Is religion right or wrong?

Hey everyone,

Yes my title was simply to catch your attention because I know reading that would anger many people for different reasons and well as spark a burning curiosity. I don't think there's an answer to is it right or wrong because it simply shouldn't be a question. Everyone has their own beliefs and I honestly don't think people should make such a big deal or fuss about what other people believe in. 

It has always been known that religion is one of the most controversial topics to discuss, and for good reason. Everyone has different beliefs and even those who identify themselves as a particular religion, I'm sure all show their 'faith' and practise their beliefs in different ways. 

I want to first make it clear that I do not believe in any form of God. I believe in science and I believe in karma. I don't believe I need to justify why, but if you need to know I'm happy to answer any questions. To follow this statement I believe I also need to say that I do not in any way ridicule or shame those who do believe in a form of God or are religious. 

I'm simply making this post to share with you my views and an experience that it had last night at work that has made me extremely angry. I'll start by telling you all what happened at work last night: 

It was break time and myself, two other girls who are similar in age to me, a lady in her early 30's and a manager (I think she's in her late 30's) were all sitting in the tea room at about 10pm last night. For some reason (no idea how it came up honestly, we were sitting there eating popcorn and lollies), my manager and the older one of the ladies started talking about the Gaza/Isreal/ Palestine situation. Now I can say I in no way believe I am well informed of this situation because I know the media is one sided and they write/portray on TV the side and viewpoint they want to and that they think will get the views and high ratings. I only know information from what I've read and no matter what, my view is simply that war (or fighting, whatever it may be) is absolutely stupid and there's no reason good enough that children and innocent people should lose their lives simply because there are people in the world who want to be 'in control' and by these acts of violence think they're going to get what they want. My view is quite simple if you think about it. I don't need more depth or information to come to that conclusion. 

I don't remember exactly what was being said but I know the lady in her 30's had a similar viewpoint to me that all violence is disgusting and she spoke about a video on the Internet she saw of a group of the (bad people- I don't really know how to phrase that but the story makes me view them as disgusting people) who were Muslim and told a Christain man that he could either convert to Muslim or die. So anyway he converted (or whatever you call it) then the 'bad people' announced he was with them, he was safe blah blah, then the next second they slit this mans throat. Now I don't understand that and the worst part was I don't understand why that filth is on the Internet, but anyway. 

One of the younger girls at the table, identified herself as Muslim (I swear she said another word as there is different 'kinds' but again I don't know because it's not me) and got super almost defensive about the situation. My manager and the other young girl identified themselves as Catholic and argued the point that the difference in religions (i.e the Muslims wanting everyone to be Muslim and not Christian etc.) was a source of the violence. 

At this point I'm still sitting there listening to their point of views and arguments as I didn't feel well informed enough to have an opinion on the matter (which I think is the actual educated thing to do in this situation) because their opinions were simply that- opinions. It got heated and as there were different religions in the room it was getting to be an intense argument. The topic of discussion moved from Gaza, to simply 'discussing' religion. Now this is where I know to keep my mouth shut. My mother always taught me if I don't have anything nice to say then say nothing. This wasn't entirely applicable because I didn't exactly have anything rude to say. But she also taught me that topics of discussion that never end well are

1. Religion 

2. Politics 

So I kept my mouth shut. 

These 4 girls/women spoke about their own religion and beliefs (which is whatever I wasn't really paying attention simply because I don't believe in it) but the phrase that caught my attention again was well what do atheists believe in then? Now everyone's definition of atheism that I've come across in my life has been different. There's the usual they don't believe in God, heaven and hell (which is what I "believe") but I've heard more extremists views such as no God, heaven or hell, but they don't believe in love or karma or anything else either. Now I was okay they were questioning it as a form of curiosity perhaps but what set me off and made me incredibly angry was after I answered "oh well they can believe in science or simply that there is no God" (just pointing out at this point I have not once stated my beliefs) and the manager sat there and laughed. She then proceeded to ridicule science claiming it was all "so stupid" that anyone can believe we came from monkeys or just appeared on this Earth. The others joined in agreeing it was "dumb" at that stuff doesn't just "appear". 

