Christmas Party

Last weekend was a great weekend. Not only was it great because I actually had both Saturday and Sunday off work (for once lol) but it was my boyfriends work Christmas Party. Now the previous parties had all been amazing (year 1 they hired out an entire floor in the Centre-point Tower, Year 2 they hired out Luna Park) but this year was beautiful. Amazing location, fancy food and free alcohol (bonus anywhere haha).

This year we were lucky enough to have a three course meal and drinks at Fort Denison in Sydney Harbour. The only downfall was the rain, but it was still a beautiful location.

We had to arrive nice and early to catch the boat over to the island. Dinner didn't take long and it was probably one of the most sophisticated meals I had placed in front of me in a long time. 

The menu for the evening included:

• Savoury canapés on arrival (not sure what was in these other than the mumbled word 'duck' and I politely declined)
• Entreés
• Bruschetta w truss tomatoes, roasted red peppers & sheep’s milk feta- I had this and it was interesting. I love bruschetta and I was quite keen to try this. I think I was a bit thrown by the sheep's milk feta. I still don't know what I thought about it except for the texture was strange.  
• Grain fed beef tartare w 63 degree quail egg
• Mains 
• Organic chicken breast w sautéed baby vegetables, mushroom jus & crisped pancetta- this was the main placed in front of me and when I heard it was chicken I was excited to eat it (because how can you go wrong with chicken?) I was impressed, this dish was so good I actually ate it all. 
• 18 hour braised Junee lamb shoulder w Paris mash, gremolata & lamb jus gras
• Dessert
• Mini Crème Brûlée- I tasted this because I am again a huge fan of Crème Brûlée normally. This one was extremely rich it was no wonder they were only 'mini'. I couldn't eat more than two bites because it was overwhelming (in a good way though). 
• Mini ice-cream cones- I think I actually ate about three of these. The strawberry was nice, but the plain old vanilla was the best, I enjoyed these so much

On arrival we were also presented with the options of champagne, white wine or beer. The service was friendly and it was a beautiful place. We got to have 2 free spirit tokens each (by boyfriend gave me his because he was content drinking his beer) and I bought an extra spirit amongst drinking white wine. 

We also got to go on a tour of Fort Denison in small groups not long after we arrived. We learnt bits and pieces about the history of the place and what had changed since then and now. Also we walked up what felt like a million stairs to get to the top of the lookout (because they were small steps and I was wearing high heels). The view of the harbour was amazing especially at night time. 

View of the Sydney Harbour Bridge from Fort Denison

Photo from thee top of Fort Denison with the Opera House in the background

We danced, we drank we had a good time amongst the generally older crowd of the company my boyfriend works for. I have to add in that he looks really good when he dresses up nicely :)
After the Christmas party, we and a couple of Kieran's work friends decided to continue the party in the city and go clubbing. We tossed up between the Casino and Home Bar, and ended up on Home Bar because of the lockout and I wanted to dance. If we had time and were awake still we were going to go the Casino (but it didn't happen).

Overall, it was an amazing night. I thoroughly enjoyed myself because it isn't something that you get to experience all of the time. All I could think about on the night was how expensive that Christmas party must have been and how much the company must love having a good end of year celebration. Even catching the train into the city at 4 in the afternoon didn't ruin my mood for the night.

Ready for the party, dress from Forever New

Loved dressing up and getting to go out somewhere extremely nice

Sorry for two posts in one day, I just finally had the morning off when I remembered to write a post! Thanks for reading, I'm off to workout now and until next time xx

Summer Bucket List

It's that time of the year again and I honestly couldn't be happier! Summer is by far my favourite season. When I think about it, it's actually kind of crazy to love summer so much where I live. The weather here is absolutely insane during summer. Some days it gets over 40 + degrees Celsius and other times it storms like crazy for days on end (just hopefully went through that stormy period- it stormed every single day and I went through losing power, to working in the rain all day). But I suppose that's Australia (Sydney) for ya?

I have a number of things that I would love to do/achieve this Summer that involve myself and my boyfriend. Recently when we were having a night in we sat down and thought of a bunch of crazy and fun things we would love to do together by the end of Summer and I am 150% determined that we make our way through the list. At the end of Summer I will make another post about what we actually did get through on the list!

