Sussex for PhD. Had some supervisor drama at Kings. My original supervisor was not available anymore and I had two weeks to find a new supervisor. One the 14th day I heard back from an alternative supervisor an have an interview with her in April exciting things.

- We now both know our exam timetables so we have finally gotten round to booking our summer holiday. We are off on a road trip to Scotland and very excited. Were going for a week and flying in and out of Edinburgh. We plan on hiring a car whilst up there and driving up to highlands.

February 2017

February has felt pretty busy. Beckie submitted her PhD application to Kings and applied for the law commissions so hoping one of the two works out. Chris had an awards ceremony for his IET scholarship he was awarded last year (below is a picture of him and the rest of the people who got the same scholarship as him).

February means valentines day, we decided to go pretty low key this year having a lovely dinner at home (curtsey of waitrose). 

At the end of the month we went to the Harry Potter Studios with our friends Merry and Curtis. Though it was kinda pricey the tour lasted so much longer than we expected we spend 4 hours there and could have spent longer but for the fact they were closing. 

January 2017

Another month, another year. Life seems to be passing by so quickly for us both. The month started where the last ended at Beckie's parents in Cambridge. It was lovely to relax there over the holidays but we had to come back to Brighton for Chris' exams which started very early. Sadly Chris had an exam on our anniversary so we went out for dinner the night after. When we chose to get married at Ashdown we decided upon a tradition of dining there every year for our anniversary and so this January was the start of that tradition. We got all dressed up for an amazing evening of devious food. We had an amuse bouche to start that was a boiled egg with a chive filling instead of the yolk. following that we had our starters where I had a mushroom soup delightfully served to my bowl at the table and Chris had a balloting. For the mains I had duck (no surprises there) and Chris had the steak but before these were served we had sorbet to cleanse out pallets, it was a tart lime and mint (it was like having a frozen mojito). We had got chatting to our server before our dessert and mentioned it was our anniversary having got married at Ashdown the previous year and they brought out a little surprise with our Banoffee pie deserts.

Other than our trip to Ashdown for our anniversary January was pretty low key Beckie was back at school early on and Chris has a global design challenge competition he was involved in (and won the round of). Chris also was awarded a google scholarship to learn how to code android which as super exciting.

November + December 2016

November was quite a quiet month for us both. We were generally just pushing through to the end of term as both of us had pretty busy workloads that month. Beckie has been working hard on fine-tuning her PhD applications and has found someone who seems to be a good match to be her supervisor. She should know the outcome of her applications early next spring.

December started out on a high when Chris discovered he had been awarded a Scholarship by the IET (the accreditation body for his degree) which will not only help financially but also provide networking opportunities. In February Chris will get to attend an awards ceremony in London to receive his award.

At Stake Conference we both got new callings. Beckie is now 2nd Counsellor on the stake primary presidency and Chris has been called as a stake young mens advisor. We are both excited and a little nervous about the new challenge.

After term finished to celebrate Chris' birthday we went to Belgium for a few days. We caught the Eurostar to Brussels spending two nights there exploring the city. We found these awesome free walking tours that take you around the city's main historian sites.

We then caught a train to Brugge where we had the opportunity to try even more traditional food (rabbit for Chris and beef stewed in beer for Beckie). The following morning we did a walking tour of the 'legends of Brugge' which provided some interesting and some what comical insights to the major sites within Brugge.

We then caught the train back to Brussels for our final night. As a treat for Chris' birthday Beckie surprised Chris with a stay at a gorgeous traditional Belgian hotel (which looked like something out of a Poirot film) and we had dinner there for Chris' birthday. We then went to the main square where in the evening they play waltz music and people dance around the christmas tree.

The next day we went and got waffles for breakfast (we though it wrong to not have had any at all during the trip). We then went to the Cathedral for a tour around there as it was the last key site we wanted to go to. They had nativity sets from all around the world displayed but there was one that we particularly liked. On the display it said "come closer to the pond and see the temple where I wish to build my crib'. The pond was a mirror which when you came close showed your own reflection.