Well this is where I interjected that "coming from monkeys" is Charles Darwins Theory of Evolution and that "the Earth just appearing" is The Big Bang Theory. I got several looks after this and stated simply Science is looking at the facts and gaining supporting evidence. I'm so offended that these people from three different religious backgrounds can sit there mocking science, but are so convinced that what they believe is the only thing that matters (which by the way is all clearly different so not only were they arguing me, they were arguing against each other too. Only difference with me is I completely don't believe in God so I'm the most "wrong" in all of their eyes). I don't care that people believe in God, but to me there's no proof any of it is true. They mock the Theory of Evolution that creatures have evolved over millions of years based on environmental conditions (amongst man other conditions), yet they are "totally correct" in saying "oh God made this and put it there". I didn't voice my opinion mocking their religions pointing out faults and telling them I believe it's dumb, yet they so easily did that to me. 

Now that is what gets me angry. I think religion is what causes fights. Everyone is so convinced that what they believe is the only way to go about things that as soon as anybody with a different opinion or belief voices it to them, they are instantly wrong and scrutinised for it. If people could just accept the fact that their God or their belief is not the only "correct" way out there, I believe we could solve a lot of problems. 

Living with my Boyfriend

Hey everyone!

So for those of you who don't know, I'm 18 years old and have been in a serious relationship for nearly four years (well as serious as it could have been for two 15 year olds anyway). His name is Kieran and it took me nearly 2 years to notice that we have the same initials (KM). My boyfriend and I are the same age and he works full time, I am a full time student and work part time. We both live at home with our parents and we hope that in the near future we will be able to get a place of our own (not for a few years though). 

So now you know a little more about us, the point of this 'series' of posts is to document my experience living with my boyfriend while his family are on an overseas holidays- he got left behind (not really he just couldn't get time off work to go). I'm living with him for 10 days, starting today and I'm genuinely curious if we are going to come out of this alive, because even though we spend a lot of our time together we drive each other crazy and I'm pretty sure there are times I wouldn't mind stabbing myself in the eyeball because he is that annoying and I know the feelings can be quite mutual. 

Living together is a very serious and 'grown up' step in a relationship, especially because you have to do everything for yourself. The closest we have ever come to that, is going away for a long weekend. Doing the dishes and cooking every meal is annoying enough, I'm curious whether we could survive it any longer. I'll post each day (hopefully I will be able to) and I hope you all have a good read (and probably a good laugh). 

Day 1

• Had to wake up at 6:30am to follow Kieran to the mechanic to get his car fixed (not clear on the details exactly because honestly I don't know a thing about cars, that's his area of expertise) 
• Took Kieran to work from the mechanics
• Realised it was only 8am and I had nothing to do and was hungry so I went and got McDonalds breakfast ($3 bacon and egg mcmuffin with a hash brown anyone??)
• Got home (to my house) and went back to bed for a couple of hours. I went to my house because honestly his house is so boring with nobody home. HE DOESN'T HAVE WIFI and being alone all day honestly what the hell was I going to do???
• I cleaned my own bedroom and started writing blog posts (none of which I have published because they are all half written), played that stupid Kim Kardashian game (why am I still playing it? I made the A list and isn't that the point of the game?)
• Basically wasted the day away doing nothing
• Got to 4:20pm, went to the post office to pick up my package (yay for swimwear) and then drove to pick Kieran up from work
• More driving around, again to the mechanic so he could pick up his car
• Then I had to go grocery shopping to get a few ingredients for dinner
• Cooked chicken, potato bake and made a salad for our dinner
• My turn to go to work now (at 7pm) while my boyfriend gets to stay home and watch TV and play games on his phone.
• He texted me that he was bored so I suggested that he come and visit me at work, he said nah he couldn't be bothered
• Asked him if he cleaned up anything from dinner, the answer was no
• Now I'm home from work (writing this post) but I didn't even stay over at his to sleep because I'd just have to wake up early like today to get him ready for work, like he is a child incapable of anything. He is capable he is just so used to everyone doing stuff for him. I do things for him because it frustrates me watching him 'struggle' to do simple tasks like butter bread. I think he does this on purpose though, because he knows I'll just do it for him. 