Favourite place, hopefully get to spend some of Summer here

1. Go camping
2. Get drunk on the beach
3. Have a campfire
4. Learn to surf
5. Go paddle boarding
6. Go fishing 
7. Do the Bondi to Bronte walk
8. Get a piercing
9. Go for a bike ride
10. Have a picnic lunch
11. Go snorkelling
12. Visit the mountains in Summer
13. Get a new tattoo
14. Make a video of our Summer
15. Workout more
16. Go to an outdoor movie
17. Spend the day at a water park
18. Save up for 2015's holidays
19. Go to a music festival
20. Do something crazy (not sure what, just has to be crazy???)
21. Messy twister
22. Carve our names on a tree
23. Make a homemade slip n slide
24. Visit a waterfall and go swimming
25. Skinny dipping at night
26. Water balloon fight
27. Watch a sunrise

That's the list for now, I'm sure I will edit this post several times and add more to the list as I think of them, but that's all we have for now.

Keep reading to see my Summer adventures!
Thanks for reading x

Weekends

I love the weekend as much as anyone else. Not because it means days off uni and days off work (it never usually means days off work) but because in between everything, I get to spend time with the people who mean the most to me. This weekend was no exception of course (except that I didn't have to work at all- yay)

Friday 

Started the day at 6am to get myself up and ready for an exam. It was 39 degrees Celsius on Friday and my exam room didn't have air con... I sat in there for 3 hours and wrote 16 pages in total for 4 essays. This is definately not part of my weekend. But my weekend started early at about 1pm when I had finished my exam and driven to the beach. It was a beautiful day and I'm so happy I got to be out there at my favourite place. 

Typical Friday night fashion I hung out with Kieran and we fell asleep curled up on the lounge together at about 10:30pm. Oh well. 

Saturday

Finally the day Kieran got to do his present I bought for his 18th birthday. The V8 Race Car Driving experience at Wakefield. Again, I woke up at 6am to get everything ready and drive the 2 and a half hours to be there for his 9:30 session. It was nice spending time together on the car trip and he loved driving the V8, he wanted to go again right after he was done. I'm glad he enjoyed it and it made me so happy knowing I gave him something he wanted (without him ever asking for it, becaue I'm a great present giver lol). It was a beautiful day out there and he was definitely the youngest person there to drive. The lady also mistook us for a young married couple, which was funny. 

Afternoon called for a nap after I drove almost 5 hours for him that day :( 

Night time we had plans at my best friends place because she was having a BBQ/ spa and drinks night. I was exhausted but had a wonderful night. Again got told by the family friends mum (do not know how to explain this link) that Kieran and I are basically married (I never know whether people mean it as a compliment or insult, but I take it as a compliment because love him). I ate donuts, I soaked in the spa and I watched my drunken friends run around naked and have to force them to get dressed. It was a fun night. I love them. 

Sunday 

Sleepovers= maccas breaky run. I was the sober, responsible adult who drove and we honestly bought about $70 worth of McDonalds for 7 people. Kieran and I left not long after because he was supposed to go out with a friend and I had to study. 

Of course that didn't happen, it reached 43 degrees Celsius according to my phone today and by 10:30 this morning the heat was already unbearable. We went straight to Kieran's house and went swimming. Chill mornings and then layed around in the cool house watching movies and talking and just hanging out. Even though it was so hot, today was perfect (oh and even though he kept trying to drown me lol). 

The boat is always there with us in the pool. I had a good weekend with my favourite people. But now, I am tired. It's just after 10:40pm and I have an exam tomorrow afternoon (last one!!). It's also my little sisters birthday and we are going to the movies tomorrow night with our bf's to see Mockingjay Pt 1. (finally) and I'm pretty excited. 

Thanks for reading my quick (and probably horrible looking) post (because I'm on my phone about to fall asleep). 

I had to share my happiness with you all! :)

Stressed

It's officially that time of the semester that every single University student dreads... exam period. It's different at all universities, but at mine it lasts for 3 weeks and exams are held at 3 different times each day (9am, 1:30pm and 5pm), 6 days a week (Monday- Saturday).

I understand that exams are meant to test the knowledge that you have accumulated through attending lectures and tutorials and sometimes extra classes throughout the semester, but I personally believe there is way too much emphasis on some of these final exams. Especially exams that are worth 60% of your course mark and are 'you must pass this exam to pass this course'. Because honestly what a waste all of the assessments and tests and quizzes you've done over the last 13 weeks if you can fail in one 3 hour make or break exam.