A couple of days after getting back from Belgium we then headed up to Blackpool to pick up Beckie's granny to bring her to Beckie's parents house for christmas. We spent the Christmas and New Years period with Beckie's family having celebrated with Chris' at a family meal the week before our holiday. We are now spending the rest of the christmas holidays revising (Chris has 3 exams in January) and writing papers (Beckie has one essay and PhD applications to finalise). 

Overall December has felt like a very busy month (especially when compared to November) but we are looking forward to the new year. 

Merry christmas and a happy new year from the Scotts. 

October 2016

October was a fun month, we are both getting into the rhythm of school now and Chris has started to get a mountain of assignments but is working through them well and got a first in the first assessment.

At the start of October we were planning on moving to St. Leonards in an endeavour to save money on housing. However, sadly our property fell through due to our student status and we were advised by local estate agents that it was not a good area for students. Fortunately our landlord in Brighton was very understanding.

We had the opportunity to go and visit Chris' cousin Anthony and his wife Christine in Eton. They are a wonderful couple and we really enjoy their friendship. Anthony is an Engineering (and Chris is studying Engineering) whilst Christine did her bachelors in Law (like Beckie). We played board games and enjoyed a scenic tour of Eton and Windsor including the castle.

Chris is currently working part-time around his studies at a McDonalds store in Brighton. Like everything Chris does he puts his whole into it and at the end of October he discovered that he was employee of the month. In addition he has also been asked to work towards a promotion. He has a few online tasks he has to complete but once they are done he will officially be a crew trainer. 

Beckie has been working hard on her PhD applications and has spent countless hours fine-tuning her research proposal. Now the challenging stage is finding a suitable supervisor. She too has had a heavy world with her studies and will be glad when PhD application season is over in January.

For halloween we had the opportunity to host a fun halloween party with a group of our friends. We ate halloween themed food, played several games including 'witches scattegories', charades and a quiz. It was a great way to celebrate halloween and hopefully we can hope a party next year as well.

That was our October for the most part :) 

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

John 14:27

Married life so far ....

Its hard to believe ten months have passed since our wedding day, at times it barley feels like a month. Perhaps because the past 10 months has been pretty hectic. We thought we would share what we have been up to over the past months.

End of January- Paris
We headed to Disneyland Paris for our honeymoon. We weren't even sure if we were going to be able to go away as Chris' uni released his exam timetable so late. We were in France for three nights and rode the metro to the city centre for a day excursion. Whilst in Paris city we went for lunch at the lovely Laduree and due to the cold winter chill opted for once of the tour buses to guide us around all the touristy sites. Security was hyped up in the park due to recent terror attacks in Europe and whilst we were in the city, a man was found in the hotel next to where we were staying was found with a gun, we were very glad to not be in the Park that day.

May- Temple sealing

In May we decided to get 'sealed' in the temple which is were we make vows (similar to those at our wedding) to be with each other for 'all time and eternity', it was a beautiful ceremony and day. We invited our close family and fiends to a celebratory meal afterwards. Whilst Mum and Dad were down we also took the opportunity to Nymanns a local National Trust property. 

In June Beckie started her first graduate job in London working for an Independent Financial Advisor firm. Sadly it relatively quickly became apparent that this was not a job she wanted to stay in long term and so worked until the summer was over, having decided to commence a masters in September.  July Beckie graduated from her Law Degree at the Univeristy of Sussex with a First. It was a great experience and we are looking forward to when it is Chris' day. 

In August we visited Centre Parcs for Beckie's 21st with Karen and Paul, it was lovely to relax by the pool, play badminton, go bowling, crazy golf and play board games. We all needed a well deserved rest for hectic life. 

In September both of us started back at school. Chris having transferred from Brighton to Sussex and Beckie starting her masters at the London School of Economics meant some adjusting for us both to do. Life has gotten quite busy since then with studies, part time work, PhD and job applications. 

We went to a wedding at Pinewood studios at the end of September for one of Chris' old school friends. It was a stunning location and had a fun film theme. 

That brings us to now. We are planning on journaling our lives on this blog as a fun way to keep track of memories and so family and friends far away can stay up to date. 

Love Chris and Beckie