First day and no, I'm not sick of him, but I also didn't sleepover and I worked, so we didn't have much time together. I won't see him until tomorrow after he finishes work, but I will write about tomorrow, well tomorrow after it happens. 

Today was standard, apart from me driving him around for work and his car, as well as cooking him dinner (well I do that sometimes) and me asking if he cleaned anything. 

Until tomorrow, 
Thanks for reading
♡ Stelle

City of Sydney

Hey everyone!

So yesterday I actually left my house to do something other than work, visit my boyfriend or go to the local shopping centres! I visited the city and it was such a beautiful winter day. The sun was shinning and it was lovely out in the sun. I think Winter is my favourite time to visit the city (providing it is a sunny day) because the weather is cool enough for you to enjoy sitting in the sun by the harbour and there's just something about winter sunshine that I love.

One of my friends suggested that we go into the city to the big book store (I'm an obsessed book freak) and I though it was just such a great idea. Along with the book store we also looked in all the shops at clothes that we wish we could buy and ate lunch by the water.

We started the day off by looking in the Victoria's Secret store in the Queen Victoria Building and I was severely disappointed by it's small size and lack of anything being sold there. Times like this I wish I lived in America so I had the luxury (?) of being able to shop at Victoria's Secret. The one in Sydney only sells fragrances, a few bags and a small collection of underwear. I want the bras and most of all I just want their yoga pants and sweaters. One day, is all I have to remind myself, I'll go to America and be able to shop at Victoria's Secret properly. I could buy it all online, but there's no fun in that (for this) to me because I just want to shop in store. 

We went to various other shops during the day including Topshop and Sportsgirl and a lot of others that I can't even remember. So basically right now I am obsessed with those big floppy felt hats (I have no idea what they are actually called) and everywhere we went in the city that day we saw girls wearing them! I'd ordered a black one in the mail two weeks ago and I was still waiting for it to arrive so I was quite disappointed everyone else had one and I didn't :-(

must always awkwardly selfie in shops with good mirrors

After shopping, we made our way to the bookstore. At first I was slightly disappointed because I thought it would be multiple levels, but as we wandered around the store I was less disappointed because I realised it spread out quite far and was large for a bookstore, considering so many I know of have had to shut down due to lack of business now. I enjoy books. If someone gives me a good book and I get into it, I'll sit there all day and read it until I'm done. It doesn't matter how tired I am, I'll read until either
        a) the book is finished
        b) I fall asleep with the book in my hand
But it's probably been a pretty even mixture between the two outcomes when I read. The stand out books that this has happened to me with probably includes:

1. The Harry Potter Series- I read these when I was like 8/9/10 years old (I think) and these are the initial books that sparked my love for reading. I would stay up all night reading and I remember my mum would always have to come into my room and tell me to turn my light off and go to sleep because it was too late to be reading
2. The Hunger Games- I didn't get into these books until after the first movie had come out and I watched the first movie and I decided I had to read the books. After I started I couldn't put them down. I read all three books in three days because I just had to know what happened. 
3. Looking for Alaska- This is probably my favourite John Green book and I couldn't put it down until I knew how the story ended. I probably cried for a while after finishing it too
4. Leaving Paradise- a recent addition to my collection by Simone Elkeles and I fell in love with this book after a chapter. I couldn't put it down all day and by that night (however late it may have been) I was done reading and jumping online to order the next book in the series. 

So as anyone can tell by what I've shared so far, I love books. I will read anything anyone recommends me, but I think my 'type' of book is more "young adult, romance, main character goes through struggle to find themselves". I enjoy these the most. I'm currently reading 'It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini' for anyone who might be interested. I'm nearly finished it and I have enjoyed it. 

In the bookstore we looked at all types of books, from the books that I love, to the business and marketing books (that is what we both study at University together), books on tattoos, fashion, inspiration and motivation and yes even the "relationship" books. I'm not sure why they call the "relationship books" that because they are all about sex. But well I enjoyed the bookstore.