Exams stress me out. I've never been the best at dealing with stress that exams bring (or any kind of stress really) but here are my top ways to manage stress and take care of your health. 
*side note: I do all of these things when it gets to stressful times during exam period but it doesn't make me stress free, I've still had my share of nervous breakdowns when combinations of things have pushed me over the edge (exams and personal issues etc.)*

1. Make a schedule and stick to it as much as possible- This one is my number one tip and to me it really is make or break. I like to be organised and I really need a schedule and to write everything down because otherwise I seem to forget everything. Schedule in your work hours, time to study, time to relax, time to hang out with friends. Then sticking to that is probably the hardest part but it is very rewarding
2. Set yourself achievable goals- Depending on my classes and how I find them, I set myself different goals for each class (i.e. Microeconomics- pass, Consumer Behaviour- High credit/low distinction). But more than that I make the goals realistic. If I told myself I am aiming for a HD in economics I would drive myself crazy and go completely overboard on the amount of time I try and study for the one subject, while I would probably forget about everything else and stress myself out like crazy in between all that. Set goals and make them SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound)
3. Make sure you have time for yourself- I always need to do this to ensure I don't lose my sanity. Whether time for yourself is catching up on your favourite TV shows, writing a blog post or taking an extra long bath while you read a book- you need something to relax you and put aside the thoughts of study for an hour or so. 
4. If you're going to procrastinate, at least do something useful- Okay, so some people might not think this is the 'best' advice. But I am being realistic, the majority of us will procrastinate studying for our exams. This can be for any number of reasons (for me it is usually because I don't like the unknown and put it off for waaaaaay too long). When I am procrastinating study, I take the time to do something that needs to be done around the house (e.g. I'll do three loads of washing, clean my room, mow the yard, clean the entire house...) I feel better knowing that if I'm not studying at least I am doing useful things instead of watching an entire season of greys anatomy that day instead. 
5. Make sure you keep on top of your health! If you're feeling physically ill because of the stress of exams, it is always important to remind yourself that you need to be eating breakfast, lunch and dinner (healthy meals too), drinking your fluids and getting some exercise each day. When I'm feeling overwhelmed, I like to take a step away from my books and put on my running shoes and go for a jog and listen to some music. By the time I get back home, although I feel tired from the run, I feel better within myself and am ready to get back to the books. 
1. Mental health is important too! Issues with this for me occurred in the first semester this year, I was overwhelmed and wanted to give up so many times. I had a lot of personal things going on which didn't in any way help my stress but I knew that I needed to take care of myself. Failing a class is not the end of the world. It's unfortunate but it happens to many people. I took a step back from overloading myself to the point where I was having panic attacks and couldn't do anything. I failed a class, but I managed to get myself better. And it is the most important thing any of us can do!

I know not everyone will find what I've suggested helpful, but if you struggle and nothing so far has worked for you, I suggest you give these a go!

Some info about my uni and my classes (because they are different everywhere)
Grading system at my uni:
Fail- Below 49
Pass- 50-64
Credit- 65-74
Distinction- 75-84
High Distinction- 85-100

My classes this semester: (and goal marks)
Accounting for Decision-Making: Credit
Principles of Microeconomics: Pass (stupid 60% exam)
Consumer Behaviour: Credit-Distinction
Marketing Research: Credit-Distinction

Classes last semester: (and actual marks)
Marketing Fundamentals: Credit
Introductory Statistics: Credit (stupid 60% exam)
Principles of Management: Credit
Techniques and Elements of Finance: Fail (stupid 60% exam and stupid subject haha)

Thanks for reading!

4 Years

I made a post previously about my anniversary, but it was incomplete to say the least. I talked more about why love was important and then briefly about how I went out to dinner at my favourite restaurant with my boyfriend for our four year anniversary. We planned to do other things for our anniversary, but due to it being on a Wednesday, both of us working completely different schedules, bad weather and just overall busy lives, not everything we wanted to do had been done until now.

All we wanted for our anniversary was:

1. Dinner on the night at our favourite place to eat
2. A day away at one of our favourite places 
3. A special gift that would last forever

I'm happy to say we finally did all of those things (yay). I already spoke about number one here, so now I'm going to write about number 2 and 3. 

A day away at one of our favourite places
A few weeks ago on a beautiful Sunday morning we drove down to the South Coast to go to Kiama. Nothing beats a Maccas breakie and car trips with loud music and awful singing (mostly on my part anyway). We explored Kiama (who knows how many times we have actually done this now, but it's such a beautiful place so it doesn't matter).

Kiama Lighthouse

Kiama Blow Hole

One of the first things we had to do when we got to Kiama was go and visit the Kiama Blow Hole. First of all because it's really cool (duh), secondly because we had something we had to leave on the fence surrounding the area out towards the ocean. I'm sure everyone has heard of this which even though ruined the bridge, is still super cute. Something similar was started near the Blow Hole in Kiama, so Kieran and I thought we should join in on the couples fun. We bought the biggest lock we could find and engraved (extremely messily because it is so much harder than it looks) our names, our anniversary and some random heart. 

