A rather sheepish return

It has been an embarrassingly long time since I last posted. Over a year ago, in fact, and I am feeling awfully guilty about my terrible lack of focus. I rather feel like I'm shuffling in to a teacher's office, trying to explain why I haven't done my homework. A lot has changed in the 12 months and 18 days.

In the past year, I have:

• Written somewhere in the region of 22,000 words for assessed essays alone (including my dissertation)
• Applied for 15 jobs and got one (yay!)
• Bought and drank far too much wine
• Made four lemon and thyme loaf cakes
• Shepherded 50 Erasmus students around Edinburgh
• Tried haggis for the first time
• Got over my fear of butternut squash innards
• Watched 2 series of Great British Bake Off
• Lost my student credentials in a blaze of glory and cap-throwing.

Yes, I graduated this summer. And it was wonderful, if a bit surreal, to have a day to say goodbye to four really excellent years. Particularly as I'm still living in Reading, in the same house, with the same lovely housemate as last year.

This does mean that I am no longer a student foodie - I'm a recently-graduated-still-not-sure-what-I'm-doing-with-my-life foodie. But you know, there's not a massive difference between the two, not really. I'm cooking the same things, I'm still trying to save money where possible, and I still believe what I did over two years ago - that food doesn't have to cost the earth to be delicious. And sometimes, it's okay to treat yourself to dinner out.

So I'm going to keep going with this blog, despite not being a student, in the hope that it might reach someone who is recently starting university, and is feeling a little bit overwhelmed. I can't give advice on how to cope with a course, or the workload associated with it (mostly because I'd be a pretty poor example and it'd be rather hypocritical to tell people not to procrastinate) - but I can help with the cooking side. And that's enough for me.