After shopping (a better description is probably a lack of shopping and more window shopping) and the bookstore, we walked down to Darling Harbour and ate Maccas by the water. It was such a beautiful day out there in the winter sunshine, there was no way we were going to eat inside. It was so peaceful (aside from the noise of many other busy city goers and children- due to the school holidays). We got to sit around and talk and eat and admire the beauty of the city. I enjoy the buildings too, not only the harbour and the landmarks. I probably get my love of buildings from my mum as she designs houses for a living.

out by the harbour (me on the right)

Sydney is such a beautiful place

where we ate lunch by the harbour

Overall I would have to say I had such a lovely day out in the city and I'm glad the day was kind to us. It felt like a long train (and bus ride too home for me), but it was worth it.

Thank you all for reading,
♡ Stelle

Outfit of the day
Loose White Knit Jumper from Jeans West- $49.95
Boyfriend Jeans from Dotti- $79.95
Black 'Chunk' Windsor Smith Shoes- $89.95
Oversized Sunglasses from ASOS- $15.95
Pink Tank Top from Valleygirl- $9.95

Extended Weekend Adventures!

Hey everyone!

So I just wanna start off by saying that I have thoroughly enjoyed the last 4(?) days of my life because they've just been crazy fun (some parts not so crazy fun, but nonetheless fun!) My weekends never seem to end at the moment, but for the purpose of this post it's about my 'weekend' starting from Thursday and ending Sunday.

Thursday 
My weekend didn't really start until Thursday night as I had my babysitting duties to tend to that day. That job comes with mixed emotions- ranging from wow I love kids they're cute and we get to play games all day, to holy crap I can not stand this anymore. Anyway, the fun started when I got home because I finally got to see some of my beautiful friends that I never get the chance to hang out with anymore! 

We went to the local leagues club for dinner (chicken snitzels and chips for all!) then had a couple (some of us stayed on a couple of drinks) and sat around talking, laughing and enjoying the open mic night. Several highlights include the old man who yodelled on stage, my friend getting up and giving the open mic a go singing a Beatles song and probably just the overall company we enjoyed together that night. 

In my busy state of having fun I didn't even take any photos whilst we were out (I've made it a mission to take photos when I'm having fun), however I did get to take a slightly tipsy selfie once I got back to my boyfriends place. Another great thing about that night was the fact I got to stay at my boyfriends place :-)

always a pouting selfie

Friday
Earliest start I've had all holidays. Woke up at 6:30am to go to work for the day. My weekend was put on pause for an extremely long 8 hours. All I know is that after this shift at work (in a warehouse for the day, not my usual work) my body was tired from physical labour. After that exhausting day, even though it doesn't amount to anything near difficult, I had to let my boyfriend know how proud I was that he does such a physically demanding job everyday. 

Friday night was party night! One of my friends (a girl from the group that I didn't get to see the night before) hosted a party. Once again, I had such an amazing night I don't know where to start.

There was drinking games, alcohol, dancing, alcohol, music, alcohol, good chats with old friends and more alcohol. It was a freezing cold night and the party started outside, but quickly migrated to the warmth that indoors brought. At least it made it easier for us to dance and have a good time. 

There were just so many photos taken this night and I deleted over 200 photos because my boyfriend always loves to spam people's phones at party's. I tried to choose some of my top favourites to add to this blog post. Girls that are in these photos, don't worry I made sure they weren't awful of you, even if they were of me. I still love them all though because of the good memories I'm going to have from them. 

I love these girls!

she is always so beautiful (I'm on the left aka the one who can't take a nice photo)

this is probably my favourite picture from the night. group selfies are always good fun

We all ended up staying the night at my friend's house and her lovely mother even got us all McDonald's breakfast the next morning. I would have happily eaten cold pizza, but hey it's all good (well bad) food. I helped clean up the mess of red cups and empty bottles before my boyfriend and I left to go home and start the adventures of the day. 

favourite photo of my boyfriend and I at the party- not sure why, it just it

Saturday

After we cleaned and ate, my boyfriend and I left to go home to shower, eat and then go shopping. Whenever he gets to choose what we do, it always involves going to look at cars or motorbikes because (asides from me obviously) they are his favourite things. We picked up a plastics kit for his motorbike and went to look at Ute's that he wanted to buy. I think he would be proud of me for knowing these things because I never seem to know anything about what my boyfriend likes. 