The padlock we left at the Blow Hole, Kiama

I put it on the fence and then I let Kieran have the honours of throwing the keys as far as he could into the ocean around the Blow Hole. We were feeling super cute after this and also hungry so we ate hot chips and sat in the sun at the park breathing in the fresh air, soaking up the sunshine and enjoying each others company. 

A bit later we ended up going for a walk around (again) and bought ice-cream from the best ice-cream shop and then went to the rock pool to again lay in the sun and this time swim. 

The Ice-Creamery, Kiama

The water was absolutely freezing, but we gave it a go and then sat in the sun to warm back up. We walked around town holding hands, talking, laughing and it was the perfect day I had imagined. In typical fashion I fell asleep in the car on the way home (he drove) and we got home without getting lost in the dark (first time yay) and had a BBQ at my house with family for dinner. Perfect day.

A special gift that would last forever
Originally this was an idea Kieran suggested about 6 months ago. We came up with more of an idea together but were always a bit hesitant (well I was the hesitant one because I am a little chicken and scared of anything that will hurt). But eventually we found the time and worked up the courage (well that part was only affecting me) and we went and got our matching tattoos. 

Our couple tattoo

Permanent. Yep they are there forever. Just how we will be together forever. Something small and simple to symbolise our love for each other. Some people have literally thought we were crazy to get matching tattoos, but it's not each others names, only a symbol. We thought the tattoos through for a long time, discussing "what if's?" such as what if we break up? But we came to the conclusion, he is my first love and I am his, even if we did go our separate ways in the future we would both clearly have a spot in each other's hearts forever :-)

Moving on to my next point, I was so scared to get this done. I think the pain was greatly exaggerated by everyone though. I cried for at least 10 minutes before the tattoo artist even touched me. Yes, I will admit that made me look incredibly stupid. Once he started, I could feel a lot of pressure and I will be honest it only hurt on the boniest possible part of my wrist.  I didn't cry when it was being done. Only before. I don't know why, but Kieran found it funny. I went first so I wouldn't chicken out. I'm happy we did it. Now for the 3 weeks without the beach or pool so it can properly heal :(

Bottom line, I love Kieran and am extremely happy we celebrated our 4 year anniversary this way.

Thank you for reading guys!

Friendship

If there's anything that I've learnt in my 19 years of life, it's that friendships are important. If anyone else out there is like me, you'll go through phases where you think 'who cares I don't need friends, I'm quite content being alone blah blah blah' but at the end of the day, you do need friends. And you need fabulous ones at that. 

I've struggled a lot over the years (especially in high school) to either make friends or maintain friendships. There's so many reasons why and here are the main ones:

1. I would always choose the wrong people to be friends with. There's clearly plenty of reasons that define the phrase 'choosing the wrong friends' but a main one for me is that some of the people I was friends with on/off throughout high school were just genuinely uncaring, nasty people. 
2. I give people second (and third and fourth and twenty fifth) chances when they don't deserve them. I'm too forgiving. Someone was mean to me or said something nasty that I didn't deserve? I'd forgive them and keep being friends and telling them secrets simply because I'm too forgiving (and naive). I'm not saying there's anything wrong with forgiving people and giving them another chance, but I've learnt I need to be extremely careful with who I give those chances too. Oh and if they make the same 'mistake' twice (spreading lies about you, saying nasty things behind your back), odds are they don't deserve a third chance. 
3. I look for the good in people. Pretty self explanatory but allowed me to overlook the awful qualities that some friends I chose possessed. 
4. Lack of things in common. One thing I've learnt from being out of high school and being an adult, is you can't be friends with someone who you don't have things in common with. Sure you can be superficial friends for a while but you'll get bored with each other and move on pretty fast. 
5. People who don't put the same effort into the friendship as you do aren't worth it. If you're always the one calling, texting or trying to make plans with people who just don't seem interested or never do he same back, forget them. Same goes for in a relationship. You deserve people around you who put 100% into a friendship just the way you do. 
6. You only get back what you give. Same as above it works the other way around. If you can't put effort into a friendship, don't expect them to either. And if the other person is the one always making plans and trying and you don't, you need to either: be a better person and make the effort or gently let the person know you don't think you're compatible friends. 
7. Never choose friends for convenience. It's stupid and it's not real friendship. In high school most people will become friends with each other because they are in the same class, or they saw each other in the playground and want someone to sit with. High school friendships don't often last after you graduate unless you have developed real friendships for reasons other than convenience. Believe me when I left and started my 'new' life I stopped talking to all but (maybe) 10 people. 

I'm lucky that I've found some extremely good friends in my life after high school. It's okay not to have many friends, because I believe the more friends you have, the harder it can be to keep up with them in a realistic world and the friendships can become superficial. I'm still getting to the point where I discover all of the bad friends I have and get rid of them for good like I've done to so many others (see seven reasons above). I want to be able to say you're either my bestfriends or we are acquaintances. It's hard to have a middle ground. Some people won't agree with this but it's MY way of seeing friendships. 

Thanks for reading! 

                                                      

                                  

                                       

                             

                               

                               

P.s there's more pictures I wanted to include but of course I can't find them on my phone when I need them! 

Nineteen

It's been about a month since I wrote last, life has just gotten crazy busy. So let's quickly catch up on all the exciting things that have happened in the last month and what has been going on. 

1. I turned 19!
2. Lifelong dream of seeing Miley Cyrus in concert happened
3. Work work work oh and more work
4. Uni has been kicking butt lately
5. I seem to have become a party girl in between all of that

So that's just a quick summary of the last month of my life. I don't even think the word busy begins to describe how I've been.

My birthday was simple and sweet, I babysat during the day (dislike working on my birthday, but adult life). Then in the evening I went out to my favourite Chinese restaurant with my beautiful family. The waiters sung me happy birthday, gave me free birthday ice-cream, a balloon and chopsticks. Safe to say, birthday's are fun!

first photo as a 19 year old

To celebrate my birthday with some of my best friends, I went clubbing. There was a lot of drama revolving around that night (that I won't get into because it doesn't even matter anymore!) but I went out determined to have a fabulous night (who wouldn't?). The night didn't exactly go according to plan (when does it ever?) but I had a great time regardless and getting home to bed was the best feeling. Day light savings (shout out to NSW here) messed up our body clocks completely, from leaving at 1:30am for the hour and a half journey home, then getting home to bed at 5am???

Always a mission getting to
Kings Cross

so happy I spent the night with my bestfriends

Round three of birthday celebrations continued the following week with just a few drinks at the local leagues club with the remainder of some of my friends who didn't get to come out on the weekend with me. It was a more relaxed night with a bit of drinking and playing the pokies (I actually hate it because I think it is boring). Either way, was a good night once again.

I only like this photo because we look
so happy

Another pretty spectacular thing I got to experience was a ride on a 45 foot yacht with my mum and sister. It was a beautiful day and the views were great. Sydney is such a beautiful place and I was lucky I got to soak up the beautiful sunshine and enjoy the views on the luxury yacht. It would be hard to argue the beauty of Sydney in the picture I got below. 

Photo I got on the yacht of Sydney Harbour Bridge

Miley Cyrus. Do I even need to say anymore? I bought tickets to her Australian Bangerz tour in June (I think) and I had been crazy excited ever since. I lined up with a whole bunch of my friends and some others, from about 7am just to be in the front of the mosh pit. And I am so happy to say that 13 hours of waiting for Miley waited because we were at the front! There was about 10 of us, we all got split up into pairs (I was with my boyfriend) and we all battled for our lives in that mosh pit and I am proud to say I survived and I was so close to Miley I literally started crying (fangirl moment). The concert was the best that I have ever been to and ever since I have been suffering an extreme case of post concert depression.
#mileyfanforlife

Waiting in line with my boyfriend for Miley Cyrus (we both love her)

Best photo I got of Queen Miley riding the giant weiner (because I was so close)

Other things that have happened: more clubbing and a lot of working. A lot. Not sure where all this time comes from, but I feel happy and so alive. I'm grateful for the amazing friends I have and my wonderful family. I have so many opportunities in life (uni, work) and I am proud to say I really am making the most of it all. I'm quickly writing this to share my happiness and fill my readers in on my life in the last month, but now I have a lovely essay to get back to!

Best night in the city last weekend!

Standard couple photo while out clubbing 

Thanks for reading everyone! 

Love is Something to be Celebrated

I would like to raise my hand and say that "I, Kristelle am a sucker for love. I love, love."

Now if you  can think along those same lines as me, then that make me smile. I think love is important and it should be celebrated and acknowledged. One of my favourite times of the year (apart from my birthday which fyi, is in 5 days!) is my anniversary. I like to think as a couple, my boyfriend and I do 'celebrate' the fact we love each other (I use the term celebrate loosely here) quite often. To me that can be anything from sending a cheesy 'I love you so much' text, or going on a date or even just posting a picture of the two of us (I will be honest I post the pictures- my boyfriend isn't a fan of social media because "it's stupid". 