We then went to El Jannah (for those who don't know, it is basically just Charcoal chicken, bread, chips and garlic sauce but it is essentially the greatest creation ever) and got it takeaway to eat at home and watch Die Hard. Of course in typical fashion, we ate and put our pyjamas on and got so comfortable we fell asleep watching the movie. We both woke up five hours later, in the dark, confused as hell before laughing about what happened. We ate dinner, talked with my family before watching more movies and falling asleep again.

the greatest food ever

Overall, Saturday wasn't too eventful but after a full on two days it was exactly what my boyfriend and I needed. I enjoy his company and he enjoys mine. 

Sunday

After a long sleep-in, in typical Sunday fashion, I woke up and cooked a big breakfast of hot chocolates and egg and hashbrown rolls for my boyfriend and I, while we say around and watched The Simpsons. These lazy Sunday mornings are probably one of my favourite parts of my weekend time with my boyfriend because they are so simple, yet perfect. 

After lazing around for half the day, we ended up going shopping to finally get my boyfriend a new phone because his old one was smashed to pieces. Also we went shopping for clothes for him as he is just growing out of everything and needs my "help" and opinion on anything he buys. I think if he had it his way he would just get me to do everything for him. 

After the late afternoon shopping we had either what I would call an extremely late lunch, or a very early dinner at a hotel near the shopping centre. Once again, chicken snitzel and hot chips were exactly what we ordered. I found it comical that when we went to the bar to order cokes to drink, we had to present our ID's (I know you have to do this when ordering from a bar) but the way the bartender studied our ID's for a good 40 seconds each was just strange. We weren't even trying to order alcohol, but anyway I know it comes with looking 15 years old. 

we love us some good chicken snitzels

After a day out we came home to unwind and I (of course) had to set up my boyfriends new phone for him. We watched Despicable Me 2, like the children we are and just unwound after a busy few days. I like laying around with him even if we are doing nothing. It's comforting having someone next to you. I like doing nothing sometimes, but I love doing nothing with somebody even more. 

forever taking photos together

So anyway, thank you all for reading (if you managed to stay that long) and I'm sorry if my posts are a tad too ramble/ about nothing essentially. 

♡ Stelle

Hump Day

Hey everyone!

First off, just wanna say happy hump day! We have all made it halfway through the week and now there is only two more days until the weekend (hell yeah!!)

So today I continued my babysitting job for the holidays (I'll have a post about my job soon) and I had planned to do something in the evening with my sister because I honestly don't feel like I spend enough time with her. 

When I do finally spend time with my sister I honestly remember how much alike we are! I've never gotten over how old we are both getting (i'm 18 almost 19 and she's 16). It's weird I can get in the car and drive us places, it's weird that we can go to dinner and not order off the kids menu (not that we have done that since we were 10 because we eat so much) and it's just basically weird that we can hang out together as 'normal' people and no punch each other or bite each other like we used to when we were younger kids. 

So, backtracking a little, for my 18th birthday my inter made me 'IOU' vouchers for her to take me out to lunch/dinner and I finally (9 months later) cashed one in. I had a plan for us to go to the city and eat at some hotdog place, but we decided against that because

1. it was too much effort 
2. it is way too cold
3. it was too far for hotdogs

So we ended up at Pancakes on the Rocks, which I'm glad because I had a total craving for pancakes. We ate so much and we talked a lot and I'm glad my sister is my sister.

devil's delight, blueberry delight, chips & aioli, lemon lime & bitters, pink lemonade= yum

for once I look taller than my sister (I'm left and she's on the right)

Despite being in the toasty warmth of the heater outside the restaurant, we hurried home to come and watch One Tree Hill. One of my sister and my favourite shows! Last year we watched 4 season during one holiday break.

That basically wraps up my post, short and sweet! Promise I'll keep posting :-)

Thanks for reading!

♡ Stelle