But above all, an anniversary is my favourite thing. When we were younger we would say "happy X months" but never actually do anything to celebrate. Probably because we were <16 years old and probably because even though we said it, saying Happy X Months still sounds stupid to us. If you love the cerebrate months, go for it! Like I said, I'm a sucker for love. 

We celebrate the years. At such a young age (I'm 19 in a few days and he is 18), it's been a struggle to be together as long as we have. Of course there's been bumps along the road (all couples have them) but what makes you strong is your ability to overcome them. Which is why I'm proud to say I have been in a relationship with the most loving, caring boy for the last 4 years. He knows my McDonalds order, but knows I prefer Oporto. He knows that I cry at everything, whether I'm happy/sad/angry. He knows everything about me and I know everything about him. He's my bestfriend and according to him I'm his 'best mate' too. 

We didn't buy presents in the traditional sense this year, we are buying a gift to each other that is still TBA. An anniversary to us is an excuse to dress up nicely and go out to an expensive restaurant and splurge- which is exactly what we do. This year, we went to Ribs and Rumps because, well I love steak and he loves ribs!

Couldn't get a picture of the food because it looked
to good to wait to eat

All in all, our anniversary is just a nice thing to celebrate together and spend time with each other. It's hard for us to make time for each other sometimes, he works full time 8am-4:30pm and nearly always works overtime a few hours, and I go to uni Monday-Wednesday, work 3 nights a week in one job and weekends in another job. Life is crazy busy and we never seem to be free at the same time, which is why when we do get a few hours together here or there and spend Saturday nights together, it's always special.

If you read this cheesy post about me loving my boyfriend, I applaud you and you probably deserve a big piece of chocolate cake. I figured it was about time he got an appreciation post on my blog and this was the perfect excuse for it. 

Conception Day

Hey everyone!

So, university is a fun place. I use the term 'fun' pretty loosely because well essentially university is a place full of learning, never ending homework and assignments and you're meant to study 10 hours a week minimum per subject at home. But, once you get over all that, you get to see the benefits and fun parts of uni. There's the partying, the extra long weekends, the cool people who you find so much in common with. Basically just the adventures you can have (I know there is so much more, but unless you're at uni currently, you probably won't even know what I'm talking about).

One of the greatest days in the uni calendar for myself (and thousands of others) is called 'Conception Day' *pause here for the confusion as to why thousands of people are happily celebrating a day with this name*. Let me start by saying- no it's not a day for everyone to conceive. It has something to do (from what I know) with the birthday of the founder of our uni being at a hard time of the year to celebrate, so instead we celebrate his 'conception' (genius right?).

Essentially Conception Day is a music festival, hosted at my uni with plenty of cool bands, different music stages for different artists/ DJ's (ya know, normal festival stuff). Asides from the music there's cool stuff like jumping castles, photo booths and of course drinking copious amounts of alcohol and hanging out with all the rad people uni has to offer. 

 It's a long day, pre-drinking before noon, making the most of Conception Day from about 12-7pm (and their cheap drinks) before taking the party over to The Ranch. In my case, the party continued first at a few peoples houses on campus before making our way over to The Ranch.

It was such a great day, listened to some great music, saw plenty of people I knew and just got to chill out for a day and enjoy myself. I must say though, it was extremely awkward walking into my uni semi-drunk to start with, but once the atmosphere hits, you're over it immediately. 

 Wanna shoutout to my beautiful friend Katie (above) for her amazing hospitality and lovely motherly skills (spaghetti is always good). 

I'm also glad I got to enjoy the day with my favourite uni pals and that my boyfriend travelled the annoying hour and a half train ride to uni to come and party with us at The Ranch afterwards, even though we were all dead tired.

It was seriously the best day, and I recommend anyone at Mac or who know friends there to go!

Child of the Ocean

I am thoroughly annoyed that I feel like I can't find 30 minutes to blog anymore. My life has gotten so crazy busy that when I have that spare 30 minutes to myself, the last thing I've felt like doing is going back onto my laptop (because I've normally just finished doing homework) so I take a nap instead or call my boyfriend. Blogging isn't the first thing on my mind, but it's been sitting there eating away at me I need to blog again because I actually enjoy it. 

I'm in Week 6 this semester at uni and it is so close to mid-semester break (after week 7) but it still feels forever away. Even worse than that, once it is mid-semester break, it's going to fly by and those two weeks will feel like nothing. 

I got a new job as well (seasonal job so it will be for the summer and on weekends leading up to and after summer) and well I'm pretty excited for it to start. I need a change. I need something fun that I will look forward to going to work again.

I've had plenty of fun little adventures with my friends since I've last posted but I want to dedicate this post in particular to my crazy fun friend Jess. We met at uni this year (well technically she approached me at the train station) and we hung out at uni, then started hanging out outside of uni too. I feel as though she is my mini-me and we are the same in so so many ways, meaning we always have fun together. 

We've been to her favourite place (Newtown) and my all-time favourite place (Narrabeen). From eating Gelato that was so rich it almost made us sick, to swimming in the middle of Winter at the beach, to trying to light a bonfire while it's wet and semi-raining- we've done it all.

Cutest cafe in Narrabeen

The Food was ridiculously good (and cheap) 

Fires don't work when it's raining (learnt the
hard way)

We spend a good 30 minutes taking photos of ourselves
and the beach

Essentially Narrabeen is my favourite place because:

1. It's the beach
2. The drive is fun and it doesn't even take too long when you have a dance party in your car
3. It's actually on my way to uni (hello Summer and good weather, bye uni)
4. It's peaceful and serene
5. It isn't Manly beach or Bondi beach (aka. the only beaches everyone seems to know and go to)
6. It's my little piece of happiness in this crazy world

Jess introduced me to her loves of Newtown and I found my own (bookstores anyone?). I can't wait to go back.

T2 samples in Newtown

I'm still full of regrets from not
trying my luck and buying a book here

Gelato and Gelato Shake. Some kind of
Nutella/coffee flavour if I remember
correctly. So good, yet so sickly

Some of the most beautiful coloured roses I have ever seen. You can tell I am a
flower child can't you?

If you're still reading my blog after all this time, thank you and I will be back soon!

Enjoy all my pictures, I feel they tell the stories more than my words could this time. 

Late Night Thoughts

Happiness is the easy emotion. It's simple. No one questions why you're happy. You're happy? That's fantastic! I love seeing you smile. Happiness looks good on you. I'm happy you're happy. 

Questions start when you're not happy. What's wrong? Are you sad? Are you angry? Why aren't you happy? What's wrong with your life? You have this... you have that... why aren't you greatful... there's no reason to be sad... People out there have it so much worse than you... You're not allowed to be sad... People out there are dying and you're crying for no reason... Stop being selfish... You're fine...

People are allowed to be sad. Comparing someone's pain to others pain, in no way lessons said persons pain. Oh you broke your arm? Well it doesn't hurt that bad because that person over there broke BOTH arms. Life and physical pain doesn't work like that, so why should emotional pain? Better yet, emotional and physical pain can not be compared on the same scale of "which is worse".

You want to be sad? Go for it. Be sad. Sadness is a complicated emotion that people always seem to have to answer to. Next time you're sad and don't want to tell anyone why (whether it be because you don't exactly know why or you just don't feel like sharing) then be sad and let your emotions out. It's okay and unless you want it to be people's business, it isn't. 

I'm sad right now and as much as it hurts and sucks, it's okay to feel things. We're human. We have bad days and good days and get sad over small things and and over big things. 

You know why? Because that's life. 

University Life Lessons

So for those of you who don't know me or are unaware, I am currently a first year university student at the lovely Macquarie University here in Australia. I have completed my first semester and last week I have just started back for my second semester. I am studying a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Marketing and I am pretty confident in saying that I enjoy what I do. I thought I would make this blog post to share some of my first hand experience, advice, fears, things I have learnt and other random facts about university life that I have learnt from my time at uni so far. 

It's okay for one of your main goals at the start of your university life to be "I want to make friends"-

Hell this was all I wanted when I started university. I was fresh out of the worst years of my life aka high school and I had left (well the same way I had started and lived through most of high school) with basically no friends. Uni was a fresh start and a way to show myself as the new person I am (more mature and just an all round nicer, happier person) and make new friends.

But on the same note, it's totally okay not to have friends everywhere you turn and not to become friends with everyone you speak to- 

This one was a big thing for me to come to terms with. Though all I wanted was to make new friends that I could hang out with on weekends and have coffee with at uni, I have made very few of these "proper" friends. I have one amazing friend that I see all the time outside of uni and a handful that I am happy to hang out with at uni when we are there together and make good conversation. However I've learnt that it's okay not to have friends in every single class you take and know everyone around you (considering my degree is massive and there are literally thousands upon thousands of us it would be a bit odd if I did know everyone). Also not everyone you speak to is going to be a good friend to you or be suitable to be your friend. You need to get to know people and figure out if you're compatible and remember that not everyone may be as nice as you are.  

You're still going to be figuring yourself out- 

Although you may believe you've enrolled in a university course and you're a legal adult (most of us are 18 when we enter uni) that we should have our lives sorted and know who we are and know this is what we want to do. Wrong. From my experiences university is the whole process of getting to completely understand who you are as a person and figure out where you want your life to take you. Sure, the whole time isn't for figuring out what you want to study (otherwise you'd never get anywhere) but it is for figuring out what you want to do after you study and the person that you want to be!

University classes and expectations are literally nothing like what you experience at high school- 

Ahh the joys of being thrown into the unknown. And not the shallow kiddies pool (because we are not children anymore in education that we are being forced to have *sigh*) but thrown with full force in the deepest part of the Ocean with the sharks (well so to speak anyway). There is no "easing" into the subjects or hand holding when you don't know what to do. You want to know how to do something (now depending on your tutors and lecturers help may vary) you have to go out of your way and schedule time to ask questions or send emails that may not always give detailed responses. Then when you get the answer you can still have no idea what you're doing. Hands up to anyone who can relate to this? Because I know this is exactly how I have felt starting each subject even this semester. 

It's okay to fail a class-

This one hits hard. At the start of university I was so convinced I would could not fail anything because "it's a lot of money" and it's a "waste of time to do it if I fail" and that "I wouldn't get anywhere in life if I fail a class" (okay the last one is a tad dramatic, but in all honesty it is how you can feel). But let me tell you something now from personal experience, it's okay to fail a class. Life does go on. The sun will still come out everyday and you will be okay. Of course it is a horrible feeling when you get your results after studying like crazy (or not so crazy for some classes in my case- which may I point out is why I failed) and you look down the list and see that big fat F. It's not a good feeling, but you didn't take away nothing from failing that class did you? You will still have learnt course material (more than you may think) and most importantly you've learnt where you went wrong and what you have to do better next time to ensure success.

*Side note- if you fail a class twice, life will still go on and you will still be okay. You just may need to identify the areas that you go wrong and get that extra help to pass the class*

Ignoring your friends/family/relationship and only focusing on University is a horrible idea-

Well, I know many of us can be culprits to this. There's a lot that can affect us ignoring people around us that we care about (I know the main factors for me are stress and anxiety), but it's important to not get overwhelmed by the workload. Make time to have lunch with your friends and hang out with your family. Spend an hour studying and then take the rest of the night off to go see a movie with your boyfriend. You need to make time for the important people in your life just as much as you need to finish your assignments and study for that test. But I promise you, the world isn't going to end if you take a few hours off doing assignments or studying to catch up with your friends and have some social interaction. We all need that and it's one of my regrets during the first semester of uni because I felt like I had to stay home all the time instead of being social because I put myself under a lot of stress. I missed out on a lot of things and I'm happy now I can finally start making up that time with my beautiful friends that I drifted from at the start of the year. 

It is absolutely vital for you to have 'me time'-

I am a major culprit of not making any 'me time'. I was always so busy focusing on homework and assignments, spending time with my family, working and spending all of my free time with my boyfriend (I rarely saw my friends as mentioned above) that I didn't have any time to myself. And trust me, it takes a toll on you and people will notice. You are treating your mind with the education, but you need to remember to treat your body and your soul as well. Read a book, go for a walk, take a yoga class, fly a kite, jump in your car and drive somewhere you love by yourself while listening to your favourite music. Whatever it is just do something for you. You won't regret it, trust me.

Coffee will essentially save your life most days-

When you've had two hours sleep because you thought it was a good idea to go out all night when you had 2 assignments due the next day, that you then had to pull an all-nighter for (probably not the best idea)... Coffee will save you when you feel like death the next day

Buy second hand textbooks (when possible)-

Trust me on this one, you will save a small fortune. Most of the time the previous editions of the textbook for your classes will work just as well as the brand new edition and you are able to source them on the Internet or from flyers around your uni for a fraction of the price. If you're like me and doing a Commerce degree, you will know that on average a textbook costs around the $150 mark. As well as buying them second hand, once you've finished the course if you no longer need them, re-sell them to other students in need and you will have some extra cash handy to help purchase your next round of textbooks (or if you're like me it will be used for alcohol the night your exams finish to party and forget about everything you've just done).

So that is all I can think of right now that I have personally experienced or learnt. Of course there are other things I should have learnt like

1. Don't procrastinate
2. Listen to the recommended 10 hours per subject study time a week
3. Trying to park at uni and drive in peak hour traffic is the worst idea I'll ever have

well I'm sure you get the general idea. BUT I haven't managed to fully comprehend these things yet, so it would be a lie to put them as part of my advice and lessons learnt. 

Thank you for reading!